Where I Stand Sunday

The sun slides around every obstacle in its path, intent on finding a single crack that can set it free. Persistence is its greatest trait, knowing nothing other then its desire to slide over surfaces with a liquid hand. It is a master of nature, unable to see anything beyond itself and its work. As it presses down on us more, the earth moves into submission, eager to allow it to take the lead.

Where I Stand Sunday is an ongoing photo essay examining the different places I spend my life standing. Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on. The ground we tread on has its own stories to tell.

falling in love with it again

I've got a four day weekend right now, and I sat down this morning to try to figure out what to do. The wish list of things that I would like to accomplish is akin to the likelihood of Dooley not fleeing from me when he realizes I plan to give him a bath later tonight.

In other words, its stupid crazy.

So I wandered on over to the the Bean this morning (the local coffee shop in Plymouth's downtown that the mighty starbucks has not been able to smote) and sat in a leisurely manner staring out the window while I fueled up for the day.

For one thing, it was a pleasant change to ease into the day instead of needing to hit the ground running the second my alarm screeches at me. One thing has been gnawing at me lately and that's the fact that I'm not making a lot of art.

I realized that its because I have far too many HFOs (Half Finished Objects, I like the way that sounds better then UFO (Unfinished Objects) to me since I have some issues with the creepiness factor of aliens) hanging about the studio. So much so that I have been avoiding going in there.

I decided that I would do my not-so-fun errands in the morning and then suck it up and go dig out some work to finish.

I unearthed this series:

This is Talk to Me 3, Talk to Me 4, Talk to Me 5 and Talk to Me 6. (Here are 1, 2, 7, and 8.)

The truly pathetic thing about this? One is stitched and just need to have the excess background fabric trimmed away and a second one is half stitched. The stitching on the remaining two has not been started yet but these are all 13"x13" so its not like I'm looking at billboard sized pieces.

As I puttered around in the ever growing pile of things that just aren't done yet, I found another series languishing. I have about six more siblings for Fragile 1 and Fragile 2.

*insert colossally huge sigh here*

I have no explanation for this. The only thing I can think of is that the excitement of it all being a new project wore off and I got tired of working on it after I got a couple pieces completed. I'm sure I became distracted by a shiny new idea, tossed these in a corner and skittered away. But the thing is, when I look at them now, they still thrill me. So I guess I just needed to fall in love with them again.

I've decided its time to clear these out of the HFO pile. I've dragged them down to my perch on the sofa and when I'm done with this post I'm going to stitch the snot out of the little buggers.

I do have one other thing on my agenda for this weekend. My friend Tom and I have issued each other a geekery exchange challenge. (Please note that I use geek in the most flattering of terms. I wear my geekiness with pride.)

I'm not ashamed to admit that I am a Twilight nerd. It sort of goes against the grain of what I usually like but I read all four books in two weeks and dig them in every way possible. Tom is a Battlestar Galactica nerd. He raves about it and was lamenting the end of the series.

He also loves to taunt me endlessly about being a fan of Twilight. To which I retaliated by pointing out that there are plenty of people in this world that would consider Battlestar Galactica pretty geeky.

So now he has all four books of the Twilight saga and I have the first two of the four seasons of Battlestar Galactica. He is going to read them and I'm going to watch it. I am a fickle fan of sci-fi. I like some and not others and there is no rhyme or reason as to why. So this is a huge leap for me to take on watching a zillion hours of a sci-fi series.

Although I'm willing to bet that Tom cries uncle before I do. A high school love affair between a human girl and a vampire may be more then any man in his mid thirties can stand. I plan to start watching the series tonight. (*insert another colossally huge sigh here*)

So stitching and Battlestar Galactica. Those are my plans. (The challenge may drive me over the edge, especially if the series is something I can't wrap my interest around. If I go insane I'm taking you all with me so be prepared.)

ok, who did it?

Yesterday I was willing to accept it was a fluke. I expected to wake up this morning and be able to see the ground. But nnnoooooooooo...that foul white junk (aka snow) is still there.

I want to know who ordered it...anyone? Anyone at all?

No? Didn't think so.

When I pulled into the parking lot at work yesterday and was getting my things together before stepping out of the car, I noticed a robin on the sidewalk. It was standing knee deep (or where its knees would be, not sure if they have them) in some slush with a look that said it would cuss if it could. It was clearly annoyed and I can sympathize.

