Love Letters

Deadlines

Wish me luck... I am meeting with our calligraphy guild's president tonight to discuss what to do about the newsletter I signed on to do. I'm not looking forward to this meeting, but it needs to happen, and face to face is the best way. Like I told Diane, our guild prez, I am more than happy to take on another role on the Board, one that would not demand the time commitment the newsletter requires on a monthly basis. I absolutely do not want to just bail on the guild, but I need to do something that will fit better with my life than the newsletter. I will feel SO much better when this anxiety and worry is over.

This is a photo taken in the French Quarter in New Orleans last February... just thought it was kind of cool, and wanted to throw something in the post that's fun to look at!

I leave Saturday for Pennsylvania, to take a week long master's calligraphy class with Sheila Waters. I've talked myself out of cancelling countless times... I found about ten really good reasons I shouldn't go, but I knew deep down they were just fear based excuses, and I really do need to just do this. I know I will be a better calligrapher and artist after this class, and I'm really very, very excited about it. I hope to post from Sheila's house during the week of October 20. Now, if I can only get through this without reverting to feeling like I'm still in grade school!

Ten excuses not to go to study with Sheila Waters:

1. There will be eight other students there who are all probably better calligraphers than me.


2. Where am I going to find ice I like (don't ask).


3. How am I going to find Diet Cherry Coke in Pennsylvania?


4. How am I going to get to a grocery store to buy Diet Cherry Coke, if I can find it, and bottled water, so I don't end up with traveler's diarrhea?


5. How do I get to said grocery store without inconveniencing anyone?


6. If I have a room mate, gasp, "oh god, am I going to have to share a room?!?", will my sleep habits (ok, I snore) bother them? (OK, I snore a lot).


7. What if I don't like the food that's prepared for us? (Mind you I could stand to miss a whole week of meals).


8. What if my work sucks?


9. What if I don't like any of the other students?


10. Even more importantly, what if none of the other students like me?

Need I go on ('cause you know there's more, right)?!?!? I think I need to go and get some Breath Right Strips.

Beautiful hands, beautiful music

This is a photograph I took of my friend David's hands, in preparation for doing his CD cover. I'm pretty happy with this shot... it was taken at his new, old (and I mean old) Steinway grand piano. It was completely rebuilt and that piano is scrumptious. I didn't have the best lighting, so I'm thrilled that I even got off one good shot!

Those same beautiful hands are also responsible for the garden shown below... I'd really love to tell you this is my garden, but I would be lying to you, and I won't do that. David is one gifted man... he can knit himself a cabled sweater without a pattern (and yes, it fit him perfectly), he plays the piano SO well that I'm truly impressed, and he has a garden that looks like this. Modest, talented, kind, and loving... just gotta love that man.

What a weekend!

WOW!!! I love, love, love Toronto! We had SUCH a great time with our friends Tony and Yvonne (Missy and Scooter)... we ate too much, drank a little too much, walked our ASSES off, and the boys both bought bicycles. It was our tenth anniversary (John's and mine), and it was lovely. Such a good time, but it is, admittedly, very nice to be home!

This is the CD tray notes (built on a template), for my dear friend David's piano CD... it's just a teaser, just a taste... the rest is going to be unveiled at a party on the night before Thanksgiving Day. Putting this all together was quite time intensive, but it might have been one of the most satisfying projects I've ever worked on. First of all, David is the sweetest man ever, and he'd never be difficult for me to work with... but how cool to have someone tell you, essentially, "i love your work, I'll love whatever you decide to do, you have free reign on this project"!!!!
I'm really, really happy with how it all came together; and I hope I get the chance to do this sort of work again!

Hope you are all doing well and taking good care of yourselves!

Newest family member

For those of you who know me well, you may recall I am extremely allergic to cats. Somehow I have become a cat lover, so now, in addition to our wonderful, elderly black Lab, Lady; we are home to not one, not two, but three wonderful kitties. Each one is so different, and yet so wonderful, that I find myself wondering how did we ever get along without them? Oh, that's right, I took a lot less medicines! One thing's for sure, though... I wasn't happier. These four pets, while they complicate our lives somewhat, make getting up in the morning a joy, make cuddling up in the afternoon with a book a joy, and make going to bed at night a joy. Smiles all the way around.

GPP Street Team Challenge

Wow... it's almost like Michelle is telepathic... Her latest monthly challenge is to "Clean your plate", as in clean out the cobwebs, make a clean slate, clean things up, get started anew...
in other words, do whatever is necessary to get ride of emotional or actual clutter that is keeping us from accomplishing what it is we want/need to do.

Yesterday I posted about my deadline dilemma and how distraught I've been over a commitment I've made, and I've received feedback from friends with advice about how to handle this, which I've really appreciated. Mostly, the advice has been to, in essence, "Clean my plate"... which is exactly what I intend to do.
Thank you, Michelle.

I don't really like deadlines...

I've been terribly remiss at keeping up with my blog over the past month or more... I can't really blame being too busy, nothing unusual has been happening... I have simply been preoccupied with doing work on my friend David's CD cover and liner notes, and with the calligraphy guild's newsletter I agreed to do. I did not anticipate how much work would be involved trying to learn a new computer program in order to put out the newsletter, nor did I anticipate just how much work putting together a single issue would be. I haven't been in my studio in weeks, mostly because I feel like I don't have the right to go in there to "play", when I have these two deadlines hanging over my head. Deadlines I agreed to. David's is a total work of joy... the newsletter, unfortunately, is not... and I'm just not sure what to do to improve this situation I've gotten myself into with the guild. I don't want to back out on my commitment, but I cannot continue to feel this kind of pressure... it consumes a ton of energy just thinking about it, and trying to work it into my schedule... I resent the amount of time it takes, and I am angry that I agreed to do something I am clearly so unprepared to do... I should know better than to be so anxious to agree to do something, in an effort to be such a people pleaser. I should've learned these lessons long ago, and I'm annoyed with myself that I obviously have not.

David's Collage

This is the finished collage I made for David's CD cover. I'm just finishing up the liner notes and the project should be done. I've really enjoyed doing this, and hope David is happy with the final results.

Otherwise, and I'm going to whine here just a bit, I've been sick now for the past week with another sinus infection... this time I'm being treated with "big gun" antibiotics and steroids. This is the second time in the past month I've had a sinus infection and I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired... I'm feeling unfocused, fatigued, unmotivated, and I don't like feeling this way. OK, enough belly aching!

I've missed all my on line friends and colleagues... I just hope I haven't lost all my friends because I haven't been able to "come out and play" lately!

Have a great evening and go make something!