Q13

I had so much fun with this. *e*'s question number 13, "what was my worst (best) hairstyle experience to date?" One of the things about scrapping that appeals to my packrat spirit is that no piece of paper is too small to save. Here's my tag and what a confession!

Fresh Air

It was such a productive day here. I spent about an hour and a half this morning just putting away clutter, throwing out clutter and reducing piles. I would pick up one thing and not put it down until I had dealt with it. Then I would move on to another. And another. I threw out some very old stuff that I thought I was attached to but in the past year what really matters to me has changed. Then the garden got about two hours of raking and cleaning out. I managed to clean out the perennial beds at the back of the house, re-set the fencing around them and the same for the raspberry bushes. I got the table de-tarped and the shovels and hockey sticks away. The rest of the day was spent at the park. The sun felt hot enough that I put some sunscreen on both of us; a friend of mine got quite a bad sunburn on her face last week at the same park in just an hour so I was scared into it. In his six years Riley has yet to have a sunburn. It's something I take quite seriously since I grew up in an era before sunscreen and with the lifestyle of playing outside all day in the summer, I would burn over and over just about every day. I have blistered, peeled and freckled more than I care to remember. And with fair skin, a mother with a grade 4 melanoma, and my own personal history of a benign type of skin cancer that necessitated plastic surgery just above my eye, I have reason to be a little bit cautious, maybe overly so. I have to weigh the odds of the chemicals in the sunscreen versus the chance of getting a sunburn and I've been through all the literature, and all the latest reports. *sigh* We can't we just enjoy running outside, skin bare to the elements? My dermatologist wants me to wear a 60 spf every day, rain, shine or snowstorm regardless whether I'm outside or in. That I find excessive and feel I'm educated enough to make some of my own decisions about that. Such a rebel.

I do like the feeling of having worked outside in the fresh air because I resent being cooped up for so long, layers of clothes covering my body, feet encased, not breathing. There is such a sense of satisfaction when one task is done, standing back and admiring the order (which, of course never lasts long in a garden). I neglected to bring out any of the lawn chairs in case I would be tempted to plant my self in one and then not get up. It's been done once or twice. So I'm a nice kind of tired tonight. I really feel aired out.

Guess who is back? Bono showed up to do a little break-dance for me.

Fogey

This is what I heard at supper, "Mom, sometimes I like you so much I feel like crying". Yeah, he says that now, until he realizes he has fossils for parents. You see, my idea of a grand Saturday night is just what I am looking forward to tonight. A long hot bath with a book, then into bed with either some BritComs or more of the book, knowing that there is no alarm tomorrow morning.

And speaking of books, I just finished, "Letters from The Dhamma Brothers," by Jenny Phillips. I saw the author on Oprah a number of months ago. Not the Oprah show (not that there is anything wrong with the Oprah show, it's just that I don't watch it with any kind of regularity these days) but on one of her Soul Series podcasts. She was talking about a documentary film she had made introducing a form of meditation called Vipassana, based on the teachings of the Buddha, to the toughest prison in Alabama. The results were astounding. And after reading the book she wrote following making the film, I had great respect for the prisoners who went through the program (ten intensive days comprised of ten hours of meditation, no talking and a special diet) because I wasn't sure I could physically go through it or emotionally go through the gunk that comes up under those circumstances. It gives real hope that rehabilitation is possible, even under dire conditions. It also gives credibility to dedicated meditation, something I have been a believer in for a very long time.

And if you haven't read Coriander's blog in a while (I hadn't because it seemed she had taken a blog-break), she has a couple of new posts up that I almost peed myself reading. Now there is someone who should be writing comedy (maybe she is, come to think of it!) for a living.

Finally, co-incidence or kismet, call it what you will, came in and slapped me upside the head recently. I saw the book, "I Thought It Was Just Me," on some one's blog, perhaps the Queen of Arts. And then I saw it on a few other blogs, including one today, linked from Beth's Books Etc. Last night I was in Chapters shopping for the two birthday parties Riley has lined up and guess what I see in the Bargain Books. Yup, so I bought it because I recognize when the universe is telling me to read a book.

