Taking some time to recuperate. I was feeling quite uncomfortable on Sunday but in my way, kept going, through the morning anyway. Yesterday was better and today even more so. My family commitments should be diminishing somewhat, I think. My main area of discomfort seems to be in my jaws. I could barely open my mouth on Sunday. I carry on though as I know there are folks much worse off than I. I also can wreak havoc with family who over-react to discomforts. OR they think they have to compete - with a worse cold or a more sore head or WHATEVER! So you see - I am fine :D

I am trying very much to complete a video about the "strong, free, me" girl. I am planning to introduce a "line" at my shop around her. Next week, if not sooner.

In the meantime I wanted to share this new video:



I was also astonished to learn yesterday that I have a couple of pics on flickr with over 1000 views. I can hardly believe it. Here they are:





May angels be with you dear friends,
Wendy

Let angels light the way:



As Christmas is drawing ever nearer I am tending to slow down, procrastinate, even more. I have the Christmas cards nearly done. As I have chosen to make many of them I need the extra pictures to be picked up and I need a new colour ink cartridge to print the backs of the cards.
I have a difficult letter to write also - one that I am required to do every year for the past fifteen.
I am having somewhat of an extra difficult time dealing with life as I am having very little time to be creative. I do have a whack of photos to show you, post, create another slideshow from, but alas I need to finish some of these other projects first. I also have a journal page started, but I must stay away from it as it is only one more way to procrastinate from that which needs doing.

And so I will pray for the angels to light the way, guide me, as I try to do those few things which I make myself do, for Christmas. I will also continue to take time for myself, to be still, listen for the voice of God as I treat myself with a massage, a time with Naomi, some time with my immediate family in a traditional overnight stay at the Travelodge, time for more photos and tea with a friend.

And so for you dear friends, may you let angels light the way at this time of advent, this time just before the equinox.

Between concerts:



And just a few flat canvases on which I slapped a bit of paint. I hope to have a tiny bit more time for creating this week, between Christmas preparations that is. Yikes.

"what a wonderful world":
I was cruising around on youtube and came across this Eva Cassidy version of a song I love very much. I thought it would be appropriate to include with my post for today.



I was able to complete the vintage Christmas stocking for my swap partner, besusans. It went into the mail yesterday. I had been getting somewhat panicky about the whole arrangement but truly I create better under pressure. I loved making treasures for Susan which I believe will be meaningful. I also purchased some gifts. I also love Christmas shopping, especially for folks who have similiar interests to my own. Vintage fabrics and ephemera are not so readily available where I live but I found a few pieces in my own stash which I thought might be appropriate. I am assured that Susan should be receiving her package in about 11 days so I'll try to keep in touch with Susan so that I might show more of my own photos of the items I made, after she has received the stocking ;-).

In the meantime I want to share just a couple of the reasons why I love the the above mentioned song. So often I feel so blessed with angels. I had received MY swap package from Mandy, pearl maple, a couple of weeks ago. I promised I would not open it until after I had Susan's package away in the mail. Last night I was very tired but it was the perfect time to be opening my surprise. Tears come easily to my spirit, but especially when I'm tired, especially when someone recognizes, surprises, touches me so closely. And so the tears were present as I found the beautiful angel filled, blue filled, ribbon filled, vintage filled, hope filled diamond treasure chest which Mandy had sent. The angels were on everything, it felt. I love the colours, the richness, the handcrafting and thoughtful choices. I felt so blessed Mandy. Thank you so very much. You have truly touched my spirit.

Another surprise also arrived yesterday. There is a very kind elf on flickr who has such a talent with words. He chose yesterday to write another of his poems for me. Tom is such a wise and kind elf. Thank you Tom.



When Angels Dance in Snow
© Thomas R. Farrell
A Poem for Windy Angels

Did you know
That black and white will marry ..…
Giving birth to blue
Whom they will rest here
In the shadows of their love!

Bushes and snow and lattice fence
Lost in yesterday's passing fall of snow,
Welcoming their sun to sit a while longer
As shadows praise their God
For this dress it wears so well.

Clouds I’m sure will come
In an hour or a day
Giving all a grayer cast
And muting songs from snow..

But for now, we have the music
And contrast beaming bright,
For now I hear the sound of songs
As angels dance about --
And I hear the sound of songs they sing,
Sweet foot prints in the snow.

