A labor of love ...

It all started when my buddy and Reiki Master, Paul, attuned me to Reiki Level III. Typically, you pay for the attunements just as you would with any other such thing. Service = Payment. But at the time, quite honestly, I didn't have the money, just a strong desire to move to Level III. I think I've already established the fact I'm a fan of good, ol' fashioned horse tradin'. Fortunately for me, Paul isn't apposed to horse tradin'.

I tossed a few ideas around in my head. At first I couldn't come up with what I felt would be a fair trade. What, after all, are my skills?

I can cook. All well a good but really, a meal is a one time thing. Even a nice batch of Pico de Gallo only lasts so long. Then you've got nothing but a handful of empty jars to wash.

I can paint. Been there, done that. I painted his portrait for Level II. Besides, Paul is a better artist than I am so what could I possibly paint that he couldn't paint for himself, and do a much nicer version of?

I can sew. Hmmm. Yeah. I could make a quilt for Paul! I proposed the idea and he accepted.

Quilts are something meant to last, meant to comfort, a gift of love, made with hands and heart. Right away I thought of a traditional Scrap Quilt, like your Grandma and Great Grandma would have made. All kinds of fabrics from all kinds of things pieced together into an age old design like Log Cabin (my personal fav!) , Nine Patch or Pinwheels. I spent several weeks searching through my quilt books, my quilt magazines and online, looking for "just the right pattern", and coming up zero.

Then another thought hit me. Although Scrap Quilts are indeed, in my humble opinion, the absolute best quilts in the world. My own Grandma used to make that kind. Thing is, I didn't have the right kind of fabrics ... those being ... Paul's favorite shirt from the sixth grade; a piece of his mother's apron from when he was in high school; a scrap of his dad's Sunday Best shirt, etc. to add to other fabrics I could purchase. I couldn't really make it personalized in that way, and having concluded a quilt was the only thing to do for the trade, I had to figure out another way to personalize it.

As my quirky brain often does when faced with a art/craft dilemma, it stalled and then went into 'mull it over' mode. Somehow, way back in that little niggly intuitive section of my brain, I knew just any ol' quilt pattern wouldn't do. I realized that was why I was having trouble even deciding on the 'right' pattern. It needed to be something special, something non-traditional, original, custom made specifically for Paul. It needed to be an "art" quilt. And it needed to represent what I see in Paul, relating the wonderful aspects of the person he is to me.

Mulling it over.

Mulling it over.

Mulling it over.

I decided to sit down and make a list. Lists are good. I love lists. Post-It-Notes are a fabulous invention and I have stacks of 'em, in lovely colors ..... oh, I digress.

One thing that came to mind was Paul inclination for abstract art. Odd thing about this ... Paul loves abstract art yet doesn't himself create abstract art. If he did, I'm sure it would be so beautiful it would bring tears to your eyes. (Hint hint, Paul, if you're reading this.) I see this hesitation to create abstract art as a part of himself that Paul has yet to "free" and embrace. Some subconscious level of control he still clings to. I won't get lost in all the psycho-babble about that statement. Moving on.

Of course, there is the Reiki thing. Paul is my Reiki Master/Teacher, as previously stated and he has a very simplistic view/practice of Reiki. He tries always to apply the Reiki Principles to his life in an honest and humble way. It helps me to look at my own life in an entirely different way. So, somehow incorporating Reiki symbolism into the quilt seemed like a logical idea.

If you Google Reiki you will come up with Upteen-Gazillion-And-Three websites for almost as many different types of Reiki. I won't get up on a Soap Box about that, but suffice it to say, I don't believe they are really Reiki - they are just someone's way of putting what they hope to be a New! Improved! Mine Is Better Than Yours! New Agey twist on Reiki and therefore attempt to make it more "special" and thus more profitable. Through Paul, my own initiation into, and understanding of, Reiki is bare bones, to the point, simple. I venture to say it is what Reiki, and the practice of Reiki, is really supposed to be.

