Okay, time to go home. Tomorrow we leave toward the Keys and should be home by early afternoon. It was such a relaxing week. Exactly what I needed. Wish it could have been longer but can't complain.... I get more than most. I miss my dogs. I really do! I feel recharged and ready to juggle the many balls I have up in the air!
I have the following swaps to do by the 31st: Provence, PID Postcards, Mardi Gras, Avery, Cabinet Cards... I have Tracy's album and Martha's album waiting for me for Ali's circle journal, I have to finish my covers for Through the Eyes of an Artist and get that package together.... Oh yeah, and I have to work too! I will be in Miami every single day next week which will make things a little difficult to spend time on art but I can juggle - I am the QUEEN of juggling!!!!
Lord!!! So much to do and so little time! But I work best under pressure! Glutton for punishment!
Spent the day with Kaitlynn today.... she is so exhausting!!! I feel like I need another vacation! LOL!!! I will put some pictures up soon. Promise.
And I will post art - I've gotten lazy about it but I will from now on. Another week gone by, another month speeding by.... another idea to create. It's all good.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
A DAY ON THE RIVER
Rented a pontoon boat today and spent the day on Crystal River. There is a manatee refuge here which is doing wonderful work in protecting the manatees. They are such wonderfully tender and sweet creatures. It's so horrible how people hurt them - sometimes on purpose and sometimes by accident but ALWAYS by ignorance.
We saw dolphins and just had a really great day. It's so nice to disconnect. I must give my girls a raise at the office when I get back. THEY HAVE NOT CALLED ME ONCE!!! That, my friends is true love!!!
Tomorrow we head home. Will stop at CB Smith Park in Pembroke Pines to spend the day with my granddaughter (better known as "THE TERRORIST") and will be back home on Sunday - God willing. I really REALLY needed this break and will be back better than ever!!!! LOL!!! (Whatever THAT means!!!).
So much art to do..... so many people to defend...... ahhhhhh, feeling it ladies..... feeling it!
We saw dolphins and just had a really great day. It's so nice to disconnect. I must give my girls a raise at the office when I get back. THEY HAVE NOT CALLED ME ONCE!!! That, my friends is true love!!!
Tomorrow we head home. Will stop at CB Smith Park in Pembroke Pines to spend the day with my granddaughter (better known as "THE TERRORIST") and will be back home on Sunday - God willing. I really REALLY needed this break and will be back better than ever!!!! LOL!!! (Whatever THAT means!!!).
So much art to do..... so many people to defend...... ahhhhhh, feeling it ladies..... feeling it!
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
SOME TIME OFF FOR BONZO!!!!
Wow, I can't believe it's been a month since I was on here!!! It is so scary the way days, weeks and months go by!
So many things going on!!! First, and most importantly at the moment, my husband and I left Key Largo in our motor home on Saturday, March 7th. I have been needing a break for a while and we decided to go to Savannah for a few days. We had originally planned to go to Tennessee but the ice on the roads sort of nixed that idea - it's scary to think of losing control of a 38' motor home on an icy road!!
We went to Savannah and spent Sunday, and Monday there. Savannah is such a great city - so much history! But it's only 2 1/2 miles so you can see the entire city in a day!!! Love it there though. Visited the old historic houses .... I'm TELLING you I was born in the wrong era!!! Actually, when you really get down to it, it was a horrible era in the early 1800s in Savannah with yellow fever killing so many people. It was certainly not an easy life - even for those that lived in the mansions! We visited the house of the lady who started the Girl Scouts (can't think of her name right now) and that was really cool too. By all accounts, at age 48 I would most likely already be dead if I had lived in the 1800s!!!! And I still consider myself a "youngster"!!!! LOL!!
We left Savannah and are now camping in Crystal River in North Florida. What a beautiful town this is. Lots of reading, sleeping, riding bicycles and taking long walks with my husband.... exactly what the doctor ordered!!! We will be going home on Friday to spend a few days with the kids in Miami before heading back to Key Largo.
