Jennifer Cailin

After three years of enjoying blogs, I have decided to breathe some life back into my own blog dream. I have been inspired by an old article I ripped out of Real Simple magazine in 2000. It is hard to believe that was a decade ago, I remember reading it and the great feeling of possibility the story gave to me. The article was about a woman named Katri Simpson, who found herself at a bit of a crossroads personally and professionally. After a relationship ended, she planned to move back to her home state of Maine, but was not sure exactly what to do--she was a Montessori preschool teacher, but also an artist. She was interested in having a school of her very own, but also wanted a home of her own. In the end, she wrote out all of her possibilities, piece by piece, on index cards.

I love index cards. They break everything down into digestible pieces. They feel good in your hands. A new pack holds such possibility! My dad taught me to read using index cards, and today I always carry a few with small lists and ideas--and so does my dad. I found unlined index cards years ago, 3x5 and 5x8, and they are the perfect weight for giving kid's art work the importance it deserves.

OK, back to this very cool Katri Simpson. She took her written index cards, her possibilities, and shuffled them on a tabletop to fit together different options and combinations to see what felt right. Ultimately, she bought a home that also functioned as her preschool! Brilliant. What a great commute. She made room for an art studio and had her summers free to focus on artmaking. Brilliant. This story, and the great pictures accompanying it (I can't find them online!) until recently moved with me from home to home and reminded me about possibility, about looking at the special ingredients that make up a life, and how (index cards, baby) to mix them together to make a cool existence for yourself.

I have been so lucky to find so many wonderful art and business blogs online during the time my kids were babies. It has given me a way to nurture myself--as passive as reading is--in a time where the action of making art was a bit difficult. It fostered my dreams and I still enjoy seeing where all of these journeys are going. I've wanted to create a space like this one to share, if only with my family or my future self, a record or portfolio of the art I (somehow managed to) create. Between moving quite a bit, and making a family, reading a blog has been more a comfort than actually making one! But if I were to take anything away from all the inspiration I have found online, it is that small steps do add up.

In finding a purpose for my little space here, I thought about the things I loved, and found myself some index cards. Even if it takes a few months, even if I have more false starts, I feel happy to have begun.