Halloween Face

This is me at Gaby's Halloween party. I love wearing this make up. I actually feel more comfortable like this than without it!

GGIF 2010

Terry and Donna

Horses on the beach at Point Reyes

Here are some of my roommates at GGIF. I was a little off my game when I was there. I was having lots of arthritis pain and I was a little depressed. I had wonderful roommates, though, who were supportive and SANE. Those are nice qualities in roommates.
I have been making lots of art yarn since then, but I still haven't finished my second sock. I have so many projects going on that I don't know if I'm coming or going.

Here's pictures of when Zane started kindergarten and when he was graduating from high school. The way both of our appearances changed is interesting.

After I wrote that last post, things kind of fell apart for me. I was judging myself so harshly for spending so much time in solitude. I was napping a lot and I was a little sad. I decided to talk to my sponsor about it and she said I should get involved in some service work. It had crossed my mind that I could teach art to the women at the House of Hope. I ran that past her and she thought it was a great idea. After that meeting, I came home and starting researching art journaling which I had heard about in a magazine I get. I thought it would be a good project for recovering women. I had no idea that there is such a wealth of information and youtube videos on the subject. I'm completely hooked! It's like a miracle in my life. I went out and bought some supplies and made a journal. On Monday, Nora and Ann were here and I showed them how to make a journal and we spent 4 1/2 hours working on them. I have four dates set up with the House of Hope and I'm trying to think of how I can show 18 women how to fold a book and start journaling.

summer again

It's vacation time again. Historically, the solitude and downtime look good from a distance, but once they become a reality, things seem slow and very quiet. As my mother used to say, "You can only be happy if you make art." So that's exactly what I intend to do.

Already I've made a couple of hats. The first one was a sampler of fair isle patterns. It's small and fits Grant, who wouldn't wear it if his life depended on it because he's overheated all of the time. The second one was for John who wanted one that had a lot of green in it. It has

a few mistakes, but it's a nice looking hat and I learned a lot about working with value in fair isle design. He tried it on yesterday and it fits him well.

I've been dyeing a lot of Knitpicks fingering weight highland wool yarn to add to my stash for fair isle knitting. I started a cardigan and I'm not sure how the color combinations are working out. I'll give it a little more time.

Collaging has become one of my new interests. I have been inspired by Eric Carle's method of preparing painted papers. I've been combining those papers with little block prints and other materials. I made Luiz a cityscape collage for the gift book the visual arts teachers presented to him. I think it looked really nice.

Things are going well for the first week and I have a lot more ideas so Happy Summer!

Christmas

Christmas has come and gone. I had planned on making a lot of felted scarves for my family for Christmas, but then I got really sick and I could only make 3 (one of which was too ugly to use). Mark gave me a beautiful bird bath and some other really cool figurines from H and H Nursery in Lakewood. Vacation was wonderful aside from the nasty virus and going back to work took some getting used to. I have been knitting constantly and now I'm taking a week off because I need to heal the holes in my fingers from using cheap knitting needles that are too sharp. Mark said he could use another hat and I might make myself a scarf from some wool/silk roving that I dyed and spun. I finished my second sweater. I wish is was a bit longer, but it's really cozy. I need to take the buttons off and sew them on again. I must have been having a spell when I sewed them on because when I button the sweater it's a bit askew like a little kid who buttoned their sweater wrong. I'll post pictures of the hats and sweater later. Oh, I turned 53 yesterday! I look some pictures of myself and my glasses are so dirty that it's hard to take me seriously. Me at 53: smudgy with lip wrinkles.