Paul has an Asian aestheticism to himself and his life. Streamlined, simple, practical and yet ever mindful of the beauty of things, of life and the world around him. He can find perfection in a broken sea shell or in one minute of the warmth of sunshine on his face. His approach to nearly everything is this way. In considering this, the quilt needed to be simple, understated as in being practical yet be visually pleasing.

Color was extremely important, too. Though Paul is an artist and is attracted to colors running the gamut from black to white, the quilt's colors needed to reflect the nature of the person I know Paul to be. Unequivocally and unquestionably, the first color was Blue. If you want to hear a grown man sigh and goo like a girl with a sparkly new piece of jewelry just show Paul something in vivid Turquoise or a deep Prussian Blue. Hand him a nice piece of Lapis Lazuli to hold and fondle and you'll see he eyes almost glaze over in bliss. Yeah, Paul likes blue.

But lots of blue, especially bright or intense blues seemed wrong somehow for the quilt. I felt it needed to be accented, not dominated, with blue While thinking about this I remembered how Paul loved the Whole-Cloth-Quilts sometimes displayed at the Art Council gallery during the local Fall Festival. Whole-Cloth-Quilts are stunning pieces of work. Generally done with one/two large piece(s) of cotton, linen or muslin fabric in white, ecru or solid color. The actual quilted design is the feature of the piece. Considering this, I decided on the colors of unbleached muslin, soft shades of tan/brown, shades of gray and a touch of moss green. I also wanted to do a part of it in Whole-Cloth style. Quilting the Healing Hand symbol seemed appropriate.

When looking at different Asian art, much of it is bordered by, or incorporates, black. I knew black was the "punch" color for the quilt. I studied abstract art and found works by a few artists that were somewhat in the Cubist style of Picasso and Braque. Paul likes squares and rectangles ... which, of course, is great when making a quilt. I love to quilt, but I'm not proficient with piecing circles and triangles. Paul's a natural/organic-y kinda' guy, so it all needed to be cotton, linen or muslin. The batting also had to be traditional cotton. Now, after "mulling it over", I had a basic game plan and colors.

I found 100% cotton batting at Asheville Cotton Co. But rifling through my fabric stash I realized I didn't have very much of the types and colors I wanted. Thus began the process of collecting fabric. I made trips to different fabric stores here and in neighboring towns. I searched online. I even shopped at thrift stores for shirts and things I could scavenge the material from.

After collecting the fabrics I tried several times to work the design of the quilt out on paper. I never could get it to come out in a way I was satisfied with. For reasons I can't even begin to explain, I felt like it just had to come together much the same way it works when I'm actually painting an abstract or a collage. I began with one large piece of muslin as the focal point. This was the piece I designated for the Healing Hand symbol. I started cutting fabric in a variety of squares and rectangles and laying them out on the floor of my studio, switching pieces around, adding smaller ones, larger ones, and visually working out the structure and balance of the overall design. It was a lot like trying to put together a puzzle without the picture on the box to go by.

I had to take my time in cutting all this fabric up. The old carpenter's rule of thumb, "measure twice, cut once" was my mantra. Somewhere along the way the idea came to me to incorporate the Reiki kanji symbols. After all, I was going with an Asianish theme + Reiki, so it seemed to fit. Unfortunately, I didn't have any fabric with these symbols already printed on it and certainly wasn't very likely to find any.

Skill = Painting. It was supposed to be an "art" quilt, so why not?

I cut out five rectangles of the plain muslin, one for each symbol, wet them and laid them out flat on plastic bags on the kitchen counter. I used acrylic paint and blended patches of tan, blue and a hint of sage green on them as if I were doing watercolor washes on paper. After they were dry I used black acrylic to paint the kanji symbols. I left them to dry completely for a couple of days. To set the paint into the fabric I put each one between pieces of cotton and pressed them with medium heat and the steam setting on my iron. To be sure they wouldn't totally screw up I tossed them in the washer, gave them a nice hot whirl in the dryer, then ironed them one more time. Worked like a charm. I now had my Reiki symbols.

