Shredding photos

I keep coming across these same photos every time I sort through the studio area in my dining room and I often wonder what's made me keep them decade after decade other than seeing which of my paintings have been with me a long time and how they've been displayed over the years.
 

What I see when I look at them now is a fondness that I had for my dogs and my very first house and of course I think of who most of this went to because there's only one painting in these photos that I still own.

Now that I've looked at them all again what I'm left with is a good feeling that my work and my skills have improved over the years. There's nothing here to hang on to. Two of the photos will go to people who have some of these paintings, the third will get tossed and I can move on without running into them again. I call that progress, don't you?

Easiest Berry Picking from a walker and bench

The raspberries were never supposed to be planted here. I just dropped some baby bushes and plants behind the studio one year that I was just to tired to deal with them. Since then they've gone crazy and taken up  about a twelve by fifteen foot section of the yard. Each year I try to move a few bushes and give a lot of them away but they just keep coming.

I grabbed the mower last night and tried to cut a path into this and then started cutting down some of the branches in my way with a long handled pruner.

The basket on the walker comes in handy as a garden cart to haul anything that you need it to.

It's handy to have an outdoor work table and this bench is in the perfect place because I can just flip it around when I want to pick the carrots and peas growing in large pots behind it.

Today of course I'm using it to pick black raspberries from the canes that I cut off out in the backyard.

I think I did pretty well today and these should be enough for 2 or 3 jars of freezer jam as soon as I get a chance to get rested up and moving better again. It was nice to sit over here and pick the berries because there weren't as many mosquito's to bother me and there was a nice breeze which had been blocked out in the berry patch.

It worked out a little better than I thought and made just over 3 jars.

Holiday for the worktable

 I'm sure this doesn't look like much to most people but the candle ring is from my sister in law,the fabric was from my Mom and the imari pattern china is from the very first set of dishes I ever picked out back in the 1970's. Of course guys don't generally like to use tiny teacups so the mug is from our product line at Zazzle. The image on it is from a Christmas stocking I made about 20 years ago. These are the things that make it special to us.

I was surprised to discover that almost all of the thread I have left around here is heavy hand quilting thread so the sewing machine wasn't an option which of course explains why I was only able to hem the table topper in time for Christmas. In the background you can see that there's a LOT more of this fabric I can do things with for next year. I think it's time to ask Mom "what were you thinking?" and see if she'd still like to have any of the things she wanted to make. I'll do that today before I make any plans for the rest of it.

As you can see, most of my projects didn't go very far but it helped to make that list and set some priorities for them so I'll tackle the most important ones first when I get back to work
.

In the meantime I plan to enjoy things, how about you?

Sorting and organizing

I "found" the table, Now what? I'd take a picture but I packed my camera in the bin to take to painting group and that's under 2 other bins right now. Do you ever have days like that?
I often feel that the harder I try yo get things cleaned up, the worse things get. Things would have been finished sooner but I "discovered" 3 letters in different stages that I'd started but lost in the shuffle. A truly organized person would have had a special place to put them but I just sat there and finished them so that I didn't keep people waiting any longer than I had to and they'd go right out in the mail.
In my defense I will remind you that my bins are all current projects and the items in them keep changing as I work..
Everyone has to find what works from them. It's not about buying the perfect system and investing in a lot of things you may never use.
The most important thing to remember is that you need to organize your thoughts before you can organize your house.
It's about knowing what you need and want and being able to get to it.
Don't give up! We're all in this together so feel free to leave comments, questions and tips.

Rain last night and cooler weather

It was nice to be outside a while this morning and to be able to open the windows again. It's still warm inside but we're running a couple of fans. Yes, I know we're lucky to have them and we try not to use them anymore than we need to. What's it like where you are?
We started mowing the lawn but when you don't get around well that's a challenge so we take turns and lots of breaks. I've designed the landscaping here so that it's broken up by flower beds and borders so you can take it a section at a time without having things look too odd.
Art and gardening come together when you design a yard like this one. I can't wait to get back to painting the flowers that are blooming right now. There are 5 or 6 more areas to paint on that new garden painting and I just realized that my approach to both gardening and art is a response to living with limitations and low energy.
The good news is that you can accomplish almost anything if you break it down into easy to handle sections.