Wow, what a week!

My momma is in a nursing home/rehab place and there are a LOT of paintings on the walls.  As they were wheeling her past them when she first arrived, she wondered if they were real paintings or just prints.  She wasn't supposed to get out of bed.  Two feet from her bed there is a painting on the wall.  While I was on the phone with her the day she arrived, she was still wondering about the paintings.  I was amazed she remembered to mention it.  She has dementia.  She says, "If I skooch over a little, I might could touch it and find out if it is real, Maggie.  Do you think they'd get mad at me if I touch the painting?"  I said, "Momma, you are paying enough to be there...touch the painting if you want!"  So she starts skooching over and lifts one of her butt cheeks off the bed.  Well, neither her or I knew she was on a pad that had an alarm.  All of a sudden I hear this SCREAMING alarm going off.  I'm yelling, "Momma!  Momma!  Are you okay?!?"  She started laughing her head off as the nurse came in saying, "Do you need some help?"  Mom told her she was just trying to see if the painting was real or a print.  The nurse, very nicely touched the painting for my mom and said, "It's real.  And the artist's name is_____.  I'm sorry I can't make out the name very well."  What a nice nurse.  My mom proceeded to tell her that she and her daughter that she is on the phone with (me) are artists and we were wondering if they were real paintings.

My momma was an artist.  She's still alive so she is still an artist, but she hasn't made art for a zillion years.  She is recovering from a surgery in the care facility.  We went to Omaha to visit her this week.  We sent flowers, but the best thing we did was bring her a sketchbook and some pencils.  She was delighted with them!  I doubt she'll remember to draw in the sketchbook, but it is there just in case.  I would love for her to draw something again.  She has super shaky hands but I think she could do it.  She was worried, too, about a notebook I brought her to write in.  She said she's not a very good speller.  I told her that no one had to read the notebook but her.  It was to be her "brain" so she could write down things she didn't want to forget.  It is BRIGHT yellow, so it should catch her eye, and knowing her curious nature, will look into it.  I think it will be better than scraps of paper that she makes notes on and loses.  I hope she uses her notebook, too.

While there, I mentioned to the therapists that my mom is an artist.  One of them said they would see if the art therapist could do some one on one with her this week.  With all my heart, I hope so.  Of all the things she has forgotten, and the little she does remember, she still remembers art.  She remembers everything about art.  Oh, and she remembers me still, and for that I am thankful.  I hope to get back to Omaha to see her again really soon.  If she has done any art, I'll post it here for you to see.  

Long Lost Maggie

Hello There!
Sorry I've gone missing for so long.  I am a facebook addict.  I'll admit it.  That, and life just got crazy for a while.

Jeffrey's eye surgery saved his eyeball, so that is great.  Thank you for your prayers and concerns.  His vision still sucks and is precarious but we are thankful for what we have.  He had a couple of hospital stays with some other medical stuff, but we came through them well.

I have been on an art making frenzy lately.  Nothing earth shattering, just lots of messin' around in journals and with Joanne Sharpe's Letter Love online class.  If you haven't seen it or checked it out, I really recommend it.  It is only $35 and you get unlimited access to the lessons.  There's a growing community of us gals that like to mess about with markers and letters and fun stuff, from beginner's to experts!  Waaaay fun!  I think I might be going to Hell though, because I spent last Sunday doodling letters on my church bulletin while the pastor was preachin'.

My friend, Lura Brown, has been my constant encouraging force through everything.  Thank goodness for her friendship.  God knew I needed her in my life.  And on that note, I think I'll go work on some art before she kicks my butt!  LOL!  not really, she would never be mean, but she is good about getting me to actually make stuff...so I do it to please her often times, and for myself sometimes.

Art Garbage Disposal

I got up this morning, determined I was going to make huge leaps and bounds on my altered art recipe card swap.  And I DID!  I had six ADORABLE things made, if I do say so myself....and during my accidental nap (fell asleep watching football with my hubby), Bentley turned my computer chair, climbed up on it, then climbed up on my art table and chewed three of them to smithereens!  It looks like someone put them in an art garbage disposal!  I WAS SOOOOO MAD I couldn't even talk to him.  I had worked soooo hard on them and put a lot of time and effort into them.  Sigh.  I can recreate them, but what a waste of time.  Isn't it?  I mean, I already made the same thing six times and now it will be NINE times!  Sigh. 

This week I have tried to get Jeffrey out to take pictures.  He just hasn't been in the mood, I guess.  I know he hasn't felt well at all this week, but I thought if I could get him outside it might help in some small way.  Today it was rainy.  And he decides he wants to go up to Reiman Gardens and take pictures of flowers with water drops on them.  Ha!  I knew he was serious and desperate to do it.  It is really unlike him to put our cameras in any sort of adverse weather conditions.  He can't see, he is sick, super wobbly and weak, and we went anyway.  Why?  There is a desperation, I think, before his next eye surgery on Wednesday.

