Virgo Full Moon February 28th, 2010

8:38 am PST

Moon in Virgo encourages us to clean up our act, access and shore up our projects, tend to our health and dietary needs and address the stress factors in our lives. Excerpted from the We'Moon Datebook

This month's sole Virgoan creatrix is Aimee (otherwise known as Aimee Lou or Lou) from New Hampshire and wow, I can really identify with so much of what she has to say about being a Virgo 'cause I've got a whole bunch of it in my own chart! It sounds daunting, but sometimes folks forget that we also have a very whimsical and quirkily humorous side too.

Aimee Louise Terravechia

Manchester, New Hampshire

Shop: A-Lou Creations Blog: http://aloupaper.blogspot.com/

Being a Virgo has always influenced the way I work and create more than anything else in my life. I am a Virgo in every way! I'm a perfectionist, very practical and a complete loner.

I am a total introvert and when I had a day job I always kept to myself (which my bosses loved.) It works out well now that I work from home and it feels normal to spend the majority of my day in my own little world only venturing out for postage and supplies. I also love the "virtual" world because it has allowed me to communicate with other people while not being face-to-face. This of course, also gives me more time to be creative and doodle all of the things I have in my head.

Thanks For Being So Darn Sweet - Thank You Card

I also enjoy working with my hands quite a bit and I always feel a great sense of accomplishment when I physically change something because it allows me to exercise the level of precision that I'm comfortable with; working in just the right scale to make everything look clean and "just right." I also love the feel of materials in my hands, especially paper and I think this comes from being an earth sign. Touching natural materials always gives me this connection to the earth and is something I love about what I do.

I'm also a "super" perfectionist which has been both positive and negative to my work-flow. I am very meticulous with my business and keep thorough records of everything. I also cut all of my greeting cards by hand and am simply not satisfied until they are absolutely perfect. This of course, is great for creating my own product and ensures high quality items. When I'm working on a new design however, it can distract me from my creative process. I constantly second-guess myself and can be really over-critical of my work. Luckily I have my husband Jake (a Pisces) who always helps me work through my self-frustration. He's a real sweetheart and can almost always quell my over-critical tendencies.

Happy Birthday in Braille - Greeting Card

Occasionally my attention to detail can cause me to ignore a bigger problem. I remember how I had printed and cut a card to size and then when I went to assemble it realized that I hadn't printed anything on the inside (which needs to be done before I assemble and cut it!) Needless to say I was kicking myself for forgetting such an important step. Luckily I've developed a routine (there's that Virgo practicality at play!) for printing that is fool-proof.

I love the design aspect of creating cards as well. It's really the perfect fit for me (and my sign.) It allows me to be creative but isn't such a big project that I get bogged down with the details. I do paint and draw, but I often get too focused on what I'm working on and end up "overworking" it.

Boy Meets Boy - Greeting Card

The business aspect is also a perfect fit. You wouldn't necessarily know it but greeting cards are a very practical thing to sell! Each card weighs the same so shipping costs are easy to calculate and each card also uses approximately the same amount of materials, so production costs are also easy to factor in. Each card also takes approximately the same amount of time to create and so labor time is also easy to estimate.

The logistics of designing and printing cards also makes it extremely easy for me to stay organized which is something that I hold dearer than life itself! I have all the files organized, clearly labeled and divided into sections on my laptop. (I think it looks beautiful but my husband can never see the beauty in it.) I also have shoebox organizers for extra cards organized by "type" and another organizer for invoices which I created at the same size as my cards so that I can organize them with uniform boxes. Most of my friends and family think I'm mad, but I look at my catalogues and organizers and I see my own personal Mona Lisa!

Poop - Belated Birthday Card

Of course I get a lot of joy out of the business aspect of things for the simple reason that I can make charts in Excel. I LOVE keeping track of sales and inventory and the like. Everything is color-coded and I even make line graphs to track my progress, it's so pretty.

Everything in my life, business and creative process is influenced by my Virgoan characteristics. My attention to detail, my love of organizational tools and my practicality all influence what I make and how I make it.

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