The Other Side of Somewhere

In Between Now and Then

This week has been that awkward time in-between living our "normal" life and Mr. P. leaving again.

It has been nice having him home for almost an entire month.  A true gift of time.  We laughed, went out to dinner, spent a couple of days in Washington D.C., hung pictures in the house, watched Frasier reruns, sat on the back deck chatting and watching the birds, went to the movies, bought a new stove, and ran errands.  It's all gone by so quickly.

He goes back tomorrow and I will not see him again until November.

In-between now and then is the Summer to be gotten through.

It's funny, we've been married for 13 years this year and been through many work-related separations.  Each time, I think I've figured out how to deal with his absences, as if there is some kind of formula. 

Well.  There is no formula.  Each separation is its own unique entity with its own set of rules and customs.

This time, initially, I planned a lot of activity for myself (my well-intentioned daily/weekly/monthly creative projects for example).  All to keep me distracted and "busy", I guess.  What I've found during the first half of this thing is that I really need less structured activity and more free time for life to unfurl at its own pace; having big swaths of time allows me to take care of myself however I might need to at any given moment. Too much activity can be overwhelming.  Solitude, in this case, is a good, necessary thing.

That said, my Summer will not be lived in a cave.  Hee hee.  I am taking a creative class, online.  Class meets virtually, once a week, for ten weeks.  I'm very excited about this, a little nervous too (which is why I'm not sharing specifics, yet). 

I am also resurrecting my Daily ATC project.  This was a really good thing to do.  I've missed it. 

Other than that, I'm just taking it easy.

I hope time is kind, and passes as quickly as possible.

Title-Less in Virginia

Yes, it's the first warm weekend in forever and I am sitting inside blogging.  I love warm weather.  I do not like humidity and even after five years living on this side of the country, I stubbornly refuse to surrender to it (I miss the desert that is California!).   At the first sign of elevated humidity levels my inner Southern Belle arrives and threatens to wilt if she has to sit outside for long.  She is very high maintenance ... she can occasionally be bribed into sitting outside if an umbrella and a tall glass of something iced (tea, coffee, lemonade, or mint julep) is provided, along with something to keep the bugs away.  Unfortunately there is no one providing these things today, thus I am inside under the ceiling fan.

Today's mail included some Sally Jean bling.  I love these little charms!  Not only are they pretty and shiny (all that glass and silver solder), the little collages are clever and make me laugh. I was originally planning to take a soldering class with Sally Jean at Art & Soul, but didn't feel 100% thrilled about it, and came to the conclusion that while I love these soldered charms, I really don't have any desire to make them myself (and no one can do them the way Sally Jean does).  While I love learning new things, I am happy to say my {authentic} realm is that of paper and paint, occasionally fabric.  This doesn't mean I'm limiting myself, just concentrating on what I truly LOVE.   I do not love mechanical things, tools, tools that BURN, I might add!  A sewing machine is about as mechanical as I get! 

Life is shifting into overdrive next week.  It's funny, the last five months with Mr. P. away have been quiet and low-key but suddenly in May - wham - many things are converging and concentrating at one time. 

Art & Soul begins on Thursday.  This is my third year attending and despite a shake-up in plans, I am tremendously excited about taking classes, seeing dear friends, and making new ones.  It is always to great to go to one of these retreats because conversing is easy ... art and creativity are built-in ice breakers.  I am taking classes in drawing and journaling.  At the last minute I was able to shuffle my classes and I ended up in a Juliana Coles's class, her last at Art & Soul.  What's interesting is, I needed a book to use as my journal for her class.  I found this book on the bargain rack at the book store.  It was the right size and heft (and price) so I bought it.  I came home and looked at the class title which is: Reconstruction Era: Rebuilding the Self Through Shadow.  Reconstruction.  Interesting coincidence, yes?  Anyway, I am really looking forward to spending two days immersed in Juliana's intense and introspective process.  Her classes last year were the most valuable to me, both artwise and personally.

Shortly after Art & Soul, I will be driving to Northern Virginia to see Mr. P. who will be doing some work up that way.  We'll spend a couple of days in D.C.  I've never been to Washington, D.C. and am looking forward to seeing the standard attractions (monuments and museums). I'm hoping we can find a neat place for dinner one night.  After our little trip, we'll drive home and Mr. P. will have a few weeks of leave.  To say I can't wait to see him is an understatement! His trip home comes just slightly short of halfway through our year apart.  Good timing!

This is the longest post I've written in awhile.  If you've made it this far, thank you!

