A Return to Routine

It is quiet with the return to school and work for my family and I once again will need to establish a routine.  I'm dressed for the day, coffee is brewing, Simply Quilts just ended, and I've cleared off the table for machine quilting.  Its been awhile and I can feel the adrenalin rushing as I think about where to begin. I've got a new still life set up for thread drawing and 2 pieces to quilt that are warm-ups more than "my" work.  Nothing percolating artistically of late other than being drawn to blues and grays and bluish grays.

Adrian II has been breathing on his own for the last 2 days and might come home tomorrow and I get to begin figuring out how I want to grandmother...I found myself in children's literature at Border's yesterday and I thought about my sister who started building her stash of movies for children long before she became a grandmother and laughed at myself.   

To everyone who sent well wishes, prayers, good thoughts, and birthday greetings, thank you very much.  I'm sure there will be a few forthcoming entries on grandmotherhood.

The turn of the year found me in a run of Scrabble competition with my family.  We started on the 31st and stopped on the afternoon of the 1st (with a few hours of sleep in-between).  I am the Queen of Scrabble but did make a little room for my brother, Upfromsumdirt (aka Ron), at the foot of the throne.  I love the game and even thought about joining a Scrabble club so I could play weekly.  The only time we play as a family like this is when everyone in on vacation and I always go through withdrawals after routine returns to a schedule (like today).  I had the online version but the disc became damaged and I decided not to replace it since it was feeding my insomnia and was the cause of dinners being burned.  I'm really not that great of a player if I consider serious competitive play, I'm just better than most of my friends and family who enjoy the game but not as much as I do, thus I get to declare myself Queen and request they address me as such (been having a little rebellion about this from the peasants though). 

My goals for the new year are summed up by checking out the new list in my sidebar entitled "Stay Focused".  There is an upcoming deadline of January 10 for Quilt Visions and I'm not sure I'll meet it but we'll see, nothing like waiting to the last minute, eh?!

I had thought I would have 4 or 5 pieces hanging in a local yarn shop this month but it didn't pan out.  After I met with the owner some months ago and sent her a thank you fabric postcard I didn't hear from her and because I had felt lukewarm about the meeting I decided not to pursue it any further with any follow-up calls.  It was good practice though for me to show and talk about my work with a stranger. Maybe I need to cultivate the show of enthusiasm in my presentation...I'm more a laid back and quiet, observant person and I have to work at it to project enthusiasm outwardly.  For 7 years I was an enthusiastic consultant with Mary Kay Skin Care and Cosmetics, so I know I can do it but it does use a lot of energy which is why I've thought twice, trice, about doing booths at art/craft fairs.  I'm more suited to a storefront where customers can come in and sip wine or tea and hear some low funk jazz and ask me questions about what motivated me to create a piece or join me in experimenting.  Since my goals are to enter juried shows, along with this will come learning to write about my pieces in statements, exercises that will lead to strengthening my creative vision in cloth, and discipline in a work schedule.  I will attend AQS in Paducah and aim to take at least 1 intensive major workshop which in turn will mean keeping my budget on the narrow to do.

Now is time for me to begin sewing...next post will be pictures (of something).