From the top of an old cupboard in what I'm calling my art room. I choose not to call it a studio because I don't think I'll be doing much of the actual art here. I am storing supplies and hope to find inspiration, dreams, a place to relax and think.


More photos:





My apologies for not being with you in your own blogs, dreams. I've been doing humungous job of cleaning our basement. I'll share more of that in days future.
We are going to farm for couple of days. I face more cleaning there as my folks are selling their house in the City as they've been primarily living at the farm now.

Our weather has FINALLY warmed up. PHEW! And the sun is actually shining. Though the clouds are again wending their way in.
Hopefully our daughter will also start making better choices again. :-)

Nearly forgot to mention that I had started a journal page for Valentine's day. Ah, and then teenager decided to, welllll, anyway.

A number of videos are in the plans. One needs only a tiny bit of tuning up. Next week :-) If you want to keep an eye on what's happening at my youtube and see what my faves are you can find them here.
I'll get that link up shortly also.

Angels be with you,
Wendy

welcome winter:
On this official first day of winter I cannot help but reflect on winters past as our daughter was growing and we held "welcome winter" parties. I got the idea from a book I read that was written by missionaries who wrote of Christmas celebrations in countries to which they had been missionaries. Certainly the commercial aspect was de-emphasized. Just a couple of things I remember them suggesting were the ideas of no toys that were violent in nature and no toys that were requiring batteries. Wow - practically impossible these days. For younger children it makes much better sense. I still go with the idea of letting them use their own imaginations.
The idea that really caught my attention was that of trying to spread out Christmas and the entire season and not making it into a one day celebration. Saint Nicolas day is celebrated in Humboldt typically with a visit and treat bags for the children. This year there was actually a parade. I have no idea how that turned out because the day was bitterly cold. Our very spoiled (I mean privileged) daughter received a gift from St. Nik for many years. I actually had something for her this year too but she happened to be in a really terrible mood after school so I chose to have St. Nik not visit this year. After all she is 16 years old. She was quite perturbed when I pointed out that it was St. Nik day and he had not left her anything.
The authours also wrote about celebrating the twelve days of Christmas referring to the days beginning on December 25, and after Christmas leading to Epiphany. One year we gave our daughter, Cat, little gifts for each of the 12 days of Christmas. We also for many years did advent candles, not in a wreath but in a basket.
The welcome winter party was suggested for the first day of winter, December 20. Because it is the shortest day of the year candles were recommended. We had great celebrations on these occasions. If the weather was decently warm we had the festivities outside. If it was very dreadfully cold or stormy we met inside. We had babies some years together with other ages . Games and popcorn were typical. Apple cider was frequently prepared. Seems to me one year we had about 30 people. Sigh. These days I shy from inviting one or two people at any time. But that's another story.
I nearly forgot to draw your attention also to this story written by my poet friend Tom Sketching. It fits so aptly with what I am trying to say: Christmas in the Yucatan.

In my tendency to look for time to be still and contemplate during this advent season, I took a little excursion yesterday to St. Pete's at Muenster. I was going to visit a friend but also took the opportunity to walk in the beautiful grounds. The trees are fabulous and the angels must have been with me because I'd planned the day about a week previously. Yesterday happened to be a most glorious sun drenched day while we have been blessed with much cloud and fog otherwise. It was also probably one of the most warm days in the past six- eight weeks. And so I snapped away. Especially peaceful moments came when the chickadees and a nuthatch or two came very close by. It is a favourite visiting place for many folk that love nature and the critters. The birds frequently are fed by the visitors. While I had run out of time to bring food along for them, I certainly encountered the birds. I was not really able to get photos however. They preferred to sit on my hat, the camera or the tripod. One seemed to want to give me a kiss. God was truly speaking to me yesterday.
Please enjoy some of the beauty I encountered while you watch this slideshow. Please click on "original view" in top right side.

Angels be with you,
Wendy

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.

BRRRR.
It's been cold. It's been cloudy. It's been snowing.



I, well, I have been dragging my feet. I could be doing this and I could be doing that, but, sigh. I haven't been doing much of anything. I suppose if I took inventory I could think of a few things, but once again the grey skies would desire to pull me down.

That's alright. I love Christmas. I love creating.



Now that I've got my table and floors all spread out with supplies, I guess I'll trip over it if I try to go anywhere : ) And, I remember. I found the book in which I had done some gluing. It was under a stack of other books to weight it down. I had forgotten what was there. I lifted the books - tah-dah. YES! I can make a very unique - umm - surprise.

I'm still dreaming on, and investigating etsy. In the meantime I discovered this afternoon I've been blogged. That was very cool. My art on top of the writing seems to be catching. First one of my pages was chosen for the button of the flickr "journal junk" group. On the weekend I was asked if the same button could go on the new "journal junk" blog. Whoo-hoo. And now this new avenue. I love it. Thanks Isabella.

