Gotta Love Pavlov

Yesterday I actually managed to get some artwork done!  OK, I'm not sure if it qualifies as art if I'm using a pattern.  The intensity of focus is something I've missed.  It takes much longer to turn two pieces of floral wire and a bunch of ridiculously sticky floral tape into bird legs than I had anticipated.  It's a good thing I had the garage door closed (it was freezing and I had my little space heater zooming) because I think I had my tongue sticking out to one side, clearly aiding me in my bird-leg making efforts, as I focused on how to make proper legs with too-short wire.  It would have been embarrassing to have been spotted by the neighbors looking like that.  In any event, I enjoyed plowing through my stash of fabric and finding the perfect trio for the project.  Not everything from the indoor studio has made it to the garage studio, so I found myself muttering a few choice words under my breath each and every time I realized that something I needed was in the house.  Did I mention that it was pouring rain?  And that there is no path from the garage to the house free of said rain?

Today I had hoped to clean up for a while (my children are savages) and then move on to the next stage of bird making.  There were a multitude of distractions - the charming Egyptian gentleman that lives around the corner feels compelled to come to the door and share a bit of his religious beliefs with me in exchange for letting him pick all of the oranges he wants.  Does one get assigned a special place in you-know-where when one ducks and hides after hearing his car pull up?  I just wanted to get some art work done!

Then I found myself having to actually holster an air horn (ok, I don't have an actual holster; the front pocket of my jeans served me well).  One of my two cats has discovered the kitty version of carpet sliders.  Carpet sliders are the most magnificent invention for boys named Kevin with carpeted homes.  They are made of flat pieces of plastic with velcro straps and are worn like very unattractive shoes, then the boy runs and stops so as to skid across the carpeting.  Sox, the deviant cat, started in the living room and absolutely bolted across the house, leaping to the dining room table that is complete with a lovely red holiday tablecloth.  He was sliding at great speed, and I actually watched him spin like an ice skater, making horrible scratches with his back claws in the wood.  I lost my mind, yelled, blasted the air horn and watched him bolt.  Hiding behind the sofa while I returned the tablecloth to its proper state, that rotten cat waited until I left the room, wound himself up and did it again.  And again.  And again.  There has been a lot of hollering, blasting of the air horn, and a cat doing a good impression of Fred Flintstone.  In order to save the dining room table, I've propped the air horn in the middle of it.  Pavlov had it right.  So far, so good.

But no progress on the bird or the art journal.  Without any kids home for more than an hour, I'm going to try to get something done.

Stupid cat.

P.S.  The air horn works great for arguing kids.  It's a most glorious Mom tool.  :-)

Stepping Out

Moving the studio to the garage has been a mixed bag for me.  It's often noisy, and it's a serious pain in the patootie to have to shut down the big door for security purposes every time I have to go into the house to retrieve something.  My books are still in the house and, after the little puddle of water I saw inside the garage door after the sprinklers ran, I think the books are going to stay indoors.  I will say that the inconvenience does keep me from over-referencing books! 

Stepping out of the house and away from the hustle and bustle with kids, cats, televisions and phones does have its perks.  I have actually begun to make headway on my art journal.  I feel a little flummoxed by the project (am I ever happy with my own work?) but have plodded along a bit with my iTunes going on the laptop.

Today I stepped a little more out of my comfort zone and signed up for an online class with artist Susan Sorrell.  An article about her appeared in a magazine I purchased about a year ago and I must admit to returning to the article and loving the photos time and time again.  Her artwork is fun, colourful and engages a lot of the skills that I've not used for a long time such as applying embroidery and beading and applying them to fabric collage.  How exciting!

In the meantime, I continue to try to do a little something every day in my new art cave.  We'll see what I can accomplish today before the rain starts.   I've got this much done - the journal stitched, the pages painted and the first few bits of paper collage started, all with the glare of the light coming in from the garage door windows.  Whoops!

