After Christmas Blues

Have spend the last solid week home with my husband and I'm really starting to go a bid "mad"....not really, but I'm feeling the need for some social stimulation.....he sleeps pretty much most of the time and I do have loads of things to do, but I need to talk with people from time to time and that's not happening....I guess that's why I'm here talking to myself.  Opps.

Took some pics yesterday....using my i-pad I took the first type image using a key on the camera and look what happened...wonderful...certainly some good ideas for some small pieces.  And then I went out into the back yard and took some images around on the deck...and the orange blue green is actually a close up of the garden globe I have and it's wonderful also....this will definitely become something beautiful...I really do want to do some abstract work and maybe this can help me get into that side of my brain....I am such an organized person, it's very hard for me to trip over to the other side.

Christmas was good this year...mainly because my son and his daughter actually met up by mistake in my front yard at the same time and ended up talking for an hour about some of their problems and came  up with some plans.  They hadn't seen or spoken to each other in over two years...far to long and totally my son's fault....she's only a kid, he's the adult.  Anyway, that could have been all I wanted for the holidays as far as I was concerned.  All the other was fluff. 

Holiday Week

It's the holiday week and not much in the way of sewing or designing is happening in my studio...I have really been spending most of my time working on getting ready the I CAN DO THAT exhibit coming up for the gallery.  I have all the work to be placed in the gallery in my studio...needs to be cleaned, making sure everything has wired and labeled properly.  A lot of work ahead of me...plan on spending most of Wednesday doing this to get it finished NOW.  I hate last minute rush, so I plan to get this all ready at least a week or so ahead of time.  Then I need to photograph everything to get the images out to our Facebook person to put out a blitz over the month of January to get our FB folks into the gallery to see the work and sell the work to raise the funds we'd like to raise for the non profit group and the kids.  It's been a good project so far and I know the group is very happy with what we are doing for them.  After the exhibit is up and running, then we need to concentrate on helping them get their "closet" organized for future events.  It's a feel good project;  I just wish more in my gallery group would consider being a part of what is happening. 

Christmas day I have a crowd here for a dinner and gift giving, but I plan on the day after Christmas to get back into the studio for ME....start some new work and work myself to death so to speak...I need to keep my mind on my work and not so much worry about Lynn's health and well being...caring for someone you love so much can be very consuming and overwhelming and for me, I start to loose myself in their needs and find I have none of my own.  His sister wants to start taking him to the movies again on Tuesday and I hope he can find it in himself to let her do that..he's been very reluctant as he has become so dependent on me over the last six months...time to spend some time with someone else and let me have the time to go bowling/lunch with my own friends.  We'll see what happens.  One step at a time with Lynn and it has to be his idea or it doesn't happen.

I also have told myself I need to follow through on the idea of setting up a tapestry loom...I have the loom, I just need to put it all together and then learn tapestry 101 to make it all work...my sis Robin has done it in a small version, my loom is larger and some day I have visions of a much larger one, but that takes time to learn all the in/outs of this new process for me.  Best I learn on my own, making mistakes is how I learn the best.  I always go back to the sewing because it's so second nature to my soul...time to step up and start something new. 

I CAN DO THAT!! Art for All Abilities

My new passion....helping out this non profit group that is bringing art to kids with disabilities in our school system here in Sacramento....two women, Alice Parente and Allison Sertic make the magic happen and the gallery is helping them.....because we care!!!!!    Allison is the marketing and grant guru and Alice is the person who puts the artist into the classroom to make it all happen.  And they need help...financially and artistically..............................we adopted them last year as part of our quest to gain first place in the KCRA A List competition...but we fell short of our goals and really never raised very much money for them with our campaign.  Then I realized that our gallery just wasn't financial able to give them money on a constant basis as we had too many obstacles in the way with lagging sales due to the new arena construction happening causing lower traffic in our doors.

I met with Allison, got a better feel for what they were doing and after talking with her realized that they needed some other type of help...they needed visual help....so I offered them our window space and featured artist space for the upcoming month of January 2015.....right now we all in the throws of making that all happen.....the images above are some of the work I have sitting back in my studio that we are considering to be put in the exhibit and a bunch of us are meeting this Saturday to select the final cut.  We'll have 2D, 3D, cards and matted examples of the kids work for sale/donation during the month of January to help raise awareness and funds for the group.  We're hoping to get a lot of press out of this directly after Christmas and into January and will use social media to boost interest.

It's a lot of work but for a great cause.  After we get the exhibit up, the small group helping me are going to go back to their storage area at the school site and help clean up their inventory so they can get to it easier and to figure out what they actually have for future events.   

It feels good to help a cause do a better job.        lts

Holidays Hard for Several Reasons

I was thinking today about how Christmas has become "hard" this year over other years because I'm hearing from several folks that I only connect with during the holidays that they are either suffering with a huge illness or have passed over this past year and I didn't know that had happened.

I was totally shocked when one of my fellow FEDEXer's that I worked with for years passed away this past February...his widow/wife send me a holiday card and the only thing she mentioned in her own hand writing was that Tom has passed in February...nothing more.  I just sat there staring at what she had written for the longest time because I truly didn't believe it.  

And now I've gotten one of my other cards back from an old friend, Barbara Blessington who lives right here under my nose but I hadn't been in contact with her for probably a year and she doesn't live where she used to and neither of her phones are her numbers any longer.  An internet search turned up nothing, so now I'm turning to friends that might know where she has landed...I suspect she is living with one of her adult kids, but her whereabouts are unknown to me at this time.  I'm hoping for the best instead of the worst........and it saddens me that we have lost touch.  I do want to reconnect if she is able to do so.  

My involvement in the art gallery has given me a large amount of new "friends" and my involvement is so totally 120% that one tends to just unintentionally let others sit it your address book and not connect with you...of course, they haven't either, so it's two fold...not just one sided.  

And my new 36+ art friends are involved, creative and fun folks to be around so I tend to lean their way because I need that in my life right now.  But I still feel bad.  

Another friend that had moved to Oregon had bad news to deliver also...a mutual sewing friend that I personally hadn't seen in probably two years has grown into dementia and that saddens me also....I must reconnect if she is capable.  

This aging process  is also a process in learning how to react when the news you get or come upon isn't all rosy and wonderful....you need to be ready to show your caring side, your compassionate side whenever instead of being stunned and annoyed.  I hope I can be a good enough friend to accomplish this and help my friends along the way.  I come from good stock, good genes...not much in the way of medical problems...let's hope I stay on that side as long as I can.  

Thank goodness I have my ART to keep me focused, creative and of right mind. 

Days are short and full of chores, errands and some art!!!

The days are shorter, cooler, more colorful......but the days seems to be chalk full of stuff that has to get done.....chores, errands, appointments, commitments and some art.  Today for instance starts with up early and off to the primary doc for hubby as his blood pressure has been high and the doc sees him every thirty days after prescribing new drugs to bring that pressure reading down...back again this morning.......then off to the eye doc to pick up his new glasses.  I actually have an appointment with the non profit, I CAN DO THAT picking up student work for an exhibit we're putting together at the gallery...bringing it all home to ready for hanging second week of January.  Then we are off to meet some bowling friends for dinner before we bowl @ 6:30 at Mardi Gras Lanes....tomorrow, nothing planned...hanging at home, weathering a big storm, plan to work in the studio a good part of the day.  Of course I have Christmas gifts to wrap, floors to clean....etc etc etc.