Two things especially jumped out at me on the Entrepreneur the Arts site: their aim to “tap into the power of creative artistry to innovate lives, bottom lines, and the communities we live in,” and their commitment to helping artists build more fulfilling careers through entrepreneurship. These two ideas resonate deeply with me simply because THEY WORK! Over the past 3 years, we’ve seen the benefits of artistic entrepreneurship and a community focus come alive here at Summerglen. Andrew and I are definitely well-fed, happy artists…and the ETA website shows you how you can be one, too!

Here’s a sampling of some of the helpful articles over at ETA:
Identifying Your Ideal Client

How to Be a Thriving Artist in this Economy

13 Steps to a Happy Artistic Life

Hope you enjoy these articles as much as I did. Many thanks to Entrepreneur the Arts for your support of working artists!

Here are two neat blog posts I found:
Living the Moment from The Idea Dude, and
Failing Well from Megan Cutter, a fellow Inside 919 person.

One of my greatest strengths is my ability to plan. I naturally set goals and break them up into smaller actions. Then I do each little action, and nail the goal! Planning is so much fun for me that I consider it a hobby…but it’s not without its pitfalls. Sometimes I’ll hole up downstairs with my salsa music and forget to take a walk. Or keep playing instead of taking a break to pet the cat. Also, if something comes up that isn’t in the plan, it takes some big-time adjusting on my part.

Many times I’ll find myself attracted to *exactly* what I need to hear, and this is one of those times! As I climbed my practice mountain this week, I royally busted my chops, and had to rest. One day wasn’t enough. Two days wasn’t enough. On the third day I got better, but my endurance wasn’t back.

“Grr,” I thought, “I’m not doing my next-actions! Shame on me, being too overzealous with practice!” But these nice bloggers reminded me of two things: (1) Sometimes things don’t go according to plan, and sometimes we fail, but these are learning experiences; and (2) There is other stuff to do besides achieving goals.

So I had a coffee and a cinnamon scone with friends this morning. I sat there and reeeally tasted that cinnamon, reeeally listened to my friends. All of them have a unique, signature sound when they talk. I vaccuumed Summerglen Music’s floors today, and paid attention to what I was doing. Then I went to practice………and MAN, it sounded good!

I’m reminded today that there are plateaus. Sometimes they take a while to cross, but the journey is fun if you make sure to enjoy the scenery!

Startup Spark – These folks just wrapped up The Great Blog Off, during which they posted 24 blog posts in 24 hours. If you’re interested in working for yourself, all these posts are relevant and VERY helpful! My favorite post thus far is Recession or Redefinition; it encourages taking positive action in the face of troubling times.

Passions That Pay – If you have some time to sit and listen, blogger Katherine Reschke has posted a cool interview with Judy Davids, the Rock Star Mommy. Davids, a mother of two, picked up a guitar and started an all-mom rock band at the age of 42!

And if you’re in the mood for some beautiful, emotion-filled writing, check out My Life as it Was, Is, and Will Be. The author is a creative, expressive writer, and her posts bring out the spirituality in everyday life.

If you want to know some random things about me, check out this post on Katherine Reschke’s blog, Passions that Pay. Katherine wanted to learn more about the people who visit her blog, so she sent us these fun email interviews to complete. Thanks, Katherine, for the interview!

For anyone who has read The Summerglen Files before, I (Christina) must apologize. In one of my fits of non-tech-savvy-ness, I somehow erased the entire contents of the Summerglen blog! And so, I’ve officially learned my lesson about the importance of backing things up, and from here on out, I’ll try really hard not to erase any more blogs!