I hope to get some blogging time in between Art & Soul and the trip to D.C.  I have a few Plans for my blog to share in my next post.  In the meantime, if you are dying to know my opinion on important matters of baked goods, please check out Jessie Oleson's Cakespy blog.  I found out Friday that I won one of her awesome cupcake illustrations simply by taking her informal poll about cake, pie, and muffins (oh my).  I can't get over Jessie's "cuppie" illustrations - cupcakes wielding brass knuckles - hee hee - too much fun!

Make a Cake

A day does not feel complete to me unless I make something.   

A collage.

A blog post.

A photograph.

Or ...

 

a cake!

I get the same sense of accomplishment from baking a cake that I do when I make something artistic.  Making stuff (artistic or otherwise) is truly what makes me happy and gives me deep sense of satisfaction and purpose.

The recipe for this cake comes from the same book as this one.  It has a silly name (Philly Fluff Cake?) but who cares ... it is divine (there is a ribbon of melted bittersweet chocolate running through the middle of the whole thing).  I think I'll need to stand on the community corner during tomorrow's commute to pass out free slices.  I really shouldn't be alone in the house with this cake.

Looks like Mudgeon and I will definitely be doing Pilates tomorrow.

Aspirations and Intentions

I like the hard break between December 31st of one year and January 1st of a new year.  I know it's just another day on the calendar, and I'm a firm believer in making a shiny new start for yourself anytime you feel like it, but there is something about the New Year holiday that encourages reflection and dreaming.

I don't do resolutions anymore.  I like the kinder, gentler "aspirations" and "intentions".  This is more than mere semantics; both words leave space for mystery and the unexpected, both applaud the effort, and they are more forgiving of inevitable slips and setbacks, making it easier to recover and get back on the intended path.  Slip on a "resolution" and it will smack you upside the head, make you feel bad and convince you to throw up your hands in defeat. 

Thus, aspirations and intentions for me!

In Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert writes about how people and places have a word, one word that sums up their essence (in the book, for example, the word for Rome is "Sex", the Vatican "Power", and New York City "Achieve". Ms. Gilbert comes to discover her personal word is "antevasin", Sanskrit for “one who lives at the border.”).  The idea of slapping one word on the whole of my life at this particular moment makes me want to break out in hives, but I have no problem applying the word Authenticity to my upcoming year. 

I want to be more deliberate in my thinking about what makes me tick in every area of my life, from the clothing I wear to the art I make and everything in between.  I want to look at the choices I make, on big matters and small, and figure out if my choices are authentic and true and not simply based on outside influence or ingrained habit.

As I spend the year practicing Authenticity, I'm also focusing my intentions in these ways:

Exercise.  It's less about looking good and more about feeling stronger and paying attention to my body instead of taking it for granted.

Consume less, waste less, use what I have on hand in all areas from my art studio space to my pantry.  This is not a political point for me, just a personal one.  I realized this year just how much time I spend managing my stuff and I was not pleased about it.  The less I bring into the house, the less I have to manage and shuffle.  I want to consider purchases carefully - what do I truly need to be happy, to live?  I'm already discovering that I need a lot less than I think I do. 

Keep track of what I read.  I inhale reading material.  I read so much I don't always remember what I've read or what authors I enjoyed, so I'd like to keep a list for reference and to help inform future reading choices.

Brainstorm ideas for Mr. P.'s retirement party!

Enter one of the juried shows at the Suffolk Museum.

Write more.  (I sometimes think that my artwork is a cover for what I really want to do which is write.  Eeep ... did I just say that out loud?  Yes.  Yes, I did).

Take risks.  My risks are not of the "dive-off-towering-cliffs-in-Acapulco" variety; they more involve matters of confidence and - say it with me - authenticity.

Happy New Year, everyone!  May it be a good one for all!

Tying Up Loose Ends

I like my Ts crossed, Is dotted, and loose ends tied in a nice pretty bow.  I don't always achieve that here where I am inspired to post things in the moment and then let things hang.  Consider this post my attempt to remedy that.

