where to even begin

there is a lot to catch up on here since I haven't managed to post here since mid-October

do I post chronologically? in order of importance? stream of consciousness?

perhaps to just begin --- so hold on, this is likely to be a long (and possibly confusing!) post

Word of the Year

for a number of years I have selected a word to be a guideline for the year to come, having decided that resolutions are not as useful for me

last year my word was "Open", with the idea being to be open to new ideas, new opportunities, new solutions

as the year rolled out I was able to be open to things:
     accepting and completing a large commission
     spending a long weekend as Artist in Residence alone in the middle of a meadow
     saying good bye to a teacher and mentor as she moved away from the area
     continuing to apply to have my work shown all over the country and sometimes succeeding

I have decided that the word for this year is "Acceptance", and I am considering this word in a couple of different ways

for one, I will continue to submit my work for display to galleries, libraries, museums, on line exhibits - in short just about any place that I think it might be accepted

but I also need to use this word to deal with issues that are out of my control  in the day to day issues in my life (more about that presently)


Christmas Reveal

I work on Christmas presents all year long (in fact, I'm about half way through the first of the presents for Christmas 2019 right now)

but that means there are a lot of things I can't talk about along the way because I don't want to spoil the Christmas surprise

now that all the gift giving is over, I can show you what all those projects were

off the knitting sticks:

cowl scarves in blue tones for my sister and in rust and blue for my daughter

the annual cardigan sweater for my daughter in black and a cardigan for my mother in a color called "Peacock"

socks for my daughter to wear with her hiking boots

a pony tail hat for my daughter, ear warmers for my grandson and all of the great grand kids

and from the crochet hook

an odd flock of birds:  a blue footed booby chick, a conure, a humming bird, a parrot and a peacock

and an equally odd group of other animals:  a bison, a dragon, a malamute and an octopus

the sewing machine did some work too

10 pair of pj pants (for all the great grand kids, my grandson, my daughter and son in law) and a new lap quilt for my daughter


Work in the Studio

 this piece, titled "Charlie" has been delivered to the Boulder County Parks and Rec building and will appear in several county buildings during the next year

it is based on photos that I took while I was Artist in Residence at Caribou Ranch Open Spaces last July

this piece, titled "Seasons of the Moon" is a triptych of 7" by 9" pieces mounted on stretcher bars that was finished in late December

"On the Beach" is being quilted

the water tower piece is ready to be quilted

and this piece, which is the latest in my Parched Earth series, is being appliqued

as usual, I'm also working on the patterns for the next pieces that I plan to make -- "The Road Not Taken" which is based on photos taken at Caribou Ranch, and another piece in the Family Ties series "The Singer"


A word more about acceptance

the biggest reason I didn't get a blog post done since October is that the DH was hospitalized twice 

in November he had a blocked bile duct (wherein we learned that gall stones don't necessarily go away if you don't have a gallbladder!)

and in December he had an allergic reaction to a medication he had taken for years --- he spent a week in ICU, then additional days in the hospital followed by time in rehab so he could get strong enough to come home

along the way we also learned he has an irregular heart beat that is now controlled with medications, and even more seriously that he is in the beginning stages of dementia

this last thing has been both difficult to accept and at the same time good to know what is happening so the right adjustments and changes could be made

going forward I will be handling all of his diabetic testing and injections to be sure he gets the proper monitoring and dosing of his insulin

there has been a certain amount of emotional upheaval for me as I come to grips with the changes and the finality of what this means, so I truly need to incorporate that word for the year


A final note 

Mr Benson is my partner in looking after "dad"

he's a great emotional support dog for both of us, and does a very nice "Timmy's down the well" bark if he thinks I need to know something dad is doing

it was wonderful that he was here while dad was in the hospital -- gave me a sense of "normal" every day


 

The Lost Week

when I last posted here I was working on projects, entering things in shows and getting ready to go any have what was supposed to be a relatively easy procedure to have a polyp removed that was discovered in my colonoscopy

uh, not so much

the polyp turned out to be twice as big originally thought, and while it seemed that every thing was fine, at 1:30 the next morning I was back in surgery having part of the colon removed because the bowel had perforated (and when they do that surgery in the middle of the night, you get a nice 8 inch incision full of staples as a "souvenir", and they don't mess around with taking "just a snip" off the edges)

and just to add insult to that injury, the antibiotic that took care of making sure I didn't develop peritonitis left me open to another nasty infection -- c. diff

so in the end, what was supposed to be an over night stay ended up being a whole week in the hospital and I'll have a lot longer recovery period

my home coming was made quite festive by the roses on the table and the amazing batch of chicken and dumplings that was the evening meal on Sunday

one thing that the longer recovery period means, however is that I will not be able to do the Artist in Residence program at Caribou Ranch this summer

I'm pretty bummed about that

the up side of the reason I can't go this year, is that I have been invited to do it next year without reapplying

cool!

before all the "excitement" I had started doing the quilting on this piece

I decided to start at the horizon line and have done most of the stitching in the green area

I still have not figured out exactly how I will make the reflection look more "reflection-like", but I have a bit of time to think about it as it will be a few days (probably not until next week sometime) before I can get back to my studio to work on it

I had also started working on the fence for the garden piece, which was rolling right along

I'm hoping to get back to this one by the end of this week since it is hand work that I'll be able to work on as soon as I can tolerate having the box it's in rest in my lap

the last couple of days in the hospital, I felt well enough to be watching the view from my 5th floor room and snapped a few pictures of sunrise and hot air balloons

I may be able to use these for some art pieces in the future -- sunrise photos are always useful for picking off parts of for landscapes

while I was away,  I was notified that these two pieces that I had entered in shows did not get accepted

bummer

which means I'll be watching for other shows to enter them in

this piece, however, was accepted and will be part of a show titled "Gone to the Dogs" in the Niza Knoll gallery in Denver.

whoop!!

very cool news indeed

and while I've been out of commission, Mr Benson has been hanging out at my daughter's house

one evening she sent me this cute "get well card" from him

I'm hoping to have him back at home tomorrow afternoon -- I think by then I will be able to manage taking care of him, and it will give me a reason to walk slowly to the mail box so he can check all of his "p-mail" messages

and for the next week or so, the focus is to heal and get stronger

onward!

where does the time go?

seems like I was just out here to post last weekend

but no -- it actually was two weeks ago --

and in that time, you would think I could have actually finished something, but such is not the case

this piece, however, is very close -- just need to finish doing the outlining around the flowers and it will be ready for trimming and binding

this piece is ready to be stitched

I am very pleased with the way this one looks -- and the stitching should make it even better

progress is being made here too -- I'm almost half way with the applique here  (yes, it's folded in half so you aren't actually seeing the bottom half right now)

 since the dog piece is off the design wall, I'm thinking about what the next piece up there will be

considering using this photo that was taken by my daughter to do a piece -- I think I would call this one Cerberus Light
 

Benson has his own things to say about my doing another dog piece that isn't him

I'll have to think about that

meantime, I realize I haven't shared big news that I got early in April -- back in February I had applied to be Artist in Residence at Caribou Ranch this summer -- I did it sort of as a "what the heck, I'll never get in" thing

imagine my shock when I opened the email and was told  there were 60 artists that applied, 5 were accepted, and I'm one of them!  oh my

I'm already starting lists ---- and lists of lists ---- WOW