cobaltika

the long weekend was pretty good. it *did* rain a LOT. i had no regrets about staying home. in fact i was very productive. not in a very artful way, though we did go out wandering (me with camera) around town (getting caught in the rain, of course), to the Swamp and also to Eudora. we are completely over Eudora however. traci and i used to find some fairly good images there, but something has changed and it has become bland. contaminated by their suburbs probably. also there were sirens blaring and dogs barking and moaning almost the whole time we were there. saturday was ALL errands and chores, so i could have two days to “play”. when play day came, i felt cranky at the artTable and i knew it was because there was just too much clutter, not just the piles of Etsy stock all over one table (still!!!), but In The Cupboards, too. i thought if i could clear out the cupboard from hell and my file cabinet, and hey, why not back up my entire website and clean out computer files while i’m at it … then i would be able to art. so i did that, spending two days in a weird nostalgia (accentuated by the fact that *this* was really high school graduation weekend, not last weekend, so i had to go through that whole thing again). finally i finished. then i realized i had vowed to mulch the garden this weekend … so i did that last night. layers of newspapers and bark and now it looks almost like a Real Garden, not a weed patch that some tomatoes happened to grow up in. then i tried to read a book. and now i am back to the fluorescent prison. maybe someday there will be art again? i *am* happy those things are done, though. really.

sidewalk composition : jamcam

it is supposed to be rainy with chance of storms all (long) weekend. so i just cancelled the little rental car and emailed the inn that we won’t be confirming our reservation. i should not like to be six miles into the bare wildflower-covered prairie in a thunderstorm, thank you very much. with my cameras wet. nope. i don’t mind that much, although i hope it is not going to be rainy every weekend there are wildflowers. i don’t really like going away on the weekend after the magazineWeekend, because the house is always dirty and now the garden is neglected and of course the artTable always calls. so i know what *i* can do this weekend … when it clears, we can wander around here. so much has changed, there are lots of new pictures to make.

yesterday i carried my jamcam again and actually made friends with her again. i had been thinking she was a dreary companion lately, pictures always dark and dull. but she did some pretty nice things yesterday. there are a few on flickr with more later. i haven’t felt very productive or creative lately. it’s a creepy feeling. maybe this weekend i will be restored. how did my fingernails get so long again already? i can’t type. maybe more later.

partly because i am tired of looking at the pink bike lady on the front page. and i am surprised i did not put some swamp jamcam images on my flickr or maybe i did? i didn’t seem them though. i think my flickr is taking on a rather schizoid look lately. i am not sure why that is. now the magazine is done and i can do more fun things. when i am not so tired. i think i will be tired this evening.

contemplating some travel adventures … a car this weekend and to the tall grass prairie for wildflowers? not sure. it might rain. i don’t want another car weekend in the rain. it is pointless. then next month, betsy flying here, pick her up and drive to texas. visit like crazy, then come home. i would like to do something *different* this summer, but i am not sure anything beyond seeing family will be in the budget and i DO want to see all of them. i really do think living in a camper van could be a good idea…

the only adventure this weekend was a little walk at the swamp, but there were hardly any creatures. i think we were there too early in the day. in the late evening is when it is most interesting. it will be sad when they turn that area into a 6 lane highway. stupid stupid town.

art tougeau parade : lawrence kansas : may 2004

since yesterday afternoon, i have been feeling nostalgic and a little moody. it is the end of semester and even though i had no class this semester, there was still that sense of relief, and a little sadness related to another ending. on the way home, seeing the activities around the stadium, i realized that margaret would have been graduating today from high school. instead she has been away for a year and a half. i am fine with her path, i don’t think she *should* have followed the traditional path at all. it has been hard for her, living like an adult, with adult responsibilities, at her age, when others are still coddled at home. i have only been unhappy when she is unhappy. especially when there is nothing i can do to make it better, beyond offer words.

and then there was some nostalgia remembering 3 years ago this weekend, betsy’s graduation. i was so proud of her. and so relieved after several difficult years with her, that she seemed to have an interesting future in store - at least for the next four years. she seemed rather happy and i was glad for that. i was also glad that my mother and both sisters had come to visit. that was WONDERFUL. the only time they have all come here together. what a treat. they stayed at the Eldridge Hotel, about 4 blocks away, downtown, and we could all walk back and forth to visit (my house is WAY too small for more than one guest!!) we ate at local restaurants, watched the Art Tougeau parade, tried to find the Chicken Museum, shopped at the fabric store, went to graduation together, took my sisters to my studio. it was very fine.

so this is graduation weekend again. it is also working weekend again, so i won’t be going to the Art Tougeau parade, or shopping (beyond groceries). tonight is the hooding ceremony for our graduates at KU, so i will have to look decent and go for a while. then back to work. it is beautiful here right now. not too hot. all green. maybe i can go out with my cameras for a little while tomorrow. if i remember how.

i miss my family very much this weekend. everyone.

going going … g o n e
here is a little notification that the majority of small pieces i have listed on my “store” at E T S Y are expiring in the next 2 - 3 weeks. i am not re-listing them. the etsyExperience has been interesting but i am not *that* excited. especially because the images are such poor quality. i upload fine images, but what i see there does not look the same. i don’t know what they do to them, but i don’t like it at all. and it is so big there, so populated, i realize that very few sales have come directly from etsy, but more from people i already know (and love! thank you!). it is true i am not highly skilled at marketing. i mean, i am even GIVING SOMETHING AWAY this month, and still … not very many sales.

i am going to try to re-establish a small gallery at my own website, using etsy as a storefront with samples, however, so i won’t leave there altogether. but i am not sure when the gallery will happen … don’t worry, it will be announced! i haven’t been making as many small pieces this year, but have been working on books instead. so i don’t know exactly what will *be* in that gallery yet … maybe some images, too? well. we’ll see … onward.

it was one of those weekends that was good enough to make going to sleep on sunday night pleasant, even knowing next day was back to the grindstone (with the delightful addition of afternoon dentistry to look forward to). pretty lazy on saturday morning, then got LOTS done. the usual stuff and a trip to the nursery, then hanging out with traci, first to wander through the neighborhood with our plastic cameras to the Art in the Yard event, then back to my house for white wine, glueingshitdown, dinner, then more glueing. on sunday morning i was only partly lazy, as long as the coffee lasted, because there were plants to go into the ground and i wanted to work when it was cool, so i was out by 7:30. for three hours i planted and weeded, taking breaks to talk to my mother, text back and forth with betsy, still in ireland, and talk to margaret, still in texas. a BIG basket of yellow REAL flowers came from my small girl. what a surprise!!! by 10:30 i was dying of starvation, so we brunched on olives, spinach bread, mozzarella and strawberries. yum. some reading - “Little, Big” (i’m hypnotized). then we decided to take an afternoon hike to the Fitch Nature Preserve. i decided to take the jamcam. she has never been there. it was hot and green and smelled very fine and fresh. we saw a HUGE snapping turtle, a tiny flycatcher who sang on a branch right in front of us, a lady oriole, some deer and some finished jack-in-the-pulpits. it was good.

there are pictures here.

now. dentist. omigod. at least there will be nitrous.