I'm feeling bitter about the whole thing and my guess is that its Murphy's law has come to give us a good healthy smack upside the head. I have observed the following things in the past couple of weeks that I believe have directly contributed to this stupid-evil-blasted-annoying-*@%$&^ snow:

1) My mother moved the snow shovel from the front foyer to the garage, implying that it was no longer needed. I bear some responsibility for this, I stood there and watched her do it. Having lived in Michigan my whole life, I should have known it would anger Murphy. In the future I will throw myself on the shovel and refuse to let it leave the foyer until July.

2) I bought the Debbie Bliss spring/summer knitting magazine (which is quite nice by the way) and made the comment to mom that I'm thinking about knitting the simple garter stitch blanket for a summer blanket. Which means I was expecting summer to be here soon. Oops.

3) People at work stopped wearing coats. Most downgraded to simple sweaters or lightweight fleeces but the beadspread like coverings seemed to have been retired. We are all wearing our bedding again.

4) Tulips. Poking up through the ground, not in pots. I'm tempted to go step on what's left of them, they had to be the biggest source annoyance for Murphy.

5) The local ice cream shop opened. And people had the nerve to flock to it and stand outside of it eating the stuff. Silly people. If they were to do that now it would look like they were standing on the ice cream.

6) I was sandal shopping online. I need a new pair this summer, my current ones can't even be labeled as pathetic anymore (it doesn't accurately describe just how far gone they are). I apologize, my feet apologize, my web browser apologizes. We are all repentant.

7) The final four basketball game was here. People from North Carolina showed up in shorts and lightweight t-shirts. This was clearly too good to pass up. I have to admit, if I were Murphy I would have cackled and smacked the snow button too, this opportunity doesn't come along all the time.

The "low traction" warning on my car seemed startled today when it had to light up not once, not twice but three times where there was no obvious ice.

I swear here and now that the words "We should be done with the snow for this year" will not pass my lips until late July. At least then the crummy stuff will melt as soon as it hits the ground.

Where I Stand Sunday

The greenhouse is host to an intoxicating myriad of smells. Metal irrigation snakes between tables and around corners, providing a path of life support. This is not human turf, we are simply guests stepping lightly, trying not to leave footprints. Even though the environment is nudged into existence by man's hand, it is a sanctuary from the winter season
that is finally leaving us.

**The galleries for the entire Where I Stand photo essay has been updated on my website. (If you have the site bookmarked, you may need to refresh the page to see the changes.)



Where I Stand Sunday is an ongoing photo essay examining the different places I spend my life standing. Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on. The ground we tread on has its own stories to tell.

Good News Giveaway

I live in Michigan so it comes as no shocker that I work for the automotive industry. To say that my life is stressful right now is a massive understatement.

Some time ago I made the decision to leave hugely stressful events in my life off the blog. Mostly because, for me, this is one of my favorite online toys and I must have one area of my life that is free from the insanity.

Ironically, though, that decision sometimes leaves me with very little to talk about when things get knocked off center. So I got to thinking about all the bad things that we all keep hearing about and got a little bit annoyed with the imbalance.

There are good things in my life and I'm sure there are in your's as well - wouldn't it be nice to focus on those for a change?

So here's what I've decided to do: I'm going to attempt to add a small bright patch to someone's day. It's simple for you to be the recipient - keep reading.

On the fifth of each month (I know today is the third of the month but all future giveaways will be posted on the fifth of the month) I will give away a small piece of my artwork. I'm a mixed media fiber gal so my work tends to vary in terms of materials used and I work by hand so the stitching is more graphic. But it makes me happy to make things which means they have good energy in them. The giveaways are what I call micro mini art quilts, never larger then 6"x6".

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post to be in the running BUT there are five golden rules you must follow concerning your comment in order to be included in the drawing:

1) Leave a comment about someone or something that is positive and helping to make your life or someone else's life less stressful.

2) NO ANONYMOUS COMMENTS. You have to use at least your first name and the first letter of your last initial. Why? Because there is no way to identify you if you don't. If you leave an anonymous comment, it won't go into the drawing.

3) Keep your comments to no more then five sentences. If you are the winner, I will contact you for the full version (keep reading to find out why) but we don't want to torture Blogger with excessively long comments. (It can be cranky so let's not try.)

4) Comments must appear on this post. I'm a pretty regular blogger so take a gander at my sidebar on the right. You'll see a link list to each post that is a Good News Giveaway post so if you don't come to visit on the exact day a new drawing goes up, you can find it easily and still leave a comment.

