Family Ties

Today I was totally sidetracked and distracted. Instead of working on art, I decided to go back to working on my family tree. With half of my family having been here for generations and then being first generation American on the other side of the family, I have quite the task before me.

I decided to take a shot in the dark and Google the name of one of my cousin's kids. I was stunned with what popped up. He was shot and killed a little over a year ago, the victim of just being in the wrong place at the wrong time while bad guys with guns were chasing someone else in a bad neighborhood. He was only 44 years old and had five children, three of which are very young.

On a more positive note, I found another family member from the other side of the tree. Quite by accident, I found her husband on Facebook. I love the internet! He was able to provide me with her email address and I was able to send her information I had as well as ask for information to fill in the blanks. For whatever reason, I seem to have been the sole recipient of all old family photos and film (it's a good thing since I'm the only one into genealogy). Being a source for these items gives me a good foot in the door when swapping information.

I miss having a sense of family. The life of a military brat means constantly moving. We were the only military family in our clan, so everyone else stayed in generally the same area while we moved around the country and across the globe. While my cousins were able to spend a lot of time with each other and with grandparents, we were lucky to see them every three years. Now that we're all adults, everyone is scattered and no one keeps in touch any longer. I am vowing to assume to role of "family gatherer" and we ARE going to reconnect! I am determined. How fun it would be for my children to have cousins from my side of the family that are more than just a faded photo to them.

Progress at last

OK, it wasn't great progress, but I did get something done. I just forgot to post the pic which I'll do tomorrow. Today I started on Round II with this dopey magazine swap project. I decided to play around with Photoshop and a photo that I've had for a long time, but didn't dare use without permission of the subject :-) I've tweaked the photo and will do more altering tomorrow. It's too dark right now to do fine details. At least I did it! So there's not much more to share other than the photo in its early stage and prior to other-than-digital alteration.

Frustrated and Unproductive Again

Time to fuss. I am at an absolute standstill on my current project. That would be the one I wanted to have completed this week. My mind races with mediocre ideas. There are a lot of them floating around in my head, but all lousy. However, I will not give up! I spent a long time in the studio today sketching, then more time perusing books and magazines for inspiration. I kept thinking of my earlier blog entry about people who copy other artists' work and am probably being overly cautious. With my husband out of town and leftover pizza for dinner (thank goodness for having had a little party here yesterday), that gives me more time to work - no cooking and no cleanup. Time to get back at it.

Back in the saddle

Artist's Life: Today I spent a lot of time in the studio. I started the first step of a new art doll, though I need to get more clay. Keeping my sketch book on the desk has turned out to be a good and helpful move - when I come up with an idea for a project other than the one I'm working on (my brain can't seem to focus on one thing at a time), I can jot down a word or two to remind me of the idea. I'm still plotting along on the pendant project and am quickly running out of time. I need to give myself a deadline. A former boss once told me that I worked so much better under pressure, so every now and then she'd just stand by my desk and yell, "Hurry, hurry, hurry!" and laugh before she got nailed by whatever I had handy to throw at her. I miss Mary Jane. I will give myself one full week (taking into account the four days I have to get ready for a party - they don't count). Ugh, now I've GOT to get it done. I will post a photo by next Friday. There, it's done. I'll embarrass myself wildly if I don't meet the goal.

Mom's Life: My son has his first girlfriend. I'm trying to be the cool mom, but it's hard. They are so different. She was telling me at lunch about getting into fights at school because someone called her "chicken" and she was going to prove she wasn't by slapping the other girl...way out of my experience as a mom. I'm feeling like a snob and trying to stop. They're just kids, not engaged. That will be my mantra this week.

Silly family

My husband's nephew is one of my favorite people in the world. When I was first married, he was just a kid that teased about my engagement ring being just so SMALL (he was right and my husband has fixed that little problem :-) He was ten and I was 18, but the age gap seemed huge. We lived near each other for a year, then both moved, leaving us on opposite coasts. For years, we had very little contact. Not by conscious choice, but I think it was just laziness and distraction (grad school, babies, always moving). I can't pinpoint how or when it changed (probably when he married the fabulous Marcia), but I'm so glad it did. Reflecting on earlier posts, I am reminded to appreciate the good stuff in life. Travis is one of those good things. No one can tell a nastier joke and make me laugh so hard, no one I know is as brutally honest but still a keeper. He loves my kids and they think the world of their oldest cousin. We don't love the same bands, we don't share any hobbies (barely on the same planet, we're so different), he loves dogs while I love cats, and he'll never, ever be able to talk as much as me even if he tried. I'm truly hard to beat - ha. Oh, and he totally stinks at playing slug bug because he can't accept that his rules are wrong. I love giving him a hard time about that. I don't know why I felt to write about him today, but I feel good sharing. I hope everyone has such a clown in their lives. You rock, Sucky!

There's so much stuff in the studio!

The Artist's Life: I figured that the only way I was going to get anything done was to just go in the studio, shut the door, pick up something, anything, and start using whatever I picked up. With no formal training, I really define the term self taught. So I decided to play with watercolor pencils and combined a little leaf. It's not as easy as it looks! Using a scrap of old textured water color paper, I scribbled, dampened, dried (I cheat and use one of those heating tools for embossing because I am the queen of impatient), scribbled and watered down some more, then applied multi-coloured leafing material. None of it is beautiful, but I had fun just playing. This experiment has inspired me to do more of this every day - just pull open a drawer or get into the closet, grab material and do what I can with it.


The Mom Life: Kevin was moaning and groaning this morning about feeling nauseous. I asked if he felt he needed to stay home from school, and he said yes. He has snuck into the kitchen two times now, telling me he feels "barfy," but that he's also hungry. Me thinks perhaps someone is enjoying a ditch day after the stress of finals more than someone is sick, the big fibber dog. He worked hard last week, struggling with a pretty miserable head cold and impacted sinuses during finals week, so I'll give him the "stay home" pass this once. I've suggested he doesn't need to moan any more, particularly after asking me if he's allowed to play video games. Puh-leeze.