Birthday Bash

Braids of Time Necklace: $350

This weekend was my mother's 65th birthday and the whole family was in town to celebrate. My family and I were in charge of the ice cream for dessert.  You have to understand that ice cream is a serious business in out family.  Every year we hold a block/friends/family/school friends party in our backyard and serve make-your-own sundaes to over 100 people.  Now, there were only 14 people at my mother's, but the event was just as important because my parents have been known to drive three hours just to try out a new ice cream shop.  I really am not kidding here.  They read about the best-rated shops and every now and then take a weekend day to test them out.  Once we even went apple picking with them and the children at an orchard in the western part of MA just because it was near an ice cream shop they had read about.  In case you are curious, when we arrived at the store, they were out of almost every flavor because it was the end of the summer season.  That shop definitely did not make the top ten on our family list.  In addition, seeing as it was the end of summer, it was bee season and the place was over-run with hoards of bees attracted to the sugar of the ice cream melting in the trash cans, so all in all, the apple picking part was the best--except for the part when we thought we had walked through poison ivy.  


Do you see where I am going here?  We have these great plans and look to arrange a wonderful event and then things change somewhat slightly and we all have to balance ourselves to deal with it.  So, the first thing, was I woke up with a migraine and spent all day trying to hide it from my mother, refused to take my migraine medicine because that would make me want to nap, and subsequently felt overwhelmed by all the conversations going on around me, as my migraines tend to be sensitive to sound.  I faked Mom out until near the end of the day, but at least I tried. Next, we happen to live close to my parents--a mile or two away, so we thought, "Hey, why not ride our bikes to their house to greet the rest of the fam!"  (remember I have a migraine so the balancing thing was a little precarious!) Good idea in theory, but we still had to get the ice cream for dessert for the b-day BBQ, so an hour or so after I arrived, I rode home again to pick up the car, which is new, and which, by the way, does not fit three bikes in its trunk, so as you are all probably anticipating, we needed my brother to load the three extra bikes into his car at the end of the day and caravan home, because by that time our sugar low was setting in and no one was in the mood to bike home except for my husband, but he couldn't because by that time I really couldn't drive due to my head!  And all through this day, we are all running in and out of the house, doing one errand or another--speaking of which, my favorite ice cream shop gave me a bit of attitude when I picked up the three quarts and two pints of ice cream, one quart of hot fudge, and one pint each of marshmallow and blueberry topping, which was disappointing on an emotional level because I love this place, but maybe he was having a bad day.  Anyway ....


Despite all the chaos, our mother turned to us at the dinner table and said it was the best birthday because she had all her loved ones near her.  And I wanted to give her a toast but couldn't get everyone in the room at the same time, so just went ahead with it anyway over a bowl of wet, mushy, deliciously mixed up ice-cream sundae.  And all this just goes to show that trying and connecting and being with the people you love is way more important than being organized.


Oh, did I forget to mention that I worked the afternoon as the family bartender and managed to spill a container of simple sugar syrup all over the kitchen floor?

Fly, Dream 2 Coming Along

Fly, Dream 2: Still working on it, and am experimenting with line and texture

Does anyone else hate doing french knots? I mean, I love the way they look and the texture you can get by sewing them, but, man, does it take forever to fill up a space--which is exactly what I am trying to do here. I used to work with a embroidery stand, and I think it was easier that way, so I  might start using one again, because as of now using the embroidery hoops is just not working for me.  The other thing is I keep using thread that is too short, so I get into this rhythm and WHAM! it's time to add new thread because the needle keeps falling off the old thread as you are pulling the knot through.  I am done complaining, but realize that this entry is basically an observation that sometime the process is not as much fun as the outcome--which is okay--not everything is going to be fun, but french knots are always the stitch that remind me that sometimes we do work for the outcome and not just for the process.  A completely non-yoga-like point of view, but one that does crop up now and again.  So, for all you artists out there that are struggling with a design, using a technique you abhor, but need for its outcome, or are just plain bored with the piece you are working on, I give you kudos and applause, because the life of an artist doesn't often come with positive regular feedback and/or raises for doing a good job!