computer troubles

Phew!

Did I ever have problems with my li'l ol' MacBook.

It had been slowing down and acting strange for a while and I thought it was just getting old, or full, but who isn't?

Then it wouldn't shut down.

Then it was super slow and the little rainbow spun around if I went anywhere near the internet.

Then it died. Dead.

Or so I thought. My neighbourhood genius diagnosed it with a fried hard drive, so I got impatient and went and bought the new slender sleek lightweight MacBook. Shiney!

But as I was having buyer's remorse, my husband took it in to My Tech Guys and for a fraction of the cost of the new computer, we could have a new faster hard drive and save all my files! Yipee!

So today was a monumental town day - take the laundry in (our washer is not well), pick up the old fixed computer, return the new shiny computer (remove all personal information in the parking lot), take the new/used cat in for a check up, visit the care facility that may house my dear father, grocery shopping, banking, yadda yadda….

When really all I wanted to do was sew oven mitts (ala Maria Shell) and bacon ornaments!

So here we are, back on our island, cat is romping around outside, dinner is heating up, chili for Sunday dominoes night is under way, we are readying ourselves for a trip to Saltspring Island tomorrow to spend time with family and I am posting this on my old (new) laptop!

bacon for the xmas tree

Procrastination Production

I am newly excited that the 32nd annual Denman Island Christmas Craft Faire is starting tomorrow. Excited because I love it, I love chatting to all the people who come, I love seeing the halls all dressed up and excited to hopefully sell some stuff I have made.
I am really happy that it will be over soon so I can stop doing what I call Procrastination Pieces. These have certainly been fun to make, and have done a great job of distracting me from making Big A Art. Big A art is harder than owl pencil cases and handbags. It doesn't pay any better or worse. I use more fabric up when I make art. I use my brain better too, but sometimes it just gets hard.
Next week I'll find out what my art brain has in store for me! I'm excited!

Watch This Space!

I like to go deep.
When I take a workshop, I like it to last. I like to get in to the meat of the thing and study hard, seek out  possibilities, try stuff, go back the next day and try some more stuff. I learn better this way. I have a short attention span, and find that if a workshop lasts a couple of hours, I don't delve deep enough. I enjoy it while I'm there, but there it ends, as I tend to go home and fail to explore further. With a good long workshop, with time, I am in it, it is in me. I dive deep into the subject matter and I uncover many avenues of exploration. I am able to finish a thought, finish a piece, follow through, not putting it on the back burner for later. Working through an idea when its fresh is really important to me, working in the moment, spontaneously and directly is the way I get good work. If I think and plan, my work becomes stifled, lacking passion.
Long workshops, this is what I like.

So here I am, here we are - on the verge of offering high level textile art workshops in the beautiful and peaceful setting of Denman Island.

Our first Tweedle Do Productions project is a week of intensive creativity with two very talented and passionate teachers, each one a specialist in her field. Maria Shell is an artist I met in Ohio while doing a two-week long intensive art retreat at the Crow Barn with Nancy Crow. As well as being an artist, Maria is a great writer and talks about these experiences in her blog. She is coming from her home in Anchorage to teach a course called Pattern And Repetition In Contemporary Quiltmaking. She is very generous with her talents and invites all levels of stitchers to participate. I can hardly wait! A week of patchwork, great food and nature. Leave your phones at home, bring your hiking shoes and your sewing machine and join in.

We are still getting things up and running at Tweedle Do, but this is too exciting to leave under my hat. Mark your calendar for the week of May 25-30, 2014 to be on Denman Island for a creative blast.

Leave a comment if you are too excited to wait!


Next up - Anna Heywood_Jones. Stay tuned.