C'mon Spring

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Dreaming of Spring
9"x9" 90lb watercolour art journal page, acrylic, pastel, collage, ink

I want Spring.

I want warm air and the smell of damp earth.

I want sunshine.

I want a crazy road trip...driving fast under a huge prairie sky, no particular destination.

I want to see things sprout and grow, my toes in green grass, my hands in dirt.

I want to not be cold (so tired of being cold).

I want to burn my old black winter jacket and heavy boots.

I want to go for a long walk, without shivering, or slipping on the ice, or numb fingers and a runny nose.

I want to stop to investigate flowers and leaves, and find little rusted bits to make into art.

I want to open the windows of my house.

I want to take canvases outside and paint in the sunshine.

I want picnics.

Birdsong.

Rain.

Warmth.

I want green, in every conceivable tint & shade.

And did I mention sunshine? More than once?

Grey sky again today, and I just can't seem to get fully warm. But it is coming, just around the corner. Spring will be here soon.

Win

It was a win. A smashing success. The birthday boys were thrilled, and their friends equally so. The DQ said that she is giving me "the academy award of party making". ;) And I'll take it.

A few days after the party, I am still breathing a long exhalation...coming down slowly. The house is getting put back together bit by bit (we had family guests for several days, as well as the party), and we are all very, very quiet...all partied out, all peopled out, but pleased.

The cake. The cake! It turned out. I was relieved and so happy!



It was big & impressive. There were oohs and aahs, and "this is the best cake you've ever made, mom!". The marshmallow fondant was easy and fun to work with, and tasted great. I will definitely be using it again.

The pinata was much less cooperative. I just didn't give myself enough time, and it had to be rushed along at every stage, which resulted in a lumpy, off kilter sphere and a slap & dash paint job, but it didn't matter. Smashing it to bits was one of the highlights of the party! The boys were laughing & screaming so loud my ears are still ringing.


The bulk of the party was spent "watching" Return of the Jedi (we had set up an online poll so that our guests could vote on which Star Wars movie they most wanted to see), down in our new "teenager room" (we made a hang out room for E&L as part of their b-day present, affectionately referred to as the Teenager Room, because ya know 10 year olds are pre-teens which is almost a teenager, so really they are practically teenagers right now, as explained to us by Elliot).



There was little actual movie watching going on. It was a lot of sounding of barbaric YAWPs and light saber fighting, while the DH manned the bar at the Mos Eisley Cantina, serving up drinks like shaken Bantha Milk, Jabba's Gork Bowl and Mustafar Lava. The drinks were a huge hit and the bar was hoppin'. Then when everyone was really, really hyped up on sugar we came upstairs for supper (homemade Pizza the Hutt and Boba Fettuccine!), presents, pinata and cake, then back down for the tail end of the movie and a couple more rounds from the Cantina. They were having such a good time we had one guy call his mom unbeknownst to us and tell her not to come & pick him up until much later. We eventually got everyone back out the door and put two very tired, but very happy almost-pre-teen-teenagers to bed.

At which point the grown ups added something a little stiffer to those Mos Eisley Cantina drinks. ;)

Star Wars, Nothing but Star Wars...

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Birthday plans are in full swing around here. The party is on Friday (no school that day). Out of town family will be arriving Thursday night and Friday morning, and the kid-guests are set to arrive at 4:00 pm. So I am on the clock.

Everything is coming along nicely, with the possible exception of the oversized Death Star pinata, which is being a little uncooperative. (Dry, damn you! *shakes fist*)




Cake plans are completed. I think I have figured out a do-able approach for construction & decorating that will still look reasonably Imperial Star destroyer-like...but we shall see. I made marshmallow fondant for the first time (sticky, sticky fun!).



And plan on cutting out shapes to lay on top of grey buttercream to create the surface of the ship. For those of you who don't actually know what an Imperial Star Destroyer looks like:



See what I mean? Yikes. But I have a plan, and shall prevail!

(PS. the title is referencing that old Bill Murray SNL song, which is running through my head quite a bit these days! Go figure...)

Lessons from Art

My submission for Willowing's The Art of Self Acceptance Book:

Great Expectations~5"x7" acrylic & graphite on watercolour paper

When I was a girl there was a lot of pressure to achieve, and to behave and look a certain way. I had to be neat, pretty, quiet, rigidly pious and unfailingly polite. My grades had to be as close to perfect as possible (an A was OK, but really kind of disappointing, why couldn’t you get an A+?). The standards set for me were impossibly high. This caused frustration, anxiety and an underlying current of guilt. What was wrong with me that I just couldn’t measure up?

As an adult, even though I am now free to be whatever I choose to be and set my own standards, I still find myself carrying around that underachiever’s guilt. Unless everything I do is absolutely spectacular (which, of course, it rarely if ever is)…it isn’t good enough. I beat myself up over every mistake. I want to be the BEST mom, wife and all around person I can be, with no room for fallibility…for being tired, cranky, messy or lazy…for being human. Logically I know it’s ridiculous, but still I carry it with me, this vague idea that perfection is somehow attainable and I am a bad person if I am not striving for it with all my might.

Enter art. This is where art helps and heals me. I find I am drawn to art that is rough, unfinished, aged and distressed. Art that revels in its own messy spontaneity, which celebrates imperfection! It is both humbling and completely liberating to sit down with a blank canvas, knowing that the end result will never be perfect, that perfection isn’t even remotely the goal. In art I am completely free to make mistakes (sometimes the “mistakes” become the most beautiful part!) and to be myself, and more and more I learn to bring this gorgeous freedom from guilt and expectations back into my every day life.

Perfection~9"x9" mixed media on watercolour paper

Thursday I'm in Love

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Currently on the brain:

-art

-Valentine's

-Star Wars

Not necessarily in that order...

Winter Blues

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An exercise in underpainting & glazing from my colour class with Julie and Chris. Learning lots!

In other news the sky was blue for a few hours yesterday. It was wonderful! Today it is back to that opaque, greyish white, welcome-to-the-Canadian-prairie-winter sky. It really is rather beautiful in an austere sort of way...achingly monochromatic white on white on white. But man oh man, I need some warmth & sun & colour!

Unfortunately there are at least 2 months more winter left here. So for now I will have to settle for an extra sweater, some vitamin D, and painting vivid hues in my art journal.

Uplift

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Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need

For this bright morning dawning for you.

~Inaugural Poem~Maya Angelou~

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