Spring Comes Calling At Last.

SUNDAY was a gloomy day for me. I don't quite know what the reason is for my "downness." Maybe you've noticed there haven't been quite as many posts. I've noticed others post about their bad days and health problems, but I really haven't wanted to do that. But this isn't just a blog for others. This is my journal. This is where I go to when I'm remembering the good times and the bad times.
Even this sunny picture here of the tulip tree in the back yard couldn't quite dispel the darkness.
So, yes, life has been gloomy lately and I've been fighting my own unhappy demons and regrets. But I think this keeps things in perspective. My life - no one's life - is all happy times filled with constantly blooming roses and sun shining in every window. Sometimes there are cobwebs in the corners and ugly little spiders lurking about. Memories come calling and bring with them sorrow and guilt. Time flies by and the calendar pages are ripped off one by one without goals being accomplished.
On Saturday I screamed as loud as I could - twice! I was so frustrated. I drew a picture of myself screaming. I looked mad and frustrated in the picture and you know why? Because I WAS!
(Here's a picture of my faceless lady statue in the back yard. A little blurry, but she's getting surrounded with a tulip uprising and the johnny jumpups are creeping up on her.)
Well, today I don't feel quite so hopeless but I can't tell you why. I didn't sleep well last night. I went to work today and it was a fairly busy day. After work I went to the Nordstrom Rack to return a pair of pants and ended up with another pair, a skirt and two cheap, thin tops I can layer like light underwear that will help keep me warm until summer is here. (I am perpetually cold!) I also bought a new purse. It's green. I'll show a photo of that tomorrow. I really hope this purse works out. Buying purses is sort of like trying to find the perfect babysitter for your children. None of them is ever quite "just right."
And I have more pictures of the papers I've been decorating. Can you find the bird I mentioned in the last post? It was a "happy accident" of the paint brayer.
Tomorrow night I am going to go quite mad with paint and do just gobs of these pieces of paper with all sorts of colors. But now it's almost 10:30 p.m. and our accountant still hasn't called with our tax information, so I'm wondering if we will have to file for an extension? Does this mean more money for Uncle Sam? Drat! I shouldn't have bought that purse - femminismo

Mail Call And I'm So Lucky!

MAIL arrived Friday and one package was the cutest little heart-shaped needle case from Arlene at heartrockshome.com. We are doing a trade for this wonderful item, since I commented on it and then she let me know she was going to send me one! (Yay!)
In the other artistically decorated package was the Library Card Project from Nathalie, so I can put it into a book, and she also sent me some of the many library cards she has - with books and authors and stamped "in" and "out" dates on them. These should be really fun to do projects with.
On Saturday we attended an elaborate Easter egg hunt at my brother's and sister-in-law's house. Their huge back yard was stuffed to the gills with eggs, and plastic baseballs hid in the grass too. I think I might even have seen a football, but I'm not sure.
There were plenty of prizes for everyone - with special goodies for the kids who find the fewest eggs. The bunny, who lives in their back yard, has his own special little house at the base of a tree. The tree is hidden away so he gets his privacy, since I'm sure he was busy behind his little door, working away, preparing to hit other homes today.
Little Bobby, my brother, even had presents for his favorite sisters. He is a dyed-in-the-wool kid and we hope he never grows up.
Today I could no longer withstand the siren call of the paint and the brayer and went out to make a mess, rolling the brayer in acrylic paint and then stamping elongated 30# index card paper with a blue foam block stamp.
I used orange, purple, terra cotta, white, yellow and put them all together. As you can see the back of the cards aren't done yet. I then turned them over, drew squiggly lines with an oil crayon and rolled the brayer through white gesso, more paint. I added orange ... hmm ... then what? Don't know. Yellow? Ochre?
Finally I added some blue stamping to everything (down below).
I would like to bind the cards into a booklet and then decorate the "pages" with whatever comes to hand.
I came up with one magical stamping pattern that looked like a bird's head. So magical what you can "see" when you look at these abstract, randomly produced "paintings." (I don't know if you can find it here or not. The papers are now hanging in a spare room drying throughly before I glue/paint/distress them any further.) I think there might be glitter or some shiny stuff coming along, with text from an old physiology textbook and maybe some letters stamped on top of that.
It felt good to be slopping about in the paint, adding this and that and seeing my hands get all colorful too. Therapeutic is what it was - femminismo