This Is What I Do: Create

 I often wonder how my life would be if I had not taken the paths that I did. There was a time when I thought about majoring in art in college. One or two classes with the art prof convinced me that that was not going to be a great career choice. I don't know whether it was lack of talent, or just that the professor and I didn't have the same meeting of the minds. I loved making art then as much as I do now, but my kind of art didn't fit into the "frame" that the prof set forward. Now days, I am sure that artists in the making are given much more freedom than we were in the early 1960s. Then there was the girl that I dated forever. All the way through HS and my first year of college. She was a real sweet gal and we enjoyed each other's sense of humor and had a great time together. I wonder how life would have gone if she and I had continued life together. Probably not too well. I think she advanced beyond me after she finished college and moved on to work for ...

 Life today is really hard. It's hard growing old. Your body is tired, your mind is tired, and generally life seems to suck most of the time. There aren't a whole lot of bright spots anymore, not much to look forward too. Life seems to be one doctor appointment after the other for one or more ailments. Arthritis is not for sissies, either. It hurts. I have a bum shoulder which give me pain most of the time. I fell on it years ago and damaged the muscles and tendons, but didn't break anything. Now, I have developed arthritis in that shoulder, and my Doc tells me that the shoulder joint is now "bone on bone," which is what causes the most pain. Some days are worse that others, but it aches almost constantly. I try not to complain to people because 1. It doesn't help and 2. I don't want to be thought of as a wuss. So, I just muddle on and fake feeling good most of the time. I fell last fall and broke my foot, and have now got to contend with residual arthriti...

For years, I have "suffered" from anxiety. Some times it's mild, and some times it's serious enough to develop into a panic attack. I always question what causes this as I am usually a very calm, somewhat assuming person. I don't get upset at most things, though admittedly, as I've gotten older,  things do upset me more than they used to. I have been studying the causes of anxiety and panic attacks for a long time. There are many causes, but I don't seem to fit into any of those "boxes." I don't suffer PTSD that I know of, nor do I fit into the Autism spectrum. Recently I came upon something that might just fit what might be a cause. I feel like I need more information, but this could be it! Sensory Overload.   Let me explain. For years I have worn hearing aids of different kinds. Anyone who has worn one in one ear or both ears knows, or should have had explained to them, that no hearing device can cancel or filter ambient noise. I have now, ...

 Recently I was invited to participate in a holiday activity that made me question my Christian beliefs as well as my rights as an American. I found the activity to be something I would not want to participate in and to be very frank, was highly illegal constitutionally. I questioned where this inappropriate activity originated, and found it started in the city's Mayor's office. Not to surprising as he is a Democrat and following the Jackass agenda that has been forced upon us during the year of the pandemic. I remember studying the novel, A Nation of Sheep while in college and am finding that it is even more true today than it was then. Americans, if you read closely the printed word and watch any TV at all are becoming more sheeplike every day. I am seriously afraid that we will eventually be "led to the slaughter."  I do not believe for a minute that Biden and his ilk fairly won the presidential election. I do however believe that money exchanged hands in very larg...

Just this week I read a post on the infamous Facebook that, to sum it up, blamed all the crisis going on in our country, namely the racial uprising, on taking God out of the schools. The ol’ separation of church and state issue that’s been going on for decades.   This whole posting did nothing but make me angry!   It certainly displayed ignorance on the part of the writer! Any educator in a public school, or most of them anyhow, will attest that God is alive and well in our school systems. As an educator I saw Him every day, and even though I’ve been retired for a decade, I know He still is there. He is there in the classroom every minute of every day holding that teacher together as he or she faces a room of children of any age. Some days that classroom feels like a battlefield, but God is there. He is there in the hallways in the smiling faces of students and staff. He is there in the lunchroom as the lunch personnel serve nourishing meals to students that might not get ...

Last month I had to see a cardiologist.  The Dr. ordered an ultrasound of my heart and a treadmill test, and also gave me some meds to bring my blood pressure down.  I tried the meds, but they upset my stomach, they made me dizzy and lethargic to the point where I was sitting in my chair staring at the wall or out the window for days, and whenever I stood up, I needed a cane to keep my balance. I live alone and felt I couldn't function this way, so I stopped taking that medicine.  (And it was a very low dose.) I have been monitoring my blood pressure since then, and as long as I keep my stress level down, it stays in the mid 120's over the low 70's, which cardio docs now call high.( Used to 125/72 was good??)  I've had a fair amount of things stressing me out the last few months...read here, car going defunct and taking on a car payment for the first time since 1996, having furnace problems off and on and having to put in a new furnace right before Christmas, having ...

Well, another year has come and gone and a new one will be beginning shortly. Next year I think will be appropriate for many of  us artists with a vision: ya know' 2020!  Yeah, I know, pretty lame humor! In some ways I am looking forward to 2020. I will be getting another grandchild in April (or maybe even the end of March). The parental unit, my son and his wife, decided to not find out this time whether it's a boy or a girl. Their theory: when you already have two of each, what difference does it make. I wasn't too excited when they first told me that they were expecting again. As a matter of fact, I remarked, "are you two crazy!" But, I know they aren't, and I also know that they are both wonderful parents, and those kind are the ones who should be having big families.They simply love their children, provide well for them, and that makes me happy. Another reason to look forward to 2020 is that my oldest grandson, who is now 26, will soon celebrate his 3rd ...

