In the beginning...

Originally posted January 10, 2011...

This past weekend I was over on Etsy browsing around, learning about the site in preparation for opening our new shop, titled appropriately enough: OuiTree. If you haven’t ever visited Etsy, do yourself a favor and check it out. The site is jam packed with inspiring creativity, not the least of which was the blog post I stumbled upon which featured Noah Scanlin’s book, “365 Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life”. Noah’s blog (you can link to it by clicking the “I’m Making Something 365” badge in the right hand column) is overflowing with fantastic folks taking him up on his 365 day challenge.

The idea is to choose a theme or medium and then use it to make something every day for one year.  I was immediately bitten by the I-Have-To-Do-This! bug. My seven year old daughter responded with a resounding, “COOL!” (and I won’t be surprised one bit if she too begins making a tree each day for inclusion). My ten year old son and his father, however, both chimed in with, “How are you going to find time to do that?!” Clearly, they don’t recognize superhuman juggling skills even when they are staring them right in the face.

Either that, or I’m delusional.

Still, the challenge appeals to me in a very meaningful way and even my own inner critic wasn’t able to sway my enthusiasm. The question then became, “But what will I do?”

Because I enjoy a wide variety of mediums, the idea of limiting myself to just one seemed doomed for failure, not that I couldn’t or wouldn’t follow through, but that I would more than likely end up wishing I had given myself more creative license. I also considered keeping it very loose and simple by having the only parameters being to make something every day, but that seemed to lack the challenge that I’m looking for.

After days of considering many possibilities, the one I kept coming back to was a love near and dear to my heart: trees.

And so it is.

While there are no shortage of trees where I live and my camera and I are good terms with one another, I am going to try and branch out (sorry) and use as many mediums as possible, though, I’m sure there will be more than a few photos. I just love them too much to think otherwise.

Day One will begin tomorrow: 1/11/11 ~:)

Thanks for being here.

Peace,

mish