happy new year campers!!!....it's gonna be a good one.........it's time to make resolutions...goals....set our sights on amazing things.....woohoo....starting something new.....always exciting..........i made a couple resolutions..... which i promptly broke the first day.......too much stress involved in trying to not break them......so i break them immediately.......at least there is no more stress with them....now i get on to doing them.......
       so something i've been thinking about is changing up the blog......first, write one every 2 weeks, instead of every week.....what a relief already!........2nd one is change the content a bit......sometimes.....like maybe have some more in depth thought provoking stuff.....thought provoking stuff....that just sums up how my brain works........stuff......
     life is categorized by me into stuff and more stuff.......ie-happy stuff, fluffy stuff, fun stuff, thought provoking stuff, art stuff, llama stuff, heavy stuff...that could be filed under thought provoking or elephant ..........bunny stuff, outdoor stuff, stuffy...which is something my son used to carry around with him......so stuffy could be filed under loveys or noses.......God stuff, groovy stuff, creating stuff outa stuff......tell me....does the word stuff look weird? ....and more stuff....
           so i'm not exactly sure where i'm going with my stuff but at least it's all slightly filed....or stuffed into stuff drawers........when you open them up it's a stuff explosion.......similar to my empty container explosion of 95'.....i'm not really sure of an exact date, but  it does happen all the time......
           so back in 95' or just pick a date.....or a fig......but i can't seem to let go of empty containers, cause you always need one....for something......so every empty container we had or accumulated....we would shove in this cabinet....and no we didn't match up lids with containers, cause why would you do something that organized?.......but there is a law of physics or gravity or some law that states something to the effect that "only x amount of stuff can go in a y sized cabinet until x plus y equal z-explosion ".....but still even knowing this law exists....we still try to shove more containers in the cabinets...... by we i mean me.....the lids are easy cause you don't have to open the cabinet far to slide them in........ the containers you have to be more creative and open 1 side while someone stands beside you holding back the avalanche of containers trying to burst out....then slam the door shut.....sometimes you have to hold the doors shut for a bit while stuff settles....then you're good to go.......so back in 95"....our container cabinet was at it's bursting point.........i believe we had a chair shoved in front of it to keep everything from escaping...........one of the kids....surely it wasn't me.....well cause my name's bobbi not shirley.....come to think of it, we don't have a shirley living at the house.......imposter!!!........so i believe it was a shirley who snuck in and encouraged the explosion.....you gotta watch those shirleys.....they are sneaky little devils.........but anyway.....one of the kids...surely it wasn't me.....it's like ground hog day over and over........did shirley sneak in again?
          but anyway,  one of the kids started for the cabinet.....i was in the back of the house...(i'm making this up now.....well kind of).......i heard the squeal of the chair being pulled away from the cabinet......a dread thought raced into my brain......"not the chair in front of the cabinet!!!".......i heard the vibration of shifting containers.....it was just like an earthquake approaching....you heard the rumble and were looking around to see where the truck was cause it sounded like it was coming straight for you........i felt a shift in the time continuum.......not really sure what that is but it sounded good....i looked it up and still don't understand it, but i think it has something vaguely to do with the containers, something about elements(containers) varying (shifting) by minute degrees (starting to move out)  .....i'm such a brainiac..........not.......anyway.......i dropped everything and leaped over boxes and dogs and kids to try to stop the onslaught that was coming......i heard the gasp of a child ......i believe nature got eerily quiet and a green hue was cast over the town.......sorry now i'm referring to a tornado................i reached the edge of the kitchen as a loud rumble, crash, screams, and out blew 5000 pounds of containers....hitting the living room wall....2 sent the cat flying....the dog  got hit on the tail.......chairs were knocked over... lights were swinging....a neighborhood kid was pinned against a wall..... lamps were broken..... lids started whizzing past my head.... i ducked for cover but got hit in the arm......"man down" i yelled.........a peanut butter sandwich was sent flying out the window.......i think there was a scarecrow and a lion too, but i might have been knocked out from the pain.........
           when the dust finally settled....and trust me there was alot of dust....i believe dust is to protect furniture....soooo......moving on,  i dragged myself into what was the kitchen....i heard a muffled murmur.......i started digging to find the lost child..........which buried a couple other kids in the process......i sent in the dog to try to track down the child..."find, search" i yelled.......the dog ran off with the peanut butter jar........i'm still digging when i see a toe.....and it's moving...."hurrah!!!"......i finally free the wild eyed child and we all rejoice!!!!......"she's been found, she's been found!!!".....
          it was quite emotional, we found the peanut butter sandwich and gave it to the found child....10 sec rule....or something like that............the cat was not seen for a couple days....the kids played king of the mountain on the containers....we freed the neighborhood kid who thought this was grand fun and can't we do it again  tomorrow........then we had to clean up....yikes.......so with everyone's help, we shoved all 5000 pounds of empty containers.....you guessed it...back in the cabinet.....why throw this stuff away....you might need it....right?!......then firmly pushing the chair in front of it and telling everyone "do not move the chair under any circumstances"....we all enjoyed the rest of the day.........
       that evening we were getting ready to sit down to dinner when my husband went in the kitchen cause we were short one chair.............one of these days i gotta get rid of some of those containers....and definitely have more thought provoking posts like this one........maybe that will be the resolution i break next new year......or just file it under "heavy  
stuff".......be groovy 
          

