subtly strange

I have more to post about my recent trip to the big foreign city of Toronto, but as soon as I saw this gallery window I thought of course of tricia_joy

This is where I was just a month ago...it was in the news yesterday that a 19 year old folksinger got killed by coyotes as she was hiking alone on the same trail. All we saw was a chipmunk...
It was a gorgeous hike, that is the ocean you can see in the distance. I would go again in a heartbeat (armed with a big stick at the least)

more at www.flickr.com/photos/96987549@N00/sets/72157622420164722/

I had the good fortune to have a magical vacation on Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. I've had a little trouble readjusting to ordinary life!

I have been hearing the call from old reliable friends here on Livejournal lamenting the absence of posts and the exodus to Facebook and Twitter of so many, and the guilty strings have been tugged. I have a Facebook account too, mostly because of family, but it could never take the place of Livejournal in my heart. Livejournal means so much to me, and I don't even know why. I check it over and over, every day, and I LOVE reading the posts my friends make.

I am a bit uncertaiin of what to post. Originally this was a way of keeping up with various art groups, sharing projects. I haven't made time for my art in too long. Much, much has happened in my personal life in the past year or so. I'm not sure how much of that people would want to know. I compose entries in my mind, but not on the computer.

So, I am going to make a commitment to begin again, just writing for me, as an exercise. Not worrying what anyone will think. Take it or leave it. No big 'catch up' posts. More like little vignettes. Let's see if I can live up to the commitment....

By the way, I changed the name of my journal some time ago....l'heure bleue....the most magical times of day, the place of transition, twilight and dusk....the blue hour...

Then....and now!


That was in 1978, and no, I wasn't twelve like I look, I was 20!
Notice the beer bottle...the nurses suggested beer to help make breast milk!

I am astounded how long it has been since I have posted. I have had a lot of changes in my life. But I haven't been making art. I really don't often feel like posting unless I have something to show. I sincerely hope to change that soon too!
This is me in Toronto's Little India this weekend. I was there visiting. I have never had food from the south of India before, it is different than what is the usual menu in an Indian restaurant. Delicious! Many more pictures on Flickr if anyone is bored enough to look!

Has anybody here tried hypnotism for weight loss? I know it can't be a cure all or everyone would be thin, but I am supposedly susceptible to hypnosis and wondered if it would be worth the money to try it.

It's insufferably hot and humid in the northeast today. Thunder is rumbling. I have been working in my art journals, trying to get a little looser in my style.
I really like spreading paint with credit cards. I feel these pages are some of my most authentically me yet.

If there are one or more people on your friends list who make your world a better place just because they exist, and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the Internet (most particularly LiveJournal), then post this same sentence in your journal.

And the wind chills are going to be -30 or so. We had a stressful ride home tonight. I won't even think about tomorrow morning....

I got a package in the mail yesterday from my baby, robesandflesh, who is in the middle of a big move and I am impressed that she had time to get a present out for me! It has a nice big bag from Lush in it, I always wanted to try something from them, since talking a long hot bath is one of my favorite luxuries....
Here is a sample of our tree this year, full of memories, like the little nest my mother got me back in the seventies, the pink swan princess that is one of my favorites, and the blue fish that we bought in the sixties in Newberry's department store in Cooperstown...my mother liked to build us a collection when we were children. I still have my daughter's homemade ornaments too, from over the years...including a green paper cow angel and clothespin characters from the Nutcracker that she was so proud of!
I had a good luck day today...I went to the dreaded WalMart (I avoid it like the plague) and got what I needed and out in five minutes! What a relief! (I'm not really a procrastinator, my man and I decided not to buy each other gifts, and then he tells me he "forgot" and got me a little something, so I HAD to get something fast!)
Best wishes to all!

I'm sure this is nothing to those of you who play with photoshop all the time but I was trying to clean up a poor shot of my Teddy cat playing with the catnip toy I made her and thought this was sooo funny! She really does look shrink wrapped!

 

Happy birthday to my shared birthday sister alien_anomaly !!!
I know how old you are but I won't tell...

