Golden rules, and purple rules, and orange rules and pink...

Rules, schmules.  We make our own around here.  Here are mine:
1.  Leave your shoes on at the door, otherwise your socks will get dirty, and I'll be embarrassed.
2.  Don't eat anything you don't like, or I might serve it to you again.
3.  If you don't like glitter in your soup, eat in the kitchen, 'cause this isn't really the dining room, anymore.

A typical day at the office of 365 Being.  Biggest on the job hazzard?  The paint water mug is the same color as our coffee mugs.

Now that the dining-room-turned-art-studio-annex has morphed into corporate headquarters for our bookazine, 365 Being Savoring a Life of Abundance, Joy and Beauty, we have been making up business rules:
1.  Only do it if it's fun.
2.  If you don't like the way it's supposed to be done, do it some other way.
3.  Be authentic.
4.  Make money the last consideration, not the first.
5.  It's okay to blur the lines between work and play, if that's what suits you.
6.  If you are going to sugar the popcorn, go all the way to caramel, or don't do it at all.  We can't agree on rules about dunking popcorn kernels in one's beverage.

Cat calls herself the "Charwoman" of the company.  Not a typo.  Don't ask me why.  She did help make this mess, so I let her clean it up, but I made her finish playing first.  Rules are rules.

This week, Cat and I met on Sunday instead of Monday, and spent a blissfully quiet day (wait, quiet?  Okay, uninterrupted day) prepping backgrounds for the collaged pages of the winter issue.  We talked about the week's progress on our respective articles, the number of new subscriptions received (wow!), and all the stuff friends yak about at work, when the boss isn't there.  And we painted, glued, layered, smooshed, swirled and generally mucked about.  Cat was actually quite proud to be going home with paint up to her elbows, which is kind of my signature look.  Watch for it, she'll be wearing paint rags to the grocery store, next!

Yes, at this point, it does resemble a year's accumulation from a typical kindergartener.  Come to think of it, we probably could have saved ourselves a day of work  fun, and raided Cat's attic for her son's old stuff.  In case you're wondering, there are many more layers before these become the pages of our winter issue.  Keep watching, you'll see.

The design of the winter issue is inspired by the work of artist/instructor, Barb Kobe (click here:  barbkobe.com), who will be the featured artist.  Hers is a style of layers of stuff, layers of meaning, lots of fun, and some interesting introspection.  Best of all, there isn't a wrong way in a Barb Kobe class, so anyone can get involved, no matter how non-artistic they consider themselves to be.  You are going to want to try it.  You are going to want to steal your children's art supplies.  You might want to start morphing your house rules, now.

When I'm not breaking all the rules for how a magazine is supposed to be published, I still create unique decor for cool clients.  You can see more of my portfolio at theartofthehome.com.

If you have questions or comments, you can leave them at the bottom of this post, or email me at dawnmariedelara@gmail.com.

Want to check out 365 Being (we say it "Three Sixty-Five Being")?  Just click here:  365being.com.