Skip to content

STAY INSPIRED WITH ART, JEWELRY, TOOLS & COURSES     Subscribe

Pinterest Facebook Instagram Vimeo YouTube
Shopping Cart 0
  • Read
  • CreateExpand
    • Online Courses
    • Tools, Supplies & Videos
  • CelebrateExpand
    • Radiant Echoes Exhibition
    • Get the Book – Radiant Echoes
Victoria Lansford
  • CollectExpand
    • The Art Jewelry CollectionsExpand
      • Celestial
      • Transformation
      • Prospera
      • Evolution
      • Jazz
    • Objets d’Arts
    • Sculptural Metalwork
    • Works on Paper
  • AboutExpand
    • About Victoria
    • Contact
    • Artist Statement
    • Pressroom
    • Watch
Victoria Lansford
Shopping Cart 0

STAY INSPIRED WITH ART, JEWELRY, TOOLS & COURSES     Subscribe

October 15, 2021October 15, 2021

Reality Ain’t TV

Behind the Scenes / Illumination / Inspiration / Painting

If you’re not an artist but would like to be, you might believe that the days of full time creatives begin something like this:

Awaken with ideas and motivation to begin another day of your dreams.

Brush teeth and shower while pondering how to go about these great ideas.

Prepare and eat a healthy breakfast that nurtures the body as well as the soul.

Wave to family members who totally understand your desire to be left undisturbed by anything, lest the great ideas in your highly intelligent right brain evaporate before you can jot them down.

Drift into the studio and begin working while listening to the birds sing.

Create work that flows effortlessly and works the way you want it…at least the second time.

Break for that second cup of tea and pet adoring dogs who never ever fight with each other.

Drift back to work with increased inspiration.

Work goes well.

Make tons of progress even with lunch and afternoon tea breaks.

Admire what all you accomplished before drifting off to dinner that someone else has prepared.

Eat

Sleep

Rinse 

Repeat

Good luck finding that.

Illumination of the word Hope by Victoria Lansford, 24k gold and watercolor on paper
Hope, Illumination, 24k gold and watercolor on paper. Available as a giclee print

If you’re not an artist and don’t want to become one, then you’re view of what a full time creative’s days are like might be more informed by media hype. Something along the lines of coffee and cigarettes for breakfast around noon, procrastination, followed by unfathomable bouts of genius then alcohol chasers alone in deep despair alternated by some days of alcohol chasers while regaling sycophants with tales of said genius. Both versions of this denouement are followed by passing out before facing the next day’s hangover.

That’s the model I grew up observing, and I definitely don’t recommend it.

Our little darlings LIzzie & Boudica pretending to be perfect angels
Our little darlings LIzzie & Boudica pretending to be perfect angels

If you make your living as an artist, a solo-preneur, innovator, and multitasker then maybe you can relate to my typical day reality:

Awaken with ideas and motivation that get me out of bed in the hope of having time to paint amidst all my other work.

Let dogs out.

Grab parts from the dish drying rack and assemble the dogs’ water fountain (made for cats) because the princesses prefer moving water, and it’s this or the possibly toxic, ever enticing, backyard fish pond water.

Let dogs in to eat.

Brush teeth and shower while pondering how to go about these great ideas.

Let dogs out.

Let dogs in.

Hang out in the kitchen for longer than I meant to with my husband, who made me a smoothie, because even after all these years, he’s still my best friend, and well, because somewhere between waking with inspiration and dealing with dogs I got tired again.

Go into studio, sit down at drawing table.

Immediately get up from drawing table because I remember I have an international order to fill, and if I get the order processed before my son leaves for class, it will go out today.

Forget he’ll have another chance to drop it as the post office this afternoon so I don’t really need to panic in order to give good customer service.

Log into to PayPal to generate the shipping label. 

Discover PayPal’s shipping system I’ve been using for 13 years (Thirteen. Years.) has been changed to ShipStation.

Discover shipping a small Priority Mail package to Europe will now cost me $96. Not an express mail package. 2 week delivery. Small. $96.

Decide this must be a glitch.

Try again.

$96.

Decide to see if the old PayPal shipping interface is still there somewhere.

Discover it’s not.

Try ShipStation again.

$96.

Copy and paste the entire address into all the little fields on the USPS site.

Discover their shipping rate is $40. No PayPal negotiated rate of the usual $35.

Try ShipStation again.

$96.

Hit the chat option in the lower right corner.

Type in my problem. Copy what I type to the clipboard.

Wade through all the “not helpful…this does not answer my question” options until I finally get a person.

Paste in my previously typed problem so I don’t have to type it all over again.

This is not my first 3rd party website integration rodeo.

Wait while Brian the CSR researches my problem.

Open another browser window and investigate if DHL is an option.

Copy paste in the address into another set of fields again.

Discover DHL would cost $91.

Check back with Brian who has asked for a screenshot of my problem.

Regenerate the label in ShipStation yet again.

Take and send Brian a screenshot of my problem.

Research 3rd party shipping plugins for my WordPress site because, nice as Brian is, I’ve decided I hate ShipStation.

Discover I could get a better rate if I sign up with another shipping partner that integrates with my website’s store.

Check back to see that Brian is still researching.

Select and install a 3rd party shipping partner.

Set up an account with said partner.