Fifty years ago on August 2, 1969, I married the love of my life. Our marriage lasted 38 years, 1 month, 22 days, and 7 hours, until an angel slipped in and took her home to her Heavenly Father. I have learned a lot in the last 12 years. Some not so good, some good. Let me share what comes to mind that I have learned. Not necessarily in any order, by the way! I can actually keep a good balanced  checkbook now. I can cook for one. It's not fun or easy, but I have it mastered pretty well. Dating is a lot different than it was 50 years ago. It's easier to stay home. Eating out in a restaurant alone is not too enjoyable. Most of the friends we had as a couple are no longer close. Many, not all, people who say "let me know if you need anything" really don't mean it. Being alone is not bad. Being lonely sucks. I could easily become a hermit. My children's lives do not revolve around me anymore.  My faith has grown exponentially. I hate doing laundry. ...

Our May mini inspiration mission was the following song lyrics: "Heaven opened its portals to me."  When I read them, I knew immediately that the song was "With a song in my Heart" That got me thinking and I remember going to my Grandma F's and she let me stay up and watch the "late show" which was a movie that didn't even start until after the 11:00 PM news. That was when I saw the movie, "With A Song in my Heart" for the first time. I can remember it like it was yesterday and it has to have been at least 65 years ago. (Grandma had a TV and we didn't!!) The movie starred Susan Hayward (pant, pant!!)  It was the story of Jane Froman, an entertainer during WWII. What a love story! She was hurt in an accident, spent lots of time in the hospital, was giving up on life as she knew it, but Therma Ritter and Rory Calhoun came to her rescue! Wow!! She sang to the service men overseas, brought down the house with the title song.  Needless...

Yep! The calendar says that I am another year older! A cousin asked me if I was 29 again. I said, "yes for the 45th year in a row!!" After I did the math, on paper!! How do I feel about being 74 today? Who cares! I don't feel any older than I did yesterday. I don't feel much older than I did 10 years ago. Oh, yeah, it takes me a little longer to get going in the mornings, but after my coffee and morning routine,  I ready for the day.  The worst part about being older is the way other people perceive you when they find out how old you are. When you reach a "certain" age, I have found that you become almost invisible to most people. Not saying that about my close family and friends, but to the general public, clerks in stores, etc. older adults are mostly ignored! That's okay in most things. If I need help, I'm not too shy to ask. There are perks, too, but right now I can't think of a one. Certainly not healthcare. The price rises yearly, and...

Friends of mine are expecting a new granddaughter in the future. I am a firm believer that grandparents are EXTRA special people and should have special things for when the baby comes to visit. (Baby showers never include stuff for Grandma and Grandpa. So I made something special for them. I made a PINK burrito blanket. That is simply a round blanket that I made from fleece, then edged on my sewing machine.  Easy to use, lay babe in the middle, fold up the foot part and then the sides. It's a good swaddler and there are no droopy corners to get caught on stuff or be dragging. BUT, the icing on the cake is the round Mandala afghan  to go with the blanket. It turned out even better than I anticipated. I used a little heavier weight yarn than it called for, and a size bigger hook. I did that because my eyes just aren't good enough to use that fine fingering weight yarn and a small hook. I cut the size of the blanket down so it was only 36" in diameter. If I had gone on to...

No, it wasn't. It called for coral, mint green and kraft brown. It also wanted us to draw a face or part of a face. It didn't specify that it had to be a human face, however. I considered a lion or a tiger, but settled for a human face. The prompt also had 5 words to choose from. I chose "root(s)."  I scraped the coral paint on the paper with a scraper. My mint green didn't turn out very well, but, hey, who really cares? It's the creativity that counts, right? I made several attempts with the face, finally coming up with one that I sorta cheated on and traced on with graphite paper!  I stamped on the tree in black and added kraft leaves. IN the grand scheme of life, do any of us today really know where our roots come from? As a man of faith, I know mine came from the house of David, but that's really stretching it a long way. So, I used the tree to represent roots, and family. All in all, it was not my best work, but as it turned out, I like it better e...

