Vintage Ladies

I have a lifetime love affair with anything vintage.  Anyone who knows my mixed-media work, especially my greeting cards, knows that I love to work with old images.  I find what I call the "Vintage Ladies" especially beautiful.  Something about the softness of the photography, the muted colours and their haunting expressions make the portraits so appealing to me.

Some of my favourite portraits are of Maude Fealy. She was an actress of the early 1900's, a star of stage, and mostly the silent movie screen, although she did make it into the "talkies".  Other favourites include other actresses such as Bessie Love, and Lily Elsie. 

My mother gave me this 7 Gypsies Printers Tray quite some time ago. I knew right away that I wanted to feature some of my favourite vintage ladies. Even though I chose a colour scheme early on (one of my personal favourites), I got as far as laying in the paper backgrounds, but then I went no further.  Years went by, and there it sat.

I was in no rush. I was waiting for it to sing to me. And in the meantime, I collected bits and pieces of jewellery from friends and garage sales, and found other embellishments at the craft store.  I even crocheted some little medallions with embroidery thread. I kept a jar on my desk where I dropped in pieces that I knew I wanted to include in this project.  A favourite button was put aside until the time was right.

Finally, this past weekend, I sat down and finished the project.  I will be honest, it took a long while. I still got stuck a few times, rearranging each portrait, until the right balance was achieved.  I didn't want the ladies fighting for attention, each needed their own place to shine. I also wanted to add lots of sparkle.  I love sparkle!

I am very happy with the end result.  Gotta love those vintage ladies! We girls will all be one some day!

Team Building

I am so blessed to have a great group of people to work with every day. I don't know what it is, maybe the fact that during the crazy days of the year we are together in the trenches, sharing in the tough challenges, but we are a very tight-knit group. I know that for myself, these people have been there for me through some very challenging times, when personal losses and health issues have made my dark wolf want to take over. I consider these people my tribe, and they are a big part of my wellness system.

I work at a University, in a Student Services office.  During the summer months, we have less student traffic, but we are busy with admissions, appeals, and such.  We have many deadlines to meet, so it is definitely not a laid back time of year by any means! At the end of August all of us need to regroup and reset ourselves, and get ready for what we call the rush of September, when thousands of students arrive on campus. We need to be welcoming, with smiling faces, all of our tapped out energy restored. We need to be able to help when students arrive and need a friendly and calm place to land.

So each year at the end of summer, our office plans a team building "field trip". Some way that we can have fun together, and shift gears before September begins. Nothing to do with our daily work routine. This year, we went to a local ceramics shop, called Crankpots, and spent an afternoon painting ceramics.

We drew names, and then we created projects for our person. Along with the name, we received a few colour preferences, but that was it.  At the end of it all, it was fun to guess who each finished item was for.  Amazing how well we all know one another's personal interests and tastes! 

This is the bowl that I made for my colleague.  I know that she LOVES owls, so it was an easy choice for me, and so fun to paint!

And this is the bowl that was made for me.  All my favourite colours, in the jewel tones that I am drawn to.  It is so pretty!

It was not everyone's comfort zone to be artistic, but everyone rose to the occasion!  Many commented on how "calming" the activity was...so funny to me, as I use art in my wellness practice all the time to fight anxiety, and dark thoughts. I loved getting to see some of my coworkers discover that magic for the first time.

When I taught art classes years ago, there were always people who would arrive claiming that they "were not creative". I always loved seeing these same people  transform their beliefs and get so excited when their piece would take shape.  I saw that happen this August afternoon, with some of the people that I work with. 

What a wonderful afternoon! I left feeling my heart full and inspired, and I think everyone else did too! What a great team building experience!

So bring it on, September!

Wrapped Up In Love

I became a grandmother for the first time in October of 2016.  Several months earlier, my daughter came over to visit me. She sat me down and she handed me a ball of the softest cream coloured yarn.  She said, "Mama, I need you to make me a blanket out of this." Then she handed me a photography of an ultrasound. 

I searched for a pattern that would highlight the lovely texture of the yarn, and ended up with this lovely basketweave pattern.  As I worked, I dreamed of the grandchild I had not met yet, and how we would wrap the new baby up in this warm cosy gift from me. It is said that when you knit a gift for someone, that there is love woven in with every stitch. That certainly was the case with this special project!

My granddaughter will be three in October.  This is her favourite blanket, and it makes me so happy to see her comforted by it.  Those stitches contain lots of love from Grandma! This blanket has been washed more times than we can count, as it gets dragged back and forth to daycare for nap time, and gets used at home as well. 

In January, I will be blessed with another grand-baby, as my oldest son and his wife are expecting their first child. I am planning to use the same pattern to make a blanket for the new arrival, and you can be sure that there will be a lot of love going into every stitch for the new little one, from Grandma!