Nothing New to Report but Snow

I've blogged about so much snow this winter I don't think there's much left to say.  We got between 10-12".  No school today.  The only new thing was I taught JC how to use the snowblower.  William and Rachel played outside for a long time, they came in for lunch, JC and Rachel watched a movie, William went back out, we're going over to a neighbors to eat pizza and watch the Olympics.

Just another snow day here.

Maybe Next Time

Well, everything got cancelled.  School, my class, everything.  And after a little bit of disappoinment this morning (ok, a LOT of disappointment), I've made my peace.

For a while, it looked like the class would be rescheduled to Sunday - which would still have been impossible for me, unless I let the kids play hooky from church and found a sub to teach my Sunday school class.  And I left early to take Rachel to her dance exam.  The prospect of having it rescheduled and STILL not being able to attend was frustrating, but it turned out most of the other students had conflicts as well, so they're just going to refund my money.

I'm still out the fee for the class I missed yesterday, unfortunately.  No help for that one.

So we have more snow coming down.  A LOT of snow, but fortunately it is not accumulating as much as it could be as the temperature was just above freezing much of the day.  I think we caught a break there, because it's been snowing HARD almost all day, and we'd probably be looking at multiple inches except that it's been melting.  It's a very wet, heavy snow too, so there is a lot of concern about power outages.  Not much I can do about that, so not worrying about it.

John has been gone almost 3 weeks, working for CTV in Vancouver on the Olympic broadcast.  Not actually a glamour job, he's been working 12+ hour shifts in the broadcast center.  And while he can watch the feed from every single camera there, he's only managed to get tickets to two events.  Of course, one of them was the Women's Hockey final tonight, so we don't feel TOO sorry for him.  He gets back on Monday.  Can't wait.

Cautiously Hopeful

Well, William threw up again, around dinnertime, although he had very little in his stomach (pretzels and flat 7-up).  However, he felt MUCH better after that, ate most of a roll and had some apple juice, and was much more animated for the rest of the evening.  I got him to bed about the normal time, and I am very cautiously hopeful he may go to school tomorrow.

However, a big winter storm is predicted for tomorrow morning.  Not good.  Although the kids pointed out that JC can babysit if they don't have school tomorrow.  Assuming that my class wouldn't be cancelled...

We'll just have to wait and see.

It's A Bummer

I'm having a hard time not feeling sorry for myself right now.  Not that anything tragic has happened, just that I'm very disappointed.

See, I pushed myself, and signed up for classes at a local art non-profit.  They "specialize" in printmaking, which I find fascinating (not sure if it's the art or the machines!), and their winter classes were with a visiting artist who's a bookmaker.  How cool is that?  Monday's class, Content Development, ended up being an affirmation that I could think of myself as an artist (at least a little).  And I was really looking forward to today's class, Paste Paper and Simple Book forms.  I've done a couple of workshops on simple books (pamphlets, accordian fold, etc.), but was REALLY looking forward to Paste Paper.  That's an old technique for creating decorative papers for book covers, cards, whatever.  Kind of like finger painting, but more sophisticated techniques.

Then William threw up.  Monday night, so he stayed home Tuesday and I was gaining a glimmer of hope, until he threw up again about 10pm.

This morning, I did wake him at the usual time to see how he felt - which was not good enough to go to school (normally, I wouldn't consider sending him to school within 24 hours of vomiting, but this was a special circumstance).

So I spent the day with mopey boy, feeling pretty mopey myself.  It's times like this that I really don't like the life we've made for ourselves here.  John's traveling means that I didn't have the option of asking him to work from home for a day.  Both of our parents are thousands of miles away, so can't dump the sick kid with the grandparents (not that I would abuse that privlege!).  And somehow, asking a friend to babysit a sick kid so I can go play with art?  Crosses a line.

It's not the end of the world, but combined with grey yucky weather, John being gone for 3 weeks, and the opportunity to do something really creative and different?  It's not been a good day.  So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that William will go to school tomorrow, and I can go to my last class (Single Page Book and Building Creativity).  I've been housebound for two days, and it's not pretty.

