on becoming art educated

its funny how one acquires knowledge

not long ago a friend sent me this card

The picture is titled "water heater walking" and its one of Dada's works

Now the fellow in question is an artist in his own right, but he was just struck by the humor of this particular piece and it made him think of us after all of our water heater issues last fall

To be honest, I had heard the name Dada, but I really had no clear idea of who he was (other than an artist) or when and where he worked or what his vision was

I've been getting educated --- just plug the word "dada" into Google and you'll get an eye full (so to speak!)

In a way some of what I'm seeing in some new publications, like Art Doll Quarterly reminds me of the dadaists -- assemblage, collage and lots of statements being made about life and politics --

and I find that the more I see and think about those pieces, the better I understand them -- and might be interested in creating some of my own "assemblage" pieces

something to think on anyway

Clean enough to be healthy......

Over at Bear Naked, there's a great post about dusting.

It made me think about the time when my daughter was little -- she had some friends that had big houses that always looked like they had just been finished by the decorator -- not a thing out of place -- and no real sign that any one really "lived" there

I definately had a more casual approach to cleaning -- the kitchen was clean, the house was clean enough to be healthy -- but I wanted to spend time with my kid -- doing messy art projects (shaving cream finger paint on the formica table top!), a trip to the library or a museum or a concert -- dust will always be there, children will not!

So, my house still is not a show piece, but it does look like we live here -- there is mohair fabric in the living room next to the tub full of teddy bears; there are little boxes of yarn next to the box of afghan squares and wool hats that have been knit for charity in the dining room; there are plastic shoe boxes full of beads stacked in the kitchen and a work tray of a bead project in the family room -- yup, it looks like the studio has exploded all over the house!

When I was talking to my daughter the other day, she was talking about her house -- her comment was "I clean when I can't find something" -- like mom, her kitchen is clean enough to eat out of -- but also like mom, she has "stuff" -- I'm so glad she found a great guy that doesn't get all upset about it (he has his own "stuff"!)

But there may be "cleaning" in the near future -- we just signed up for a community garage sale for next Saturday --- now where did I put that tennis racket and the box of books?

shopping, the great speckled dog and learning to eat all over again

As I've been whining about the past week or so, I've been trying to walk every day

This is one of the liners from my old walking shoes (these babies are at least 8 years old, so cut me some slack here!)

So, after some discussion, we decided to go looking for new liners (I had bought a new pair of shoes about 4 years ago, and they always hurt my foot, so I was more interested in just making the old shoes better!)

Talk about sticker shock!!

A new pair of liners (which, by the way, I'm not even sure would fit in those old shoes) would have cost me at least $15, or as much as $20!!



So, here we are --- in the box a brand new pair of shoes -- for what it would have cost me to replace the liners!

Oh yeah, there are also new socks (let us say that my socks were in pretty sad shape, and there is no point getting blisters in my new shoes!)

And a new and healthy snack -- toasted edamame -- quite tasty actually




So off I went this morning in my new shoes, and while my feet (and knees!) felt fine afterwards, I could not manage as much distance this morning and came back feeling sort of discouraged -- not to mention panting like I'd been running for miles -- what the ????

I think I'm having some major allergy issues -- notice the white spots on the black dog?

Its COTTONWOOD!!! It is absolutely the worst I can ever remember -- it literally looks like its snowing

Ok, I'll hang in there and keep trying -- the cottonwood won't last forever

Meantime, I'm trying to learn to eat all over again.

I admit it, I'm one of those people that really enjoys eating (not to mention that is pretty much the one pleasure still available to me) -- and I like meat -- I do not think of a great meal as a plate that includes nothing but veggies -- and I'm going kicking and screaming in that direction

unfortunately, food is not like tobacco or alcohol where you can simply stop using it (well, ok, not simply, but you can stop)

Going to the grocery store has become a whole new field of land mines to negotiate.

I'm trying to be good, but I can't say I'm feeling good about it -- not yet anyway

(like the exercising -- how long does it take before you feel better anyway??)

And can someone tell me why every snack bar/protein bar type thing on the market has to taste SWEET!? Someone could make a fortune from me if they could make one that tasted like a bacon cheese burger, or a BLT with avacado

just saying.....

Thoughts about humiliation

I've decided that I need to share a deep dark secret to keep someone dear to me from having to repeat the error of our ways

It has to do with humiliation and the horrid things it can do to a relationship

Here's the secret:

Back when my daughter was about 9 (she's almost 25 now, so this was about 16 years ago), I let her have her hair cut without consulting her dad about it.

He went balistic (to put it mildly); berating me and saying some really unkind hurtful things -- now these things happen, but the worst part of it was that he did it in front of my parents.

To say it put a wall between us is a major understatement -- it created an atmosphere, mostly on my end that lead to some other very poor choices and some huge problems later.

It also took me until just recently (yes 16 years later!!) to be able to say out loud to him how that incident hurt (and scarred) me

I over heard someone the other day do a similar thing over something small. I could see the hurt in the person's eyes, and I know that person felt that same sting of humiliation.

So here's my piece of advice: you're going to have disagreements over little stuff (and big stuff) -- you'll need to discuss them -- please, for the sake of your love for each other and your future together, save it for when its just the two of you -- spare that pride and feeling of self worth in your partner by not humiliating them in front of anyone else (think about how you'd feel about it if the situation was reversed)

You'll both feel better for it

more rejection slips for the wall.....

While I was out and about yesterday, the postman deposited a box on my front porch.

Last fall I had sent a handbag to Haute Handbags in hopes of having it included in one of their future issues.

It has returned with a form letter telling me that I should consider submitting a different piece for the Fall 2008 issue -- deadline date? -- May 15 -- Hello -- the box with its form letter arrived on --- wait for it --- May 15!


I also got a letter from the show in Columbia, MO that takes place in September that we didn't make the cut for it either......course at the ever rising cost of gas, that may actually be a blessing.....who knows


sure would be good if I could figure out what it is would actually make the cut -- in either situation

oh well

so is success the opposite of failure?

well, not so much maybe

most of the definition of success now days has to do with finacial achievement, as in: Donald Trump is a big success, and Martha Stewart and Ophra

ok

I'm thinking that kind of success is totally out of the relm of possibility for my life

so what else is success?

my success has been that my daughter has grown to be a beautiful young woman that has been willing to step into adulthood and take on its responsibilities while still maintaining her passion for practicing her talents

for the last 25 years my life has largely been centered around making sure what she needed was somehow accomplished to the best of my abilities

so now what?

at the age of 57, there's a good probability I will live for at least another 30 years

it is that long span of unplanned time, yawning like a huge cat, waiting to swallow me up that is the current dragon to be slain

I envy those folks at my age that are still off doing purposeful things (at least to them) in the corporate world -- yes, my dirty little secret -- I sometimes actually miss that feeling of having somewhere to go 5 days a week and where someone cared if I was there or not

I also envy those folks that knew enough to plan well enough or got lucky enough to have the means to travel and see art and attend the theatre

it leaves me to question just how to survive another 30 years

the rebel in my make up has always taken the attack approach -- work harder (ie: more hours), change jobs, or move to a new place to start over

are some people just destined to do well? Are they "fated" to make the right choices, guided to know what to do?

is it just dumb luck?

in my experience, wishing doesn't make it so (why don't I deserve to win the lotto?)

and I haven't heard any voice from anywhere telling me what to do next to "fix" it

It makes me think of the lyric Tim Rice wrote for a song from Aida

Is it written in the stars
Are we paying for some crime
Is that all that we are good for
Just a stretch of mortal time

For some god's experiment
In which we have no say
In which we're given paradise
But only for a day

so, is the free agency to choose just punishment?

its the emergency broadcast system: this has been a test -- if this was a real emergency you would have been told where to go and what to do

guess not

being the perfect failure

This theme seemingly will not go away

Let me explain

About a month ago I went to the annual Health Fair event to have my yearly blood work done

After a year of trying to improve my diet and taking my RX, etc., etc., I can report that the numbers are


(drum roll here)



WORSE!


