A Full Plate - A Busy Mind

A BUSY WEEK!
Life seems to have EXPLODED for me this week!  It happens every year and yet I'm somehow unprepared for the occasion.  After six, yes, SIX long months of dealing with cold, snow, and rain, finally the weather breaks and everyone comes out of their winter cocoon to celebrate the new season.

A NEW CREATIVE JOURNALING CLASS!
I have been trying for over a year to find a location to teach creative art journaling.  I have longed for, hoped for and worked towards this goal, and at long last it has come to fruition.  My first public creative journaling class begins on June 2nd.  I am so excited!  My classes will be held at Painesville Senior Center, and registration begins this week.  I am busy planning lessons, making fliers and gathering students.  Did I say "freaking out?"  Currently, that's under control for the moment, but why do we do that freaking out thing when what we've been longing for finally comes our way?

APPOINTMENTS AND IMPROMPTU VISITS
In the midst of all the wonderful art related activities, there were appointments and visiting.  I had an eye appointment, a meeting with the Senior Center Director, and impromptu visits (long overdue) from my awesome sister, my girlfriend who is here for a visit from PA, and my lovely niece who came as a "flower fairy" sharing plants with me for my flower garden.  She brought me purple/white irises, a hollyhock, (I'm REALLY excited about that!), and a mystery plant that gets "big, round, individual white (?) flowers.  She doesn't have a clue what they are.  I don't have a clue what they are.  For now, I've planted them in a large planter and will eagerly anticipate their blooming and identity.

The "Mystery Plant"

GARDENING

Finally, I have the first soil of the season under my fingernails!  My son and I got our vegetable seeds ordered this week and they're on the way.  My brother ordered a rear end (?) for his hobby car, and it came in a wonderful crate that will be perfect for a vegetable garden on my deck!  I've been imagining such a planter for the past month, so imagine my delight when it unexpectedly showed up when my brother and son, Mike, came by for tools to open it!

I'll be planting Roma tomatoes, Blue Lake green beans, and red bell peppers in this planter.  I'll be planting salad greens, cucumbers, and carrots in my small, partly shaded garden space behind the garage.  I did some research online (how much do we LOVE google?), and found out how to make a small compost bin.  I did that this afternoon and I can't wait to see how it turns out.  I've been saving my coffee grounds and egg shells all week in anticipation of this project.  It was very easy.  With my hubby's help, we drilled holes in a storage bin I had in the studio.  I put in a layers of shredded newspaper, some salad greens that were too wilted to eat, coffee grounds, egg shells, left over plant material and leaves from last years garden, and garden soil to the bin.  

THE WOMEN'S CENTER

Once again, I had the honor of conducting the creative workshop for the Women's Center year end celebration.  There was a great turn out this year - about 30 women who have successfully made it through another year of studies at Lakeland Community College.  Awards were handed out and there was food galore.  We had a wonderful time sharing with each other. These women truly inspire me in the courage they show to overcome their adversities, struggle through difficult times, and achieve the goals that they've set for themselves.  This year, they published a book of their personal essays.  I am so honored that they used the painting  that I created for the Women's Center as their cover.  Their graphic artist, Carol, did a fantastic job creating both front and back covers.  I can't wait to read this most cherished of my books.

ART SUPPLIES

I received my new Dick Blick order this week, and I've barely had time to open it and peak at all the yummy supplies inside.  I bought acrylic inks, black India ink, Prismacolor Art Stix (for a colored pencil workshop next Saturday with John Smolko), a quill pen and nibs, and my first moleskin journal.  I can't wait to get into the moleskin!  Just the size and landscape format scream "doodle" at me.  I can't wait to see how this changes my journaling technique.

THANK YOU!

I want to thank each and every one of you again, for all of your support and the comments that you leave on the blog.  I read each one of them and try my best to respond.  I haven't been so great at that lately, but I hope you can see why.  So here is a collective THANK YOU!, until I can respond to you individually.  I want to especially thank you for the well wishes on our 34th wedding anniversary.  Thanks for sharing our  special day!

I want to wish all of you mothers a "Happy Mother's Day", and to those who no longer have their mother to enjoy, I wish you only the best of memories as you reflect back on the time you shared.  I'll be enjoying the day with my sons and adopted daughter tomorrow, so I'll see you back here on Monday or Tuesday.  Meanwhile, "Celebrate, LOVE, and Create!", dear friends.