How Do Ballou

Hello! Long time no post

MISSING IN ACTION??

Seems like ages since I've posted on this my personal blog.  Been a busy summer which has flown by! A week on the Cape in this cute rental in Dennisport 

where we celebrated Ebby's 16th birthday! Swam bayside, Sound side, open ocean and Sand Pond.  My fav: Sand Pond - pure bliss on brutally hot days to just float around on a noodle or as we like to call it: noodlin' around...                                                                                                   Also saw an awesome art exhibit at CC Museum of Art - Anthony Quinn show which was quite amazing (as overused as that word currently is).   Bold, modern, colorful.  Clearly a very talented man!                                                         My fav niece, Penny and good friend Carole came down & we three had High Tea at The Community of Jesus in Rock Harbor, Orleans.  This IS a religious community but no one is pushing anything upon one.  It's simply a beautiful place with a church which has the most incredible mosaic installations I personally have ever seen!  Everyone is so calm & gracious.  This is the third tea I've been to there.

Gardens have suffered this summer both from the incredibly hot weather and the physical condition of the gardener.  I am waiting for a second opinion as to whether I really need to have a spinal fusion.  From what I can't do, I suspect I will. Ah, ageing - not for the faint of heart.

A day trip to Portland, ME Art Museum on the Downeaster (train) was great fun and this museum is a true gem!  I went to see the Paley Exhibit of Modern Art borrowed from MOMA, NYC.  It was a treat - my favorite was this Bonnard. Portland is a very fun city and I did quite a bit in my 7 hrs there and it was nice to relax on the train!

Also fit in an on line class: Mary Ann Mosses' SEWN - if you've never taken a class with this gal you are truly missing a fun time.  She, personally, is very droll and the classes offer a different perspective on common materials -  I'm still working on some of the projects so the fun continues!  The pic is the cover of my pattern journal.

Also managed some fun entertainment best of which was Spamalot at the Company Theatre - Truly a hoot!  In the nostaglia dept. I reconnected with a close college friend Northeastern) - wow, 1961 I met this gal.  Also I finally got up my nerve & attended my 55th High School class reunion (Marblehead, MA).  I was glad I made the effort.  I love that town & saw many familiar faces.

I think that about does it for what I did on my summer vacation!  Thanks for reading!!

 

Finally, going DIGITAL!

I've finally retired my Kodak Carousel Slide Projector -  my faithful garden lecturing companion for over 20 yrs.

Drum roll...

introducing FIONA my new digital partner in garden lecturing crime!  Having spent the snowy month of February converting many hundreds of garden slides to PowerPoint presentations, Fiona and I are looking forward to visiting many of you in the coming months.  As the card says, have lectures, will travel and, now, the fearless Fiona will be riding shotgun, ready to fire up those fabulous pics!

See you soon and yes, Spring is on the way - saw my first robin today!

Finally, going DIGITAL!

javascript:;I've finally retired the ole Kodak slide projector - my faithful companion on the garden lecture circuit for the last 20 yrs!  

Drumroll, please

Introducting FIONA my new digital partner in crime - lecture illuminator extraordinaire!!

And I've converted all of my slide lectures to PowerPoint- that's one way to spend a very snowy Feb.!!

Looking foward to the next 3 months when I'll be visiting quite a number of clubs with Fiona and showing some mighty fine pics!!

GRADUATION!

It's official!  I am now an alumna of the Chicago School of Fusing - a true IRON MAIDEN - all as a result of taking a wonderfully fun 3 day quilting workshop in upstate NY with the ever entertaining Laura Wasilowski. Ttitled "Couching Thread, Hidden Needle", it was all it promised to be!  Sponsored by Hudson RIver Valley Art Workshops in Greenville, N.Y. we ate, slept and quilted at the Greenville Arms, circa 1889. Outstanding food! Cozy, clean accomodations and a fantastic studio space with lots of room, great lighting and many, many outlets (a must for fusers!!)  Interesting and varied classmates from as far away as Australia and ranging in age from 50 to 92!  And our 92 yr old, Elspeth, was Harry Chapin's mother to boot (he was a popular activist 70's folk singer)!  Two great gals from Texas - mother & daughter, Arlene a sweet gal from DC,  and Sandy, Harry Chapin's widow - a very gracious lady who maintains his legacy.  A very compatible fun loving group - and we loved to sing as well as stitch!!

My first quilt is the whimsical Home for the Clowns -

 

 

My second, Bouquet in the Sky - kinda wild colors but a lot of fun to put together and embroider!

