quilts…

April 1st is no fool…

April 1st is no fool.

Today, most of this country would agree spring is here to stay. The flowers are about three weeks ahead of schedule down this way. We have officially finished the first quarter of the year!

It is a day where one must be careful of what gossip you are quick to spread because the pranksters are out in full force—I already see that a favorite quilt site is ‘no longer selling fabric’ and Lowe’s has figured out to permeate the house with the smell of bacon, without actually cooking….

But I digress.  For me, it is an easy 1/4 way point to check in on how things are progressing with my WORD of the year, “MOTION” and all those pesky resolution-type things.

MOTION –Yesterday, Arlie and I participated in the Monument Ave. 10K… We walked with a few spurts of running. Our times were 1:39:55 and 1:40:11 respectively. Timmy was supposed to join but he had to work Sad smile

 

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I woke up today with no real pain—a bit of stiffness—other than blisters on the second toe of each foot, and sore toenails. Yes, I said toenails. Definitely proud of our accomplishment and I look forward to doing it again!

I have finished the first two items on the CEO Challenge at my not so-LQS, Quilting Adventures—

2×4– need to take a shot of this totally quilted but no one else is awake to hold it…

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Spinning Plates

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(I would say the next one is easy, it requires so little…but…. there IS a reason it ended up on the UFO pile, right?)

The idea to be creative every day has actually not been terribly hard, if you allow for lack of photographic proof on a daily basis, and have a VERY elastic understanding of CREATIVE!

These are some of the more obvious creative days I’ve had this month.

Layla at the Park

2012-03-07 LAYLA-40

Layla in disbelief at the story this Easter bunny is telling her.

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Maymont

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More Maymont Images

Appomattox River

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More Flower images

I entered this photo—

The Decisive Moment

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in March’s Photo Show at PRAC, in Petersburg, VA.  I won Honorable Mention!  See more New York City photography.

Ok, so there. I did accomplish something.

However, Yesterdays don’t count anymore and all that. Today is the first day of the rest of your life, etc etc.

I didn’t make much progress on the cleaning/decluttering/organization stuff. BOORRRRRRIING….

I am focused this next few months on Photography.  I have three events coming up. Two show and sales–

The Heart of Virginia on May 5th, and the Fort Clifton Festival on the following weekend, the 12 and13 of May. (Can’t find a better link…this is an issue….)

Then, in June, I am having a photo exhibit down at PRAC and still have to settle on what I’m showing!!

(can’t you see the cleaning/organizing/decluttering being pushed away, AGAIN!!??)

Create Art Everyday UPDATE 2-14-2012

I have given myself this challenge, and I have to remember, I am not necessarily looking for the next masterpiece every day, but rather, that I DO something creative. Some days, it is more an exercise in creativity to SEE that something was creative than to actually create.

I am in a challenge group to get some of my quilts that up until now have not managed to get finished, finished!

So, a good number of the daily creativity will as a result reflect this.

Also, creativity to me is puttering on the computer, playing with Lightroom or PSE…(which don’t always result in RESULTS)

Without further ado, here are the photos from the first two weeks, in no order at all!

A pretty orange pepper I found at the grocery store the other day:

2012 FEB 04-8

Layla:

2012 FEB 06-5

Timmy and I, self portrait at the beach:

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A pair of Lampwork earrings:

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My 2×4 quilt, getting back into the swing of it:

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Layla and I had Arts and Crafts when she visited last:

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This is Timmy’s Valentine:

 

THIS is going around Facebook lately— pretty much sums it up!

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What is it about January?

All gung-ho at the end of December, raring to go, resolutions in hand, and then…

A month, one 12th of the year, is almost gone, and yet…

….

That  …. pretty much sums up January, and I don’t quite know WHY.

MOTION is my word of the year, and I HAVE gotten out and walked (after forcing myself out of bed in the mornings; the direct result of staying up too late re-reading the Outlander series )  ….the running part of motion seems to be eliminated because my knees protested too much, but I am going to need to do a LOT more walking to be ready for the 10K….

I DID make it to both quilt meetings I had on my calendar,  but I DIDN’T remember to get any art into the PRAC show…

I HAVE sorted through 2300 digi images of the Year on the Appomattox and culled to 1300…

And so far, for my organization and decluttering project, I have cleaned out ONE closet. 

Can’t even blame it on the weather, because we are on day 6 in a row of over 60 degrees, we *may* have seen 20 minutes of sleet one night….

I have to get my arse in gear, don’t I? 

So, I’ve joined the CEO challenge at Quilting Adventures.

Sometime in the next 6 months, THESE six quilts are to be finished.

DSCF1033The Highwayman

DSCF1035Batik Cats

DSCF1036a VERY bad shot of Dresden plates

DSCF1037Chinese Coin

DSCF1038Wild Goose Chase

DSCF1039Autumn Leaves

This will dent my quilt pile of UFO’s not the slightest, sad to say.  And the desire to work on these will more than likely be overtaken by new projects, and other things as well….

But, little steps. Something has to get me out of the January doldrums!