Thoughtful... On This First Day of the New Year

The first day of a new year I find I like to be alone and quietly working things out...in today's case I showered, knit, watched movies , made vegetable soup, some cabbage and beans, walked my dog and made it to a meeting I need to attend more frequently than I have been, note to self. My husband slept the day away and my granddaughter was away for the weekend. What was really happening, while doing all of those quiet things, was thinking...I thought about things I am concerned about, all that is on my many plates, and thinking about the awarenesses that have come up this week and have been journaling and praying. I have realized many things are just not working for me any more...maybe they really never did. So I look at today as how I feel each morning, it's all new, wide open to possibilities, full of potential. Of course by noon on a daily basis...I am ready to hit the skids...but we will see. Came across a program on PBS called Unstuck and after watching I was able to get a hold of the book by the same title. Half read but the kind of book one would want to work through. Lot's of good information, healthy, helpful and encouraging for some one with a well, let's see, like me who seems to be under a big black cloud most of the time...Funny thing is, I really love stormy skies, the bigger and blacker the clouds the better.
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I have cleaned and organized my studio so it is more workable. I hope to get a warp on the floor loom and also get back to teaching myself on my tapestry loom. I am no longer in this room, but love this photo of Milo and I weaving. I miss weaving and Milo...it has been a difficult year...I need to return to the things that gave me solace. More painting and drawing on a regular basis...get the ideas out of my head and onto the paper.

I am almost finished with my Aran sweater, doing the final decreases of the last sleeve! No more pictures until it is off the needles and finished. The plan is to empty the bags with half finished projects and to get serious about some other things. Things came and went this past year, and I was not ready for a variety of reasons...but maybe this year.

I will end with these few lines from one of my favorite poets...I seem to fall upon it a lot lately. So maybe I need to answer the question that the poet poses to us...the question to be asked on this first day of the new year is...

...how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your wild and precious life?

from The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

Stormy Saturday

Here is my painting in progress, very preliminary. More a study to learn more about painting leaves. For me though, the fact I began is big...It has been a difficult year or so for many reasons and my creative well has been so dry for so long and yet the urge to paint is sometimes all I can think about...


Today I went to my spinning guild meeting which is held most of the year at Slater Mill. Slater is a historic spinning and weaving mill where the birth of industrialization began, so it is pretty cool that we meet here. There are also knitting, weaving, quilting and basket making guilds now meeting here on a regular basis as well as a variety of classes making it a valuable fiber arts center. Todays meeting was focusing on plying techniques and needle felting, with these being demonstrated by members. We was given a felting needle and some dyed fiber to make a pumpkin. There is a good tutorial on You Tube. There was also a demonstration on making center pull balls of yarn and this is show it being done using a nostepine. That's Cindy demoing...Judy was beside her. I took their pictures but I didn't bet permission to post them but I'll link their blogs.
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Then we have Stan with his needle felted cigar and in his lap he is working on an ash tray. Jen is hard at work on an angel.


And the result of my needle felting...still needs finishing but I need more light. As I was adding the wool I was thinking it is a watercolor pumpkin because the wool I was given is multicolor , so it was not just one shade of orange.



So for a very stormy Saturday it was a great day. Some research dealing with my painting, a trip to Utrecht's for a couple of tubes of needed paint and another sheet of 300 lb paper with a 40% coupon, and then to the guild meeting where it is always good to hang out with my creative, fun friends, some of whom I have known now a good many years. Yes, today was a filling of the well.

Have a good evening and thanks for reading. Peace.

Peaceful Friday

Our first cord of wood for the season was delivered this morning...so it is official. Winter is bearing down on us.



My friend, Cindy invited me to paint with her and two other friends of hers at the Roger Williams Park Botanical Garden. What a gem, and in my own back yard ... I never visited it before this. I was so overwhelmed with all of plants and in some cases very large plants. There were some tropical flowers, orchids, banana trees, carnivorous plants and a koi pond. It was a peaceful way to spend a Friday afternoon. I walked around and took a lot of pictures, then finally sat down to draw. It was hard to settle down. I haven't painted in a while. I started to but I still felt wound up. So I found something that interested me and a bench, poured some tea and began to just draw the plant in front of me and the tension and cares just poured out of me...time disappeared. Oh yes, this is why... So, not much accomplished but meeting some nice people, two simple line drawings and many pictures, delicate washes, all in my sketchbook...


just those simple things are enough to get me going again, to prime the pump... I let everything take priority, some things certainly were unavoidable but others could have been re-thought. So I came away with some further clarity on what is important to me. Oh, and I was given the date when we will meet again to do whatever we want, paint, draw, take photos...the point is they they invited me back. For that I am grateful, for I had been hoping for such a group.

Here we have the wood stove beauties. I have disturbed them by moving. The looks on there faces shows it too.



Thanks for reading...Peace