Here's a follow-up on last year's very loose new year suggestions and aspirations (not resolutions!):

• The visit to Raleigh was great fun and a definite highlight for the year!
• Art & Soul was intense and a whirlwind five days of classes, but I learned so much and finally got to take a class with Juliana Coles - a dream realized for me.
• Didn't make it to Monticello, but we did visit historic plantations along the James River over the summer and spent a couple of days tramping around Colonial Williamsburg for my birthday.
• My work did not appear in the With One Stamp section of the Somerset Studio issue it was assigned for (I forgot which one now), however, it was included in that issue's gallery section and in one of the special edition Galleries Somerset publishes each year.  That was nice.
• Sadly, I let participation in Illustration Friday, lapse.  I hope to revive that in 2008.
• The aspirations listed were hit and miss.  I quickly discovered that fielding a fantasy baseball team, even in the "casual, non-betting" league is not for people who just want to have fun and follow the game.  Those fantasy baseball team managers were downright rude, not to mention complete chauvinists, something I am familiar with even in my own family when it comes to baseball - I probably shouldn't have been surprised, but I was.  A kick-ass chilli recipe did not materialize, and while I tried not to worry, the sudden shift in Mr. P's job sucker-punched our life mid-year and definitely squashed any calm and contentment I cultivated in the earlier part of the year.

I'm glad I wasn't too boxed in to concrete goals and achievements.  How could I have planned for finding the Norfolk Craft Mafia, making new friends, and participating in Handmade Parade?  I couldn't have and that's the point of leaving things open to possibility ...

"Let mystery have its place in you; do not always be turning up your whole soil with the ploughshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring ..." (Henri Frederic Ameil, Swiss, Writer)

A few posts back I mentioned commemorating the 500th comment on the blog.  Said milestone was reached a few weeks ago, but the 500th commenter, sadly, did not leave their name or a way to contact them.  I guess we'll commemorate the 600th comment!  Thanks to everyone who takes the time to leave a note or comment or open a conversation with me.  It never ceases to be such a thrill to see your notes in my email!

I also promised a review of the Lemon Rice Pudding recipe from Laurie Colwin's book.  The finished dish had a lot of potential.  It was creamy and lemony but I did not like the chopped up rind - I spent a lot of time picking it out of my teeth.  I'll definitely try to make it again next year without the rind.

My niece arrived in the world on Sunday, December 23rd.  New Mom and baby are doing well.  I'm an aunt!  How cool is that?

I think that covers everything I wanted to follow up on.  Don't say I didn't warn you that it was going to be a chatty few days ...

Fifty Cent Dreams and Stuff

The last few months I've had vivid and interesting dreams featuring symbols that repeat themselves (not exact repetitions, more like variations on a theme).  Symbols like elevators, escalators, and skyscrapers, and one unusual dream involving, er, melted butter. 

Being naturally curious, I decided to start keeping track of these dreams and try to divine what, if anything, they might mean.  Dreams remind me of poetry in that they both deal in metaphor.  I love that!

I've been paging through modern dream interpretation books and tomes that include page after page of boring Freudian dream philosophy and Jungian archetype dream philosophy, and not finding a reference anywhere to elevators, escalators, skyscrapers, and, ahem, the melted butter, so imagine my amusement when I found this book at the thrift store today for fifty cents!  Written in 1952 it addresses all of my symbols except for skyscrapers.  Inside is a handwritten dedication in blue ink reading: "to my Darling little Dreamer, Christmas 1952, Your loving husband."

Such a perfect and serendipitous find!  Not only may it possibly help me discover patterns and meanings in my dreams, but will be great for collage work as well!

* * *

On the creative front, I am still plugging along with my day/week/month project.  You can follow along on flickr.  At the 30 day mark I have a few things planned, so stay tuned for that.  I'm only on Day 21, but I'm already learning a lot through this process. 

Today, I went out to swap-bot; I hadn't been there in awhile.  Swap-bot is a wonderment of swapping goodness!  People swap everything from themed CDs, to zines and artist trading cards to postcard and holiday themed projects.  So much fun!  I signed up for these: A cupcake atc swap and flickr favorites swap (which requires no sending of anything and is so easy its ridiculous!). 

Go forth and swap!  It's good for you!

* * *

If you are here looking for the All About Blythe page, I've temporarily removed it from my blog.  I am trying to decide if the Blythe stuff needs its own blog.  I hesitate to do that because I don't like the idea of breaking my interests down into six gazillion blogs, but I want to keep a balance of things here (it's not all Blythe, it's not all art, it's a lot of everything).  I'll figure it out; in the meantime I've removed the page.

However, Blythe aficionados, do not despair!  I am hosting a Blythe photo swap via swap-bot!  You can check out all the details and sign up via the link.

Finally, whether you are Blythe collector or not, you might appreciate this article profiling the designer of the original Blythe doll in 1972 and the revival of the doll in the last many years.

Enjoy!

