AWOL - " A Hectic Hiatus"

      Sorry I've stayed away for so long.  I have such guilt!!! I love blogging, absolutely love it! Lately though its been too busy to formulate a cohesive thought. In the very beginning I expressed how life has surreptitiously gotten in the way of art,...and I knuckled under and admitted that I am solely to blame for allowing it to do so. I started to become really good at claiming my space and time. Well sir,..since Mid-July my best attempts, nor any power on heaven or earth could hold back the tide of "shit gone sideways". ( as my irrepressible eldest is wont to express )

      It's all really "cycle of life" stuff, inevitable and expected. We have children whose respective births span three decades. Although I suffer empty nest blues and pine for some, I still have one who lives at home and invites his teen-aged hungry friends to strip the pantry bare. The older 3 doubled their ranks with sweet life partners and are now home owners, parents and college students. One just went to sea, one just moved and one is finishing his degree. The youngest has a sweet gal pal who just headed back to school and he has just started a new job with a 5 am wake-up call from yours truly. Everybody is in "flux" at the same time   Add to this grandchildren, ( wonderful ) menopause, ( miserable ) middle age crazy husbands, ( exasperating and entertaining. ) and an aging mother only just beginning to need care. ( bewildering and bittersweet ) you've got a brain and a schedule filled with chaos. The scrambled brain isn't even the big deal,..the BIG deal is that my frickin' knees are toast so I don't have a leg to stand on, let alone run on at the dead smashing pace required at present.

      Silver linings still abound though.  I am always struck, at least several times a day, by how very lucky I am. My children are wonderful citizens of the world, all are in shining health. My husband is very hard working and so well respected. I have talents that are appreciated and kind people who watch to see what I will do next.

      I belong to an artists and crafters co-op and I volunteer on Thursdays. It is housed in one classroom of a retired school building. We've been given the shop space by Lisa, the proprietor of a successful printshop and a tempting and terrific cafe. Just yesterday I showed her the crow sketches from my last blog. Moments later she appeared with 7"x 10" cardstock and 5"x 10" envelopes and told me to plunk myself down at the craft store desk and increase my inventory. What a nice gift and just the motivation I needed to snap out of the fuzzy haze of the recent busy days and begin to create again. 

      I was fortunate enough to have my drawing supplies on hand and whipped up six pen and ink note cards. By days end we'd entered them into the inventory and half of them have already sold. This morning I had orders for more. When I sit to draw the next dozen or so, I will take time to scan them and share them with you. Til then, onward and upward!