He struggled a lot today, and I pray there are some great photos on that camera card.  We didn't make it very far, he almost passed out several times and I had to hold him up so he could snap photos.  It was really stressful for me to have him be so weak and unstable, in the rain, with two of our best cameras, holding the umbrella and him...but despite that, I had a MARVELOUS time with him.  It was cozy.  Just him and me, out in the rainy gardens, no one around...we could struggle all we needed without feeling awkward with others watching.  And I know it felt good for him to be behind a camera.  It is his passion.  Like me, with art supplies or a torch in my hand....that's when I'm happiest.  It gives me a boost of spirit, even if it is for a few minutes out of a day.  He goes huge amounts of time without taking pictures.  And I'm going to make a point to change that. 

It was also odd to pick out what he should shoot.  He had a great eye for pictures I would never attempt.  Today I had to tell him what flowers were good to take photos of, or point out a string of raindrops on a branch that would make an interesting photo because he couldn't see them.  And he would position himself and take a picture...not the one I would have in my mind, but one HE would have taken if he could have seen well.  It is like his brain has a sense, even though his eyes don't have that ability they once had.  How does a blind guy take such cool pictures?!?  Ha!  Maybe God or an angel is holding his hands and guiding him.

Uncle Charley and I've lost my mind

I went to the Create Retreat in Chicago, Illinois on Friday and came home Saturday night!  Oh Man, Oh Man, Oh Man!  I had a gooooooood time!

Friday night I hit the Artist's Faire.  It was a bit overwhelming at first.  All these ladies converged on tables of artists and vendors and it was mayhem, but fun!  I bought just a few things, because between the class, the hotel, the gas and food...this has already become the most expensive necklace EVER...but wait, let me go on...

Okay, so I was at the Interweave shop and there were lots of tempting goodies to buy...books, art supplies, dvd's...but they had an artist making prints using a gel plate.  I had just read about these the day before and had thought, "Oh geeze!  I want one of those!!!"  So I picked one up and watched the artist making prints.  Well, it was Dorit Elisha.  She's the author of "Printmaking and Mixed Media."  She was delightful and I purchased her book and she signed it for me.

I purchased three little wooden shrines that you can build, from Coffee Break Design.  Pretty nifty!!!  I think I will trace around the pieces so I can have a pattern of sorts if I want to make some out of card stock or papers or something.  Oh, and I bought Jeffrey two old film canisters for his camera collection (two that he doesn't have, I couldn't believe it).  There were waaaay too many good things there.  Trust me.

I met and loved Sue Pelletier and Judy Coates Perez!  They were so charming to talk with!!!

I got to meet my teacher, Jean Van Brederode, at the end of the evening.  She may not know it, but she high on a pedestal now!  Lol!  I was just browsing her table and I picked up one of her Uncle Charley Has Left the Room necklaces, and I was brought to tears I was so happy!  I AM NOT A CRAZY PERSON...but I was so happy.

Okay, so class the next day!  Of course I got there early with all my excitement (ha!) and helped the teacher set up.  We only had SIX people in our class!  Other classrooms had 20+!  I was shocked!  But I was glad for it as we got a lot of individualized attention.  My classmates were great!  Not a pain in the bunch!  And I may have made a new friend, named Deb!  She rocks!  And she likes creepy stuff...ha!  Her necklace turned out FABULOUS!!!  She got some great patina going...and then found fibers to help match the patina in the fiber bag!  It was meant to be!

We were going through the instructions and tools and our teacher decides we should take a field trip across the hall to shop at another artist's classroom!  Ha!  FUN!  The teacher across the hall had tools we definitely needed for the necklace...oh yeah, I spent $56 the first time into the room and another $12 at the end of the class!  Sigh.  Again, this is the most expensive necklace EVER...but I love it!  I actually hung it from my rear view mirror and looked at it (and sometimes the road) on the 5 1/2 hour drive home.

One of the best things that happened out of all of this was....on the drive home, I was wishing with all my heart that Jeffrey could share this excitement with me.  I wished he could/would make a necklace with me...and shortly after that, Jeffrey says, "What do you want do tomorrow?"  I told him, "Whatever you want to do!"  He said, "I want to make a necklace with you, Maggie."  I looked at him and asked him if he really meant it or was he messin' with me...he meant it!  That man was an absolute angel this weekend (he is every day, but it was really great of him to let me do this).

Now I have to go buy a butane torch for sure today!  Ha ha ha!  Oh, and some copper sheeting, plexiglass, and hope I can find enough things for him to make one today!  Lol!  That necklace just got even more EXPENSIVE!!!!  ha!  But I'm okay with that (sort of).  I may have found my true love medium to work in.  I can't describe the joy it brought me.  More soon!  Maybe some pictures, too!  This is a new adventure and it is going to be so freakin' much fun!!!

