Oh. My. Gawd! Where have the last two months gone?! I don’t know what happened, but I woke up this morning and realized that I’ve been retired for nearly six months, and I realized something. Nearly six months after I retired, I feel pretty much rudderless, just moving through life as if I have no direction and no purpose. And that, my friends, has GOT to stop.

As you may already know, the first two or three months of my retirement were more or less sitting in a low light room questioning my life choices. I’m not technically old enough to have officially retired, but I left corporate life in December 2025, and since then, I have found that my ability to self motivate is more or less non-existent. I was pretty annoyed to realize that the very thing that drove me nuts – work – is the same thing that kept me going for many years. Without the external motivation to get up every morning and be productive, I have drifted through life, unsure of what to do every day.

That probably sounds a little worse than it is, actually, but the idea is the same. I suck at self motivation. I am no good at retired life as a person with no direction.

I’ve spent a lot of time talking through this transition – not just with Sam, but with Chris and my family – and realized that while rest is important, too much unstructured drifting is not healthy for me personally. 

But I know myself pretty well, and the longer I allow myself to sit on the couch, talking with Sam and planning projects, the less likely it is that those projects will ever take actual form. The reality is, I need some external pressure to get me off the couch and moving again. And you, my dear reader, are about to become my reason.

Have you ever had a potential romantic partner who just love bombed you with nonstop attention and neediness? I’m not going to be THAT bad, but … maybe this will become not love bombing, but maybe more of a love wave?

I realized this morning that I was completely self-directed and motivated when I owned Old Fashion Soap Company after I was laid off from BP in 2016. The sense of urgency came from preparing for craft shows. I have zero interest in returning to that lifestyle at this point, but I need to create that sense of urgency again, so I have decided to try to treat this blog as a business. I am committing to at least one post a week here on the blog, with an ultimate “goal” of being able to monetize. Understand that I’m not there at this point, but setting up “business hours” along with a structured schedule for posts will be step one. And right now, the schedule is to publish one blog post each Monday. It may be a studio recap from the prior week, or it could be a discussion or tutorial about a new (to me) technique. But Monday mornings, there will be a new post. You have the evidence of that right here on your screen.

Retirement has been much more of a transition than I expected it to be, and it’s time for me to start building the life I want to live. This is your invitation to join me for that experience, warts and all. If the post-corporate life of a 50-something who often forgets her age is something that you think might be interesting, consider hitting the Subscribe button and follow along. I cannot promise the antics of Lucy and Ethel or anything, but I can promise to entertain you, and maybe teach you something.

Here’s to building a creative life on purpose. See you back in the studio!