5) You can't post the same comment twice. The goal of this is to find things in our lives that are positive and make us smile, so look hard if you have to but find it.

You'll have until the last day of each month to comment to win that month's giveaway. The winner will be announced when the next month's giveaway goes up along with the full version of the story that the winning comment was based on so everyone can enjoy it.

So here is the first micro mini up for giveaway:

Give
6"x6"
Materials: hand dyed fabric, ceramic tile, beads,
hand dyed cheesecloth, yarn, hand stitched

So do we have a deal? Yeah?

Great, now get commenting.

Where I Stand Sunday

This is my mother’s house, the place where my mind comes to rest the moment I step through the door. It’s a steady solid feeling, one without expectation. It is the one place where the seams will simply not split, no matter how hard they are strained.

Where I Stand Sunday is an ongoing photo essay examining the different places I spend my life standing. Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on. The ground we tread on has its own stories to tell.

still time to submit

One of the things that I really wanted to do this weekend was finish up my submissions for Collage Mania. They've been kicking around my studio for a few weeks now and I finally found the time to lock myself away for a couple hours and finish them up.

This is Fiberart for a Cause's last big fundraiser. Collage Mania is a three day event in which collages can be "purchased" for a donation to the American Cancer Society. The artwork is donated by each artist and 100% of the proceeds go to the ACS. I'm really happy that I am able to contribue to help raise money during the cause's final year.

There are still a few days to create a collage for the event, jpeg submissions are due April 1. All of the guidelines on how to participate can be found here.

I hope you will participate and help raise funds for the American Cancer Society!

huh...now there's something you don't see everyday

I work in engineering. I work with intelligent men. I work with intelligent men who often are very mischievous and given more then thirty seconds to contemplate a ludicrous idea, will find a way to act on it.

But this? This one baffles me...not only that they thought of this but that they managed to pull it off. Funny creatures, those men are.

Help support doggies with art quilts!

I am pleased to announce that the details for the 2009 exhibit are up on the website.

Every year I organize this exhibit and every year it gets better and better. Last year it raised money for Virginia Spiegel's FFAC project and this year we are turning our attention toward our four-legged friends!

This year's exhibit will benefit Bernie Berlin's A Place to Bark, a non-profit organization that works to find permanent homes for abused and orphaned dogs. In keeping with Bernie's mission, the theme this year is "Home."

Here is a video showing the wonderful work that Bernie does:

All the guidelines for participating in the exhibit can be found here.

We also have many wonderful prizes available again this year for all those who participate in the exhibit. Details on all these can be found here.

I hope you will join me in making this another fantastic year!!!

Where I Stand Sunday

It is the Motor City. My mind moves back around the time I first saw the magic of the automotive assembly line when my mother worked for Cadillac at the now erased Clark Street Plant, never understanding then that the rest of the world wasn’t as submersed in the automotive culture as we are. As I move now through the industry’s reinvention, knowing that the face of everything I have ever known will be different, I feel the city shift. To those of us who have been here our whole lives, the heartbeat of the assembly lines echo strongly, determined and resolute to remain no matter what the odds.

Where I Stand Sunday is an ongoing photo essay examining the different places I spend my life standing. Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on. The ground we tread on has its own stories to tell.

i need reinforcements

So all week I've been plotting and planning and scheming about all the different ways I would glide into my train wreck of a studio and move a couple things and it would be sparkly clean and functional and inspiring.

As the week drug on, it went from simply reorganizing a few things to rearranging furniture and maybe destashing things on etsy and getting some projects wrapped up.

I was going to be happy and gleeful and fulfilled and the art would pour forth from me like a breath of fresh spring air.

I can feel you all laughing at me right now. (Its not unwarranted.)

Things did not go entirely well. I did manage to move some furniture around but there was so much cursing and growling involved that Dooley actually fled from the room and back downstairs. (I'm not making that up by the way.)

Its in a partially put-back-together-I-must-leave-this-room-before-I-set-it-all-on-fire state right now.

I imagine I will wander back up there to give it more dirty looks before the day is done and put some more things back in place. A couple boxes are being shuffled into the basement so that will make things feel less cluttered.

I'm going to win the battle with the studio. Oh yes I will, oh yes...I will.

fighting the battle against cancer through the power of fiber art

I've enjoyed being a supporter of Virginia Spiegel's Fiberart for a Cause ever since she started it. Even more so after cancer touched my family a few years ago.

