Erika Koenig Workman

Making yourself [crafting your life] is a little like fabricating, which is to: create, manufacture, produce; construct, build, assemble, put together, form, and fashion.

To do it well is a humbling experience. Over time one becomes equipped with the necessary skills to be successful at being an artist or a ‘maker of things’.

When one has a mentor to follow and learn from it can take you miles beyond your imagining. It is easy to be overly optimistic about one’s enthusiasm for making —use caution I tell myself. I become become giddy with excitement and I learn that determination to overcome obstacles is required and the ability to handle failure and recover quickly. A heady experience is sure to follow the digestion of new found knowledge and like having 2 glasses of wine it puts the shine on just about anything.

To keep on the straight and narrow—I pace myself with activities, and personal obligations, I turn in early. Although you may look at my online presence and ghasp, I am learning the secret is to do a little bit of something at any given time and to care for yourself and slow down.

To enjoy each day which brings its own challenges not to think too far ahead but just enough is often the best accomplishment, and this is good. It has taken me 5 years to come to the beginning of learning this.