Just Because She Made Me Smile Today

Cultured Outing

Last night was the quarterly open house at The Columbia Art Center.  My friend, Carolyn, left, has a studio there so friends Janine, Woody, and I went to see Carolyn's art.  Also to see Carolyn.  For almost a year she's been doing chemo for bone cancer and dialysis for her kidneys which are being affected by the bone cancer.  She's amazing and lucky...she has not had too bad of a time with the treatments; almost no side effects.  Above are Carolyn and Janine with one of Carolyn's mannequins.  They are beautiful, the photos don't do them justice.

Carolyn, me, and Janine with another mannequin.  All the ones she does are so fabulous.

While there we saw some other pretty cool art...here lots of hanging boats...

...fun paintings...

...and more fun paintings.  Look how the outlet is done like a Mr. and Mrs. Plug.  That's a tiny mailbox in the mouse hole.  Too cute!  Fun outing.

Another good sign...

...of my good/better mental health is that I FINALLY cleaned my work room/studio today.  In my darker days a few months ago I wasn't even interested in making art much less cleaning my work room that had been out of control for over a year. 

I've been back to creating for a few weeks but the floor has been covered except for about a 3' x 3' area where I squeezed my butt in and worked out of on the floor.  I was keeping up with my supplies fairly well since I've been concentrating on mostly one particular subject.  But I knew there were good things hiding outside this parameter that I would enjoy using and even get back to creating more of an assortment of things. 

On my "schedule" today was to create in there but I was suddenly struck with the desire to clean and see that floor and be able to walk in that room and find things that had been lost too long.  I've been waiting for this desire to strike me for, as I said, over a year. 

It had been a long time since I'd been able to enjoy the room; I just kept my head down working on the floor.  Now I can actually walk around in the room and I know where most things are.  I found so many things; some I remembered and missed and some I had completely forgotten about.

It's not Martha Stewart organized but it's so much better.

No, you won't be seeing it in one of those fabulous studio magazines...well...unless I get a call...hint, hint...then I could muster the motivation to completely organize and be oh so cute.

Until then it's just me being oh so happy that I'm back to a place where I have the energy, interest, motivation, and desire to create in a nice space again.  We'll see what comes out of it.

Little Things

I've got nothing exciting to report but feel the need to try to keep up with Miz Juney on blogging.  The biggest news this week was that I got the above antique elephant for my elephant collection in my dining room (see post before last).

Okay, something really kind of exciting is that we ordered a new sofa last week.  We've had the above sofa since right before Matt was born, so 13 1/2 years.  That's about average life for a sofa.  It was really kind of a gonner a few years ago but I had it slipcovered in drop cloth fabric which has given it a few more years.  As you can see, the slip part that covered the base has been destroyed by the cat and dog.  The slips are still on the cushions but have been patched a couple of times, but mainly the cushions are shot.  Another slipcover will not save it this time-it's done.  The test was that Paul readily agreed-no small deed.

I found this photo in a recent magazine barely showing the sofa with the material that I picked.  It's at the bottom, the green with swirls.  I was tickled to get a very small idea of what it's going to look like.   Okay, for those of y'all still  awake, I'll be so happy to show the new sofa when it arrives in 8-10 weeks.  Why is it that we can send a man to the moon but it takes 8-10 weeks to get a sofa?

And I'm doing some editing/changing around in anticipation of the new sofa.  Well, I am adding/switching out a new large piece of furniture that is a color which is in my window treatments in a small amount, but is a new color of furniture.  Already had to switch the furniture around so we can use all the furniture best and not have to argue over spots (not to mention it will help me keep the boys off the sofa as long as possible).  Tables and lamps had to edited, moved, and changed out.  Very important stuff.  I can make this "domestic engineer" job of mine seem globally changing easily.   It doesn't hurt that I'm reading The Help right now as it encourages me to think how important these small things are in our lives even though they are still in the 50's. 

Okay, a little more fun was making this ring this week.  You can get these ring things everwhere now that have a flat top on them so that things can be easily glued onto them to make decorative rings.  This one is special to me because the watch was one I got as a teen who even then appreciated art deco.  It hadn't worked in years so I cut off the band and glued it on to make it into this ring.  Fun.

I do have some interesting events coming up...a sleepover with my bff college roommate in Northern Virginia and then a trip to The Virgin Islands.  Who knows, maybe something really good and exciting will happen even before then...oh, yeah, Lucas got bitten by a black widow spider but is okay now and Justin has joined a bowling league.  Poor ol' Matt is still in school until the 23rd because of all the snow days we had.  So that's all the thrilling news for now...