Which only leads me to the question ---- why am I bothering??

just saying


I'm going off now to try to resign myself to having no control over this whole thing and I guess when its my time to go, I'm gone

Slaying the Dragon -- or Not Being Afraid to Fail

Yesterday in my email box I found this link to a blog that addresses this subject.

My sister had sent it to me, and I'm really glad she decided to share it with me (what she was doing up on her computer at 1:32 AM!, is a whole 'nuther question I need to ask her about!!)

The premise of the post deals with cutting into really expensive fabric, and as a sewer, I can relate to this "fear".

I remember when I bought my very first piece of mohair fabric about 15 years ago.

It was lovely, soft, a nice cream with a wonderful lavendar tip, I paid $35 for a quarter of a yard of the stuff --- and I was scared to cut it --- what if I ruined it?

Suffice it to say I found the courage and cut it, and now, because I've made many, many mohair bears, I don't worry about cutting into fabric that costs me $150 a yard any more --- I worry about SELLING the bear when its done, but that's a whole other problem and has nothing to do with fear.

There were three things in the post that especially stood out in my mind:

#1 -- "That's just what failure is, or what it ought to be: failure is just figuring stuff out the hard way."

and

#2 -- "Sometimes when people say they're afraid of failure, what they really mean is that they are afraid of humiliation."

and

#3 -- "humiliation passes... you remember it for months; the witnesses remember it for seconds (they have their own humiliations to obsess over, and don't have time for yours)."

Erin does a great thing here -- she talks about the roots of the fear, but she also gives us some hope for conquering the fear. A reminder that most of us (especially those of us who "create" for a living) are our own worst critics.

I remember once, back in the day when I worked an office job, that there was a young gal that worked in the office with me that had finished all of the training to do a rock climb and she was afraid to go actually climb. I sat down with her one Friday afternoon and we talked about it. I must have said the right things to her because when she came to work on Monday she had a slight sunburn, a skinned elbow and a hugh dose of self confidence because she had faced the dragon and conquered it. (some days I wish I had a "me" to do this for me!)

And the point here goes back to Erin saying that failure is figuring stuff out the hard way.

I've spent some time lately wishing I could afford to go a take a few classes on techniques for bears and jewelry and quilts because in that "figuring stuff out the hard way" there is a certain amount of frustration (especially for those of us that want to run before we crawl -- or play "Moonlight Sonata" as our first piano piece!)

There is an up side to NOT taking all those classes tho' (aside from the $$ saved).

One of the things that happens to me when I take classes, is I tend to start building little boxes that tell me things can only be done with the materials and instructions that the teacher used.

By not taking a class I am freed to try things about which a teacher would say "you can't use that material" or "you can't use that tool" or "that won't work"

In the process I create things that no one has seen before.

It can be frustrating trying to explain them to an unappreciative customer at a show, and sometimes even to the show jury, but it is definately interesting.

And so, I'm going to try to consider that "the witnesses will be obsessing over their own humiliations" -- sort of like picturing the audience at your speech in their underwear --

So what dragon will you slay today?

"Go ask Alice"

Do you remember that lyric? Jefferson Airplane? Grace Slick?

I was not part of the "drug scene" of the 1960s, but the music I remember.

And this morning, as I was working away on my computer, the DH tells me to turn on the TV down here in my little basement dungeon to see the artist they're interviewing

and there she was --- WHITE hair half way down to her waist, talking about her PAINTINGS!!! (she's 68 years old -- amazing!!)

and yes, she still seems to be fascinated with Alice and the White Rabbit, but I was amazed and delighted by her drawings......they are bright and bold and direct --- sort of like her music was

In the interview she said that painting is what she does now instead of singing, and that if she couldn't do that she'd write or do some other kind of art

ah ha!! the artistic drive will always find a way to be expressed

it occurs to me (ok, DUH!!) that this is a familiar theme -- does the name Tony Bennet ring a bell? Music -- painting

it would be totally arrogant on my part to put myself in the same catagory with Grace Slick and Tony Bennet, but perhaps I'm not so odd -- not so famous, but not so odd either!!

Want to see some of her stuff? Use this link to check out a gallery that has some of her work available for sale.

(and now, I'll be humming "White Rabbit" all day long!!)

more thoughts on art

Over at The Voodoo Cafe's Blog Ricë Freeman-Zachery has been talking about her trip to California and how the pictures in the LA Art Museum just didn't do it for her

Its interesting timing that she wrote about this now as I've been thinking about the whole "what's art" thing for the past few days

I got a copy of this book for Christmas, and I've been slowly working my way through all 400 quilts, reading the artist statements with each one, examining the descriptions of the materials and the techniques.

Let me say very clearly first that I ADORE this book. It takes you WAAAAAAAYYYY out on the edge of "quilting", and challenges your preconceived notions about just what a "quilt" is.

I must also say, however that there are a number of these quilts that even after reading all the stuff the artist says, I still just don't get it. In fact there are a couple of them that reading what the artist says makes me say even more "HUHH?!"

As someone not having a degree in art, never worked in oils and can't draw a representative picture, I figured it was just that I was not educated enough to understand what was going on.

Guess what -- after reading what Ricë had to say about it and having recently had a conversation with a friend that does have an art degree -- I'm feeling much better about it

I'm thinking that art, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder --

so is my work in fabrics and beads art? I think so. Is it beautiful? Yup, or at least some of it is -- some of it also meets the other definitions of art -- it communicates ideas -- and if I'm doing that, I think I'm doing ok

coming full circle and outsider art

have you ever noticed how things go in circles?

the first thing I remember making with my own two hands as a doll made out of a sock -- she had embroidered eyes and 2 fat braids made out of yarn -- her neck was kind of floppy, but she had that soft "squeezy-ness" that made for a good cloth doll

over the years I've made a lot of dolls -- really detailed Raggedy Anns (and Andys), needle sculpted "cabbage patch" style dolls, porcelain dolls -- and now after having made almost exclusively teddy bears for 25 years I'm drawn back to the human form -- having started a cloth doll again

styles, however have changed -- beaded faces, a woman's form (OMG, she has a bosom! and a woman's hips and tummy, not a skinny pre-teen version!!) and the whole idea is pretty scary --- but fun none the less

and once again we're crossing into unknown territory -- for the past few years my every thought when I've begun a piece has been "will it sell?" -- and I'm trying quite deliberately not to think about that whole issue as I put this one together -- just to express an idea, enjoy working with the materials

perhaps this is my own little ode to outsider art

outsider art was originally defined as the art of the insane -- okay, we won't open that whole kettle of worms -- but I'm thinking Van Gogh here (LOVE Starry, starry night, and yes, I know he was in the asylum!) --

more recently outsider art has come to mean all of those of us that work outside of the standard "paint and sculpture" model -- those of us who are self taught -- those of us who work with fiber and found objects

Hurrah! at least now I'm part of a recognized "movement" --

and still crazy after all these years!

not again with the water works.......

house + water = pain in the *$$

It seems like it never ends -- the issues with water that is

Friday evening we noticed that there was water leaking around the base of the toilet in the downstairs bathroom

About 6 years ago we had replaced that toilet from what was here when we bought the house -- because it was leaking around the base (and we decided a low flow model was a better choice)

At the time of that replacement, the DH had been through a shoulder surgery, so we hired a local handyman to do the work. When he pulled up the old toilet, we discovered that when the floor had been redone, the ceramic tile had not been taken close enough to the opening in the floor, so the shifting weight of the potty had broken the wax seal -- hence the water on the floor -- so the repair man put in some "shims".

Well, it seams that his shims have now given way and we're back to the problem again.

I'm annoyed.

