FABRIC STASH

I have a split personality, I guess. One week I only look at my Bali prints and the next week I am inspired by cute retro prints, and the next week I am in love with vintage sepia/brown / rust. What does that mean?

I overheard the ladies at the quilt shop saying that you can’t mix the Bali batiques with other fabrics and that was just the kind of challenge I need!

Have you seen photos of the Japanese Quilt show? I was unable to do a link here. The variety and quality of the quilts I have seen have really intrigued me.

"Joy is more than happiness, just as happiness is more than pleasure. Pleasure is in the body. Happiness is in the mind and feelings. Joy is deep in the heart, the spirit, the center of the self."
Peter Kreeft

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
-Mark Twain

I am taking a mid-winter-mini-vacation this minute and reliving some past sketchbook moments! I do not regreted the drawings I made 6-8 years ago. They keep those memories fresh. At the time they were relief from the constant tasks of mothering small children. I did not have time for perfect , large finished paintings but a few moments to sketch where ever we were may have saved my sanity!

I have been surfing blogs and websites, gleaning inspiration and ideas. I am now working 2+ jobs and my creative time is very limited! That is, my official creative art time is limited. I have creatively stumbled onto a way that seems to help an eight year-old dyslexic child with behavior and attitude problems. He requested a 3 minute break to draw on the board. I started drawing too. Then we made up a story to go with the picture. We added a few words. Then when we went back to the table to work on our lesson I would point out words that could add ideas to the story. He loved it and tried harder and went away happy!

I am getting creative with my troublesome 6th graders also: the ones who have lost incentive to study their Latin vocabulary, maybe they don't care much about their grades or they have lost the hope that they can pass. If they fail a quiz they have to stay at lunch time (about 5 minutes a day) and take the quiz over until they pass. Now these kids do care about their lunch! And even 5 minutes lost is painful!

The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God's heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.

Dorothy Frances Gurney

"Do what you can with what you have, where you are."

Theodore Roosevelt

Bread is cooking in the bread machine. It smells good but I just peeked at it and with only 45min left it hasn't risen very high! Was the yeast old? Hmmm
Is this a metaphor for my life?
Great start ends in failure?
I hope not!

I have had to re-examine my priorities. My most important responcibility now is to finish raising these children! More important than bank balance, my self-esteem, art....
This house, this home, this place of comfort and safety for them is my center and nest.

"The time to be happy is now; the place to be happy is here.

Robert Ingersoll

Today I purchased some new homeschooling materials for Isaac. I have tried too long to fit him to the books I already have rather than get what he specifically needs and wants. I have always hoped that none of my children feel neglected or less loved. But I've been distracted. I don't need to work harder but to work smarter!