Minnesota Rediscovered

I've made it to Minnesota. My son and I drove from California, stopping along the way at Kingman, AZ; Tucumcari, NM; Kansas City, MO; and finally to Prior Lake, where my sister lives. It was a good time to become reacquainted with my adult son -- we had plenty of time to talk and laugh together along the way. Hugo (my dog) was a good traveler, and we had sparkling weather all the way, not a drop of rain or flake of snow. Much gratitude for that!

Hugo relaxing in his car seat

Arriving at this time of year, I'm reminded of how much I've missed winter while living in California for the past 40 years.  I love the bracing cold, the drifting snowflakes, all of it -- okay, not the ice on the driveways or anywhere else.  At my age, ice is dangerous.

So far the weather has been mild, in the 20s or 30s, but we're headed for a cold snap for the next week.  We'll see how Hugo and I like that -- so far he seems pretty happy with going out and running around in the snow.  I've discovered that if he goes out without a sweater, his time outside is fairly self-limiting -- he runs around for a while, then makes a dash for the door.

The view from a window

I'm buying a house!  I looked at so many online before I left California, and my sister and brother-in-law had gone and looked at several, pronouncing one "perfect."  So the day after we got here, we looked at it, made an offer the next day, and in a few weeks -- I sincerely hope -- it will be mine!  It's a townhouse, only a short drive from my sister's house.  Cross your fingers that all goes well!

It's hard to uproot yourself at any point, but in the years of seniority it feels particularly difficult.  Getting here was a monumental task, but that part of it is over, and I'm looking forward to each moment of the future.

Me, feeling hopeful in Minnesota

It's Magic

Magical things can happen if you go beyond the standard "rules" when you take a picture.  This is a shot of a fuchsia plant that I captured by moving the camera while taking the picture.  Fun!

Magic

It's Magic!

Submitted to the Weekly Challenge, "Magic" at The Daily Post.

The Misery of Shedding Stuff

At the beginning of this year, I signed up for an online course called "A Year to Clear What Is Holding You Back."  The idea is to unclutter your life by following the instructions that are sent to you every day.

As with most things I start, I was gung-ho at the beginning, and I did a bunch of clearing out.  But eventually it fell by the wayside, and I lost the energy for doing that hard work.

Now I need to take it up again!  Planning a cross-country move, I need to get my stuff in order and get ready to go.  I want to travel as light as possible, so I need to deal with as much of my stuff as I can.

I have a large cabinet crammed with art supplies.  Do you have a fetish for art supplies?  I surely do, and it's hard to give them up.  What am I taking and what will go into the garage sale?

Just some of the art supplies

My watercolor teacher says you should never throw away anything you've painted, not even your "dogs" -- there might be a day when you can go back and do something with them.  So I have a very large stack of artwork.  Can I bear to toss any of it, even if it's not very good?

Books!  As a former English professor, I have books galore, despite the fact that I have been ruthlessly shedding them over the past few years; I have to keep them  just because I might need them at some point.  Some I haven't read, some I might like to read again, and some have such great sentimental value that I could never get rid of them.  How are you with books?  How do you get yourself to part with them?  When I retired, I did a pretty good job of shedding my academic books, but I still have a few, and those are the ones that are hard to part with.  My books are in the two left bookcases, and I have another bookcase in the bedroom and cookbooks in the kitchen. My goal is to get down to two boxes of books.  Okay, maybe three.  Can I do it?

Just a few of my many books

And art work -  all over the house.  My own photographs, other paintings or photos I love -- do I take them all?  How do I pack them?  I want to put as much as I can into the car to go with me, but I'll soon run out of room there.  And how to pack?  I have one very large photograph, framed with glass, that I don't think will fit in the car, and I would be heartbroken if it's damaged.  And I have a very large unframed canvas painted by my mother -- should I try to move it as is, or should I take it off the stretcher bars, roll it up, and reassemble it when I get to where I'm going?

Just one little corner full of artwork

I'm open to taking any advice you might have about moving cross-country and how you dealt with it!  Right now it's pretty chaotic, but I still have almost a month to go, and I intend to make progress every day!

One corner of chaos

Do you love George Carlin?  I do.  Here he is, talking about "stuff."