Time to sew. Because I had squares and rectangles to work with I was able to construct it in sections. These sections were connected, and in places accented - such as "framing the Healing Hand piece, by black strips. Sometimes after sewing a section I would decide I didn't like how it worked and would have to either rip a seam and replace a piece, cut out a piece or add a piece. Again, I still had to be careful not waste the fabric I had collected.

Top completed, I added the layer of batting and the backing material, then pinned it all together. Now it was time to quilt. I started with the Healing Hand symbol. I had used a light tan watercolor pencil to draw the hand, spiral and radiating waves onto the muslin before I pieced everything together.

Oh yes, I'm all about getting the top pieced on my sewing machine. It's a lot faster, and given the time hand quilting takes, a big plus in the whole process of quilt making. Now, I certainly have appreciation for machine quilting. I've seen some that were really stunning, with impressive and intricate designs. But I love the look, and tradition, of hand quilting. And I do lap-quilting - meaning it's all piled in my lap while I sit on the floor or on the sofa. I don't have a quilting frame, nor do I have room for one. Armed with my tiny quilting needles all pre-threaded and ready to go, I started. I stitched. And I stitched. And stitched some more.

Two stitches at a time 'cause size 11 quilting needles are only about 1" long.

I'm also a thimble-less quilter/sewer. I have never been able to use a thimble for more than a few stitches when sewing anything. They just get in my way. I can't "feel" what I'm doing and it drives me nuts. Sadly, the tips of my fingers are repeatedly pricked and poked by the point of the needle and after extended periods of sewing/quilting they look like hamburger. And yeah, it feels worse than it looks. Touching anything is, in a word, painful. I can only endure it for so long before I have to give the ol' fingers a breather and let them heal up awhile. Then, I jump back up on the horse and do it some more. Crazy, but the result is worth the effort.

And, I believe Paul is worth the effort. I respect him. I admire him. I treasure him.

He is my friend.

So without further adieu, here is the end result of a two year process ...

Published art ... and this time it looks really nice!

You may or may not be familiar with SageWoman Magazine, but if you are you might have noticed the article entitled Mother Aphrodite in current Issue 73, The Mother, has three of my illustrations! One illustration is on the Table of Contents page. The other two are on pages10-11 and page 12. Yee Haw, y'all. And they look pretty good, if I do say so myself.

The first go 'round with BBI Media, publisher of SageWoman, PanGaia, The Blessed Bee and newWitch magazines involved my doing illustrations for Issue 72 of SageWoman and being the featured artist for all of Issue 46 of PanGaia. I was pleased with the images printed in SageWoman, but I was really disappointed in what was published in PanGaia. Photoshop filters were used and in most cases, in my opinion, it really detracted from the art I worked my butt off to create for them.

I was kind of embarrassed by it, to know it was what people who read that publication would believe was representative of my art. I could only hope they might venture to my website and see it wasn't. I did a total of about 25-26 images and several of the best ones were not even used. Only one of them was actually printed pretty much like the original artwork submitted. In the end, the thrill of being a featured artist for the first time ever ended up being an unhappy experience. But that's the nature of the beast in Graphics. Once the art goes to the publisher it's often out of your hands in how it is printed. And, of course, once it's in print and on store shelves it's a moot point.

Seeing accurate reproductions of my illustrations in the current issue of SageWoman felt good. Of course, seeing any work of mine (as all artists feel) in publication (except when it's printed badly) is a thrill. It means that someone likes my work enough to put it in print. It's the same thrill I get when someone orders a print from my website and yes, even when someone asks for a commissioned portrait - despite the frustrations associated with doing them. It's a pat on the back ... and admit it, we all like those.