         good morning campers.....so i had a great idea for this blog.....seeing as how christmas is upon us.....but i cannot find the video of the thing i was thinking of......well it was a vhs, but i believe.......it got turned into a dvd.......but i can't find it anywhere....found all sorts of other stuff...got very distracted with other stuff.......but not exactly what i was looking for....but the whole point of looking for this dvd is that i was gonna try to post it so you would see the actual reaction from my kids....and the fantastic 90's style attire too......yeah...probably best i couldn't find it.......but ...i'm gonna tell the story anyway.......it goes like this...
       i wanna tell you a story bout a man named jeb.........my bad........
     so many moons ago.....ok disclosure... for those small children reading this...avert your eyes at certain points..........ok so back in let's say 1990...."1990"......echoey sound with that.....also i'm not sure of the exact year, but it was around that time........but our twins....having been going to public school....had been hearing tales....young children close your eyes for a moment...... of santa not existing ........what???.........anyway....young children you can open your eyes again........well how could they tell that i said they could open their eyes if  they had their eyes closed......hmmmmm....dilemma.........also i just tried to check the spelling of the word exisiting....1 s not 2.......and all of a sudden i have my groovy angel cards on here.......i really don't know what i am doing.....remember to save...no repeat of last time....on to the story......
        so our twins had this thought in their heads of the non existence of you know who.......and hopefully you know who i am referring too.....at this time we only had 3 kids.....so our son was a couple years younger and had not heard such devastating news.....and we would like to keep it that way...........so a friend of mine had mentioned awhile back how she found presents on her roof.....santa is a wiley charactor.........well, i thought, lets get in touch with the big guy and figure this out........but how do you get in touch with the big guy?.....so we sent a letter.......hoping for the best........well christmas eve comes around....we've already been to christmas eve service...no one burned the church down with their waving candles around.......always a good practice to give young children lit candles to hold.....so we are back at home.....and our son loses a tooth......ok so we are going to be visited by 2 instead of 1.....it's all good.........he puts his tooth under his pillow, and we tuck them all in to go to sleep.......which of course doesn't happen that quick....
         so while waiting for the kids to go to sleep, our good friend from farmville shows up.............of course the kids think santa and the tooth fairy had already come....but no...back to bed.......well we stay up for awhile talking...it's getting really late and ta da....the kids are all asleep.....we hear commotion on the roof....no kidding.....freak us all out.........we look out front and nothing is there........hmmm.....we look  out back....and see nothing.......it has started to snow though.....and our friend is getting ready to go home.......but first , we walk out back and on the roof is a bag with presents spilling out......what!!!???.........and a couple presents have landed on the deck.........since it's snowing, we thought we probably ought to bring them in....we had a mini trampoline laying beside the deck...our friend uses it to stand on to get the presents, when we hear the kids....our friend puts the mini tramp back and we run back inside......put them to bed...again.......and our friend says he needs to get home .........off he goes......and us being so tired, we go on to bed......
               next morning...or should i say 4 hours later.........the kids run in yelling ... "yeah it's christmas....get up...get up"........so we drag ourselves into the livingroom with frantic kids....and their faces drop..........you see, the only presents under the tree were the ones we had wrapped for them...they had already seen those....but, no new presents.....what??!!....no santa gifts.......ahhhhhh!!!........but alas....where do you ever get to say alas, but during a christmas story.......but alas we knew they were on the roof.........so we told the kids "we don't know what happened"...lies all lies........but "go feed the dog"...."out back".......so off goes one twin and when she opens the door to feed our dog she sees a present........she runs outside and yells at the other kids...."there are presents on the roof!!!"
            we all run outside....they are soooo excited......we pull the mini tramp over to get them and the kids gasp and say  "look at the footprints on the mini tramp....they don't match any of us".....a moment of awe........awe........we go back inside and there is a note on the bag, it says......."dear kids, sorry i couldn't bring the presents in , i ran into the tooth fairy and dropped the presents, hope you enjoy...love santa"......"the tooth fairy" shouts our son and runs into his bedroom where under his pillow is a quarter!!!!....yeah so it seems the tooth fairy has increased with inflation now........but anyway.........the tooth fairy is like a ninja....we were up the whole time....heard nothing.......well we possibly heard santa.....who also possibly had too much eggnog and is not as lithe as the tooth fairy...but is still pretty fabulous.....
           so belief was restored to the twins!!...yeah!!!.....the tooth fairy and santa are still friends....accidents happen.........our friend got back to farmville safely.......and the dog finally got fed!.........cause ya know what they say..."if you don't believe, you don't receive!"......have a merry christmas!....in case i don't get around to another blog before then!....be groovy
         

