first musings

     Hello nice to meet you. My name is Lórien. No, LOR-e-UN. No, EEE. Not EYE...Yes you almost have it. That's ok. No you can't just call me Lori. Well are you familiar with The Lord of the Rings? You know the forest? Oh you haven't read the books yet? Oh, ok just part of the first movie but fell asleep? What about the car in Back to the Future... ? Spelled differently but said the same. Ok. Good luck remembering it.

     That's about the way most introductions go. Often a nerdy type will get all excited and tell me how their favorite part in the book was when Gandalf told them to run fools and what do I think. I think my parents were correct in naming me what they did. I revel in the long introductions. Or maybe I revel because they named me after an enchanted forest in a book written by an iconic English professor from the 70's who liked smoking pipes and talking about God.

     I've 5 kids, 2 dogs, and 2 fish. I mention the animals because most days it's really like I have 7 kids and 2 spacy looking goldfish that have been alive a lot longer than any other goldfish I ever had growing up. Most likely they are enjoying the insanity of things and refusing to die in case they miss out on something.

     At any given moment it looks like a bomb has gone off in some factory. During Christmas, for example, involved was a yarn factory, glitter factory, multi-bird feather factory, shoe factory (reference previous paragraph in which I stated I have 5 kids) and dirty dishes factory. I'm pretty sure there wouldn't be a factory that specializes in dirty dishes. If you are anything like me you do a pretty good job on your own of accomplishing this without a factory getting involved. 

     At the moment, it looks like a bomb went off on my head...but then again I haven't gotten out of bed yet.

     I am addicted to ideas. I can spend entire hours jotting down things I've come up with to create, or being inspired by what others have made, or thinking of new ways to make what I've already come up with to make. A cleverly formed cloud can set my brain into a hum and whirl of ideas, and all my kids can do is sigh and pat me affectionately on the back. 

     On the flip side, if I am not being inspired, I can just as easily WASTE entire hours staring depressedly into space. This is most likely a major contributor to the dirty dishes bomb.

     I have been determined to create for as long as I can remember. And I've dabbled: woodworking, textiles, metalworking, food, faux and mural painting, beadwork, wedding planning, worked at Whole Foods for awhile...had a paper route once....ok I'm getting distracted. SQUIRREL! Friends have often said to me, "you NEED to be creating and making a living doing it". I never disagreed with this statement, but often ran with an idea only to discover that there are things like taxes, and selling...involved in taking an idea from the brain, to the crafting room (affectionately known as the Gypsy Office and followed by the statement, "don't go in there! There are bombs going off it isn't safe!), and then out to the rest of the world. Maybe it's partially because of being able to see all sides, all options...which can be overwhelming. And maybe in part because I don't like selling things to people. I had a job painting Henna tattoos at the mall one time, and part of the job involved approaching people and convincing them they needed a tattoo. "Hi, so I was..." "I'm not interested" "ok". I figure, if a person really wanted a Henna tattoo, they would come on over. I'm pretty sure anyone reading this that has the superhero power of selling will completely not understand what I'm talking about. For the rest of you, want to go grab a coff..not interested? ok.

     This past Christmas a quirky fact about myself became frustratingly evident to me that I'd like to share and this seems like a good time to do it...if only because it just occurred to me and if we were having a conversation I would say it now in a slightly different tone. You know? Like a side thought? Anyways... One of the items I was selling over the holidays were mushroom ornaments. I love love love mushrooms and was inspired by the whimsy of the different kinds of mushrooms in creation and imaginings of my daughters to create magical little mounds. The problem I had was not in the creating of them, or oddly really even in the selling of them, but rather in the letting go of them! I had genuine sadness when one would sell. As if each one contained a small portion of my soul...and I remember a couple of times at a particular show moving an item to the back of the display so it WOULDN'T sell. Now this might strike some of you as odd at best, but I realized something about myself as an artist. I create with LOVE. I make things that I love making and when they find a home, the buyer, or gift-receiver is receiving an item that has the soul of this artist put into every stitch. ............I wonder if making a birth certificate for each item would be over the top...........hmm......

     I believe I've unofficially nailed down what I am going to do in the arena of creativity and this is really not my coming out blog so much as waking up with some things to say and taking the opportunity to jot them down. Sort of like journaling with the hope that other people want to read what I'm thinking about and now seems as good a time to start as any. 
     All of this started when I was a little girl. Whittling sticks around a campfire with my sisters and dad. Making delicious mud pies (of COURSE I tasted them. How on earth would you know whether you needed to add more leaves??)....  My dear friend Cara and I co-conspired our ideas and came up with Éowyn Rose. As a single mom and passionately adventurous free spirit, I am determined to channel the ideas I have into a journey that expresses who I am, provides for my children and I, and makes my heart happy to be doing what I do. 

     These are the rumblings of the artist. The muses before the launch. I'm still not entirely sure what it will look like (often I'm cutting something off or sewing something on as its heading "out the door"). You can be guaranteed that it will be full of whimsy, may inspire you to take an adventure or see the world in a new way...and it will have my heart thrown into it.