Slow

My friend Kris sent me this link to an article that describes what I do (and possibly you do,) from using scraps of paper to make my collages to knitting my own finger-less gloves. It's what makes ETSY so wonderful. All those people working slowly. Spread the word.

My new shop.

During the summer, I made a lot of tote bags to sell at the farmers' market. I was trying to do my part in reducing the use of plastic bags. Now, I've opened my ETSY shop, where I'll be selling my totes, my knit wear and items by my sister, who lives across the country from me. She makes wonderful beaded bags and other good things. We call the shop Fritzi, which will be our label, but the shop can be found under www.mim4art.etsy.com
There's a funny, sort of funny, story about the name Fritzi. Several years ago, when I was visiting my parents, I asked my mom if she'd had a nickname when she was young. "oh yes," she said, "my friends called me Fritzi because I was so flirtacious." I had no idea how the personality translated to the name, maybe it was a 1920/30s thing, but when my nieces recently asked her "Gram, did you have a nickname as a young person?", she said "Betty Boop, because I have such big eyes." Fritzi? Who knows!

Elflog

After being away, I decided to check the shelf, to be sure it was still there. It was bare except for a fake flower and a blue lanyard. I'd made a kind of trading card out of Chuck's old MOMA card and left that on the shelf. It's has a Rousseau painting on it and is very peaceful.

Bonding

My younger sister and I had a bonding experience. We gave ourselves purple hearts. Ever since we each broke something in our bodies spring of 2006 (withing a month of each other), and went through our healing, we talked about getting a tattoo. Lots of talk about what to do resulted in nothing. Then I went to LA for Mom's birthday and, one night, the idea of a heart came up. I'd been thinking about it, after reading my friend Sara's last dialogues with her Mom, where she'd said "follow your heart."









The heart is purple, the droplets are aqua, it's colorful, kinda comic, joyful, and was a good thing for us to do.

L.A. Sky

I've just returned from my trip to see my Mom in L.A. On Tuesday, the sky looked like this. It drizzled off and on. I left L.A. yesterday morning before the really bad rain started. Fortunately, or I might not have gotten home last night. It was a good trip, but it's good to be home!

In Los Angeles

I'm still in Los Angeles. It's a sad day for me as a dear friend died this morning, in Richmond. I'm sad not to be there. I'm posting my drive-by LA photos and a blurry photo of my friend and I that was taken last January at my anniversary party. It's kind of odd, I know to be posting these images of scenery with my friend's photo, but I'm having a hard time dealing with this and am softening my own thoughts by switching my focus back and forth, to past and in the moment.

Celebrating Mom's 94th.

Here are a few photos from Mom's 94th birthday celebration. 12 of us gathered to share the evening with her. 2 of her daughters , 1 sister, 1 son-in-law, 2 grand-daughters, a grand-son and his wife, a great-grandson, and two cousins through marriage were present. She had a good time. We ate, we drank, we toasted, we laughed. The desert was called Vesuvius.