Until next time --

Reinvented Yet Again --

Almost four years ago, I wondered if anyone was still out there reading my blog, because I hadn't written in so long.  I was heading off to write a different blog on a passion of mine, genealogy (Living in the Past).  But here I am, back again, wondering if anyone else is discovering a new self even later in life than before.

I started this blog close to six years ago, in 2011.  At that point, I was a budding photographer and occasional watercolor painter, an English professor in her early 60's trying to reinvent herself before retiring.  Here I am now in my mid-60's, retired, heading toward reinvention once again.

Life takes many twists and turns and I find myself bidding farewell to California, my home of 40 years, and returning to Minnesota, where I was not born but raised.  I'll be leaving sunny California before Christmas and heading back to the world of ice and snow (at least for the next few months).  My sister and her husband are there, my dear niece and nephew, grand-nephew (my sister's adorable grandson), my best friend from college years, and I'm looking forward to making new friends and rediscovering a place that has always been special to me.

What's most exciting but also a little terrifying to me is that I haven't lived alone since 1975 -- quite a while ago, right? -- but I'm planning to buy a little home for just me and my beloved dog, Hugo.

 This is Hugo.  The best dog ever.

Hugo, the sweet Maltese-mix I rescued three years ago, and I will be piling in my car with everything we can cram into it and taking off in mid-December, just about the time that snow will be falling in the Sierra, the Rockies, and the Great Plains.  If we have a clear window, we'll make a mad dash over the direct route (San Francisco to Minneapolis, through Nevada, Colorado, etc.).  But if the weather gods don't cooperate, we'll take a more leisurely southern route, through Arizona and New Mexico, turning left at Oklahoma and heading north.  No rush -- whichever has the least probability of our winding up stranded in a snowbank somewhere.

I'll stay with my sister until I can find a townhouse to buy, maybe in the winter, maybe in the spring.  But I'm excited to share my process as I think through the things that I want, in my house, in my life . . . 

So here I am -- this is me, now.  I feel hopeful and worried, excited and scared, all those things and more.  My mother was known for saying, "Look on the bright side," and I will.  There's plenty of bright side ahead.

Let me know if you're still here, okay?  I'm looking forward to making new friends in the blogosphere, but also to reconnecting with friends of old.

Dear Friends . . .

. . . if any one of you is still out there!

As you can see, I've been on hiatus for quite a while, for reasons I won't bore you with.  The thing is, my heart is actually in a different place right at the moment -- since last summer, I have been immersed in the genealogy of my ancestors, a project I've found both exciting and absorbing.  I decided that at this point what I would like to do best is start a family genealogy blog; it feels important to me (at my age :) to get the information down somewhere for my relatives to see.  I had thought of making a book for everyone, and maybe some day I will do that, but for right now I want to do posts that someday will be gathered up, I hope.

So . . . since I can't maintain two blogs, this one will remain on hiatus until further notice.  Rest assured that if/when I open again, there will be balloons and fireworks and a huge giveaway and and and . . . 

If you're interested in anyone's family history outside your own (and why would you be?) you can pop in at Living in the Past: The Ortman-Berneburg Blog, where I'll also be talking about the trials and tribulations of getting mired in the sands of time -- it's rewarding, of course, but also extremely frustrating.

If you stop by, let me know what you think!  Thanks for all the beautiful communication that went back and forth on this blog -- 

Queen for a Day

Last Friday I had an experience that will be with me until the day I die:  I attended a retirement party given in my honor at my university.  It was an incredible extravaganza (I have some very creative colleagues) that included not only speeches but songs with rewritten lyrics, a video of people talking about me, and . . . 

 The front of the crown

A crown!!! This amazing piece of art was made by my dear colleague Margaret, an artist as well as a university employee.  Margaret poured all her talent into crafting this beautiful memento.  I wore it for a minute, but didn't want it to fall off and break, so it sat on the pillow she also made.

It includes many things that are so meaningful to me -- the snakes represent my long interest in the Medusa; there's a griffon and a dragon, representing my overall interest in mythology, words related to my teaching and books, books, books all over it.
    

 The interior of the crown

 It was such a wonderful event -- I felt that I could hardly deserve all of the attention and affection.  Happily, my son and daughter were there, as well as my husband -- I wasn't sure my son would make it, but I browbeat him until he came.  His comment:  "I didn't know it was going to be this big of a deal!"

