I am a Pickle

It's not unusual to be stuck between two powerful desires – the need to be creative only for your own gratification and the yearning to create to satisfy other people, for fame or artistic recognition.

Fame is fleeting. Recognition is subjective. Pleasing other people is an endless pit.

When what you create pleases you, it will be more than enough. The rest will come as lucky byproducts.
Mark Lipinski, Pickle Road Studios
 PickleRoadStudio@yahoogroups.com
http://marklipinskisblog.wordpress.com/2011/06/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mark-Lipinskis-Fan-Page/114478598583255

I've been friends on-line with Mark for going on fifteen years. We got thrown off the AOL cross-stitch boards for causing trouble and several of us from the U.S. and England formed The Freedom Family. We've lost a few members over the years, but have helped each other through family deaths, births, successes, failures and this last week, a tornado that hit Springfield, MA, where one of us lives.

When I first met Mark, he was a producer on several well-known TV shows, including "Rikki Lake," "Oprah," and "The View." But, he was unhappy and stressed and decided to make the changes in his life to do what he wanted. He took a giant leap of faith, bought an old farm house on Pickle Road, in a small town in New Jersey, with his husband and son and launched Quilter's Home Magazine.  While they have parted ways, he has since designed fabric, published books and craft leaflets and has two magazines out now, Mark Lipinski's Christmas 365 and a magazine on fabric trends. He does a Wednesday afternoon podcast on Togonet (link on his fanpage) called Creative Mojo. He's shared laughs and pains with us, while he leads us, a merry Pied Piper, along the way to doing what we really want to do.

How's that for a gift?

So, coming up on his birthday and Father's Day, here's a salute to a friend. I'm a big fan, even though I haven't quilted in around twenty years. He's one of several people I'm lucky to have in my life, who's been an inspiration for expressing talent and finding your happy place. May I wish the same for all of you.