I have been so quiet latey. I don't know why. I want to write, but I am inately shy. I do love reading Livejournal, though, so much. Also, my scanner is not compatible with our new computer, so I haven't had as much art to show (my pictures aren't the greatest)
So how about a mini synopsis of life for the past couple of months?
I had three weeks of vacation in October....three weeks! It was wonderful! The first week we spent visiting R's family. Did I want to? Of course not. I am rather anti-social, to say the least, and don't like being trapped with people I have nothing in common with, talking the small talk...I almost had a meltdown at his parents' house. We were going to spend a minimal time there, making day trips and spending evenings with them, but it rained and really there is nothing to do in Massena NY! I couldn't get out of the little house and the old people TV...had no alone time...I need my alone time! But I did get through it and I'm sure they are reassured of my flakyness....and picked up my darling daughter akarobesandflesh. I was so happy to see her...she hadn't been home for four years! We drove down through the Adirondacks and saw much beauty...

Well, it has been a long hard summer....we seem eternally short of help where I work and with summer vacations (therea are always two people off every week in a group of ten of us) I have had so little free time...literally working with only one Sunday off every other week. I have to appreciate the extra money, but now that my time has come (I always take mine in this, my favorite month and in May, my other favorite month!) well, I am hoping to make use of every minute of it! (...and that includes naps and goofing off...)
Hmmm...but I am going to be bad and say I don't appreciate the first part of it...my boyfriend insists on visiting his parents for the first three days...did I ever mention that I am a bit antisocial? But I haven't been up there in a couple of years so I guess to keep the peace I will keep quiet about it. They aren't bad people...and when I REALLY think about it, it won't be so bad, one day we will be walking in the Adirondacks, and one will be taking his mom to Montreal. So be quiet, voice in my head that keeps whining!
Now for the good part, we will be picking up my daughter at the bus station on the way home! She hasn't been home in four years and I am so looking forward to spending some real quality time together. She has a livejournal, robesandflesh and is an artist. Here is a photo she took of herself to work into a painting. I think it is stunning....

Haven't posted in quite a while...so to break the ice I will show you some of the finds I got at my favorite perpetual garage sale. The lady is in her nineties and is a relative of my aunt's husband...quite a character who walks with a cane but can bend over and pick up some pie crumbs off the floor, and won't let me hold the door open for her....she likes to wheel and deal and does some estates for other old people up in our area of the 'backwoods"...so she has lots of what I consider treasures!

Here is a book from 1850 with really beautiful steel engravings. They have come loose from the binding, and I pulled one out to show. Next is a bird book circa 1900, a bird done in exquisitely detailed calligraphy,a bag of copper nailhead beads, a pretty bow off somebody's nice dress, a stack of railroad receipts from 1858 with beautiful old handwriting, a bunch of old postcards, a fine wool embroidered baby blanket that I don't know what I will do with but would look beautiful displayed with old dolls, a broken red bead necklace with an interesting clasp, and an embroidered eyelet collar....

Here is a WWII ration book, an 1838 edition of "Elegy in a Churchyard" with more lovely engravings,  a lovely decorated postcard in it's original mailing box, lots of doilies and linens, a set of log cabin quilt blocks in fun colors (don't know what I'll do with them!) and bunches of ephemera...postcards and such...all for about twenty dollars because she thought the book was valuable and charged me $5 for it.
She had a few beautiful christening gowns hanging up which she said weren't for sale because she was cleaning them up yet....they were beautiful with handwork and old lace. I wasn't interested because I assumed they would be more than I wanted to pay for something I didn't have room for...(I sort of have collected vintage clothes for years, but have no more space) but I wondered what she was asking...the prettiest one she pointed out was $8! I am still debating with myself over going back for them!
I tried to put a picture of the old postcard behind a link so if you clicked the word it would take you to it...but I couldn't make it work, so if you want to see it it's on my Flickr site...it's lovely with a silk ribbon rose and sequins...

( My Interests Collage! )
Had to do it...a fun way to procrastinate!

I am almost done with the Winter's Tale RR ...this is LK Ludwig's book....doesn't it look yummy?

I am in  a great RR called "A Winter's Tale" but we are woefully behind! There is a little story behind this, and I imagined a Victorian lady botanist longing for spring in the middle of winter....on the right is a pocket filled with treasures from her walks, and on the right we see her mind, filled with thoughts of nature....



The scans are a little wonky because the book is very 3-D...this is from Melissa's book.