Cate Anevski

In which Cate rambles aimlessly about her aims

I accidentally snapped this picture of myself a couple of days ago while trying to adjust my camera settings, and I feel it sums up my recent life quite well. I mentioned previously that I'm moving soon (next week, to be exact), and I have quite a few other changes going on, too.

I realized that I never shared one of those changes with my blog readers, and in the interest of sharing some of my artistic motivation, perhaps I should. Two years ago, I decided I no longer wanted art to be my profession. While I dearly love creating, creating for the sake of feeding myself and keeping a roof over my head is not fun for me. I've spent a lot of time since graduating college trying to find a way to make a solid career out of creative work, and at every turn, I enjoyed the process less and less.

So, as I mentioned, I made a change two years ago. I decided one day, while bored and unhappy at my day job, that I wanted to be an accountant. A week later, I was registered for the coursework that would start me on a journey to become a CPA.

I bring this up now because I realize how much that journey has taken me away from my artwork. Trying to put myself through school (with the support of my amazing family) while avoiding destitution and creating regularly has proven to be extremely difficult. However, I am practically at my destination, now. This past week I started working as a tax accountant, and I absolutely love it.

It will probably be another year or so before my life gains some stability, but I am so happy with my current trajectory. I've managed to situate myself at the bottom of a ladder I will enjoy climbing rather than desperately hanging on at the middle of one that doesn't make me happy. Within a few months, I will have finished my coursework, and then I can begin the CPA exam. After that, I'll be able to simply focus on building my career.

My ultimate goal is to combine my love of art with my love of taxes. (No, seriously, I love them!) I want to work with artists and other sole proprietors and small businesses doing consulting and tax work. The best part of all: I can do the bulk of my work from January to April (when art sales tend to be abysmal anyways), leaving the rest of my year free to enjoy life and create.

And so there you have it—the real reason I tend to leave this blog unattended so often. For whatever reason, "I was too busy embroidering to finish my paper" just doesn't seem to fly with my professors. And so, my wonderful readers, as long as you can forgive me for leaving you hanging from time to time, I look forward to sharing with you all those things I make just for the sheer joy of it.

Get Back to Work!

The little taskmistress who keeps me motivated. Or else!

I don't know where you been, boy, but it looks like you won first prize!

Ever since participating in science fairs in grade school, I've had a mild obsession with prize ribbons. There's just something so exciting and cheerful and sophisticated about those little rosettes. Since it's been years since I have won a ribbon (I couldn't seem to compete with other scientists after college), I decided to make a few.

Incidentally, I'd like to share another project of mine. Well, perhaps it's more of a theme to all my projects. I'm moving at the end of the month, and every time I move, I realize just how much junk I have accumulated. I've spent the past few weeks culling my closets for Goodwill goodies so that someone else might enjoy that turkey-sized platter that lives in the back of my cupboard or the badminton net that never quite worked out in my basement apartment.

With this in mind, I've worked hard during this month to create new projects using only what I have on hand. (The only exception is the fabric I have printed for my Blythe dresses, since I can't produce that on my own.) It's been fun realizing that my problem-solving creativity can overcome quite a few obstacles.

These prize ribbons were part of that concept. I've been meaning to make some for quite a while, but I kept thinking I needed to get more materials. Once I actually looked through what I have in my studio, though, I realized that my perceived need for more supplies really stemmed from a consumerist desire to buy buy buy.

Next on the list is a stack of embroideries I have in the works on fabric that's been in my closet for eons. There's a wonderful cleansing feeling that comes from taking what was once closet-clutter and turning it into art.

Speaking of animals...

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

I found this lovely video on The Small Object's blog, and I just had to share it.

When I was in high school, I used to live in an eighth-floor apartment that had a wonderful view of this kind of bird activity. I would sit on the balcony with my best friend and watch for ages each day. Moreover, the apartment was always swarmed with seagulls who would eat bread out of the air if you threw it. You had to be careful not to hit the not-so-understanding little old lady who lived across the street as she tried to get into her car, though.

Nowadays, I get my amazing-bird-action fix from the masses of chimney-roosting swifts here in Portland. If you're in the area, I highly recommend getting out to see this. It's a great excuse for a lovely picnic dinner, and you get to be stunned and amazed by the awesome power of nature at the same time. Win-win!

Animal Expressions

Animals have thoughts, too, and I spend a good portion of my day wondering what they are. This series of embroideries is my best guess after hours of pondering.

The original embroideries and the embroidery patterns are both available in my shop, if you'd like to spend some time pondering the emotions of animals yourself.

Ready for Love

Well, look at that!

Thanks to the generousest friends ever, Maggie & Kyle Ruth, I have a couple of dolly visitors to help me out with my Blythe fashion design. I can certainly see why this becomes so addictive...

Did you ask a question?

What do you get when you combine a friend who has a desire to take up crossstitch with an obsession with Douglas Adams? 42 and/or a sudden need to design a crossstitch pattern.

I made this for a friend for Christmas, but I thought perhaps some other folks might find some use in it, too, so I added it to the embroidery patterns on Bee's Knees Activities.

I'm not late, I'm early.

Yep, that's right. I'm very prepared for the 2012 holiday season. It has nothing to do with the fact that I didn't order my holiday-themed Blythe dress fabric early enough, or that I didn't get a chance to sew them together until after the new year.

I'm just thinking ahead.

And, if you're as forward-minded as me (or if you like to celebrate the yuletide season all year like me), you can obtain your very own DIY holiday Blythe dress kits in my shop.

Weeping Skies

A few years ago, I created this illustration, Weeping Skies. It was inspired partly by my reading of Jane Eyre and partly by my impending move to rainy Portland. I always meant to do something more with it but never managed to figure out what.

Luckily, an Etsy customer decided for me when she requested an embroidery pattern of the design. I think this would make a great image to stitch, especially due to all those fun raindrops that would stitch up perfectly using isolated chain stitches.

You can find the pattern in my shop.