What a difference a week makes …

First of all, thank you to all of you who wrote to wish me well after that disastrous week. It did me a world of good. So thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Having Sabrina and Serafina at home helped too as we were able to chat about it, come to terms with it, minimize the fallout and overall … let it go. Also, my nights have been busier as we play games on the iPad after dinner, read a book in silence, watch Serafina and her antics, or sit and watch Midsomer Murders on TV. All in all, it’s been a good week.

I’ve been busy finishing some work. Linda brought back two quilts I had asked her to quilt for me so now the binding and facing need to go on, plus the label and sleeve. I am also working on putting sleeves on some other pieces that need them.

I am still cleaning and getting rid of things; I took lots of books and magazines to the second hand store in town. They took a few (not as many as I’d have liked), and I took the rest to a local thrift store. I was NOT going to bring them back home. I feel lighter. And the trip to the second hand store gave me a chance to pick up a few more old magazines to use on my collages.

I wonder what it is about sitting on the couch with a magazine to look for colourful spreads that I can use on my collages. It gives me such pleasure. I wonder … is it the colours? The possibilities? The dream of a new collage? Or simply the lovely feeling of paper and the turning of the pages … Whatever the reason, I live for those moments. Sometimes I tear pages or pieces of paper as I go along, and sometimes I leave them be until I need them, thinking that I’ll know exactly in which magazine they are. Hahaha! Doesn’t always work that way.

So here’s to a good week: I did stuff, and then sat around doing not much of anything. I cuddled with Serafina on her favourite spot on the couch, and sat outside while she explored. I cooked, gave a cursory clean to the kitchen floors, and sat at the kitchen table cutting papers. What more could I ask?

And because some of you have asked … here’s Serafina:

She’s a cutie. She likes to get into tight places and she knows she can sit on the shelf if I make some space, so I moved some stuff around and opened one of the drawers for her to use as a stepping point. She also knows that when she comes home she gets to go outside on a leash made out of strips of fabric. We tie the leash to one of the chair legs and she walks around, eats grass, and lies down by the big pots which throw a shadow. And then, sits outside the door letting you know she’s had it and wants to come in.

I hope you had a good week too. Summer is coming to an end in Calgary. There’s a freshness to the air (despite the poor air quality from the forest fires … still) and the leaves are starting to turn. In a couple of weeks I’ll be heading off on a new trip to visit some parts of the UK I’ve never been to. I’m excited. I’m teaching a workshop – the kits are ready to go in my bag, and I’m thinking of what to pack.

I hope everyone has a good week. I’m off to donate some quilts to a good place so they can use them to decorate the walls in the rooms. In excited about that too! I hope they’ll like them.

Until I write again, enjoy the rest of the Summer days (or winter if you are in the Southern Hemisphere). And keep creating …

Ana