Always in my heart

It has been a long time since my last post--almost 3 years! I am surprised this blog is still here and available! However, I have been thinking about how much I enjoyed doing this and, well, let's do it.

So much has happened.

Let me start with the event that most affected me. In October of 2008, my niece, Thistle, was taken by the complications of Castleman's, the disease she lived with for several years. Yesterday I was looking at the beautiful blue sky and listening to Iris DeMent and this thought took my breath away: "She's gone." I have moments like this, a kind of heart clenching ache I can't move beyond.

When Thistle died, I worked through my grief by helping to organize the memorial, keeping my sister and her remaining daughter company, making a slide show and just trying to be helpful to my loved ones. This helps me get through my grief. Now, after more than a year I am still stopped by the thought, "she's gone."

Knowing Thistle and her wonderful willingness to try new things has encouraged me to do the same in my remaining years. I think she had a way of looking at the world through "artist eyes" and I try to do that as well. I am a better, certainly more interesting, and kinder person for it.

Not your ordinary day at the office

My sister paints does decorative painting, faux techniques and murals. I got to work on a large mural recently - a great experience. The finished piece is about 10" high by 18' long, painted along a walk way beside a large storage barn. The fellow who commissioned it is a semi-retired builder whose specialty is building bridges. Working outside in the wonderful weather we've had lately is too cool. I hope to do this again!




Tom the cat was on site everyday to check progress. He is now immortalized in the mural!!












This little guy is awesome.
He crawled over to the paper
towels for a cushy nap, then
crawled up the mural.


He is above the dog and slightly
to the right. He was still there
when we left around 7 p.m.
I guess he digs art!

Old Fashion Fun

Last week I had a little workshop at my local branch of the library, We made simple clothespin dolls and gave them painted apple heads. The class was originally to be ages 12 and up, but as these things often go, the class ended up consisting of 7 children between the ages of 8 and 13. It was a little chaotic but fun. These were my samples:




It's a little hard to see, but the dolls have hinged legs and arms.


Each doll uses 3 clothes pins, either the flat or round type (not the spring hinges ones!). I chose to paint the dolls like apple fairies, but two off the kids painted theirs to be pumpkin heads which looked really cool. I need to get a camera for these classes!

Some people knit, some build houses!

Here is my brother's current project - he's renovating a little house for his son, Randy. The whole family is involved with Dad acting as contractor, Mom as coordinator, sister Jenn and her hub Mike providing labor along with all of Randy's buddies and main squeeze, Kelly.The grandparents have been down several times to help. The girls and I stopped by last week to check out the progress and to visit the guard kitties, Oreo and Snowflake, who are staying at the house. It's very exciting to see this sweet house take shape. It's about 900 sq. ft. now. It's going to be a comfortable place! When they took off the roof you could see the first roof and where the front half of the current house had been added. Soon a big front porch will be added - perfect for fall rocking'.



Here are the girls
trying out the tractor
used to grade the
front yard.






It's wonderful to know the history of a place, and this one is close to the heart. The house reno was started by Bob's best friend, Chris. There is a lot of history here.







Chris's grandmother used to live in the house, back when it was just a little bitty 2 room cabin. Someone added 2 more rooms and a back porch. Chris passed away earlier this year, so I guess it's a little bittersweet, but an act of love is never wasted.

Who would I be ...

I scored as Elizabeth Swann, Good evening Ms. Swann.
You're Elizabeth Swann!!! You fall in love with Will Turner while at the same time managing to get drunk and fall off a cliff. Good for you!! :D:D:D



What Pirates of the Caribbean Character are you????
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At Hogwarts ...
I scored in Griffindor

You would belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring nerve nerve and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart.
You Join other famous wizards such as Dumbledore. Griffindor sets itself high standards, and as such you are expected to try your hardest and pull your way through with your bravery and daring.

In sexy fiction ...
I score as Stephanie Plum!

"My body was designed to sit in a Porsche and drive."

In Disneyland ... No surprise, I scored as Belle




In the Buffyverse ...
I am Willow
Smart. Resourceful. Understanding. Full of Self-Doubt. Shy. Unstable. Your live has mostly been about relying on your smarts. You parents mostly ignored you, so you had to learn to be resourceful. Magic came along as a boundless frontier that had a unique set of chalanges and rewards. The mystical is one of most compelling things for you. Only love can surmount that. You emotions are a whirlwind of either strength or destruction. The combination of Brains, Magic & Overwhelming Emotions makes you a dangerous, but very interesting person.

I love all of Joss Whedon's shows. I especially love the idea of heros in everyday life. It's important we know why we choose our path.

In the Firefly universe I am Derrial Book (Shepherd) - Even though you are holy you have a mysterious past.

You scored as a Fred
You're Fred! The clever one of the group, people often turn to you for help. You're stronger than most people would give you credit for.


Which Angel Character Are You?
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WHAT MAJOR IS RIGHT FOR YOU?
You scored as a English/Journalism/Comm
You should strongly consider majoring (or minoring) in Communication, English, Film, Journalism, Literature, or Writing.

