#117 - The fall of Fall

It's that time of year again.  The lawn (grassless as it's been for years) is now one gigantic pile of yellowed leaves.  We've been raking and raking and raking leaves. They're almost high enough to jump into the pile like we used to do when we were little.

We've been putting them in giant piles, loading them into large moveable 33 gallon trash container and schlepping them to the back. Also moved the old leaf mold pile so we could begin a new one.  The gutters were emptied again (2nd time, but now most of the leaves are actually fallen now - the tree is almost totally bare).  

We've taken a few breaks because, damn, there's a LOT of leaves.  And it's very breezy out today.  And cool (temps not getting above 60, which for here is pretty chilly). The weather report shows 3-4 upcoming hard frost days.  Seems a bit early for those, but it's inevitable that they'll come.  And so the lime tree is covered and seems to be thriving in its mini greenhouse.  

After fall comes winter and dark and cold. Shorter days and Seasonal Affective Disorder for those that suffer. I can hardly believe it's almost the end of 2022.  At least there's only 30ish more days of darkness, and then things will begin to lighted up, very slowly but they will.

My little man (what I used to call him when he was born) has been here and it's been so wonderful to have his light and humor and his fine self in the house, but he leaves tomorrow.  After a quick visit to the parental units up north, I'll be anxious to get back to painting and writing and maybe theatre again (not sure how or when that might happen). 

All I know is that I'm oh so grateful for my family, my home, my livelihood in wondrous retirement, and most of all, the beauty of the Fall leaves.

#116 - Paradise lost - well, just the pumpkin pie

Lovely day of Thanksgiving with friends and family.  Missed my MIL and FIL but we will probably venture up their way soon.  Still enjoying having my first born home for the holidays (for a few more days at least).  I had even been able to go pick up pie and galette dough from the amazing Downtown Bakery in Healdsburg to use for my pie making (ok, the fruit galette is prepared and was flash frozen so we'll have that another time).

But - we had a minor disaster happen late Thanksgiving eve.  My hubs was shifting leftovers around in the fridge and came and told me that while he was arranging, the glass pie pan holding my precious three-quarters of leftover pumpkin pie slipped and fell out of the fridge, shattering the pan and destroying all of the leftover pie with the glorious crust.  It was one of the best pies I think I'd ever made.  And I only had one small slice that night.

Now, I'm a devotee of the leftover pie for breakfast the next day.  I would have had it with some of the bourbon whipped cream that was also left over from Thanksgiving evening.

At least I can give thanks for having a roof over my head, family and friends and a lovely meal with awesome wine and some glorious desserts to have shared on the day.

As it's still the "holiday" weekend, we're off to the movies now.  

#115 - Revising art again

Happy that today I'll be heading into the City by the bay (yeah, that one) to see for a 2nd time an amazing exhibit by the phenomenal couture designer Guo Pei. She is truly amazing and the first time I saw these amazing works I was blown away.  Really.  Unbelievable art and the amount of time each dress or shoe or look took to make is listed (some were 10,000 hours of work).  Remarkable.

I also did a dive off the short board into Acrylic Abstract Collage art on youtube.  As that's kind of what I've been doing, I wanted to see others techniques.

Yesterday was a non-art clean the house and take out the trash day, and I couldn't get motivated to paint at all.  I think when I get back from the City, I'll be energized and ready to dive back into the paint pool.

27 canvas' completed.  Let's see how many more I might finish by tomorrow evening when my men come back home.

#114 - How can we ever be really prepared?

The key to life is all about properly preparing, isn't it?  Yet some things you can never be prepared for.

My husband's youngest step-brother (but only 2 years older than my husband) passed away this week.  We had no idea he was even sick. He didn't want anyone outside his wife and sons to know.  Not even his brother he'd spoken to almost daily.  He'd had an aggressive form of cancer and went downhill very, very quickly.  My husband is flying down today for tomorrow's funeral.  I chose to stay behind.

I'm slowing down on the painting, as I'm getting wound up for the big Thanksgiving feast.  

It's not Thanksgiving without the turkey candle.  I don't know when I bought it, but it's graced our table every year for at least 25 of them.  When we were cleaning out the boys stash, we found the delightful little sign created by my youngest (probably 3rd grade or so?).  

Now, the sign and candle will inextricably be united in holiday decor for years to come.

