New earrings

I have been down with the flu all week. And I do mean down. With a fever of 102 and constant coughing I spent most of the week either asleep or cursing the moment I was born. After a week or so of this I am finally getting better yet still at home, which was a great opportunity to shoot the new earrings I made and list them on my shop.

I am also working on a custom ordered Flutterbutt, which I will tell you about later on, and plan to make a second very special puppet, which I will also revel in due time.

I simply realized that all this "I haven't been able to create anything since my mother died" story I was telling myself is just that - a story that I can replace at any given time. So I stopped telling that to myself in hopes that is all that is needed in order to get my creative wheels rolling. We shall have to wait and see!

Inner joy missing

I haven't been able to make puppets since Mamisha passed away 5 months ago. In fact, the last puppets I made are the Sex and the City Girls, which I made back in March I think. This is making me anxious, I must admit.

Making puppets is somehow connected to a place of creative inner joy, which I haven't been able to tap into lately, obviously. I just cannot bring myself to cut foam, not to mention actually sit down and design a puppet. I want to, I have several specific puppets I want to make, but I just cannot bring myself to actually sit down and do it. Just like a diet I cannot start (which reminds me, I also can't get any weight off).

I also haven't been operating puppets for a long while, not for significant amounts of time anyway. I think the puppets are means of communication with people, and were a way of playing and relieving Mamisha's (and mine) stress and pain, and now that she is gone - I don't need them as means of communication, cause she isn't here anymore, so I just let them sit quietly and stare at me. I actually feel guilty towards a specific puppet I hardly touched for months now. Oy.

If you have any inspiring words to share, please do. I believe this fear that "I lost IT" is caused by mere anxiety and nothing more, but who knows? All artists are afraid of losing the creativeness, we are nothing without it aren't we?

Guess who's back?

Yesterday I had a wonderful surprise waiting when I got home - Tzipi the World Traveling Flutterbutt returned home from her almost year long trip. On January 31st she left Israel to go on a world tour visiting friends in England, Scotland, France, Belgium, New Zealand, Florida, Arizona and Virginia!

On her trip, Tzipi made some wonderful friends.

Was hosted like a princess with yummy foods, excellent accommodations and traveling to beautiful and strange places.

And even managed to get some work done.
 

So now what? Well, the original plan was for Tzipi to return and spend some time with my mom, but since it is too late for that, Tzip will join her fellow Flutterbutts in preparing for all the exciting projects we have planned for 2011.

Happy New Year everybody, and thank you for making this year so much better. And a special thank you for all those who took the time to host Tzipi and show her a good time while abroad. Especially to Sue and Donald in Florida, for whose health I am praying daily.