Kelly Rae Roberts's Blog, page 92

letting go of stubborn and embracing the tears and the love

my parents went back home yesterday - mom was here 10 days, greggie was here 5. it wasn't a planned visit, but after arriving home from the hospital and realizing we'd need the help after gina left, john and i put out and SOS call and mom hopped on a plane within days and greggie followed soon after. we are so lucky.



i've never felt so humbled by an experience before. and i've never needed more care before, both physically and emotionally. my heart feels like it's totally come undone as it lets in all this love and transition. i barely know how to hold all of these pieces - the purity, the lack of sleep, the enormity of emotions, good and hard, the physical healing. as we tend to baby true (and let me tell you, he is precious with a capital P), our family and friends have been tending to us. this has been an unexpected acceptance for us. i think we thought we could handle it just fine. not so. we've deeply needed the help and it's been humbling and rewarding and a deepening experience to be cared for in this way.


it turns out that growing mama wings is a delicate adventure and having my mom here these last many days to witness, to cook, to love on True, to hold my tears, and to simply hold the space has been a gift i won't ever forget. i don't often cry in front of my mom or admit to needing her as much as i do - i'm a bit stubborn and fiercely independent, but these last three weeks have been a watershed for me. i'm learning that sometimes we need to let the independence go, to let the tears rush in, to let love and tenderness show their hard and their beauty right there in the kitchen while pouring the milk, at the restaurant while trying to order, in a conversation with a neighbor on the sidewalk, in the arms of my mom. i'm so grateful for her love and attention not just to john and i but to baby true. he's smitten with her and greggie. and it's so wonderful to see and watch.

so yes, inside an experience where i thought i would be the one giving so much love and care to a new life, i've never felt more cared for - by john, by my friends, by my family, and even by baby true as he lives this journey with me. by letting it all of this love and help and care rush in and accept that this is an emotional journey, i'm giving myself permission to let the independence go, to let the tears come as they may, to let all the expectations and judgments go, to let this new love really explode into my life even if it terrifies me.

what a life. what a beautiful, all encompassing, messy, loved, true life.



i need to say that it's important to me to share the real truth in this space. i'm not sad. i'm not depressed. i'm simply a new mama who like all new moms is wide open to this experience. i want to remember the delicacies, the intensity, the newness, the rawness of new love, the courage. i want to honor all of it. am i totally in love with True? yes. is that scary for me? yes. am i cracked open? absolutley. could i be a little less serious? sure. am i gaining more confidence? yes. but i'm also navigating the emotional recovery of an intensely traumatic birth while 100% embracing the gratitude and the joy of baby true while adjusting to a vulnerability i've never known before while managing on little sleep. it all exists together. it all matters. i'm taking it all in - funny, sweet, hard, strange, emotional, grief, lovable, even the hilarious moments of overwhelm (like the time where i drove myself to the PO this week only to lock myself out of my car while the ignition was still running!).

more soon. all is well over here. all is well. thank you to those of you who have been sending over your new mama stories. there is so much bravery in these shared mama experiences, i can hardly stand it.

Weekly Sponsor Spotlights: Be Present Retreats, Homesteader's Metalsmithing, Katherine Quinn, Sacred Cake + ABC Creativity

Big thanks to my sponsors...I'm really enjoying these weekly sponsor spotlights where their creative talents and businesses are featured. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor (includes your ad on the sidebar + ongoing spotlights), please send me an email for further information! Now taking sign-ups for the holiday season (Nov/Dec).
*******************************************************************************************


The Be Present Retreats are an invitation to pause in your life and gather in an intimate, creative community to explore, create, discover, and soak up the world around you. Each retreat takes place in the Pacific Northwest and includes time spent in creative community paired with exercises to remind you to open your eyes and heart and be present on your path.
2011 brings a new type of retreat with the Studio Gathering Series. These retreats are inspired by the image of a room our own where we can write, paint, play, and live creative dreams into reality combined with the idea that creative souls crave community with others who speak their language. These retreats will include time spent in group discussions and experiential activities, time for small group and one-on-one private sessions with mentors who will be at each retreat, and several hours each day for personal "studio" time. The first retreat in this series is "Sea Studio: Pen & Paper," which will take place in February in Manzanita, Oregon. This retreat focuses on writing and includes these amazing mentors: Kate Inglis, Jenna McGuiggan, and Christen Olivarez. Registration for Sea Studio: Pen & Paper will begin October 26. To learn more about this retreat and for a sneak peek of other 2011 retreats, please visit www.bepresentretreats.com.
*******************************************************************************************