We went off to the hardware store yesterday and purchased repair items. Since we're going to have to tear the whole thing apart to reset it AGAIN! and because we had started to have some issues with the valve not shutting off properly and the old seat is now cracked, we got all of the necessary parts for the repair man to come and take care of it for us.

Oh yes, and there at the top left of the picture, that brown square? That's a ceramic tile of the kind the floor is made of -- purchased specifically for its thickness and the material its made of -- use your imagination -- that's the appropriate shim!

The truly correct "fix" would be for the toilet to come out and the tile redone in there, but I'm not going there, mostly because neither one of us is strong enough to set a toilet by ourselves anymore and there is no way to have 2 people and the toilet in that little room at the same time.

Anyway, I'm sure by the time we pay the guy to do the work we'll be looking at the $100 neighborhood

Remind me again why I want to OWN a house and all its problems --- geeesh! (guess I should be grateful we aren't looking at a bigger bill than that)

in need of music therapy

My daughter, bless her, knows how to get to me

I mentioned here that she gave me a CD for my birthday that I had been wanting (Sarah Brightman's Symphony)

What I didn't mention was that she also gave me 2 other CDs -- one is the sound track from the new Broadway version of The Little Mermaid and the other is a sound track from Company

I realize that one of the things I miss the most about the fact that she is now an adult with a husband and a home of her own is that there is no music in our house

Having spent the last few days in a funk (because I'm really, REALLY missing the trip to California I was supposed to have made over this weekend), this morning I decided to listen to all of those new CDs again, and I think it has actually helped lift some of the dark heavy cloud

new wallpaper

back in February I submitted a couple of essays for consideration to write for a Denver paper's Op-Ed section on Sundays

This little goodie arrived yesterday, basically a "thanks, but no thanks"

ok, one more rejection slip for the walls

nuts

the final birthday goodie revealed

Every year for my birthday my mom sends me a little check.

To be honest, most years it just goes into the checking account and is used to pay bills or buy groceries.

This year that check met with the unhappiness about a ruined sheet cake and a 40% off coupon from the local Wilton supplier, and well -- I spent it on myself -- sort of

At least from now on I should be able to produce a reasonable sheet cake that can actually be turned out of the pan and turned into a cake, not end up as trifle!

its a good thing!

The rewards of getting older.....

Yesterday was my birthday. I spent most of my day just chilling out -- reading, playing on my laptop, doing some quilting and just generally not working.

The DH cooked a lovely pork loin roast with a b-b-que flavored spicing, and it was quite tasty!



My daughter got me this book mark -- its metal with a ribbon at the top, and stamped into the metal is a quote from George Eliot "It is never too late to be what you might have been"

She's good at giving me a swift kick in the butt and letting me know I should not give up on dreams (and I in turn try to return the favor!)



She also gave me Sarah Brightman's newest CD (which I am listening to as I write this) -- its lovely










My sister gave me this way too cute little critter! Being's as I'm the "black sheep" she got me this tape measure to keep in my knitting bag -- on the far left is the sheep with the tape retracted -- the cute little tail is where you pull the tape out!

Amazing timing in this gift! Just a couple of days ago the pull out tape I had been using decided that sometimes it will retract and sometimes it doesn't want to. It won't get thrown away, but it will no longer go in the travel bag because it could become a big tangled mess. So I was quite delighted to get the sheep.


This was quite a weekend. On Saturday the DH and I went into downtown Denver (not something we do everyday, but we'll leave that story for another day!) and picked up my cousin at her hotel. She is here for a music convention, and we had made arrangements to pick her up and take her to my parents house for a family gathering. I had not seen this cousin since 1975, and we had never spent a lot of time together as her family lived in Nashville. What a sweet time to be together and discovered those things that we have in common. I will be making a stronger effort to stay in touch in the future.

Thoughts on what Obama and I have in common

I know, you’re all thinking – “what, are you nuts?” and I understand that train of thought. After all, I’m a white woman over 50 with no college degree. He’s a younger bi-racial man with a law degree. So just what could we possibly have in common?

Well, let’s consider some of the things he said in his speech the other day. He said “I have…nieces, nephews…cousins, of every race and every hue”, and we share that heritage. In my extended family between my husband and I there are cousins, nieces and nephews who are Japanese, Vietnamese, Mexican (as in born in Mexico, not just of Hispanic background), Black, Eskimo, and American Indian. My husband is a first generation American; his parents were from England and the Netherlands. My family (or at least part of it) has been here since the days of the founding fathers. We are as a family perhaps as “melting pot” as it gets. My daughter says she needs a T-shirt that says she’s “Western European Mutt!”

He said “…we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren.” And here I say a rousing “Amen, brother!”

Obama speaks of the blacks of the generation before him that grew up in a Jim Crow environment. As a white woman I can not possibly know the ultimate humiliation that generation of blacks endured because they simply looked different. Surely that kind of humiliation is an explanation for some of the frustration and suspicion that they look at whites with. I have had the rare opportunity of hearing the bigots on both sides, from whites that had never actually known a black person and from blacks that had never actually known a white person.

He speaks of the idea that a lot of “working class…white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. …They’ve worked hard all their lives…they are anxious about their futures…your dreams come at my expense.”

We continue to deal with others as if they are either “one of us” or “one of them” without understanding that those of us who are simply the everyday folks, ordinary Americans with concerns about our families, we are all “US”. As Obama says "this nation is more than the sum of its parts - that out of many, we are truly one."

The big “THEM” are the presidents and CEOs of the big corporations that are using us all like so much expendable machinery that can be easily replaced. “THEY” live in their $16 million mansions and sit in the board rooms and decided that your little family is costing them too much to pay you a living wage or keep your pension or your health insurance or to even work for them when they can get it cheaper elsewhere.

Do I think that Obama will be the magician that will make all of this instantly better the day he takes office? No. Nobody can do that. But he has a vision of a better America for his children and my grandchildren that at least tries to heal some of the wounds. He speaks of hope.

We need hope to recover from all that has been done to us everyday folks by “THEM”. We need to learn that no matter what color our skin is or where we worship on Friday or Saturday or Sunday or where we were born, we are all the same. “THEY” have successfully used divide and conquer to make us fight each other and not see the real cause of our misery.

I hope he succeeds in redirecting our vision as a country and turning us again to hope.

The next time you use your cell phone....

say a little word of thanks to Arthur Clarke.

You know, the guy that wrote 2001, A Space Odyssey

He died yesterday, at age 90, and it seems writing is not the only thing he ever did.

"Clarke also was credited with the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality. Geosynchronous orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground, are called Clarke orbits.

In the wartime Royal Air Force, he was put in charge of a new radar blind-landing system.

But it was an RAF memo he wrote in 1945 about the future of communications that led him to fame. It was about the possibility of using satellites to revolutionize communications — an idea whose time had decidedly not come.

Clarke later sent it to a publication called Wireless World, which almost rejected it as too far-fetched."

(ok, to those of you who sometimes are cursing at the driver talking on the cell phone, be kind, Clarke is not responsible for world stupidity!)

Ugly Email

A few days ago I received an email from someone I've known for a number of years that shocked me. It came from an educated person, someone that before retiring taught school.

It was ugly.

I'm sure that many of you have seen the anti-Obama stuff that is floating about on the net.

I will not give the whole thing a repeat display, but there are a couple of parts that I want to address (just so I'll quit "stewing" about this)

Here then are the parts that bothered me the most:

Item #1: "we are AT WAR with the Muslim Nation"

There is no such thing as "the Muslim Nation”. The individuals that were responsible for the terrorism committed on our soil in 2001 just happened to be part of a radical Muslim group.

We are in a war of aggression in a country that had NOTHING to do with 9/11 even though that is constantly referred to as the reason we are there. As a result of this we have totally forgotten what it was we were supposed to be doing in that part of the world and along the way we have sacrificed the lives of thousands of young soldiers and their families and totally wrecked our own economy.

