There's no place like home

Be it ever so snowy. I was so happy to get home Friday night that I didn't even mind this icky blanket of cold-and-wetness. After a completely ridiculous week in which I started a new job AND cleaned the rest of my junk out of the garage so we could close early on the sale of our house, I packed my bags Sunday night and went to Olympia for a week of new-job training. And if you think that was a run-on sentence, try living it. Sheesh!

The trip had it's ups - a wonderfully restorative lunch hour spent at the Scarlet Empress, an early evening spent at Shipwreck Beads (holy cow people! this place is HUGE!!!), a lovely family birthday party for cousin Ryan, a fun, interesting class packed with good information. The trip also had its downs - cold, snowy (!) weather and me in lightweight business clothes, a stinky rental car with no ice scraper, a pervasive feeling of exhaustion, reports of a depressed cat waiting for me at home. On balance it was a good week, but I just wanted to go HOME.

Yeah right. When I got to the airport my flight was already delayed over an hour due to weather. Then there was a maintenance issue with the plane. Then we boarded. Then we sat and watched maintenance guys in baggy yellow rain pants climb on and off the plane. Then we got off the plane and went back to the terminal. Then we got on a different plane. Then we sat and watched the baggy yellow rain pants guys get on and off that plane. Then we got off that plane and stood waiting in the freezing cold tunnel place. Then we got back on the first plane. Then we sat and watched the baggy yellow rain pants guys get on and off that plane. Finally we took off, still under the threat that if we couldn't land in Spokane due to the weather, they would bring us back to Seattle. Noooooo! There was giddiness and cheering when we landed in Spokane. I didn't even mind having to clean all the snow off my car. After all, at least I had an ice scraper.

Bits and Pieces

I'm it.

Sheila tagged me a while ago to list 7 random things about me. So here goes:

1. I don't like coffee. Or really anything bitter. Dark chocolate and some vegetables are challenging.
2. Pistol is the first cat I've ever lived with. I used to think cat people were a bit crazy. Now I get it.
3. I like lots of light. I don't really get the whole dimmer switch concept.
4. I have a law degree but I don't practice law.
5. I've been left-handed from the cradle. Mom says anything placed in my little baby right hand would be immediately switched to the left hand.
6. I surround myself with bright color, but I prefer to wear neutrals.
7. I like the process of sewing by hand a lot more than the process of sewing by machine.

I have another one of these deals from Judy so stay tuned for more random quirky stuff.

A daisy day

I've been telling friends that the last 3 weeks of my life have reached the level of ridiculous on the stress meter, but then I remembered that right before that I had the evil sinus infection/horrid rash combo. Sheesh!

But yesterday, yesterday was a lovely daisy of a day. I got an offer for a great job that I think I'm really going to enjoy. The offer brought resolution to more than a year of uncertainty and stress in my life. And I found out that I will definitely be able to attend Artfest in April! I signed up and paid for Artfest in September to give myself something to look forward to, but whether or not I could actually attend has been one of the many uncertainties swirling around me.

So what's a girl to do to celebrate? Shopping of course! Even more loveliness awaited me. I found some cute shirts and pants and I had to buy smaller sizes than I originally tried on! This despite the fact that my workout routine has gone horribly off track lately. I will have to start exercising again to ensure that I will be able to keep wearing my new clothes! And then I found this book:


M. Joan Lintault Connecting Quilts, Art & Textiles. The pictures alone are worth the cover price; the in-depth, insightful thoughts Ms. Lintault shares about her artistic process...well, let's just say I can't wait to spend a long afternoon absorbing this book.

I finished off my daisy day standing outside gazing at the eclipsed moon. Lovely and amazing.

Taking a break

I'm taking a little break this morning. A break from the crippling weather...a break from the crazyness of life this past week.


I'm taking a moment to enjoy the sunshine...and the quiet. A moment to hang out with my cat.


Soon I'll head back to the hospital where my dad is recovering from open heart surgery. He is doing very well, but this came as a shock to all of us. Of course it coincided with an already hectic and draining week and with some of the worst weather of the last 40 years. But such is life. The crazy teaches us to appreciate the quiet.

even more dresses

Here are dresses #5 and #6. Apologies for all the dark pictures lately, it's practically impossible to get a decent picture up here in the frozen tundra these days. It was actually sunny yesterday, but way too cold to go outside for pics.




To look at my blog you'd think all I've been doing is making dresses. There have been some other creative activities happening, but mostly there's been a sinus infection followed by an allergic reaction to the meds. The weatherman just said it's 1 degree out. Ugh.

Lucky studio cat - he has all that fur to keep him warm.

more dresses

Here's dress #4. I'm leaving the edges unfinished because I'm planning to sew them together like quilt blocks. As for the short sleeves Sheila, it's always summer in my head! The flowers are made with my painted/collaged paper and a flower-shaped paper punch. I love these!

And this is a little minidress. ;-) It's ATC size and very cute!

Resolve

Ah, the lure of a new year. So much possibility, so many things I'd like to do. It's always tempting to commit to a year-long project - for several years it was the block-of-the-month quilts, now it's the many incarnations of make-art-every-day/week/month. And I do want to make art and be creative every day. But I don't want to lock myself into a specific project or format.

As I look forward, I realize that this year I have two things that I haven't had in the past. First, my time is my own. And second, I finally know what I want to make. I'm bursting with ideas and I'm finally reaching a point where I'm comfortable with my own techniques, my own ideas, my own style. I'm transitioning to just making stuff instead of wasting a bunch of time worrying whether my ideas are good enough.

And so, armed with my time and my ideas, my resolution for this year is: MAKE A LOT OF ART. Don't worry about good or bad or external considerations like shows, etc., just make stuff.

The "stuff" in the picture is a cover for a weekly planner that I made for a friend on New Year's Day. It's a nice start.