 

I love Laura's style and color sense. (see her work at end of post)  She was an excellent, well prepared teacher with a quick wit and great singing voice as well as an amazing ability to completey re-write lyrics to suit her purposes -* Chicago School of Fusing Fight Song

Kim & Mark, our hosts really have the B & B thing down pat!  Mark is an oustanding chef preparing delicious meals interestingly spiced and fresh. Kim the artist and quilters who puts together the 3 and 5 day workshops.

Cookies every day at 2:30 was just an added bonus.

Great time in every way! - check out the  www.artworkshops.com

 

Art Filled Week...

Took a very fun workshop with Dyan Reaveley from the good olde British Isles on Thurs. at Ink About It - a great shop in Westford, MA.  We made an accordian journal and used all sorts of Ranger products (not surprising as she works for them!)!  Stencils, stamps, gesso, Pearl mists - all sorts of product and it was fun! (even if it did take me 2.25 hrs. to get there!!) What was the best, however, for me, was seeing the creative journals of Dyan and she had quite a few with her!  I could see the Teesha influence. Time well spent! I want to support the shop as these are dropping like flies. Then we are only left with the internet and shipping costs so....

Today I met my niece, grand niece and her friend for another serious session of eye candy at CRAFT BOSTON - a VERY IMPRESSIVE show that demonstates fine craft is alive and very well in America!!  Price points a tad out of my reach but what we saw was amazing.  Lots of incredible jewelry, clothing to die for (especially for small busted wealthy arty types), pottery- just dying to be used, mobiles, felt creations - beyond the pale, glass, and so much more.  Really I couldn't choose!  Nor could I afford to choose!!  So I didn't choose.  Not a cent.  However, it was $10 to get in to view these wares, $14 to park and $13 for lunch so I feel like I did my part :)

This show is seriously juried and sponsored by the oldest craft society in the U.S. (here in Boston)

The theme this year was STEAMPUNK and what great stuff we saw - amazing ingenuity displayed with these industrial components combined with the Victorian age and all it's complexity.

After an early week submerged in social worker meetings, medication dilemmas, transport to dr's visit, and the general morass of an elder's demise, it was nice to surface the world of art.

Peace.

WHERE HAVE I BEEN???

Painting, that's where!  Taking Flora Bowley's on line class and loving it!!  Talked my friend Lynn, my niece Penny and my daughter,Jen,  into taking the creative journey with me and boy have we had fun!!  Class is over (boo hoo) but we think we'll keep painting together.  Flora's class is called Bloom True - and she bills it as brave intuitive painting.  I couldn't agree more.  For someone like me who most earnestly wants creative expression but cannot draw, this process allowed me to do what I love - work with color and just let it come into being.  It is so freeing for me who has many friends who are painters - representational painters - and I so long to be able to express myself - this has been a gift.  I love losing my self in the act of painting, waiting to see what will happen, being willing to let it go and trust that the next thing that appears will be "better" or perhaps more revealing.  Whatever, it's fun and no pressure and thank you Flora Bowley!

P.S. the painting on the left morphed into this

Yep, those orange/gold circles are the only evidence of the 3rd before layer.  It's been a real learning experience (and I took a workshop with her in person in November)

I'M A WISHING...

to re-do my blog, re-invent myself and find a new place in this ever confusing muddle of a world.

I thought about re-naming the blog to Hubba Hubba Chubba - reflections of an aging person of interest - but perhaps I have not enough to say - although I do think I am a HUBBA CHUBBA (think, short, round, cute and FUN).  Anyway,  I need to branch out - I am hoping my current nightmarish existence is coming to a close VERY SOON and I need to focus on ONWARD & UPWARD.  Hey, maybe that's my new blog.  Comments most welcome!!

A VERY PROUD DAY!

Ebby at 13 and "graduating" from middle school!  Tonight was Class Night and black fingernails the order of the day, er, evening!

Ebby also was awarded an Academic Achievement Award for French & Math and presented with a President's Award for being on High Honor roll for all of her 3 years of middle school.  Pretty,  smart & FUN!

That's my Ebby xoxox

EEEEK - Halloween

And this folks are the males of the family at their finest hour.

L - Cuyler dressed as a Princeton grad yr. 2022. Daddy-O chicken, and Sushi Chef Will.  Yep, scary, very scary.  Me, with my rubber lips, I went to dinner with gal pals and thoroughly enjoyed a glass or two of wine and no Snickers, Hersey bars or Kit Kats!!

Happy Halloween all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In another note - I keep thinking I am picking the last roses of summer/fall but then I find a few more - all feel like gifts