This is the last year that Virginia will be fundraising for the American Cancer Society through Fiberart for a Cause (FFAC). The project has donated over $165,000 to the American Cancer Society during the course of the past few years. I am extremely grateful for her immense efforts and selfless sacrifice of all her time and generosity.

One of the biggest fundraisers for FFAC is about to kick off. The 2009Invitational Reverse Auction is nearing. I was incredibly honored to be a part of the 2007 Reverse Auction with my piece, At the Heart of It.

This is how it works: there are three days in which the artwork can be bought. Each day the price of the artwork drops but don't wait until the last day - you could miss your favorite piece! Each artwork is donated by the artist and 100% of the purchase price is donated to the American Cancer Society.

I am excited to pass on the announcement that this year's artwork is available for preview.

All of the artwork and all the minimum donations listed for each day for each artwork are now up on the Reverse Auction's website.

The invited, and generous, artists are:

Natalya Aikens
Gerrie Congdon
Marjorie DeQuincy
Rayna Gillman
Carol Larson
Linda Teddlie Minton
Susie Monday
Judy Coates Perez
Leandra Spangler
Roxane Stoner

On the Reverse Auction artists' pages, read about the artists' materials,techniques and inspiration and see full and detail views of the artwork. This is an incredible line up of talent!

Please join me in making this fifth and final Reverse Auction the best one yet!!!

Call for entries: Blurred Boundaries – Mixed Media Fiber Art

I’m very excited to announce a new exhibit, Blurred Boundaries – Mixed Media Fiber Art.

Juried by Virginia Spiegel, the exhibit focuses on new and inventive artwork created by mixing Fiber Art with other mediums.

The show will run in conjunction with the Fabrications Retreat in Kalamazoo, Michigan from August 31-September 24.

From the exhibit description: The definition of Fiber Art has evolved greatly over the past few years, opening a new range of possibilities to artists working in various disciplines. Fiber artists are incorporating more mediums into the work, creating unique art that reaches across previously defined boundaries. Blurred Boundaries seeks these artworks for a week long exhibition honoring the ingenuity of Mixed Media Fiber Art.

Artwork must have a minimum of 25% fiber content to qualify for the exhibit. 2D and 3D work will be accepted.

In an effort to streamline entries and conserve paper, every aspect of the submission process has been taken digital. The entry form is available as an online form on the website, images will be submitted online through a file transfer service, and entry fees will be paid through paypal.

Please visit the website for full details and guidelines.

Please email Lynn at BlurredBoundaries@earthlink.net if you have any questions.

I hope you will join us in creating an innovative and exciting exhibit!

what the heck is THAT?!

So today started out like every other average tuesday work day. Get up, swear at the alarm clock, drive to work (while grumbling at drivers that think they can drive half asleep while talking on the cell phone and not hit other things), drink a gallon of coffee and go about my most wonderful stimulating schedule of meetings, meetings, and...oh yeah...meetings.

I exited the building in the late afternoon to find a strange thing going on outside....

There was this gigantic blinding thing waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy up in the sky...

Making me hot...

And burning out my eyeballs when I looked right at it....

That my friends, was the sun. In all its 74 degree glory. I drove with the windows down. I looked like a windblown persian cat by the time I got home and I cared not one bit about it. I even stopped to pick up carryout looking like that, complete with the crazy gleam in my eye over the joy that it was warm outside and I no longer needed the 3,456 layers of clothing in order to avoid freezing to death in the matter of a millisecond.

Tomorrow the low will be 32 degrees with rain all day. *sigh*

Clearly living in Michigan is some sort of bizarre test of fortitude.

Where I Stand Sunday

It is the untold portions, smearing blankness across each new minute that causes the uneasiness. Behind me is rooted the shadow of things that can’t be altered, solid and stacked into a firm foundation. But before me there is no map, no telling, no plan. It is the face of uncertainty, bold and brash in its recklessness.

Where I Stand Sunday is an ongoing photo essay examining the different places I spend my life standing. Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on. The ground we tread on has its own stories to tell.

photographing, archiving and twittering

It’s been a day. I’ll leave it at that.

But there were some fun parts. After I drug myself home from work, I set about pushing around the mess in my studio.

It’s graduated from being cluttered and unruly to resembling a toxic waste dump. I need to clean in there in a big way. And now that our weather is making friends with the 50-degree temperature range, its time to open the windows and change out the air.