Meanwhile, there are so many cool things happening! I started a circle journal with 12 wonderful ladies. It begins "circling" at the end of March and will be back in a year. Can't wait!! The project is called THROUGH THE EYES OF AN ARTIST. It goes something like this: each artist will create a journal. She will add enough pages to this journal so that each of the other 11 artists can do a two-spread layout. The theme is "ME". What each artist feels at the moment, where they are in their life... totally narcissistic and awesome! A glimpse at the individual through her art.
So many wonderful artists too!!! Eileen Bellomo, a New Yorker; Ali Brandst and Sharon McAllister from England, Sarah Walker and Lee Hynes from Australia, Tracy Kauffman from Washington, Lillian Mederak from Canada, Sue Young, Susie Walczak, Karen Mercado, Gina Gooding and yours truly!!! Each journal will make the rounds to each individual artist and upon completion will be an awesome journal!!! I plan to do other "rounds" once this one is completed and in this way take a little piece from all the wonderful artists I deal with on a day to day basis. I'm really excited about this project and so are all the girls! I'll keep you guys posted!!!
So many things going on!!! First, and most importantly at the moment, my husband and I left Key Largo in our motor home on Saturday, March 7th. I have been needing a break for a while and we decided to go to Savannah for a few days. We had originally planned to go to Tennessee but the ice on the roads sort of nixed that idea - it's scary to think of losing control of a 38' motor home on an icy road!!
We went to Savannah and spent Sunday, and Monday there. Savannah is such a great city - so much history! But it's only 2 1/2 miles so you can see the entire city in a day!!! Love it there though. Visited the old historic houses .... I'm TELLING you I was born in the wrong era!!! Actually, when you really get down to it, it was a horrible era in the early 1800s in Savannah with yellow fever killing so many people. It was certainly not an easy life - even for those that lived in the mansions! We visited the house of the lady who started the Girl Scouts (can't think of her name right now) and that was really cool too. By all accounts, at age 48 I would most likely already be dead if I had lived in the 1800s!!!! And I still consider myself a "youngster"!!!! LOL!!
We left Savannah and are now camping in Crystal River in North Florida. What a beautiful town this is. Lots of reading, sleeping, riding bicycles and taking long walks with my husband.... exactly what the doctor ordered!!! We will be going home on Friday to spend a few days with the kids in Miami before heading back to Key Largo.
Meanwhile, there are so many cool things happening! I started a circle journal with 12 wonderful ladies. It begins "circling" at the end of March and will be back in a year. Can't wait!! The project is called THROUGH THE EYES OF AN ARTIST. It goes something like this: each artist will create a journal. She will add enough pages to this journal so that each of the other 11 artists can do a two-spread layout. The theme is "ME". What each artist feels at the moment, where they are in their life... totally narcissistic and awesome! A glimpse at the individual through her art.
So many wonderful artists too!!! Eileen Bellomo, a New Yorker; Ali Brandst and Sharon McAllister from England, Sarah Walker and Lee Hynes from Australia, Tracy Kauffman from Washington, Lillian Mederak from Canada, Sue Young, Susie Walczak, Karen Mercado, Gina Gooding and yours truly!!! Each journal will make the rounds to each individual artist and upon completion will be an awesome journal!!! I plan to do other "rounds" once this one is completed and in this way take a little piece from all the wonderful artists I deal with on a day to day basis. I'm really excited about this project and so are all the girls! I'll keep you guys posted!!!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
GOT MY TWO OWOH WINNERS!!!
I have my two winners: They are Jenny R.D. who owns the blog ARTISTICALLY DESIGNED DIVERSIONS (which, by the way is a great blog!) and Beth ???? who I have emailed to let her know!
Congragulations ladies! Your goodies will be mailed out to you on Monday!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
THE JOURNY BEGINS FOR OUR CIRCLE JOURNALS!
Late last year I was invited by Allison Brandst - a beautiful person and artist - to join her in an ambitious long term project she called a "Circle Journal". As part of this project, which involves wonderful artists from the U.S. and the U.K., we each prepared a 4x4 art journal with enough pages so that all members of the group could add their art. We each chose a stamp as the "theme" of the journal. Every artist would add their art using this stamp. We were told also to do an ATC using that same "theme" stamp. The art page is sent along with the journal to the next artist; the ATCs are sent to Ali so that she can hold on to them while the journal travels from place to place (like those wonderful jeans!!!).
