Flowers for Frank

Every now and then you meet truly kind, amazing people. Sometimes in the most unlikely of places. My job usually consists of me catering to the whims of extremely entitled, narcissistic and wealthy people. Occasionally I'll meet truly kind and humble people and I see these encounters as blessings from God. These are the people that help me to maintain my faith in humanity. One of these blessings is Frank. He and his partner come in every other Saturday and put a smile on my face each and every time. It started years ago when they discovered through a colleague that I enjoyed Andrew Wyeth's work. They were fortunate enough to be able to see an exhibition in Atlanta and surprised me with a beautiful book of his work. Over the years I have learned more and more about them. Frank is an educator who spends his spare time performing as a clown and ventriloquist at kid's parties. He is also an avid gardener and has often surprised me with gorgeous blooms that he's clipped from his garden. Recently it was discovered that he has cancer. He has endured months of radiation and is now suffering terribly from the aftermath of this treatment. Only time will tell whether this treatment has worked or not. During these months I hadn't seen or heard anything from them and feared the worse. However, after the treatment was completed and Frank was well enough to go out, they came to visit again bearing yet another bloom from their garden. They've always been so kind to me that I have often wondered how I can repay them for their many thoughtful kindnesses. Recently it was brought to my attention that Frank is going to be celebrating his birthday at the end of this upcoming week. It's the perfect excuse for me to give them something and I've finally realized what I can give them. One time Frank had given me a gorgeous day lily and I had taken a million pictures of it as it opened. I've decided to do a painting of it for him. Hopefully it will be a lovely reminder of our friendship as well as a nice way for him to have his garden with him when he's not feeling well enough to go outside.

Day One of Operation Clean Studio

So after the shock of my disasterous studio had worn off I tackled the task at hand by first rolling up my sleeves and hauling my bookcase into the closet. I wanted to be able to fully utilize the closet space while also freeing up some space in my work area. (It's always felt rather snug in there) I also took the wheels off of my drawer storage and was able to fit one of them underneath my work table so that I am
fully utilizing the entire space. Already I am happier with the feeling in my studio and am looking forward to cleaning out a lot of the junk to free up even more space.

Does anyone know of a place that might sell paper storage fairly inexpensively? I would like better storage for my watercolor paper but am finding it hard to locate paper storage for sheets that size that don't break the bank. Has anyone else organized their art studio or craft area? Any items that you just couldn't live without? Despite my apparent lack of organization, organizational supplies are
one of my all-time favorites.

I woke up to a disaster on a post apocalyptic scale.

The following photos are horrifying and disturbing so please brace yourself. Please don't ask me how I allowed this to happen or when it happened or how I could live with things this way for so long. I have NO IDEA.
I literally woke up from an artistic reverie and discovered that some sort of bomb had gone off while I was in my own personal candy land. It was quite a shock I assure you. I realized that my studio had long since
become nothing but a storage space and the rest of my house had been assimilated into makeshift work spaces. Beading in the office, polymer work on the dining room table, mosaics in the living room, etc. The list goes on
and on. Rather than all of my art being kept nicely in one space (as originally intended) my entire house had been overcome with it! So I am beginning the enormous task of doing over my studio so that all of my art projects can be comfortably worked on in it. It basically comes down to organization and my studio's extreme lack of anything remotely resembling it. Well, that's not ENTIRELY true. Over the years I have spent large quantities of time labeling random boxes and attempting to keep everything tidy. It just seems as if my ever expanding interests have outgrown my current space.








Any craft/art organizational tips and advice would be
greatly appreciated as I tackle this behemoth of a project. I will be keeping photos of my progress as I work on it.

Happy Singles Awareness Day!

I was called in to work on the most dreaded day of the year. Worse than Thanksgiving, Christmas or even New Years Eve. For any restaurant employee Valentines day sends shivers up your spine and causes you to break out in a sweat. In my restaurant we were expecting over 400 guests and the tension amongst my co-workers was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. For this evening we rented small tables and squeezed as many people as we could in every nook and cranny of our restaurant, both inside and outside. Once the carnage was over I couldn't help but wonder why people are so keen on this "holiday"? Why do men pay three times more for flowers? Why do people come out to eat on a night where they are going to be squeezed at tables 6 inches from each other? How is this romantic? I've heard several theories from my friends. One suggested that because Valentines day typically falls upon the man in the relationship (and many men don't feel comfortable cooking) they feel this to be the best way to treat their significant other to something special. Another suggested that it is the women who are urging their male counterparts to take them out so that they can get dressed up and be seen. Whatever the reason is, I have to say that a romantic night to me is staying as far away from the restaurants as possible and simply staying in with a good movie or game. I guess that I'm just out of the loop somehow.