House seller's limbo...again!

I just checked back through the blog to find my thoughts from the last time that we listed the house for sale in 2011. It is amazingly similar! How could I have thought that our home would sell in 4-5 days this time??? It has been over two months with only six viewings. We have repeatedly dusted, mopped, vacuumed and scoured this place from top to bottom, inside and out. Only those who have been through this process will totally relate to the unsettled feeling that envelops house sellers.

After two months we dropped the price, hoping to attract some attention...and we wait.

Meanwhile, creativity has ground to a halt. There are no paintings being painted, no writings being written and very little imaginative thinking taking place.

That is what led me to apply black gesso to a number of paintings that did not show signs of success. It was a calming and liberating feeling. At least I held a paint brush for a while...and freed several older pieces from the possibility of being trashed. Now I can gift them to other artist friends and give them the opportunity of creation.

Knitting "ROOTS"

Odd Socks knitting group meets at the Art Gallery on Friday afternoons between 1-3pm. We have graduated from knitting colourful socks to meeting a major challenge. One of our members suggested that we combine our skills to knit a "TREE" that will form the centrepiece for an exhibition in September 2015.

For the past three weeks we have been creating colourful "roots" for the tree that will stretch out from the trunk and spread across the gallery floor. Tea and goodies are enjoyed, along with supportive kinship, while we knit crazy, gnarly roots!

Gail Anderson-Dargatz

What a treat!

Gail Anderson-Dargatz participated in our Art Gallery noon hour readings this week. She read from several of her novels (including one unedited piece from her next creation) and shared an interesting discussion on the publishing world of today. One of her novels is being transformed into a future stage production....should be interesting!

John's birthday!

Modelling his birthday gifts...

sunglasses, garden gloves and Mr. Muscle gloves for the gym!!

Sorting and chucking

In a real effort to downsize, prior to the sale of our house, I tackled the studio today with its stockpile of art, photo and craft supplies. OMG!! Some of the contents date back at least 40 years! There is even an electric eraser!

If any local artists are reading this blog I am planning a sale of everything: frames, watercolour paper, matt board, pens, pencils, paints, beads, printmaking tools, art papers, photo colouring inks, portfolios...even my large steel drafting/art table! Spread the word and let me know if you'd like to view the goodies.

Friday at the Gallery

On Friday at noon Octava (my writing group) participated in a writing/ reading exercise at our Art Gallery. We were joined by several community members for "quick"writings. Using the same trigger word, we wrote for 3 minutes and then shared our creative pieces with each other.

The Odd Socks knitting group meets in the gallery on Friday afternoons. Our current goal is to create a huge tree which will be the centre piece of an exhibition for September 2015.

This week the focus was on crafting a jumble of "tree roots" from a variety of yarns. We have also started the process of wrapping yarn and fabric strips around curly willow branches. This will be a psychedelic tree!!

The next day

While we were enjoying my birthday dinner the realtor called to arrange a showing for the next day. It was all hands on deck in the morning as we prepared the house for viewing. John had partially trimmed the hedge so he and my sister rushed outside to finish and cleanup. Inside I remade the beds with the "only for house showings" bedding and hung the "only for house showings" towels!! Toilets and sinks were scrubbed, floors washed and the old clothes dryer was loaded into my sister's vehicle. Whew!!

Around 11am we were finished. The dryer was dumped at Scrappy's, west of town. We shared coffees and juice at Java Jive before spending half an hour at The Matchbox reading hilarious greeting cards.

Last night we shared a potluck birthday dinner for our friend who had recently turned 65 years. Lots of laughter, great food and fun gifts before the birthday cake was carried into the living room where we were all gathered.

As he was posing with the cake, holding it in front of himself, I asked him to tilt it a bit. The cake fell face down onto the table!! Amazingly, when he flipped it over, the image was intact! Notice the angle of the candles. They obviously helped to blunt the fall!!!! The group went from stunned silence to relieved laughter!