Item #2: ”when he was sworn into office he DID NOT use the Holy Bible, but instead the Koran”

This is a flat out lie. There has been only one person that has ever done this. His name is Keith Ellison (D, Minn).


It strikes me that part of the reason that all of this raw hate is circulating is that we are standing on the threshold of new and unknown territory. Remember how much uproar there was about JFK being Catholic? Now we have a black man with a dream and there seems to be a lot of fear about the idea that he might actually become president.

Are we going to just keep going in the same wrong headed direction we have gone the past few years, watching our jobs dwindle away because of NAFTA, watching another generation of young people have their lives destroyed by an unjust, unwarranted war?

Remember – without hope the people perish – if ever we needed hope it is now

explanation

if you are one of the folks that regularly reads my Studio Blog, you may notice this morning that the countdown ticker to Nevada City has been removed.

Now it might seem more appropriate for this explanation to be over there than here, but because this is something with a lot of emotional baggage, I decided to do it here instead because this is the blog where I "let it all hang out"

For 16 years in a row we had begun our show season with a trip to Nevada City. For a good number of those years it was a financially successful trip, and it was a great way to "fill the well" creatively.

In addition, it has been a wonderful place to "connect" with other artists, and renew friendships.

Since we moved to Colorado it has been the trip every year that has allowed me to visit that "other life" I wish I could have -- {"another life, I want another life,...and every where I ever go, I'm someone who they want to know"} -- and that is the most difficult part for me of making a decision that is practical here.

Since for the past 4 years we have take huge losses by attending this show (it costs us about $1000.00 to do it), and since on our otherwise fixed income with ever increasing costs, we have made the smart business decision and will not be making the trip to California.

I am heart broken.

Please excuse me if there are no posts on the blogs for a few days -- I need time to grieve and try to find some purpose for doing stuff

Just wondering......

why it is that I've started on this project that involves a large cloth doll (that I've been working on for 6 months and its not finished yet because I haven't figured out the rest of the design yet) and a large cloth winged horse (which is so far just the horse because I haven't figured out the wings yet) are we sensing a theme here?

anyway, I had originally thought I would try to get this all done for a show I'm doing in about a month, and I realized yesterday that because I need to finish pieces that might actually sell, this piece will go to the back burner for now (rats)

which lead to "so why am I doing this"? the second thought of what show it might go to was the Jubilee which is held in Kansas City in September, but yesterday after a look at our budget we regretfully scratched that show off of our list for this year because there is no $$ to apply

so the giant flying horse with the large cloth doll is a project in limbo -- I'm thinking that if I actually get it finished whenever that might be that I might just pack it up and send it off to the Art Doll magazine and see if they'll use it in their publication -- we'll see

sort of sad sometimes how projects I get excited about doing turn into just another unfinished object..............

I'm still here

but nothing to show you today

Saturday morning I woke up feeling kind of "off" -- little did I know I'd spend Saturday afternoon, Sunday and Monday alternating between dozing in my recliner and running to the bathroom -- needless to say, I've had better weekends!

So today I'll try to catch up with the house chores -- do some laundry, etc., and maybe even work on something.

All this after being just mad enought to spit nails on Friday when I talked to my mother.

Seems the "village" they live in has decided that they are in violation of the city ordinance regarding driveways. They have been told that they must put in concrete, asphalt or 3 inches of gravel in their driveway.

Now they have lived in their house since 1956. It never had any of that stuff and neither did anyone else in the neighborhood. Gradually over the years, the neighbors that could afford it have but those things in. And evidently at some point the city passed an ordinance that said every house had to do it.

I looked up the ordinance to try to find out when this little lovely was passed (and why they weren't told something then) -- the web site doesn't give any date on it.

All that and I guess it never occurred to the city that if my folks could afford to do that to the driveway they would have -- DUH!

Sometimes I get so annoyed at government that thinks its more important to butt into our personal property than to actually provide some services (you know, like clearing the street in front of my parents house)

Geesh!

Mind Muddle

I hate mid winter

its so.....well ---- GRAY!

I think as soon as its warm enough for the snow to be gone things should be green

Alas, such is not the case -- {sigh!}

And of course it seems that right now I'm in that "working on a dozen things and nothing is finished" stage of getting ready for shows, which does not help

I think I need a play day, but I don't even have any ideas for what I would do on one

Really I should be spending some serious time working on the website re-write, but this year I just haven't been able to get into it

I spent some time this morning surfing around in fabric websites looking at possible stuff for the back of the quilt I'm working on right now -- I found some neat stuff that is a lovely red batik -- and added it to my wish list

(have you noticed my wish list at the side of this blog? I know, there are a lot of mundane items there, but after all a wish list should be those things that you want but won't/can't buy for yourself right now!) Mostly this list was added because my daughter asked me to give her some ideas for what I might want for my birthday/mother's day/Christmas or whatever occasion seems to call for a present. I'm happy to oblige her.

perhaps today I'll get back to that website writing......and figure out a day to do "play" activities

now I've done it...

the newpaper we get on a daily basis did a "call for writers" this month

I polished up two posts from this blog and submitted them

There's no pay for this activity, but it would be cool to be able to add it to my "resume"

also a certain amount of pride accorded to beating out all the grad students

and a bit of a flying in the face of "the critic" that makes me remember so well the line from Gypsy when she says "me, with no talent, as you've reminded me every day of my life"

Take That!

anyway, I will fall over in a dead faint if they actually accept me, but its good to enter any way

keep on keepin' on!

Still needing to go green

Here in our little village, I feel like we're living in a time warp of 20 years ago.

A few weeks ago I decided to try to find a new trash company with the idea of:

1. saving a bit of money
2. having our recyclable materials collected instead of going into the landfill

I called every company in town, including the one I currently have service with.

Keep in mind that where we lived before the recycle pick up was part of the weekly trash collection at no extra charge. They didn't need to charge extra, the materials were being sold to companies that actually used the materials in new products.

They took paper (including junk mail and magazines), glass, metal, aluminum, and plastic (ALL kinds of plastic), you were told to pile yard waste (tree trimming, grass clippings, etc) in a specific place in the street and they came by, scooped them up and they were recycled too. And the local stores there encouraged you to bring in your own bags (in fact now in that area they charge you if you want a bag from them).

Anyway, here was the conversation with one of the local companies:

Me: I'd like some information about your recycling service.

Company: We pick up recycle items every other week; it costs an extra $3.25 a month.

Me: What kind of materials do you pick up?

Company: newspapers, aluminum cans and plastic marked 2 and 7

Me: What about glass or magazines?

Company: No, we can't handle those

Me: So do you bring out bins for things to be sorted?

Company: No, you just sort your stuff into the plastic bags you get groceries in

Me: I don't get plastic bags

Company: Well, you could use the paper ones I guess

Me: I don't get paper bags

Company: How do you bring your groceries home?

Me: In cloth bags that I carry in with me and reuse over and over

Company: Well, we have to have the stuff sorted into bags

Me: So do you recycle those too?

Company: I don't think so

Me: Never mind

It’s enough to have me mumbling and swearing I can tell ya!

On becoming part of the political system

Let me be clear first off here. My parents always voted. I have always voted. I was delighted when the 18 year olds got the vote even tho' it was just a little too late for me to take advantage.

But aside from having an opinion and going to the polls, my family was never all that involved in politics.

And frankly, during the time that I was working full time and being a full time mom and trying to run a small business all at once, I just didn't have much time to think about politics much more than that.

During the last seven years, however, I've become something of a political junkie.

For one thing, the current administration's bungling of all the good will we had right after the day the world went mad is so sad. Then all the evil things they have done since have made me so mad.

So, during the last election, I went to a caucus meeting for the first time.

Last night was my second time, and I can tell you, it was a whole new world.

For one thing, at the last meeting we were in this little basement class room of our local high school, two precincts in the room and all of 6 of us there. I can tell you that was a very quick meeting, but in truth, all of the deciding on the candidates had already been done because that race was so lopsided.

