HUNTERS AND GATHERERS

The Fruits Of My Labors 

As I am preparing for my painting class coming up in one week I decided I needed/wanted some additional colors of paints and a couple of other supplies for my art work. The choices I have locally are pretty lacking so as is usual I went internet shopping. I shopped my favorite art supply house and found all but one of the colors of paint on my list. The total came to quite a bit more then I had thought to spend and was bemoaning the fact that everything is so costly now as compared to "the good old days."  My dear hubby, bless his heart, had two gift cards from Father's day and didn't know what to use them on so he offered them to me. I didn't want to use his gift but he said since it is close to our 57th wedding anniversary he wanted to re-gift me his cards. Now how could I refuse that offer. So my paints are on the way and will be here a few days before my class. 

Now I am not a good shopper which is why I like the internet for shopping but we needed to get a few groceries so decided to make a day of it and help to keep the economy going in our area. So..after hubby got home from playing his weekly game of horseshoes, showered and dressed we headed out for a late lunch at a favorite restaurant named  "Red's" then drove into Ocala for some real shopping which also promised us some much needed exercise.

There was not much I needed but some things I just wanted so off we went armed with double coupons hitting first Hobby Lobby where I got all but the glue then drove a few blocks over to Michael's. I was looking for some small scrapbook size sewing trinkets that I could add to my daughter's book I am making on the wedding gown construction. Hobby Lobby didn't have a thing that would work and as it turns out neither did Michael's. Not wanting my coupons to go to waste I bought the two bottles of glue.

The little bag in the photo are the wooden hearts I want to add to the back of my ornaments. Tomorrow I will paint them so I can do the writing on them and glue them on and be completely finished with that project.

Usually when I do something I improvise when I don't have everything or the exact thing but being a live streaming video class I was afraid I wouldn't have time to figure out or look for what to substitute. Tonight I went over my list of needed supplies for the class and I am happy to say I now have everything on the list. I am excited!

All in all, at the end of my day I would say it was a productive day as well as a very pleasant day spent with my hubby. The temperature was hot but not extreme as it was yesterday. Before we know it we will be wearing sweaters again.

BLANK CANVAS

A blank canvas is much like our life. Lots of empty space for us to create wonderful imagery  representing what we are and what we have been and what we want to be. It also contains room for the imagery you do not like to brag about and we all have some in our lives if we are completely honest with ourselves. We can depict our aspirations, our frustrations and our ministrations. We  can show our loves' and our hates' and how we dealt with them and how we were able to move on when in despair or turmoil. It is a place to paint the story of our lives. 

After 75 years my canvas is pretty cluttered with some dark images. More than I would have liked but a whole lot more of bright and fun colors with more happy colors to come. What have you painted and even more important, what are you going to paint on your blank canvas?

Garden room

 I am getting ready to start an acrylic painting class with  Shiloh Sophia  and after looking over the supply list that said we need a substrate of at least 24 inches square, larger would be better.  I then went online to look at the gallery wrapped canvas which she suggested as a first choice though good plywood or even paper could be an alternative. After seeing the discounted price of $45 for the gallery wrapped canvas I thought I would like to use I decided this amature artitist needed to use the wood alternative. What  in the world was I thinking when I looked at 30" x 40" canvas. Michael Angelo I am not. 

Gessoed plywood

It just so happens I have a couple of pieces of plywood already cut into 24"  squares and sitting waiting to be used for a painting or two to hang in my pergola on the lattice fence like I did in my garden room. So I dug it out, cleaned the cobwebs and dust off and brought it in to do a few coats of gesso.Here is my gessoed plywood in a manageable size wating for my muse and the image to appear when the class begins at 3:00 pm EST on Friday the 13th.  What a magical day that is going to be. 

THE CIRCLE OF LIFE

Trash, Treasures and Changes

Our lives are forever changing, going from one phase to another until it has completed it's circle. That is exactly how mine is going. We never know what part of the circle we have completed and therefore do not know when it will finally be completed. Which is why I believe we all need to do more of what makes us happy. Makes us ecstatic. Makes us want to jump up and down with joy. How do we do that? If things are not going right, work to change what you can and  those you can't change just accept for what they are. If everything is on an even keel do something to spice it up a notch so things don't get stagnant. Sometimes that happens without us even knowing it. We just go our merry way thinking we are happy when in reality we are just comfortable with the status quo. Comfortable is not bad but it can be boring if we are not careful. So that is where I am now. Getting ready to spice my life up a bit by making changes. 

