Long time, no see!

Whooeeee, time flies when you are not having fun too!

Spring is the busy time for General Meetings of the two art groups I belong to.  As I am on the board of both, I am very involved.  One group is setting up their annual show and I am the Applications Co-ordinator and have been spending hours and hours with that.

I injured my hip again with the move in December, and am still, five months later, in severe pain and it has slowed me down to a crawl, not that I am very fast to begin with.  It is hard to be inspired and work on art when you are exhausted from dealing with constant pain.  DH has been a life saver with the help he gives me around the house, but he can't create art for me. 

We are both avid gardeners, and we are looking forward to turning this yard which is presently all parking lot and weeds:

into a respectable flower garden with fruit trees.

We have doubled the width of the sidewalk on the right, put in posts for espaliered trees (apple, plum, cherry and two honey berries) tilled it all and discovered that the back twelve feet of yard that we are not leaving for parking is 8 inches deep in gravel!!

We had the gravel dug out, saved some in our garden planters to use as paths, and we had enough left over to fill all  the pot holes in the back lane!  A good three and a half yards of the stuff.

We then had the top scraped off the dirt at the front and pushed it into the hole left by the gravel removal.  I am now plotting out the paths and building them up with gravel upon which we will put the broken pieces of patio tiles in an interesting pattern.  Then we will have twelve yards of good topsoil mixed with manure spread over everything, then dig down to find the paths, thus making raised beds.

Sounds easy, doesn't it?  NOT!  I am good for filling and placing three half filled pails of gravel then I sit for a while and watch the birds!  The paths are inching their way along slowly.  My Dr. has told me I can take a lot more Tylenol 3 than I normally do, and with that easing the pain when I work, I really think that the exercise and weight lifting is actually helping to heal my hips.  That and my weekly massages.

(You don't have five deep therapeutic massages in twelve days!  Ask me how I know!  That is a whole 'nother story!!  I thought I would get a jump start on it since our Income Tax refund arrived and I can now afford it.  Another NOT!  I am down to once a week and trying to be patient.)

In the studio I am working on a "hat".  I have volunteered to do several hats for an exhibit of a hat collection.  Various artists are taking the life time collection of hats to turn them into something wondrous.  My 'Buttoned Down Winter Wedding' is almost done, base is ready to have the Outrageous added!

I am also decorating some shoes.  The smallest and most impossibly high heeled shoes I can find at the self-help will be turned into more Outrageousness!  I am hoping to sell these at a gallery as table ornaments.  I also have some commitments for art quilts, and need a lot of new pieces for the show at the end of October.  I think I will have to chain myself to my sewing machine!

I will also try to blog a lot more often.

Happy Spring!



Moving update for those of you who are helping...

...in spirit that is!!

The up side of all this is I get to fondle my stash as I pack, albeit very quickly.

Remember the bookshelves filled with boxes?  Those boxes went and new ones are piled up, and the cases are labeled for placement.  All this stuff is going on the 26th when DH's largest Bible Study group are bringing their pick up trucks (living in a rural community is nice, almost everyone has a truck!) and helping with a major move.

Remember that closet that was emptied, well it is getting full to overflowing again, but it sure is nice to have a place to put the packed boxes.  Anyone want an antique Singer hem marker? The rubber bulb is still soft, and there is even chalk in it.  If nothing else it will be a conversation piece...along with my antique ironing board. lol

 

There were two large bookcases here in this wall, they went last week and we are using the space for packed boxes.  We have rounded up all the plants except this one and are caring for them on an antique ironing board in the living room.  They will be moved on the final day.

 

The living room is packed and and all the furniture is stacked to go.  Our living room suite is a piece of cake to move, it is sectional and made of rattan.....light as a feather.  The cushions are heavier than any one piece of the furniture.

 

This is the last unpacked studio section.  I need it as I am rushing to finish a commission piece before everything is in boxes and gone to our new home where I will not be able to find anything for quite a while.

I had better get to this soon, as everyone keeps piling things into this area (I won't dare show you what is on the other side of this table.....there is even a 55 gallon drum rain barrel brought in off the patio to thaw so we can empty it for moving!) 

This table has actually been cleared twice now.  It's as if people are rounding up stuff and herding it into a pile for me to deal with, it makes for a strange assortment of stuff in boxes when you are trying to pack like with like.  There will be some surprises at the other end. 

If I can get it clear again I will fold it up and lean it up against a wall.....that'll fix 'em.......or will they just start burying my sewing machine??  Believe it or not my trusty Husky is set up on the far side of that mountain of stuff in the picture.  Honest!

I will post about the progress on the bag.

All Tied Up

Or should that be all the ties are up??  I have finally finished sorting and hanging up my tie collection....sort of....some of the hangars are a tad varied still.  I need more hangars.....I need more racks!  The bottom row is actually a double row with the darker ties in the back, sort of.  I pulled most of the striped ties and all the plain ones, but will save them for bindings.  Some where in that closet among the 23 bins that I have to go through yet is another big bin of striped ties.....I am tie-erd of ties.   Here is the picture I promised:

< 2nd bin of striped ties

This is my stash of upholstery samples, yarns and buttons:

I had all the buttons sorted to size and colour (washed too!) and was at the Self Help store the next day and a huge jar of mixed buttons jumped right into my hands...it now reigns right in the middle of the first button shelf.  All this orderliness keeps me from being called a hoarder. If you look real close, I mean really close you can see my studio helper, Buddy.

This is my "Happy Place"  between my sewing machine and the three patio doors (north east light) is a 2' by 4' ironing table that doubles as a chair and a mini step ladder should I wish to unfold the thing.  All I have to do is just turn around to press something and look out at the tomatoes on our deck. Much nicer than gazing at the studio and realizing that I really do work in a midden!

I made a thread rack with four layers of foam core stuck together with thin double sided tape.  I finished the edges with masking tape, poked holes with an awl and used sandwich picks to hang the spools on.  The spacing could have been a bit further apart, but I'm and artist, not an engineer....what can I say?

 I my studio has come a long way from what I started with:

This picture is amusing now but at the time it was pretty scary, it was like one of those puzzles where you have to move the letters around and there is only one empty space!

I am getting some where here.  I have fallen heir to more space as DH is taking over the spare bedroom for his egg studio...he is an egg carver.  120 square feet plus 60 square feet in a closet. Big grin :).  Hence my present cleaning and sorting spree.  What I am actually doing is my usual procrastinating before starting a new piece.  I need a kick in the butt!

Please take a moment to think of the sacrifices some of our loved ones have made in the various wars our countries have been involved in.  Because of them we are free to work in our studios.