Sunday Thoughts (Ep. 42) (Patreon)

Hello hello hello! Happy Sunday Patrons and friends! It's Ragon here with another weekly update! 

How are you? Is it getting warm and sunny where you are? Seattle has been on and off cloudy and sunny. But on the sunniest days I get tricked in to wearing spring-y clothes only to find that is is still very cold. But the spring spirit is hitting the city, bringing a few tentatively blooming crocuses, daffodils, dandelions, and cherry blossoms. Lovely!

On Monday and Tuesday I had the joy to host a student as a shadow! A local middle school contacted me to see if I would take part in their job shadow program, and they paired me with a student interested in a future career of illustration and art. She came to my studio (apartment) for a few hours for two days and then spent the rest of the week visiting a local art college.

During her visit I taught her about:

• My studio space, storage, stock, and tools.
• My processes for packaging and shipping
• Creating a post for social media
• Editing product photos
• Different ways to make an income as an artist/illustrator

I also showed her how to turn her art into "products", different ways to monetize your art! She went through the process of making a hand painted sketchbook, sculpey pins, and digital stickers. She also tried some new materials, including gouache and Procreate App for iPad!

It was a little intimidating to host someone and provide information like this, but ultimately I really liked it! It reminded me that I love sharing helpful information.

After I hosted the middle school student my middle sister Kenna came to visit from Colorado! She found a new fancy job recently and wanted to travel a bit before starting the job, so she decided to visit Seattle for the second time! 

A little on Kenna! She is 23 years old, a vegetarian yogi, studied Psychology and Non-Profits, and lives in Boulder, Colorado with her boyfriend and Australian Shepherd. She loves hiking, camping, singing and playing guitar, working with kids, and stealing her sisters' clothes. She graduated high school a year early and worked for AmeriCorps her first year out of school. She's cool.

Unfortunately she was healing from a cold when she first arrived, and was also recovering from a foot injury, so the short trip ended up being a fairly chill one. She had also visited once before and seen all the stereotypical tourist Seattle sights (Pike Place Market, space needle, University District, Capitol Hill, Discovery Park,) so this was dubbed the "Ragon and Zach tour." She got to see a bunch of aspects of our life in the Ballard neighborhood.

Favorite Stops on the Ragon + Zach Ballard tour:

• Ballard Locks (to feel the maritime nature of the city)
• Ballard Goodwill (it's huge and great!)
• Mox Boarding House... twice (beer and board games!)
• Majestic Bay Theater (Zach works there, so free movie tickets!)
• No Bones Beach Club (my old kitchen job!)
• Frankie & Jo's (amazing fancy vegan ice cream!)
• Mario Party with friends in my apartment (I made vegan jambalaya!)
• Morning yoga in my living room (Yoga with Adriene videos!)

A key part of the tour: a lot of Setters of Catan.

I'm talking four games of Catan within 48 hours.

Kenna is so funny, spunky, creative, passionate, and so fun. One thing I admire about her is that she enthusiastically wants what she wants, and feels what she feels. If she's tired and wants people to go home, she doesn't pretend otherwise. If she needs alone time, she tells you. If she needs to take a bath, or doesn't want to eat something, or needs a nap, she'll do it. Sounds like it could be a bad thing, and sometimes it is, but I love the way she speaks up for herself and her needs. Rad!

On top of all of this fun stuff I celebrated my ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of my arty business, Ragonia, on Friday! I already said that, but I'm really trying to remind myself that it's a big deal. I'm having a 25% off sale in my store until next Wednesday if any of you are interested! Check it out here!

Keep an eye out this week because I'll be sharing a few extra special posts this month for March Meet the Maker.

It was a good and social and busy week. After Kenna left yesterday Zach and I flopped down on the couch and slept basically until Sunday morning. Coming up this next week I have one last portrait to finish up, a lot of orders to package and mail, and our yearly visit to Emerald City Comic Con!

That's all for this week's update! Have a wonderful, sunny, happy, productive, and fulfilling week.

Love you all!

xoxo

Ragon