It has begun!
Hello! So a big part of why I've been posting so sporadically in this space is because I've had my head in the... virtual ...clouds. I've been designing/dreaming up two new websites, and if you've ever launched a site, you know it can sometimes be kind of time consuming as you lovingly work out the details and get things just so. I thoroughly enjoy the process though. So it's been fun! The first new website is not really new... It's a complete overhaul of good 'ol Illustration Friday. If you follow IF on Facebook you already know that I'm redesigning it, and it's almost complete. It's going to be AWESOME. Totally much easier to use and share your art. Easier to browse other people's art. And easier for me to update (a big bonus, I must admit). I'll go more into more detail when it soon goes live, but just know that's it is a huge change. Much overdue. Much anticipated. I can't wait to show you.
The second new site is totally brand new. Remember how I mentioned briefly here and there that I am studying Thai massage? It was even on my resolutions list at the beginning of this year. I said:
{I will} ... Learn more about thai/ yoga/ ayurveda on my own until the perfect opportunity for schooling comes up. (Again: not forcing.) And— a more important aspect of this one— to PRACTICE what I learn so this surface knowledge turns into experiential wisdom.
Well, I ended up going to school (level 1 so far, but there's another class coming up I hope to attend), and I've been practicing. (That's an understatement.) I've been doing - and thereby learning - a ton of Thai bodywork. I set up a really simple, beautiful space in my home to practice, and friends and neighbors and friends of friends have been coming by for bodywork... about 2-3 a week! It's crazy. Crazy amazing and fun!
I thought I was just going to leave it at that, but then on a intuitive whim, I signed up for Leonie Dawson's latest business course and in it she encourages you to just go for it. Put your passionate offerings on the table... because you offer something valuable... and what are you waiting for... and DO IT NOW. And I was all "hells yeah!" fired up. So I went for it. I started designing a new website, to make it "real" for me, and to make it findable for local people here in Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill. Because I want to share this work with people... even if I'm only a level one (smile). It's just amazing how much this work can help people. And I love doing it. I love helping people. It lights me up and makes me sooo happy. And so grounded! When I do Thai bodywork, I get in a groove that is definitely just intuitive and tactile. And this really balances my "in-my-noggin" type work of illustration and running Illustration Friday. (Gosh, between the garden and the Thai bodywork, I'm more grounded than I've ever been!) :)
Anyway, sorry. I was not expecting to go on that kind of diatribe.
All to say: I just launched a new website for the Thai bodywork that I offer locally. I call it "Blue-Eyed Thai Bodywork". (Do you like the name?) Blue-Eyed because I want to make it fun and accessible for people who might be unfamiliar with this work. Blue-Eyed because I don't come from Thailand (I grew up in Indiana playing with Amish kids!). Blue-Eyed because well, read the FAQs for the whole spiel. I wanted to just have the site be simple, pretty, and easy to kind of get an idea of what the heck Thai bodywork is. I hope I succeeded. We'll see what happens next... I keep putting big ideas out there. And I keep hearing back. Kind of amazing.