This morning, with some unexpected time on my hands, I found myself reading through every blog entry I've written on this site since I started it in September of 2011. Then I even hopped back to the "old blog" on my HandyGal services website.

While some of the content felt a tiny bit dated, it was interesting to look at my progress and process -- like reading through old diaries. I'm one of those people who thinks best by writing, so I'm literally "working things out" here and in the many, many journals and notebooks I keep.

One of the things I've been "working out" over the past few years, is the real purpose and aim of my business, HandyGal. It started as a grab-bag of services—I'll be whatever you need me to be!—but I'm now focused on creating beauty through home organizing and art.

Here's an excerpt from a June 2011 post I want to share today. You can read the entire entry here.

Maybe I really AM a Voice Coach.

I’m actually kinda quiet. As a kid I was painfully shy, bursting into tears when people sang “Happy Birthday” to me. (Too much attention!) Over the years I’ve needed and received plenty of help, solicited or not, finding my own voice.

As a longtime educator, I know that you only have to be one step ahead—maybe even just half a step—of your students in order to teach them something. I’ve become rather an expert at learning something one day (or minute), and teaching it the next.

Example A:

Because so recently I was a closeted artist, I take special delight in helping other closeted artists “come out.” The memories are so fresh I can feel what it’s like in their shoes. (And I still struggle to subdue all those same sabotaging voices!)

Example B:

In late October of 2009 I took a mosaic mural workshop (which inspired me to start this blog, by the way), and a few weeks later I was at the middle school showing 25 kids how to make tiles for our first-ever mosaic mural, which we installed the next spring.

Example C:

I constantly struggle to maintain order in my studio and my home. But I’ve found ways to manage “stuff” (many of which I developed while teaching kindergarten) so I hire myself out to help people manage their stuff. And I've become very good at it.

Example D:

Just a few minutes ago (it seems) I became a businessperson and working artist. Now I’m signing up my second intern and showing them the biz from the inside. Yes, I still fret about being a poser, and sometimes wonder myself what IS inside my business??... but I don’t mind sharing those worries now, either. It’s all part of the journey, and the learning, and I’m definitely still/always a student. (I have homework, remember?)

Although it feels wobbly, it’s the part of teaching that I love. I don’t miss the testing/meetings/politics/behavior issues/overwork/undervalue of being a classroom teacher, but I did get a constant charge out of seeing those little lightbulbs go on. Helping kids discover that they DO have value, and they CAN learn skills. Whether the kids are 2 or 102, it’s still magical.

Fortunately I’m still able to do that work with HandyGal.

You DO have creative bones in your body! Let’s get out and exercise them, and find your artistic voice.

You CAN get organized! Let’s see what beauty is hiding underneath all that stuff.