Wednesday, December 19, 2012

A snowflake solstice


I have 2 children, both are adults now and I'm thankful every day they've grown up to be fine humans.  I remember every age; the trials and tribulations of rearing them and keeping up with their ever-changing personalities and physical needs.   I loved all of those moments.  I still love those moments; they are my babies no matter how old they are.

I love the kindness of children, their innocence, their unfettered joy of being.  I feared for their safety, their well-being.  I mourned the loss of innocence when my husband and I discussed how we'd teach them to protect themselves as they learned that in addition to very nice people the opposite existed as well.  Mean people, hurtful people, evil people. My kids have been lucky - most of the people that have been in their lives have not been of the latter ilk. I do not fool myself that I can keep them safe from all things. I wish I could.

This week has been exceptionally hard for me.  The Sandy Hook children and their family and friends have been in my thoughts all week long.  It makes me profoundly sad that they and their parents/families will not have them to teach them, to learn from them, to love them.

As I thought about my snowflake design I couldn't stop thinking about all of the children. Each one the light of a family. That no two snowflakes are alike, they swirl around for a very short time and melt away.

In remembrance I created this design. The background is storm clouds. The snowflakes are the fleeting moments we hold; perfectly individual. The candles the children that shine light for us. The light we light to remember them by.  The groupings is all of us, together we are humanity, together we must be the light for others.  The title is A Snowflake Solstice as we move from innocence to a new year where we can hopefully learn the hard lesson that we must do everything we can to keep our children safe and have conversations on how we can do that.


Hold your children and kiss them. Be brave enough to say all lights should be considered sacred and worthy of shining forth. Be the light and do what you can to keep them as safe as you can. 



Friday, December 7, 2012

Sick computer :-(

You know your computer is sick when the monitor is on but the screen is black and it won't boot up.  I broke out in a cold sweat trying to figure out what was wrong with it. I'm perfectly able to figure things out if it's software related but hardware? Nope, have no idea.

I could see the fan whirling around.  That means nothing really...I just like the words "whirling around".

The very nice thing about Facebook and having very nice friends is the generosity that is offered up.  My friend Jackie offered up her husband; he's apparently a hardware kind of guy and she somehow talked him into doing the diagnostics for my poor computer.  What a girl! What a guy!

So far the data is recoverable. Which is a relief since ALL my artwork is on it. All my programs...some of which I no longer have the disks for. All kind of photos are on that hd.  A fan is broken and based on what Jackie said I'm betting the power supply is toast too.  I hope it's not too expensive to fix as it's my daughters 21st birthday tomorrow and Christmas is right around the corner and I don't get paid again until January.  Being on a strict budget doesn't allow for computer crashes.

I may not be doing any designing until January. That fills me with fear and loathing. Drawing every day is what keeps me sane.  A different friend told me about an electronics recyling place not too far away where maybe I can get parts really cheaply. All my body parts are crossed.

So I'm using a Mac laptop.  I've installed my Intuos tablet which helps a lot and I do have a really old Illustrator ap on it so maybe I can adjust to using that. I find a laptop a pita tho.  My fingers just hate the keyboard!  And I an so awkward with the touchpad.  But I am thankful that I have a laptop to use.

Hopefully I'll be up and running in no time. I'm keeping all my body parts crossed!


Gators on your pillow!

How nice of Jamie B to send me a photo of a pillow she made using my fabric design Alligators are Evergreen in the Everglades

Isn't it so cute?  I rotated the horizontal photo so you can also see the print without getting a crick in your neck.  :-)

I really heart customers and when they take the extra time and effort to show me their work I swoon!  I <3 head="head" lay="lay" my="my" nbsp="nbsp" on="on" p="p" pillow="pillow" this="this" to="to" want="want">

Those are my naked alligators, I also have clothed alligators. They're on vacation so you know they needed to dress up just a bit. Gators on Vacation  Oh, and I also have a 4 for 1 design where you gt 4 fat quarters on 1 yard of fabric and it does include the Gators on Vacation design.  Gators and Snakes for the Adventurous!

Thanks Jamie B for buying my alligator fabric and thanks so much for sending me photos!