Its the first day of the new year!  ( My husband says I am the best at pointing out the obvious)

So I went for a run to bring in the new year with energy.  I tried to be mindful of the patterns I was passing.  I noticed a vine crawling up the tree, berries on a holly bush, some sort of weird red orange berry with yellowish caps.  It must be poisonous because even the birds are not eating it.  I got lost in my own mind for a while and then opened my eyes to see a crack in the side walk that made me think of memories and why do we choose to remember events.  Its not like I go into  a moment saying I want to remember this for the rest of my life, but sometimes things just stick with me and they are not all that significant. Like the time I smashed my thumb with a hammer and called my fried Blaine because I knew he would understand just how badly it hurt because he had just done it a week or so before.  Why do I carry that memory with me.  Whats so stellar about it?  I have smashed my thumb plenty since then but they don’t stand out.   Any way, I digress.  When I finished my run I came back and spent some time sketching out patterns I saw or thought of.  Sketching is the 1st part of creating a stamp.   I started out with an explanation point because hay its the 1st day of the new year!!! Its going to be great! Below are the sketches I came up with and I am particularly drawn to the tear drop shape.  I connected it together in several different ways and think that will be one of the 1st stamps I create.  I think it will not stand alone and may need an additional stamp to help ground it into a pattern.  As this progresses I will try to take more pictures of the little things I notice and tie them into the stamps I make.  My hope is that readers will be able to see some small connection between the finished stamp and the inspiration behind it.  Cheers on a beautiful sunshiny day in Asheville NC, oh and if I didn’t already mention it…. Its the 1st day of the new year!  Happy New Year!

beginning thoughts
beginning thoughts