Who Knows Where My Mind Goes?

I seriously go AWOL on here, don't I?
I don't mean to, I just get busy and it's seems like it's been a hectic few months. I don't even know why exactly. I've got more time to do the things I really enjoy, but I also get called out to do volunteer things as well, so the time zips by and here we are in December.

I've been doing lots of things. Lots of different things. I almost don't like to sleep because it seems like every time I close my eyes I get some new vision of a different thing in my head, and I have to make an effort to stay focused on the project at hand.

Right Now, Right This Minute Today - I'm working on tiny, tiny houses that will have alphabet letters on them so that folks can spell out a greeting of their choice, or a name, or Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Yay, it's Kwanzaa.......or Nice to See You, Now Go Home. You get the idea. I saw these somewhere but they cost a LOT of money and they had one saying - Merry Christmas - and it was over $100. I decided I could do it for $3 a letter and people could spell out what they want. That's what I would want to do. So that's Thing #1.

Thing #2 - Don't we all just LOVE baby's hand prints? You have to! They're so tiny and pudgy and adorable. I loved the ones that I still have, one from my youngest sister and one from my almost 30-year old daughter. They are precious to me. SO.... when I was watching my friend's granddaughter last month (she's two) we had "art" time and played clay. We made a delightful hand print from stoneware and I thought it would be so sweet to give to her Mom for Christmas. You know, hang it on a ribbon like the rest of things like that. But then I found a simple frame that my husband had made for me for some other whim I'd had a couple of years ago and thought, "how cool would it be to have it in a frame? Very! And how even cooler would it be to have it in a frame with wood blocks on the top to spell out her name? Even cooler! So, that said, I've got three in the works - pictures here.

Thing #3 - Maybe I am the only one who sees things and immediately I have my own idea of how I'd like it, how I would do it differently, how very "if that was MY work, I'd do it this way" of me. I don't know if that's good or bad, but that's how I roll.... so when I saw some very simple paintings, very simple, with scriptures on them, I thought - "Now THAT is something I would really like to do, and put MY favorite scriptures on them." I've only just started so I don't have anything to show - yet!

Thing #4 - Some Random stuff I've been working on.... salt and pepper birds, a fat round cobalt blue bird....etc.
Thing #5 - This probably isn't new, but I'm always drawn back to my sewing machine to make my patches or to work on one of the art quilts I've got started.

I know - I've got more "things" in progress than you probably have on your keychain, but that's how I think. That's how I work and it suits me. I feel like this is exactly what I was meant to do. So I'll make no more apologies for it. Now if I can make it lucrative - THAT would be heaven!

Kate

P.S. That's PLENTY of stuff to look at, but if you're looking for some other really cool toy kind of stuff, check out this website, full of cool Etsy toy-type things!
http://app.bronto.com/public/?q=preview_message&fn=Link&t=1&ssid=12675&id=46j33dsyk9omocda24gyikn67suz7&id2=2hw3amk7njlva2o70sttuzsp349nl&subscriber_id=bcqeievnkdhxayrkgoxvomgboaiubjn&messageversion_id=brbizkxyzxisxuicuqatrmvdyqjtban&delivery_id=aooevmzdnjpxdxkjwrggyemxqeeoblf

TECHNOLOSER

See those keys? The keys, just to the left, on the keyboard?

THAT keyboard is what is familiar to me. That's what I grew up with, know how to do, and that is what is evidently creating in me a horribly aged and inept feeling that keeps lingering close by.

I have a cell phone, and I even know how to text, much to the amusement of my children's friends whose parents are apparently not quite so hip.

The other day, in all of my smug, techno-coolness, I was ripping off the beginning of what was to be a very long, very funny, email to my daughter. I wasn't looking at the keys because I was so confident in what I was doing - it's all in the counting of the keys, I told myself, tap, tap, tap on the "7" key gives me an 'r', one more tap is the 's'. Most letters I use, I have come to realize are three taps on different keys, I use a lot of 'r's, i's, o's, and c's. Who knows why? All this to just say, that my hip-mom, techno-coolness world came crumbling down like ... hmmm. .... like what?......I should be good at the adjectives here, ... came crumbling down like .......like leaves falling in an autumnal breeze? No, too slow and lingering. Like water droplets off a shaking dog? No. That's too wet and dog-smelly. Maybe it's just as simple as a house of cards, crashing down quickly in a mille-instant. Yes, that's probably it. All at once I looked down at my phone because some letter didn't feel right..... what did I see? Two and a half lines of jibberish. In less than one tenth of a breath, my self-appointed coolness was gone. I felt really silly dumb. I had just wasted probably three minutes getting thumb cramps and probably signing up for early hand arthiritis, for what? Nothing. All at once I wished my daughter was there becasue she would have cracked up, and glad that she wasn't at the same time because I would never live it down and it would have been future fodder for all family gatherings to come. I couldn't tell you now what the funny story even was. And it was a good one, too!
And so, uncool, I'll go back to what I know - showing what I've been working on the last few days and trying to figure out how to get my voice and my art, out to the world.

Kate

Change is Good.... right?

Again, I must apologize... if only to myself, for not posting in over a month. It seems by doing this, I send my own personal "idea" diary out into the universe and it comes back with notes and thoughts and some ideas from others, which is fascinating to me. It's amazing.

The reason for my long absence? Transition I think. I left a job that I loved, working with people that I love, just because I thought it was 'time to go' and while I'm searching for another one, I'm going to do my best to make my art, be that job.
I'm kind of on the fence about whether or not this will work. I think it could, I think I have enough ideas, a modicum of talent, bravery though? .... not so sure that I have enough of that. Confidence... sometimes yes, lots of times no. But I'm going to give it a shot anyway, because really in the end, what have I got to lose, and what am I doing anyway? I'm just waiting for my resume to knock someone over with my 'ability to juggle twelve tasks in a single bound' basically. And I think there's a zillion people like me looking for a job. So I leave my future in the hands of God, and I'll just put one foot in front of the other and it's alllllll going to work out.

Now, to post a bunch of pictures of my latest art journey.

Kate

One picture is the body of a diaper bag in-progress, that I am making for a lovely little friend and her new baby Wyatt. The usual bags are much too boring and I like the idea of a gypsy/hobo/funky bag much better. I hope she will too... and their last name begins with "Q" ... hence the BeBe'Q... get it?