Weather watch

You can tell that my art fair season is starting up again because I've started becoming fixated on the weather reports. I start listening intently to the local weather and checking the national forecasts to see what might be coming. Is it going to warm up again before next weekend? What about rain? At this particular show we had snow one year, so what about snow? Wind is a huge problem. How does that look? I act as if by knowing everything I can about what might be coming, I can somehow change it. Hasn't worked yet!

Now to be honest I should be much more concerned about actually having jewelry to sell at the show than what the weather might be doing in 8 days. But if I didn't worry about it, how would I be able to keep my nickname of "doppler Bonnie"? That came from friends that I've kept updated on the weather at their shows when I'm at home.

Okay, it's total overkill but once you've lost your entire booth in a bad storm or driven into a tornado and totalled your van on the way home from a show (a story for another time), you get to be very weather aware. It was a very happy day when I discovered that you can get the local radar on your cell phone!

http://festival.bbartcenter.org/ Birmingham Fine Art Fair May 10 & 11

Paperwork, computers and Monday

I recently decided that Mondays would be "office" days. It's the day I spend at my desk, catching up on the piles and piles of papers that I generate daily, much off the computer. So I'm making phone calls, paying bills, writing notes, and making lists. Which generate more paper since I tend to print everything. Like I don't trust the computer.

Computers were supposed to save time. I don't know how they work in your life but in mine, they are a huge part of my day. My life sadly, revolves around my computer. Everything is on it, business and personal including a huge number of my friends. As close as an e-mail, day or night. I'll admit, I love that part...

Little did I know how much my life would change when Dick brought home the first computer. He was working as a CPA and through his office, he could buy the same computer for home that he used at work. It was the early 80's and this was the brand new Compact portable computer. The first portable computer (as I remember it). It was this huge beige suitcase like thing that weighed a ton but it had a handle on one end so it was portable. The screen was probably 6" and the display was amber.

Software wasn't available so Dick wrote programs in DBase for everything I needed. Accounting, word processing and I think my mailing list. And that noisy dot matrix printer. I sure don't miss that thing. They finally came out with a sound deadener you could put over it which meant you could actually hear the phone ring next to you while it was printing.

It's hard to believe that it's been well over 25 years since that first computer. So if I've had a computer for all those years and I haven't lost anything yet, why do I still feel the need to print off anything of importance? Maybe enough Mondays stuck in the office will cure me of that need!

work avoidance

I made a short list last night of things I absolutely needed to get done today. Instead, I've spent the last hour playing with the header up above. That's been much more fun. It needs work but I have no clue what I'm doing so it will stay for now. It's the new texture of my gold...

Working again

On Wednesday I said that the next day I was going to bury myself in the studio and make stuff! I didn't. I spent the entire day dealing with the NAIA and beating myself up for not making it to the studio.

I did make it to the studio today and spent the entire day there. Very satisfying but very tiring. I like the work I'm making. Boy, this is boring! I'll make a rule that I won't blog when I really have nothing to say.

So instead, I'll give you a picture of Tink in her tub, taken just a few minutes ago. I've never seen her lay like this before so I grabbed the camera which she did NOT appreciate. As you can tell by the warm look on her face. The camera caused the strange eyes...

What I do for a living...

When I started thinking about writing a blog, my plan was to write about how I make a living. The oddities and wonderfulness of doing art fairs for a living. I would add pictures and try to explain what it's like to be on the road, sleeping in strange hotels, setting up and tearing down your booth and constantly looking for a Starbucks. I think I got off on the wrong track. Or did I?

I've been talking about life issues. These are all things that mean something to me in the "off" season (which is any time I'm not currently on the road doing shows). But now the time is coming to start doing shows again. Panic is beginning to set in. I realized today that I have nothing to sell!!!

Life has been very busy. Very. But none of it has really involved making jewelry for retail art fairs. I've been filling wholesale orders and trying to get all my receipts into the computer so Dick can do my taxes (yes, an extension was filed on time). But the bulk of my time and mental space has been given to the NAIA http://www.naia-artists.org/ which I dearly love but it's eating me up. So starting tomorrow, I'm hitting the studio and going back to what I love doing. I'm going to MAKE STUFF!

Okay Pat, I can upload a picture. Not the one you asked for but it was available. Besides, it's the "stuff" I'm going to make tomorrow!

Friends

There are times you just appreciate your friends more than ever. This is one of those times. How do you get through life without your friends?

Update and more

Well, I got an immediate response from my local Red Cross about babysitting classes! Turns out they do occasionally offer the kind of class I want. The woman said to call her which I did and we had a great chat. She's sending me a book to read and she'll try to get a class going before Kathy's baby comes. Yeah Red Cross!

I've now done with my blog what I thought would never happen. I've let it go for days with nothing new. Part of the problem is that I have too many projects going on right now and none of them have my full attention. The other part of the problem is that spring has come to Michigan. Blessed sunshine after a long, gray winter with warm temps. Tough to stay inside!

So with that warm, sunny weather comes yard chores. Chores are not my favorite. I love to poke around in the garden and do what I want to do which isn't necessarily what really needs doing. I was talking to my Dad on the phone late this afternoon and heard a funny noise outside. The sound of Dick pruning a tree. Told Dad that I needed to get out there quickly. Those trees are like my babies! I picked each and every one out at the nursery and have watched them grow! No indiscriminate hacking allowed! Especially on my Weeping Japanese Crab although she really needed a major haircut.

Which brings up that Dick doesn't like doing chores with me. He would rather do them alone, but I would rather help. Turns out that we do really well at pruning trees together! My tree looks so much better and we actually got it done. As is normal, I left him to do all the cleanup of the branches we took out. Which may be why he'd rather work alone!