Ugh! Moving!

We need to be out of our house today and I won't be able to get internet at the new place until May 13th. My website will be down until then. I should have intermittent access between now and then, but the server will be dark. :)

I know there are a couple of orders out there, please be patient until I get things back up and sorted. How the crap did we accumulate so much sh**? Yeesh! We've been moving for 5 straight days and I start a new job tomorrow. So unorganization will be the name of the game for a bit!

Thanks everyone, and I'll be in touch soon!

Art and Depression

Things have just gotten to be too much over the last couple of days. There has been almost no good news this whole week.

My husband, bless his soul, has been so good. Trying to maintain a positive attitude. I, on the other hand, have been in full bitch mode.

I suffer from depression. This seems to be a common thing through artists, only instead of expressing ourselves through art, we sometimes seem to be paralyzed and can't do any art. Fear of our art being ridiculed falls into this category as well.

In an effort to do some self help stuff, pulling together people who deal with this issue I've just started a yahoo discussion group. If you are interested in joining go here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/artanddepression/

I hope to draw a group of people who are genuinely interested in helping to create a positive, nuturing and safe environment to help us all grow as artists and get past the road blocks. Within 2 1/2 hours of creation, this group had 20 members...

A Birth and a Bang

So last Tuesday morning (April 1st!) I get a phone call from my daughter. She's been to the doctor and it looks like she'll be heading to the hospital sometime that day. She asks if I want to head over to her house to be with the boys and then they can just leave whenever she's ready. Sure. I get some things together to work on while I'm over there. I spend a good part of the day in her garage cutting glass keeping an eye on the boys while they play in the yard. Later, we're all in the house, she's taking a bath, her hubby is watching TV, the boys are playing upstairs in their bedroom or down with daddy and I. The four year old pics up a pair of daddy's binoculars and swirls them around over his head. Of course, they slip out of his hand and find landing above my left eyebrow. OUCH! This pic was taken the next morning, and the funny thing is it looked worse a few days later! My eyelid is still completely purple!

Mommy and Daddy leave around 7:30 or so to go to the hospital. By this time my grandson is mortified that he saw me cry; he knows he hurt me and he feels bad. Doesn't want a thing to do with me, plus he knows something's up, mommy and daddy leaving this time is different, even if he doesn't know why. He knows they are going to pick up baby Emma, but... he's 4! Other grandma shows up and helps calm him down. He likes her better right now. That's ok, cause she's a pretty cool lady.

The next morning I take the boys up to the hospital to meet their new sister. They both give her a kiss to welcome her into the family, but after that? DJ is in love with her, but excited to be with daddy, Doug just cares that "ok, there's mom... now how many buttons can I push in this hospital room???" Of course Nana (me) thinks she's beautiful and I get to dress her for her hospital pics. A fun but very exhausting two days! (You can see in this picture that Daddy's in the hospital bed trying to convince everyone he was the one who gave birth...)

Daughter and baby are home and all are doing fine. Life slowly getting back to a normal schedule with them. Me? HA! We're moving... I have 4 projects that HAVE to be done before we move. Add to that the stress of doing the whole house loan thing, trying to fight off a cold, and finding out there may be some fraud involved with the Tucson show... (possibly more on that later!) Hasn't this April fool's prank gone on long enough??? Have a good April!