A few road blocks have come along this week (or is it that they've opened up?).  Dental cleaning? Canceled due to the hygienist being ill.  Meeting a former co-worker? Put off due to the death in the family. Possible trip to Marin? Postponed by the one I would have been visiting.  

Well, now I can get prepared for the week to come. At least as much as we can be prepared, for none of us knows what tomorrow brings.  But we move along as if we have many things coming up on the horizon, and we continue to act, and make lists, and plan.

Better go get prepping!

#113 - Welcome to the Creativity Suite

Apparently, I have been creatively energized, at least as far as using acrylics and following part of the art workshop I attended.  Well, I am truly utilizing only bits and dits of the process, but I'm sure enjoying what I'm doing.

All this at the expense of writing in the month of Nanowrimo no less.

In just over 10 days, I've created 24 paintings.  All but 2 on 9 x 12 paper.  I haven't sealed or waxed them at all, and that's a new part of the process for me. I had a great weekend with my MOH doing painting and decoupage/collaging small tins - loved the one she did, but mine?  Not so much.

Today is an open book, after the dental cleaning.  Let's see how many more paintings I manage to squeeze in this week.

#112 - It's getting cold in here...

Well, Fall is falling into Winter pretty quickly.  Lots of falling leaves, and we had gotten 1.75" of rain by yesterday morning.  Then, it rained again.  Haven't checked the rain gauge yet - it's still pretty early and though Daylight Savings Time started on Sunday, it's still only 5:30 am so the lightness is only about to begin shortly.  Plus, now there's frost warnings.  It's getting cold in here!

It fills me with happiness that I have a real art space that I'm working out of these days.  Have tried for years to have a dedicated spot for creating art, and though it's part of the multipurpose garage/pool room/License2spell art space, etc., etc., etc...it's invigorating to have it and use it most of all.

And while my other half heads off to the mountains (let's go, good weather!) I'm looking forward to an art date with the MOH coming up in 2 days.

Better put on some warm stuff to paint in.

#111 - Details to follow

Well, it's that day again - Mid-Term Election day.  Probably won't know the full final results but there's a few things to be happy about, that's for sure.  Hoping to see that blue wave...

In the meantime, I continue to paint as we continue to organize, which is the first step towards purging.  Believe it or not, we managed to find a really good looking black file cabinet (5 drawers no less) to put all the photos/cameras/picture frames into for now.  Also picked up a small two drawer wood one that matches our other cabinet well.  Now it's less likely to look like we're packing to move out.

On to the rest of the house, and particularly the room I'm now calling our in-house POD.  Yup, the Imperial Man's vault of goodies needs to work it way out of our home, so we can repurpose that into a home office/2nd guest room.

And I continue to paint.  I've done 10 paintings a la style of Jesse Reno.  It's a great exercise.  I have to make a new sign, as I'm thinking about calling the art space "THE CREATIVITY SUITE" going forward.

The only thing I haven't done is continue to write.  I guess the 'one creative outlet at a time' rules apply.

Except I did remember to write this one.  Now, back to the studio...

#110 - Wandering in search of ourselves

Yesterday I finally got back to painting and it felt really good.  I used the leftover paper from the workshop I attended and applied paint, color, smudged paint to the outside edges and then broke it up with paint again.  Next, I'll go back and enhance what was revealed.  I also decided to do the same with a smaller 9 x 12 canvas (happy I purchased the bristol paper and the collapsable water container last week).  And that one, I think I have finished.  Easier for me to work on smaller canvases.

This whole new use of acrylics is like stepping into the Emerald City.  So much to learn and different uses for paint, mediums, brushes, and overall creation.  I even painted a quick postcard using my new watercolor palette. I look forward to a time soon when I will have released on all these things that make me feel encumbered;  things that belonged to the Imperial Man and the original Vault Goddess.

I've also been re-reading my script (thank you my dear friend Daphne for all the awesome feedback).  Today might be the day I send it off to my brothers, and then I'll begin some actual editing and writing.  Surely getting closer to digging back into the screenplay as well.

All this in the hopes that I'll find myself and stop wandering aimlessly so much.

A postscript - After we mounted some chairs on the wall of the garage (since there's no room for them anywhere else), this appeared on the floor.  It had been knocked off the mannequin body where it was hanging:

There she was, in all her glory.  She actually KNEW who she was.  An oh so timely reminder from the original Vault Goddess.  Thanks, Mom.  LYM.