weather & leather

boots, doc marten, yard work, gardening, huberds shoe grease, Uncategorized

I purchased this pair of Doc Marten boots in 1994. The docs got shoved to the basement for work duty once other boots became more fashionable, only admitted out when I donned them in concert with wool socks, rolled up paint splattered torn and ripped blue jeans with a flannel shirt.

When they were picked up from the cold concrete floor, they already knew what lay ahead. The moment they were slipped on over socks, they expressed a sigh of relief that they had not been completely abandoned forever, and a lurking drudgery for what came next. We were headed outdoors for a heavy-duty yard project and they were only offered another day of life in exchange for planting shrubbery, cleaning out the chicken coop, digging post holes for the new garden fence, being covered over when a shovel of dirt has been unearthed, and stuck in the fire to reposition debris. Rest would not find them until they had been frustratingly unlaced, kicked aside dirty and a strew, when I was just too exhausted to clean them off and put them away. They too, are exhausted!

Yesterday, they got cleaned. Today Huberd’s Shoe Grease soaked in their every pore. They got new leather laces and homemade shrunken wool inserts to keep my toes warm and wick away moisture. What tomorrow brings, no one knows.

i am not blind!

computers, angst, iphone, Uncategorized

Sometimes it’s the craziest things that urge us into having patience and understanding. For instance, whenever I print from iPhone notes, I swear, everything prints out like font 22 and I usually use size 10 and sometimes even 8, so this can be a real Irritant. I know a bit about computers, building websites and managing all of the InDesign suites, which means I have seen plenty of frustrated IT experts Google for a solution when nothing else seems to work. But this, this tiny iPhone challenge seems to be frustrating for a multitude of people who have angst over it and yet can’t seem to figure it out!

Every time I Google it, I get options which never seem to be the problem with my particular phone settings, except this brilliant answer, which was to  “copy and paste to mail”.  WTH dude, come on?!

Apparently, there is no solving this simple but irritating problem and I can’t create something to fix it either, so I will just accept what is and move on. But make no mistake Apple, I don’t like it and I don’t like things that make me look blind or inept.

what are hands for ?

hands, inspiration, mom, Uncategorized

The photograph I use in place of a logo, is an old agitator from the wringer washing machine we used while it sat on our back porch when I was a young girl. Mom salvaged the agitator when the washing machine gave out, but it has always been an object she treasured throughout my growing up years and I acquired it from her about 15 years ago. It now sits displayed in my studio propped up in its own impressive miniature easel. Mom probably admired it for a number of reasons, and in all honestly, I think it was because she has always worked with her hands.

Mom opened raw oysters on and off for about 20 years, raised eight of us children, crocheted bedspreads, knitted and sewed our clothes, tatted her own doilies and taught advanced oil painting. She learned how to do bead work in her late 70’s and if that wasn’t impressive enough, I taught her how to hook wool rugs in her 80’s and her last rug creation was completed when she was 88. At one point, she even painted the hands and fingernails on this old washing machine agitator and some remnants of the past still exist on it to this day. The hands of both the agitator and my mom have seen a lot, tended a lot and created a lot!

While I don’t open oysters or crochet bedspreads, I do a lot with my hands. I am also a nurse so first and foremost a healer, a creator, an avid rug hooker, a painter, a knitter, an overall creator of innovation when necessary or an idea strikes. A decorator and even now, a blog writer. So while we all utilize our hands in different ways, hopefully those of you who choose to follow this blog will appreciate the way in which I share the use of my hands with creative, innovative ideas and useful information.

inspiration & necessity

Uncategorized

This blog idea derived from working with my mother on her obituary which was a pre-vs post preparation process, and while we discussed what she wanted in her obituary, the question came up; do people really know you after many years have passed? Which is a very good question since she has not lived in the town for about 20 years, and at that point, it occurred to me that maybe I should write some of my own obituary and so I started jotting down who I am, to avoid the same problem.

While jotting down who I am, the “I’m that girl” concept was born as it dawned on me, that “that girl”, “me” has a lot of diversified interests surrounding lifestyle, creative projects and art, as well as professional interests and information.

Much of my creativity and craft, has been passed down, learned or shared from my mother who would appreciate me sharing it with others as well.

Thank you, Mom I love you very much!