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.

winter is coming

ooooh! It's so cold. Heavy rain is expected tomorrow. I'm so glad because my plants really need it. Here are two knitting projects I completed lately: monkey socks, and shawl that jazz. When I went to the golden gate fiber institute, one of my classmates wore a shawl that she made from this pattern. I don't think mine ended up as drapey as hers. The wool I used came from Drambui's fleece and it's very springy.

winter is coming

succulent club

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I forgot one more photo.

Finally it's the weekend and I have a little time to breathe. I planted some seeds in my new planting boxes that Mark made for me and then as I was wandering around the garden, I found a butterfly that had just emerged from its chrysalis and a horned caterpillar on one of my tomato plants. It seems like you have to really slow down and look around closely to find stuff. I'm usually in too much of a hurry.
We had a nice dinner party last night, so Mark and I decorated the house as much as we could before everyone came. Mark got the clever idea to put our skull lights in the succulents and I put the tiara on a skull on the mantle.

stuff i've made this summer

When I went to the Golden Gate Fiber Institute at the end of July I took two classes: Spinning with Judith MacKenzie McCuin and Felting with Loyce Ericson. It was a wonderful experience and I learned a lot. It really got my creative juices flowing. When I came home I ripped everything having to do with fiber art out of the closets and organized it. I have a lot of stuff. When that was done I kind of didn't know how to proceed. In the past, I always wanted to draw or paint, and sometimes I'd get on a roll and turn out some acceptable work. But I'm just not patient enough to practice those skills very much and I felt frustrated. So here I was wondering what I would do with all of the tools but none of the direction I needed to start DOING. I don't know what happened, but I began (the 8 foot long folding work table I bought at Costco helped). Now I can't stop. I'm so happy. This is what I have always wanted to do. I've done a lot of dyeing, spinning, knitting, and felting. Julie came over one day and I taught her to felt. She's got the touch. I want to make some more felted scarves, finish knitting the 4 projects I started, and finish spinning the pound of wool I dyed to make a sweater.

The end of summer

I just got the email that let me know that the art education branch in still intact and that my boss is still Luiz. I'm glad to hear it because he's been my boss since I started teaching art and he's a good guy. The superintendent is very supportive of our branch and believes in the integration of the arts in a balanced K-12 curriculum. I was a little worried that my job would end and that I would go back to regular classroom teaching. I would do it if I had to, but I think I'm a better art teacher than a reading or math teacher. Although I really do like teaching science and social studies.