Stepping Out of the Wardrobe

Again...Finally...

And just in time for Patti's Visible Monday and the party she hosts for us fortnightly.  Appropriately enough, I'm wearing my Bounce Back Ability dress, this time with lacy peach-colored fishnet stockings and new ebay sandals. 

For more closet pictures continue after the break...

The State of Project Minima - Year 3, 1st Qtr.

Yes, I'm going into my third year now for Project Minima.  This summer quarter, production pretty much stopped alongside my mom's rapid decline in health.

Painting by Sally Moore.

It was only after she was relocated to a senior living community near us in Chicago last month, that I was able to focus on a new type of construction.  A Dress-Ability.  The confluence of mom being a bit more settled and of me being asked to participate in a show at my old gallery brought forth a renewed burst of creativity.

The only piece I produced this quarter was a dress made from an old turquoise top I deconstructed and various bits & pieces of fabric I auditioned from my stash.  I embroidered it's name, "Bounce Back-Ability" across the front.  I suspect it will become part of a series of Dress-Abilities.   You can see close ups of it on my Clothes from Summer page.

Bounce Back-Ability

Yes, I have it on actually.

It's called Bounce Back.

My newly created Dress-Ability.

And I'm showing this baby off at Patti's Visible Monday, even though it's late Tuesday night.  But I just finished it in the nick of time for all my deadlines.  whoo-hoo.

I wanted to embroider a title for each dress I make in this way to embody it's meaning to me at the time.  When Jan of Fort Smith Stylista made a comment about my bouncing back, I knew that was it. (Thanks Jan!)  So...the wearer will be fortified with the ability inscribed on the dress.  Dress-Ability.  Yeah, I could use that.

More details after the break...

That was Then, This is Now

painting by Marieloes Reek

I've just started sewing again!!!!!!!! Smile, smile, smile.  

Mom has settled into a new place in Chicago.  I've settled down again.  And I serendipitously was invited to show a new piece at my old gallery for their 40th anniversary.  A that was then and this is now type of thing.  Yea, baby.  That is so right on. 

I have two weeks to make it so.  More anon.  wheeeee.....

And can't wait to catch up with the good ole bloggerhood, missed you like crazy.  Thanks for the good vibes!

There's a New Normal in Town

I don't know where I'm at in relation to it.  Yessireebob, can't make head nor tails out of things lately, but I'm still here anyhow, plugging along, skipping a beat now and again, making do, making time and then just being.

Gloves Meeting by Eloise de Hauteclocque

Thank goodness for my true love and that's the truth.  A bridge over troubled water.  Meanwhile Mom's in the hospital again.  She's "okay," per the latest version of normal.  What's that Zappa song?..there's no way to delay, that trouble comin' every day.  enough whining.

We're now looking for assisted living in Chicago because driving every week to Detroit is not working out.  Once that is settled, it should help a great deal.  But there is so much involved first.

painting by Robert Zeller

I have not been able to sew since Mother's Day, mid-May, when this all started.  I can't focus.  I think about her and what needs to be done all the time.  There are constant calls back and forth between me and various providers, etc.  Otherwise I just sleep.  I am the only relative she has.  And vice versa.  I know how the story ends, but the way there is still very hard to manage.  Everything seems foreign and unknowable - both practically and emotionally, ethically and financially, medically and psychologically. 

Yes, I'm still whining.  Which is why I haven't been posting.  or visiting blogs.  sorry.  I don't know what else to do or how else do be right now.  Greetings from a new place in pao-land!

Hold the Light, pastel drawing by Sharon Yamamoto
 "It is our choice to hold negative beliefs as the truth or to hold the light."

Thanks so much to all who have commented, your kind thoughts and words are appreciated and make me feel connected when I need it most.  I'm looking forward to being fun again, sometime, someday...