I've been busier 'an a long-tailed cat

in a room full of rockin' chairs, BUT I have still managed to work in my daily art journal every day. Here's one of my pages from last week. Sunflowers are my favorite flowers in the whole world. Whit scored AGAIN Saturday. She leads the varsisty team in shots on goal and in actual goals. High school is fun and easy so far. She's meeting lots of new people and she is happier than I've ever seen her. Court had her first match Saturday evening. She is playing with mostly boys and more than holds her own. Her team easily won 8-4 and she scored on a beauty left, high and to the corner. She has taken about 40 seconds off of her cross country time in the last week. Yes, right now, they are the center of my universe.

In between working on the pile of stuff I have going for The Book, I was asked to write an info/how to article for the education section of the local paper about teaching and making art. I made the artwork yesterday and wrote the article today. It comes out Wednesday. Oh yeah, and the new Cloth Paper Scissors hits the stores next Tuesday and I have an article about art quilts in it. Kelli Perkins is the new covergirl. She is so talented. One of my best favorite artist bloggers, Calamity Kim, also has two pieces in there. Leave here right now and go look at Kim's blog and flickr.

It's new and I'm in it.

It's been a week

since I posted last, but it was the first week of school so I gave myself a kind of free pass from some of my responsibilities. The first week was extra busy, with getting my two brand new rooms ready and getting the kids used to having art in a new space and to their new buildings in general, new teachers and new classmates. I don't feel like I got into any of groove last week. I am sure this week will be better.

Whit had her first two high school soccer matches. The other 11 starters are all Seniors; Whit is just a little Freshman. She played about 60 of the 80 minutes on Monday and the whole 80 minute match on Saturday. They got beat Monday by probably the best team they will see all season. It was not pretty. It was also the first match for a new coaching staff. Saturday was MUCH better. They still lost, but it was only 3-2

AND WHITLEY SCORED BOTH GOALS FOR HER TEAM! How in the world is this tiny, quiet girl doing it? Sheer will, I think. There was an article in the paper today about the match and the coach said some nice things about Whit and her leadership.

I have been making art here and there and trying to get studio time sort of scheduled in between drop offs and pick ups for the girls and their stuff.

We are watching High School Musical 2. I did not know it was set in Albuquerque. I have peeps in the ABQ.

Last spring I saw some shoes in Bandolino that I LOVED -red patent peep toe sling back wedges - so cute. But they were 65 bucks and I got 2 kids to clothe; you know what it's like when you're the mom. Red patent peep toe sling back wedges are nice, but not a necessity, right? Today we went to the mall and instead of leaving nose smudges on Bandolino's windows, I went in. My shoes, still just as cute, WERE ON SALE FOR 19.99!

Score!

What I Did This Summer

How many kids will write that essay sometime in the near future? I go back tomorrow and the students start on Tuesday. One of the things I like about teaching is that our years have built-in times of reflection, planning and evaluation. The last day of summer vacation is one of those times. Here is a short list of stuff I did over the last 11 weeks.

Took the girls to the optometrist. Finished 5 quilts and accompanying article for Cloth Paper Scissors. Tie-dyed 12 t-shirts for JR's soccer team. Watched them win their tournament. Went to Arrowmont with Cheryl for a printmaking class. Took the girls to IU soccer camp for a week. Had my yearly eye exam. Worked on a book proposal with Cheryl. The girls had British Challengers Soccer Day Camp. Whit played in 3 high school basketball tournaments. I had my hair cut and colored twice. Court ran a 5k and had soccer almost every Saturday. Whit had basketball conditioning and soccer conditioning with girls teams and went to about three weeks of boys soccer practices as well. For the last two weeks, she has had girls soccer practice, sometimes twice a day. We went to Gatlinburg, TN over the Fourth. Interweave liked the proposal and Cheryl and I signed a contract to write a book. JR coached the girls and a few of their pals in a 3v3 soccer tournamnent and they won. I made those unis, too. I went to New Mexico for a week. Went to Santa Fe and the Georgia O'Keefe. Whit made varstiy soccer. I made lots of art, watched some tv, redid my blog and put songs on my ipod. I read one book - The Book of Bright Ideas and started another one, Color.

Oh yeah, and I turned 40.

It was a good summer and I have no reason to think this school year will be any different.

This is what I made today.