My main goal for venturing in there today was to photograph some new work. One I’m going to hide from you because I’m submitting it for a show and I have this weird thing that its bad luck to show it off before you know if its made the cut or not.

But I can show you this:


This is “Vintage”. I made it for Art in Stitches and didn’t have time to take a good photo of it before the show. So I did today. This is one of those pieces I have labeled Stitched Textile Collages. There is just too much of assemblage vibe on it to call it an art quilt.

In order to take pictures today I actually had to strip everything off my design wall. Normally I bungee cord my tripod to my ironing board and shoot down on my work since my habit is to produce small pieces but I ventured (way) outside my comfort zone and made something much larger.

Which meant I had to make a choice on how to photograph it. I could 1) attempt to raise my ironing board high enough so that I could do my normal shooting down thing (in which case I would most likely need a step ladder to reach the camera since I am so stumpy) or 2) I could suck it up and clear off my design wall and hang it there.

Needless to say, we chose self-preservation and went with option 2.

But something strange happened. As soon as all that older work was taken off the design wall, I felt better.

Way better.

In a big way.

I kept thinking it was the cluttered mess in there that was making me avoid it like the plague, but now I’m wondering if it was that wall of unfinished work that was bugging the snot out of me. I need to archive away (aka stuff said object into my UFO box to never see the light of day again in my lifetime) the things I know I will never finish.

Sort of like a spring cleaning of the mind.

Oh, and I don’t know if you are all mind-numbingly sick of me gushing over Dooley but I have to show you this. He usually flees from my camera like I am trying to give him a root canal but he wandered into my studio today while I was taking pictures and I was able to snap this:



I think this is my favorite picture of him so far. (Be sure to click on it and make it big so you can revel in all his cute splendor. Go on. Do it, you know you want to.)

So my plan is to hopefully do a kamikaze cleaning attack on the room that has been my studio in name only for the past month or so. And starting with a blank design wall should be interesting, perhaps it will be a kick start I didn’t even know I needed.

Apparently I also do not have enough of an online presence and have now joined the rank and file of twitter users. If you look on my sidebar you’ll see the status widget for me.

If you look super close you will also notice that there was a two month time gap between my update today and the last one. Why, you ask? Good question.

Because for whatever reason (I was half asleep every time I logged in, the stars were never properly aligned, there was a conspiracy put into motion to defeat me, Dooley did a voodoo dance to prevent one more thing from taking attention away from him), I could not figure out how to use it.

It is painfully easy to use.

*sigh*

But I have unraveled the mysteries of twitter and am finding that there is a huge networking thing going happening there that borders on being viral. So if you are inclined, I can now be found there as well.

Tomorrow will be filled with art stuff. There are a couple of shows I want to enter (also another motivation for the photo taking today) and have some exhibit paperwork to finish up for a show I’m curating.

Should be a pleasant day as these are all things I can do while laying like a slug on the couch (back is hurting again). Laptops are the best things since sliced bread.

decompression

When it rains it pours.

Literally and figuratively.

Not only is Michigan being drowned at the moment (the rivers I drive by on my way to work are dangerously close to being level with the road. This makes me nervous in an entirely irrational way. I blame every single Japanese horror movie that was ever made that involved water and ghosts coming back for revenge for this.) but everything else in my life seems to be crashing together all at the same time.

Allow me to report on all the things that are making me twitch:

Work is insanely busy. My laptop from work won’t cooperate. It hates me. It wants to make my life difficult and its working.

My studio looks like fabric, paint and thread fairies had a puking festival in there. I wish they would clean up after themselves.

There have been coyote sightings in our neighborhood. Which makes me nervous for little man. I call him little man because he is…well… little. Which would be appealing, I imagine, to a coyote. The neighbor across the street had a stand off with said beastie in an effort to protect his kitty from a dreadful fate. I’m considering taking a baseball bat with me when I walk Dooley love in the evenings.

My new car is still in the repair shop from the unfortunate accident a few weeks ago (in which a jerkwad ran a red light and smashed in the rear axle). I chose not to talk about it because it annoyed me in a hugely pissy way and this is a PG-rated blog. There wasn’t much that I could say about it at the time it happened that didn’t involve foul cuss words. But now I’m getting annoyed by the fact that its been in the shop longer then I had it to drive. Bah.

