feather creations

OK - so I'm adding the finishing touches to some of my pieces from last year's BJP and once my camera battery is recharged I'll post those pix. In the meantime, I'm starting anew for BJP 2010 and looking forward to it. A friend of mind gave me a book on menopause called the Seven Sacred Rites of Menopause by Kristi Meisenbach Boylan which talks about menopause and spirituality. I've decided that since I seem to be in the midst of it (menopause) I might just as well celebrate the da#@ thing by journalling it. Ignoring it doesn't seem to be working! So I'm going to work my way through the book and the rites and celebrate the process as I go along. To truly honour the process I've decided to use Always Wings as the base. They've been a constant in my life since everything started going sideways so why not honour that fact as well. The first piece is already underway. Let the adventure begin!!!

I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out if anything stood out for me in February ... and nothing does. It was just a month - 4 weeks, 7 days each - nothing special! The most that can be said for it is that I marked off all the physio and chiropractic appointments I had to go to to for my hip. It was a very boring, uninteresting and nothing month. So that's what I made - a boring, uninteresting piece that was just about marking time!! Now that it's done I can move on to March - I have two ideas for that or maybe it's one for March and one for April. That could be it. Anyway, I should have them both finished before the end of May which would bring me right up to date. Yeah!!!!

I'm going to be .... at 51 I still haven't figured that one out yet. Firstly, I'm still waiting for that "magic moment" when I'll know for sure that "I'm grown up" and secondly as I grow and change what I want to "be" also grows and changes. So it's hardly any wonder to me that time spent in January was thinking about career paths and what my next choice should be. My mother was always amazed by variety in my resume - it is a bit daunting - however, I've often thought I wanted to be a "renaissance" woman when I grow up so may that's still influencing my thought processes. Anyway, January is about "Opportunities" and trying to figure out which way to go. This time I'll keep my day job until I'm a little more solid about which way to go before deciding I want a change - new direction for me. More importantly, I've figured out the design for February. I need to back the piece and do the edging. ...

Apparently not in Calgary. We're expecting 20 cm of snow tonight. This after a gorgeous sunny morning where I was sitting on the back deck in a t-shirt. Oh well... this too shall pass!! Having said that I've finished my December piece for the Bead Journal Project. December for me started the last weekend in November when, for some as yet undefined reason, the muscles from my knee to my groin on the inside of my right leg seized completely. Despite the efforts of two friends, both of whom have massage techniques, we couldn't get the muscles to let go. In fact, the chiropractor wasn't having much success either. I finally ended up having IMS - a needle technique that forces the muscles to let go - done after Christmas. So Christmas wasn't fun; I missed work for a month; and I didn't get much sleep. Neither muscle relaxants nor codeine seemed to help much with the pain. So my December piece is absolutely a reflection of that month. The background is burgundy silk, ...

OK - so I'm not yet an avid "blogger". I'll get there eventually. I've finally managed to finish 3 months of Bead Journal Project pieces. September was my answer to two challenges: the first being BJP and the second being freeSpirit Artisans October challenge which was colour. For the FSA piece we drew crayons from a bag and that was the colour we had to work with. Fortunately for me, the colour was blue which was my favourite colour as a kid. Anyway, as I mentioned before September for me is a time of Reflection which is the name of this piece. 'Reflection means a number of things to me: the time spent in reviewing where I am in my life and where I'd like to be and also what I see in the mirror at different times. So it's a good title. October was focussed on going down to the Crowsnest Mountain area for a shamanic workshop. I really love this area of Alberta and the mountain itself calls to me. I figured since it figured so largely in October for me ...

I've been zipping around the BJP blog and also all the individual blogs. There's some very cool stuff happening on that site. I haven't started my project yet as it's only a week into the month and I'm not sure how it will go. I have been thinking about September - for me, it's always been the beginning of my year mostly because my birthday falls in this month. I just function better if I think along these lines. So it's about beginnings, birthdays [in my family, there's 6 of them this month) and anniversaries (my mom's death). So I guess it's mostly about beginnings - the beginning of the BJP, the beginning of my year and the beginning of a new adventure. It'll be interesting to see where I end up in August. Oh, yeah, and the beginning of freeSpirit Artisans' year. I think I've managed a start on my "legend" piece. I don't think I've ever been a "legend in my own mind". I don't have delusions of gr...

OK - it took me awhile but I've finally figured out how to get back in here. I had a few cookie problems with IE so I switched to Firefox and it's not a problem. I've had a busy summer. I was down in the Crowsnest for a few days and managed to play with different things: polymer clay, beadwork, design, and some touristy things. Next, I participated in the Calgary Weekend to End Breast Cancer. I was part of the bike crew - which means I probably did double the 60 kms the walkers did. Then in the beginning of August I was at Red Deer College doing a 5-day precious metal clay class that was a blast. Five days of doing nothing but creating - I loved it. Then today I was laying a cork floor in one bedroom. I have another bedroom to do but it needs painting first - well selecting the paint first. Now I'm gearing up for the Bead Journal Project and for the fall gathering of freeSpirit Artisans, a group of seven art quilters and me. We've designed our projects for the year ...