The work that has been published in these magazines was done in graphite on paper. Due to time constraints of the deadlines I had, and because the magazines are printed in black & white, except for the cover, I chose graphite as the medium to use. The drawings/sketches produced are nice art, graphite scans and reproduces well, and because using watercolor or acrylic would have just taken entirely too long. But having this stack of illustrations got me to thinking ... I really should create a section on my website to show them and the other graphite work that I sometimes do. Hmmmm ... I'd have to make room for another "button" on pages that are already symmetrically set button-wise. Then I started thinking about putting up an Intuitive Tarot page, a Reiki page, my "pagan" Christmas ornaments, the T-shirts and some other stuff I've got in the works.

Rattling that idea around in my brain, as y'all can probably surmise, kicked me off on the idea of leaping into yet another website overhaul. Version 6. I seem to have some sort of death wish when it comes to redesigning my website. Sometime I'll reprint my Y360 post about my website dementia for y'all to read. Probably about the time I'm wigging out in a major way over the stress of it all. Lord knows, I can't leave well enough alone. Ideas. Ideas. Ideas.

So, yeah, with all the other bazillion things on my To Do List, I'm cooking up yet another site design on the computer. Sheesh! What a glutton for punishment. Y'all do realize that before it's done I'm going to need either serious therapy or, preferably, sedation.

With that lovely thought ...

Namaste y'all ...

Sharing art and a rant ...

I would like to share some art with y'all. This image, entitled Persphone, is by Linda Joyce Franks, an artist from New Orleans. Her website is Nimbvs.com and I highly recommend you giving it a visit sometime. I think her work is beautiful.

The reasons for posting this image are 1) because I like it and 2) because, despite my ramblings about vacuum cleaners and such, this blog is really supposed to be about art. Now, one would immediately jump to the conclusion that this "art" should technically be my art. And yeah, that's a great theory. But I'm not cranking out artwork fast enough right now to keep the blog current with stuff .... thus I ramble on about aforementioned vacuum cleaners and other people's art I am inspired by.

So what about this one???

Well, I've been working on a Kwan Yin. Progress is being made but something (that elusive, mysterious something!) is just not clicking. I suppose I should post a "work in progress" photo. I'm not going to. Still too early in the game. Which, of course, means that what's on the canvas today may very well not be there tomorrow.

Every artist knows the miracle of gesso can cure many a painting dilemma and/or woe.

"You have a woe?"

"Yes, Virginia, I have an artistic woe."

Part of me is resistant to gessoing over what I've already spent lots of hours painting. Despite not being "inspired" by what's developing on the canvas I know if I persist I'll end up with a nice painting. Thus comes the woe ... I don't want just another nice painting. I want a Wow, not a Woe. A wow would require a couple of coats of gesso and a restart. More specifically, a redesign of the whole image. Here is where the featured artwork of Linda Joyce Franks comes into play.

Y'all knew I'd get to that eventually, didn't ya'.

There is something about the layout of this image, the texture on the canvas, the two-part imagery of the concept of Persephone, one part soft and the other almost a vintage technical illustration which appeals to me. It's more than just another painted face on a canvas. There's more going on, visual interest. I like it. I like it a lot. I want to do that, too. I want to do it with my Kwan Yin.

What holds me back from rushing down the hall into the studio and simply having at? Ah, another interesting question with a sadly lame answer. Dread. Yeah, you heard me. Dread.

Whenever I start a painting the husband, or someone else, likes he tends to get fixated on it being Just That Way, no deviation to completion. This is especially true when I'm doing portraiture, as the is case with Kwan Yin. It's as if the reference material I'm working from is a stone tablet straight from the hand of the Divine. I'm not supposed to change anything lest thunderbolts of lightening come raining down from the Heavens and blast me into the abyss.

Even in the process of working, and the painting still very much in the early stages, he's come into the studio, looks over my shoulder, and says stuff like, "Aren't you going to do the hair like that?" or "I thought you said you were going to paint the shirt white ...." Etc., Etc., Etc. It's incredibly stressful and confining to my spontaneity, my creativity. It's the same when he comes into the studio and says, "I don't like collage (or abstract) .....", ending the statement with this big, hanging pause as if he's waiting for me to suddenly stop doing it just because he doesn't like them. It usually happens when he knows that's exactly what I'm painting right then.

