Hello once again!

It's been 3 eventful years.
I've retired and moved from New Hampshire to Lakeland Florida. I'm leasing a house 'cause I don't need the hassle of doing my own maintenance. My girls (Chloe & Brandi) have a fenced backyard to run in and I have 3 bedrooms plus an enclosed back room for all my "stuff".

I've found a new church in North Lakeland Presbyterian church where I'm in the choir and doing some volunteer work. I joined joined the Ladies of the Lake Quilt Guild and the nearest Needlepoint group, which is in Tampa. Still doing crazy quilting and embroidery. I'm getting back into the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), which is a medieval recreation group. I'm going to a week of camping called Gulf Wars XXVI. Visit this link for more information. http://www.gulfwars.org.

I've joined a CQ Novice Round Robin for a 6 inch CQ block and I'll be posting my progress here.

Pictures

Do any of my friends out there have any pictures of Jack that I may not have? I'm thinking of Marion and Sylvia in particular. After he and I were married, I took him home to Michigan and we spent an evening with Sylvia and Glenn Baird and my friends playing Trivial Pursuit. Wonder if anyone there took any pictures.    
Marion: do you have any? Please take a look and email them along to me, Please. I've purchased some collage frames and I want to put something together. Hopefully of early pictures of us, around 1997 til 2006 or so.

Peggy, how about you and Dave or Missy, how about you? I'd appreciate it.

Art Every Day? Ha!

My intentions are good, my life is not. My plans are in place, execution is a problem. With everything I want to be doing, I don't really have time for art every day, and then time to post as well.
I think this picture says it all...
I think I'll commit to "Art Every WEEK" and think myself fortunate!

So I'll mail myself some sunshine in my life, and not stress myself out. What do you think of that idea?

musings...

I was thinking about Jack. It seems so strange that this is a new year that he has no part of. I wonder what he would think about how I am doing? I'm in more contact with Tim's family, doing more at the church, doing more crafty stuff. The things I'm doing that he might not like is reading too many trashy novels on my Kindle, shopping too much online, and not eating right. I'm not in very good touch with my emotions either...it takes a lot to make me cry, even crying over him. Yes, I cried a lot on Christmas Eve at church, and things will come up that make me remember, and I cry for a couple of minutes. But that is all.

I'm starting a 9 week Spousal Loss group this month and I'm hoping it will help me deal better and get in touch with my feelings. I'll keep track of my progress here.

In the mean time, here is picture of Jack at the Wall in 2011.

Art Every Day - Day 6

OK...so I missed yesterday. I left the house for church at 9a and did not get home til 7:30p and I was totally exhausted. Just couldn't do art.

TODAY however, I got home from work at a reasonable hour and while waiting for a  delivery, looked through my box of goodies from www.joggles.com .  If you have not shopped there for art, embroidery, paper crafts, rubber stamps, Tim Holtz, and LOTS of other stuff, I recommend you try them!

So I received some Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Navy, Teal, and Blush, and since my art journal was down here (I'm on the main level and my craft rooms are on the 2nd floor), I colorized some pages of WaterColor paper with the new product, then found an antique picture from the late 1800's in an old family album and added it to one of the pages.

I love these sprays. They give a matte finish, even tho they are called Color Shine, dry quickly and blend well together.

Art Every Day - Days 3-4

OK. Back to some CQ. Here is a white block I just finished the final layout on yesterday. Today I chose threads and some embellishments which you can see below. It will be pink and white when it is done.

Art Every Day -- Day 2
I'm part of a Journal 52 group where we will work on an art journal every week for a year. This week we are getting ready. I have 2 mini notebooks that I have received. Today I cut papers and got them ready for the first Journal lesson next week. Here are my results:

Make Art Everyday - Day 1

My friend Vickie is sponsoring a challenge called "Make Art Every Day". Here is my first day's output. I've been working on a series of color tags/pages, so far have purple, blue, teal, and yellow. TODAY I finished Orange.

Used the following supplies: 5x7 craft board, scor tape, scrapbook paper, washi tape,  rub-ons, stickers, art tiles, Tim Holtz Ideology sayings and some pics from a book. This could be used as front/back cover for a book and filled w/ mixed media or WC paper or just AFTSOA (art for the sake of art).

Jack is Gone...

Another major change.

Jack was killed in a car accident on August 9th. Funeral was on the 17th.

It's December, and I'm still not coping.

I went away to a friend's B&B for Thanksgiving, and I'm at my best friends Vickie (and Michael) Tobin today, Christmas. Michael is stuffing us like little piglets!

Jack and the "Boys"

For years from Jack I've been hearing about Lenny and Ricky - his two best friends in high school (Chelmsford, MA). Well, I finally got to meet them - and heard stories about their escapades. I've been working on getting them together now for about a month. Ricky and his wife were over about 3 weeks ago and they are delightful people. SO...Lenny wanted to come up from Florida and see Jack before he dies, and on the 5th, Jack's wish was granted. Lenny got in to Boston on Friday and visited with his family. On Saturday, about 1130, Lenny and Ricky walked through the door - the 3 of them had not been together since 1971 !

What stories they had to tell about their adventures and mis-adventures!  Lenny had to fly back to Florida on Sunday morning, so this visit was most likely the last the 2 of them will have. Ricky and his wife Cathy live in North Chelmsford and we plan on getting together with them soon.