Maggie  xoxoxoxoxoxo

Heeeey Bonnie Louuuuuu! =)

Today I have really sad news.  My good friend, Bonnie Lou, passed away!  She was 58 years old.  So this post is in honor of my Bonnie Lou.

Things friends do for each other:
1. teach each other how to quilt
2. grow gardens for each other and share produce
3. exchange your very best recipes
4. pray for each other
5. sing together
6. help put a bra on after surgery, clean amputation sites and put on clean bandages
7. call at 3AM and know that you will come running to help save all the fabric and new sewing machine in the basement when the sewer water is shooting like a geyser from the toilet in a horrific summer storm and the water is up to your knees
8. eat pickles together, honk when you drive past their house, volunteer together
9. buy sewing buttons for each other just cause they are colorful and buttons make you happy
10. cry with each other when you find a lump in your breast and then hoot and holler when it's just a cyst
11. listen but don't judge when your kid screws up
12. tells you when your shorts are caught in your crack
13. Ooo and aaah over the fact that one of you is going to be a grandma
14. help the other one clean house like mad because out-of-town company is coming
15. love your friend's dog even if he is the size of a Buick and weighs more than you and sheds and slobbers like no dog you've ever encountered
16. go to seedy Mexican restaurants on the 'bad' side of town to eat the best tacos of your life together...and go back again the next week just because it was so good
17. panic when you can't get in touch with them when they've been out driving in an ice storm
18. buys you a new hand mixer when the one you lent her won't hold the beater in---even though you told her it was that way for the last 20 years when you lent it to her
19. encourages you all the way
20. hugs you to your bones

Bonnie was a good friend.  She was a fabulous Southern cook (won ribbons at the state fair!), she loved her own family, she loved my family, she loved anyone she encountered.  She had excellent fabric choices in quilting, she made quilts for children with terminal diseases, she prayed all the time for anyone who needed it, she was generous to a fault, and very encouraging...she just plain ol' cared!

I am ashamed to say that I hadn't been in contact much with Bonnie since she moved from our town.  And the day she died, I had been out in my garden and thought, "When these tomatoes turn red, I'm going to get a hold of Bonnie Lou and take her a bag of them.  I should call her."  I should have listened to that voice and contacted her that day.  Shame on me for not listening.  But you know what?  Bonnie Lou would understand, she was a good friend.

Waaaay freakin' fun today!

Well, yard work and cleaning the photography studio isn't exactly my idea of great fun, but I got to make some art today and used beeswax for the first time to do some encaustic work.  Ohhhh boy!  That was waaaay freakin' fun!  I am goofy over it!

When I was a little girl, I got into soooo much trouble because I was melting crayons and candles in my room and dripping them on paper to make cool designs.  My brother ratted me out, but it was probably a good thing since I could have caught the whole house on fire.  So I guess I was doing encaustic back in the early 70's before it was "cool"---ha!  Boy, did I get grounded.  That squelched my wax days until now!  I was seven or eight years old, now I am 44 years old.

So, I'm in Suzi Blu's La La La class, and the first assignment was to make a cute pink bunny.  I love bunnies, and used to raise them as a child, but as I got to making it I sort of felt silly for some reason.  Like it wasn't really art or something.  What dumb gremlin snuck into my head? So in a rebellious mood, and thanks to some inspiration from my friend Kelly, I made an alternate version...a zombie bunny!  I posted it on my page at Suzi Skool, hope she doesn't expel me.  Ha!  I love my zombunny!  He makes me happy.

I bought a new art book this week, called Plaster Studio.  I'm really excited about it, maybe because I have a ton of drywall mud leftover from when our basement flooded last year and I don't have to run out and buy a million dollars worth of supplies to try something new.  So maybe this weekend I will try something out of that book.  We'll see.

Well, that's all for now.  More again, soon!
Maggie xoxoxo

I WON!!!

I am sooooooo excited!  I just joined "Little Glimpses" group and found a place where they were asking what you do consistently to pause and assess.  Well, during Kelly's visit, she said one of the most profound and yet simple things that has totally changed my outlook each day.  She said instead of asking someone who is ill every day, "How are you?"---instead, ask, "What's good today?"  It makes you focus on positive things.  Poor Jeffrey, every morning was being woken and asked to concentrate on what hurts and what felt yucky when I asked, "How are you?"---now he gets a grin on his face when I ask him, "What's good today?"

SO!  Actually, Regan won the contest by a random generator, but she wanted to give the artwork to ME!  What an awesome and selfless act!  I am so excited and honored to have a piece of artwork by Mystele!  It's titled, "Sadie Paused" and is a wonderful, wonderful reminder to Jeffrey and me to continue to pause and think of "What's good today" even when he feels so crappy all the time.

Today I got to surprise him with a, "GUESS WHAT'S REEEAALLLLY GOOD TODAY?!?"  And I got to tell him that we won a painting and he was genuinely excited!  Hooray!

Maggie  xoxoxo