It is possible that the best major for you is your 2nd, 3rd, or even 5th listed category, so be sure to consider ALL majors in your OTHER high scoring categories
English/Journalism/Comm - 94%
Physics/Engineering/Computer - 81%
Psychology/Sociology - 81%
Education/Counseling - 75%
HR/BusinessManagement - 75%
Please post your results in your blog
WHAT MAJOR IS RIGHT FOR YOU?
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And that's what an evening at QuizFarm can get you.

WARNING: RANT IN PROGRESS

Normally I would not choose such a public forum for a rant, but this particular rant deserves to be public.

My "gift" is to see the pattern of workflow and the little changes that can be made to improve flow. My area of expertise is digital printing and I work as a little satellite in a company producing large silk-screen decals. A new supervisor was brought in last year to make things better for the company. He has no print experience but is a good number guy was what I was told.

I'm all for good numbers but being diplomatic to a short sighted, narrow minded, chauvinistic man who seems determined to reinvent the wheel is irritating. Watching him try to make employee hand puppets is painful - micromanaging is NEVER successful. All of this behavior was outside of my small segment of production until a few weeks ago. Large format printing is becoming a lucrative branch of the print industry ... now his hand-puppet management philosophy has been draw to my room (think eye of Sauron...) To improve my production, my supervisor has decided to hold back information on jobs I handle until just before they go into production so I will not be "confused" or "overwhelmed." Some jobs I do not see at all, nor do I have the specs for future reference as he has decided to hold the entire information jacket in his office. Those jobs are "too complicated" for me to handle "on my own." Gosh, I find this attitude offensive and I am more than a little shocked by the idea that anyone could be fooled by this crap.

I have spent all of my adult life knowing I am equal to any and every task that comes my way. In the three departments I managed, production went up, errors went down and we were able to streamline our processes which let us be more creative. Synergy is my favorite and most used model and I have had great results. I have never been overwhelmed or confused for more than a few minutes. I took this job 3 years ago so I could relax into retirement, however, at this rate I expect this business to fail in 2 to 3 years. Lets be realistic, competition is stiff. Paring production costs and finding new markets for our products are important. Our employees are our biggest expense and our biggest asset, tapping into their expertise and loyalty is key! Until this dude realizes he is surrounded by experts with years of valuable experience in their heads he will continue to cause this disruption that has infected my entire department. To a person we've had to sit back in amazement and "dumb" down our jobs to accommodate his ego.

Okay, I'm finished and I feel much clearer. Thanks for your patience.

It is what it is.

I am really different from the people I work with. It's not like I have 2 heads or suck blood - it's a priority thing, I guess. I would rather make art than anything. My house gets a half-hearted cleaning twice a year when my sister comes to visit, I do the dishes every week, I never dust really, and I hate lawn work. I bought the house because my mom lived with me and she thought it would be economical and she was right. She loved lawn work and I did it to please her. She died 4 years ago and that lawn knows the boss is gone. Those damn Mulberry trees are taking over! The people I work with would be horrified to walk in, their houses are spotless. Of course, they all have husbands and children which makes a person accountable. I have a cat and a dog. They haven't learned to run the sweeper yet so I guess they are good with the dust.

Sometimes I wish I could retrain my brain to feel the same excitement about a clean and shiny house I do for a new art technique or a finished project. It seems doable, doesn't it? But really, it's like saying it's just as easy to fall for a rich man as a poor one... It is what it is. Our dance with life is capricious and not a little amusing. That seductive excitment of creativity obscures my (small) embarrassment over dust bunny herds and peeling paint on the back porch and I'm swept away. Madeline L'Engle wrote something about being in the moment and being truly who we are when we forget ourselves in the creative process and time passes without notice. (I think it was in A Circle of Quiet - well worth the reading). More and more I live in that timeless place, coming up for air to socialize and recharge. Do you think it is a function of age that the balance between inner and outer life begins to swing toward the inner? Maybe it isn't even all that different timewise. Maybe the difference it that I am consciously choosing what I want over what I should.


Have you heard about Artist Trading Cards and Art Cards, Editions and Originals? They are mini (2.5" by 3.5") pieces of art. ATC are actually traded and not sold. ACEO can be sold. Etsy, where I have my knitting shop, and Ebay both do a good trade in ACEO. I am really intrigued and have to start making some. My niece and nephew are visiting from Iowa this week and it's on our project list. Of course it's 4H Fair week so I'm not sure how much art is getting made ,, altho' we could combine the two and incorporate their wristband and all the commercial building handouts into something. Hmmm.


I taught a small class on glass painting last week and as soon as my photographer friend, Melanie, gets back I'll post some pics of my samples. Very satisfying. Next class is wooden doll Apple Fairies, that's in September.







My newest yarn project may have to be the Molly Weasley sweater. I purchased the pattern from Shelle Cain, who is listed on etsy and has her own website:
www.crochetcabin.
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