Explanations, no apologies necessary:
I don't really know if anyone cares, but perhaps it will help me to put this here, for you to see. I have not been creating nearly as much art in the past months as I feel capable of, perhaps especially in the last weeks. I truly had hopes to have an open house here to show my art. I truly had hoped to have an etsy shop open and be mailing many of my creations to you. I truly had hoped to have much more available in the line of photographs to sell for my family and friends, any who might have been interested. There is not much interest locally in mixed media, at least not that I've had time to pursue. But remember that I am not apologizing. I am explaining. If you looked at my previous post about the kind of flower I am, it mentioned pride. That is truly what I'm feeling.
While I've not been noticeably ill, those that are my helpers, my therapists, tell me that I have been "working very hard". This has nothing to do with physical labour - absolutely very little to do with physical labour. I have been healing myself. That is much more an emotional, psychological, spiritual kind of work. I can see that for anyone that doesn't know me very well, for anyone that believes in the "protestant work ethic" and in fact this would include some Catholic friends (Humboldt is a very German Catholic community), or just generally those that do not understand, they would sweep away my explanation as quickly as the dust on the floor. Yet for one of my helpers to tell me recently that is something he admires of me, the "hard work", and for Naomi to be nodding her head up and down with a little (or maybe not so little) glow in her eye when I'm repeating that admiration to her, makes me feel even more proud of what I am doing, accomplishing. Other helpers have reiterated how much better I have been doing also.



November is an extremely difficult month for me but here I am telling you all about my hard work. There have been many trials in the past year, particularly months, but I have weathered them. I've even been involved in a "soap opera incident" as I will refer to it. It wasn't really pretty. I was drawn into it totally without my awareness. I am to forget about it but because I have this loyalty to friends it is being extremely difficult to walk away from. Also because of my diabetes and the swinging blood sugars that have always come with that, I tend to a vicious cycle of inferior thoughts, particularly with the high sugars. I have been weathering that. I have been flowing through it with an added height to my awareness, to my strength.
And so I have tried to keep this post positive. I have tried to explain rather than apologize. I will take a moment to say that some of you have noticed moments of huge creative energies. They tend, however, to be frequently interrupted with all this other hard work and I have had major difficulties in arranging the typical help which has been made available for our daughter. Normally at this time of year I've had much help with her. This year it has been interrupted to a large extent.
So I will continue to create, when I can. The creating needs to be more again for me as opposed to being for you. The etsy shop will open when it opens.
Angels be with you my friends. Thank you for all the angels you send to me,
Wendy

My dear, dear friend Suze is going through such a trial right now. If you know her or even if you don't please stop by and show your support.
Angels be with you dear friends,
Wendy

Birthdays:
As I approach my 50th birthday on Sunday I am feeling quite blessed.

this road on which I travel

at times

seems so rough

filled with obstacles

which appear, at first, impossible

but as I look back

I pause

and take wonder

at all the beauty

the miracles along the way

Though I've been feeling somewhat muddle-befuddled the past few weeks I really do not believe it has anything to do with the approaching age. I am quite proud to have had diabetes for 46 1/2 years without any complications to this time. That is quite unusual considering the very bouncy ride it has always been. If you click on the above photo you can go to my comment part way down in which I mention the diabetes.
Then today I discovered this fabulously optimistic lady who celebrated her 108th birthday last Sunday. I love Olive and her enthusiasm for life. She has such a beautiful radiance.



And I love the idea of the sing-alongs. I used to do them with my Mom and aunties when I was a teenager and now once in awhile I do them with our daughter Cat. If my Mom happens to be around she'll try to join in too. Maybe you didn't realize I'm one of those kind of people to occasionally burst spontaneously into song. I don't need accompaniment if the song is familiar LOL.

happy thoughts:
For Thursday photo day at Create a Connection we were asked to think happy thoughts. Angels immediately come to mind.
Angels be with you,
Wendy

Post two for today. Please view the first below this one. Click on the time for this post (4:00 p.m.) at the very bottom of it so the music from the two slide shows do not compete. And please feel free to leave an anonymous comment if you don't have blogger.

It's all about clouds. The majority of these were taken to the west as I waited for the harvest moon to rise on Wednesday evening, and then for curiosity to be sated as I watched the storm roll in over my home - off to the right.
I love the clouds, using my imagination of what they are, besides angels.

I would mention that if you want to see a larger version of the slideshow and also be able to see the others I've made you can click on "view all images".

Angels be with you,
Wendy XO

Angels of kindness:
A number of weeks ago some dear friends named me as one of the recipients of this "nice matters" award. I felt so honoured. Now finally I am returning the favour by naming some of my other friends with the same award. I would like to name Elena, Karen, Debra, Darcy, Helene and Fran to receive the award.

I also received recently the Rockin' girl blogger award from Darcy and so I will name Suze, Nance, Jude, Mary Ann, and Janet to receive this award. I know many of you have already received this award but I would like to present it to you also. You are all so great.



Angel images have arrived together with all the other angels. Helenina and Karen have both sent beautiful images on Flickr. Enigmaticdec, a friend from close by, and maybe moving closer, sent me a wonderful image and purposely had allowed room for me to add words. Thanks so much to each of you.