Last night we were in that same little basement room, but a whole world away. For our precinct alone there were 24 of us. The majority of us over 55, but some younger ones as well including one mom that brought her two elementary school aged children with her to see democracy in action -- now that was neat!

And, because there actually was a race to be decided, we actually did break into groups (although not as many as there would have been two weeks ago), and we had to "do the math" to get the right proportion of delegates selected.

It was exciting!

And so, by the end of the meeting, the DH is the new Precinct Chairman and a delegate to our county assembly which meets on Feb 23 where more business will be conducted and delegates chosen for the state convention later in the spring.

Oh yeah, I'm an alternate to the county assembly (which means I get to go even if I may not get to vote) and the new Precinct Secretary (I get to handle the emails and the paperwork -- like that's anything new!)

WOW!

Big Brother again? or something MORE sinister?

"The Massachusetts legislature approved a bill that would require all residents to purchase health insurance or face legal penalties, which would make this the first state to tackle the problem of incomplete medical coverage by treating patients the same way it does cars.

Gov. Mitt Romney (R) supports the proposal, which would require all uninsured adults in the state to purchase some kind of insurance policy by July 1, 2007, or face a fine.

All residents will have to provide details about their health insurance policy on their state income tax returns in 2008. Those who do not have insurance would first lose their personal state tax exemption, perhaps worth $150, and later face penalties equal to half the cost of the cheapest policy they should have bought. That might work out to $1,200 per year, officials said."

[source of the quote is an article dated April 4, 2006, in The Washington Post, this link will take you there for the full article.]

So, this seems to be the latest direction our great "Christian" nation is taking.

Let us review -- even if you are poor you still MUST buy health insurance or the state is going to fine you like what happens when you have a car and don't have insurance.

Ok, when you don't insure your car after a while they take away your driver's license -- so what will the end result be here -- they'll take away your license to live? Not having decent health care already does that.

As with everything else, health care is only about the "bottom line" for insurance companies, for doctors, for hospitals. Its the great capitalist system.

and its killing us

[PS: its also why I will NEVER vote for Romney]

What next?

I can't believe the depths to which what passes for government has fallen.

Just prior to being sworn in as a representative for my area of our state, Dennis Bruce kicked a newspaper photographer for the offense of taking his picture (to read all of the ugly details, use this link.)

Now this guy has been causing trouble in the city government for quite a while and he is the author of the now infamous TABOR tax bill that has been the downfall of public schools and other services in our state as well.

I can hardly wait to see what he will do next -- hold his breath until they let him introduce a bill for something?

makes me ashamed to admit I live here

I want Cheney Care!!

In yesterday's USA Today there was a full page add from the California Nurses Association and the National Nurses Organizing Committee pointing out that if Cheney were anyone else, he'd probably be dead by now.

He (and the members of congress) all enjoy government financed healthcare with very few restrictions and no prohibitive fees. They are never refused payment on treatment for pre-existing conditions or for care that the insurance company labels experimental.

WE ALL DESERVE THIS KIND OF HEALTH CARE!!!!

If you want to check out what the nurses have to say, use this link to go and check it out, sign the petition or share your horror story about insurance companies.

Thanks for listening (and I'm now stepping off my soap box for today)

End of the Year Reflections

Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have a vision now and then
Of a world where every neighbour is a friend
Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have our hopes, our will to try

I've heard this song for a while, never knew it was Abba.

Here in blogland we have found new friends from all around the world.

May we have a vision in 2008 of how to put an end to all the chaos in our world
may we have less conflict and killing and more peace

may we all have a happy new year

Reaping the Whirlwind......

Quite a week it has been for American youth and guns.

Omaha, Arvada, Colorado Springs

In shopping malls and houses of worship

Our society has become meaner, more unfeeling, more violent

We are our own victims, our children have become killers

Our politics are all about the terrorists from without

We are creating our own terror within

"They that sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind"

now more than ever we need to pray for peace

Creating in a vaccuum?

I have battled for a while with a huge case of "why bother" .... and today it occurred to me that its hard to create in a vaccuum....the well goes dry quickly when there is no rain, and this applies creatively too.

I admit, I like the "strokes" of having someone say "isn't that awesome" or something similar about something I've created -- and even more I appreciate the ones that will whip out their check book or their credit card and actually PAY for some of my artwork -- mostly the latter because without it I very quickly will have no way to pay for materials to make new things.

But there is in itself a certain amount of "loneliness" in creative pursuits. It does not help that at least in my little corner of the world, every group of people that I might find something in common with wants to charge a fee for the pleasure of joining their group.

I realize that if I could make the decision about where I would live I would go back to the beginning of my time living away from my parents, where my apartment was on a main bus line and close to groceries by walking and near enough to the main library and the art museums that I could go there every weekend if I wanted to ... in short, I would return to the city, away from the suburban sprawl and the responsibilities for every little problem with the property and shoveling the sidewalks when it snows and mowing the grass.

I guess the "American Dream" of home ownership was never really my dream, but the other half of this pair still wants that -- don't ask me why. And I guess what that really means is that I'm just being selfish.....at least according to current prevailing attitudes.

Ok, that's my little rant for today ..... back to work

Amazing Sound of a Boy Choir

The other evening I caught just the end of a performance on PBS of this amazing boy choir from England called Libera. If you haven't heard any of their music, I highly recommend you use this link and take a listen to some of their stuff.

My favorite of the ones on line is one titled I am the day....here are the lyrics...............

I am the day, soon to be born
I am the light before the morning

I am the night, that will be dawn
I am the end and the beginning

I am the alpha and omega
The night and day, the first and last

Illuminosa, immortalis
Sancta gloriosa
Illuminosa, immortalis
Sancta gloriosa
In aeterna

I am the life, soon to begin
I am the new hope in the morning

I am the darkness, soon to be light
I am the rising and the falling

I am the alpha and omega
The night and day, the first and last

Illuminosa, immortalis
Sancta gloriosa
Illuminosa, immortalis
Sancta gloriosa
In aeterna


I'm hoping the program will be rerun and I can record it for future listening pleasure!

nothing without a reason?

Over at Clarity of Night (a blog I read regularly), Jason has posted 2 very interesting items this week.

On Wednesday he talked about a marker in one of the cemetaries near him and drew a lot of comment about the idea of "coincidence".

Today's posting was about a very special incident that happened to him after he had read some of those comments.

Fascinating!

Do you believe in coincidence?

Are people rewarded or punished here for what they have done?

Do you think they're right when they say "no good dead goes unpunished"?

This much I do believe -- everything we do has an impact somewhere -- if we had not made every decision we have ever made, we would not be exactly where we are -- perhaps the ultimate expression of the rule of unintented consequences

What do you think?

Fiber as an art form, and how much is too much?

Yesterday morning I started in on the annual "clean up the house for Christmas decorating", albeit slowly (very slowly due to the cold meds, etc.) when I was summoned to the TV by the DH and told to "sit, stay, watch this program!"

He had stumbled into a program on PBS titled The Art of Quilting, and he thought I might be interested in seeing it......well, let me tell you, I was GLUED to that TV screen through it all!

Now I can tell you that I have made a few quilts. To me quilts were functional, useful objects (guess that goes to my grandmother's telling me to be frugal with materials), but I have found ways to make my own sort of "artsy" statement with some of the ones I have done.

Lately, while the pieces I have worked on have been intended as gifts and intended to keep the user warm, there has been a certain amount of experimenting going on. In fact the piece I'm currently working on is another combination of piecing, applique, embroidery, embellishing and my current plan is to quilt a design over it that does not following the design on the front which will be a real departure from anything I've ever done with one. (All this from someone that two years ago was a confirmed PIECER -- no applique -- too difficult, etc., etc.)