    Good morning campers.....it's wonderful wednesday.......what a fabulous day........well i thought i would update yall on what's been going on with my art....and what's not been going on.....and everything in between.......like a pb and j......gotta love those sandwiches, you can't go wrong with them, and they can go on long car road trips and not go bad.......now pb and alfalfa sprouts is super delicious, but it needs a fridge after a bit.......anyway, where was i.....
       ....so yall know i opened an etsy shop...yeah......and i got my first sale.....double yeah....i've got to add more items and work on the site itself, but overall i'm happy to have achieved that.......
        my dear friend billie, we are like identical twins, but not.....ok we don't really look alike, but we are alike in pretty much everything we do.....freaky...... but we are doing 2nd sundays in williamsburg va......so it's this arts and crafts show that was supposed to happen every 2nd sunday from march thru dec.......we did march, then everything got shut down.....then opened up to do nov, and yes dec.....so this sun we will be there again......hurrah!!..........so arts and crafts shows.....i've done a couple, but they were more craft shows...and when people come for a craft show, they want crafts, not original artwork, they are crafty people that way.............but since this was an arts and crafts show....we both decided to try this together for a year.......so since it's only been 2 times, we don't have a real good feel for how we are doing.....which is very little..........but we are still trying!!!...and having a grand time hanging out together.......we figured it would push both of us to create more........i think we are getting there.....we have improved our booth a bunch......baby steps!.......we can do it!!!
        i've updated my website with some prices for artwork, but need to change the headings around a bit so people can find what they are looking for.....if they look..............of course the whole facebook thing and instagram thing too...need to step that up a little.....
           oh and this blog post....it's not like i'm writing on it now, and i forgot it......it's like i'm walking out the door talking on my cell phone, and then walk back in to look for my cell phone so i can go.......i'm even telling the person on the end of the line.......great song by the way.......that i'm looking for my phone so i can get going.......scary that i'm allowed out in public.......
        so this streamline thing i talked about in the beginning of the year is kinda working, but still needs some organization...........ok alot of organization....and a cleaning person, cause my house is a disaster.............the cleaning person we have now is horrible.......that's me, by the way........so i gather the only way to make the streamlining  work is to do it......what a revelation........i amaze and astound myself all the time.......
          ya know  i might not be selling alot of artwork, but.....i actually have it up and priced....in places.....so that's a big plus......well better than just continuing to create and having walls double lined with artwork and tables filled with cards and prints, and tubs of stuff everywhere........at some point if i didn't put stuff up for sale.....all my artwork was going to take over the house and you'd have to tunnel through the art to get anywhere....hmmmmmm...that could be really interesting....and fun.............slides from one room to another........stairs made up of artwork and boxes.......there's a place in arizona i think, that has this art experience museum place where to enter it you go through a fridge...love it.......
           so i feel i'm accomplishing things.....and forgetting alot of things....where's the keyboard?.....but overall....i think i'm moving forward.......or is that sideways......or could be upside down........but as long as i have a pb and j, i'm on my way!!!   be groovy!
            
               

      good morning campers......so i just had a revelation.....crazy...right?...but so i don't know who knows this but i am sort of a control freak....ok well not sort of, but pretty much am......i try to let go of the control....and i think i am letting go of the control.....when i realize that i am still firmly attached to whatever i am trying to let go of....it's not pretty......my big issue has been for awhile...what does God want me to do?.....so i ask Him....all the time.....and it goes like this....