Stephanie Lee writes, "I'm so pleased to present another round of my most comprehensive, non-traditional metal-smithing class to date! The first four-week round was a huge success and I'm so excited to be sharing an entire weeks worth of new information this go 'round. (You don't have to have taken session one to join in on session two.) It comes at the perfect time of year...just in time for Holiday gift giving. Imagine being able to generously give your own handcrafted beautiful works of metal art and jewelry to all your amazed friends! Heck, you could even give the class itself as an early present! If you've never done anything like this before, no worries. I'm totally committed to helping you comfortably explore the medium at whatever pace you want.
There is so much information I'll be sharing with you in class. FIVE (!!) weeks of video tutorials, PDF's, and a heckuva lot more. Not only that, but you will also have three full months after the last official day of class where you will have access to the class site and all content so's you can digest it all at your own pace. Whether you are a jeweler or a dabbler in other mediums, this class is sure to have plenty of spark to light your creative fire! I'd love to have you in on the fun!
*******************************************************************************************
My name is Katherine Quinn and I am the New Zealand artist behind Sleep And Her Sisters. I sell my original works to 8 galleries around New Zealand and have three online shops where I also sell originals, prints and other goodies. I live with my two children, 17 year old Hannah, 5 year old Ben and our 10 year old cat... Holly. I work from my kitchen table at our home in the sunny Hawke's Bay where I love to create with paint, chalk pastels, graphite, paper and a little bit of jewellery… I also love to collect things. My favourite colour at the moment is a soft, pale, antique sort of blue.
I am a firm believer that our stories are not for us alone that they are for us to give courage, support and wisdom to each other. You can read about my creative journey and see my latest works on my blog.
*******************************************************************************************
Jennifer Valentine of Sacred Cake is an assemblage artist and vintage assemblage jewelry designer living in small town Michigan with her husband, a talented portrait painter, and four of her five lively children. Her inspiration is drawn from her years living the quiet country life, her study of religious iconography, and her adoration and deep appreciation for remnants of the past. All of these elements intertwine to create one of a kind assemblage jewelry and functional artwork infused with spirit and the stories of her heart. You can read more about her life and her work on her blog. To celebrate her recent publications this year in Belle Armoire Jewelry, Jewelry Affaire, Artful Blogging and Somerset Life, she is offering a 5.00 coupon to all Kelly Rae readers this week, good for any purchase over 20.00 in her new Artfire shop. Use coupon code "Celebrate with Sacred Cake" to receive your discount.
*******************************************************************************************
ABCcreativity is the online home of artist, healer, teacher and coach Andrea Schroeder. Everything at ABCcreativity has one goal: to support you in using your creativity to light a path to your dreams.
Andrea offers creative coaching/healing/magic-making sessions, creativity and meditation kits, a free creativity 101 e-course for discovering your creative magic and all sorts of creative magic every week on her blog.

introducing dani!

i wanted to introduce you guys to Dani, my new studio assistant! let me just say that she has totally changed my life these last many weeks. i'm always a bit reluctant of letting go, especially if it has to do with my creative biz. but now that i have dani, and because of who she is, i've never enjoyed letting go more! she. is. delightful.

one of the things she did recently was update the shop with more inventory! that means we finally have more of the goodies that were previously sold out - bookmarks, laptop and iphone skins, necklaces, and more (all great stocking stuffers). also, don't forget that we're still taking in orders for signed datebooks and calendars (get these while you can - they will sell out soon).

so, when you place an order or when you have a question or if you want to be a sponsor, dani is your gal. she's my right hand woman. my partner in crime. and at a time when i've needed more help than i've ever needed before, she's an angel.

