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Archive for the ‘Obama’ Category

Yes, We Did!

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

shep_large

I am sitting here on my sofa, awaiting the inauguration of Barack Obama. I am filled with hope and really proud to be an American — it has been too long.

As many of you know, I have been an Obama Mama from the beginning. I know some are worried that Obama will be turned into some sort of icon or idol and put on a pedestal. I don’t think he will allow that. His recent speeches show that he wants to tamp down the expectations.

I believe that he is the leader we need now. He constantly reminds us that it is not him — it is us. We are the change that we need. He is here to lead us. He is the no drama Obama, after all.

I have several of the stickers, seen above, from MoveOn.org. These commemorative stickers mark Barack Obama’s historic victory and were designed by groundbreaking artist Shepard Fairey—the same artist who designed the world-famous, iconic “Hope” poster for Obama.

I want to do another photo montage with all of you sharing your hope for our future, So for the first 35 people who send me their snail mail, I will send you a sticker. (USA residents only) All I ask is that you send me a photo with the sticker in it. I will set up a Flickr set with the photos.

I also hope that you will leave a brief message of your feelings on this auspicious day.

Oh, happy day.

OMG!!

Monday, January 19th, 2009

Tomorrow, Barack Obama will become the 44th President of the USA. I am so excited. Please come back tomorrow. If you live in the USA, I will have something to send a few of you in celebration of this event. YES, WE DID!!

I have been doing SDA conference database stuff. I have the bulk of the updates completed. In the meantime, about 12 new registrations have come in that I need to process. I think I am just about past the really time consuming work. From now on, it will be dribble, dribble.

I am in the throes of choosing paint colors for my office in the basement. It was a really dark room with dark bronze wainscoting and dull beige walls and a big ole dirty brick fireplace. It had exposed furnace duct work. Mr C got rid of the duct work, did the drywall work, primed the new drywall and bricks and painted the ceiling. Now, it is imperative that I make the color decisions for the woodwork, brick and walls.

I love the Divine Color paints that are sold at our local Miller paint stores. They have these little sample packets of paint to bring home to audition.

divinepaintsamples

We settled on a color that we liked for the wainscot and the bricks, but the green I had chosen, just didn’t work with it. Here are the brick paint samples. I like the top one which is a richer, more complex neutral. It is not quite as dark as the photo is showing. FYI, it is called Crunch and is from the Pacific Trail Mix collection.

bricksamplecolors

I went back to the store today and played with the paint samples and decided that I needed to go with a teal rather than the green. This color is Foam from the Ocean Tide Pools collection. Here are the wall paint samples.

wallpaintsamples

I even brought in another, brighter green, but it didn’t work with the neutral I had chosen. I think I am gonna like this. Here is the whole brick fireplace, primed. Makes the room look better already.

primedfireplace

Did you watch Oprah, coming from DC today? Will.i.am and several other artists debuted this song in honor of Obama’s inauguration. It is titled America’s Song. Enjoy! Tomorrow is “Celebration Time!”

A Little of This and a Little of That

Saturday, January 10th, 2009

My days are so full; there is no time to just put my feet up and chill. I am, however, feeling some withdrawals from the studio time. I keep thinking I need to get down there and get to work. But,  one look at these photos and you can see I need to do some clean up.

studiomess1

studiomess2

Look at this poster I received from Lisa for Christmas.

keepcalmposter

I love this. It was first produced and used in England at the beginning of World War II to offer the public reassurance in the dark days which lay ahead.

I have just about finished the first round of SDA conference workshop assignments and every one has received and e-mail or snail mail confirmation. Monday, I will start working on the next batch.

I took a break yesterday to attend my crit group. I didn’t have anything new so I took the reworked Urban Sunlight. Got some excellent comments and possible problems. It is what it is. I can’t change anything on it now. But will keep the comments for future work.

Today, I have been getting ready for tomorrow’s reception for my show at the cathedral. I am having an assortment of middle eastern treats, like dates, almonds and baklava!! I picked this up at a Greek deli – just baked. It is so good, you can see that we gave it a taste test.

baklava

I have lime green cups and some coordinating napkins.

limegreencups receptionnapkins

I also made some business cards, just in case someone wants to get in touch with me.

businesscard

I have to get up early in the morning. I am doing a gallery walk/talk at 9 am, followed by church. We will hang out and set up for the 1 am reception. If you are in the Portland area, I hope you will come by.

Finally, look what we received in the mail today:

barackinvite

There is no way I am going to DC for the inauguration, but this will be a nice keepsake.

I hope to get some good photos at the reception and will post tomorrow.

Mental Health Break

Monday, November 10th, 2008

I am here. I am not getting much done. Catching up on blog reading. Shopping for food for the week. Sketching a new piece I will start working on, very soon. Doing my homework for my class tonight. We are leaving the dreaded Middle Ages behind tonight and moving into the Reformation and the Renaissance. (Did you know that Renaissance is Michelle Obama’s moniker for the Secret Service. Obama is Renegade!!)

Taking care of M & M is not so much a physical strain as a mental/stress kind of strain. You always have them on  your mind, even when they are at school. That kind of stress really wreaks havoc on an old body like mine!!

I have a hint for other Grandmas. Do you know about Hoops and YoYo? This is a Hallmark sponsored site where  you can send cards, etc. But there are these two animated characters who have little animated videos of their antics. It will amuse a child for at least half an hour.

All in all, it was a fun time. I picked up a couple of gems from Mia. She told me that McCain did not want Palin for  his VP, that he wanted Lieberman. Keeping my composure, I asked how she knew – well, she heard it on TV, of course. When we were at the Rhodie Garden on Saturday, she saw a large tree that had fallen across the stream and a fence, onto the golf course. She said this would come in handy for the golfers to come into the garden to join their wives for tea!! Miles entertained me by falling into the stream – fortunately, it was in a very shallow area and near our exit for out walk back to the house.

Didn’t you just love seeing the photos of the Obamas visiting the White House today. Wow, it is really true.

I love Andrew Sullivan’s  political blog. He had this video on under the heading – mental health break – today. I just had to share it.

Time Management

Thursday, November 6th, 2008

I am feeling a great deal of empathy for women who have school age children and attempt to have some creative time for themselves. This morning, I fed everyone breakfast, supervised getting dressed for school, packed the lunches and started out the door – wait a minute – Grandma needs her coffee. It was about 9 when we returned so I caught up on the computer, sending SDA bulk mailings, reading blogs, etc. Worked in the studio for about an hour, took a walk with Mr C and Maggie, ate lunch, did some SDA website work, spent some more time in the studio. Then, off to school for pick up, went to Steph’s to feed the cat, back to our house, snack and talking time with the M & M, half hour in the studio, made dinner, helped with homework, supervised bedtime. Whew. I worked in the studio for another 2 hours tonight.

All that said, having M & M here is really a treat. They are so much fun and so inquisitive. There is never a dull moment. We just looked at Mia’s math homework. She had to make up her own story problem and give the answer. I have 3 bags of Obama buttons. There are 9 buttons in each bag. How many buttons do I have!! Yep, that would be my granddaughter. Today, she wore my big Obama button to school. It has a photo of Obama’s family and says, “America’s Next First Family.”

This is what I accomplished today:

I was going to try to have the colors cascade across the quilt in a rainbow, but it wasn’t working so I am going to make it scrappy. It is nice to have something like this to work on when you have bits and pieces of time.

Tomorrow, in addition to the M & M schedule, I am going to go to WW and get my hair cut and colored. Won’t be much time in the studio.