I really hate to hear it. I dread the thought of the 20 Questions Game of Why which will most assuredly occur when he comes home Friday as sees I have suddenly and irrationally decided what I was working on just isn't working for me.

I guess the bigger question, Virginia, is why do I let it bother me at all? That's not so easy to answer. It involves self-confidence issues as an artist. It involves feeling second-guessed, as if I have to ask permission to do what I want to do. It involves absolutely despising the feeling of having to explain or justify the work I do for myself to anyone, period. (Commissioned work is another beast altogether and somewhat exempt from harassment by anyone other than a client.) It involves issues of someone being in my space while I'm working. It involves breathing. It gets complicated. It's an artist-mentality thing.

Truth is, I don't care if he likes it or not. I've even told him that several times. It's just that I don't like being "cramped" when I'm working and that, very often, is exactly how I feel when he, or anyone, makes comments such as "Why didn't you ... ?" or "I thought you were going to ... ?"

"Scuze me, but I'm an artist, and I'm female ... I change my mind. As a matter of fact, I think I even have a Divine girly-girl right to do so ...... so leave me alone, Thank You Very Much.

Now, critique I can handle. Bring it on! Love it! Helps me grow as an artist. Too often I can look at the same painting too long and lose perspective on it, so to speak. Having a fresh eye, or two, can - and has many times - helped bring a painting I was struggling with to a good resolution. I learned critique to be valuable way back many moons ago when I was a first-year Graphic Arts student in college. It's not a personal attack, it's meant to help you create better work. If you can accept it as such then it's a great thing.

But the husband's comments, and some others, aren't in the critique category. What I realize is it is somewhat like going to the freezer to get the carton of vanilla ice cream, reaching in to the place where the vanilla ice cream is always kept, has been the routine storage spot of this favored vanilla ice cream for all the time you've had the freezer, but when you reach in some has replaced your vanilla with chocolate. Now, chocolate is pretty good, and you may very well enjoy chocolate, but your taste buds wanted vanilla, they expected vanilla, and the substituted chocolate sort of violates the whole vanilla ice cream experience you were all geared up for.

I understand that, I really do.

I like vanilla, too.

But I like chocolate, strawberry, mint-chocolate chip, peppermint stick and even raspberry sorbet. Sometimes I want vanilla, but when I get to the freezer and see the other flavors I can change my mind and have strawberry instead. And, sometimes I even like more than one flavor in my bowl. I'm radical like that. I can be adventurous and daring with my ice cream.

The husband likes vanilla, stored in the same place, the same spoon and bowl, served the same way, every time. To upset this routine can cause him to not even bother eating the ice cream at all.

Thus, he likes for me to paint portraits of pretty/attractive women, using acrylic, on canvas, exactly as I've planned from my reference materials. This comes from the result of the first one I painted, which he liked, a lot. His theory is this ... If I can paint that, then why would I paint anything else? IE: collage, abstract, watercolor. (I'm sure y'all can guess my response to that theory.) Just this evening while he and I were on the phone and I was talking about how the Kwan Yin wasn't working he says, "Yeah, but that's the way it was when you were working on Preordained and it turned out to be one of your best paintings."

In other words ... "Do it anyway because I want you to because I think it will be like the other one I like and that's what I want you to paint."

Oh really?

When I get home from art class tonight I believe I will be introducing Kwan Yin to gesso.

Namaste y'all ...

The death of the Fantom Fury ... praise be!

Seven years ago I temporarily lost my sanity and allowed the husband to talk me into the purchase of a Fantom Fury vacuum cleaner for our new house. I stood there in the store and listened to him raving about how the one he and his ex-wife had was just fantastic, couldn't get a better vacuum cleaner for the money, etc. The Fantoms aren't cheap, just so y'all know. And wouldn't ya' know it, I have regretted that purchase ever since. Oh yes, folks, how I have regretted it. The Fantom and I were destined to clash and it became an ongoing battle to see who would outlive the other. It's been a long, tough war.

