Time to get going on this...

Been wasting time with computer games and avoiding all the projects I have in front of me for the last few weeks... just wanted to get some reminders down for myself here so I would have to make more of a commitment to myself to do them!

But here is what is going on -- 

1. The purple and green lilacs fabrics will now be a table runner per my sister's request rather than a lap quilt. 

2. I have decided to move my sewing area back into my art/crafts room. I have not been doing a lot of paper arts lately and I am tired of not having a table to eat dinner on (it is covered with sewing stuff). So I will start this project this weekend  -- step one is to clear off the messy table in my art room!

3. I want to make some lavender eye pillows for yoga class. I have one but to me it is too heavy, so I wanted to make a lighter one. 

4. I bought a new sewing machine! It's a Husqvarna Viking Sapphire 960Q. But I don't have it yet! I got it right before a big Viking trade show and the order just went in last Friday so maybe another week or so. Photos when I get it! It is a top of the line machine (for me) and has twice as large of a neck/throat than my little Baby Lock Grace. This should help a lot when free-motion quilting. Which leads me to my next item...

5. I am going to start on what I have been calling my Japanese taupe quilt. I am not sure it really follows the ideas of that style, but it is various shades of taupe and has some Japanese fabrics so, good enough for me! I may even try a few of the more complicated blocks from my Japanese taupe quilt designs books.

Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone who happens by 

a very Healthy, Happy and Artful New Year!

Just putting these out to the ether for this New Year:

Word for the year: OPEN

Core Desired Feelings (CDFs): unencumbered, aligned, vibrant, connected, mindful.

*  *  *  *  *

I want to repost a poem that Michelle read in our New Year's yoga workshop last year that still speaks to me:

For a New Beginning

by John O’Donohue

In out of the way places of the heart

Where your thoughts never think to wander

This beginning has been quietly forming

Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire

Feeling the emptiness grow inside you

Noticing how you willed yourself on

Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety

And the grey promises that sameness whispered

Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent

Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,

And out you stepped onto new ground,

Your eyes young again with energy and dream

A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not clear

You can trust the promise of this opening;

Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning

That is one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure

Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk

Soon you will be home in a new rhythm

For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

Today is where your book begins...

Sometimes just the right song comes along at just the right moment , and even if it is an old song, it may be one you have never heard or never thought about before. Then suddenly... BAM! It is there in your ear, in your brain, and it is saying exactly what you need to hear at exactly that moment.

Such was what happened to me the other day when I heard the Natasha Bedingfield song  "Unwritten". Even though it had been out for many many years and came out before her other song I always liked, "Pocketful of Sunshine", I do not think I had ever heard it before last week.

It spoke to me about my coming retirement and all the thinking I have been doing about it lately:

"Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten"

I especially like the lines:

"Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten..."

Full lyrics here. 

Here is the video from You Tube:

Things to figure out...

I realized a week had gone by and I had not written a single post, although I was doing some art every evening after work. Mostly I was too tired (after teaching Middle School all day) to stay up and extend it to the blog.

In light of that I want to figure out how to get photos onto the blog more quickly. I may try via my phone although then I don't have a chance to crop or adjust brightness or anything, which makes me wonder if I need to do that anyway?

I need to ask around and see what other art-posting bloggers do. I already know that a couple of people who do cooking (Paleo) blogs spend a couple of hours a night on their blogs... I am not willing to do that. Teaching during the day only leaves me with a certain amount of time and energy in the evenings and I don't want to spend it all putting things on a blog.

So that brings me to the other thing I realized I needed to figure out: why am I doing the blog?

For me it is more a record keeping way for me to see what I have been doing artwise. So I ask myself, "Self, why can't you just post to Flickr and not worry about the blog?" I do like the times when people respond to things I have posted but then I could see that in Flickr too.

I spent some time yesterday looking at the art blogs I enjoy and realized most of them (95% maybe) also have the blog because they do other things online: online classes, sell in Etsy, etc. They use the blog both to show people what they are doing but also as a constant reminder of their classes, shop, etc. I have neither, so again, is a blog necessary or just a place to put photos?

I need to think about this...
But today I am going to go play with the gelli printing plate and do other art with a new art friend in Tracy. I always get so inspired when I can art play with friends.

Art Intentions for 2013...

It feels like a year of new beginnings and a lot of finishing...

Some of my art goals intentions for the New Year are:
1. Do art daily! Even if it is 10 minutes of making a background in my journal. Just do it!
2. Do a monthly art journal calendar to keep track of what I do for my daily art time.
3. Work on my  Ticket to Venice journal.
4. Finish my ROD (Remains of the Day) Journal.
4. Paint on a canvas (board) .
5. Make more books!
6. Work on the Craftsy classes I signed up for.
7. Find my art style... an ongoing search.
8. Go to Art Unraveled in Phoenix in July.
9. Do more art quilting.
10. Make my taupe quilt.
11. Do more embroidery.
12. Finish the scarf I am knitting!
13. Redesign my blog title with photos behind the title so it always looks the same on all browsers.

I also wanted to mention that the other day a few of us who are local but taking Mary Ann Moss' Ticket to Venice online class met up in Fremont at the studio of one of the participants. We spent the day gabbing, playing, looking at each other's art, and getting motivated to work on our journals for the class. I had SO MUCH FUN!! It really rejuvenated my spirit for doing ART and making it a priority in my life. I was so busy looking at stuff that I actually forgot to take pictures of the day but I am sure it won't be the last time we all meet and play!

Thanksgiving Break and the return of my muse...

She's back!
Well, slowly no doubt, but I realized the other day a lot of the stress I was having had to do with not using my creative outlet to let any of it go. I was really missing artwork and sewing so...

It has been nice to have a week off for Thanksgiving Break to have time for all this.

I am taking a few baby steps back into it all and we will see where it takes me!

Starting over... again! Or maybe not...

I wrote the paragraphs below about 2 hours ago and just a few minutes ago when I went to check my blog, what I had written 2 days ago was back. Go figure....
...
I just got this blog started up when Blogger went down for a couple of days and when it came back, everything I had done was gone. So, I am starting over again, after starting over the first time a few days ago after a blogging absence of a couple of years.

What this has taught me:
1. It's not really a big deal.
2. Don't get too attached to anything I write or do here because it can disappear. On the other hand, if what I wrote was really that good, insightful, funny, pithy, or even genius (haha) it will get written again because it's still somewhere in my brain. And if not... see reason #1.
3. Write out stuff in word docs first and save them on my computer before putting them here or on any online destination. If I don't... see reason #1.
4. Be thankful I happened to have the day off today (termite guys out working on the house) and have time to redo this. But if I hadn't, tomorrow is Saturday, could have done it then... see reason #1.
5.  In the long run, it doesn't really matter. Just let it go, get some coffee and start making a blog again. At the most I lost a few hours. Nothing more, so... see reason #1.

First order of business...

I really need to find another title for this blog but I realized something this evening: THAT was one of the things I was letting get in the way of starting this up again, so for some reason it clicked tonight and I just let it go and dug in and got going. So here it is, another blog, starting up again...

It has been a couple of years since I have kept a blog going and there is a lot going on: travels, changes, and no doubt a few rants and instances of bad punctuation inside me so it seemed to be time, again.

No promises, what comes out will come out. I am sure there will be a lot of changes in the beginning as I get back used to communicating this way. But this definitely helps me with my stepping back away from Facebook and I think it will set me in the right direction for the writing I plan to do and the journeys I intend to embark on, foreign and otherwise.

We shall see... que sera, sera.