From my morning journaling on a very different day - Victoria Lansford
From my morning journaling on a very different day

Attempt to integrate their plugin with my site.

Attempt to integrate their plugin with my site.

Check back to see that Brian is still researching and is asking for my patience.

Attempt to integrate their plugin with my site.

Attempt to integrate their plugin with my site.

Attempt to integrate their plugin with my site.

That repeating sentence is not a typo.

Attempt to integrate their plugin with my site.

Attempt to integrate their plugin with my site.

Check back to see that Brian is still researching and is asking for even more of my patience.

Attempt to integrate their plugin with my site.

Decide none of this tech drama is why I dedicated my life to the arts.

Give up and buy the $40 label from USPS.

Check back to see that Brian has not been able to solve the problem but has escalated it to a higher level of researchers.

Try 3 times to print the label directly from USPS because it either gets cut off or prints too small.

Log back into PayPal to print the packing slip.

Finish packing the order because, while tech drama is not why I do what I do, delighting customers and collectors is very much a part of why I do what I do.

Move back to the drawing table to start my morning journaling even though I got up before 8am, and it is now nearly noon.

Wonder when I’m going to fit in all of today’s tasks.

Pull out a painting in progress and open my watercolor palette.

Paint a single, 3 millimeter long hairline vein in a tiny flower petal that is part of a huge floral border that surrounds the painting’s subject.

Feel pawing at my feet.

Let dogs out.

Walk back to drawing table.

Hear incessant barking.

Walk back outside.

Discover what my dogs really want is for me to come outside and play.

Get derailed for the next 15 minutes, doing what I can’t even remember now, but I don’t think it involved much playtime.

Go back to flowers awaiting hairlines.

Paint the hairline veins in 3 more flowers!

Stop to answer the Ring app on my phone.

See delivery person waiting on my porch, presumably for a signature.

Freak out that I can’t make him hear me via Ring on my phone.

Move as fast as my tendinitis inflamed ankles will carry me to the other end of the house.

Discover our 100+ year old front door knob isn’t working because it’s come off the spindle.

Meet my husband who was in the middle of a phone call and who has heard me but not Ring even though his office is near the front door.

Limp back to studio

Go back to flowers.

The very same hairline striations in those flower petals…

Yes, a few more hairlines and much more shipping drama then this email:

Hi Victoria, Thanks for taking the time to talk with me today.

At this time, our developers are working on a fix for international presets. I do apologize for the inconvenience. I recommend shipping directly via USPS until this issue is resolved.

Please don’t hesitate to reach back out if you have any other issues or questions and we’ll be happy to help.

Best regards,
Brian

Apparently, I am the first person ever to use ShipStation via PayPal for an international order. 

This was never the kind of innovator I intended to be.

Relativity Navigator (detail), Rotating Russian filigree, chased, granulation, and gilt pendant on a Roman chain by Victoria Lansford; photo by Pat Vasquez-Cunningham
Relativity Navigator (detail) Rotating Russian filigree, chased, granulation, and gilt pendant on a Roman chain by Victoria Lansford; photo by Pat Vasquez-Cunningham

Share this:

  • Share
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X

Post navigation

Previous Previous
Never in Study Hall – WordPress? – And in Other News
NextContinue
Fixing to Get Ready
Victoria Lansford

Victoria Lansford is an artist and educator who combines historical metalsmithing and illumination processes with cutting edge technology to create contemporary interpretations of centuries-old craft forms. With a creative career spanning over 30 years, her genre-busting and award-winning art explores feminine power and ranges in scale from intricate art jewelry and miniatures to architectural metalwork. 

What Others Are Saying

A gift to find both the artist and the work so inspiring

"I briefly survey a wide variety of newsletters, but rarely read more than the preview text above the fold so to speak.
You, on the other hand, are solidly, beautifully, and with great respect for your audience, delivering “The Goods” with every newsletter. And on a topic that is very much my central thing. - The journey of bringing your own soul's beauty and truth into form to share with others.
Thank you for your generosity of the creative spirit! It’s a gift to find both the artist and the work so inspiring.”
Lawrence Kampf
Founding partner, Nova Earth Institute
  • Buy Me a Tea
    Buy Me a Tea
    $3.00 – $25.00
    Select optionsContinue Loading Done
  • Buy Me a Tea & Repeat
    Buy Me a Tea & Repeat
    From: $3.00 / month
    Select optionsContinue Loading Done
Search

Browse by Category

  • My Account
  • FAQs
  • Downloading eBooks
  • Q + A Forums
  • Shipping & Info
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact

© 2025, VICTORIA LANSFORD, LLC | ALL IMAGES ON THIS SITE ARE THE PROPERTY OF VICTORIA LANSFORD OR THE ARTIST NAMED AND MAY NOT BE USED WITHOUT PERMISSION EXCEPT WHEN LINKED BACK TO THIS SITE OR USED FOR PROMOTIONAL OR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. CREDITS MUST INCLUDE THE ARTIST'S NAME.

  • Collect
    • The Art Jewelry Collections
    • Art Objects
    • Sculptural Metalwork
    • Works on Paper
  • Celebrate
    • Radiant Echoes Exhibition
    • Get the Book – Radiant Echoes
  • Create
    • Victoria’s School
    • Tools, Books & Videos
  • Read
  • About
    • About Victoria
    • Contact
    • Artist Statement
    • Watch
    • Pressroom
Search