What do you do?

I had jury duty and a dentist appointment this week. Both events give me anxiety for different reasons and one overlapping reason. The overlapping reason being you have to answer the question, “what do you do for a living?”. It should be an easy mundane getting to know you question but I have yet to figure out what to say. I’m an artist? How do I say this without cringing? What about this makes me want to shrink into a tiny ball and disappear? I’m a designer or illustrator? I’m a stay at home mom who makes weird stuff and tries to sell it sometimes on the internet? I made a few dollars this year from a goofy newsletter I sometimes send out? I don’t want to explain my whole life to you but I feel like maybe to answer this question I have to explain my whole life to you?

Maybe I’ll make something up. I’ll say I’m a snail breeder who collects snail serum for beauty products. It’s a hot new market. They’re making a dirty jobs episode about me. Can you please just clean my teeth now. Can I not be put on trial about this?

I obviously still have insecurities surrounding my career choices, but I’m working through them one project at a time. I actually feel more confident now about the artwork that I have been creating than any other time in my life. I feel like the gap between the artwork that I love and my skills to make it is shrinking. The past couple weeks I’ve had the opportunity to work on a couple paintings for a friend’s house in the Poconos. I’ve been enjoying the process. They’re folksy and fun and make me want to jump up and down and squee with joy. I can’t wait to share them with you.

I will now go and practice saying, “I am an artist” in the mirror.

Love you friends. Thanks for being here.

Things worth sharing:

If you want to get into the spooky season with some ghost stories. I recommend the Other World podcast. I especially like episode 3: The Hat Man and episode 27: The Goop Demon

I’m on the lookout for halloween movies for movie night. We watched the original Beetlejuice and it was a hit. I am intrigued by this list of “sort of scary movies for kids”. Honestly most of them look too scary for Elliott, and for me lol. We also watched Spirited Away and I know people love that movie but it’s so weiiiird. I still like the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. That’s more my speed. I’m open to suggestions!

This 2.99 cotton Ikea bag has become my go-to grocery bag. I bought 3 of them and they fit so much stuff while also folding down super tiny.

I spotted a familiar folding table set that we own in a newsletter, and was super excited and surprised to see that it’s famous! We bought it a few years ago at Jinxed in Philly looking for a craft table that could fold away when we weren’t using it. As an antiques road show enthusiast, this whole situation of discovering a treasure hidden in plain sight delighted me.

After posting about my playlist last week I noticed designer Brad Almond posted on instagram that he makes a playlist of his favorite music every year. You can see them on his Spotify profile. I’m looking forward to taking a listen! Musical time capsules!

You know I love a life hack. Here’s a great list of them.

The Art of Noticing is a lovely newsletter. I especially liked this one on suggestions on how to enjoy art at the museum. I especially liked the advice that you don’t have to look at everything but make sure you look at something for five minutes.

Jason’s birthday was a couple weeks back and we got him this Art of Cuphead book. He and Elliott have been making fun drawings from it. Cuphead is a hand drawn video game. All the art is in the style of 30’s cartoons and will blow your mind. Here’s a video about the art, they also show them recording the musical score around minute 5 if you’re into that. I wonder how these people talk about their career when they go to the dentist.

My Shop: phillycornerstore.bigcartel.com

I wrote a book!

E-mail: halestormenator@gmail.com

Instagram: haleyharmondraws

Portfolio: haleyharmon.com