Being Good to Ourselves!

Oh my goodness! Today has not gone at all the way I was planning...as I got side-tracked yet again...I just realized I haven't even downloaded the pictures I was going to show you. This was some moody fog on a winter day shot from my front porch looking northeast across the end of the high school property. We've had all kinds of weather, but it's really feeling like spring now, and I've finally started to lose the holiday weight by getting distracted from eating-for-comfort. Just a minute while I empty my camera.



I'm back. My message over the last few weeks is to remember to be good to myself...and everyone to her/him self, because how can we be good to others, if we don't start with ourselves? I was working myself Way too hard and getting over-stressed by things that I had actually chosen to do...so Food being one of my Favorite Things, I made myself a lemon meringue (I can't figure out how to spell that correctly, but you see what I mean) pie with Meyer lemons...WOW!!! I'm having a piece for supper.






Having no Sweetheart (except for Will, who always comes through via email), I made myself a Valentine shrine with flowers from Katie and Barbara and a Valentine from Connie. That message facing me at every meal has made me very happy and proud.

And then out walking, another message of Affirmation with chalk on the side walk. Take Great Care of Yourselves and MAKE ART!!! YOU ARE SPECIAL!

EXTRA! EXTRA!
By the way, I hear there are some spaces left in my 3-D DOLL DESIGN and WORKING WITH FOUND OBJECTS CLASS in Corvallis, OR, the first weekend in May, email: tweiss@cmug.com for more info...It's really reasonable AND a beautiful part of the country.

Another plug: My newest book, PAMELA'S DESIGNING A DOLL AND MAKING FACES INSPIRATION BOOK 2 is FaBuLoUs! Best thing to finish out the end of winter with Lots of projects and inspiration in Living Color...Go back to my Gallery.

Found Object Art

If I ever said, "Some day when I'm not so busy..." I think I was kidding myself. Some of us can't say "no" and don't even want to...although the last 6 weeks has been busier than usual. The new Doll Books arrived, and I was sending them all over the world...Don't worry, there are plenty left, with So Much Color and so Many Projects, you'll be Amazed and Delighted! I've been working on pieces using found objects to try to get into another of Lark's wonderful "500" books, this one for found objects, of course. This one incorporates drill bits, a broken brush and a black rubber disk I found on the street, a bone I've been hoarding for years, a ceramic face, and the silver hand that Santa Doug put in my Christmas stocking....also a great score: a bag of nicely-patined tinker toys that I found in one of the many antique shops downtown. I think it's called Artist's Work or The Artist's Hand...I'm collecting interesting titles and am open to suggestions.




Among my other tasks (besides showing up for work 4 days a week) were finishing my taxes, organizing descriptions and images for the Fiber Arts Festival taking place next door in Sequim the first weekend in October (I'm teaching 2 classes, paper dolls and stick dolls), judging fiction entries for the college literary magazine, starting my Doll Making as a Transformative Process Class online...and it seems like tooooo many other things. My massage therapist noticed right away that my body was all bound up and stuck...oh the connection between stress and health!!! If I don't shape up and stretch and relax, Barbara promised to hurt me again next time!



The Alphabet Series...so far. I used two more of the ceramic faces that Anna Wianko Chassman helped me do, pieces of driftwood, lead type. The curves of the wood suggests poses. I covered strofoam with Apoxie Sculpt and inserted the type. The fabrics sport alphabet prints. These are tall for my work, around two feet.

One of the things we've been discussing in my online class is actually going ahead and using the gems in our stashes...before we die leaving them behind, to someone else who couldn't possibly appreciate them as much as we do.

The thing I re-learned from almost drowning in self-induced stress of late is that it is Very Important to stop and rest and pay attention to one's body. I had this discussion with my tax preparer, who turned 50 last year and watched three of his friends die suddenly. Now he's seriously considering cutting back...just as soon as tax season is over. He was sick for 6 months after last year's.

Of course, now, a little over a week before my 62nd birthday, I'm also thinking about my father, who died 22 years ago tomorrow, when he was the age I am now. Makes me think about how I spend my time and telling the people in my life how much I love them...I suggest you do the same.