​this is me," hey God...how are things?....groovy....ok so could you tell me what you want me to do with my life?".....
God answers, " ok, so for sta...".........
me again, " i mean God, what is my purpose?".......
God again, "well what i wa...".......
me again, " so i mean could you send a fax or something cause i'm really hard headed"........
God again,  "well if you le..".....
me again, "i guess you know i'm hard headed, you made me"....
God again, "my tho.."......
me again, "i'm having a hard time hearing what you want me to do"........
God again, "......."........
me again, "i really don't understand, i'm really trying to understand and hear you but i can't seem to get it"
God again, "....."
me again, "could ya just make it real obvious where i need to focus my attention"
God again, "you really opened that do...."
me again, .....................
    
          well this could go on for a long time, switching between God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit.....they kind of tag team....i know God has unlimited patience, but even i can't take me sometimes......so my big revelation is not really a revelation but more of a revealing of the obvious, which has been right in front of me all this time.......but yeah, gotta let this control thing off the hook.....stop planning so much......right....
         it's like an addiction.....hi, i'm bobbi, and i'm a control addict..........so how do you let go of control?......interesting question.........first i guess is  what controls you?..........a habit, a thought, an action, control itself.......can control really control what i am trying not to control?......boy the word control looks really weird right now...........i'm sure i get it naturally from my mom........cause my dad was the opposite of a control freak.........i have passed it on nicely to some of my kids.......and passing it on would be nice if it meant i gave it away completely and  i didn't have it anymore....but it seems to multiple all by itself....as in..."but wait there's more!"
          like, i tend to hang on to things that are memorable to me.....and i swear the stuff in the attic keeps multipying..........i have tons of bins in the attic that have every drawing all the kids have done at one time or another.........even when they wrote their name, made a pasta drawing (yeah those are in really bad shape now), really anything they created i have saved......so i had my oldest daughter go through some of the bins with me to see what she would want.....because of course,  i saved them for her to  enjoy later.......so i pull down 3 or 4 bins....my daughter is sitting beside me, i am pulling stuff out and going down memory lane...."oh remember when you drew this?....remember when you made me that?....here are your worksheets from 1st grade".....meanwhile, my daughter is just throwing away everything in the trash can behind her as i hand them to her.....i'm so focused on all the stuff i didn't see what she was doing.....revelation again- me being so focused on the stuff i miss the actual life............ok back to my thoughts.....when i realize what she is doing i'm like "what are you doing?".....as i'm digging through the trash to get the stuff back out to put back in bins......."you can't through this stuff away??!!...it's important stuff ...it's your stuff!"......and she throws the bin in the trash can and says i need to get help....help as in clearing out the house attic and in clearing out my attic........very funny...how droll.....obviously she doesn't want the stuff....these mementos i have collected for years are not as treasured to her as they are to me.......who is this daughter i raised???......the funny thing is all of my kids are not memory keepers, or stuff collectors,  like i am....they are all basically matter of fact, let's enjoy it for awhile and then recycle it.......i mean a couple might be more apt to keep something for a bit, but in general, not so much....the youngest is brutal with not saving things....very similar to the evil older sister whos mantra is  "if you haven't used it in an hour, out it goes"........it's heart breaking....and also very liberating i guess....cause i can finally let go of some stuff......ok not all of it ....4 bins came down and 3 went back up.........baby steps.......
        but if i can let go of 1 bin of stuff....ok so i did try to stuff all the stuff ....ha ha very funny....stuff the stuff......from the 4th bin into the other 3.....but some things got thrown away........a couple papers.........but if i am able to get rid of a couple papers....then the world is my oyster.......what does that really mean?........but anything is possible....including letting control take control of the control i keep taking control of.........what?!...... so basically  i don't need to understand my underlying need to undertake control and underestimate Gods ability to get control under control......that's alot of unders.....which is understandably overkill.....ha ha....... let go and let God......be groovy!