 The side of the crown

 

It was a big deal, seriously.  I was sure I would cry, but in fact I laughed all the way through it, it was so delightful.  The only time I choked up was when I had to give thanks for everything they'd done.

  Me, looking silly/happy in my crown

 

Here's a fuzzy cell phone pic of me wearing the crown.  It was a very, very happy day of my life. 

Yikes! It's been too long --

I've been away far too long!  Ana Eugenio was kind enough to post a comment wondering if everything was fine with me.  It is!  Here's what I've been up to:

1.  I was sad for a while after my sister left -- it's so hard to say goodbye.  We live so far apart and get together so seldom, and the wonderful time we have together is always tinged by the knowing that it has to end.

2.  I've started on South Beach diet and have been enjoying myself so far.  No problems, and the scale is starting to go down.

3.  Still dealing with the aftermath of Open Studios, though my house is looking more normal than it did.  I have to take all the (many) pictures I didn't sell to the storage space, and that necessitates rearranging everything, but a friend and I are going to get that done on Thursday (I hope).

4.  Been working on my collage class, not sure I'm happy with anything yet.  I did a nice picture in watercolor class, though (!) and I'll post it soon.

 A collage -- does it make any sense to anyone?

5.  I got the results of my DNA analysis from Ancestry.com today -- more about that in another post!  It's soooo interesting.  And a gigantic sinkhole of time, as I'm sure some of you know --

6.  On Wednesday I have an appointment with someone from the Small Business center to talk about my small business!  I'm hoping to get some advice and guidance.

7.  It was 92 degrees today!  It's November!  And supposed to be in the 50's by Thursday -- I'm just confused . . .

8.  To my American friends -- tomorrow is the big day.  You're probably already planning to, but please:  vote, vote, vote!!  It doesn't matter whom you're voting for -- but the process is so important for us to participate in as citizens.* 

So that's a little bit of what I've been up to.  I'll write more details tomorrow, and visit to catch up!  Hope your week has started well.  




*and good luck, BHO -- :)    

Hey everyone --

I've had a great week with my sister.  The first time she came here, a couple of years ago, we did "big" things -- whale watching, Big Sur, the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.  But this time, we kind of hung out and did things close to home.  Of course, Saturday and Sunday were given over to Open Studios, but Sunday night we had friends and family over for a steak barbeque and that was a lot of fun.  

Sea lions at the wharf

We went to my watercolor class on Thursday, and yesterday we went to A Work of Heart to do a class called "Juicy Collage."  We all (including daughter) came out with collages we were happy with -- pics tomorrow, I hope.  It was big fun.  

 

Pelican outside Stagnaro's

Today we went down to the wharf, bought the requisite t-shirts, had lunch at Stagnaro Bros.  on the wharf, and stopped by Marini's, where they have every candy you've ever dreamed of, including chocolate covered bacon.

Then we took a drive down West Cliff, stopping to watch the surfers at Steamer Lane.  It was a nice relaxed day to end our time together. 

Steamer Lane surfer

We had a pizza dinner and then played cards, just us girls (my Loved One was playing in his darts league).  

We had a good time together.  I'm sad she's leaving tomorrow and even sadder that we live so far apart (me:  California; she:  Minnesota).  But at least we got to spend this week together.  There's something about people who have known you your whole life -- you never feel quite as comfortable with anyone else . . . 

A brief hiatus

Hi everyone -- I'm probably not going to be able to post again until the middle of next week.  My sis is here, Open Studios starts Saturday, so I have a full schedule for the next few days.  Hope you all are having a great time, and don't forget me!  :)  I'll see you soon. 

Oh boo hoo - and other things.

My sister arrives tomorrow and I have so much to do and I hardly slept a wink last night.  Woke up about 2:30 and that was pretty much it for the night.  Must get myself going so everything is nice for her arrival!

Here's Buttercup, minding the Open Studios greeting table.  She's sitting on the bookmarks to make sure they all lie flat :)

 
Isn't she big now?  But she still looks sweet.  On the first day of Open Studios, we kept her in the bedroom with my Loved One, watching a football game.  But the second day, I allowed her to wander around and join in the fun -- and she was a big hit.  She is so darned sociable -- she'll go right over to greet people coming in, allow herself to be scratched, and so on.  And she only bit one person :p   That person started to scratch Buttercup's tummy and you know how cats are when you do that -- they can get kind of aggressive and scratch you with their hind feet and bite you.  It was just a little bite, and it was all in fun (I hope the lady thought so!).  In my experience, cats aren't that fond of strangers -- our other cat heads for the hills and hides whenever someone comes into the house.  But Miss B is as friendly as she can be.