Haiku Friday

Guess who this is about!

Learning about you

Teaches me about myself
Sneaky bugger, you

How Do You Spell Relief?

Remember that old commercial - how do you spell relief? - and then the roving reporter on the street would find people who would spell out R-O-L-A-I-D-S. I don't know why I thought of that this morning but when my accountant called with the tally of my tax forms, that came to mind. It appears that between one government body to pay, one sending me a refund, and the accountant's fees, I'll break even, maybe be around $100 to the good. As a self-employed person that is such a relief. I felt so good that I went and put on these:

Forgive me the socks, please. I was hoping it would warm up enough today to shed them, eventually. When we were in Florida we were out at the mall one night and I tried on a pair of Sketchers. My son is always saying, Sketchers! Sketchers! Sketchers! Gotta have Sketchers! To which I thought it was a peer-group thing. But when I put them on I didn't want to take them off long enough to pay for them. Since I've been home I haven't had a chance to wear them. So it was celebration day in all kinds of ways here.

I also got a couple of hours in my studio, working three different pieces and doing this tag. The question made me go crazy with bright colors, happy things. I underestimated how much space the lettering would take but it works well enough. Like Emily Falconbridge says, it's not so much the art, but the story behind that will endure.

Welcome

This morning while I was running around the house getting us ready, Riley was busy working on something. He asked me to spell out "welcome" for him so I did as I raced from room to room, chore to chore. On the way out the door we passed his latest fort, the new and improved one with spy gear and a list of who is allowed in (I'm not on the list, by the way). Nevertheless, this is what I saw at the entrance to the fort:


Man, he cracks me up.

And on another unrelated topic, shouldn't there be guidelines for what constitutes a baby carrot? I pulled this handful out of the bag yesterday while preparing my lunch. The one on the far left, a good five inches long, is, in my humble opinion, hardly a baby. Well, at least I know they aren't those cattle carrots shaved down to resemble the real thing.

Wordless Wednesay

Since this is my first Wordless Wednesday post, I need to have a few words to go along with this. I'm not sure where I first saw it, but there is a trend amongst (certain) bloggers to just go visual on Wednesday. And Wednesday being one of my downtown working days, it's a relief to not have to come up with something pithy or clever at the end of the day. So here's my first Wordless Wednesday post and it is kind of fitting since yesterday I posted a picture of the same thing, only at the end of it's life span. Whereas this shot is more like what I am starting to feel like again, fresh(er) and new(er).

Done

This is what I have felt like this last week:

Done. Spent. Used up. I must be in some kind of a slump or a frump. I'm trying to hold it up, hold it together but inside it's all like these tulips. When I came home tonight after a very l-o-n-g day the light was incredible at my back window where they sit so I grabbed my camera and shot on manual. Not my best work, but they more or less convey how I've been feeling. I also think we've got some mild gastro (how does one "think" they have something like that?!) and to add to that I have a number of fairly important aspects of my life that are in limbo. So it's kind of hard to say if it's all psychological.


I did find something to get excited about through the Queen of Arts blog. A while back she posted about a book she had found called Creative Awakenings by Sheri Gaynor. She, herself, was so excited about it that I ordered it and it arrived last week. On the weekend I had a chance to really get into it and I would swear that the very beginning of the book called, "The Adventure Begins", could have been written about me. I got sucked right in. There is also a website set up to go along with the book and I invite you to go and have a look-see. I've already met two other Canadian artists there, funny how on the www, I would find other people right in my own backyard.




