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Give Peace a Chance – Are You “against” the Winter?

Church sign: Whoever is praying for snow please stop

Last week’s Snowpocalypse Chicago snowfall is still everywhere on the ground and with this week’s upcoming low temps, it isn’t going anywhere.  My absolute favorite snow photo was this one given to me by a reading client.

Church sign: Whoever is praying for snow please stop
Favorite Snow Photo

But really, since we’ve still got a while more with winter, I decided to stop fighting it, and stop complaining about it.  Outwardly I do not complain much at all, but today I realized that inside I was really whining about the snow and cold, missing my green tree leaves, missing my summer clothing and warm breezes.

Many people are more disconnected from nature in winter, and this can lower immune systems, and increase stress.  A connection with nature and the earth benefits each of us, like having strong roots making you feel more centered and peaceful.  So is the answer moving to Hawaii?  Well, not today at least.  🙂  One option is to recognize your inner emotional battle with this weather, and let go of it, make peace.

So for the rest of the winter I will make peace with it.  I will ease myself out of an inner whining state, and let go of fighting it.  After all, I choose to live in Chicago and this comes with the territory, as they say.  This photo is me making peace with the snow and the cold.  It was fun to make this today.  I kind of felt like a kid again.

peace sign made in the snow
Making Peace with Winter 2010-2011
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Feed your creativity with Etsy, What is Etsy.com?

Art prints of Lorenzo Ross’ work are for sale on Etsy.com.  But wait, what is Etsy?  While Etsy is a hugely popular site, I believe it has a lot of room for growth in the future.  Etsy.com is like eBay for all forms of handmade art, sold directly by the artist, but much more.  Etsy’s fees for the artist are much lower than eBay, and furthermore they send adorable, encouraging emails to the Etsy “shop owners” to help the artists grow in areas like pricing, promotion, product photos, the psychology of sales, etc.  After all, just because you are creative and make a lovely product doesn’t mean you know anything about business.  Add that to the fact that Etsy is all about handmade, and it is a huge forum for shoppers who want something quirky and unique.  Etsy has a convenient search engine with easy viewing and buying, and the feel-good factor of communicating with and buying directly from the artist.

So as you see I could go on and on about Etsy, but we’ll save that for other blog entries.   So how can you begin to use Etsy?  You could follow this link to our PsychicUnicorns Etsy shop my husband and I have http://www.etsy.com/shop/psychicunicorns
While original paintings of Lorenzo’s cost hundreds of dollars, our prints with paper size 8.5″ x 11″ are $18.00.  Lorenzo will be doing a big range of styles in the future, so stay tuned.  While we can never constrain Lorenzo’s inspiration, upcoming art themes may or may not include diverse images of women, lions, cupcakes, cats and dogs, Obama, and yes perhaps even unicorns.

Feel free also to check out other art on Etsy.  There is a staggering range of art, as I said.  For example I love peacock feathers, and I have enjoyed searching for all the art that comes up when I search for peacock on Etsy.  You can just browse, or make your own Etsy account as an artist or as a shopper.  With your own Etsy account, you can choose an entire shop or an individual art piece as your “favorite.”  This helps you to remember things you like and may buy later, and also helps the artist because it increases their exposure to other shoppers, and validates they have a fan base.

Etsy itself will be just one of the many topics I cover on this Mon, Wed, Fri blog.  Future etsy-related blog entries will include more Etsy search ideas, and features on other Etsy artists.  Other blog topics I will have here are more about Lorenzo the artist, our rescue cats, our in-home dog boarding adventures, fun info about my life as a psychic, and our yummy Albany Park neighborhood, on the NW side of Chicago.  In the meantime, if you have any questions at all about Etsy, feel free to contact me and I will do my best to assist you, or you can go right to the source at http://www.Etsy.com.

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Chicago Snowed-in with the “SNOMG” “Snowpocalypse” Snow of Feb 2011

view of Chicago Albany Park street after big Feb 2011 snow, many cars buried in snow

Well sometimes they say it’s hard to think of what to write about, but not today!  For days now people have been talking about the snow storm that was coming.  We stocked up on groceries and filled our gas tank on Monday, and Tuesday afternoon and evening we watched the blizzard out of our windows, all safe and warm at home.  At first it looked like a snow globe that someone kept shaking, with all the blowing snow, but then it was snowing and blowing just too much, and looked more like some scene out of a movie.

It’s a great time to be a renter with a garage space, since the building owner’s son is due to come this afternoon with a big snow blower and plow out the alley.  Lorenzo has chronic back issues, so thankfully he is not tempted to help with the shoveling.

Currently he is working on coloring on the computer an original hand drawing he did of a lion, with a great big mane and a pretty cute face.  It’ll be up in our etsy shop by mid February, and I think it will be a big hit.

In the center back you see a snow drift in the shape of a wave
Snowy view from kitchen window 2/2/11, double click to see larger view of wave-shaped snow drift, center back
View of Chicago street after huge snowfall, good samaritans helping jeep stuck in snow
Good Samaritans dig out jeep in Chicago's Albany Park Neighborhood, SNOMG Snowpocalypse Feb 2011
view of Chicago Albany Park street after big Feb 2011 snow, many cars buried in snow
Let's hope this is the biggest snow of the season! The perils of street parking in a blizzard.
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Creativity- A Room of One’s Own

Lorenzo Ross is my husband and we sell prints of his original art work in the PsychicUnicorns etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/PsychicUnicorns
Lorenzo has his own room where he creates his art. We didn’t rush into living together, and when we were planning what we would need in our first apartment together years ago, we knew we would each need separate work rooms. Enter the glories of 3 bedroom apartments. We are now in our second apartment together, and once again we have a 3 bedroom apartment. We have our bedroom, Lorenzo’s art room or his “office” as we now enjoy calling it, and my home office “reading room” where I read clients.

If I ever need to go into Lorenzo’s office to ask him something, I always knock on the door first, and generally wait for his response. I think energetic boundaries are important to one’s creative process, so I always respect that his office is his alone.

We are fortunate to be able to have separate rooms to help us with boundaries, but I think there are many ways for people who live together to respect each other’s creative boundaries. As a psychic reader I have read couples who do not allow each other enough alone time. Time alone, whether in a separate room with the door closed, or in the same room undisturbed is a great way to nurture and allow the creative process for people in a home. Lorenzo needs time to draw, and I need time to meditate. We each need different environments for our work, and time and respect from each other to allow this.

Here’s to hoping that your creative process gets a metaphorical, or literal room of its own.