Another Day...Little Done

I had the joy (sarcasm alert) of spending the morning at the doctor's office getting an over-due peek-a-boo-oscopy.  For once I felt like the practitioner was listening to me!  I'm sure this is TMI, but several years ago I had bilateral breast reduction surgery in an effort to qualm the never ending migraine headaches.  It was a miracle!  I haven't had one since.  However, I was left with what has yet to be identified, initially thought to be a hematoma near an incision site.  Eleven years later, it's still there and I think it's bigger.  I've expressed concern to several physicians over the years, and they've all blown it off telling me it was probably scar tissue.  Probably?  Really?  We're going to guess, cross our fingers and swing chickens and hope for the best?  So the mammogram scheduled for today was cancelled and, instead, I was referred to the breast clinic at the hospital.  I'm not going to fret, but just plug along taking control of health issues as they arise.  I've lost 42 lbs. (with a good chunk still to go) and I'm working out HARD several days a week trying to improve my health.  Needless to say, the elliptical isn't in the studio, so guess what I'm NOT getting done.  Sigh.

Today I decided that I won't get any art done, but I will get my son to the sports shop to order his Letterman jacket, having lettered in marching band, and get the house really tidy so that tomorrow I can focus on art for the entire day.  I am committing to looking away from any "how to" book or magazine article and just play, going to the next step on my art journal.  The Mom job is certainly taking a front seat these days. 

Wish me luck.

Delays and Distraction

It's almost 2:30 p.m. and I haven't accomplished much today.  I did work out for an hour and a half, distressed that I still have a muffin top.  Well, more than a muffin top, but I continue to hope that some miracle will occur and I'll get off of the elliptical thinner than when I got on the beast.  I need one of those trick mirrors like the ones in the dressing room at Nordstrom.  The dresses always look great during the trying-on phase, then my picture is taken at an event wearing said dress and somehow the camera added 30 pounds and a puffier muffin.  Ugh.  There are no skivvies tight enough.

I'm distracted by the holidays.  I love the holidays, but it's hard to focus on anything like art and impossible to catch up on housework.  The loss of my studio to my "boomerang" daughter also means the loss of the sacred hiding place for Christmas gifts as they are delivered.  This year, most of the gifts are larger than one can shove under a bed or hide in a shared closet.  As long as we're still fetching the mountains of holiday decorations from the garage, that isn't exactly a safe haven either.  It's good that no one in our family wants their holiday surprise spoiled, so no one is hunting or snooping.  Maybe the best thing is to find time to wrap gifts, a specific paper for each recipient so that I can avoid tell-tale name tags, and "hide" them under a blanketed table in the pseudo-studio, aka the garage.

My distractability has caused more than a pause in being creative.  I'm so glad I turned down the request to paint a cradle (for free, no less).  Now and again when I find myself in the garage, I also find myself sitting at the desk and slopping a little more paint on my art journal.  I had hoped to finish the collage part by last week but, alas, have been constantly distracted and hit snags in the schedule.  My goal today - get in there as soon as the yard dudes are finished blowing dirt all over the front of my house and collage just one page!  I need to make something.

Loneliness Stinks

Three and half years have passed since I left a fabulous job at the hospital to be a stay-at-home mom and artist.  In that time, I've done too little.  Worse, I've lost nearly all human contact and, for whatever reason, am really struggling with that issue this week.  The holidays are always fun in our home, though sparsely attended.  Usually the table is set for just my husband and, if I'm lucky, both of my kids are present and accounted for.  We play goofy board games, watch seasonal movies and just have a lot of fun goofing off.  Last year I turned 50 and that meant a MOB at the table, with family flying in from all corners of the country.  What fun!  But my in-laws live hundreds of miles and many states away, and my sister lives across the country and the economic environment has put quite the damper on travel for everyone.  Sigh.

So what do I do?  I feel like I did in high school.  Frequently the new kid (many times as I was a military brat), I would watch clusters of friends that had known each other for years, and I just couldn't seem to wiggle my way into the crowd.  What would it have been like to go to school with the same kids for more than three years?  I'm very outgoing and have a lot of fun talking with people, so it isn't a matter of being shy.  My husband's staff insist that I, "the party," am included in their office lunches so that they spend the hour (plus) goofing and laughing, so it's not that I'm dull.  And contrary to the tone of my blog, my spill-my-guts place, I'm quite the goof in person.  So what is it?!?  I just always feel like the odd girl out.  I have no artsy or craftsy friends locally, as I've fussed about before.  They've got to be out there somewhere.  I'm losing my sanity being alone so much, holding full-fledged conversations with cats.  THAT is the true sign of insanity.

