I Like Stories

I like stories. Other people’s stories. I even like to watch other people’s home movies! LOL

I don’t know why. But it intrigues me. I guess it’s voyeuristic in a way. To peek into someone else’s life.

I wonder, does this say more about me than the story to which I am listening?

Am I seeking something, filling a void? Do I like to live vicariously through other people’s lives?

Or is it a way to validate my own life. Sort of a comparison exercise?

As a kid my mother and I would go for drives in the evening and make up stories about the people we saw in the windows of the houses we passed.

I think that’s where it started.

Or maybe it started with the stories my parents told us about their childhoods.

What is it that drives us to chronicle, to record and categorize our experiences?

Carla Sonheim’s ‘Summer Art Camp’ Classes

Week two...Silly Faces.

This is WAY too much fun for one person to have! LOL

Everyday Objects

The SLOWEST toaster on the planet! You can put in the bread, go take a shower, dry your hair, put on makeup, get dressed and by the time you get back into the kitchen, it STILL hasn't popped! LOL

I Don’t Fit

“Doesn’t fit our needs at this time….”

The ubiquitous rejection phrase.

Once again, I don’t fit. (Can you say: square peg in a round hole?)

My fiber faces were rejected, again :( (This time from Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine.)

I could get a complex!  (LOL)

The Sketchbook Challenge—Everyday Objects

I can’t seem to make up my mind what to sketch!

Do you ever have times like that? When you can’t make a decision even on the most insignificant level?

Something as silly and inconsequential as what to sketch for ‘everyday objects’!? (keyword here is EVERYDAY!)

I look around me and there are tons of things, but none of them seem to pique my interest.

So until I deem something worthy of immortalizing (LOL) I just sketched what was in front of me on my desk.

I know, dull, dull, dull.

But as the younger set is fond of saying,

“whatever…..”

Puppy

As much as we have a penchant for naming inanimate objects in our family (such as Wilson, our bountiful lime tree) the boys never had names for their stuffed ‘friends’.

There was a wolf puppet they called ‘Wolfie’, a hedgehog that was just ‘Hedgehog’, and a small stuffed Dalmatian Son1 simply called ‘Puppy’.

All at the ready to listen to a trouble or to keep a secret.

At nighttime, after putting Son1 to bed, we would hear him talking over his day with all his friends.

‘Puppy’ was his favorite.

To this day ‘Puppy’ is special.

(A girlfriend once tried to get him to give it to her but, no dice.)

Puppy is still with us, a little worse for wear, not quite as white as he once was. He sits patiently with a handful of other friends, always at the ready to empathize with a problem or hear a confidence.

Carla Sonheim’s ‘Summer Art Camp’ Classes

Imaginary Creatures Summer Camp.

One liner warm ups.

Coupons

I’m not much of a coupon clipper.

I don’t comb the Sunday papers looking to save 25¢ on a can of beans or end up paying 12¢ for two carts of groceries because I had a coupon for every item.

But when it comes to craft coupons I’m a hoarder!

The problem is I already have enough supplies in my studio to start my own store!

It just KILLS me to see these coupons go to waste!

I get them in the mail, I get them online, and since I have several emails, I get more than one!

They are for 50% off! 
Not just a piddling 20% or even 40%.

50%!

And if you use a competitor’s coupon they tack on an extra 10%! 

60% off!

But I don’t NEED anything!

I’ve been tempted to stand out front of the store and give them away.

But that would require a trench coat and a fedora and it’s too darn hot for that!

Pssst! Hey lady, need a 50% off coupon? 

I HAVE A BLEED!

Son1 was a sensitive child.

He was very careful and deliberate, not a risk taker.

(It might possibly have been a result of something I did to him in his earlier days, but that’s another post!)

Anyway……

The result of his prudence was that he didn’t get hurt very often (thank goodness!)

But when he did, the sight of his own blood drove him into hysterics!

The most microscopic drop of blood and he came screaming into the house crying “IT’S A BLEED!”

And it didn’t matter HOW much blood there was, the resulting panic was the same, whether for a scratch or a gory wound!

To this day husband and I still say “It’s a bleed!” when we cut ourselves.

After all, family traditions are important!

Patience

I’m impatient. 

I think that everything I do should come out a masterpiece the first time. 

I am totally disappointed when it doesn’t.

Is this the dirty little secret that ‘professional’ artists don’t tell us? They don’t get it right the first (or second, or third….) time either?

Maybe we should shout it from the rooftops. 

Maybe then I wouldn’t feel so inadequate. 

Maybe it would help our kids know that nobody gets it right the first time.

Edison failed miserably for most of his early life. 

He failed with the light bulb thousands of times before he got it right.

The difference is he kept going.

Most people don’t.

So here’s to perseverance (with a big dollop of humor.)

Heads down people and let’s keep going!