clicks from silence

I know I have been away for a while. Life just sort of filled up and other obligations came first. But I miss being here. And so I return for a moment to share my goings-on:

1. started and thrilled with the initial success of RIE. On this matter, please keep sharing the word. i am LOVING everything about it so far.
2. been working on new ideas for RIE, including our Autumn line and some blogging ideas. This includes weekly meetings of the RIE staff :)
3. started a new, full-time job which included being promoted my second day to lead the entire office-based team with only 2 weeks to learn the whole system before my predecessor left for San Francisco. I should note that I am enthralled with my new job- its fully, totally, completely ME. And, challenging. Thats nice, eh?
4. planning a baby shower for Sara, aka sister-in-law, for this coming Thursday. planning an out of town shower is difficult at best.
5. filling my time with as much AILEEN as I can before she leaves town. trying to find time to reconnect with Charleston friends (Laurence, Amanda, Melissa, Hannah and Jenny) and to maintain growing friendships amongst my brothers and Brandon.
6. been saving up for a new computer as my current one takes ten minutes to turn on and open to my email. by the time I do this in the evenings, I cant be bothered with reading or writing blogs.

On Wednesday, we fly to Boston and I have much to do before then. I am planning a few Boston adventures and am sure to post about those soon. Much love!

Grand Opening: Quixotic RIE

About a month ago, I shared that I was participating in a Creativity Bootcamp. It was the busiest two weeks of my summer before I added the boot camp. I imagined my creativity would be thwarted in the process but instead, I found the daily writing and creating to be relaxing and enjoyable. My goal for the course was to get myself to a place where I could say "I am an artist and I create art" without feeling like a fool. Why is this so hard for me to do? On the other side of the course, I feel more at liberty to talk about my art with friends and family. But still, not with strangers yet. I am a work in progress.

Another goal was to work towards opening an Etsy site with my mum, Ranne. Since February, we have been meeting, planning, creating, and changing things around getting ready for this. It is easier to identify art in others over oneself. The bootcamp was for me to begin to feel comfortable with making my "crafts" into art for others.

Because we are so passionate about literature, adventure, words, and dreams, Ranne and I chose to name our store: Quixotic Rie. Rie is a command to laugh in French and Spanish. What a word to speak into people as we form art to represent our inspirations, our dreams, our loves, and our Creator--however literal or figurative as they may be.

And so, I am excited and honored to announce the opening of our Quixotic RIE. We will be having a giveaway this week as well on the store's blog. More details to come this evening.