I don't like Mondays (tell me why)

It's been a rough couple weeks around here, and it's not looking much brighter.  Mum & Dad are of the age where their friends are getting sick and some of them have recently passed away.

Last week my sister came up from Minnesota and we attended JTMM's funeral.  Over a thousand people attended, and my Dad was an honourary pallbearer.  It's all too unreal - Jim has always been there, and now suddenly, he's not.  I painted this large abstract landscape during this last week, and although I've titled it '103 Miles to Chicago' it sorta reminds me of the autumn mornings when Jim & Dad would go out hunting.

This morning brought more news from Mum - another life-long friend is in the hospital, along with a new friend who had a mild heart attack, and my favourite Auntie needs to have an angiogram.  (sigh)

 I'm heading off in two days to Minnesota to spend a week with my sister and her kids, and in the thick of things up here preparing for my trip I've gotten a whopper of a headache and have been kinda grumpy for the past couple days.  The snow on the ground today didn't help either!

But then, just as I was planning on grumbling some more, the lady at Staples re-did my botched print order for free, along with two extra pages!  And then the guy in front of me at Starbucks bought me my Chai - and apparently does this all the time - lucky for me I was behind him in line.  So although there is a lot of clouds lately, there is also a silver lining (every once in a while).

Riverbend Community Centre Craft Sale

Riverbend Community Centre
Craft Sale

Saturday, October 23, 2010 ~ 10:00am – 4:00pm

19 Rivervalley Drive SE Calgary Alberta

A wonderful variety of homemade crafts; as well as gift based home businesses. Concession sponsored by the Heritage Lions Club; drop by for a snack or lunch. Admission is free ~ advertised to all of Calgary media Donations accepted for the Calgary Interfaith Food Bank.

Kennedy Ink will have a table at the Riverbend Community Centre’s Craft Fair.

I will have a variety of art available, as well as some photography, and if I get my act in gear some cards as well. Come out and get some Christmas shopping done early!

Michelle
Kennedy Ink

http://www.google.com/profiles/KennedyInkCreative  check out all my creative explorations!

consolidating

In my studio, and in my business, I have a lot.  I find I get attracted to new techniques and new tools, and after I acquire them I forget about the old tools & techniques... so I go back to those and forget about the new... I think you see where this is going.

Time to consolidate.  I have the ability to do anything, I just don't have the time to do everything.  Which is a hard lesson to learn.  But with too much diversity comes too little production, what with all my resources spread so thin.  Now I just have to decide what goes and what stays.  No.  That won't be easy at all.  (sigh)

and so it is

Here we are at the end of an Indian Summer, waiting for the Globe Thistle to shed the last of the tasty bits the bees like to get at.  I must admit I'm feeling a little prickly myself.  We had an awesome Garage Sale on the 18th of September, and that night I came down with 'something' which turned into a cold, which became bronchitis.  I'm still coughing and sound like an old lounge singer who smokes a pack a day... and I'm half expecting pneumonia to be next on the list.  So far my antibiotics aren't kicking this bronchitis thing to the curb.  I've had to cancel a number of plans as well.  Just me and my dog napping on the couch leafing through magazines and ripping out pages to keep.  At some point, I expect I will start to not feel like a pile of poo, but I haven't gotten there yet.  So there you have it.  I'm as prickly as a Fall Globe Thistle, but still super cool.  :)

end of season mulch

Finally!  The weediest spot in our garden was attacked by my brother-in-law in early August.  A few blades of grass crept back in over the last month and a half, and were finally eradicated by my husband.  To add to the no-weed look I like, he put down landscaping cloth and then went to buy bark-chips.  End-of-season bark chip selection is not top knotch - we got black... which looks a lot like dirt.  Oh well.  At least there isn't any chance of grass growing under that bench!  Next year I'll put a few pots on the broken bench and have flowers cascading down off of it.  It'll be so pretty!  Thanks for all your hard work Ty & Austin & Scott!