And a little eye-candy - Riley eating a pot of Nerds from his Easter stash, gotta love the face of a kid knee-deep in candy:

Success

After sweating about it and planning it for the last couple of weeks, Riley's Easter treasure hunt was a hit. From the moment he got up, saw his basket with the lifesaver gummies and the rabbit footprint we were up and running. It only took half an hour and he had followed all the clues and found the booty. The treasure hunt was a great idea, not that I can really take personal credit for it since I'm sure half of the free world, and maybe half of the not-free world, were doing the same thing. But it provided a focus. As an only child he doesn't have the excitement of competition from siblings to coax him on to find all the hidden eggs. But you know, it could have gone either way. I'm realizing that as much as I think I know my son, there is so much I don't know about him. And that is my own challenge, the learning - and my reward is seeing him truly happy and allowing magic into his life. Here he is somewhere around clue number 3:


And again around clue number 5:


Not to mention the eggs hidden in the bathtub:


And true success on his part:


Later in the morning we went to the Biosphere, which is the former American pavilion from our Expo 67. I was seven years old when Montreal hosted Expo and I remember a lot of it. Since we lived in the city, we had "passports" to the site for the whole summer, I can even remember the black turtle neck sweater I was wearing in the photo on that passport, so I even remember the original American pavilion. For anyone who is not that familiar with my city, it is one of Bucky Fuller's geodesic domes, an immense structure that seems very space age, (think Epcot in Disney) certainly for 1967. And now it has been converted into an interactive ecological site. The first section was the most fun for the kids - all about water. We are quite spoiled here being able to turn on our taps for a seemingly endless supply of cheap water. One of the things that Riley did was a kind of "chop wood and carry water". They had hand pumps at one end of the room and jugs which you would fill, quite slowly, and then you had to carry the full jug across the room and dump in into an old claw-foot bathtub, trying to fill it. Equally slowly. The concept is to see how long it takes to make the water that we soak in every night.

And another shot of Riley walking on pontoons, which of course meant his feet were soaked within the first five minutes:


Amongst other things there was a climbing wall made out of something recyclable (just what escapes my memory at the moment):

And to finish the day, they had an amazing outdoor play park which had very unusual structures - things that use centrifugal force for spinning (lots of those, I almost tossed my lunch a few times), here's just a sweet shot, and you can see it was cold today - we have hats and mitts on again, I believe it was -7 with the windchill:

I'm a Kid Again!

I don't know why I love Easter so much since I've had Riley and he's been conscious enough to do the Hunt. I found this online last year, but didn't do it, this year...well here it is! Riley asked for a certain kind of Spy Gear kit instead of candy, thinking that the Easter Bunny is kind of like Santa Claus and will surely come through if he wished hard enough. So I made a treasure hunt throughout the house, 10 clues in plastic eggs with one or two little chocolates to end up with a bunch of Spy Gear gadgets in a nice little metal case. It's not the specific kit he wanted (we saw that in the US and I couldn't find it here), but I think the bits and pieces I did find are far better than what was in the other kit. I also hid a couple of other Caramilk eggs (I plan on eating those) and placed some rabbit foot prints around the house - a stencil with baby powder. Oh I can hardly wait! Take a look:


That's one of the Caramilk eggs in the corner of his green chair. Now I'm going to try to contain the dogs so they don't traipse through the nice little bunny prints. And another shot from today - Riley insisted on eating his meals today with chop sticks. This morning's eggs and toast, he actually did really well but I don't know where he got the idea or the talent.

Animalerie

Yesterday Riley and I met up with some of his friends at the mega mall to see the Easter animals. We usually go to our local small mall and I kind of missed not going there this year but in comparison to what we saw, our usual lot is a bit of a scruffy bunch. And there was always this very old, very randy pony. I was beginning to wonder what I would say to Riley if he asked about it, but I guess this year I don't have to worry about that. Here are a few shots - this other mall had a lovely pony with braids in its hair:


And there were a couple of pigs, one of which looked like he was half vulcan:


The requisite ugly turkey (with all due respect to turkeys):


The Easter bunny, storing up his energy for his big night tonight:


The surreal peacock:


And an alpaca (at least I don't think it's a llama as they are usually taller) with a really nasty eye booger:
Lastly, a camera-toting 6-year old with rabbit ears doing the classic "taking a picture of you taking a picture of me":


The previous night I had been up five times - three with my dog and twice with Riley so when he got up at 5:30, raring to go, I wept that I really needed more rest so he played quietly until 7:00. Once I was up, he insisted on going out in the yard to do my chores for me. He started raking and tidying up the yard. For all the gears he has cranked this last week, he turns around and does something so thoughtful it brings me to tears (never mind I have to go and clean up after he's cleaned up). Not much of a fashion plate, but who's looking so early on a Saturday morning?

