Creating and design:
The painter has finally started in our house today after 20 days have passed since the fire. Our patience has been wearing thin. In the meantime I decided to rip the wall paper off the one wall in our bedroom and paint all the walls there. Insurance is paying for painting in the kitchen, living room and back entrance. We have decided to paint two of the bedrooms and the main room in the basement as nearly everything is out of the house. It's quite scary in the basement especially as we had SO MUCH STUFF there. I had many of my vintage books which I recently acquired as well as many magazines and also most of my cardstock. Fortunately my main studio which was recently completed has not been affected. Big sigh.



I won't show you colours yet. We are in process of getting ready to move back to our house on Friday. The painting will not be finished but Greg's Mom has a big birthday celebration happening on Saturday so out of town family are coming to stay. We will be very glad to move out of the basement here after 19 days. We were SO LUCKY to be able to move in temporarily as the hotel would just not have cut it for this lengthy time period especially with a teenage daughter and all of our special food needs. I really dislike restaurant food at the best of times and if I'd have to do it everyday for every meal - YIPES.

So we'll kind of be camping in our own home for awhile till the kitchen is finished (could be a number of weeks yet, but, we'll try to enjoy it. Kat has been fantastic with the whole thing. I actually had a meeting with her teacher this morning to do wrap up for this year and make plans for next. I was so impressed with how attuned the school has become to our daughter and her needs. Teacher also commented on how terrific Kat has been doing. THANK GOODNESS FOR ALL THE ANGELS AND FOR OUR CHRISTIAN FAITH WHICH HAS GOTTEN US THROUGH MANY CHALLENGES.



And so I've been buying numerous magazines and borrowing many from the library to help me through this difficult time.


I've been trying to do designing on a budget to help myself with the design and colour choices that insurance is not covering. Unfortunately our flooring is in really bad shape as is our bathroom. We'll have to wait. Other things have been priority.



It's now Thursday. I want only to say about the painting that I walked past our house at 10 p.m. last night. The painter was still there with his bright lights shining. I am SO impressed with his concern and time commitment. So many people have NO CLUE what it is like to not be in your home for an extended time period, without having planned to do so.

I'll quickly share a link to a blog that I absolutely love. the photographs, the designs, the colours. lafifole.blogspot touches me, and I think many others, at many levels. Take a moment to check Anne's blog if you are able. You may fall in love with it just as I have. I know numerous of my friends will enjoy the most recent photos from teatime.

Angels be with you dear friends in whatever adventures you may be finding.

Life is truly good: The past week met us with some new challenges but we are all safe and fine. That is the important thing. Last Thursday morning at 4 a.m. we woke to the sound of our smoke detector. I ran out to find the dishwasher all in flames. We were able to go out the front door. Greg put the fire out with a blanket and I phoned 911 on the cordless phone which Greg brought to me from the coffee table close by. Greg was a bit perturbed with himself for not switching off the furnace fan as the furnace managed to spread the smoke throughout the entire house. It’s OK. The smoke detector worked. We are all safe including the pets and we had insurance. There is a cleaning crew that has been washing, scrubbing walls, packing boxes, using ozone machine and ripping out cupboards and flooring that need to be removed. We will get new flooring put in our back entrance, down the stairs and into the main room in the basement. All the replacement work and painting will be done by a carpenter. We’re getting bids for these jobs and then insurance company will choose.

Sorry to tell this almost by rote but the whole thing seems just another adventure in my survivor life series. I am trying as much as possible to laugh, to think of the good things that can come of this, Relationships of family and friends are being strengthened. I learn of kindness from people like Constanza, near strangers, who are offering help. I learn of people that don’t really care. I learn of how very, very strong I have become when a friend comments on how so many people would be very “pissy” (her word, not mine) about the whole thing. As I skip down the hallway of my mother-in-law’s basement where we are residing, I realize that life is truly good. As I shed a few tears of sadness, exhaustion, I realize that life is truly good,

The fabric photo shows a piece I had dyed brown, used a bleach resist on and then painted with white fabric paint. The photos are from before the fire.



