cobaltika

so i should post another gloomy picture.

Read the rest of this entry »

the girls are gone now and the party is over. all of the house is “cleaned up” and “back to normal” today. the hired coach is returned. all of the money is gone. the artTable is spotless and ready for ________. i feel very tired and quite blue. i miss them. luckily we shall be together again in a month. is it silly for a mother to have a big crush on her daughters?

it feels awkward to try to write and post images again. after a while, one’s addiction to the net seems to dissipate. but i know i feel unhappy when people i have liked for a long time disappear, so do not wish to be guilty of that. just in case it matters! i’ve been around, catching up on others a bit, still posting new things on my etsy shop very often, but mostly the past week was about the girls, finishing the magazine, sightseeing and food! i did go to the office yesterday and have to *really* go back tomorrow. sigh…

rambling and copious notes for myself below.
Read the rest of this entry »

i am not sure why i am sitting around in my nightie and socks, wrapped in a blanket, messing with the final autumn images and writing when i have SO MUCH to do… i guess i am allowed until i finish my coffee! one can’t drink coffee and run up and down the basement steps, watching the top of one’s head at the short place. that would be dangerous. there is no traditional stuff to be done (whew), but i want to finish LOTS of the magazine, and all of the beds need to be switched and made cozy, some closet space cleared, etc. maybe the bathroom cleaned a little. then i can make ready and drive the slightly scary rental car to the airport (it wiggles? that is not good?) to pick up my girlies! dining plans are awkward. i thought a real city would have some open restaurants (not chains) for dinner, but nooooo … midwestern family values in effect there, too. but there are some possibilities. then Margaret is already invited to a sleepover and won’t even come home with me. SOB. but it is fine. it has been nearly 2 years since she has seen her friends off facebook. i am glad for her. i wonder what we will do all weekend! i might have to take that car back tomorrow and trade for a better one!

i really meant to sit here and list my gratefuls. they are all in my head. i have been thinking them all morning. there are so many. SO many. and i am glad. but i think i won’t do a long public list. i will, however, thank HUGELY all of my online friends for being in my world and also thank very much my Etsy customers who have almost afforded me a plane ticket for my Betsy for winter break. i just CAN’T continue to support Capitol One and their 28% interest rate. they are killing me. and i will also thank the universal being for getting my girls here this evening safely and without excessive airline delays and and and god if i get started … i will put pollyanna to shame. anyway … THANK YOU! and i wish contentment and a pleasant day to all.

still putting new things in my little ETSY shop every day. they aren’t disappearing fast enough! i am not deflated though, i proceed fearlessly and squeal with delight when i get a SOLD email. however, i think i am mostly finished with making these small works. they are pleasant and addictive but they stack up too easily and it is difficult to sell them. they really need to be seen alive. and touched. and i realize they would not do well in a public space because they would be too easy to walk off with, frankly. i think in a booth show, with me manning the space and controlling the display, they could do well perhaps. but … um … when exactly might *that* happen?

it feels odd to have no artTable now, but i like the time off. there is the magazine to work on (yes, t-giving weekend! *and* with the girls here!) and i do have a little box of stuff in case there is a creative emergency. but wallowing about reading books seems tolerable for a week. i am contemplating what i want to do next. i can only have a few supplies out at a time, because there is just not space for everything and i can’t work in extreme clutter. is cloth going to come out? i am so intimidated! somehow i want to make cloth things like the little piece above. i think i can do it … new pieces are lurking in my head

one more day of the office and then the girls will come. i am so glad. it will be crowded and noisy in our little house, but fun, i think. i hope my quiet poet doesn’t go berserk with all of our carrying on. the girls don’t come until 5pm on t-giving day. we don’t do turkey type things, so shall find a place for dinner in kansas city. i hope something is open! and then i really want to see the Bloch Building lit all up at night.

i feel all rambly and blabberish. there was vegetable soup with miso and cabbage for dinner. yum. and clementines. they are supposed to be for the girls, but they are too good to wait. it has turned cold again. i’m trying to put off going back to work and paying some bills. that’s what.

everything is getting done that needs to. i’m still working on it. having a reason to clear out the studio, then put it back together in a couple of weeks feels GREAT. maybe it will be the opportunity to put away the small things and begin work on big. maybe even cloth again. i have been thinking about that so much… but i don’t know…

today is gray and dreary and i am glad that we decided not to do the regular saturday errands yesterday and went for a walk instead. it was beautiful. normally i don’t like mid-day light, it is just too bright, but miss jemima had some fun anyway, capturing the sheds and details of north lawrence.

for some reason words feel very awkward right now and i can barely squeeze them out my fingertips. i have been doing non-word type things for a while, images and paint and glue and i am lost in that world. actually, i rather like being in that world, but it doesn’t make for very good journalling, hmmm?

okwellonward, then…maybe later?

today, back to the grindstone. then home for yet more work. but the kind i love. even though i am quite tired. almost all of the collages i can finish are done, scanned and ready to list on etsy. things are dragging a bit and i wonder if i am putting too much out there. it is hard to know how to do this thing. so many of them i like and i want to just go “look! look!” very infantile, i know. i miss having a public studio, open, where i can hang them all up at once and see them together. as soon as the rest of the backings are finished, i get to start dismantling the artRoom and return it to its state as margaret’s bedroom. i can’t wait! i love playing musical rooms and it is a GREAT chance to clean up the space. both girls will be here next week and i am SO excited! even though i probably won’t see that much of them. they will want to sleep and hang out with their homies mostly. that’s cool. when they pass through i will feel very happy.

it was an extremely busy and full weekend. a good one! and i am so so so SO glad that i am not in the office today! am i going to chill out and rest a bit? NO WAY. i am having way too much fun. i have been finishing so many small pieces that were in progress and dribbling them on to my ETSY. i have resisted posting everything insanely, as i understand it is better to space out your listings, but part of me wants to see them all at once and in the way *i* arrange them, but i am trying to go for as much visibility as possible without spamming my small following to death. anyway, it is sort of fun. and especially when that email “etsy transaction” shows up in my box! wheee!

other things completed:
31 collages - the gallery of the daily collages created in October
the penCam book - the gallery of all pages of the penCam book created in October
tesoros - is back

besides art and webstuff, there was also time for wandering in the woods, two days. some images were made, buy my favorites were the drivebys out the “new window” (see above). that heavy clear vinyl is almost better than nailpolish for the lens! the woods were beautiful. the scent of dead leaves on paths is one of my favorites. we have also watched films, read books, cooked food and all etc. today it might rain. and i am HOME! (-: