PMS and Fabric Choices

I went to get background fabric yesterday. I bought two pieces. I never buy yardage, unless it's on the sale table. But I couldn't decide. My son was perturbed that I couldn't decide. He said it was unlike me.

So today I went shopping for new walking shoes, because mine are trashed, destroyed, beyond repair. Usually I don't take long to buy shoes. Today, I tried on about 7 pairs. Extremely unlike me. But comfort was an issue. Mom tells me this is because I am approaching 40. Aaah. Forty. That's months away. My feet aren't 40 yet. My son again commented (well, complained, let's be truthful) that I don't usually have a problem deciding. Wah wah wah.

I still haven't decided which background fabric to use. I have...well...about 38 seconds before I start choosing fabrics for the foreground, so I'd better get my butt in gear. Here are the two choices...by the time you see this, I will have decided...I'm leaning towards the lighter color because I often do dark, and I believe I should be challenging myself. More on that below.


I've been finally selling off Grandma's bizarre stash of fabric. Just bits and pieces of some truly strange stuff. Some sells, some doesn't. I figure that now that I've visited the grave, she should be at peace with my choice to sell these fabrics, obviously family heirlooms. I kept a portion of some of them, so when I use them in a quilt, I can look up at the ceiling and feel her radiate approval down at me. Yeah right. She'll be glad I made money from nothing...this is the woman who used to help me into dumpsters to get the aluminum cans out for recycling money. She was no dummy with finding ways to make money. And if it pays for my entries to art shows or for 3 extra yards of background material? It's all good. Two pieces of my inheritance below.


About challenging oneself. It's summer, so I'm trying to read enlightening material about creativity and art (unlike during the school year, when I am told to read enlightening material about middle schoolers and their challenging moments). I'm reading Shaun McNiff's Trust the Process: An Artist's Guide to Letting Go. It works well for sitting on the lawn waiting for the puppy to pee. Here's a quote from the book, and it's a dealbreaker for me..."A personal place of creation is a grounding influence and a partner through every phase of expression. I envision the studio as a nucleus of creation, a source from which creative experience flows outward to other areas of life and the place to which it returns again. I maintain my artistic workspace as a sanctuary, a place at home where creative expression is nourished and regenerated." I got that. It's a mess and I share it with way too many cats and occasionally kids, but it's mine.

Ed. Note: I forgot to explain the PMS in the title. THAT'S why I couldn't decide about the shoes or the fabric. I didn't realize until some weird comment on the radio made me cry. Sigh. Hormones...they suck.