The weekend may not allow much time for creating as our St. Peter's Chorus concerts are tomorrow night and Sunday afternoon. This takes time and energy but is something I definitely love to do. Here are a couple of the numbers we'll be singing. We don't do them quite so well, but do very fine, considering.
Hosanna
Prayer of the children:



For now I must remember, remember to take time:

More winter splendour: I actually love the snow. I just had Billy out for a late walk, as we frequently tend to do. There's freshly fallen soft snow. The sky is bright, with the full moon behind clouds. The air is calm and still. I could see the fairies zipping off to hide behind the trees, thinking they'd escape my sight. How could I possibly not feel them with all that floating fairy dust about me?

solitary tree

alone I stand
tall and free
while others
around
might gaze
in amazement
awe
and wonder

alone I stand
tall and free



rabbit tracks in the snow

wintery clematis:
I didn't quite have time to finish either of the projects I was working on today so will share one of the photographs I took.

Creating:



Sunday, later in the day was very productive for creating but today, well, just wasn't. The only creative things I've done today, which don't really count, are this blog post and singing at chorus practice. There were no new songs - just the same ones we've been practicing since the end of August for our Advent concerts, on December 7 and 9. Oh well, I think I did enough yesterday to make up for today.







I finished three art quilts for autumn richness and got some pictures of trees. I did a bit of photoshop with one too and added a couple of words but I won't be showing that until tomorrow.





I hadn't actually shown this one yet. The picture and scan are quite lacking in the richness. The black trim is velvety ribbon. If you want to see it for real you'll have to stop by for a visit. Please let me know when to expect you, LOL.
Hmm, maybe I'll fiddle around with my blog colours a bit yet. That would count for some creativity. I think it's getting too late to tell you much about the art quilts. Please click on the photos and see the tags at flickr for sizes and other information.
Till tomorrow ~ angels be with you,
Wendy

Hat completed: This is not the best picture of Cat but I took it before she left for school this morning. She wore the hat today. "Old man winter" has returned.

This is the picture on my Catherine Simpson calender for March. This is totally today - cold, windy, snowing lightly. If you need to talk with anyone from Saskatchewan today you might not expect them to be very cheerful.

I love Catherine's work. I have her plates for each of the seasons and also have a tiny little card of the image which appears when you first enter her web-site. Take time to peek at Catherine's paintings. It will be time well-spent.

I love knitting. I'm not certain what the next project will be. I'll start another hat with different wool because Cat really wants to learn to knit also. I'd started her with some cotton yarn but realized - NOT good for a beginner, especially. I might actually start a third hat as I'll be doing road trips before I can get directions for starting something else new - socks I think.

I have made a decision to try to get immersed in clean-up but also want to start the etsy shop. I hope my energy does not wane in the next couple of weeks. I will remain optimistic - huh - better remember to breathe occasionally too.

I will try to do first installment of "art as business" over next few days. I will talk about more than just the seminar.

Angels be with you.

MORNING - for artwords
This picture was taken last Wednesday, February 14 th. The temperature was - 30 degrees, pretty much the same in centigrade and fahrenheit. I took a few photos after walking about half a block. I don't think my hands could have managed doing any more without my heavy mittens. The next day, Thursday, the temperature rose by almost 30 degrees centigrade from what it had been the day before. People had been waiting anxiously for almost a week for Thursday. Fortunately that time the forecast was accurate.

Funny though, on the Tuesday morning when I took Billy dog for walk I encountered a couple of others out doors. Though the temperature was - 24, the comments were about "what a beautiful day". There was not a wind. The - 24 seemed comparatively warm. We may still have our snow for another six weeks and we could still get a number of blizzards but we'll all be hoping for no more of the frigid temperatures, at least this winter.

Happy morning light to you.

Will YOU be MY Valentine?
I completed about one-third of the valentines on Thursday night. They needed to be finished so they could be handed out by Cat (daughter) at school on Friday. Lucky duck does not have school next week. That's VERY good. Saskatchewan winters can be very HARD on everyone - students, parents, teachers. MANY people choose this time of year to escape for a winter holiday. They go south. This winter is especially bad with wind chill temperatures around - 40 degrees Celsius at times. And when the temperatures warm even a tiny bit it wants to snow. Roads are then difficult to travel on. Winds continue to create greater grief mixed with the snow. WE are going south too. We are going to Moose Jaw for appointments with our naturopathic Dr. It's about a three hour drive from here. They do tend to have a bit warmer temperatures than here, but the small city is still in Saskatchewan. Oh well. I'm hoping to stop at the Antique Mall in Regina on our way back to the farm, also south of here, where we'll be spending a couple of days - at the farm that is, not the antique mall. I'm hoping to find some old books at the Mall, maybe photos, maybe lace, maybe cards. I haven't been there for many years so I'm not certain if they have these kinds of things.
The valentines: I made eight with the image from Carla Sonheim. She was very gracious to provide the image with an offer on flickr. Thanks Carla. I love Carla's "little girls" which I first discovered on Terri's blog. I did not have much time so made them quite simple.
The other two postcards are partially Cat's design. She helped with them a bit. Her ideas still tend to more formal, more simple. She likes pretty things, a lot, tends to be a stasher, I mean collector. Some day she'll maybe learn more artful skills, placement, what's pleasing to the eye.
I've also shown what the backs of the postcards look like so someone not familiar with these fabric postcards can see that they can really be used as a postcard. I notice there are iron marks on it - reflections of "Orange"? I think I'll put these postcards in envelopes. It will cost more but I would just hate for some of the texture to be forfeited. I can see in some cases it would add to have the card go through the rigours of the post, but, not this time.
Till later - keep warm, especially for my Sask. friends.
Angels be with you.