And Happy Birthday to my other little girl!

...who is 11 years old today...what a sweet, sweet, loving girl. Happy Birthday, Daisy! Mommy loves you!

Birthday doings...

Happy 25th Birthday to my "baby"...Now I need to buy three boxes of birthday candles for both my kids...I remember turning 25...this is weird...

This was taken on Xmas (before her haircut) Dontcha just love her vintage glasses frames? I remember those, too...

This is a most delicious vegan chocolate cake with chocolate filling...Stephanie's Bakery in Ocean Beach is the bomb, I must say...We had the cake last night, even though today is actually her birthday, cuz she has a big night out on the town with her friends planned for tonight...

Split this picture (of her blowing out her candles) from the nose up and you will be looking at me...well, a me 30 years younger...ok, stop doing the math, I know, I know, I, too have a milestone of sorts coming up in March...sigh...

Well, we are off for some girl time and birthday shopping. I do love hanging out with this sweet girl...my buddy, my pal...Happy birthday sweetheart; I love you with all my heart!

Ohhhhhh yeahhhhhh!

Sworn in at 9 am Pacific Standard Time...I had champagne for breakfast...What a glorious day!

Priceless photo:

Buh bye, W!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 1, 2009

I joined the Creative Every Day Challenge...and today I was creative =-) The post just before this one was about me not making resolutions for the new year. However, this afternoon I did talk to myself a bit and decided that I would commit to starting an everday entry into a sketch book. I want to get more comfortable with drawing and sketching and I know that the only way to do that is to draw every day...so I am starting at the very beginning of the year and will see how long I can keep at it on an everyday basis. Of course, nothing says I can't get back up on the horse if I fall off every now and then...Anyway, I did sketch today. And I enjoyed it. It wasn't much but it was a start. Oh, and I found the manual to my camera so I can check on a few things that I had questions about. And I got some things organized in my work room so that I can be comfortable in there with space to be creative. I found some art supplies that I knew I had bought awhile ago and couldn't find for some time. I got inspired just looking in the bag! So I think this every day creative thing is going to be a lot of fun and a good nudge for me.

Happy New Year! And non-resolutions for 2009...

Image from The English Association at University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH

I am going to continue my mother’s years-long practice of resolving not to make any resolutions for the new year. I am not good at keeping resolutions, and I can make myself feel guilty and stressed out over enough things without adding anything more to feel guilty about doing or not doing in the new year…That said, I do have some ideas and feelings I would like to incorporate into my life and my outlook, so I guess this is as good a time as any to give them a good brushing off and have a new go at some of them…but these are not resolutions…

On the creative front: After 31+ years of quilting I have such an overabundance of UFOs that I can’t possible put them all to a list or a schedule…I really can’t. But, I can give myself the gift of accepting that the pile will always exist. I would like to remove the "Quilt-guilt" from my brain and work on these things when the whim strikes, not as a strict, demanding chore that I make for myself. I want to delight in finding long lost projects and immersing myself in them once again …when and if the mood strikes. And I want to free myself to take on new projects, fabric/textile related or otherwise, as the mood also strikes for that. It is self-defeating not to allow myself to make anything new as long as there are piles of old things sitting around…since there always will be…I need to grow and learn and let myself find the joy once again in my creative life without putting barriers in my own way...

Roma Journal Medium, Image from My Scribe, UK

I have always wanted to keep a sketch-type or illustrated/mixed media journal, a la SkybelleArts’ Kim, and various other journal makers and artists. I have long admired Kim’s dedication to her art and creativity, and always love to see her illustrated pages. I would like to try my hand at one of these…I think it would help me overcome my sense that “I can’t draw” by letting me practice (something adults are loath to do) in a non-threatening venue—my own private journal. I know that the only way to become better at drawing is to draw every day…practice, practice, practice...so I would like to try to do that…Now, whether I start off the new year doing it or start it at some later point in the year is immaterial…I just want to do it and plan to in 2009…

After reading JenClair’s blog post yesterday I ordered The Vigorous Mind: Cross-train Your Brain to Break Through Mental, Emotional, and Professional Boundaries by Ingrid Cummings. It sure sounds like a book and set of ideas that would help me out of the artistic funk that has gripped me for so long now. I’m looking forward to its delivery, along with Danny Gregory’s An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration from the Private Sketchbooks of Artists, Illustrators and Designers. Thanks, Sis, for the Amazon gift card! =-)

Off the coast of Albania, October 2008, dnmc

I am interested in getting some of my photographs ready to display at an artist’s co-op gallery sometime in the next year. I have been told that I have an eye for taking photos, by several different, unrelated people, and I would like to explore that a lot more, perhaps even trying to sell some of them in some form or another at some point. In January, I want to sign up for a photography class to expand my knowledge more into the technical side of photography, as well as to add to my artistic sense of it.

On the personal front: I want to get outside of myself more. I want to be more gracious, more forgiving, and to be more tolerant, less critical of, and less irritable to the people I come in contact with on a more or less regular basis. I’ve become somewhat of a “my way or no way” type lately, and I have also mired myself in a depressing lack of enthusiasm for most things that have been meaningful to me in the past…and it’s hard for me to take, so I’d like to come to some good place in dealing with those issues. I know that it would make me a happier person, to say nothing of the people I interact with… Though these sound sort of like resolutions, I have been thinking a lot about it for awhile now and, really, wanting to act on it has nothing to do with the new year…these are just things I feel the need to address and change and I’d want to work on them at whatever time of year it happened to be right now…

So, there you have it…my non-resolutions for the new year. I guess the main gist is this: I want to become a freer, more creative, less restrictive maker of art, and a more gracious and more accepting student of life…not too much to ask for…I just need to leave my bubble and get to it!

Well, the ball has dropped, Bill and Hillary have gone home from the festivities, so it’s time to say: Happy New Year, everyone! The best to you all in a great, creative 2009!

Peace.