'puter games

Who knew playing typing on the 'puter (or a placemat in this case) could be such fun?  L came up with this idea and Scott jumped on board, and then E and my sister got in on it as well.  Pretty soon there was the Coast Guard against a Secret Society bent on taking over the World!  I missed out on most of it because I was busy working (on a real computer, not a wooden placemat) while all this imagining was going on upstairs.  Never a dull moment when the niece and nephew are in town!  Even Maggie (our dog) got in on it (she's in hot pink on the back of the sofa basically ontop of Scott).

family visit

L and her other Aunties

As a favour to my brother-in-law I sucked it up and drove with my sister and her two kids to Vernon to visit the other side of the family.  Kidding!  I love those kids & getting to spend more time with them is a blessing, so I actually jumped at the chance.

It was nice to see the other side of the family again.  I've known K (the woman looking at me taking the photo) since I was 18, and met her sister B shortly afterwards.  So we were all friends and my sister knew her mother-in-law before she even met her future husband.  It's a tangled web we weave, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

L was just enamoured with J, who is K's little boy.  And E visited with his much older cousin S, who was incredibly tolerant of all the little ones and their lack of understanding about personal space.

We laughed, we cried, and A got incredibly sick, and then the kids got a little ill, and I even managed to attend a scrapbooking class and visit an old friend.  It was a great start to the summer visit, and as a little payback, my sister helped me get my studio back in order from the renovations.  I know, I know.  It's been a long time coming!  But having my appendix removed, and then myomas removed, and then a 3 week vacation to Sonoma, and then... well, you get the idea.  I didn't do much this summer in the studio.

I did make up for my lack of actual work by taking a boat-load of pictures.  Here's a couple more from my time in Vernon.  I hope I get back out there next summer.  What a fabulous little town!

time ticking away

Best Shot Monday's theme this week is about time moving quickly.  And in those small moments where we see it slipping past, what holds our attention.

Most of what has held my attention this past week has been planning my brother-in-law's wedding and the logistics involved with planning in Vancouver while I'm here in Calgary, as well as the fun of trying to get other family members to 'buy-in' to my ideas.  My ego is pushing my ideas, because, of course, I figure they are better ideas than anyone else's.  Hmmmm....

And then I had the opportunity to spend time taking care of Molly (above) who is, sadly, on the downward slope of life.  She's thin, has a lot of lumps that may be cancer, wheezes all the time, has hips that don't work and cloudy eyes.  And look at her!  She's just as happy as a clam to be out for a short walk.  She doesn't much care about anything except that I try to keep up with her, and give her food to eat, water to drink, and a few bellyrubs for good measure.  No ego.  No positioning for accolades.  No hurt feelings if someone doesn't agree with her outlook on life. 

So even though she's in pain and sauntering towards the exit door, she still has lessons to teach.  Even if the student is a little slow and pig-headed.

Oh, and when I die, if I get to come back, I want to come back as a well-loved dog.  Like Molly.  With lots of bellyrubs, please.

gratitude

I'm not usually grateful enough for all the wonderful things in my life.  I generally get overshadowed by the non-wonderful things and end up brooding to the point I forget about the wonderful things.

However, this past July I stayed at my sister's friend's place in Glen Ellen for 16 days.  This is her view up Sonoma Mountain, with the fog just lifting off in the morning, the bees buzzing on her masses of lavender, and the olives ripening away on her trees. 

I am grateful I have been able to carve out a life that led me to this place.  I am grateful I have a husband who supports all my weird artful follies and sees value in them.  I am grateful I have a Mum who came along and made it much more fun than being alone.  And I'm grateful for my sister who told me about the house-sitting option.  Oh and to the owners, for letting us stay in this wonderful place.  I really really hope it's a yearly thing.  I could totally get used to that.  :)

growth?

As per Best Shot Monday, she has requested that we look at the growth that has taken place in our lives lately.  The only growth I have is my ever expanding butt.  Most of everything else is contracting.  I've found, over the years, that I've put myself 'out there' and then promptly get put down.  So I've slowed down in my zealous attempt to be flayed continually.  Funny that.

And I know where it all stems from.

This is one of the very few photos I have where I know I'm pregnant when the photo was taken.  And this is one of the very few photos I have where I still think (at the time, in the photo) that life turns out the way you expect it to.  6 years, 5 miscarriages, and 80 pounds later, I know life definately does not turn out the way you expect it to.  And that sucks.  Hard. 

Hence the shrinking of my life, not the growth.  Sorry.  Not really playing along well this week.