Changes............

Today was my last day to facilitate the ASG meeting I was leader of. It was a bittersweet meeting  in that I am happy to now free to do more of the things I want to do and meet other commitments, mostly family for the time being, and making new commitments to myself but I will miss the group and hope to be able to on occasion attend a meeting. 

After I got home I signed up for an online, streaming video art painting class with Shiloh Sophia. I have never taken a live streaming class before but the good thing is I can down load and do it whenever I want to. http://www.shilohsophiastudios.com/ I used to do painting with oils but this is entirely different then what I have done and besides it has been 50 years since I did the oil classes. I think I have forgotten more then I learned so many years ago. 

Another class I am signed up for as of today is a Alabama Chanin class to perfect my hand sewing of garments made of knits.http://alabamachanin.com/ I have all of her books and have a video of her technique but doing it in a group is a motivator for me and will be a fun learning experience. The friend who is going to lead the group is very good at garment sewing, fitting and teaching so I know I am going to learn a lot. It is a small group which means we can meet in her home and that will make it even more fun. 

Along with my daily exercise routine those are the changes I am making to spice up my life. I am building my community!

Treasures.................

Yarns and fabrics

I am sure you have all heard of the saying "One person's trash is another person's treasures." Well, today I was the recipient of another person's trash. One of the ASG members cleaned out her sewing room to rid herself of all the stuff she no longer was interested in. I was so fortunate to be on the receiving end of her trash so now I will need to go through it and see what I want to keep and what I can pass on to other interested artist or crafters in my community. It won't be hard. We have a lot of seamstresses and quilters and even a few knitters so everything in this bag will be put to good use.

Beads, glitters and trims

Another box of her 'stuff' had a lot of things I will keep since I will use it for my art work and some embellishments on my hand work. Whatever I don't want will get passed on to my Altered Minds group. Being a mixed media group they are always looking for fun stuff. And not to be forgotten is the special ASG meeting coming up in 2 weeks. We will be using a lot of trims etc so those items will be passed on to that group.

So many changes have been made and my life is getting spiced up a bit. Today I jump for joy and shout hurray for change!

TECHNOLOGY AND MORE PROMISES

 The Price We Pay

Technology............

Last night right in the middle of watching a paid for movie on NetFlix we again lost our cable, phone and wireless. Another call to BrightHouse and another wait in line for a real person to talk to and finally we got a new appointment for service to figure out what is wrong with our Bright House cable service that we keep losing everything. It is bad enough to lose our cable but to have no telephone service is a bit scary in the middle of the night. 

Today a young man showed up and told us he knew the problem was not in our house so checked out our neighbors to see if any of them were having a problem. They weren't but it was a bit disconcerting that they can drive down the street in their van and tell with their high tech equipment who is getting what signal and how strong it is. The price we pay for our fun and entertainment. 

Finally, after checking the neighborhood the tech figured out it was a problem in the main box on the pole near the corner. There was water in the box and the contacts were wet. With all this rain I am not surprised. He got it cleaned up and sealed and promised we would have no more problems. That is all fine and good but if so why did he say he would put us on the watch list so if a problem does pop up they will be alerted and can come check it out.

Even with all of this going on I was still able to get my Jack Reacher book finished and my grand kids ornaments finished and time left over to dink around on my PC and Smart TV. I am still learning what all the bells and whistles bells do.

Promises................

With the DVD player and the WII hooked up, I no  longer have an excuse for not getting any exercise in when the weather is iffy as it has been all summer with clouds, thunder, lightening and rain almost every day for a couple of months. I have various walking disks and the WII Fitness programs so starting tomorrow morning I will get at least a 20 minute aerobic walk in every day! Promise...

TECHNOLOGY

A Simpler Life

My Garden Room

When it is working good I love it but when it fouls up I get frustrated and hate it. We have a love/hate relationship.  Technology and I. It would be a big help if I knew more than  just enough to get me in even more trouble when troubleshooting a problem.

Today was spent having our cable provider come and hook up our antiquated VCR/DVD player to our new "Smart TV" and find out why the cable goes in and out so often. 

It didn't take long to get the player hooked up and then they changed the splitters which gave us a stronger signal. They assured me all was working well and then they left. About an hour later both the cable and the phone stopped working. I was not sure if my wireless worked or not as I was too frustrated to bother looking. All of our services are tied together with the same company including my wireless. Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket. We sure did that.  Finally I got it all going again by rebooting both the cable modem and the phone modem. So far the wireless modem is still function properly. 