     good morning campers.........oh my gosh....i was almost completely done with my blog when something went caflooee and i lost everything......arrrrggghhhh......... always save....always save....always save.......so frustrating...........moving on....
       so..... happy voting day!!......when i started to vote...they used to have curtains that you pulled around you to hide spying eyes on who you were voting on.........not that anyone could really see, but it was kind a neat.....and  kids loved to play under the curtains and the little voting booth thing....which reminded me of my mom taking us to the store....lazarus to be specific....and not the lazarus that was miraculously brought to life after being  dead.....which was kind of like how i felt after the shopping trip....well not the miraculously alive part but the other.............so lazarus was part of northland mall in columbus, ohio.........the mall wasn't an inside mall but just stores near each other with walking paths between them........ lazarus was kind of like walmart where it had everything... but a lot of different floors and it was a more upscale place.....not a place you went to everyday......special occasions...well for us......
         so my mom brought me.....i don't know why cause i could have stayed with the neighbor......but anyway....so it's my mom, with my bratty baby brother in a stroller, and the evil older sister.....who because she's in middle school gets a clothing allowance, .....i was rolling my eyes there........which basically gave her enough money to buy fabric to make an outfit..........store bought dresses were a little pricier.....so she was off to the fabric section....top floor i think.......and we were looking through clothes....and i was bored.....so remember, i was a spy at that time.......i see the round clothes racks and decide to work on my spying skills......so off i go.......the round racks are great cause you can get under them in the middle and nobody sees you......i was stealthily moving from one rack to the other and having a grand time......my mom finally realizes i'm not to be seen, starts calling me.......well i'm just getting my spy skills going now, so not being flippant, but i ignore her..........my mom gets more worried and gets others involved.......ya know sometimes just answering right away saves a lot of pain.....and then there's me........so i continue on with my spy games and now my mom is in a full fledged panic......by the time i got snatched up and my mom saw me, panic went right out the door.........and "the look" showed up.....ya know "the look"....it says so much with out saying anything....and yet leaves a lot to the imagination....and i have a great imagnation.........so my mom leaves the store quickly, with that fabulous smile on her face.....thanking everyone for their help..."thank you so much, i was so worried" ( i'm beyond furious), "i'm so glad yall helped me to find her" (i'm so embarrassed that i had to ask for help in searching out this child that makes me look like an incompetent mother), "she is just such an inquisitive child" (who's gonna get her rear end worn out for the trauma i just went through) (and the salespeople are saying to themselves " she's gonna get her rear end worn out when she gets home") (and i'm giving the pleading eye look to the sales people saying" can't i stay here, life is not gonna be good when i get home")...as my mom is dragging me out of the store with a fury that you should be able to bottle and sell........
            so yes i did get a spanking and had to do extra chores......did i deserve it?....probably.......wasn't the first, wouldn't be the last.......it wasn't that i was a bad kid, i just always went a different path......i would say i drove my mom to drink, but she didn't drink....she did have a nervous tic that appeared during my high school years....hasn't quite gone away yet...........my mom always said that i stayed up at night thinking of ways to drive her crazy........she gave me too much credit....in reality i didn't think that far in advance........chaos and mindlessness were my running mates......the former proceeded the later, but it was always very interesting...well for me.......
       have a super groovy voting day!

      good morning campers......what a fabulous day it is today!!!.... everyday can be a fabulous day!....well one of my grandkids just got glasses....she's so excited about them......so now that's 2 grands with glasses...they both look so cute...........i remember when i was back in elementary school how i wanted glasses.....they were so groovy on everyone....but alas i had 20/20 vision and beyond.......when the eye doc would say read the lowest line on the chart i could read the "made in china" line........not so much now....
         the first time i realized something was amiss with my vision was when i was painting the kindergarten mural for am davis........my vision would kind of go double when i was really concentrating....and i'm like..."what is going on?"..............i go to the eye doc and they say "you have a little nearsightedness....or is that farsightedness?.....not sure, but it's the one where you don't see close up very well....it's kinda like fiction or non fiction ....or left brain or right brain....what's so bad is it's just 2 things you are comparing but i can not remember what is what for anything.....i even made up that thing where you make something up to help you remember...what a minute...............mnemonic devise....but maybe that's not it......cause i would say not true for non fiction?.....not sure if that's right ....hold up a minute again....no it's the opposite...not false......which is like a double negative and very confusing.......you think it would be easy to remember 2 things, but maybe not...........i have played guitar since 3rd grade and i still can not remember the names of the strings......well i know both e's and the a........but after that i always mess them up.....it's just 6 strings..........it's like doing story problems, which i have talked about before......the 5:00 train leaves the station at 12, and carried 9 tons of blah blah blah........i've already zoned out..........my neighbor tells me this when she talks taxes to me, or anything to do with money....what?.....i just zoned out on myself.........she says "why am i talking to you about this, you have already left the building"........it's not that i have left the building, it's just the way the sun was lighting up the dust speck that was floating near her head made me think of incorporating that into this painting i was working on........anyway.........
           but back to the vision thing.......so back then i just needed readers....which helped alot!.....what a difference in being able to paint! and read!....woo hoo.......... now the eye doc said i need real glasses.....not strong just a weak prescription..... cause now i have the other of what i had before......basically both sightednesses....or both non sightednesses?.....so after dragging my feet and things are kinda blurry out there and it would be nice to not be squinting to see far away......... i decided to try the bifocal glasses....instead of having 2 pairs of glasses to keep up with i would just need one!.....makes sense........well when i got them i  about walked into a wall when i put them on....besides making me extremely dizzy.... how can anybody see out of 2 inches of glass.....cause when you look straight ahead its all good, but look down and you fall over or run into things until you look up again which starts the dizzy proccess all over again..........how do you see the world???........i took them back and got the 1 vision glasses....much better...... but not being used to wearing glasses all the time, they ended up on the top of my head cause i would think they were the reading glasses.......and there i am squinting to see far away again, till i realized....oh put my glasses on.............it's been quite a journey getting used to wearing glasses.........but i can say that "wow i can really see stuff now!"........i can even see the exit sign before i pass it and go...oops that was my exit......."oops that was my exit"......