****************************
on the baby front, we are catching our breath in one moment, and losing it in another. ebb and flow. trying to honor all that comes with this experience. i have so much to say and write but struggling with finding solid time to string my words together. i know this will come with time. more soon!

even through the hard.

baby true looking adorable with his big eyes...

we are navigating the waters over here, doing the best we can with all the help and love being offered by those close to us. we are so fortunate to have such good support. for paternity leave. for maternity leave. for family and friends who are with us, helping us to clean and cook and soothe and simply witness.

with all these blessings, this is still such a hard road to discover. this past week was especially rough. at every turn, i feel totally new and raw. i'm missing and grieving and over thinking. and everything feels acutely unfamiliar. everything. it's unsettling, scary. the tears are still at the surface and i wonder when i'll begin to feel a bit like myself.

i know this is all normal, par for the course - that this is all a part of this major transition. i'm also learning that i have a lot of emotional recovery to do in regards to true's birth. i'm not ready to tell that story, but birth grief crept up on me hard and furious this past week and i feel like i'm on my knees and totally at its mercy.

through it all we are loving our way through. we are learning our way through. we are living our way through. and we are doing it together. together. baby True is all blessings. all joy. all love. i still can't stop looking at him. or missing him. and my love for john has grown in ways i never knew possible.

feeling really blessed. even through the hard.
xxo,
kelly rae

nothing is wasted. wise words from jen to me.

(jen and i, taken summer 2010)

while john and i and true settle into our new life, i've asked a few dear friends to guest post from time to time over here in this space. i know i will look back on these posts with such tenderness - i'm really leaning into the idea that our friends and family have the most special gift of witnessing this time in our life and holding so much space for us as we find our way.

a day or so after arriving home with true, i sent an SOS email to a few friends. they responded with so much love and care. one of the messages was from jen who shared the the idea that nothing is wasted - that all the challenges that come with a newborn will help me in my parenthood journey as our new family grows together. that all that learning to soothe and comfort and trial and error will come in handy, not just in parenting, but in life in general. nothing is wasted. i asked jen to expand a bit more on this idea and here's what she wrote. i'm so blessed to have friends like jen who totally get it and who hold so much wisdom...



My dear sweet Kelly Rae,

I wish I could come over and hold that baby boy True while you slept or cried or let yourself sit down and eat slowly, a real meal even. Instead I am all the way on the other side of the country, and all I can do is write letters and send love via text message. I cannot believe you have crossed over to the other side in the never never land of motherhood. Everything is different now. Nothing will ever be the same. This is what they always say, right? What no one tells you is that nothing is wasted.

It's true.

Little by little the life you once knew will slip away, like so many tiny slips of paper on your studio floor. You will forget how it was before. You will lament what is passing as you watch each little piece float like a leaf to the forest floor. You will worry that you aren't accomplishing anything, that you are losing time, that you are doing it wrong, that you are not enough--but even this will be needed in the end as over days and months and years you collect the pieces that you lost and recreate the life you love--only this time every scrap will be infused by the magic of one boy True. A boy who insisted that your love was the only way, even when you felt lost or confused or had no idea what to do.

Nothing is wasted.

You know the way that you wander around the studio, gathering your papers and whatever little artifact you think might make your painting beautiful? This is how your new life will be now. Every single thing that seemed fruitless or random or meaningless will be needed in the end. Your artist eye will find it like a long lost treasure on the studio floor when the time is right--for inside every empty moment lies the seeds of patience, tenderness, the raw unraveling you didn't know could make you feel this alive, this real. And these seeds will continue to grow and shape you long after you have forgotten there was ever a time you feared losing the old you.

Nothing is wasted.

For years, I laid beside Madeleine while she slept, telling her in the night that she could trust now, that the world was safe for her, that she had no need to fear, that Love would hold her when she needed it most. I thought those words were kind but lost in the stillness of the night with her too young to make note or truly take it in. It is only now that I am coming into my own as an older mother that I remember them. It is only now as she enters her young teenage years that I understand that those words were meant for me and that I would need them now twelve years later to become the loving, strong woman she deeply needs me to be.

Nothing is wasted.

Some day True will be a man and he will pass you his baby daughter, the girl you never knew would be yours, and you will hold her and console her and tell him stories of how he cried and how much you loved him and how then you never imagined that knowing how to soothe a baby girl like this one would be a lifelong dream come true. You will tell her kind words before she can understand, and he will remember in a way that he almost forgot that you once loved him when he was small and difficult and new. On that day, Kelly Rae, you will remember how I told you that nothing is wasted and you will see over many years and many paintings and many chapters of being brave in sadness, brave in love that everything belongs.

Especially the parts when we are walking in the dark and have no idea where we are or what we're supposed to do.

