ArtCrawl's over, I'm alive, but not kicking very high

Am exhausted, the show was fun, I kept thinking thru the old thing, "I'm too old for this sh**".  And it wasn't the show, it was the constant doing what I do, walking around, taking care of what needed to be taken care of (a credit card sale, opening a fresh bottle of wine, answering the questions of potential customers, etc).  Thank goodness Keith brought our lovely big dog (George) up there.  I sat with George for a while, got me off my feet.  I think that was the sneaky way Keith made sure I paced myself, at least for a bit.  My arthritic knees are just not up to all the activity packed into a short amount of time.  Dang, I hurt!  But we got some good art into lots of hands, so was it worth it?  Yes, yes, yes!

ArtCrawl

I'm the admin director of a small art studio/gallery (we do one or two shows a year).  Later today is our big show, ArtCrawl.  Another art studio/gallery (Mother Dog) puts it on, and organizes most of the other studios in the area, in the Warehouse District on the north side of downtown Houston.  The larger spaces have the option of inviting guest artists, also.  It's a one day show, usually 150-200 artists, and a few thousand people that come look at (and some even buy) our art.

Am exhausted, right now, as I'm going thru the house, looking at my list, drinking my first cup of coffee, counting down the hours til tonight.  The show's 10am-9pm.  Would try to convey a sense of excitement, but I'm too tired.  I'll get excited again when I get there, and the energy starts flowing.  I enjoyed yesterday afternoon and last night (left for home at 11:30pm).  We have a combination of professional and student artists.  I love it when we get a mix like that!

Purse

So here's the purse:

I took a fabric I had gotten years ago, cut out circles and petal shapes, and raw appliqued them.  I got the dragon batik from a quilt festival years ago (from Indonesian Batiks), and have been embroidering on it.  I showed a closeup of the seed embroidery.  That will be the flap.  Then the jewels will go somewhere, not sure.  The blue brocade that makes me salivate will be the lining.  I love it, how about you?

curtains and purse

I'm currently working on two projects.  One has a deadline, the curtains, before Thanksgiving, please.  The other, a purse, doesn't have a deadline.  I haven't decided who I'm giving it to (or if I'm keeping it), so it's not tied into Xmas or a birthday.  Here's pictures of the curtains:

I started the curtains at my previous home, over six years ago.  Hunh.  That got me started thinking, I seem to gravitate to the same color schemes for different rooms.  The curtains were for my living room previously, they're for my living room now.  The trim has gold sequins.   Mmmm, shiny.

I've got to do the purse on a different post.  Haven't figured out how to get rid of the curtain pictures and add the purse pictures. 

this past month

I've been quite active since my last post!  I've made progress on a purse I'm making (pictures to come), picked up and trying to finish some curtains I had started in our last home (six yrs ago).  Yes, the colors still will look wonderful, I tend to choose the same colors for the same rooms.  I got an armful of wool sweaters from a thrift store, felted them in my washer & dryer, and cut out the seams.  Now to decide whether I want to do a patchwork throw or cape.  I even got some satin cord to put with some pendants to complete some necklaces.

So I've been creative, productive, active, etc.  But not busy.  I'm done with busy.  I associate "busy" with being overloaded, often with mindless details, or commitments made in haste.  Trying very very hard to step back and simplify.  Even the activities I've mentioned above aren't overloading.  I'm going by the principle of "do one thing".  So every day, creatively, I do one thing.  Then, I may do another.  But I set out to do one thing.

Let's see how that works for me!

sewing machine

And I discovered that the "reverse" function on my machine no longer works.

on my way

I've started a new project, something I haven't done in 30 (?) years.  I'm making a bag out of jeans.  I had found an old pair of jean shorts, size 7/8 (no, not my size, not near my size).  have taken out inside seam, resewn it, found a wonderful dragon batik panel in my stash for the flap, found another piece of fabric in my stash that I've cut apart, now appliquing circles on the bag.  Yep, elementary, but good for rediscovering old skills, and I feel good about it.  And the fabric has lots of purple, yum.