The show report will have to wait a few more days--got carried away getting the house, plants, me, and everything else ready for tomorrow's surgery. It's an early surgery, so friend & neighbor Trina will be on house & dog duty-one less thing to worry about. Should be home Saturday afternoon, and if I feel ok, just may post via laptop sooner than then. Wish me luck!! At least now I'll have a matched set of titanium hips:)
Photos are a tad crooked, but you'll get the idea-here are a few of things hanging-will give you all the "show report" complete with photos this week end-wish me luck!
Even though I had a grat excuse to not be spending so much time on the computer, I shouldn't have just vanished as I did-for that I apologize. But----please do celebrate my very first show with me! The very talented potter, Renee' Schwaller of Off the Wheel Pottery invited me to be her featured artist this summer, showing my art along with her fabulous pottery in her gallery which is a renovated barn. I really haven't said a whole lot about it to many people for all these months because, well, I quess because I had to see it to believe it. We hung the work yesterday, I saw, and I believe! The opening reception is this Friday, the 19th-and for some reason I'm not even freaking out about it, odd for me. After that, it's quick get ready for that hip replacement on the 24th, see if I have any better luck this time around than I did in
December! What would the odds be, really, of finding another blood clot or something else to postphone it again? So, it's going to happen this time! And hopefully, by the time of surgery, I'll still be grinning about what a fun reception I had:)
It doesn't matter if you are the mother of the 2 legged variety, the 4 legged furry variety, or if you have a plant on your windowsill-everyone is a Mother of somebody or something. That said, may your day be filled with the simplest of pleasures that make you happy. Like the lowly viola above, about as common as it can get, but also oh so wonderful! First to bloom, last to die, and next year will pop up in the most unexpected places-the kind of tenacity that you have to admire. The kind of tenacity it takes to be a Mother, first up in the morning, last to go to bed at night, and yet you are beautiful to those around you. Now go celebrate, enjoy, and have some fun today!
As of May 1 (hooray, hooray, the first of May-----) The Flying Pig started their grueling summer schedule of being open 7 days a week. But just because they were closed a few days a week, didn't mean the creativity stopped flowing through that place-not a chance. This past winter, the project was to turnwhat couldn't be recycled, into art. In this case, a gigantic flying pig (what else?) hanging way up on the gallery wall. The idea was for folks to chip in their trash that couldn't be recycled, give it it Robyn, and then the magic happened! Mind you, I thought we did na pretty good job of recycling, but this certainly raised the awareness of how much we actually contributed to the landfills, I was shocked actually!
See those cd's? And then see the 4 things on top of each cd that makes it look sort of like a flower? Those are the empty syringes from the injections that I had to give myself this winter to help keep the blood clot under control-they look much better on there than going into my stomach! Which reminds me---there's GREAT news----word is that the blood clot is gone-absolutely gone, no evidence left of it at all kind of gone! Now is that cool or what? They told me that I'll be at high risk for forming another one for the rest of my life so some life style changes will have to be implemented. But that's ok, I don't EVER want to have to sit around with my foot up for 4 months again, ever! Now I can go ahead & get my hip surgery done the end of June, I can move around again, and I can eat veggies again, which you have no idea how good they taste after having them taken away from you. So that light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter again-lets keep it that way!
But I digress, take a close look at the curly tail on the pig-it's all plastic eating utensils. With summer just around the corner, it makes you more aware of those days when you eat outside, using paper plates & plastic forks, to make our life easier by tossing them in the trash instead of washing them, doesn't it? I know I'll think twice before I do that again.
Check out the pig nose-lol! Junk jewelry, well that could have been repurposed many ways, but the eyes are bottle caps. Why can't we recycle those, dumb design on the manufacturer's part!
And look at all the electronic bits & bobs on the head? At this rate, we're going to have the landfills heaped with our junk! Fortunately, most of those who read here don't toss a lot out knowing that somehow, somewhere it will be used in our art. So now we have even more reason to save junk and recruit everyone you know to do the same and see what you can cme up with. Wouldn't this make a great neighborhood or community project? Save stuff all summer, create with it all winter-or something like that. Bottom line, I'm hoping that once again, the gals at the Flying Pig have inspired us all to reach, and do bigger & better things!