Yes, I know I'm writing a book and I should be working on projects every waking moment, but there is that thing called "life" that sometimes has to come first. Today was one such day. Whit had freshman orientation at the high school today, so we spent about 2 hours getting yearbook and ID photos taken, getting lectured about dress code and attendance, getting her schedule, traipsing up and down the stairs and round the halls to find all her classrooms and paying her fees. Then we made a mad dash to the grocery store to get stuff to make the above fruit salad. Tonight was the preseason soccer scrimmage for both the boys and girls teams, followed by a pitch-in dinner for the players and fams. Freshmen were supposed to bring salads and Whit decided on fruit salad. Between salad-making and scrimmage watching, I had to clean up the classroom part of my studio. Generally I work in the big area at the studio, even though I have a small room in there, too, that is only mine. We let the local soccer club have coaches meetings in the classroom and tonight was the schedule and roster meeting for the fall season. It looked like a Joann Fabrics had exploded in there. In between cleaning, I did manage to get a few coats of paint on a trio of projects.

And then there's the heat. It's always this hot in Southern Indiana this time of year. Your clothes are always damp and even pin straight hair like mine gets unruly. The grass looks tired and scorched and the petunias are worn out from blooming three straight months; it's hard to be that cheerful that long. It's always darkest just before dawn and it's always hottest just before school starts.

I don't buy kiwi fruit because they are my favorite. I buy them because I love that color.

She did it again!

More fabric designed by Anna Maria Horner. I didn't thing it could get any better than her Bohemian collection, but then I saw Chocolate Lollipop! Here are 3 of the prints in the collection, available from J.Caroline. I got a big fabric delivery today, big for me, anyway. 7 yards to use in projects for The Book. It's so motivating to have all those colors and patterns in front of me, just waiting to have me make them into something fabulous. I hope to spend some of every day this week in the studio.

I visited both of my new art rooms today to see if they are ready for next week. Nope, not quite, but will be by the Big Day. I am looking forward to school starting. The school year always whizzes by and I know the next 5 will be stuck on fast forward - the girls will be in high school. Everybody tells me high school goes too fast. I get I knot in my stomach at the mere thought of what we will be doing four years from now...taking Whitley to - gulp - college.

I think I'm going to take Court to school tomorrow to pay her fees and get her schedule. She is always afraid Walmart will run out of school supplies before we get there to get hers. Silly girl.

Daily Art

Here are the pages I worked on every day last week at Hummingbird. I used the freebies from the Georgia O'Keefe and some pics I had taken last year, which I printed and brought along, just in case I wanted to use them for something. The galleries in the O'Keefe are always changing; I am not sure the museum actually owns anything. What you see when you go depends on what they have on loan at the time. There was not a cow skull to be found last week and precious few flowers. We saw mostly circles and curliques. I like that she liked curliques, too. Some of the pieces were only a simple pencil doodle of a curlique with a long tail. There were also several photos of her taken by hubby Alfred Steiglitz - I am sure that's spelled wrong - and by another fellow who snapped her late in life in and around her home in Abiqui - the spelling again- New Mexico. From the way they photographed her, you can tell they both loved her. On a side note, Mrs. Wanda Higgins, the matriarch of Hummingbird Music and Art Camp and avid painter, was a contemporary of Ms. O'Keefe back in the day in New Mexico.

Whitley "T-Bone" Crane, incoming freshman at Bedford-North Lawrence High School, has been named to the VARSITY GIRLS SOCCER TEAM!! She will be wearing #6 - Brandi Chastain's number. She has worked hard her whole life for this moment. She got it on her own. T-Bone refers to her middle initial, T for Taylor, and her slender physique. It's just a nickname we use sometimes to differentiate her from all the Whitneys whose parents also call them Whit. She is starting high school in a good place. Her first match is a week from Monday.

Courtney went to an amusement park with her friends' youth group today. It makes me SO nervous to let them do anything without me! I already have a headache from worry, humidity and a general feeling of overwhelm.

I am working on the book every day. It still seems a little surreal to say it. I'm writing a book.

Happy Birthday, Whitley!

Whitley is 15 today! She wanted a pink camera for her birthday, so that's what she got. Here she is as a new born and as the too-grown girl who now lives in our house. She was born with a full head of hair that stood out like wild all over the place. She was a screamy baby, always seeming impatient to grow up and get to the next thing. She cried for eleven straight weeks and didn't sleep through the night for years. As a kid, though, she has been no trouble at all - straight A's, kind to small children, the elderly and animals, loved by all her teachers and coaches - so I guess it has evened out. I have always tried to be realistic about my girls. I know they are not perfect, but they are pretty dang close.