Grownups

I've heeeard, as you get older, you get this undeniable feeling that you should be more responsible, your career should be in place, you should be earning a certain dollar amount, have kids, own a home, know your neighbors and participate in the PTTA. Well, okay, maybe not those last couple... but you should definitely be more GROWNUP.

This,  this GROWNUP, is something I don't entirely feel. I actually feel like, now that I know myself better, I want to REALLY LIVE.  For some reason being a grownup and really living seem the opposite idea.

Maybe it's because I was such a responsible young person.
It's time to let go a bit.

And, the proof is in the pudding:  I've met grownups that seem to be really living, but I always just thought of them as really living ...not like grownups, at all.  But definitely the kind of grownup I would like to be.

I've heard a number of my friends say they don't feel like grownups, either.  And today, everybody's version of what a grownup looks like is different. 

Along with this youthful, really living, 'grown-up-i-guess' vibe, I'm also feeling this overabundance of creativity. And not just the creativity (always got a million ideas) part, but the doing-it part, too. Thank goodness.  I'm so looking forward to the Nat'l Stationary Show in NYC this year, much more so even than in years past.  8mm ideas has really taken off this year & I've made a concentrated effort to give so much more of myself to increasing and broadening the line.  This year, I'll be offering one-of-a-kind small works of art in my booth and taking commission orders, as well.  My 'grown-up' sister and I are designing a beautiful booth with our most recent color obsessions & I'm gathering the goodies to display.  We like to give a good show at the show & will be making buttons and banners while we chat, booth-style to other 'grown-ups'.

I'm not sure why I keep attributing it to age... but I guess you could say, I finally GET IT!  I was given chances to blossom and bloom in the past and I did, to a certain extent.  But something always got in the way.  Undoubtedly, me.  I don't know that I had the confidence before now, really deep down confidence that I feel at nearly 40. 

I know that which I create is good, it is marketable, and it is loved.

(heck, a shop i love, that carries my cards, wrote about me this way:  A great series of cards from one of stationery's smart girls, Molly Meng)

So, I'll take what I've got and run with it:  I am a grown-up and I'm really living it!

all images from my brand-new collection,  c. 8mm ideas, 2010