Artful Adventures

Shop to Remember Tracie Miser

 
Feel like shopping?  A lot of you may remember Tracie Miser, who was very active in altered art of all kinds, and also very good at it.  She was a good friend of mine that I met through the yahoo group for Altered Books where she was the first to volunteer to act as a mentor, and I was her first "mentee".  A friendship was born that I feel very lucky to have had in my life.  She did so much more than offer advice (which she freely offered up), but also introduced me to Valley Ridge Art Studio, insisting I go take some classes with her, something I can't thank her enough for.  That's where we first met in real life, sharing our lives, sitting up late chatting, trying to solve all our problems and had a lot of laughs, too.  If you knew Tracie, you know how much she liked to shop-unbelievable!  I swear she had every stamp, paper, tool, whatever that was out there for sale.  Keep reading, more about this coming up.  Sadly, Tracie passed away last fall, you can read about it here.  Since then, her sister Erika and husband Ron have left their home in WI and moved to Tracie's neighborhood, buying a house near Tracie's house so they could take in her her 3 boys and not disrupt their lives anymore than it already has been.  This will allow them to keep their old friends nearby, go to the same schools, stay in the same sports, etc.  A huge loving sacrifice on their part!  Ok, now to the shopping part, Memories & Beyond in Downer's Grove, IL has agreed to do a sale/benefit this coming weekend to liquidate all of Tracie's supplies-we're talking well over 3000 stamps alone, not to mention everything else she had!  100% of the proceeds are going directly to a trust fund for the boys, since the store is donating all their time, space & staff to this, they're asking to not use charge cards so no more expenses are incurred.  The store is located at 1400 C 75th St, Downer's Grove, Il and the phone# is 630-217-0610 if you have any questions.  Ron, Erika and the Boys will be there during the sale on Sat, 6/26 from 10-6 and again on Sunday 6/27 from 12-6 with a collection of pictures and a collection of Tracie's work.  If you're in the area & can make it, it's going to be amazing!  Sadly, I can't be there, but I will be sending a donation.  If you can manage to do so, all donations would be appreciated and can be sent directly to First Community Bank, 2728 West 75th St, Naperville, IL, 60564, attn: Tracie Miser Children Fund.  I've also got Erika's address if you'd like to send a note to the family, just let me know  I'll send you the address.  Tracie will be missed, but here's a unique chance to help the family, something I feel really good about.  So on this longest day of the year, I'm hoping you all strongly consider shopping or donating-you'll feel great either way!

It Was a Great Day!

 

Jessie, our first born, came out to spend the day with us for my birthday a week or so ago.  It was nice, very nice actually, since we don't often get those "one on one" kind of days with her.  It was just a low key day, just the way we wanted it.  We decided to go over to The Flying Pig, since I've hardly been there at all this summer.  I think I've mentioned that recently, but you seriously feel like family when you're there, and you'd miss your family, right?  Gary likes to always drive a new route to wherever we go, always promoting a car full of groans, as some of short cuts add on a ton of time:)  But this one was perfect!  I couldn't make it to the Art Studio Tour this year, and I really wanted to see Bren Sibilsky's sculpture work.  If you haven't clicked on her name, do yourself a favor and do so, seriously, she's so talented!  Brenda lives just on the outskirts of Algoma, but coming in from the other side of the Flying Pig, so we took that route so I could see where she lives and her sign proclaims that "The Idea Factory"-it's perfect!  Can''t wait to call & go see her!  For anyone wanting to give sculpting a hand, she also teaches at the Peninsula Art School.  So, on with the tour----we came up on this little park, and I do really mean little, but it's charming in a rustic teeny kind of way, and I do want to go back. 

We stopped & had to do a little exploring, the place was full of tangled tree roots and even some of the trees-couldn't you just see those couple of archways for fairies? 

Everywhere you walked, there were those crazy roots and green rocks that lined both sides of the water.  Having been raised "up north", this kind of thing is like going home, finding little creeks, swimming in a river, finding magic wherever it seemed it should be.  Now on to "The Pig" for a cup of coffee, a little birthday treat, and a glimpse of their fall gardens.  Come on up here sometime, and we'll show off the magic that's hidden in this farmland!

  
 

A little entertainment---

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!

Special Treat

 

Today Gary showed me this, what appeared to be a bundle of papers tied up with yarn, didn't have a clue at first glance what it was.  Well, what a treat it is!  His aunt passed away in January, and we inherited her recipes, all glued into handmade books that she had made!  The covers were mostly cereal boxes, flattened out, then filled recipes she had taped or glued onto the pages which consisted of everything from more cereal boxes, to paper bags, junk mail, or large envelopes that mail had arrived in.  Nothing was wasted in her house! 

Each one is neatly labeled, one was even made using an old shirt box for the covers, and all sewn together with bits of yarn into the holes she had punched into these pages.  I remember Katie once talking on her blog about how her Mom, and now Katie herself, saved cereal boxes and any other box that they got their hands on-now I really know why!  This is the type of thing that could so easily have been thrown away, and in reality is such a treasure.  Sometimes, (ok, most times) I get so hung up on doing things "right" and trying to get it as close to perfect as I'm capable of, that it takes some of the joy out of creating go flying right out the window.  This is such a perfect example of a straightforward approach of getting the job done, making it functional, using materials at hand, and not stressing out about it.  It wasn't made to stand the test of time, or win a prize, or to question the ability of the skill level needed to create this.  Instead it was done to serve a purpose, has such great character, this is so much better, perfect in fact!  I never could get any of her recipes to turn out right, maybe now I can:) 

This was just too sweet to not share, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!  I ran into a blog post on Beth's blog today, asking her readers to send her suggestions of pictures they'd like to see her take today.  I'd like to ask my readers to find a treasure in their house, old or new, that they'd like to share-like I just did with the cookbooks.  Take a picture, post it, and tell us what makes it special to you.  If you don't have a blog, just leave a comment to tell me, and if you do have a blog leave a comment with the link so I can go see.  This could be fun!  And don't forget to go over to Beth's and give her some ideas!

Reflections of July

 

This past couple of weeks, I've been quieter than normal, as I always am the first half of July.  Yesterday was the anniversary of my sister's death, July 18, 1976.  That date just sticks with me, I can picture my Dad answering the phone when my Mother called from the hospital, waking up my brother to tell him that Gina was gone, it's just like it happened yesterday.  So every year when July rolls around and we get the hot & humid weather, I just brace myself for "that day" to come & be gone.  Today I feel better about it, now it's behind me-until next year. After always admiring how Nina has often captured rain drops with her camera, showing reflections of the surroundings in those little drops, we finally got it-yay!  Not raindrops, but from the heavy dew that we've been having in the mornings from the extreme humidity that's planted itself over the state.  Funny how sometimes the drops look like little crystals, and the extreme close up of the foliage itself has been interesting.  Like life, if you always settle for taking everything at face value and don't look closely, you'll never know what you may miss.  So look around today, look closely, and tell me what you discovered, I'd love to hear about it. Our hollyhocks have never looked better this year, standing tall & proud.  But somehow they managed to seed themselves all around the outside edge of a garden, so the middle is completely hidden.  Another project to tackle next year and get it back under control. The hollyhock leaves get attacked each & every year by bugs that leave this leaf skeleton behind.  But it's ok, I'll cut it off, save it, and someday it'll find it's way onto a collage.  I love the colors & textures surrounding us this time of year, with some plants just hitting their prime and others leaving behine the texture of a spent flower head.  Always gets the mind whirling for future art projects.  Which remind me, there's a necklace partially finsihed that's calling my name!  Enjoy the week end!