I, the Domestic Goddess, am victorious!

The bastard has finally bought the farm. Kicked the bucket. Vac'd it's last 'cuum. And I was not sorry to be witness to it's final sputtering, wheezing, gasping demise. No indeed. I went the very next day and bought a new vacuum cleaner to celebrate. Hoorah!

Women and vacuum cleaners are a delicate combination. Kind of like women and closets or kitchen cabinets. Just any ol' vacuum won't fit the bill. Each and every woman alive has her own individual requirements, needs to be satisfied, functions and frills check list. It must do X, Y and/or Z; must have A, B and/or C. Like a man buying a John Deere tractor, features and functionality are important components to the relationship between woman and machine.

The Fantom had strike one before we even left the store ... it was an upright.

I was raised with canister vacuum cleaners. Actually, we used the one that belonged to my grandmother (father's mother) until it finally died. I don't recall the brand name but that sucker lived and worked like a champ for 30+ years. We mourned it's loss for a long time. Mother was never able to replace it with anything nearly as good.

After the loss of the old one we would often borrow my other grandmother's Rainbow vacuum. Another champ. The entire family fought over it. Rarely did you actually go to my grandmother's house to get it ... nope, you usually had to go over to one or another of my aunt's or cousin's houses to snatch it from them. When my grandmother went into a nursing home a few years ago that Rainbow was probably the only thing in her house the family tussled over. I think my Uncle Dale won the battle.

Well, over the years I've had several different vacuum cleaners. Most always a canister type. I did once own a red Dirt Devil upright that wasn't so bad. Still, my wee domestic goddess heart loves dragging a canister around the house. Uprights are typically, for me anyway, awkward and bulky. I can't just slide them under the bed or the sofa. Rarely is the hose attachment very long or very powerful (Well, that sounds kinda' pervy ... *hee*) for getting under stuff. Nope, using an upright means you've got to move all the damn furniture around to vacuum under it.

Then you've got the other issue of maneuverability. Uprights are basically designed to roll forward and backward. Period. Getting the thing to move around stuff is just plain and simply a pain-in-the-butt. Lord help you if it's a heavy model, as was the Fantom.

Functionality. Of course, I haven't tested all the uprights out there on the market (and Heaven knows there are thirteen dozen of 'em) but with those I have used I find that if it does carpet reasonably well then you can be assured it won't do a damn thing on a bare floor, like say the kitchen or laundry room. They tend to blow the dirt around, not vacuum it up. Why do double duty with a broom & dustpan if you can get it with the vacuum cleaner?

Attachments. Nine times out of ten the hose attachment on an upright (as previously stated) isn't very long, nor very powerful. I like to do my dusting with the vacuum cleaner and I have yet to find an upright which does this with ease. As for the attachments, they are usually stuck on stupid plastic pegs on the body of the upright ... and aren't very secure. Bump the wall, the crevasse tool falls off. Bump the sofa leg, the upholstery attachment falls off. And because the hose is weak, these attachments are pretty much useless anyway. The attachments to my Fantom have remaind in a box in a closet since the second time I used it.

Then some idiot invented the "bagless" upright. Excuse me if I offend someone here but, I swear to God, it must have been a man. And ladies, we all know men don't vacuum. Do they not realize how nasty a bagless vacuum cleaner is? Do they not grasp the concept that I don't want to have to poke my hand up into the vacuum cleaner to scoop out that accumulated dust/dirt stuff around the vacuum port? Do they not see that in doing so dust/dirt flies out all over the place, not to mention getting all over my hand and arm? Do they not comprehend that having to bang the container against the trash can creates a cloud of dust/dirt in the kitchen or where ever you empty the thing? It's disgusting. Yep, smart guy, that jazzy Heppa filter sure does the trick, Thank you so very much.