My good friend, Curley has a birthday today. I won't tell you how she is, but she repeating 39 again! Of course, I had to make her a card and since she already has opened it earlier when we went out for lunch (Mexican food, yay!) and then went to our knit and crochet group at the local senior center, I can reveal it now. I used two sets of Thinlet dies from Tim Holtz for the background and butterflies. The background and the orange on the butterflies is from some "watercolor" cardstock from Walmart. The black on the butterflies is a metallic bronze heavy cardstock. I mounted it on a black cardstock then attached the whole thing to a white card base. Happy Birthday, Curley. I hope your day was wonderful. Blessed to call you my friend!!  Happy 39...again!  (( Hugs)) Until next time, Go! Create Something! JF

This morning the phone rang and I almost let it go to voice mail. I was "making art."  I answered it not remembering whose number it was that didn't show up in my contact list. A lady from church. She had just gotten back from a winter in Florida and wanted to convey her sympathy about the loss of my brother. And she wanted to sign me up for an obligation at church. The first question she asked me was what I was doing. I told her I was "making art." I don't think she got it!!  15 minutes later, a cuppa later, I was off the phone and back to my work table. I hadn't art journaled for a while, so I finished up this journal page,which I made into a greeting card. Then I worked on this card front for a good friend's birthday. I stamped the music on the card base with water resistant ink and a 6"x6" music stamp from Gina K designs. The birds were all from a set of stamps from a foreign company that I cannot remember. I stamped them on hand...

Yes, I have been busy creating. And reading, and doing all the other stuff it takes to run a household alone. As usual, I am behind on laundry(my least favorite household chore.) But to heck with that stuff if the creative juices are flowing. I made my two granddaughters, ages 10 and 2 these hats for Easter. Yes, I crocheted them, and made all the flowers, too. I hope they like them. Those of you who read my blog know that I watch and admire artist Mike Deakin of Mike Deakin Art. I get a lot of ideas and inspiration from him. I even sometimes ( probably more than I realize) try to incorporate his ideas into my own art work. I watched him create ATCs the other day and tried his idea using the supplies I had. I made the following ATCs and a card. I didn't have a honeycomb stencil, but I had a die from a Tim Holtz collection, so I made my own stencil using my Big Kick die cut machine and a piece of acetate. It worked! Here's what I came up with. I needed another birth...

Big discussion thread on my favorite Youtube channel today was about selling or giving our art work. The thread got started by the leader of the channel who does a home-based business. She is a wonderful artist and crafter and does at least 3 videos a week, has her own "preferred products" line on Amazon, and has almost a half million subscribers to her Youtube channel. Yet, she admits that she doesn't always like the pressure of "having" to be creative all the time. She talked about when she had a studio in her town and had small children and the pressures. She also talked about going to craft shows where she taught. The pressure of planning lessons, making sure she had the supplies, etc. She said that sometimes she just wants to sit in her living room, have a cuppa and draw, paint, knit , etc without pressure to video it, or "put it out there." She advised her followers that it's okay to just create for ourselves, not to feel pressure to sell wha...

Our prompt this month was "rainbow" with a British children's song that I had never heard of. So, I decided to use "Rainbow Connection" from the Muppet Movie (the original one..."turn left at the fork in the road" one!!) I love that movie. I found a clip of Kermit the Frog singing it at the opening of the movie just a while ago on YouTube. It brought back memories of the MANY times we watched that movie with our children as they grew up! Wow! So here is my take, in watercolor, of the first lines of that song: This was so much fun! It didn't take a lot of imagination or time, but I think it's pretty damn cute! Until next time, Go! Create something! JF

Last Monday and Tuesday I felt really good. I got out of the house, had some fun with friends and was doing well. Sometime in the night, early Wednesday morning, I woke up gagging, nose running, and coughing. I deemed it a sinus problem, maybe even allergies. NOT!! For the first time in years, I had a head cold. Ok, not a serious thing. Whine, whine!! But not being able to lay down without coughing, and gagging on my own snot is not a good way to be missing sleep. I tried the recliner, and that didn't help. besides, it made my back hurt (read here...old recliner, stuffing shifted and doesn't support my spine like it used to.) I had better luck sitting up in my rocking chair, but I can't sleep well sitting up. Wednesday night was the same thing. I did however, stop at Walgreens and bought some night time meds which, incidentally tastes just as bad as it did when I was a kid. (One would think that after 70+ years, cough syrup meds could be made to taste like bacon!!) Thursd...

I read this quote recently and it got me thinking. "how many people settle for a just a job and put their passion on the back burner? How many people know in their hearts they are destined to do one thing, but allow the events in their life to lead them away from that calling?" I went to college wanting to be a teacher. I thought "Art" as a major would do it for me. I found out in a short time that Art would not be a good fit for me, especially if I had to conform to the head of the art department at the college I was attending. He and I did not see eye to eye at all. So, I switched majors to elementary education. Somewhere along the way, I lost my way, my drive, my desire to do much of anything. I quit college, I got a job doing piddly squat, lived at home with Mom and Dad and just existed.  I decided that a dead end job was not cutting it, and went back to school, this time at a different school. I got an Associates degree in Business Administration and Finance....

This month I chose to be inspired by "bloom where you are planted." Thinking about this I came up with the following: It is my belief that no matter where we come from, whether it be rural or urban, and no matter where we end up in our lives, we can bloom and grow into whatever we desire to become. Weeds, and even flowers can flourish in the cracks of a sidewalk, as well as in the fields out in the open. Be all you can be wherever you are. Until next time, Go! Create something! JF