Daylight Savings Time is the spawn of the devil. I don’t care how many reasons you throw at me for why it’s a good idea and blah blah blah blah blah…I want my hour of sleep back. {insert tantrum foot stomping here}

It seems everyone has their little habits that help them decompress in the evenings. In fact, they were talking about this on some news program the other day. Some people meditate, others go jogging, some journal.

What do I do?

I surf etsy.

There is such a wild variety of things on there its unbelievable. I pick through things and some make me giggle, some make me flinch and some really impress. The ones that make me smile get plunked in my Favorite Items category so I can admire them at will. (Yes, I am this easy to amuse. Don’t tell me how pathetic I am, it will ruin my fun.) So I decided I would share some of the things that I find amusing with you:

a handsome fellow

a very happy fellow

more people should do this

ever said you could use an extra hand?

a very pretty thing that I find intensely attractive

I hope to be this good one day

incredibly inventive

one of my favorite enablers

the most expressive declaration of bacon love I’ve ever seen

twisted but hilarious

me

I was also surprised to find that there is also a large amount of adult content on there. (And no, I did not intentionally search for such things, they just came up in perfectly innocent searches thank you very much.) But like I said, this is a PG-rated blog. You can do your smut searches on your own.

It’s a lovely mindless activity, etsy surfing is. Which is good because by the end of the day the thinking part of me is all thought out.

Here’s hoping I get to use my brain soon for more fun activities like art and writing. Good thing those are patient about waiting for me to return to them.

its better then nothing

I'm still in full on baby-my-back mode which greatly limits the things I can do. But spring cleaning fever has hit and I've been busy pushing the things around that are within reach (meaning I don't have to bend down or lift anything) to tidy them up. But I still don't feel like I'm making much progress.

So I spring cleaned Dooley instead.

Little man has strange fur for a terrier. Its incredibly soft, not wiry in the least. And curly and he has bad hair days like the rest of us. The current wet weather has him all frizzy and looking like he needs some conditioner.

The nature of his fur means he has to be groomed on a regular basis or he gets all tangly and snarly and resembles a miniature version of a wild lion. So when the weather started turning and I was becoming consumed by my all encompassing cleaning fit that I couldn't indulge to satisfaction, I turned my attention to the fur ball that was roaming around my house.

He was pretty shaggy. We had been reluctant to get him a good haircut because of the sub zero psychotic winter we've been having. But now that its bouncing all around into the 50's and 60's, we decided it was time to discover his cute little shape again.

We think he came out rather nice. By proof of the picture above, he is also quite pleased with the results. That and he got to take a long walk. Life is always well in westie-land.

Where I Stand Sunday

Wet dank puddle pocked mud. Salt bleached strained wood planks. Hollow thuds as steps strike layered ground. Sweet sting of half decayed leaves as they unthaw against the new air. Clear white pieces of square salt unable to exist anywhere outside of itself, unabsorbed, foreign. The new air holding itself close to the surface of the ground, hoping to go unnoticed. It is the mix of beginning and ending, all compressed into a single middle that struggles loudly for attention.

Where I Stand Sunday is an ongoing photo essay examining the different places I spend my life standing. Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on. The ground we tread on has its own stories to tell.

Where I Stand Sunday

The extrovert in me is most happy when I put the paintbrush in my hand. She says everything that I can’t, that I am not even aware needs to be said. She and I have been struggling lately, trying to figure out who should have the most freedom. I have been censoring her, forcing her to be quiet, to be careful of the things that she lets out. But her complaining is growing louder, more insistent. I’m seeing the signs of her more and more and for the first time in a long time, a sense of balance is returning.

Where I Stand Sunday is an ongoing photo essay examining the different places I spend my life standing. Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on. The ground we tread on has its own stories to tell.

just can't do it

I've been thinking about what to feed the blog for a few days now. I had finally gotten to the point that I figured I would just have to live with two Where I Stand Sunday posts in a row. But it made me kind of twitchy. Couldn't do it. So I bring you randomness that may help you to understand why I've not been blogging lately (translation: I'm boring right now):

1) When I drove to work yesterday morning at the unholy hour of 6:15am, it was 50 degrees and raining. When I walked out of the building in the afternoon at 4pm, it was 28 degrees and snowing. What does this have to do with not blogging? Not a thing, but I find it annoying so I wanted to complain about it.

2) I'm knitting. A lot. But they are all presents so I can't blog about them. The recipients know I'm knitting them but given that I knit at the speed of mud, I'm thinking that by the time I'm done with said gifts, they will have forgotten what they look like and they will feel surprised.