Give me a canister with a bag any day. The cord is always a mile long and retractable. The hose can usually suck the chrome off a trailer hitch ... and the attachments are both fully functional and nicely tucked away inside the body of the vacuum when not in use. It maneuvers beautifully under and around any and all furniture. The bag, when full, is easily lifted out and disposed of cleanly. They do both carpet and bare floors like a dream. Dusting, no problemo. Oh yeah, I'm a canister girl, yes I am.

When I told the husband the Fantom died, rather gleefully I admit, he was immediately concerned. He knew what was going to happen. He even dared tell me I was making a mistake. Butt head. He's only vacuumed this house three, maybe four times in seven years. 'Nuf said about that.

I told him, right after using that Fantom the very first time, as soon as that son-of-a-bitch died I was getting a real vacuum cleaner. (I want a brand new Rainbow but I can't afford it.) Despite the gazillion uprights out there you can still get a nice canister vacuum at a good price. So when the Fantom launched into it's death throes and expired on Monday I was all but skipping to the store before it's last gasp to replace it with a canister model. On Tuesday, at Sears, I purchased a Kenmore Progressive. Took it home and used it immediately. Love it.

Naturally, the husband had to go through the whole 20-Questions routine.

Husband - "Does it have good suction?"

Me - "Yes, Dear."

Husband - "Yeah, but does it have a beater bar to fluff the carpet?"

Me - "Yes, Dear."

Husband - "But it doesn't have a Heppa filter!?"

Me - "The bags are Heppa filter bags, Dear."

Husband - "You still have to move the furniture though."

Me - "No, Dear, I just lay that wand flat to the ground and go right under every piece of furniture in the living room and under the bed, too."

Husband - "But it's a pain to drag around."

Me - "No, it's got super slick wheels, 360° swivel hose at the base, the vacuum head is feather-light with edge-to-edge cleaning, the power cord is 12 ft. long and retractable - I can plug it into one outlet and vacuum the entire house, which I couldn't do with the Fantom. It goes from carpet to floor setting with a thumb switch and the beater bar shuts off so it vacuums instead of blowing dirt around."

Husband - "Well ........ "

Me - "Well nuthin'. I like it. I'm happy with it. I'm keeping it."

Husband -



Smart fella', knows when he's beaten.

As for me, I think I may just go vacuum the carpet .....

Namaste y'all ...

Can't resist cute cat photos ...

This image was snatched from Cute Overload.com

So, made the final entry in my Y360 blog last night. I really enjoyed the Y360 community for awhile. There was so much more interaction between all of us there than what you get (unless you're a top blogger in the blog world like the Yarn Harlot) on a blog page such as this one. Then things changed. Not much going on, then Yahoo announces a big change coming. Everything is shifting over to an as-yet-revealed new formated site. Y360 as we knew it will be shutting down sometime in the next few months. Maybe I'm a rat jumping ship; maybe I'm being too resistant to change; maybe I've lost faith in Yahoo ... ?

At one time I had a MySpace page, along with my Y360 page. I didn't like it at all. It was irritating to "decorate", and worst of all, was the gazillion messages to be "friends" with some of the most strange creatures I've ever come across. Now, I'll be the first to admit to my own weirdness, but some of those folks make me look simple docile. And why choose me when there was absolutely no commonality of interests between us? Were they looking for just another friend to add to their friends' list and make themselves feel popular? No clue, but I wasn't interested in having my own friends list bulging with people I had nothing in common with. Then I read about all the nasty viruses and such being embedded into MySpace pages and got out of there in a skinny minute. Click page - get virus. Well, no thank you. Bye. See ya'. Outta' here.

I'm somewhat sad about leaving Y360 and the nice friends I made there. Hopefully, they will come visit here sometime. But on the other hand, it's done and it's a kind of relief. One less thing to keep up with. Been so busy that I've had trouble even keeping up this page let alone two blog pages.

Moving on.

I've been trying to work on the Kwan Yin today. Nasty headache is messing up my ability to concentrate and focus. I can't get the paint to move around on the canvas the way I want it to. Frustrating. Maybe I should just kick back on the couch with Creepy and watch a movie?

Yeah, that sounds really good.

Namaste y'all ...