A milestone of sorts

tomorrow I will be 65.....65.. My God, I'm getting old.
That was the first thought that went through my head when my son, who can never remember if my birthday is on the 28th or the 29th and to his credit always calls on the 28th and again on the 29th when I tell him thanks for the wishes but he's a day early. So I am looking forward to his "best wishes" call again tomorrow.
There was a time when I didn't relish the thought of another birthday, even tried to ignore its approach on several occasions and now remember with a smile the year I went into a two week funk when I realized the year I thought I was turning 28 I was actually turning 29. But no more.
It take getting older, aging so to speak to realize age has benefits. Reduced airfares, senior priced meals, AARP, reduced movie tickets, etc. Besides, there is only one other alternative.
Age = Wisdom, maturity, growth of character as well as sense of self. All benefits I realized about 10 years ago. And I finally feel grown, even though I was still a daughter.
(My mother is still alive and doing quite well)
Another benefits of aging occured to me more recently and that is I can do what pleases me as long as I am not with malice of fore thought stepping on someone else's toes or dreams or feelings. And I no longer have to make excuses. I simply can say to myself I don;t want to. And to others, no.....or NO!!! With no guilt.
Because the women in my family live long lives as a rule I have always had role models to follow. Guides so to speak on the art of how to age well. From my Great-grandmother who lived until I was almost 14 and my Grandmother who died just 7 years ago and now my MOM, from them I learned that age does not give you the right to be mean, contrary or a royal pain in the behind of those younger than you, for example, your own children and grand-children. From them I learned that age doesn't give you the right to moan and groan and bore everyone around you, neither friends or family, with complaints of how bad you feel or with tales of what ails you.

So for this birthdday I am forgoing the cake. There are ballons in the garage I might blow up and pop and I just I might indulge in a dish of ice cream with a little strawberry topping, nuts and whip cream later in the day of my birth too as a way of saying Happy Birthday to myself.

What has been keeping me busy?
Knitting... Yes knitting. Knitting is a mindless hobby for me. Something I surely need to keep my fingers busy because I have become completely engrossed in the elections. Both local and national. Of course at this point, I possibly could give both Sen. McCain's and Obama's stump speeches by heart... well, maybe not... but I do know all the talking points at any rate.
Because of the historical nature of this year's presidential election, I knew until these contests were settles there was no sense in me trying to keep my mind on developing all the new ideas that have been running through my head since returning from Nancy Crow's place almost a month ago. So I have been parking all my thoughts in my sketch book and journal which I keep close at hand.
So with no quilts to report on or show off, I'll tell you as far as the knitting goes, I am almost finished with a kimono style sweater I am making for myself. Two weeks ago while browsing through Barnes and Nobles, I picked up this book "Knit Kimono" by Vicki Square and was struck by the simplicity of the designs in it. To date I have two sleeves, both the left and right fronts and the neckband completed. I started on the back, the largest piece, this evening and plan to have it done by the weekend.
Maybe I can have it all assembled in time to wear it or take it with me to finish up when I fly to Louisville next Monday morning to help jury Form Not Function, the art quilt exhibit that will be held at the Carnegie Center next January.
This will be a really fast trip. My flight if on time arrives in Louisville at 9:30 a.m which will get me to the Carnegie Center around 10:00 am.
It will be good to see my friends and fellow quilt artist, Kathleen Loomis, Marti Plager, Pat Darif, Valerie White and Joanne Weis. We should be done with our selections in time for me to have dinner with two other friends, "The Kathie(y)'s if they can meet me in downtown Louisville. Then sleep fast, take a taxi to see my Mom for a quick hug, on the way back to the airport. Again, if all goes well I should be back in Columbia by 2:00 pm on Tuesday in enough time to VOTE. And from the comfort of either my bed or Wing backed styled Lazy Boy chair I plan to watch the election result come in.

Happenings past, present and future

most of which has been and will be good.
I heard from my Mother... well you know--- mothers are bias when it comes to their daughters, so you have to take her report that I did really great in an interview that I haven't seen. The interview aired on a local cable station in Louisville where she lives, last night. The interview was done the day my solo show opened last summer by a reporter and taping crew for a new cultural and art show. As I understand it, that show made its debut in the Louisville market last night. The show was so long in coming that I had forgotten about it until I received an e-mail telling me about the air dates last week. So with me no longer living in Louisville I had to tell someone to watch and that someone was my Mother.
I will get a copy of the DVD when I am in Louisville next. Maybe I will find a way to put a little of it on by blog for anyone with an interest to see.

