Summer Camp

This may be the last time I drive my daughter to summer camp.

She has been attending this camp since she was 9 years old, and now at 23 she thinks she'll do something else during the summers.

I love driving her to camp.
She talks to me about things that are important to her.
Sometimes I get to overhear cell phone conversations she has with her friends. I always get to know her just a bit better and if I don't inadvertently do something "mom-ish" we have a great time!

This trip was particularly fun.

We had planned to leave at 7 am, but the night before she asked if we could go later. She was ready to leave about 10 am, but knowing she was having doubts, I suggested a family game of cards. We rounded up her brother and dad and played cards for an hour. It was loads of fun + it made the leave taking calm and easy.

The trip is usually 8 hours. We made great time. We brought sandwiches for lunch. For dinner, she wanted a veggie burger at Red Robin. The 411 operator we got was in the very town we were traveling thru! She said yes there's a Red Robin and even gave us directions. I don't think that happens very often. My daughter thought it was very cool.

The next morning I drove her up to camp.

I'll imagine her for the next 6 weeks sitting on this dock ~ teaching swimming, supervising the other swim teachers, organizing free swim and getting tan.

I hope this last summer is as perfect as can be.

STUFF

The essay is the "before." The photos are the "after." I hope it all makes sense. My calves are feeling the burn of taking more than 20 trips upstairs to get clutter out of the shop.

I have too many things for my living and working space. It's not so bad that someone is going to call in the Health Dept, but it bothers me. It is exacerbated by the fact that I am both an antiques dealer and a collage artist. There's just always so much cool stuff at estate & yard sales, flea markets, and other antique shops, and it's hard to pass them up!

My shop, Rose Brier Antiques, was closed all winter and I'm afraid I let it get very overrun by things needing pricing & treasures I wanted to incorporate into collages. Anything I didn't know what to do with went onto the floor. Like a lot of people who have too much stuff, I really wasn't aware of how much I really had. I am working to open the shop on Saturday and without a huge effort to remove the clutter, customers would not be able to get in the door. My insurance would probably be sorely tested as customers tripped over all the crap on the floor.

When we lived in San Diego, I had space in an antique mall. I would shop on Cape Cod every summer and bring things back to sell. When I closed that space I continued to buy but I didn't open another antique shop until last summer, some six years later! On the one hand, I have lots of fun things to put out. On the other, there are boxes and boxes of treasures that haven't seen the light of day for a few years.

My husband had a brilliant suggestion. As he reminded me, the shop displays are in place and very nice. All I needed to do was remove the items that were un-priced, un-ironed, on the floor, or otherwise making the place look scruffy. His suggestion -- just move it -- has worked wonderfully. I moved the excess to our upstairs guest room knowing I wouldn't have guests until the end of July. It gives me a deadline to deal with it, cuz I hate having company see my slob side! And the shop can open for the season. Hooray!


For those of you dealing with stuff issues, I highly recommend this book: Stuff, Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost & Gail Steketee, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010. The authors are therapists who have been working with people who hoard. It's well written, gentle and insightful. I learned a lot about what triggers hoarding and how we give meaning to things. I'm glad to say I'm not a full-out compulsive hoarder, but that doesn't mean there wasn't a whole lot of valuable information to be gained.

Proud Mama

Lobby, The Metropolitan

Opened in Boston 1925.

Now the Wang Theatre, this was the site of our daughter's college graduation last week. It is an amazing building.

On stage -- the college president, chairman of the board of trustees, faculty, commencement speaker, honored guests and our daughter, the valedictorian!

Her speech was wonderful! She spoke about the need to make connections and the unexpected treats in store when one does, using examples from her travels. She talked about the creativity of the students at her school and thanked her special friends who supported her in giving the speech. Despite her nervousness about giving the talk, she was even able to adlib a bit. Her goal of under 10 minutes was achieved!

I am extremely proud of her. I think I know, even more than she does, what a big deal this is! We have supported her always in her goal of educational excellence. I read a lot of her papers (I'm good at catching split infinitives and misplaced commas), but in the end, it was her drive to get good grades for herself alone that catapulted her to the top of her class.

I so wanted to take the iconic photo of caps being thrown in the air, but it didn't happen. Instead the graduates all waved the purple alumni T-shirts they were given with their diplomas!

After the ceremony, there was a reception on the Boston Common.
We had absolutely perfect weather.

It was fun to hang out with her friends and their parents.

Mom, Dad, & beautiful girl.

Pink Saturday Tea

I was invited to Tea last Thursday.

It's not a group of women I have much in common with, but, as in high school when I would accept a date if it was to the movies, if I am invited to tea, I will say YES!

My destination was less than a mile from my home down a quiet country lane.

Wearing a cheerful spring outfit, I grabbed my camera, laced up my reeboks, and swinging my strappy sandals, I set off.