The greens and flowers started as a small gift to myself late on Mothers Day. They were embellished by a dear kind soul at the nursery, florist shop. They smell so wonderful at this time where it often felt like smoke was curling about near my nose, inside my nose, in everything that I breathed in. Now I am reminded that my cell phone, which I have with me near constantly, was in the kitchen right in area of greatest smoke concentration. Oh well. I need it with me.
The pears and lamp with ribbon (I'll catch you up with these tomorrow) only show how I am trying to make our temporary abode into somewhat of a home.



Thanks to all who have offered support of any kind, especially of thoughts and prayers

Angels be with you,
Wendy

I am a Canna What Flower Are You?

"You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that."

Collage paper: I've been trying to do some writing besides regular Sunday activities and trying to help Cat with her blog and some photos. I've managed to stay away from the fractals so far but started this last night. It started as a photo I took last June at Manitou. I'm intrigued by shadows and light. I decided to play with the photo and these are the end results. I'm happy. I think they could work nicely for collage backgrounds. There is a pattern that Nance has used which I absolutely love and it kind of led me in this direction.
Till later when I hopefully complete that writing,
Angels be with you.

Flowers, flowers everywhere: I was working the past couple of day in any spare moments on my get your doodle on ATCs for Christy's swap. Flowers seemed to want to appear on these
little 21/2 x 3 1/2 inch pieces of watercolour paper which had been painted with acrylic paints and water. I love the paper for backgrounds. I used my "gelly rolls" - mainly for the borders and my black fine uniball, which I also love for the doodles.

Doodles and words: Today was a long day with driving and meetings. I did have lots of time for writing on paper for collage or doodling over and I also started on some doodles. Once again I was inspired by the art of Jude. Her doodles, as all things, inspire me to keep creating and trying new things.
This piece was done entirely while driving. the roads were a bit rough and I didn't get the lines very good at some places. I'll play with it more another day.





This doodle was started while sitting at the meeting. I am often uncertain what to do for the doodles. It is not something that comes naturally to me. Maybe as I experiment with it more I will feel more comfortable with it.

Dream jar: Last Saturday on CaC (create a connection) a dream jar was suggested by Jennifer. I see she actually called it a wish jar. I like dream jar so will stick with that. I really liked the idea and finally got to making one last night. The photos are taken outside because I love "outside" and I am so happy the weather is being warmer and I can take pictures outside more easily again. The sun was, and still is, thank goodness, shining too - a perfect time for dreaming. I should mention that I got the images on the jar from the collage images pool at flickr, a wonderful sharing site. I think they were both from redbudinnh.

My dreams would include more reachable ones:

- starting an etsy shop and selling more of my artwork.

- getting a new kitten, cat.

- creating much more of my art.

- feeling more comfortable within my own body (long story - I'm working on it, with a very

good team I am told.)

- getting to spend a week by myself during which I can create to my heart's content (this has been happening every year for the past nearly 10 years thanks to Greg and other wonderful helpers).

- getting to create in a 100 year old house for a day or afternoon (I've been invited and have every intention of accepting the offer.

More far fetched dreams:

- getting to travel this year with Greg as we both turn 50 and will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary this year also. (I love to travel and we need time away with each other).

Pie in the sky dreams (the best kind sometimes):

- owning a horse and learning to ride.

- living in the country.

- living by the ocean.

- returning to Australia and New Zealand, particularly because I have friends there now.

- returning to Amsterdam - I love the flowers and other things.

- travelling to the UK and getting to meet Suze and Jude in person - they are so dear to me.

As I wipe the tears from my eyes I must move on to the creation piece again. Maybe I'll go outside and play with Billy a bit before I do that. I need more sun.

I forgot to mention that I found the little nest this morning when I was out taking Billy for his walk. It was laying on the street if you can imagine. Maybe someone was brushing snow off their roof or something. I picked it up immediately when I realized what it was - number four in my little collection.

Angels be with you as you think on your own dreams.