     A planter in my garden with mission bells -- 

I have to wrap it up and get busy, but I did spend a nice time with a friend this morning, catching up -- she is an artist who does wonderful things with journals, makes purses, and so on -- you might visit her at Redwood Mountain Musings to see what she's up to.  And check out her Etsy store -- she has nice digital downloads but really, look at the purses.  They're gorgeous.  Great to see you, Chris!

A great Tuesday to you all -- 

Raindrops and 5 Fact Friday

It's been sprinkling here, so I went out in the garden to take a couple of pictures.  It's also 5 Fact Friday, and that's fun, so . . . 

1.  My favorite movie is Cinema Paradiso.  No matter how many times I watch it, I always wind up in a puddle of tears.  There's something that really speaks to me about the man's life, and then it's so sad at the end when the . . . well, maybe I shouldn't post a spoiler.  If you've seen it, you know what comes at the end.

 

Linkup to 5 Facts Friday and Mandarin Orange Monday

2.   I love roses.  This is my little teeny tiny Tequila Sunrise rose -- it's about two years old and it's finally a little more than a foot tall.  It has two beautiful blooms.  I also have Hot Cocoa, Westerland, Blaze of Glory, and Joseph's Coat.  I have to give credit to the woman who tends my garden -- thanks, Jana.

3.   I love Shakespeare, ever since I was about 13.  I like so many of the plays -- but my favorites are the plays in the Henriad -- Richard II, Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, and Henry V.   What I like even better, though, is to teach Shakespeare to students who think they won't like it.  They most usually do.

  Here's the other bloom on the Tequila Sunrise.

4.   When we were little, my German grandma would make us spaghetti noodles sauteed with butter, sugar and cinnamon.  I've never know anybody else who's eaten this.  Anyone ever had it?

5.  The first dog I ever had was a Shetland Sheepdog named Bonnie Lassie.  She was a wonderful dog.  She was easily trained and very well behaved.  When my parents had parties, my brother would dress her up in pajamas (with her tail coming out the fly) and send her down to the living room.

 A single Westerland rose --

So those are my five facts for today -- what are your five facts?  :)

A Rare Occurrence --

We had thunder today!  If you've never lived in California, you don't know how rare that is -- once, maybe twice a year, here on the coast.  We had a sudden downpour and one beautiful clap of thunder, right overhead it seemed.

We always laugh when watching programs or movies that take place in San Francisco and they show thunder and lightening -- it's such a very rare occurrence, and we never have the kinds of storms you all have in the Midwest.

I finished another collage yesterday.  It was supposed to use the golden section/mean/ratio, whatever you want to call it.  Here it is:

There are some things I kind of don't get about this -- our teacher gave us some examples, and it's kind of hard sometimes to see how the composition follows the ratio.  But I dove in anyway.

Here are the components I used.  While I was searching around the web, I found the picture on the top left of the golden ratio, and it sure looked like an elephant's trunk to me.  So I gathered up a bunch of stuff and got to work.  Here's the end result, one I'm pretty happy with -- 

Linkup with AlphabeThursday

The text spiraling around the frame is from a description of elephants' behavior.  What do you think?  I like it.

So my next challenge is to replicate it in real life -- I love doing digital collages, but I'd also like to see them off the computer and be able to touch them.  So I went and got some silk fabric today that I'm going to try to print an image on, and see how that comes out.  Any ideas for me on how I might do this?

Hope you're having a great "hump day" -- 

Okay, I'm back --

As you can imagine, the last couple of weeks have been very hectic!  Now I have a breather until the 20th, when I do Open Studios again.

The people who came were lovely -- all very nice and interested in art.  I talked about my work for hours and hours, which is a very nice thing, I can tell you.  I sold some pieces, which is great, but they told us that the money isn't really an important thing -- it's nice, but there are other benefits, such as making contacts with people who can help you get to the next step.

