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One of my favorite things to do is share with my friends, and be shared with. Creativity is a funny thing – it runs hot and cold! Sometimes you have it, sometimes you don’t. When your muse is misplaced, well it feels like they will never return, let alone be helpful. But they always return […]
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Well here we all are, the holidays are over, everyone is exhausted, and it’s time to get back to normal! Happy New Year! I wish for all of you, a year filled with abundant perfect health, wealth, joy, laughter, and lasting friendships! Could anyone wish for anything more? Not me! For many years I […]
Anyone who knows me, knows I haven’t been very productive in quite a while. I’ve tried, but somehow I just haven’t been able to find inspiration…until now!
A couple of months ago, I signed up to be part of the Sketchbook Project!
For the last few summers I have watched each year as this project unfolds, and in the back of my mind, thinking one year I would join in. This was that year! Of course, I needed another project, but what better time to start an art project than when you’re busy, right? My thinking was that it is only 32 pages, and certainly a little project like that would be a snap for me! The other thing is, we are all busy all the time anyway, so why wait?
After getting back into our home since having bamboo floors laid in the entire house (studio included), I think I’m ready to start thinking about putting pen to paper, and leaving my mark on whatever community it will be going to. That’s not to say that everything is perfect in our home. After all, some of the paintings still remain stacked in the corner waiting to find their rightful place on the wall. The livingroom looks new, and fresh. I’ve changed things around, replaced some things, and gotten rid of others. It feels like a new home to me, and now I’m ready to get back to sketching, and painting!
It’s interesting how something like this can give us an entire new outlook on just about everything, and I find myself energized, and inspired!
Who knows how long it will take me to complete this sketchbook. The project needs to be mailed back by January 15, 2014, so I really do have plenty of time. Anything goes this time, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do, anything, whatever feels right! Poetry, sketches, collage, ink, pen, you name it.
In the next few weeks, or maybe I should say, next couple of months, I’ll be posting the pages I work on, and you can tell me what you think. Make suggestions, I’m always open for comments, in fact I love getting comments, it keeps me motivated!
Sketchbook Project
This little Sketchbook will be going to the Central Part of the Mid-West!
So for now,….. Start a project, and share it with me! I’ll be back!
Certainly twenty, or thirty years ago my life was much busier, so what makes this time more hectic, or why do I seem to have less time? One reason could be, I don’t have as much energy as I ounce had, or maybe I’m trying to do too much, and not getting anything accomplished in the end! All that Bee Pollen makes me go in circles!
What ever it is, it’s time for a change!
I keep busy, and at the end of the day, I’m ready to slow down. The thing is, I haven’t made time, or felt like I had the time for my creativity! What I love to do the most, is something I haven’t done in quite a while. Quite a while could mean a week to me!
I’ve been working on my garden…
Spending time with three of my grand-kids…
Shopping…I had to buy new dishes…
AND, A couple of times one of my girlfriends, and myself signed up for an evening of painting while drinking wine! Oh yeah, it was fun! I can’t say any of my paintings will ever hand in La Louvre, but after drinking wine, who cares?
I’m still working on the Hacienda painting, and if I don’t start playing with it, I’m sure it will go into the stack of canvases that are all screaming at me to finish them!
All the time, I still have a dog, and a cat, and a husband that needs to be cared for, and get attention!
So what now?
Then it suddenly occurred to me…….at 4:30 this morning
Instead of laying awake until 7:30 in the morning so I don’t disturb my husband, I need to get up, have my tea, and paint! Or even write, anything would be an improvement! I use to do this a long time ago, but our home is small now, and any noise seems to disturb him. So for Fathers Day, I’ve decided to buy him – ear plugs! And, start getting up really early when my creative juices are flowing!
That should do it!
!
What did he do next?
Well, the first thing John fixed was the irrigation system. It has always been a bit poopy, and he quickly discovered why! This is all technical, so I won’t get into it although I did understand after John explained it…..several times! The long and the short is this: it was never installed right in the first place! (Landscaping by a professional expert, having landscaped all over the Middle East!) After putting several hours into digging many holes, a trip to Lowe’s did the trick!
Oh those back-breaking holes!
The only one around here that knows how backbreaking digging holes in the yard can be is Daisy, our dog! She has most recently been on archology excursion to find the Lost City! I need to tell you, neither Les or myself taught her to do this. I’m sure she learned it from talking to the other dogs at the “dog park!” You know the ones, the dogs whose parents don’t teach them right from wrong! So now, we have to be the bad guys and give her a time out for attempting world travel, or trying to bury a chew stick. I hate being the bad guy!
