I start thinking about spring when my first seedlings break the surface, and I start getting really excited when my raspberries and grapes begin to put out their new runners, and it’s officially spring after our first good thunderstorm. Then for me it’s Katy bar the door I want to be outside!

Spring is that time of year when you start thinking about the realities of what you want to do, it’s almost like we should be making our new years resolutions in spring instead of Jan. 1^st, because now, in this moment when the flowers are just starting to turn their faces to the sun and when the grass is just starting to green up, now is when we want to change. Now is when we want to clean out the shed, or grow something new, and it’s also the time when I feel ready to embark on new creative endeavors and journeys! But something must come first, something we all have to do from time to time to clear the path for those new ideas, for the adventure of spring, we have to do the Spring Cleaning.

This whole post started with my little ‘milk barn’ it’s the 10’x20’ shed where they used to separate the milk when this was a real farm. I had filled it from stem to stern with every thing from a 16’ canoe to my spare nails there wasn’t even room for the spiders. It was BAD! But I started thinking, which you will do when trying to not have to work, my creative process needs cleaned as well, we have to get those old ideas out and make room for new one’s. I remember when I first conceived the wall pockets, it was this little idea this spark deep inside me that didn’t have a name, no form, or concept, just a spark. It was 2 years before I got that idea out on paper and began to play with it, but when I did, it was like a whole new wave of creativity washed over me. That wall pocket idea had been stopping up the works for 2 years and if I had only been diligent in my creative spring cleaning I wouldn’t have had to wait so long to make that dream a reality. One of our more recent successes are Meg’s new Mixer covers (coming this month!). Great item wonderful design, but it was something that she carried for a while and then suddenly it was time and she was ready to move that idea from the page to the computer and from the computer into production. It was an awesome experience.

The mental process of creative spring cleaning for Meg and I consists simply in sitting down and taking some time to unload all the old ideas, get them out on paper and clean out the corners, every little thought that says ‘oh, wait I think I know what to do with that old project’. Get those ideas out on paper so that they can be filed away for later use somewhere other than your brain. It’s time to talk with your fellow designers and share inspiration; it’s a time to mock up something…just for the hell of it! Take a moment aside from producing and say ok where is this coming from and what ideas do I have just sitting in me waiting to get out. Just take that legal pad and bust out the sketches and the random thoughts and the crazy ideas. ‘Yea we can hang the garage from the side of the house…sure’ those kinds of ideas, and then take that legal pad and write Spring Cleaning 2010 on it, and set aside. Your done, now you can focus on making 2010 the best year you’ve ever had, and if one of those pesky old ideas comes sneaking up on you at 3am one night build it and sell it on Etsy…we did.

From the Farm

Cale and Meg