So today was pretty much a day of rest, though I had to get going on the work for my new collage class.  I'm in the second quarter, so we're supposed to choose a theme; mine is "illuminated manuscripts."  The teacher told me to do three quick collages as a warm-up, and I decided to do them digitally.

This is the first one I did -- my idea is to combine my photography (the dahlia in the center) with other elements.  I want to include text and border elements that will give a nod to the decorations of illuminated manuscripts.  Other than that, I'm wingin' it.

 
This is the second one I did -- it combines a picture I took of cows, text, barbed wire looking like grasses, I think, a border of names of cattle breeds, a sunflower and cowbirds in the corners.  I'm happy with this one.

The third one is full of flowers -- for some odd reason, the very favorite post of all time on this blog is about Flora, the Goddess of Flowers.  Every week, people search for that term and wind up at my blog.  So here's my thanks to all those folks who have stopped by:

I'm not sure that this one has a real focal point, but I'm pretty happy with the energy in it.

Here's my question -- I did these digitally, which is great as far as it goes, but I'd like to do them non-digitally.  The thing is, what's cool about making it in Photoshop and you can vary the opacity and use the various blend modes.  How would I do that with paper?  I guess I could try using transparencies, and tissue paper and so on, but I'd have to do a lot of experimenting.

Anybody have ideas for me?  Who's done collage?  

Day One -- Over!

Well, it was a pretty good day, Open-Studios-wise.  I had about 50 lovely people come through the exhibit, I got to have very nice conversations about my work (with folks who were very complimentary), and I sold a few things besides.  What could be bad?

I had the intention of taking pictures of all the activity but somehow forgot about that today -- I'll try to get a picture of the admiring crowds tomorrow :)

Here's what the dining room looked like this morning:

Pictures on all the walls, of course - and here is the decoration I made -- a pink pumpkin (!) with Peeps -- 

So now I can relax and enjoy tomorrow.  It's actually kind of quiet most of the time, and then people show up.  My favorites:  the six ladies who showed up together and exclaimed over my new floor as soon as they were in the door!  They liked the pictures, too.

Hope everyone's doing well -- 

T minus 24 to Open Studios!

I'm about as frazzled as a human being can be, what with Open Studios starting tomorrow.  I have soooo much yet to do, but it will all get done.  I'm hoping that tomorrow all I have to do is take a shower and do my nails, but we'll see about that.

I finished my demo board last night -- we're supposed to show how we produce our art somehow, but when you do photography on a computer, let's just say . . . it's not too enthralling.  So I made a board with screen captures and photos:

 Not a great pic, but you get the idea.  Also my front entryway is almost ready, with a new outdoor rug that was just delivered from Amazon:

Pay no attention to the Amazon box in the corner.  It won't be there.

So now all I have to do is make signs, buy crepe paper, go back to the storage place and get the A-frame stands I have there, get change from the bank, hit Trader Joe's to get some snacks . . . and then maybe I'm done for today.

More pictures tomorrow!  Sorry I haven't been posting!  It's been a little crazy around here!

Big Day for Open Studios

Today was the reception for artists in Open Studios, at the Art League gallery.  I learned a couple of things:

1)  Next year, I want to volunteer more, so when I go I know more people.  It's kind of no fun to be there alone.

See all the people?  I didn't know any of them.

2)  Next year, I will submit a larger piece.  Here's what mine looks like:

 The red arrow indicates the sad little piece I submitted.

3)  Next time, I will not leave the house, ever, without a stack of postcards (that have my dates, address, etc.).  I looked and looked  and couldn't see my cards on any of the three big racks they had for artists to put their cards on -- either all of mine have been picked up (unlikely) or somehow my cards didn't make the transition from inside the building to the display tables outside (in which case I'm bummed).  I meant to go over there yesterday to see if restocking was in order but never made it.  Next time, I'll know.

It was a nice event, nevertheless.  The artworks are fabulous -- mine looked pretty puny in comparison.  I was really struck by a gorgeous photograph of a cobblestone street -- it kind of took my breath away.  (It's the first one on this page of his website.) When I got close enough to read the tag, it was Tom Jacobs' picture -- my photography teacher.  Of course.

They had tents with food and drink outside and a marimba band, which was nice.  Lots of people!

 

On the home front, my friend Jana and I got most of the canvases hung yesterday -- and they look much better in my "studio"! The preview show is kind of overwhelming.

