BLOGGING.....OFF TRACK!

Well, it's been some time once again since I posted on my blog. I'm not quite sure why I've gotten out of the rhythm, but I have. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I just haven't felt 100% and the other part, I believe, is struggling with the direction I want to go moving forward. It's been a crazy time with art shows scheduled for the past few weekends. All of that takes extra planning time, design time and the sheer logistics of getting things organized to take to a show. I did the Art in the Park for Artsweek of Peterborough, which ended up being a total waste of time. All day, outside, and only sold one item all day. Last weekend was kind of fun. I entered a juried art show affiliated with the All Canadian Jazz Festival in Port Hope, Ontario. It was an interesting premise for the artists. It was called the Square Foot Show. Every piece of art could measure no more than one square foot, be it photography, painting, 3 Dimensional, whatever. I did not need to be present for entire weekend. I just dropped my art off and they had people who hung all the pieces neatly lined up on display. On Sunday, when I went back to retrieve my pieces, I decided to take in some of the jazz festival and then pick up my art. I so enjoyed the jazz I heard.... some wonderful Canadian jazz musicians. For this show, there were two prizes handed out as well as the chance to sell one's art. The first was a Critics Choice award and the second was the People's Choice award. I found out I just missed out on the People's Choice award by two votes...rats! It would have been great as there was a $250.00 cash prize included. Oh well, c'est la vie! The money would have been great, but I was encouraged that I was in the running at all. The art piece that won, was an oil painting. Each time I enter or participate in these shows convinces me to stick with what I love and eventually, eventually it will pay off financially and in recognition. I chuckled to myself driving home from town today, thinking, oh my gosh, I hope I'm not one of those artists that becomes famous after they are dead! Wow, now that's some weird thinking AND that would really kind of suck!
Sunday night, one of my cousins invited us to attend a concert at Showplace, to see a group of women called 'The Marigolds' It was so great seeing these Canadian women who are singers and songwriters up close and personal in an intimate venue. Each is acclaimed in their own right, but together they make great music. Here is just a sample of their talents.......

An interesting bit of trivia....The name 'The Marigolds' came from the Sesame Street song 'Inchworm'. You can see more of their songs on YouTube.

ARTISAN'S AND ARPEGGIO'S

Well, this past Saturday was the culmination of approximately five months of planning. It began with a very special woman by the name of Marg Glenn who wanted to help her church raise funds for some much needed renovations to bring the church up to present day handicap requirements. This included a chair lift to allow the disabled to get to the main church, to gut and re-do the bathrooms to make them more accessible for wheelchairs and finally to begin much needed repair to a very large stained glass window that is beginning to disintegrate.
Marg recruited myself and one other woman by the name of Laurie to help organize and brain storm for ideas. We decided we wanted it to be an art show with some class and to promote both local artists and local food providers.
With that in mind, we began recruiting local artists, local musicians, and local food suppliers with something special to offer.
The end result was twelve different artists who each did something unique. We had five different musicians who each donated an hour of their time to play while people shopped and sampled different food items. It was a 'sensory' experience in every sense of the word.
There are limitations to decorating a church hall, but we did our best. All the vendor tables were covered in linen tablecloths, we had a little bistro table area for people to sit and eat and listen to the music and there were potted mums outside the church to greet those attending and flowers dispursed around the venue. We had candles on the piano and fall coloured arrangements at the front entrance as well.
Each artist and food vendor donated something distinct to them for a basket that we sold raffle tickets and one lucky winner walked away with a lot of valuable items.
Although, it wasn't as well attended as we had hoped it was still a huge success! Many who attended stated it was one of the 'classiest' art shows they had been to ever.
Mission accomplished!

OH MY! WHERE TO BEGIN!!!

Well, I truly don't know where to begin as it's been three weeks since I posted anything on my blog. Why, you may ask? Well, I have been very busy and quite frankly I'm still dealing with my health issues. Although, I'm getting better, I'm still struggling with days it's a struggle to breathe normally. It's apparent, I need to find my own way to deal with a new lifestyle that is foreign to me. Because of the breathing problems, it takes me much longer to get things accomplished and I get tired much more quickly. The more difficult days are impossible to predict at this moment.... with no rhyme or reason as to why.
Because the time elapsed is so long, I will just highlight the main events that occured.

Let me begin where I left off and that is with the work done for my niece's wedding. The DIY wedding may save some money, but if for sure couldn't happen without a lot of hard work from the bride, the groom, parents, friends and family members. It was a very different setting for a wedding. It's called Wychwood (The Stop) now, but used to be the old transit barns for the buses and streetcars. On Saturdays, it begins with a market which does not end until 1:00 PM. Therefore, we could not begin to set everything up for the wedding until all the market vendors had left. We then had to clean the areas and begin setting tables, chairs, dishes, etc. etc. up. By the time that was accomplished, we all only had time to get back to the hotel, shower quickly, change and get back to the venue for 5:30PM. We managed to do it!
The wedding was short, and very unique, but oh so my niece, Kelly. They said short vows and then read letters to each other stating why they were taking each other as partners. The letters were then put in a wooden box (made by her Dad) along with a bottle of wine and they each took turns hammering nails in the lid to seal. The plan is not to open until their 25th wedding anniversary OR the first time they feel their relationship might be threatened. If so, they will open, re-read their letters and remind themselves why they pledged a commitment to each other.
Kelly did not where your typical wedding dress by any means...nothing too traditional for her. Her dress was made by a Toronto designer that she does sample modelling for and has done for a few years now.
The food was planned by the groom and a friend of his who owns a restaurant in Montreal. I must say, it's probably the best wedding food I've ever had and I'm not alone in that comment. Absolutely delicious! Many helped them pull this off and it was quite enjoyable.
An added bonus for me, was my grandaughter and my youngest daughter attended so got some really special time with both Lindsay and my little sweet pea, Maggie.
Sunday morning, some family members went over to Kelly and Nate's for a breakfast/brunch.




I will try to do another post tomorrow to give an update on the first of a sequence of art shows I'm doing in September. This weekend was the first one. This was Artisan's and Arpeggio's. I was part of the committee organizing this one and it was a great day...more on this tomorrow.