I have been home for just 48 hours from a tiring 2 weeks away. Many classes, Many days of exhibiting and shows and many friends and way to much driving.
After my drive up to Washington I got to spend a day with Andrea Guarino-Slemmons and Whit and I finally got to meet Towanda, the coolest calico cat in all of Washington I am sure. She is a love muffin.
I got to take the Edmonds/Kingston Ferry and truly enjoyed the ride. The weather was grey and foggy but the water was calm. It was a nice and relaxing 45 minutes in the middle of lots of rain and bad driving conditions.The Bellevue Show got under way on Friday morning for me bright and early. I had a one day Low Tech Metalsmithing class and we had a blast. Everyone did such a great job, created amazing pieces and i think learned loads. We even got to play with resin at the end of the day. Saturday nights Viking Knit class was also a success, everyone did great and totally had all of the kinks worked out by the end of the 3 hours.
The show on Saturday & Sunday was very fun. For a smear show the crowds were there and the attendance was more than we could have asked for. There were lots of familiar faces and made a few new acquaintances.
I decided not to start driving after the show. I got some much needed rest and was on the road by 6:30 am. Monday morning. Not as early as I had hoped but I did not catch any of the areas morning rush traffic.
I pulled into my driveway at 9am on Tuesday morning and had to rush to get the car back to the rental agency by 11. There was much unpacking and much sleeping all day Tuesday. The only other task I had to do was to make sure that I had food in the house. I had NO fixin's for coffee and that can border on catastrophic even on the best of mornings.
Wednesday was spent doing laundry, unpacking all of my boxes and getting the orders that came in filled and sorted out. Recuperating from such a long time away from home actually takes a few days and the desire to get back to work ebbs in slowly. My bench beacons me and the creative juices are starting to kick in. I will see what the day brings for me.
My horoscope is calling for alone time for me today and I have to say that I am in total agreement. As the end of another year starts to draw to a close I find myself reflecting on these past 12 months and all of it's adventures. If asked, would be where I am now from this time last year I would have to say no. The year has brought many surprises, twists and turns and as always, each of these give me something to ponder and consider.
I am grateful for friends and family on this day and I look around and my wish on this holiday season is for tolerance, acceptance and peace in the coming year. We are faced with so many obstacles and challenges and if we search out the goodness and kindness in ourselves then that can be passed on and built upon. We need to find common ground to fix these problems. We need to come together and face our them head on, without fear and we each need to find a way to come together.
On November 19th 1863 the following words were spoken by one of our nations most courageous Presidents. These words mean more today than they may have meant even then. Read them and let them ring true.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
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