For anyone who's been reading this blog for awhile, you're well aware of the fact that I'm fabric impaired, seriously! I love fabric, I buy fabric, I touch fabric, and I have the utmost respect for anyone who can do the magical things to fabric that I've seen. Simply put, I can't sew. But when a friend of mine, Debbie Overton, started talking about KC Willis of Lipstick Ranch and her new online class, Collage Camp, I just had to go check it out to see what all the fuss was about, and I'm glad I did. As if seeing her art wasn't a good enough reason to join, she's got the price reduced right now (so hurry before it goes back up!) and also has the class set up so that you can work at your own pace-perfect! Click here to see a commercial promoting the class, and then see if you can resist:) And if you need even more reasons to go check this out, just click here go read this post to find out how you can win an original KC Willis collage. Yep, she's having a blog drawing! There was something KC said, that had I not already joined the class, I would have after reading what she had to say. With her permission, here's some of what she had to say about her method of teaching this class and why she wanted us to use the same materials that she uses: "I am going to open up a new language for you. the language of fabric collage. To learn that language you may want to start by speaking the same words I do and following along. THEN you take that language and write your own stories." OK, so now go back & read that again, let it sink in, and read it one more time-humor me:) Is that perfect or what? It reminded me of Michelle Ward and one of her favorite sayings, MIYO (make it your own) and you all know how much I adore Michelle. So with everything I've just said, am I going to love this Collage Camp class? You better believe it!
On a quick run up to Door County the other day, we saw this mailbox all decked out for Easter. Too cut to not share with you-enjoy, and have a wonderful day!
Just recently, Eli Mattson announced that he's going to be the new spokesperson for Cellcom, the company that our daughter works for. A couple of weeks ago, there was a small intimate kind of concert given by Eli, that some of the lucky Cellcom employees could attend, and Jessie was one of them! She could bring a guest, and because her partner couldn't attend she decided to bring either
Gary or I with her. Hmmmmm, who to go with her:) As much as I'd liked to have seen this concert, I told Gary to go ahead & go. I knew he'd love it, and a little father/daughter bonding is always a good thing, so off they went.
But I did tell them to get some pictures, and Gary also brought home an autographed CD. Cool! Eli went to high school out here with the kids, I'm think he was a couple of years behind Jeremy, and I'm not 100% sure, but he & Jeremy most likely performed together in one of the high school musicals that LC was known for. This photo of Jessie & Gary with Eli, will be one that'll bring back memories for Gary & Jessie for years.
A little over 10 years ago, when our good friend Russell tried to explain to me what winterguard and WGI were, and that Jeremy should be doing this, little did I know that it would change his life for the better, enrich our lives for having been involved in this activity from the sidelines, and that he'd still be active in what is referred to as "The Sport of the Arts". His marching days are over, but this past year, he was a staff member for Velocity, helping to write some of the choreography for this year's show. Click here and you can watch the show that they performed this year. Watch closely, it's hard to see that besides the obvious dance movements & flag work, they're tossing rifles and sabers up into what seems like the sky, and catching them. Beleive me, it's not as easy as it looks! Here's a few more pictures from the dress rehersal. I didn't realize how much I missed hanging out around all the kids & the activity, until we went to watch this. Maybe next year---
Unless you're lucky enough to be involved in this activity in some capacity, you wouldn't believe how hard these kids work! And they learn life lessons that put simply, helps them grow into good people, learning teamwork, work ethic, and good sportsmanaship to name a few. Ask me sometime and I can elaborate much more:) This year's season is done, but if you have a chance to catch a show somewhere near you, or better yet, have an opportunity to volunteer & help them out in some way, do yourself a favor and participate-you won't regret it!
Jeremy's on the right, Alyssa on the left, and Russell in the middle-all staff for Velocity and friends for life. They're like proud parents after watching the perform their dress rehersal! And by now you've all quessed that I despise being in front of a camera, but I'm breaking that rule for a moment. A picture of Norm, a good friend, my fellow chaperone when we took the winterguard kids to Amsterdam for a show in 1999, and well, just one of the nicest men you'll ever meet, was there and we had our picture taken together, me with my bad hair day & Norm with his arm in a sling from having shoulder surgery earlier in the week. But it was so much fun chatting with him, talking about the fun we had in Amsterdam (hush up, Jeremy!), and just catching up on things. That's all for today-hope you all have a great week end!
with some graphics by Your-Digital-Dream/Traci Sims
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