            so while reading glasses help you to read,
            and seeing glasses help you to see,
          remembering the difference between 2 things,
          is trickier than it should be... 
         two leaves the station at 1,
         and 1 leaves the station at 2,
         good bye to you,  1 and two,
          was this non fiction or completely true................?

           sometimes i wonder about myself........be groovy

          good morning campers......well while watching art marketing videos, i started researching how to ship artwork....that's a big concern of mine because,  say i finally get my artwork up for sale, "i finally get my artwork up for sale".... and say someone actually buys something!!!....."yeah!".......well back it up....first i have to be checking my website everyday to see if someone did buy something or has asked a question about my artwork.....then if they want to buy it......now i have to ship it....how do i ship it??? ......so many questions and i am dragging my feet like crazy...my toes are so scuffed up......well not too bad at the moment.......but it's alittle overwhelming thinking i will have to keep up with this everyday and not procrastinate........i know myself and if i can procrastinate i will........but that's not really the professional way is it........and there's no better way to lose customers than to not realize they have contacted you or bought something they didn't receive, etc......yikes....i put so much pressure on myself....
          so one of the art marketing videos i was watching was talking about why not to become a full time artist...always a good motivator!.......and it ended with something like complacency is death......lovely......but i guess true also......if you are not creating and marketing your work, you're not making a living......and let me tell you that waiting around for the phone to ring, does not work....well unless you want a solicitor to call you....that works...they call all the time....i actually tried to sell my artwork to a solicitor once.....i asked them to ask all the people there, if anyone needed a mural......they haven't called back.....i guess they weren't expecting that.....and i guess they didn't need a mural.....but anyway, i perfected that marketing strategy of waiting for the phone to ring.......it's kind of a lousey strategy.......
        but..... some things i have learned are,  to keep it simple......which works for me.....so just go with 2 or 3 social media places and do them well....so i have instagram.com/bobbismurals/  and facebook.com/bobbismurals/ (by the way in case you wanted to check either or both of those out....hint hint)..........i believe i spend more time on instagram than on facebook.....but there's alot to be said about spreading yourself too thin.......i started out doing this social media and that social media and forgetting that i had those and others.....that doesn't get an audience, which is what i'm after in order to sell my work.....i gather.....i'm not after gazillions of viewers, well i wouldn't turn them down, but,  i'm not even in that ballpark....i'm in the dirt patch down the road......which is kind of a good place....ya know that little shop on the corner that people stop in......and we chat about life and art and sit in bean bag chairs and have tea.....that could be dangerous cause as soon as you sit down in a bean bag chair your tea spills all over you and hopefully it wasn't hot tea......ask my youngest about hot tea spilling on her....it wasn't much but alittle is more than you need.....and aren't bean bag chairs so fun when there is a small hole in one, so whenever you sit down it shoots out little stryrofoam beans.......which are all over your house .... and you never get rid of them...... i believe they multiply when you sweep....or really they crawl up in the bristles of the broom and hang on till the appropriate time to jump off..........but anyway.....someplace low key, comfortable, welcoming and friendly.....kind of like the meg ryan movie about the bookstore.....that's a great shop.......there is a book store in german village in ohio.....it's the grooviest book store, i believe it's like a block long, but it was a house or a couple of houses, so when you go in there are all these little nooks and crannies where you can go and hang out and read....it's great......not sure if they are still in business, but a great store.....
         so while looking to find the right balance between a million views or 3.....it helps to know that along the way there are friends and family to encourage you, viewers that leave positive comments and the fun viewers that leave not so nice comments, solicitors that call constantly and a thousand and one videos on how to ship artwork............but all in all i'm in a subjective field, where everyone has their own opinion of what they think or like in art.....and i just have to be okay with me and my artwork.....and take everything else with a grain of salt.....preferably salt at the beach!.....be groovy!