 

Hope you have a great week!

Hooray!

I'm delighted to report that Viv in the UK has signed up as my 100th follower!  

~~Thanks, Viv!~~ 

Stop by her blog, Desktop Dreams, to say hello!

Five Fact Friday

Five Fact Friday comes around again -- I love to play.

1.  It is a fact that I have 99 followers.  99, people!  Won't someone step up and make it 100?

2.  I once was a vocalist in a supper club show, when I was young (and slim); I've always appreciated great vocalists.  I came across this video of Luther VanDross singing at the NAACP Image Awards some years back, and it is stunning.

3.  I love macro photography, but I'm not very good at it (yet).  One problem:  my hands shake a bit, and I'm not one to have my tripod at hand in those situations.  Bugs or butterflies confound me. You have to have a lot of light.  But sometimes I get something that's okay.  These are quite small berries on a tree:

4.  I wish my name were Melisande or Maeve or Melanie -- anything but Elise.

5.  Our daughter wants a gecko.  Actually, she wants anything, a mouse, a lizard, a frog, something.  We keep reminding her that we have cats, one of whom is a mighty hunter (Buttercup) who would not rest until the mouse/lizard/frog/gecko was hers, for lunch.  Here's a gecko who posed for a picture at a Canon macro workshop I went to once:

Cute, right?  The only lens I will ever in my life want any more (seriously, Ed), is the Canon 180mm macro I used to take this picture.

Happy Friday!  Hope you have a great weekend planned.  Me, I'm putting books back on shelves.

Look what I made today!

Today was an absolute artsy day for me.  In the morning I went to my watercolor class, abandoned the paintings I had been working on and started working out of the "realistic abstracts" book.  My work wasn't great, but it was a) transparent and layered, instead of being worked over until it looks horrible, and b) not detailed, which is a big thing to me.  I have a long way to go to be able to paint in that way, but I'll plug away at it.

Then, I left class early to go to my favorite place to play in San Jose, A Work of Heart.  I've done a lot of workshops there, but this one was a lot of fun.  It's a "mixed media shadowbox," or "Spooky Shadowbox," as I would like to call it.  Here it is:

 

 Linkup to AlphabeThursday

It's a small canvas turned backwards and painted black.  Then we made a boatload of polymer clay tiles, which we stamped and embossed and baked and painted black and then highlighted with white and silver.  We also did two kinds of image transfer, on the right, and in the middle something really cool -- you paint the area with elmer's-type glue, and then when it has a skin on it, you put white paint over it and it all cracks to a nice effect.  Finally, I chose a "scaredy cat," a little metal thing, and glued it into the shadowbox area so it protrudes from the hole.  I think it came out great!  We stamped cobwebs on the edges, too.  A very fun project.

My sister's coming to visit in October, and I've arranged for her, me and my daughter to all go down for a "Juicy Collage" workshop.  I'm hoping she'll like it, but shhhh . . . don't tell her.  (I don't think she reads my blog.)

Have a great day tomorrow!  It's Friday! 

 

Getting back to normal --

Today was a day of peace and quiet for me -- home all alone, no banging, no sawing -- just enjoying the stillness.  One more picture of my floor and I'll stop, I promise.  This is in the daylight, and I tried to get the color right -- 

It really has a lot of redness to it, which I love.  I just can't get over how beautiful it is, and I'm so happy that it's done!

So now that you're totally sick of my floor, let's move on to something else.  For Open Studios, if we can, we are to demonstrate our work.  I thought about making a video of screen shots and a voiceover and showing it on the tv, but the screen capture program I got is not all that easy to figure out, so I decided to abandon that as a means of reducing my overall stress.  Now I'm doing something like a science fair display -- I'm putting together three pieces of mat board and telling the story through prints made of screen captures and captions to explain what's going on in each part of it.

The mat board is a lovely shade of dusky purple, but you can't see that.

I am hoping to get around very soon to see all of you -- I've been remiss in that this week.  Oh and Buttercup initiated the new rugs today -- she had a visit to the vet for her annual vaccinations, deworming stuff, her anti-flea pill, and got her nails clipped, so of course she came home and up-chucked on both new rugs.   I guess it had to happen at some point.

Hoping your week is going great!