Anyway, regarding the show -- I was fascinated by the work of a group of women who call themselves The Chicago School of Fusing -- a technique that I know a little about and have not previously been interested in doing anything with because I can't see it as a good technique for something intented to be a cover to be wrapped up in. However, as a technique for something to be hung on the wall, that transformation of quilt to art form to be VIEWED it holds a lot of fascination.

The project I'm working on now features a dragon on a water/mountain background, but after seeing that show I see the potential for a smaller hanging version with more than one dragon -- all of which would be possible if I used that fusing technique....

hmmmmmm, perhaps an idea for a later time!

Meantime, I'm considering rather my idea a few months ago to split up my areas of art into several different blogs was such a good one.

Sometimes, less is more, and after all, anyone that knows me, knows my work or has even randomly read my ramblings knows that I have this whole issue of focus -- or lack thereof -- multi tasking seems to be my middle name and I'm not sure at this point in my life if its a good idea to fight what has worked (ok, most of the time!) by trying to split it up into little bite sized pieces.....

We'll see

Multi tasking -- crazy or not?

In a catalog recently I saw a t-shirt for sale that said "Multi tasking - the art of screwing up many things at once"

hmmmmmm -- do you think there is any truth to that?

I must admit that from time to time I get frustrated with the "lack of apparent accomplishment" that accompanies this phenomenon, but on the other hand, I'm just as likely to get totally bored and just put it aside and never finish if I try to work on just one thing at a time

Is there a happy medium here?! (and if so, could you please tell me what the winning lottery number are!)

Actually, I've been pretty steadily working on 3 projects this week -- two of which are Christmas presents for folks that actually (at least occasionally) read my blogs, so I can't say much about them -- the third one is a "make it and it might sell, possibly an order" item that I'm about half done with.

As I've been slogging along through these 3 items, I've begun to think about trying the "focus on one project" idea for a bear that I did the design for a while back and that is as far as it has gotten. Part of that has been because for me the bear is easy (relatively anyway), but pulling together all of the accessories/costuming/etc/etc is not so much, and there is still the "it doesn't look like what I saw in my head" issue to deal with.

So, maybe in a few weeks after all the Christmas presents are done (including the at least 3 more that haven't even been started besides all the WIPs); I'll have a go at putting away everything else (well, ok, except the afghan squares which I use like a "pacifier" before I drift off at night) and concentrate on this one bear and all of the accessories that I have envisioned --- we'll see how that goes!

The post office is making me CRAZY!

For quite a while now, I have been an Amazon Book Seller -- I list books on Amazon through their seller program (used books, new books, books found at garage sales, books given to me -- whatever I can get my hands on); Amazon sends me an email when a sale is made, I ship off the book and every 2 weeks Amazon tranfers the money I have earned into my bank account.

Slick little money making thing, and for 3 years it has been painless -- I buy $1.00 stamps from the post office (usually ordering through the mail), weigh the book on my postal scale, look up the correct Media Mail postage amount on USPS.com, slap the stamps on the book and put it out in my mail box for the postal employee to pick up.

Recently, however, here in our ultra conservative, "there's a terrorist under every bush" little up tight town, the powers that be at the post office have tightened up their policies and made my life a lot more difficult for this endeavor.

It began simply enough. I got an email from Amazon telling me that one of the books I had listed had sold and I should ship it out. I did my usual thing -- this particular book weighed 2 pounds and 4 ounces as it was a thick hard bound one -- put the book out in the box, went on my merry little way.

But wait! Two days later, there it is back in my mail box with one of those obnoxious post office sticky notes pasted over the mailing address tell me that any piece of mail that weighs over 13 ounces and has postage stamps on it must be taken to the post office and handed to a post office employee. Not just drop it in the post office box either, nooooo, stand in line for half an hour just to hand them my already weighed and stamped package. Say WHAT!?

First off, what's with 13 ounces? I mean, why not say, 10 ounces, or 14 ounces or 3 ounces.....and the bit about "because it has stamps on it"......meaning if I could afford a postage meter and print those little tape thingies like the post office does I'd be able to just put it in the box. And then there is the question of "what's in the package?"

I had this whole discussion with the postal clerk at the desk -- I asked her "how do you know what's in the package just because I carried it in here?"

I got this whole song and dance from her about how since 9/11 the airlines won't let the post office put a package over 13 ounces with stamps on it on an airplane if it didn't come into the office. HUH?! Give me a break lady, I may be older but I'm not senile, and that is a CROCK -- like the airlines are going to look at each and every package in that big sealed container of mail that gets put on the plane....don't give me that!

And then again, consider that if I really was a terrorist and wanted to put a bomb in a package I'd probably be well funded enough to have that little postage machine and print those little tapes and then I could just send off my little package anyway.

One more piece of evidence that I was right when I said that 9/11 was the day the whole world lost its mind.............

Amen sister!

Over at A Little Imagination and a Pile of Junk the gal that runs Little Black Kitty Art wrote a great bit today about living simply.

I have thought about this issue a lot of late anyway, but her analysis brings it more clearly into focus.

One of the things she says is: "I don’t need near as much stuff as I think I do. Having more than I need just complicates my life. The more stuff I have, the more time I have to spend cleaning, organizing, and taking care of it."

Now I have felt that way for a while. Maybe its that we are in a huge, 2 story, 4 bedroom house and at least in the winter when we're here by ourselves, we don't even go upstairs except to shower! And its on a big lot which means we must also mow it/rake it/shovel it outside.

I'd be just as happy in a much smaller place with much less stuff! I don't want to have to clean it/dust it/wash it/polish it/rake it/repair it or whatever "it" requires. I want to work on other things!

At the end of her discussion on this subject she asks this question: "Do you have any tips for me on the logistics of down-sizing and getting the kids on board with it?"

To which I add a question of my own -- how do you get a husband on board with it? That I think is a much tougher question.

blah, blah, blah......

as in, that's how I've felt for the past few days.....nothing serious, just that lingering, behind the eyes, "I don't want to do anything" feeling that usually accompanies the switch off of daylight savings time.....our sleeping schedules are all messed up -- ie the labrador thinks its time to go outside at 5:15 AM! after which I never really get to sleep again....{sigh!}

Its also the result of knowing that Christmas is only 47 days away and behind that the already scheduled increase in health insurance premiums which coupled with the rising price of gas almost insures that we simply will not be able to make ends meet in the new year which is just not a pretty picture.......

My ideas to try new on line ventures to make money have just not panned out, so I'm simply out of ideas at this point........

The best plan we had come up with was to sell our house and move into something smaller, but with the current glut of houses on the market, we wouldn't even be able to get enough out of it to manage that......

I'm seriously thinking that I will have to try to find some kind of regular job somewhere after the first of the year and the traveling/shows/art work will just have to stop

I'm a dork -----

but maybe not enough of one......

I decided, after thinking about a lot of stuff, that I would try to launch a new website using Google's pagemaker. Part of the idea was to actually figure out how to use a WYSIWYG webpage designer.

I know, I know, that SOUNDS easy -- just drag and drop and all that -- or NOT!

Here's the problem I guess -- I first used a "personal computer" in about 1981. It was a big box with 2 5.25 inch "floppy" discs -- that's it, just those 2 discs, no hard drive, no photoshop, no word processing program, no windows -- do one thing at a time from the "dot prompt" which was literally a little orange dot on the screen.

My first adventures were to learn (all self taught, mind you) how to program in Basic. I remember well those first attempts. Basic is so, well Basic! Open the program and type: A = 1; B = 1; A+B=C; run when the number 2 popped up on the screen you'd have thought I had just invented sliced bread, velcro, postit notes and the safety pin in one (key)stroke. It was amazingly exciting.

Such were the adventures of a self taught, math moron personal computer programmer.

I used that Basic program for quite a while until the technology advanced and we actually had a PC with a hard drive -- a 20MB hard drive (yes that's 20MB!) and we couldn't imagine that we'd ever fill it up. And the new program was dBase. It was even more amazing. I built entire business applications in it. I loved the mental challenge of MAKING the machine do what I told it to.