Now the fun starts…
Tuesday night after John had prepared the yard for new dirt, and sod, and headed for home, Daisy went outside and…No she didn’t dig holes, but she spread her toys over the dirt. I think she was saying, “This is my yard, leave it alone!” All through this process she has been agitated, and I couldn’t even get her to leave the house for a walk in the afternoon. The yard being all torn up bothered her, and she would come in to get one of us, and take us out into the back to show us what John had done to her yard.
What’s next?
Wednesday the top soil went down, and from Wednesday until Thursday afternoon, Daisy had to stay out of the yard. I believe it is “Murphy’s Law,” to have the animals roll in freshly watered, manure, and top soil! We could just see her with the smelly dirt stuck to her fur, and needing a bath before we could let her back into the house!
Thursday morning John started putting down the sod, and then things changed. Keeping a dog off her grass is a challenge, and reasoning with her to not dig holes in the grass or she will have to sit on the “Naughty Rug” is the fun part!
Today is a new day, a new start, a new yard we can be proud of, and it looks great! After the yard was watered, pots will get drips on them, and things just look so much neater. I’m loving it!
Then what?
There isn’t much left to do. Maybe a few little things like putting a few more drip lines in, or re-wiring an antique iron lamp that was my Great-grandmother’s, but that is about it! You can be sure that pictures will follow one of these days! This was back-breaking work, that I could neither do, or help with. We are both so grateful for John, who tirelessly worked to make our home, and yard something we could all be proud of!
I think we all deserve a glass of vino, and maybe some cheese and crackers, and oh…..Chocolate!!! We must have chocolate!
My stash of stamps is numerous, and some of them spoke to me big time! Things like XOXO, Friends One Of God’s Greatest Gifts, If The Shoe Fits Buy It, and several more. I used paisley stamps, elephant shapes, and on and on. When they were all baked and finished, It hit me! Almost every heart shape would be perfect for a girlfriend, but not for my grandchildren!
Now What?
One might say, “It’s back to the drawing board!” By golly, I think you’re right! I can only take so much clay, but it’s still fun to work with now and then, so it’s back to Michael’s for more clay. I hate going in there because Michael’s always carries things that call to me, and I rarely come out of there with only what I went in for! I really do try, but things just grab me! So on Wednesday, I dragged the pasta maker out once again for yet another go at the heart-shaped clay Valentines!
Somehow I was Having Trouble Getting Back Into The Hearts!
In Michael’s I found about six more stamps (on sale for 99c) appropriate for little ones. The old standbys like, Be My Valentine, or Will You Be Mine! That’s more like what I wanted to put on Valentines for a three, or a six-year-old. The girls are easier to make Valentines for, but the boys just have to get use to them also! Boys will be getting Valentines for the rest of their lives!
Again – Now What?
Since there are all kinds of projects going on around our house, I’m going to pack up all the “Stuff,” and take it for an Art Day with the Fabulous Five this weekend! Every month my girls and I get together to share, critique, and play with ideas. Sometimes we get really into some project, and sometimes we sit and throw ideas around, discussing technique, or problems we’re having with some specific piece of art one of us is working on. Whatever happens, we all come away from our day together feeling full of creative energy, and more ideas than we could have even imagined! All of us agree, that the single most important thing an artist can do for themselves is to share creative energy with other artists. So yes, I have a great support system, consisting of four other artists, each bringing something different to the table. Not one of us creates the same way, but each of us is inspired by the other. I couldn’t ask for more!
What did you create together?
Nothing! We hadn’t seen each other in quite a while, so not one of us could stop talking long enough so we could get some Valentines made. And after I bought über amounts of clay to make them with! The clay will go back to Michael’s just as soon as I’m finished. All in all, we had a great time together with many ideas (not involving Valentines).
Once Again – Now What?
Now it’s back to the drawing board to finish the Valentines on my own. I’m happy to report that after baking dozens of heart shapes, and stamping into them, I’m so finished!
With all the hearts completed, put together, wrapped, & addressed they are ready to go out the door. The pictures above are of the four sets of Valentines that are finished! I don’t want to see another Valentine until I get that box of See’s Candy from my husband in a few days!
I’m so ready to get back to organizing the studio, and to painting. Mostly Painting…
Old as Dirt and Proud of it! 
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