3) I want to clean. Everything. Now. Which is a sure sign that spring is approaching. But my back is not cooperating and I'm trapped on the couch again. I'm trying to figure out if its possible to tie a trash bag to Dooley's tail and just kick things into it while luring him around the house with a cookie. It could work.

4) I'm reading books like they are crack. I'm almost done reading The Host by Stephanie Meyer (the jury is still out on how I like it but considering its 600 pages and I'm almost done with it I can't say I hate it) and Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult and American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Needless to say my dreams have been a little on the odd side lately. Its the equivalent of eating a bowlful of sushi, macaroni and cheese and spicy indian food and wondering why you have a stomach ache afterward.

5) The number of potholes I drive over everyday are making me violently cranky. Probably because my back is going through a bad spell and this is not helping. I'm thinking that one of these days I'm going to hit one and disappear underneath the road. Seriously, they are getting that mammoth.

6) I have a list of about 1,349 projects I want to make. I have the energy for about 2.25. I bought a lottery ticket.

7) I've become obsessed with the IFC station. Tonight I watched a movie in which Kate Winslet played a woman who got sucked into an Indian cult and Harvey Kitel was trying to deprogram her. It ended with Harvey Keitel wearing a red dress. Most of what I see on that station is followed with the me saying, "Huh...now there's something you don't see everyday."

8) I am so boring that I can't think of more then 7 things to babble about. Blech.

So tomorrow I'm thinking I might hole up inside the house, do laundry and practice spinning. I'm feeling a little hermit like lately, maybe that will change once Mother Nature stops abusing us with her mood swings. I'm considering sending her a case of Midol.

Hopefully more interesting posts are lurking in the near future...

Where I Stand Sunday

I’m standing in the middle of chance, absorbing the randomness of the events that rush around me each day, wondering at how easily a simple everyday task can soar into something that imprints into your memory. The difference of a few seconds could have altered life into something unrecognizable, broken, torn. The ideas sit inside my head like a brick, stubborn and solid. I close my eyes in defense of them, working to push the soreness away.

Where I Stand Sunday is an ongoing photo essay examining the different places I spend my life standing. Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on. The ground we tread on has its own stories to tell.

woe thy name is dooley

Dooley has reached the end of his rope. He has briskly marched past the line in the sand. He has tested his tolerance and pushed it beyond the breaking point.

He is done being ignored.

He is currently pacing around the living room, emitting a low mournful protest about how hard his life is. He has picked every toy out of his basket and proceeded to squeak or nudge them until they become uninteresting. He has pawed the sofas (I am laying on one, mom is sitting on the other) and chirped in complaint that there does not appear to be any room for him. (In the humans' defense, Dooley may be stumpy but he stretches out to an unnatural length when given a soft sofa to lounge on.)

Mom has a head cold from hell, I have...well...an insane job that sucks the life force from me. We are apparently boring in every possible way. (Of which I am totally fine with.)


So Dooley has requested that you give him full court sympathy as being the most woeful westie in the world. (And if you buy that one, I have a bridge in the desert I'd love to sell ya...)

Where I Stand Sunday

It’s the monotony that skims the surface and holds the cracks in place that I have become addicted to. A sleepy schedule and a set routine have afforded me a contentment I didn’t remember I was missing. For now it is enough, this haze that lets me walk between the splits without disturbing them.

Where I Stand Sunday is an ongoing photo essay examining the different places I spend my life standing. Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on. The ground we tread on has its own stories to tell.

in awe

I know that it makes me somewhat of a geek that I list Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride amongst my top favorite movies. So its not all that shocking that I am bouncing in my seat all excited about going to see Coraline this saturday.

I am a huge fan of stop motion animation films because every single thing is constructed.

By hand.

One at a time.

No matter how long it takes.

HBO has been running a behind-the-scenes look at the movie and the people who shot the film talk about how in a good day they manage to shoot two to four seconds.

That's a big switch from the crazy standards we set for ourselves to get thousands of things done in a single eight hour day.

The behind-the-scenes special also talks about the ways in which the set creators take everyday items and use them in unexpected ways. Like popcorn kernels painted pink to make cherry blossoms and dog squeaky toys cut in half so they can be used for the centers of blooming flowers.

You can see part of the special here:




And of course there is the knitting, which I find fascinating in an outstanding way. Watch this video, its nice to know there is still productions being made where every detail is painstakingly made by hand.