Then I had to learn how to operate with a different set up as they gave me a new remote for the cable modem and programed it so everything works with one remote unless I want to use the 'smart' part of our TV and if so I need to use the other remote that came with the TV. Too many things to remember for an old memory like mine.  They also hooked up my WII box which of course has it's own remote. Now I can play with that again. If I can just remember from one day to the next which remote to use.

I appreciate and enjoy all the new gadgets in my life but there are many times when I long for a simpler life. Not too simple though. No scrub boards!

After all of that I did manage to get a little done on the ornaments I am making for the grandkids and a few chapters read in my book I just started. "A wanted Man," a Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child. Now the day is winding down and I am going to spend the evening reading. Tomorrow is going to be a better day.

AN ORDINARY DAY

Broken Things

and

My Garden

Today was just another ordinary day in my life but I am thankful for ordinary days. It means we are doing well and can enjoy the day and hopefully many more like it. 

Some mornings, as I am drinking my coffee, I take a walk around my garden to see what is new and what needs work. Today I noticed a lot of my glass totems need a little TLC but that will have to wait a few more degrees. This morning I took my camera hoping to snap some photos.

The butterflies are back sipping nectar again and I was able to get a photo of this one. I also saw a beautiful black and white striped butterfly but he would not land long enough for me to get his photo.

My Bougainvillea, that has been taking up space on the corner of my fence for several years is finally starting to grow and produce a few blooms. And I mean a few. This is the most we have had blooming at one time since it was planted. The ground below it is suppose to be grass but here in florida with the water restrictions we have replace most of our grass with mulch. I think this winter we will do the same in this area... plus it makes it look very woodsy and natural which I really like...

Last year we moved some of these mystery  bulbs from a shady area to this sunny area since they did nothing where they were planted...Finally this week we have this flower pop out. Not sure but think they are Calla Lilies. Or at least some kind of lily.

Too many times we are so anxious to get rid of the old and broken which is what I thought we should do when we noticed this  branch that drooped and split. But as is usual we didn't get to it right away.  I read, years ago, that to force a tree to grow faster you can beat on the trunk with a blunt object but not so hard as to cause damage. 

It is suppose to cause the sap to shoot up to the tree's perceived wounded trunk to fix it but since there is no wound there the sap continues on to the branches and they have a growth spurt...It sounds logical and when I saw what happened to the branch on this India Hawthorn tree I am now a firm believer.

This is the branch that is broken and the leaves are twice the size of the rest of the tree and twice as dark green. Even though the branch is broken I can't bring myself to let Bob cut it off after it has managed to survive so long and look so nice. Maybe I need to go out and start beating all my trees...

FALL IS COMING TO FLORIDA

BUTTERFLIES

and

FALL

Today is Sunday, September 1st and the day before Labor Day, another holiday we do not observe much in our old age. Not our old age but the country's old age though by some standards our country is not old. It just feels like it when I see and read and hear all of the controversies going on. Now we have one more problem popping up in Syria, as if  we didn't have enough going on in the Mideast. But back to Labor Day. 

How do you celebrate this day we have set aside to honor the working people in our country? Do you heat up the barbie for an end of summer Barbeque like my son always does or do you go on a picnic the way my family did when I was a wee girl. Will you be one of the working folk so that we who do not work can get whatever we want when we want it.  Or will you stay home like we are going to do and just relax with a football game or two like Bob or an art project like me. No matter what you do please remember the hard working people that make it all possible.

With that said I wanted to mention that I think, early in the mornings, there is a small nip in the air telling me fall in Florida is for sure just around the corner. The grass doesn't need cutting every week and the sun does not beat in my studio window which means I can open my shades and enjoy my backyard. 

Speaking of back yards. Yesterday, after opening my blinds to the max, I spent several minutes standing at said window enjoying a 'flock' of butterflies? Is that what a bunch of butterflies are called?  No matter...they were swarming around my bottle brush tree which only has a few blooms left on it so each bloom had several of the 'beautiful flying flowers' flitting around and sucking nectar out of the tiny blooms. There were yellow Sulphur butterflies and some that were black and orange though not monarchs and one I saw that was blue...I felt very honored to have them visit for a day. I feel a need to purchase a field guide to butterflies so I can find the names of each visitor to my back yard.