Enchanted Monday

Mr. P. and I headed out to the movies this afternoon to see Enchanted (guess who picked that one?).  Mr. P. deemed the movie "corny" and yes, it was, but in a good way.  I grew up on Disney princess movies and so seeing them spoofed down to very specific details was amusing.  Corniness aside, the movie somehow manages to capture what we all love about fairy tales, and the film strikes a happy balance between "happily ever after" and "cold hard reality".  The actress who plays the princess is lovely and Patrick Dempsey (who I still remember from the movie Can't Buy Me Love and not Grey's Anatomy which I've never seen) is truly dreamy.  In a year that saw a slew of political movies (yawn), this was a nice, light treat of a movie.

Time is winding down to Mr. P.'s departure on Wednesday.  It will be a relief to finally be underway - anticipation is not my strength.  Thursday will be Day One of Operation Marking Time, my little way of counting the days until his return by completing art projects for various increments of time (as follows):

Each day I will make one artist trading card (ATC) which will yield approximately 365 trading cards.

Each Sunday (the end of each week) I will make one quilt square which will yield approximately 52 quilt squares which I will sew into a quilt once he returns home.

At the end of each month I will create a soldered charm which will yield 12 charms for a bracelet.

I'm doing this to have something tangible to hold in my hands at the end of this, something that will help me SEE time.  I'm doing this to keep myself engaged in my creative loves and to make a large quantity of stuff.  The goal here isn't good art.  Particularly with the ATCs I'll be doing daily, the purpose is to finish one thing every day no matter how great (or not) it is.  The goal is to ground myself in each day, week, and month and to see that time is indeed passing.  (Psssst ... I hope it goes by fast).

Afraid

Mixed media collage on canvas paper; 8" x 10".

When I Dream ...

We woke up this morning and went ... fishing.  Well, Mr. P. went fishing and I rode along in the boat.  Friends, it was freezing cold.  My toes went numb almost immediately and for most of the time we were out on the water, I was wishing I had one of these.  Ah, the things we do for love.  Mr. P. helps me with craft shows and I ride along on a November-Almost-December fishing excursion.

Still, I would rather be freezing my toes off in the boat on the day after Thanksgiving, than fighting with my friends and neighbors over the last of a reduced-price Something at a department store before the sun even thinks about coming up.  I'm not quite into the Buy Nothing movement; I am fine with buying and shopping, even on the day after Thanksgiving.  My objection has more to do with the retailers who play to our basest natures by playing games (reducing prices on high ticket items for a limited amount of time or not making enough of something to purposely create a feeding frenzy).  I used to work in marketing (for business to business products and services) and it was such a thrill to provide information to the companies who could use our product/service.  We didn't have to play tricks or create an aura of greed or lack to convince them to buy.  I notice more and more how retailers and advertisers play up competition and keeping-up-with-the-Joneses and it makes me very uncomfortable (the new Big Auction Site's commercials "shop victoriously" makes me ill).  I'm sure there is a middle ground that can be reached here. 

**Putting my soapbox away now**

(ahem)

Not much going on.  Mr. P. is leaving next week ... it's hard to put that aside, but we are doing our best.  Carved out some time to work on a journal page this evening:

Hope all of my American friends had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday!

Less Waste

Kermit Villa Borghese
Originally uploaded by click77

I signed up for a cool new service that monitors and removes your name from mailing lists and plants trees. I despise junk mail and I like trees = perfect!

It's my experience that change (big change or little change) begins where you are at this moment with what you have in front of you.

I'm starting with junk mail.

I don't like reckless waste - it makes me cranky. Plastic grocery bags and all of the packaging on the products we buy disturbs me. Lately I've started declining bags at the grocery, drug, and craft stores when I go in to buy one or two items I can easily put in my purse (and whoo-boy you wouldn't believe the looks I get from cashiers when I do this). I keep forgetting to put my canvas bags in the car, but aspire to bagging everything in my own reusable bags. I'm not doing this because I think it will "save the planet" necessarily, but because I want to reduce unnecessary waste. If it happens to be good for the environment, that's swell.

Back to the junk mail.

In the last week the Peregrine Household received over 5 pounds of junk mail. I don't know the exact amount because my scale doesn't read past 5 pounds. 5 pounds a week x 52 weeks in a year = 260 pounds of junk mail waste in a year.

*blink blink blink*

Wow.

Signing up for Greendimes this morning was easy (their server was kind of slow which was annoying, but maybe they had a lot of traffic). Not only was it easy, it was cheap; I signed up for less than $20. For the service they provide, that, my friends, is a steal.

They say it takes about 3 months to see results. I'll check back in and let you know how it's working.

*Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with this company nor being compensated for writing about it. That goes for anything I write about here.*

Day Fifteen: NaBloPoMo