Playing With Fire

I feel like I'm tempting the goddesses, but I've put all the winter boots away in the basement and am washing the snow suit, hats and mitts. Be that what it may.

Haiku Friday

What day is it now?
The holiday weeks confuse
Nice to sleep in, though

Focus

If we get the weather they are predicting these next few days, I think I will be able to bring out some lawn chairs, unwrap the patio table. Of course if I do that I really should start raking the lawns and cleaning out the perennial beds. All kinds of things are coming up now. Mind you, they are all still green but I expect I will have tulips in another 3 weeks. Now there's a healthy dose of optimism for you.

I haven't been feeling very optimistic this week. I've tried to keep my focus on the things that are good in my life, the things that are working. Sometimes it all just falls apart, though. Luckily this week I have the full moon to blame. Things with Riley have been kind of tense too. I'm not sure why, if it's the moon again or maybe he's just annoyed with me. But he's not been himself. I hope the side I've been seeing of him is not the self he is growing into because if it is, then there is big trouble ahead. I think he's testing boundaries, you know - seeing if some things still piss me off. Yup, they do. Or to see if he can get away with being a disrespectful jerk. Nope, he can't.

I did get quite a bit of studio time today and it felt good. I've got three more tags to show for it. The first one, a question I've been cogitating for quite awhile, "What was the last brave thing you did?" I started with a red background to symbolize courage, and stamped some lion's heads on it. The second one, "Name 5 films that inspire you creatively", was a tough one because it's been so long since I've really watched films that aren't geared toward a much, much younger audience. I did see "Frida" fairly recently and then when I was a university student I was obsessed with Wim Wenders films, go figure. Another film that has always stuck with me was, "Being There", then lastly I listed the Lina Wertmuller version (and far superior version) of, "Swept Away", because of the incredible colors. It's been decades since I watched it but in my mind's eye I can still see it so clearly. The last one was easy, "What keeps you up at night?" because this week was largely sleepless. And I liked putting down in words the things that make me toss and turn, it makes me so much more conscious of them and hopefully able to work some of them out.


Another thing I worked on today came from Collage Diva's site. She suggests making your own paint pages for collage so using some of her techniques, I worked on about four different papers. This was the most successful one, done on bristol board. It begins with free form, stream of consciousness journaling over the whole page, then covering that with an acrylic wash, followed by stamping with gesso, then covering again with a darker acrylic wash. I finished it off by stamping with one of my new Tim Holz stamps. It turned out quite nice. Here's a shot of the whole sheet and a detail.


The other samples need some more work before I would dare to share. But this one is quite nice. I tried all kinds of paper, some inkjet that I use for printing collage sheets that is archival and acid-free, another type that is 100% cotton made for printing CVs and matte presentation paper. They all revealed different weaknesses but it was a marvelous learning experience and I'm glad I did it.

Book

Last night I cancelled anything else I was planning on doing so I could finish "Your Sad Eyes and Unforgettable Mouth," by Edeet Ravel. It was an incredible book. Under 300 pages, I read it in four days (two of them full-time work days, which isn't to say I was slacking off there!). There is not a scene or character in the book that is wasted and the prose is just that. I highly recommend it. A few years ago I read her, "Ten Thousand Lovers, " which takes place in Israel and am now in hot pursuit of the second one in that trilogy.

Chocolate

I actually had this thought today, "I'll be OK once I start eating chocolate". And I was, for a little while. But today was the longest day. Every time I looked at my watch, it was three minutes later than the last time I had looked at it. A four-day weekend looms with mixed feelings. It means two extra days the alarm doesn't go off, but it also means two days I would normally have in my studio but instead will be spent keeping a six-year old from sure boredom without the t.v. on. Oh, who am I kidding? The t.v. will end up on and he will still be bored.