         howdy do campers......well my 100 days plus 4 ( i did not add correctly...what's new?, and so my 100 days ended up being 104 days)....so 100 days plus 4 are going well....im taking some liberties with my art.....yesterday was fabric day...actually patch my jeans day.....i feel like i was using the sewing machine to draw with so that was counted as a day......
     speaking of patchwork jeans.....well no one was, but i segued ....segued looks so strange....segway looks better but that's a thing you ride......which i have and is very bizarre and fun.......focus....so who patches jeans anymore?.....well i do....but it used to be the thing to do, but now the thing to wear are  leggings......they are really comfy, but not great to patch.....too funny.......i just imagined someone wearing patched leggings.......probably me.......not really working............ so way back you would get these rectangular patches that were sewn or ironed on....no kids, not like a piece of iron on your jeans,..... it's that contraption that used to be used all the time by mom's everywhere.....iron out wrinkles in skirts, shirts, dresses, in my mom's case, sheets, towels, curtains, etc....or in my case, grilled cheese sandwiches.....yes virginia you can iron grilled cheese sandwiches on the ironing board,.... prepare the grilled cheese like you normally would then wrap in aluminum foil and iron on both sides.....amazing and really fun.........and for you carnivorous people you can make it a ham and cheese,  or for you vegans a tofu and vegan cheese.....that's really good.......... but where was i....wait, i'm right here....ha ha ha .....i make myself laugh all the time......i'm not really sure why people don't come by anymore....hmmmm........
         back to jeans......so these patches would be sewn or ironed onto the knees of your jeans even before you wore them.....to keep your jeans from wearing out so fast......cause, i always spell cause, casue....had to correct it............anyway....... you only had so many jeans and they had to last the whole year....if you grew, which we all did....material got added to the bottom...or everyone asked you why you are wearing high waters.........like you had rolled up your jeans cause you're wading through water, but you didn't roll them you just wore jeans that were too short...anyway.......well my hubby wanted to get some jeans, levis to be exact, but there are so many numbers...501, 502, 505, etc....and then what fit and cut do you want?....flare, boot cut, low rise, high rise....not a skyscraper, ....narrow leg, loose fit, curvy.....well not my hubby,....or me......relaxed, really low rise....which is kind of redundant....low- rise........what color, etc.............how bout just a pair of jeans.......and now it's not a pair of jeans it's just jean.........which is what i'm called by my relatives, and my mom when she's mad at me....bobbi jean....a good southern double name......
            but back to my 100 days plus 4, so fabric art is a thing and really art is subjective so anything you do could be construed.....very wild word.....as art.............like i just made art with the dots....."i felt it was a very existential reality that affirms the dot's existence".......what?.......right.......really i was just thinking......but yeah art can be anything.....and i've been getting some inspiring info from art marketing videos.....so i keep moving forward....ever so slowly......and even though i was supposed to be selling my artwork by april 1st...joke on me.....i'm pushing to have a way to sell my artwork by the end of this month!.....yes that's right i said it.....october 31, i will have my artwork up for sale........yikes........better get a move on.....
         so moving on...... art marketing is going well......my hubby did get some jeans.....the pictures below will be photos of my art jeans....some i can still wear and some are only patches with a little bit of jean left....or jean right......but not jean write....cause she was sewing....on day 25.....be groovy!
​ps- happy 12th birthday o 
         
        
        