After the advent of the world wide web, I dabbled further. During a 6 month period when I couldn't work because of a back injury, I taught myself how to write HTML code and put up a website. I loved this combination of using graphics, words and being able to tell it where to put every pixel.

So, here's the problem I have with a WYSIWYG webpage designer -- someone else has the control -- I think I will be forever stuck using my old HotDog HTML writer even though it is SO limited in features for spell checking, cut and paste, etc., but I understand it and I get to decide where everything goes.

like I said --- I'm a dork!

theives with good taste.....

As you may recall, I did a little rant last week about the fact that a piece of jewelry had been stolen off my table at the last show I had done.

It wasn't until I was remarking and double checking my inventory for the show I'm doing this weekend that I realized that actually TWO pieces had been stolen from my table, for a total loss of almost $400.



This is the picture of the other piece that was taken. One of my newer necklaces with genuine turquoise and coral pieces and several hours spent working up the fringes.


I am beyond angry....I'm am totally disgusted.....

someone remind me again WHY I'm doing this...............................

On the horns of a dilemma...

"If you are on the horns of a dilemma, you are faced with two equally unpleasant options and have to choose one."

English is such a colorful language! (if you are curious about the origin of this phrase, you can go here to read more)

It truly describes how I feel just now, however.

On the one hand, I have always considered my website to be a reflection of my art. It served as a place to show off my latest creations and (occasionally) sell one of them. It was where I put my show schedule. But first and foremost, it HAD to be, well, ARTFUL!

On the other hand, just now, I really need to find a way to generate some income and in an article in yesterday's USA Today there were some references to some websites that are "rakin' it in" by putting Google ads on their sites.

I went and took a look at a bunch of those this morning -- and here's the problem: to me they are NOT artful -- some of them are extremely cluttered and confusing, and are the last place I would seek information because of that.

Obviously I'm not a good judge of what makes money however.....

So, now what? I refuse to let my ART site look like that, which of course leaves me with the other alternative -- build a site that is designed specifically to make money. It will require me to create an entirely new site (probably at first a free one somewhere) based on something (what is not clear at this point) that will be designed just to generate some kind of income.

This of course will take time away from making art -- but, I suppose its better than the OTHER alternative -- you know, a Walmart job ---

hmmmmmmmmmm -- guess I need to go think about what I know enough about to write it for $$

am I weird... or ....who are YOUR heros?

well, ok, let's revise that question lest someone take it for license to let fly with WAY more answers than I want to hear!

Over at Words of a Writer, Kelly was talking about Action Heros and their movies and how many of them she has seen.

I must confess that of her list of 25, I've only seen ONE of them all the way through. Its just never been my thing. And don't even go there with Superman, Batman or any of those other things -- same deal.

So, that said, I've been reading a book titled Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook and promptly found myself stuck in an exercise that talks about heros.

Perhaps I'm looking at this the wrong way......maybe I refresher course in every day heros would be more appropriate......you know, those ordinary people that plug along against difficult circumstances.....

In that case, I think my great grandmother fits the bill. Her husband was killed when a horse kicked him in the chest back in 1910 leaving her with 8 kids, the youngest of whom was about 2. (Now days, he probably could have been saved, but back then they just brought him into the house and he died the next day -- he probably had a punctured lung) She went on (with the help of the older kids) and raised the kids, tho' I have no idea what she did to feed and clothe them -- I'm guessing that there was insurance money, but I'm not sure. Anyway, she lived until 1969! I can say that I actually remember visiting with her when I was a child, and my grandmother went to visit EVERY year -- a lot of years going on the bus down to Oklahoma in the middle of the summer --

Ok, maybe this is worth examining closer -- every day heros..........

Remind me again why I do shows.......

Ok, perhaps the little romp with the labrador yesterday morning was a sign .... or it might have been good if we had wakened to what we did this morning (yup, that's our first snow of the season)

When we were getting ready to leave yesterday morning (at 5 a.m.), our dog decided she needed to play in the FRONT yard, and went zipping out the door to romp around the yard. Fortunately a friend of ours had taught her to jump into the car to take a ride without benefit of a leash (her motto is "I don't got to show you no stinkin' leashes"!), so we just opened the van and she jumped in. Then I could grab her by the collar and take her back into the house.

We had last done this particular high school show 3 years ago (that time, the labrador went with us -- to be "baby sat" by my sister as she was just a puppy then).

First off, the show had a lot fewer vendors this time, and it was about 10% food vendors (bread, soup mix, chili sauce, etc.); several commercial booths (Mary Kay, etc) and a LOT of "I can string beads on a string" jewelry vendors.

Then there was the fact that there was very little traffic through the show. When not many folks even come in the door, its pretty difficult to be able to sell things. We sold enough things to pay for our table, but not to cover other expenses.



And then there was the crowning blow --- The bracelet shown here (priced at $160.00) was STOLLEN off of my table. Lovely -- they like my work well enough to steal it, but not to buy it.

To say the least, I'm PISSED!! But I guess it just speaks to the condition of the economy now days, especially since what I sell is not something people "need" to have (but obviously someone WANTED it real bad).

I hope the way this show went is not indicitive of how the rest of them will be between now and Christmas.

{sigh}

Now I have to start trying to get my mind set right to retag everything to be in a show where I'm not supposed to be there the whole time because they use a central cashier, but frankly right now I'm feeling real nervous about that idea. After all, if they'll steal things off my table when I'm standing there, what will they do when I'm not - steal 2 or 3?

why do my Crocs eat my socks?

I love my Crocs.

Ever since my daughter brought me home that first pair, I have been thrilled, delighted, enthralled, elated and ecstatic over how comfortable they are to wear. This is no mean feat, considering I have mean feet -- that is I have an extremely arthritic toe (note for the uninformed: do NOT drop an 8 foot pressboard and metal banquet table sideways on to your toe -- it does bad things) and really wide feet to begin with. So to find a pair of shoes that are comfortable for me to wear even on the third day of a show when I've been standing on my feet for two days already is a wonderful thing.

I have only one complaint.

My Crocs "eat" my socks. Especially during this time of the year, when the temperature outside drops below freezing and the temperature in our house is never (well, hardly ever) above a "tropical" 62 degrees, I need to wear socks. I would prefer to wear some that are bright and colorful to spice up the otherwise drab outfit of almost non-stop grey sweats that are my winter uniform. I might even consider knitting a pair of bright colorful socks, but not until I can solve the problem of why my Crocs eat my socks.

My current theory is that those little "teeth" inside the shoe that help with grip and airflow combined with the dry skin on my feet and the many, many steps that are taken in those shoes every day leads to the sock eating. I'm contemplating the idea of some kind of inner soles, but the idea of a foam inner sole getting wet in addition to the wet socks that I'm already used to dealing with just doesn't sound fun.....

Ok, anybody got any ideas? I'm yearning for fewer eaten socks -- and maybe even to wear bright, colorful socks someday!

delving deeper?

This is an albatross.......






and right now, this feels like one!

For the second (and THIRD!) time in a month, I went into the laundry room to find water all over the floor.

On Saturday afternoon, I went down to get a jar of tomatoes and found that the brand new water heater was running water out of the little pipe on its side.

This is definately NOT right.

A phone call was made, the repair man returned (on a Saturday you get the guy that OWNS the repair company), and discovered that a thing called a "pressure reducing valve" had gone out.

What, you might ask, is a pressure reducing valve? Well I certainly did. You see when we lived in California, water from the utility company to our house was all gravity fed, there was no need of pressure or reducing valves.

Not so here in our new area. The water company FORCES the water through the system so that they can get it to all the places (including all those new "build it and people will come" houses WAY out East of town). What that means is that the water from the system is at about 150 pounds of pressure, and most household appliances (washers, dishwashers, water heaters) are only built to handle about 75 pounds. Water heaters have a built in pressure release so that when the pressure gets too high, they begin to release water instead of blowing up.

