I am sick

This is not good. I think last night was one of the worst I've had in years. Obviously, I own't be going to the afternoon session at MAWA today. I had really wanted to get there, but I'm not even sure I'll be getting dressed. I don't even want to eat. Those that know me know that this means I'm really sick. lol

No trip

The roads are just too bad and we've decided to re-schedule the trip. I'm just as happy staying home and nursing this cold. I took lots of medication last night, and was in bed before 10:00, but I still feel out of it this morning. So a quiet day at home, although DH has already decided that we need to do laundry. He will be going out later to drive our son to the airport. DS has planned a trip to Las Vegas to celebrate his 40th birthday. He and his SO will be flying stand-by, and last night discoverd that there were lots of seats available on the flight, but only in Executive class. This means that they will have to dress as executives. Too bad-so sad.

I've been playing with fabric paper, making bookmarks and journal covers. Only I found that I didn't have enough journals, so went shopping. The ones I had, I bought at Superstore in September, when the back to school sales were on. No books there, or Walmart or the office supply stores. ( Well, there were books but priced between $12.00 and $20.00) DH suggest the dollar store,and there they were. We also bought a bag of chocolate eggs, not because of the quality of the chocolate, but because of the very pretty foil they were wrapped in. Perfect for my fabric paper. So I have lots to play with today, should I work up the ambition to actually go into the studio.

I was afraid of that!

My lack of sleep etc has resulted in a cold. It's been getting steadily worse over the course of the day, and I've ended up spending almost two hours in bed this afternoon. I have to go out for a bit tonight, and then have a day trip to Gimli scheduled for tomorrow. Thank Goodness, a friend is driving. The workshop I've been arranging has run into problems with the accomodation. Finally this morning the hotel admitted that they screwed up, and they managed to find us a suitable room in another hotel. So now I have to contact everyone who signed up and let them know that the class is now on the other side of town. Looks like fun!

Car Repairs

Looks like an expensive repair. The entire air bag/horn sytem has to be replaced. But wait--ah yes,--we have an extended warrantee. My decision to buy the best warrantee Chrysler Canada has is now vindicated--for the second time. It means that we'll have to be without the car for a couple of days, once the parts come in, but that might not be until next week. In any case the extended warrantee (Yes!!) covers a loaner car, all we have to pay is the extra insurance.

I've been spending so much time in the studio that some of the business of daily life has been neglected. I've lost track of some paper work and will have to get busy finding it. I have a real fear that it's been shredded. Got my stuff back from the local gallery. Nothing sold. Other than that, I can barely remember what I did yesterday. Made some book marks, I think.

Good day, bad night

Yesterday was my monthly Ravenesque meeting. The ladies came here and we chatted and stitched, and suddenly it was going up 10:00!! These meetings usually end by about 9:00, but I guess we were having fun. I got all of the hand stitching done on Bike Dump/Chaos Theory. Now I just have to clean up a couple of frayed edges, and it's ready for whatever the future holds.

I was so jazzed up by the meeting that it was midnight before I got to bed. For some reason I was awake shortly after2:oo, and just couldn't seem to get back to sleep. Then, at aobut 2:45 our car alarm went off. We couldn't get it to shut off, but after a few minutes, it shut itself off. And it's been doing this off and on ever since. So now it's shortly after 6:00 and we're both up. I feel almost sick with fatigue, but I know there is no way I can get to sleep again. The car dealership/repair shop doesn't open until 7:00, and you have to believe that DH will be on the phone with them at about 7:01! It's likely that we'll be without a car for a few days, and I have something on every day this week, including a trip to Gimli on Friday.

A good day

I got a fair bit done. I now have 7 pieces of silk paper and four more pieces of fabric paper. Some of the fabric paper will be made into book marks, and some into journal covers. The journal covers will involve a bit of work, both by hand and machine. I'm not sure where I'm going with the silk paper. I was thinking of adding some hand stitching and then mounting and matting them, but I think the whole project needs more thought. Part ofthe secret in making silk paper is in getting the silk fibers wet enough before adding the adhesive that holds the whole thing together. There are a couple of places where this hasn't happened, so I'm now wondering if that piece of silk paper is at all useable. The final look that people seem to like is one with wispy edges, but this is very hard to achieve. the best pieces I got are those where I went into the mix after adding the water and adhesive and manipulated the edges to create more of a firm edge. Those two pieces came out very well. So obviously I need to work on my technique. I have lots of coloured silk, but I'm getting low on the ecru Bombyx silk that works so very well as a background for hand embroidery. During the evening I stuffed the last two cushions I have. She will be in town around the middle of the month, but I had wanted to get them off my plate so that I can get to work on other things. Today, other than cleaning up for the ladies this evening, I want to process the journal covers I have. I'm, toying with the idea of trying finishing one of them with gel medium, just to see if the cover stand up a bit better. I used it on the last batch of bookmarks I made, and I'm pleased with the result there, but it does change the overall look. If I want these to look hand made and somewhat primitive, this isn't the way to go, but they are somewhat fragile in their present state.

This morning I see the doctor. He called me into "discuss the results of my blood work". Scarey.

Today's the Day

finally a studio day to use as I please. No family for dinner, so the day's mine. But now it looks like my art quilting group may be coming here tomorrow evening for our monthly meeting. So once the studio work is done, I'll have to clean up. The lecture I went to yesterday was by a "performance artist". I've often heard the term, but never thought about it. What a fascinating woman! The concept takes the idea that art involves a dialogue between the artist and the viewer. In more traditional art this is a very passive dialogue where the artist puts out some sort of visual representation and the viewer sees it, ( or not)and interprets it in any way they choose. In performance art, the artist actually provides some sort of stimulus to the viewer, and then actively accepts the viewers response. This is my interpetation of the process. There was no information provided on the process, but rather she described some of her art and how she achieved it and how she interpreted the viewers responses. Very, very interesting. I had hemmmed and hawwwed about going but it was well worth the time.