Hang on, dear girl.
You have everything you need now (and later) because Love is holding you.

It's True.

Your friend forever,
Jen Lemen

You can read more from my friend Jen at jenlemen.com where she writes about what's real and true with her heart wide open.

Weekly Sponsor Spotlights: Rita Maria Gallery, Celebrate Life Every Day, Lindy Hanson, Sublime, Close2MyArt + Where Ava Dreams

Big thanks to my sponsors...I'm really enjoying these weekly sponsor spotlights where their creative talents and businesses are featured. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor (includes your ad on the sidebar + ongoing spotlights), please send me an email for further information! Now taking sign-ups for the holiday season (Nov/Dec).
********************************************************************************
Rita Maria Gallerycreating art is my way of communicating my deepest thoughts and feelings. it can be a little intimidating to put some of my paintings "out there". it almost feels like i'm exposing my journal for everyone to read. why create something if it isn't going to be personal to you? not being able to paint would be the same as taking away my ability to communicate. with many of my paintings you might notice that i usually title the piece after a quote or i'll include the quote in the painting. its usually something that i've connected to in some way. maybe it's in the form of a song or a poem. i will jot it down on whatever is in front of me. sometimes i'll carry a quote around for years until i can illustrate it in a way that just feels right. i'm really not a good writer or speaker, but i know when it is important to me, i can say it best with a brush and some paint. just like my own spirit, my work may appear very whimsical and colorful on the outside. however, if you look deeper you would see that it is very honest, meaningful and bittersweet. i leave you with not just my work, but my inspirations, my secrets, my journal; hoping that it will inspire you to express yourself as well. i invite you into my world at www.ritamariagallery.com.

********************************************************************************
Over the last few weeks autumn, Erica Cooper has been dividing the time in her studio office with designing client spaces, creating new items for her upcoming shop, photographing those items, and writing about celebrating the ordinary in our lives. Erica's passion is "all things home", evident in her blog Celebrate Life Everyday. By celebrating the moments that are big and small; living life using the creativity within us; and embracing the place called home, that centers & restores us; we pass on all that matters. It's telling our story and writing the pages each day with meaning and joy.

So, please grab a cup of coffee and a warm cookie and join Erica over at her Blog: www.CelebrateLifeEveryday.com where the journey always heads home and where soon you can shop her latest venture, Celebrate HOME Studios, featuring unique finds for home and life. While visiting her blog, sign-up for Erica's newsletter to receive updates & specials for her new shop and pass the link along to another kindred spirit who also loves to celebrate the daily. Update: The new shop will debut soon, so please stop by and subscribe to the blog… special "Preview Invite" will be going out this month!
********************************************************************************

Artist Lindy Gruger Hanson can look out on tall pine and aspen from her Central Oregon studio and she uses her sense of the natural world to depict an inner, symbolic journey in her paintings. Stylized images of rivers, trees, birds and symbolic shapes seem to glow with a warm halo of energy. She says, "My aim is to create paintings with the belief that art can inspire people, make a house a home, and bring joy and positive energy into the world!" She hopes that her playful, vividly colored paintings can lift the spirit of others. Prints and greeting cards can be found at her Etsy Shop and original paintings on her website.

********************************************************************************I am Kaye-Lee Pantony artist and psychotherapist. I have created the e-course Sublime which is an online course with a focus on helping us remember and integrate a very powerful part of ourselves - our inner adolescent girl. We use photography, collage, mixed media and journaling to draw forth this potent self. Remembered and integrated this girl within provides us with limitless growth and possibilities, as well as the potential to become unapologetically ourselves.
The Fall Sublime class has just begun so there is still time to join us. If you join as a late comer, you will receive $50 dollars off our fall session! Alternatively, we will run the class again in January 2001 with registration in early December. Hope to see you on one of our creative journeys!

******************************************************************************** Fun and funky is what we do! We invite you to come and explore Allen Designs's new website CLOSE2MYART.com. We are a small studio based right outside of Portland, OR, where 5 gals and a guy work together to bring you these whimsical devices of time, funky art and other unique and affordable gift products! Wanting to give an original gift that you can't find in your "big box" stores? Then check us out! All Kelly Rae Readers receive a 10% discount with any purchase, along with a free gift! (Discount Code: KRAE10)
Also, for added incentive, profits of the website go to the Close2myArt Cycling Team, a non-profit training program that Michelle and her husband Gary started, teaching kids the basics of bike handling and racing in a fun and healthy environment. To learn more about our studio and the artist, Michelle Allen, check out her blog here!

