Susan Barrett Price's Blog, page 59

This week: Ebay

That's my goal this week: move a table full of stuff into my online store, then downstairs to my "sales warehouse" (i.e., shelves in the utility room). I got about 50 items here that must go.

Early morning work session: all the photos I took on Saturday uploaded.

Afternoon work session: only four items listed. This is because (1) I started with a pile of arcane scientific books from the mid-19th century. (2) I had to dig out my notes to remind me how to describe book conditions (shaken, foxed, ...

Danger! Danger! Susan Getting Organized!

"Organizing" is usually my code for "procrastinating." But I really do have a lot to do. And I really can't work if my workspace is working against me. So… cleaned out my in-box, neatened up my index card system, and re-read portions of "Getting Things Done." Hmm… been skipping a few steps.

A well-organized day for me is divided into five parts: Creative Work (early morning), Physical Work-out (late morning), Not-So-Creative Work (afternoon), Communal Time (early evening) and Whatever (late...

Spicer Family History

I've been reading "The Wordy Shipmates" by Sarah Vowell. It's about the Puritans who formed the Massachusetts Bay Colony — now known as Boston. I got curious about some of Jim's ancestry, which goes back to those days. We have undigested reams of information on the Spicers — gathered up by Jim's mom (Orpha Spicer Zimmer) when she was being urged to join the Daughters of the American Revolution by her mother-in-law (Edna Griffith Zimmer), who was already a member.

It astonishes me to be able...

New Year's Resolutions 2010

I could spend all day dawdling over resolutions, but isn't that just the problem? I do have to recognize the point of diminishing returns. I know what I need to do: finish my work in progress and sell stuff from our closets. But the dawdled over version is here>>>

Reviewing My 2009

Some people write family Christmas letters. I write Annual Reports to myself. The days slip by so easily in my sweet art life — my inner Board of Directors demands accountability.

This year zigged and zagged around roadtrips. I guess I decided that I've grown up to be a writer. A writer with a variety of other skills. As opposed to a multi-media "whatever." But I still love talking into a microphone… even if it is only to myself.

Did I live by my manifesto (adopted in 2008)?

TELL STUNNING...

A Ton of Cookies, A Ton of Love

Back home from St Louis with an extra 4 lbs of cookie/pasta padding under my belt — our visit was a delicious orgy of family conviviality. In fact, I've been in official party mode since November 12, breaking bread with many local friends and roadtripping through a dozen states to see loved ones in Daytona, Tampa, and St. Louis.

The munch-a-thon is over. The wine bottle is corked. It's time to undertake my annual meditation on what I've done with myself this year. I'm better with...

Hangover: Party Season Has Arrived

I decided to invite a few local pals over for a glass of wine — a little 4 o'clock happy hour squeezed in among the busy family/work parties and shopping pressures. But it turned into a laughathon that lasted for 12 bottles of wine, making it about 10 PM when the last giggler left.

I'm having a hard time putting my finger on the exact subject matter that provoked such a mood of hilarity — most everyone naturally squeezed in a tight circle in my tiny kitchen — but then someone demanded I pull o...

Happy Holidays

Life Is A Tube of Toothpaste

No, wait. Life is a thread being wrapped around the spindle of birth. No, wait. Maybe the thread is being unwound from the spool. A few knots along the way. Oh. Maybe life is a wheel, hitting a few bumps in the road. Or a vinyl platter, playing along nicely — grooves – till it hits a scratch and you have to bump the needle arm to jump it into the next groove.

I can't tell you how long I spent trying to boil down the patterns and rhythms of my life into a clever graphic. What you see above is o...

Can't Leave Well Enough Alone

It's been one of those jumpy weeks, where the monkeys of techno-mania have been distracting me from the catching the big fish deep in the river of my dreams.

I want all of my equipment to work at its fnest, all the time, even if I'm not using it. And if I'm not using it, why not? Does it just think it can sit there taking up space without earning its keep?

Earlier this week I packed Jim's trunk with two vintage printers, an ancient scanner, a broken TV and a zip drive that had been lolling...