While I've joked about placing an advertisement in the "Want" ads for artsy friends, there's a part of me that is thinking there's got to be a way to do such a thing.  Where do I begin?

Here kitty, kitty, kitty.  I need a chat.

Moving Day

The mom and artist tangled today.  On the artist front, it was with mixed emotions that I started moving the contents of my studio from what had been my son's small (8'x10') bedroom when he was younger (he now resides in what had been big sister's room when she was home) to the garage.  On the mom side, my "Boomerang" daughter will be moving back home in December, but she spends so many nights here already that I thought it would be nice to start making the indoor studio more like a special room for her.  We don't know how long she will be with us, though I imagine it will likely be a year or so.  She is struggling with her first semester of graduate school after ending a long relationship, wrapping up a temporary position and applying like mad for a full time position.  Trying to find a job in this economy is a nightmare.  So for now, she'll be back home and I'll enjoy having her company.  We're going to do some serious bridal-tv-watching together.  The boys in the house aren't going to know what hit them.  Bahaha!

The new digs

Trying to make due in the garage is going to be a challenge.  The good news is that I get terrific internet reception on my Mac.  I regret I'll be losing my fabulous wide screen digital tv, but I'm NOT going to pay to have a cable line dropped in the garage for a year.  I can always stream on the internet if I need to hear human voices, or pop a DVD into the computer.  What the heck, I'll just work with the garage door open and chat with neighbors as they pass on their walks.  I may make new friends :-)  It will be a while before they realize they'd better change their route if they want to make good time on their trek.  Ooh, maybe I'll put a coffee pot out there and lure new friends in with the smell of freshly brewed espresso.  I papered the walls with my inspiration images, put up my cork boards and white board, set up my Bernina and connected all things electrical.  I'm good to go.

There are likely to be some distractions outside, such as things like the Goodyear blimp.  I was thinking, "That is the loudest, slowest plane in the universe!" when I stepped outside the garage and saw this visitor passing by...

In any event, not a day goes by that I don't appreciate all that is good in life.  I'm only 12 years younger than my mother was when she passed away and remind myself every day that she dreamed a lot, but didn't DO.  I want to do.  OK, I know that's bad grammar, but it's true.  I had a great day this last week dodging the phone, computer and television and look forward to another day like that tomorrow.  Time to work on a holiday project.  Woohoo!

Studio Time Turned Errand Time

I had good intentions.  First, I find NO paper in the house for the printer.  Four people use the paper and printer and not one goober could wave the flag to tell me that they'd taken the last of it, so errand #1 was to get paper.  Then my distractible self saw Cost Plus and I just KNEW there was something I intended to pick up there, but couldn't remember what so I wandered through the store, growing increasingly stressed at the sight of all of the Christmas goodies and the long mental list of things I need to do to get ready for Christmas, so I ran out with empty hands.  Then there was the trip to the grocery store for specific items for a wonderful dinner.  During the grocery trip, my husband called while on a break from stressful board meetings to say that he wants to go out for dinner tonight and reminded me that the daughter for whom I planned this particular dinner has grad school classes tonight.  Duh.  I should have remembered.  Of course it's just as well since the majority of ingredients I needed were either unavailable or inedible.  I ask myself, how can I live in CA and not be able to find a single avocado in the store that I can eat in the next two days?  They're like rocks!  Grrr.  Oh, and I was reminded that yes, there ARE shirts to pick up at the cleaners.  I feel like the maid.

Everyone is on notice.  Tomorrow I will not answer the phone or check in on Facebook.  I am plotting a couple of art projects that are just for the family, so there's no pressure to produce a marketable anything.  I am going to take the great advice I've been offered in the last day and just make something, be creative and have fun.  THEN I'll go to another store and try to find a stupid avocado.