Ok, so far so good -- the water heater was doing its job. The repair man replaced the valve, I cleaned up the mess, ran a load of washing (things got wet!), and felt we had things back in control.



Leave us not smirk like this guy. Things were not all as in control as thought.

On Sunday morning I went into the laundry room to pull the load of laundry from Saturday's escapade out of the dryer only to find, once again, water running out of that release valve on the water heater.

WHAT THE ?????

Back to the phone we go, only this time, I'm even more annoyed. I do not want to spend my play day Sunday dealing with plumbers and water and cleaning up!

SIGH.....

This time the issue is related, but different. You see, water heaters are not what they used to be.



Notice that in the old "unsafe" water heaters, there was a place inside the tank for the water to expand and contract as it heated and cooled -- remember that science lesson -- water expands as it heats until it forms steam

Notice too that the new "safe" water heaters do not have that little extra space. This is part of what makes them more energy efficient (ok, I'm alright with that), but it does mean that an extra little "safety tank" sometimes needs to be installed on them in areas that have that whole forced water pressure issue.

And so it was....

The repair man was here for a couple of hours, draining, cutting, soldering.... Seems all of this weekend's issues should have been found when the original work was done back in September if the system had been properly tested by the guy that did the work. I'm thinking that he's going to be getting a ear full from the boss man today. And the guy did try to do right by the situation, gave us the regular during the week price, not the weekend premium and no extra for the service calls (I should think NOT!!).





So, in the end, the problem really does now seem to be fixed, but I still feel like echoing this guy ---- ready? SSSSCCCCCCRRRRREEEEEEAAAAAAMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!

Note: the origin of the term "albatross around one's neck" is derived from the poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. An albatross is an enormous sea bird (about a 92 inch wing span!!), and they are friendly, so shooting one was punished by making the sailor that did so wear its carcass around his neck .... thus the morphing in our culture of the albatross seen as an unwarrented burden.

its a good thing/bad thing

for the most part I like fall ....

-I like the crunch of the leaves
-I like that it's cooler
-I like not having to mow the lawn so often
-and there's something about fall that makes me want to start new projects

but there are some things that I do not like
-that we have less daylight
-that I know snow is not far behind
-that I'm reminded that another year is slipping away
-and there are still a lot of unfinished projects

seems I should name a lot of endeavors as "Ambivalence Are Us"

thing is, I like new projects possibly because they are new ... like a field of fresh snow that has yet to be walked in ... new projects are clean, pristine, free of any undue screw ups on my part .....

and perhaps that is why some things never get finished -- after a while that field of fresh snow just looks like a pile of dirty mud, and the only thing I want to do is walk away

some days projects are not the only thing I feel that way about

feeling like 3rd grade again....

This last bout with a stomach virus and its aftermath has reminded me of when I was a kid.

When I was in the 3rd grade I had red measles and chicken pox back to back and missed about 5 weeks of school -- no wonder I never learned the times tables for 6s, 7s and 8s!

Anyway, I remember when I first went back to school that odd, "out of body", "lighter than air" feeling.

And so it has been this time -- I felt fairly "disconnected" to my body for most of yesterday -- how odd.

This morning as I was surfing about I ran across the artwork of an acquaintance and momentarily thought that someone else was using her name. The piece looks so different that I would never have guessed it was her work -- interesting how some of us keep "reinventing" ourselves! (I admit that I've hit a bit of a "dead" spot in terms of creating animals recently, but the DH is still working on this end of the endeavors, and this is not the first time I've "taken a break" from them only to return with a lot more interesting ideas.)

Despite feeling so out of it yesterday, I did do quite a bit of work.

I have actually begun working on the bracelet that I want to submit to the jewelry magazine that Sommerset Studios puts out. This is taking a little longer than it normally would because I've decided to do photographs of each step of the process on the off chance they might actually want to publish the project.

The beading and embellishments on the newest handbag are complete, now I'm just waiting for the package with the magnetic clasps to arrive so I can put the piece together.

Progress continues too on the "river bed" for the beaded piece. Using this Right Angle Weave continues to amaze me, the "feel" of the piece is amazing, almost like the flow of a piece of silk, it is so light and flexible---I can almost envision making an entire piece of clothing out of this stuff. As I've worked along, I've been experimenting with different ways to increase the size of the piece. There are a few "boo boos" along the edge, but I'm now comfortable enough with the technique that I know I will be able to go back and add additional stitches along the edges to make it more the shape I want it to be. I've been carefully keeping track of the time that goes into this piece as well. After seeing the kind of prices that are on some other artist's work, I know the pricing WAY under its value. (The trick will be getting someone to pay anywhere near what it is worth). It is a good exercise for me to know how much time is in these pieces tho'

I'm on the home stretch of the wedding ring quilt. There are only 8 more rings to quilt, then I can do the binding. My reward to myself for working right along on this is that I will be allowing myself some time to do the pattern drawing of the new quilt that is next on my "to do" list.

And so today there are some outdoor chores to be done before I get to "play" at any of my art, but I hope to get some things done in the studio.

The Play Day that didn't happen.....

Ok, so I was going to try to spend yesterday playing with new techniques and maybe learning something new that I could use to make some new multi media pieces, but somehow, it all went haywire.

First off, for some reason I didn't even get up until after 7 am -- an unheard of late time of the morning for me unless I'm sick. But then the dog had asked to go out at 4 am and I wasn't ready to get up then so I went back to sleep, thinking she'd wake me again around 6 as usual, but she didn't -- it was cloudy and sort of dark then and well, we just didn't wake up

I did my usual computer stuff and figured I'd spend the rest of the day messing with beads and things, but then we decided that since its getting a lot cooler (fall has definately arrived) that we should take the evaporative cooler back to the storage shed and get the little electric heater out of the storage shed in case it gets really cold on an evening soon.

That exercise lead to rearranging the stuff in the shed, and then the DH decided that he would mow the back yard, so while he did that, I vacuumed the family room and restacked all the tomato baskets (we had them around the new little trees we put in this summer).

So after all of that, I took a look in my stash of supplies to see if I had the necessary materials to work on a spiral stitch that I wanted to figure out, only to discover that I didn't have any size 8 beads -- size 6 yes, size 8 no -- and so the expected experimenting didn't happen.....I guess I may play with using a 4 mm stone or glass bead instead of trying the size 8 seeds just to see if that will work, but yesterday I just didn't think of that possibility. (then there is the issue that I really hate doing the frog stitch on beadwork.....and I usually want the thing to end up being something useful, so the idea of working something up just to rip it out makes me a little crazy --- sort of defies the whole "playing" thing I guess)

I did end up working on the new handbag I'm making out of felted pieces, finished piecing the front of the bag together so I can steam it and cut it to size before I start doing the embellishments (I'm going to put felt maple leaves with beaded veining on it -- at least that is the plan)

Later in the afternoon I did start on the "river bed" of the bead piece I'm working on. I'm using the RAW stitch I taught myself last week, and even taught myself two ways to increase the number of squares across the piece last night. This stuff done in delicas is so light and so flexible that it is really hard to believe how strong it is too. The idea of the "river bed" is to create this RAW stitched piece in the shape I want the entire base of the piece to be, then put the stones on top of that followed by all of the "streams" over them, running in and out over the stones to the river bed, ending with a "water fall" of fringing off the edge.....I'm starting to be able to see the idea in my head (which is a little scary since I have such a hard time making it from those ideas to the "real thing")

This morning its back to the laundry and all the other ordinary stuff....

While I like fall, I am not crazy about the changing weather's affects on my body -- I woke up with aching joints -- not my idea of a good way to start the day ---- oh well, it could be a lot worse!

And so, its time to get busy on "stuff"