******************************************************************************** Where Ava Dreams was created by artist, children's writer and dreamer-girl, Dyan Whyte to celebrate and express the magical and childlike creative spirit that she sees in everyone she meets. Ever a creative soul who believes in the power of dreams and the inner child, Where Ava Dreams offers art both for and inspired by the childlike, children and Dyan's childhood. Gentle angels and sometimes cuddly animals are part of the world of Where Ava Dreams, which primarily features the little dolls as they're affectionately called.
Dyan muses and shares her own creative journey and unfolding on her blog, as well as her experiences as a Jamaican living in Canada and adventures with her furry yet mischievous cockapoo - SweetSop. At the heart of it all she's a playful and imaginative dreamer who feels inspired to help others connect with their childlike spirit as she nurtures her own creativity in between wondering what pretty outfits to dress her little dolls in next! Follow along with the little dolls at Dyan's blog and wander by her store to explore her art. Dyan is offering all Kelly Rae blog readers FREE SHIPPING on each purchase all week from her online store - please use discount code: LITTLESTAR

love wordy.

one thing i've noticed about myself since giving birth is that i feel a bit drunk on love. this feeling reminds me of whenever i have a few cocktails in me and i'm all super lovey and mushy. does that ever happen to you? you have a few drinks and you're all dramatic with "oh, i love you so much" or "you're my bestest friend in the whole world" and on and on. you're a bit tipsy, but your emotional love gets all wordy when otherwise it might stay a bit more locked up.

that's how i feel now, everyday. love wordy. i'm all mush and gush. my friendships feel deeper. my relationship with john feels deeper. my love for my family feels more ignited. they haven't changed. but i have. i'm wide open over here. wide open.

in other news, the big celebration of the day is that we all got EIGHT hours of sleep last nite. sure, it was interrupted sleep every couple of hourse but the grand total for us adults was eight hours. i feel like a new woman. i've got on a boden dress and some make-up and my hair up. that and my mom arrived last nite. true was crying when she walked in the door. she promptly scooped him up and he stopped instantly and looked at her face with calm, calm, calm. she's got the touch :)

learning, leaning, loving.

we are making our way over here. slooowly we are catching our breath, learning True, and leaning into our new life. more than ever my mantra is brave in sadness, brave in love. this experience of being cracked open has encompassed just that: embracing change and all the hard, yet beautiful aspects of this giant life transition yet also embracing all the small celebrations and gratitudes that are mixed in with intensity and tears. it all matters. it's all a part of it. i trust this truth with all of my heart.


speaking of tears, i have never in my entire life felt so much emotion. high and low. all in the span of a single day, day after day. hormones, yes, but human heart 100%. i'm most tender in the mornings. although the tears are sometimes surprising and funny (like the time the waitress came to deliver the news that the biscuits and gravy i just ordered were no longer available), they also arrive the minute anyone asks how we're doing or gives me a hug or looks at me with understanding eyes or sends a sweet email or leaves a kind voicemail or when i think i can no longer operate on exhaustion. either way, i feel very in tune, very alive, and embracing the vulnerability of what it means to be so attached.

there was a moment when gina took True downstairs for a couple of hours so that john and i could get some rest upstairs. he was 6 days old and we had not once been separated from him. although she was just taking him downstairs, i bawled my eyes out as i watched her walk away. it was then that i knew i was attached, and cracked wide open to love and all that it is bringing to our new family.

i am growing. john and i are growing. we are learning and loving deep and wide. i'm surrendering to it in ways that leave me feeling more lifted up, more joyful than i've ever felt yet totally and utterly exhausted by the emotional and physical component, too. it's so strange, this territory, how it has me opened up to new love yet insanely terrified all at once. i suppose this is what happens when you realize how much you have to lose - again, brave in sadness, brave in love.

it feels like i've lived a whole entire lifetime in just 10 days. i'm so grateful for all of it. and 100% changed.

and did i mention how insanely adorable and cute True is? he is. oh yes indeed.

A guest post from my bff, gina.