For anyone following the bits and pieces of what's been happening in my life the past ten days or so, I'll say that we had a fine visit at the farm this past weekend. I had a long visit with Jeanne and I am confident that she is ready to face whatever the future brings. She appeared so much like her bouncy, cheerful self even though she'd just had a major surgery a few days previous.

I've been fitting in dibbles and dots of art too. Many of the projects are not quite finished but here's some of what I've been doing.


I'll give you details once I've gotten pieces closer to completion.












Angels be with you.

Teeny-tiny watercolour and a befuddlement: Watercolour again done quickly. Inspire me Thursday had watercolor for the theme this week also and so I squeezed in this quick 3.5 x 5 inch watercolour based on the photograph. I'm feeling better with this but would really like to get into it more. I used a black uniball for the details and added a tiny bit with caran d'ache crayons again.

Life is kind of a befuddlement at this time. I won't go into details but will ask for prayers for a high school good friend that had a baseball sized tumour removed in a major surgery yesterday. I just learned of it this afternoon. Her name is Jeanne.
There are all kinds of other challenges as well but know that I am doing very well considering and that for some reason numerous people keep sending me angels in spirit and angel pictures and all kinds of angels. Thank you sincerely.



Angels be with you,
Wendy

She looked to the setting sun: The theme this week for inspire me Thursday is watercolor. I think I tried that theme once before and just never got back to the watercolours. I often think I should try to do more sketching and painting but, when I get into my 200th year perhaps, maybe heaven? I started with too much paint, not enough water. It got too dark.









After it dried I misted it with a very light spray of tiny pink in water. That lightened it quite nicely.










I thought it was a pretty boring piece so decided to add the tree, and some words, and the angel. For those I used caran d'ache crayons and a silver marker. I got a bit carried away with the marker on the angel. Oh well. Notice the wind blowing gently through her hair. Hmm, I think the wind is blowing her skirt in the other direction. A spinny angel? Reminds me of someone I know.



Angels be with you,
Wendy

Shine:
Kind of a grey day outside and consequently I start feeling grey too. That's worse than blue.
I was thinking about Karen doing a mosaic of a friend's house, which she admired. I thought "Where is anything in our house that would be worthy of a picture?" I found these corners in the china cabinet and a few other things. I decided to share these with you for today.
Hopefully they'll remind you AND me to shine.



Angels be with you.

I seek:
Last Friday I started to write a dark piece. Last night as the clouds were rolling in, to hide the moon, I decided to choose to look to the light. Here is my choice.

I seek
when the tears are erupting
at the surface
ready to spill
I seek to feel laughter
instead

when the pain is crying
in my face
my jaws
my neck
my shoulders
I seek to feel my body
flowing
as hot chocolate sauce
molten sapphires glowing
instead

when the rage is building
constructing,
I seek to feel warm light
instead

when my thoughts find helpless
grasping at straws
I seek to feel courage
with hope entwined
instead

when sadness surrounds me
smothers
I seek to feel beauty
dancing in the light
instead







when loneliness leaves me
abandoned
I seek to feel the angels
fluttering
within
and about me
instead

excited: Three people are very excited. One is my dear friend Suze who got a job today. I am very excited because of this marvelous path which has been placed before her. Our daughter is excited because I helped her start her own blog today. It's just a start but that doesn't matter. I'm excited, because she's excited.

Later note - I was looking for a photo from flickr to portray the excitement but got majorly side - tracked, once again. I decided best to leave without for now. I might never get down to what I could be doing today!

"angels be with you": This is a journal page I did with items from the challenge as presented by Kira for "journal junk week 2".
I've discovered another reason why I love mixed media. Glue and I DO NOT get along. This time I thought I'd try using a glue stick instead of a medium. I still managed to get glue in places it should not be. You'd think I would have learned by now that I should not try to clean it off. Yipes! Printer ink does not want to stay put. The more I try to clean it the worse it gets. Mixed media to the rescue. Just use more layers, more "mix", more glue. Voila - a creation to be proud of.
This image is best viewed in large size - clickable.

Doing some research on altered books and came across this fabulous one about angels. Ummm - I feel them close by. Angels be with you.