An Amazing People and Deeds Award goes to my neighbor and the father of one of Riley's friends who has offered to take Riley after school each Wednesday from now until June. My regular sitter who is likely not coming back to us after her car accident has left a hole in our hearts and a snafu as far as what to do with Riley after school on one of my regular working days. When this father heard, he gladly offered to take him to his home with his own kids until I can pick him up. It is also a win-win situation for him because his daughter and Riley are apparently going to be married and now they have a guaranteed day in the week they will spend together. But a really generous offer nevertheless. I am very grateful, thank you Peter.

Gone Phishing

About a week ago I received an email message in my yahoo inbox purporting to come from Yahoo. They said they were manually verifying each existing account in order to delete all unused accounts thereby creating more space. I was kind of suspicious since they asked for my user name, password, birth date and country of origin. The message threatened that if I didn't provide this information by return email within two weeks my email account would be permanently deleted. I did nothing for a week, my spider senses all a-tingle with fraud and then today I received two more identical messages but from a different sender. I spent about half an hour searching the yahoo site looking for information on this "manual update" or about some kind of scam. And to give yahoo a lot of credit, they responded within hours to my emails to them about this "scam", and not by an automated message but by a real person with a real name. In case you need to be reminded, never send your password to anyone. Anyone who needs it already has it. What annoys me even more than just being a potential victim of such a scam is that they used the fear factor of losing my entire email account. So today when I went back and re-read another time or two the messages that were sent to me I found grammatical errors. Not glaringly obvious ones, ones that were easy to overlook at a first read. The graphics provided were damn good too. Now if only they used this power for good instead of evil, imagine the world we could be living in?

And so this isn't strictly a bah-humbug post, here's a photo of Riley taken when we were putting up our Christmas decorations in December. We bought a new string of lights that were simple white snowflakes that light up by battery power and are really quite nice, even not on a tree.

And the full moon is almost upon us. I couldn't believe my eyes today when I saw someone turn left (LEFT!!!) on red. We aren't even trusted with the privilege of turning right on red in my city but as I sat at a (red) light, a truck (not even a car - a commercial truck!) pulled up beside me, looked both ways and made his turn. And it was no pokey little intersection, it was at the exit ramp off one of the busiest highways that cross the city. The next corner I reached, someone else ran a stop sign which, in itself, is not unusual here since stop signs seem to have become optional in the last two years. Sometimes I feel like I take my life in my hands when I go outside.

Blank

I went blank thinking of a title for this post, thus "blank". I've been waiting to post a picture of where I have now taken Owl Owl. Oh, but it has changed drastically since I posted the progression of this piece. I'm not sure if it's finished now, but I know I am going to put it aside and live with it for awhile. It's the same way I felt about my chickens, and now I know that piece is finished and I am rather fond of it. I waited to post this partly because I wanted to take a picture outside in natural light. But the ones I took today really didn't turn out that well. Not sure why, but some of the ones I took yesterday indoors on the manual setting on my camera (!) on the tripod with 5 weeks of my "Oh Shoot!" photography course under my belt turned out better. I ended up photoshopping it a little, just to get the colors closer to what they are in real life. Mixed media (acrylics, ink, collage, caran d'ache, markers and graphite) on 9 3/4 x 14 acrylic paper.


And Riley and I had a better day today, just small skirmishes and I even got a smile for the camera tonight:

Plain Truth

I finished Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult a few days ago. It is classic Picoult, but not my favorite of hers by far. I took it from the library because it was small in size and paperback and it was to be my beach reading. And it was great beach reading. It has the usual unexpected twist at the end which, ironically, I have come to expect from her. I'm not sure how I feel about the book but it did offer one image that inspired me for another mixed media piece. I guess it was worth the time after all!

I am now about sixty pages into Edeet Ravel's, "Your Sad Eyes and Unforgettable Mouth". Edeet Ravel was born in Israel, now living in Guelph but she must have spent some time in Montreal because that is where this book takes place and only a resident of this fine city would know it's nuances like she seems to. It's always a bit thrilling to read a novel that takes place in your own city, isn't it? I did like her, "Ten Thousand Lovers" and found this one when I was in the library looking for the second book in that trilogy.