(me looking VERY very tired and gina)

Gina and I met the first day of 7th grade. It was 1987 and we were 12 years old. We've been bff's ever since. We've traveled far and wide in our friendship and it's a sisterhood I hold very very close - she's family. Gina's been here since the second day we arrived home from the hospital. Not only has she been helping us with all the baby how-to's, but she's been a witness for us during this time in our lives when everything feels so raw and new. She's been so incredibly gentle and wise and helpful during this time - it feels like a tremendous gift and I'm not sure how John and I would have survived without her these last several days. As she gets ready to head back home to her family and her life, I asked if she would share some of her thoughts about her visit with us. I'm so glad she wrote these words. I'll remember them always...


(baby True with his sock monkey that grandma made for him :)

I've always thought that newborn babies look like ancient, wise souls. It's something about the way they gaze into our eyes, into the world. It's deep, soulful. The past few days I imagine True laughing at us behind his big, dark eyes as we bustle around him, making a big fuss out of all kinds of things – "What we really need from Babies R Us is…" "What's that red spot on his face?" "Does anyone know where the nipple shield is?" "Okay, you hold his arm out of the way while I try to get him to latch on…wait, the sleeve of his shirt is in the way…" "What's that in his diaper?" "This feels unrelenting!" Then there's the tears, the frustration, the goofy, smitten new parent voices, the totally comical times. I'm sure there are moments that we have looked like a three ring circus to him. (I am positive that his favorite moment was the first day I was here when he was breastfeeding on Kelly's right boob and I was simultaneously pumping her left "problem" boob with the breast pump. Even as a seasoned mother of two, that was a new one for me!)

The truth is that even though True is technically the baby bird around here, Kelly and John are the ones having to grow their parental wings and learn to fly. Leaving the hospital is like being pushed out of the nest for the first time…you pretty much land on the ground with a big SPLAT. When we learn something new, it can be unbelievably awkward and scary. Breastfeeding feels like trying to eat M&M's with greased chopsticks. Changing a diaper or wrestling a newborn into an outfit feels like learning origami. Preparing to leave the house with the baby takes a hundred years and then some. I've often thought that becoming a parent grows us up along with our children. Not only does it take you to the limits of your emotional capacity, high and low, but it always presents you with new challenges and opportunities for growth because children are forever changing. We think we are raising them, but they are raising us, teaching us new flight patterns day by day and pushing us to be better than we think we are.

So, needless to say, Kelly and John are in major flight school mode over here. It's fun to watch the sacred dance between the three of them as they try to figure this new life out. There are moments when True looks at Kelly like, "Come on Mama, you can do it!" I too know she can and she will and it's going to be beautiful. It already is.

Weekly Sponsor Spotlights: Contemporary Cloth, Beth Quinn Designs + Susannah Conway

Big thanks to my sponsors...I'm really enjoying these weekly sponsor spotlights where their creative talents and businesses are featured. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor (includes your ad on the sidebar + ongoing spotlights), please send me an email for further information! Now taking sign-ups for the holiday season (Oct/Nov/Dec).
**********************************************************************************
Contemporary Cloth has an exciting collection of modern, vintage, hand dyed and organic fabrics, patterns, fabric stencils and sale books/magazines. Els van Baarle of the Netherlands sends us her hand dyed/batiked papers/fabrics and vintage papers in several languages.
Mention - "KellyRae" - in the coupon code for 20% off your order (10-15% off fiberartists).You can also find us on twitter, facebook, and our blog!
**********************************************************************************

Jewelry artist Beth Quinn is "a mom of two wonderful little boys, married to my best friend, and an artist who loves to create anything from paper, fabric , wood ,paint and metal." Influenced by her late father's metal working and her grandmother's creativity, her jewelry is "full of her love for the old , worn and shiny ... she loves to combine texture to create jewelry that can be loved and cherished for years to come." Please head over to Beth's website where you can find her shop (wonderful fall jewelry now available!!) and her blog!
**********************************************************************************
I'm Susannah Conway, a photographer, writer and the creator of the Unravelling e-course, an 8-week online class designed to help you heal the way you see your self and your world, using photography and journalling to access hidden thoughts & dreams and encourage personal realisations, all in the safe space of a like-minded community.
The autumn Unravelling class is currently in session, and I'll be opening registration for the January 2011 class on December 4th, so if you'd like to join us be sure to sign up to my mailing list for updates on the courses and future workshops, or just come say hi at the blog!