New Beginnings

"Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have—and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up."

— James Belasco and Ralph Stayer
Flight of the Buffalo

Well...for someone who used to HATE change, I sure have been embracing it a lot lately. I recently made the decision to shut down my polymer clay website, Kellie's Klay . It has actually been on my mind for close to a year, but I didn't want to rush anything. lol For many years I was an active part of the online polymer clay community, but kinda fell off the face of the earth about 3 years ago. My website, which had been so important to me for so long, just kind of existed, I paid for it but that is about all I did. I didn't update it, hell, I rarely even went to look at it. It just wasn't important to me anymore. Neither was my clay.

During the last 3 years I have been doing beadwork, but more importantly, I was working on myself. I guess I have had what they call a spiritual awakening. I have learned not to run from change, but to handle it. Sometimes change is not always bad, and when it is, I have learned how to deal with it. I won't get all sentimental about it here, because this is not the place for it, but believe me, things are great in my life, for the first time in my life. I am happy!

The idea of closing down my website feels very liberating to me. I am new, my work is new, and that site doesn't show any of that. It is so big, that changing it is overwhelming. I want a new site that shows the new things in my life!

I cut all my hair off a few months ago, the first time I had short hair in almost 20 yrs. I might have had 10 hair trims during all that time! I was hiding behind it, it had to go. Finally my outside matched my new inside. I have not regretted cutting my hair once. I see this closing of the old site, and the birth of the new site I have in mind, as being a very similar thing. That may not make sense to many of you, but I know a few of you out there will understand what I am trying to say. I am working with my clay again, becoming obsessed at times with it again, and I need a new site to reflect that change.

Soon I promise to post some pictures of the kind of work I have been doing recently. My dear friend Libby and Jenn encouraged me to try blogspot. I felt like I didn't have anything to say, which is very funny. Anyone who knows me knows I have a big mouth, a loud sense of humor, lots of sarcasm and an opinion about everything. I just haven't shared that online in so long, it feels a bit weird to be doing it again.

Expect to see a lot of different kinds of beadwork in my blog, with pc beads incorporated. I work at a bead store and I have spent the time I have worked there (5 1/2 yrs) trying to learn everything I could learn. I only have 2 more years to work there, and so now I feel this urgent need to up the speed of my education, I must learn more, NOW!!! I'll share that journey here.

thanks for reading my ramblings,
kellie
(who has spent the weekend teaching herself Kumihimo! what fun! and it will look great with some pc beads)