Presents and WIPs: I have much to post about today so will probably need to do more than one post. This one is about presents I received in the mail in the past few days. The first present was from Mary Ann who is so kind with her giveaways every other week. I was so excited to be chosen to receive this book titled "Designing with Fabric". It is an absolute treasure trove. I can hardly wait to dig into it. At first glance I noticed a reverse stamping technique. I did not have any bleach here otherwise but decided to try some liquid dishwasher soap which I had purchased a couple of years ago for stamping on jeans. I thought if it worked on denim - why not other fabric. I did some stamping on a piece of this sheet which wasn't quite right for what I had purchased it. I want to turn it into a journal quilt sometime. I'm not certain what I'll do with it yet but hopefully I will come back to it.
The next day I received a wonderful paper doll from Emily. I so admired the paper dolls of Emily which I had viewed on flickr. They are fabulous. I am inspired once again to try something that I thought I never would. Hmmmm - that list of things to try keeps getting longer and longer. We'll see.
Then yesterday there was another parcel card. Because we have to pick up our mail at the post office we need to be there before 5 on a week day. I got the package at lunchtime today when Greg walked in the door. I'd kind of started to worry about my "cuppa tea" swap package. Sometimes our mail is SOOOO SLOOOOW. But after I opened the package I had to put on my "be inspired - not intimidated" hat. There were many gorgous pieces in the package from Regina. I admire anyone who can do paintings. And today I received this wonderful card, together with the fabulous case, some stamped cards, vintage postcards, buttons, and these whimsical angel earrings.
Huge thank yous to Mary Ann, Emily, and Regina. This emotional artist has, well, I think you get the picture. I'll get some tissues now to dry my face.

YES! The meeting with school folk was fantabulous. We are very GRATEFUL to angel Stephen for all his support and all the other angels fluttering around us.
The image is from clip art - definitely NOT my own.

Art - new year; old year AND tagged:
I'll start by explaining that I've been tagged by Suze. It's a book tag. You are supposed to pick up a book that's close by. Turn to page 123, go down five sentences and then look at the next 3 sentences. Oh yes, and be sure to say the name of the book and its authour.

Well, I put a bit of a twist to it. I had signed up for the quilt journal group, an off shoot of the CPS group. Each month I, and many others, are to create a quilt journal of, I think, 8 x 11 inches. Since I signed for the group things have changed a bit for me but I have decided I would still like to try to do this. With all of my art I've been having much difficulty trying to choose from many possibilities, ideas, what I would like to do or perhaps focus on. I am hoping this will give me some direction. Maybe I shall try to focus more on using fibers. We'll see. I'm not even sure if I'm still part of the webring I had joined last fall.

But back to being tagged - I have a binder with a number of Cloth Paper Scissors and Quilting Arts magazines. I decided to use this binder as my book. I didn't have the challenge directions in front of me and I accidentally went to page 213 in my binder. On looking back I found that page 123 does not have the required number of sentences, so I'll just stick with page 213, or I guess it was actually 212, after having added together the pages from the first magazine in the binder to the second magazine. So I found myself in a Quilting Arts magazine, Fall 2006, Issue 23 .

"I'm pretty sure they didn't use a MacBookPro, with dual Intel processors, nor did they use Adobe Illustrator, because, well, all they had were pencils back then. And maybe some nice technical pens. And a compass."

In these particular "Ramblings" by Robbi Joy Eklow she is discussing how she loves Art Deco. A particular piece inspiring her was finished in 1929. Robbi writes about the minimal tools used to develop the piece initially.

I started to think too, about the tools which I use and how technology has changed what we are able to do. I appreciate how there are still needs for hands, hand stitching, painting, sketching, moving the mouse of the computer. Though technology has greatly enhanced what an artist is capable of, there must still be the planning, the creative eye, the dreams, sometimes visions, beliefs and imagination in order to develop art.

I'm rambling. The top piece, 8 1/2 x 11 inches, is the newer one completed, anyway I think it is completed, just yesterday. I started it at the farm. I had some purchased pieces in the letters, bird and cut outs. I did the main background with wax crayons and then did some scratching of the swirls with a nail file. Later I pulled out the gel pens and started to go over the swirls and add more words. The fabric was at home. It is quite modern - meshy and metallic. So this piece was started with some pretty basic tools and then added to with more modern pieces.

The second piece I did last summer. I was playing with tape transfers. The size of the taped piece is 7 x 8 inches. It is of a cat we used to have named Doby. He had a wonderful face. I miss him still. I am quite pleased with how the transfer turned out. I'm not sure if I should play with it or just leave as is.

I want to say more about the particular magazine I chose for the tagging. As I had pulled it out of the binder to do this post it was sitting available for me to look at otherwise. Coincidence, luck, I'm not sure. On the cover I find "The Art of Journal Quilting". Leaps of joy. I discover information about how journal quilts actually started. I find yet more examples of journal quilts and I discover that I've made a good choice in joining this group. The authour speaks of play, of not worrying so much about perfection, and of going beyond the fear. These are things which I have been trying to deal with the past few years and I think I've been doing well. But this may be an extra little nudge to remind me to keep working in that direction.

If you are reading this and want to be tagged please feel free to accept. I will personally tag Fran, Darcy, and Terri.