The walk takes only 10 minutes.
I left 30 minutes early to take advantage
of the beautiful sunny weather.
Along the way I discovered all sorts of pink!

Rhododendrons
~ in a much nicer color than I have in my yard ~
*sigh*

I took a detour to the beach where these wild roses, with their wonderful rosehips grow.

I love how the water looks with sunlight glinting off it.
I'm afraid the only pink in this picture is the color these vacationers' skin will be at the end of the day!

The hostess made "Pooh Cake," as in Winnie-the-Pooh.
As you can see by the cake stand, that was her theme, and one I love!

It was a lovely afternoon and I'm oh so glad I went.
On the walk home I captured this promise of pink.

In a month of so this split rail fence will be covered in a profusion of glorious pink roses!
Can't wait.

Thanks to Beverly at How Sweet The Sound for hosting Pink Saturday. Drop by and say Hi and check out her list of 192 participants today!

Happy Easter

Hyacinths at signpost.

If the kids were here, we would have had an Easter Egg Hunt. The last one was when our son was in 10th or 11th grade. He was new in school and I'm not sure his friends had ever met anyone as nutty as his mom -- planning an egg hunt for 16 year olds! We all had a blast.

Daffodils in the front garden.

As it was, my husband and I spent today like most other Sundays: church, lunch out, browsing at our fav bookstore (he gets coffee, I read magazines) and a leisurely drive home on the scenic route.

Daffodils ready for town festival later this month.

When we returned home one of B's friends had sent him a link to Peeps dioramas. Ya gotta check it out. We were in hysterics. Having read a lot of books to my kids, I was delighted to see their favorites featured: "Where The Wild Peeps Are" And "Goodnight Peep." We laughed and laughed and I had to share it. What will you make with Peeps next year?

Enjoy!!!

Big Creativity, Small Space

My wedding shoe, embellished!

My husband said the nicest thing to me the other day.

We . . . no let's be honest . . . I was talking about my studio and wondering why I found it so difficult to create in. It's small. It's small and cluttered and did I mention small? There is just one work table/desk and I have not disciplined myself to clean it off at the end of the day, so it is also always cluttered. I was worried it was me or artist's block or something.

What my husband essentially said was that my creative ideas are too big and expansive for the space I have carved out of the barn/antique shop. I thought that was an awfully sweet thing to say. And it was a new idea to me.

He then suggested I might consider using the whole 600 sq ft of my shop as a studio and even then it might not be enough space. I don't think I need 600 sq ft, and I really don't want to give up the shop, but he made me think about the space in new ways. It often happens when I bounce things off him, he provided a perspective that had not occurred to me.

Sometimes I don't think he pays any attention to what I am doing. This doesn't bother me at all. I was raised with the theory of "loving neglect," where my brother, sister and I were left alone to do our own thing, in a very loving way.

Still it was really nice to have him point out that I have big creative ideas. It made me feel good & gotten and it also made me stop wondering why the studio wasn't working.

I've been comparing myself to others -- if an amazing artist can house her studio in her dishwasher, why wasn't 90 sq ft large enough for me? And the answer is, everyone is different and comparisons only drive a person nuts.

The way the shop is situated, particularly entrances, front & back, windows, load-bearing posts, and the zigs & zags of an old structure, it's a challenge to carve out a single large space. But I was able to push the "walls" (bookcases) out 2 feet.

I added another bookcase around the work table to hold supplies.

I like having my supplies close and I like looking at inspirational things.

I cleared the table off just for this photo.

I also discovered that leaving a space between the table and the bookcases makes the table seem more workman like. Before I had a row of pens, buttons, pretty things at the edge of the table. Now they are on a bookshelf, so they don't take up any room I could use for making art.

New step -- a place to put stuff coming in or going out.

Enough, already!

OK, Enough!

I have sat on my butt long enough. I've re-read Harry Potter (yes all 7 books), discovered Twilight (Showtime on demand preview), caught-up on TV episodes from the sublime, Glee, to the ridiculous, Fringe (I love them both!) and it's time to move back into the world of living people.

I don't even care anymore what put me into the tailspin. I can't credit SPRING, my favorite season, for pulling me out, as we're getting torrential rains and flooding here in New England and I'm not sure anyone has seen the sun for weeks! I wish I could credit going out to lunch at a fav restaurant, but I had 3 wisdom teeth removed yesterday and I'm really sorry to say my diet for the next week is gonna be cottage cheese, applesauce and Campbell's tomato soup. Who knew how much one could miss chewing!?!

I'm giving myself one more day to recuperate and then it's just time to get up off the couch, find the digital camera, take some photos and post something pretty and uplifting and fun.

Thanks to everyone who's checked in. You are truly appreciated!