I received a beautifully done journal from KAREN MERCADO. Her stamp was so pretty and I had NO idea what to do with it!! This is such a wonderful project that I wanted to make sure that whatever I did for her book would be something she would love. I finished my page and my ATC last night and they are on their way to England (yes, I am VERY jealous of this journal right now!!).
These pictures show the page and the ATC. It will take 8-10 months for these journals to make their rounds and I can't WAIT to get mine back. In the meantime, I am so excited about working on other journals!!!
Monday, February 9, 2009
This is EXACTLY it Alex!
My wonderful brother-in-law Alex sent this video to me this weekend after reading my "mid-life-crisis" postings! I belive it's a commercial somewhere but it is EXACTLY what I've been talking about!!! I have no problems with aging - I just want to do it on my terms and in a way that makes ME happy!!!
Thank you Alex. Somehow you manage to understand me when so many others don't! That is just one of the reasons I adore you!
Thank you Alex. Somehow you manage to understand me when so many others don't! That is just one of the reasons I adore you!
Thursday, February 5, 2009
SO MANY KINDRED SPIRITS
Wow!! I am stunned by the amount of pesonal email I've received regarding my post of January 26th, 2009. I shared with you how I felt, well, "suffocated" right now. Wishing I could do and be someone else.
So many of you have shared those same feelings with me. So many of you feel "suffocated" in your lives.... It's not that you (or I) don't love our families, our husbands, our children........... It's not that you don't want to be a mother, a daughter, a wife.... It's just that sometimes you just want to be a WOMAN - an individual with personal goals, needs, and dreams.
At least for me, that is where my dissatisfaction and need comes from. I've always had and always lived up to my "labels" - a respectful and dutiful daughter, a sister who adores her younger brothers, a wife who loves her husband, a mother that would give her life for her children, a grandmother that sees through the eyes of a precocious two year old.... But I've never had a chance to just be ME - just be a woman without all those labels... to just BE. I don't feel guilty about it. I have no reason to - and either do any of the wonderful woman who have written to me. I'm just finding my way around the solution - because there HAS to be one. None of us should have to settle for what everyone else expects of us.
Why is it that when we reach a point in our lives that we've given all we can give - a point where we want to take our life back from the hands of all those who pull at us in a million different directions - there is guilt involved? What in the WORLD do we have to feel guilty about? Why are we sentenced to a life of living for everyone else but us?
Thank you so much for sharing such personal feelings with me. Your stories, your fears and confessions have validated everything I've been feeling lately. But most of all, thank you for the hugs --- for every email has felt like a hug from a dear friend.
We'll figure this out........... at least for me, I know I have to.
So many of you have shared those same feelings with me. So many of you feel "suffocated" in your lives.... It's not that you (or I) don't love our families, our husbands, our children........... It's not that you don't want to be a mother, a daughter, a wife.... It's just that sometimes you just want to be a WOMAN - an individual with personal goals, needs, and dreams.
At least for me, that is where my dissatisfaction and need comes from. I've always had and always lived up to my "labels" - a respectful and dutiful daughter, a sister who adores her younger brothers, a wife who loves her husband, a mother that would give her life for her children, a grandmother that sees through the eyes of a precocious two year old.... But I've never had a chance to just be ME - just be a woman without all those labels... to just BE. I don't feel guilty about it. I have no reason to - and either do any of the wonderful woman who have written to me. I'm just finding my way around the solution - because there HAS to be one. None of us should have to settle for what everyone else expects of us.
Why is it that when we reach a point in our lives that we've given all we can give - a point where we want to take our life back from the hands of all those who pull at us in a million different directions - there is guilt involved? What in the WORLD do we have to feel guilty about? Why are we sentenced to a life of living for everyone else but us?
Thank you so much for sharing such personal feelings with me. Your stories, your fears and confessions have validated everything I've been feeling lately. But most of all, thank you for the hugs --- for every email has felt like a hug from a dear friend.
We'll figure this out........... at least for me, I know I have to.
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