I'm Back!

Well, six months is a long time to go without posting to my blog, but my excuse is that I was very busy and stressed. And here's why:
My school district offered the veteran teacher's a generous incentive if we would shuffle off to another ice floe and never be heard from again. Although it wasn't put that way--as a matter of fact, it was quite respectful--I had a hard time deciding whether to take it or not. But in the end, I did. On January 15th I signed and sent in the paperwork to confirm my retirement from the Pomona Unified School District. Unfortunately, there were still 6 more months of school to get over!
This year was one of the hardest I have ever experienced, so retirement was looking more and more positive. And yet, the doubts and the worries were endless. I did some intelligent things to allay the doubts, though:
First, I went to the STRS counselor and had him run the numbers for my retirement income from State Teachers Retirement. So I had concrete figures that would help me decide. If I only had the look of students' faces to help me decide, I would have long ago retired!
Then, I went to my CPA (who moved to another company, and who charged me a lot of money for his advice), and he ran the numbers for me also. The incentive is in the form of an annuity and the company in charge of the annuity offered 15(!) options on how to receive it. The CPA ran the numbers and helped me see which option I should choose.
Finally, I consulted my life coach and she helped me make the emotional decisions I needed to make.
Teaching has been a huge part of my life. It has saved my life and the life of my family in some ways, since I took the job to rescue the family when my ex-husband was out of work and in the hospital. And I did what a lot of people do: I got involved in the job and left my family to its own devices. I WAS a TEACHER first. Lots of coaching and therapy and praying for forgiveness has helped me see the errors I made.
So now I am on to the next Creative Passage. For at least the next year I am going to focus on ME;
Becoming a better ME. I think I know what that means but I l will be exploring it for this next year.
My new Creative Passage will be to develop the best ME possible.
This should be interesting!

another postcard

Here's another postcard.
I want to send this one today.

Collages

Although Advent is over, I am still working in the Advent Journal. I took the wire binding off and have three loose leaf rings on there--for now. I made prayer beads and strung some of them on the rings. Here are the newest collages. I can't seem to get enough of the images of National Geo and Arch Digest. These are essentially glue book type collages. I will however re-size them and they will go out as post cards. I send a lot of postcards. Post cards are like tweets for me. I just write a short message about myself and send it out, like people are really interested in what I am doing!. Tweet-tweet!

Farmhouse Evolution

I have not been making art for sometime. I have been knitting dishcloths and they continue to de-stress me. But finally I was able to work on an advent journal. The picture is significant because I did grow up for some years in a farmhouse. And the farmhouse and the people in it and around it made a lasting and significant impression on me--and not in a positive way. So the farmhouse impression is evolving into something positive, as evidenced by this piece.

New scans

One of the many things I wanted to do this summer was to upload scans of a vintage nursery rhyme book with the sweetest pictures! I uploaded them to Picasa and they are in the slide show on the left. They were scanned at 100 dpi resolution. if you are interested in them please feel free to download and use in your art.
Good luck!

And in other news...

AZUSA

Motorists stop to grab cash

Cash thrown onto a freeway by a 56-year-old man whom authorities described as emotionally disturbed caused a small traffic jam Sunday as drivers stopped their vehicles to pick up the bills.

California Highway Patrol officers discovered about 10 people outside their cars attempting to collect the loose cash on the westbound 210 Freeway near Grand Avenue just after noon, Officer Anthony Martin said.

About the same time, the man who tossed the money walked into the nearby Azusa Police Department and told officers he wanted to commit suicide, according to Lt. Steve Hunt.

Los Angeles County fire officials took the man to a hospital for further evaluation, Hunt said.

Motorists who picked up money were asked to return it to Azusa police or the CHP's Baldwin Park office

But seriously folks! I found another one! A board book with all the backgrounds and some pictures it! I think I get much more enjoyment out of making the books than filling them! Eeek!On the left is a scan of the inside of the book. On the right the front and back covers. It is six spreads. Good Grief!

Blue bound Book

I am cleaning up the art room and I found a book I covered and did backgrounds for pages. But now I can't remember why I made such a blue book! So I am hoping someone from the altered books group sees it and wants it. The left is the cover. The right is a spread that I popped on the scanner.The spread is tissue paper over clear gesso over several pages glued together. It is an old children's reading book.