You Call These Crocs?

Now, aren't these lovely? I found these Crocs that look nothing like the ones I leave at the back door for running out to the car or for tromping through the garden. "Those" are your classic clunky, ugly but so very comfortable and practical Crocs. I'll be able to get away with all kinds of things in these puppies. What fun! Plus it served as a little retail therapy, now that my shopping embargo of January and February is well behind me. Next time I won't wear them with my pajamas though...
Post Script: My toenails rarely look this good in early April, it's a hangover from the trip.

Adjustments

I never knew how much I would have to bend while being in my role as a mom. We all know about the sacrifices, but who knew they would be never-ending? My son is only six, and only just six so I am pretty new at this. But I'm old enough to be more patient with him than I would have been in my twenties or even my thirties but also old enough to want to be a bit selfish. Sometimes that's a tough combination for us.

This week was kind of turbulent. On my part I've been annoyed, frustrated and quite short of patience. I've noticed during the last year that as Riley changes and grows mentally and emotionally, he needs me to relate differently to him. Now is one of those times. I find myself floundering and self-critical. I check myself regularly for "am I turning into my mother?" syndrome. Riley will act as if I'm not there, as if I am mute. He makes it obvious that he's tired of me telling him what to do. But it's part of my M.O., I have to tell him what to do and since I'm alone in caring for him for the next little stretch of time, he's stuck with me. But one thing I've learned is that if I tweak my approach, accept the fact that he's exercising some of his own independence we usually get back on track pretty swiftly. But holy crap it sucks the life force out of me because I do demand a certain amount of manners and respect. I know I will be making these adjustments for a very long time to come, or I should say I am hopeful I will continue to see that what he needs from me will be changing constantly, at least until he really does, in fact, know more than me. These are the faces I've seen a lot of lately dubbed "Snarl" and "Snarl Revisited":



And here's the face I miss so much:

Time for some B-L-I-N-G!

I have copied and pasted this from Locasia's site. It's the give-away I talked about earlier this week, based on paying it forward or, crafting it forward.

{Craft it Forward}

~Here’s how it works: the first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive, during the next 6 months, a handmade ♥GIFT♥ from me. What it will be and when it will arrive is a total surprise!

~Please make sure I have a way of contacting you so I can get your mailing address.

~The only requirement is that you must participate as well: right after you leave a comment here, do a “Pay it forward” post on your blog to keep the “Giving” going -meaning you will {Craft it Forward} too.

~Since this is a crafty, handmade gift hopefully others will be encouraged to participate as well.

~This is open to everyone, no matter the country as long as you Pay it Forward in your own way.

~Remember, it’s the spirit and the thought that counts and when you receive your gift please blog about it!

So there you have it. The first three commentators will get something from me by the end of September. It will likely be a small collage/painting/mixed media piece. When I was preparing the One World One Heart give-aways I was liking the 5 x 7 format, but you never know, I'll wait and see what inspires me. Please leave me an email address so I can get in touch with you for your snail mail address. And it just dawned on me that in doing this I will be getting something handmade from Locasia, yay! Go!

Haiku Friday

I am trying to

tread much lighter on this earth
choices, not easy

So used to comfort
What more can I do, I ask
The answer: boundless

Yeah, it's corny. But with spring in full swing it all just seems so fragile. The world is so dire right now, maybe I need a little more corn in my life.

Meme

While I was away Beth tagged me with a meme. It is to write six things about myself or my habits that are of no importance. She wrote eight, two of which were lies. I guess that is part of the meme, here are my six true, two false. I don't think anyone out here knows me well enough to guess which are false, but if you want to try I'd like to see what you think. I'm not going to tag anyone specifically, but if you want to do it, I'd like to hear about it and read it.

1. I have two dogs with the same name.
2. I see and hear ghosts (spirits) on a regular basis.
3. I was traumatized at the age of two by my father's home movie hobby.
4. I always wanted to learn how to play piano.
5. I have a strong aversion to mayonnaise.
6. For as long as I can remember, I have had a recurring dream of being chased by a sewing machine.
7. I have never been off this continent.