And there's not even any chocolate in the house.

Content Development

That's actually the title of the class I took today.  It was very interesting.  Pictures tomorrow, hopefully.

And the Olympics, they suck up my time.  Yes, I know I don't have to watch all of it.  And I don't, really.  Just as much as I can.  But I'm starting to suffer from "burning the candle at both ends" syndrome.

But ah, my friends, and oh, my foes, it gives a lovely light!

Tend Your Garden

So I've been working on an art project.  I've spent a lot of time thinking about it, and bursts of time working on it, and a big stretch of time the last couple of days to actually finish.  Due date is next Monday, but I'm taking a class that day (another personal push!) so I had to have it done by tomorrow to take it to someone else who can deliver it for me.

This is Rooted.  I'm pretty happy with it, although I wish I'd polished the text I wrote more, but I just kept re-writing and re-writing and finally had to just do it.

Sheba insisted on being in the picture.

Inside is a book I altered, and all the paper that you see is the extra pages from the book.  The flowers are two pages glued together and painted with artist's acrylics.  The text around the edge is "The garden of our life is rooted in our heart."

The stuff hanging down from the lid is "roots", or string, if you want to be exact.  It actually does look quite root-like when you first open the box.  And I textured the "paint" with gel medium, so it's not just flat brown, but more dirt-like.

"Where does activism come from? Local people see a local problem."

"The common people see a common problem.  It is not ROOTED in pity."

"Pity has no roots, no staying power.  Faith. Compassion. Love.  These have roots."

"We must be ROOTED in the faith that there is a difference to be made and one person can begin it."

"Compassion has both sympathy and change. Compassion does not stop at feeling, but moves to action."

"Whether the ROOTS of activism begin in religion or morals or stubborness, self-interest is not enough."

"There must be faith and compassion for deep ROOTS to grow.  Then, the endeavor can grow and flourish and change the world."

The final "page" is actually a shallow niche cut into a bunch of pages glued together, so it's very 3-D.

I'm really happy with the way the flowers and the box itself came out, and I ended up liking my painted pages way more than I thought I would.  The quotes are on vellum, and I'm reasonably happy with those, they fit with the theme and flow pretty well.  My text is kind of hokey, and I'm not thrilled with the pen I used (paint pens), but it was the only thing I had that would write on the painted pages.  I took the whole thing to a rubber stamping workshop and got my friends to critique it last night.  They all thought it was really beautiful, and gave me some good suggestions.  All the people in the book arts group are "real" artists, though (at least in my head) so I am somewhat nervous.  But I also think I haven't embarrassed myself.

The auction isn't until March 13th, so we'll have to wait to see what happens.  I'm debating about bidding on my own piece so I can take it home - don't know if that's "done".  Or what I would do with it afterwards.  But I've accomplished what I set out to, so I'm feeling pretty satisfied with that.

A Post That Is NOT About Snow (even though it snowed again)

The book/lunchbox project is coming along.  Having to wait for the paint to dry does slow things down.  I  put in quite a bit of work today, and I think I'm close to finishing.

The box itself is on the far left, with cut out paper flowers on top - they still need to be painted.  The book is pretty much done - I used my own writing and words, in addition to printed quotes.  I'm not completely happy with my writing, but unless I repaint the whole thing, it is done.  I was thinking about adding flowers and buttons and do-dads to the pages of the book, but I think I like it better simple.

So I painted the medium size flowers and the leaves tonight, and tomorrow will paint the rest of the flowers.  While they dry, I can attach the painted ones.  And add the final touches.  Feet?  Or no feet?  Still debating.  Also debating "antiqueing" the lower half of the box.  It's covered with torn book pages but they're awfully pristine.  A little toning down might be in order.

And the words I used around the edge of the lid didn't go as far as I thought they would.  So, more words?  Repeat the same phrase?

More pictures tomorrow.