COMING UP:
I am the guest speaker for a quilt guilds in Marshall, MO. It is an anniversary luncheon, which will be a combo of a power point presentation, and trunk show.
My middle grand son brought all of my quilts home from the two shows in the Louisville area last week while I was away. I thought he was doing it just to be nice to his granny, but no, he was planning to come anyway to get a "puppy".
I'll have a piece in the upcoming bi-annual Booneslick Quilt Guilds show. Truth be know it is the only real quilt guild show I have attended in the last 6 years. The first time while visiting my daughter Lyn here in Columbia in 2004. I was invited to hang a piece in their 2006 show and one again this year.
Right know I am trying to mentally go through my inventory of work to see which piece I will donate for a live charity auction that benefits AIDS; a cause I have supported for a long time. This will be my first time to be involvedwith that particular charity here in Columbia. I've donated other pieces of my art from time to time to causes I believe in, but this will be the first time that I have been involved with a charity that shares the winning bid price with the artist in a 40-60 split. The artist gets the best of the split. Yeah!!!! So I am happy because in essence 40% is the commission I pay Bluestem Gallery here in Columbia for selling my work.

PAST MOVING TO PRESENT:
I returned home after being away 6 days at 1:00PM on Saturday. Since 2:oo PM Saturday, the 60 minutes it took me to unpack my suitcases, get my dirty clothes into the washer and change into my pj's I've been VEGGING OUT. Well vegging out sort of. I've done some knitting, read the latest issue of the SAQA Journal, answered some e-mail, returned some phone calls and read through my last weeks class notes. Maybe you know how unreadable scribbled notes get when they grow cold.
With my rapidly approaching 65Th birthday the old body isn't what it used to be and my knees know I spent 5 days going up and down a flight of steps and walking on concrete. But hey, I'd do it again in a heart beat... after all it's about me and my art.
RECENT PAST:
I spent 6 days in Columbus Ohio arriving there Sunday before last via Southwest Airlines. Now that I live in the middle of the state of Missouri it often takes me longer to get to the airport than it does for me to fly to the places I most often travel to. For example like when I go to Louisville at the beginning of next month to help jury Form Not Function.
From my front door where MoEx an airport transportation service picks me up and dropped me off at the doorway to Southwest 130 miles later, then allowing for the hour minimum suggested before departure time and the flight to Louisville which takes all of 55 minutes I spend about four hours in transit. Flying instead of driving saves 2, 2-1/2 to 3 hours depending on the number and length of pit stops I need to take. Of course the times saved also depends a great deal on how heavily I apply my foot to the gas pedal. At times my foot has been of the lead encased in concrete kind. Zoom, Zoom, Zoom!!
The flight to Columbus last week saved me a minimum of four hours. From my front door to the lobby entrance at the hotel in Columbus it was 4 hours flat. The pilot said we had a great tail wind and I got lost in the air port in Columbus to boot, looking for the ground transportation exit where the taxi's where located.
I've been to the Crow Barn for classes before, actually last week was the 6Th week of workshops I have taken there. I love the Crow Barn and how it is set up for creative learning in a totally supported way. This time I took a class with Leslie Morgan and Clare Benn, and loved the experience.
I am not showing you any of what I did during the week and I am not going to show any of what my fellow students did either. I think it is up to them to share their work with others. What I did while there wasn't anything to write about, my workshop art work never is. I never take a class entertaining the thoughts that I will do anything that is truly me with any new to me technique or process I learn until I have time to internalize the information and experiment in the comfort and familiarity of my own studio space. So you will have to wait a few months to get an idea of what I took away from the experience

This is my friend Valerie White in the middle; from Louisville, who met me there, the work you see in the back ground belongs to the instructors and this was on day 2, when they hung some of their completed work for us to see and they used theie art work to discuss the different surface design techniques they employ in their art. Very informative.

Leslie is on the left and Clare is on the right, although you can not see the work clearly, I loved this piece. Reminded you somewhat of Rothko, yummy rich colors using silk broadcloth which has become my newest fabric love. I'm afraid, I am going to put a dent in my art supply allowance this month making a purchase of at least a dozen yards, hummm.... maybe a bolt.

Here Claire is working with my friend Karen Davis, also of Louisville. She and Valerie drove up together. This type of work is Karen's forte and she took to this class and the techniques like a swan in a pond. I think she does wonderful stuff with personal meaning that doesn't smack you in the face with an "it's about me and I don't care if you get it or not" persona.

I've had a class or two with teachers I would never repeat, but these two ladies from England were a real treat and one I would repeat again.

And another good thing happened that added happily to the week. This is Debbie Baden on the right with Leslie Morgan on the left. I met Debbie on the Internet and exchanged a lot of e-mail with her, mostly while she was away from home visiting with her daughter in Washington state . I didn't know she was in the class and would be driving in from Maryland until about a week before the class. It was really great to put a voice to the face on her blog as well as to a name.

The apple crop on the Crow farm was "abundance on steroids" and I wish I had taken a picture of the trees swayed down with them. Needless to say, I ate a few while there and regretted not having room in the luggage to bring some home.