      Howdy all you fabulous campers!....well it's october so halloween decorating is in full swing....or has been in full swing......also my 100 days of art is going well....actually doing it...yeah me!......especially when i can combine
halloween and my art....
       so my daughter, the oldest twin, loves halloween.....and last year i had told her that she needs some sort of monster climbing over her fence because you can see it from far off.......so last year we had made some cardboard eyes and fingers....didn't have alot of time so it was a rush job......still looked cute.....but this year i said we needed to go bigger.....so after looking online at different chicken wire sculptures.....we made a chicken wire monster......with fingers too..........now what i wanted to do was have the monster climbing over the fence......but with only a total of around 7 hours....my ideas got scaled done abit........we got done what we could get done.....
      the start of the monster was us trying to figure out how big to make it......i had already painted 3 eyes for him....dollar tree has some big clear plastic serving bowls at the fabulous price of $1 each....gotta love dollar tree.....ya know in japan their dollar tree is called the 100 yen store.......great stuff there!.......so back to the  eyes.....so i painted them like i painted my dino eyes, from the inside and they turned out great.......i'm trying to get the picture in the text for you to see....
     i remember doing a post on chasing around the image as i tried to put it in the text....it's happening again.....arrrggghh....and now the text formatting has gone ca -flooee....that's the technical name for when your text goes crazy......i don't think it's happening today...
       anyway   so here we are ....well there we were actually....but we were trying to figure out how to start the monster.....let me say making an armature before you start is way better than making after you have put alot of chicken wire in a shape and it's not holding it's shape......live and learn.......so after multiple starts and restarts and numerous people now helping hold the shape we get the head kind of done........the armature is now in and somewhat stable inside the monster....he's holding his own...yeah.....we secure the eyes in the monster.......get the first part of the nose done....i wanted him to be sort of a kilroy type monster.....ya know the nose hanging over the fence and the fingers gripping the fence........it was an old cartoon type character.....so we needed him to be propped up more or laying on his back to finish the nose......anyway.......so my daughter and i are getting to the tired part .......ya know the part where we are getting tired of each other......i have my idea....she has her idea......i gotta say that her way of attaching some chicken wire did work a little better than mine.....sometimes my vision is not as clear as it could be.....kind of a cloudy vision that works itself out through alot of trial and error.......and painful cuts and scratches ...because chicken wire is sharp.....who knew??
       now my daughters' like, "what are we covering him with?".....hmmmm....my original idea was shower curtains or cheap plastic and then spray paint them.....but since we didn't have that with us and it's getting dark and we are trying to hold it together with our frustration of "it's not done yet???".....i say "how about cobwebs?...they should stick to chicken wire real easy!".......let me say that unless something is rough....cobwebs don't stick to it........but they do stick to anything and everything else....our gloves, bodies, hair, feet, tools, etc.....just not chicken wire......so let's cut the chicken wire in areas to attach it!!!......after many more painful cuts and scratches....that did not work much better.....then we thought how bout that gauzy fabric....like cheese cloth but cheaper.......we put that on first....but it didn't stick much better either.........then an idea hit us.....or that might have been the chicken wire.....but..... eureka.....spray glue!!!!!......
      the fabulous properties of spray glue......you spray and it glues....wonderful......so now we have gauzy fabric glued to chicken wire with cobwebs glued to that and our hands and fingers glued to each other and cobwebs glued to our clothes and feet......but the monster looks great!!!!.....
      still need arms and legs....like i said we had to scale down.....so fingers it is.....well 3 fingers, cause we were kinda done and it was starting to rain.....
        the next day, it's really raining now and we finish 5 more fingers, attach noodles for hair.....pool noodles are the best...you can use them for anything.......so fun..........now with the help of my son-in-law and hubby we have to attach it to the fence....in the rain....and the wind.......no problem.....electric power tools in the rain....so much fun.....
       all i can say is...."hallelujah the monster is secured to the fence and looking fabulous".....the whole fence might fall over in a strong wind but the monster  will stay attached to the fence!.......
        so the next time you want to make a monster for your fence ...i would say cardboard is such a great material to work with...not as painful.......and it's free!..............but ...making the monster made up 2 days of my 100 days of art....sweet!!!...be groovy yall !
       

      howdy campers....so one of my grands was telling me that you don't need a license to own a artic fox.....and i was like ...no i'm pretty sure you have to have a license and be trained too....which i guess is how you get the license......also i said they are wild animals...not pets....which brought the conversation around to the skunk i used to own......
      so way back before kids and a husband....i was delivering pizzas...in my vw bug....loved that car...it was my first car and it was fabulous!!!......anyway i went to this one house and walked up to the door and these 2 huge great danes came to the door....oh my gosh they were so cute.....and then a skunk waddles up between them........i was in hog heaven.......well that would probably be skunk heaven, cause it was a skunk and not a hog.....moving on.....the owner comes to the door and i am just raving about the skunk.....she says "do you want him?"......and i say "of course!!!!".......i mean who wouldn't take a skunk that you just saw from a house you were delivering pizzas to?.....right??!!.....well.....i rented a house with 2 other guys and let's just say  they  weren't as thrilled with the skunk as i was, but i kept him in my room.....in general.....ok he roamed the house......oh and i already had a guinea pig and a dog........and how many problems could a skunk really cause?
     ya know sometimes spontaneous decisions can be really interesting and exciting......i mean if you think things through too much you you probably wouldn't do some things.....of course it is good to think things through sometimes.....but maybe not too much....
         so how many problems can a skunk cause...........well it started with the skunk..tea bear....chasing the guinea pig, while the dog chased the skunk through out the house.....that was fun and chaotic.......then there was tea bear digging.....they really like to dig....alot....with long claws......in the bathroom..... on the walls.....lot of drywall repair needed.......then tea bear would do this back up hopping thing...trying to scare people off, which would tear up the carpet......thankfully he couldn't spray.......what else.......oh yeah he got out a bunch of times and would scare the neighbors because they thought it was a rabid skunk digging at their screen doors....he was just hungry.....had to get him from the dog pound a couple of times......i don't know how he would get out....he was pretty smart...............a fun thing we would do is walk around the neighborhood.....with tea bear on a cat harness leash......he basically waddled.......super adorable.....he did have a musky smell to him, like a ferret...but all in all he was fabulous.....
          i had checked about getting another skunk some years back and found out you had to have a wildlife license.......so that's how i gathered an artic fox would need more of a license to get one.....and since we don't live in the artic....maybe not.....they are cute though........
        so even though jumping in with both feet with out looking can sometimes lead to not so great consequences....sometimes you just need to be spontaneous and hopefully things will turn out pretty groovy.....or you could just be repairing alot of drywall..........i mean if you are delivering pizzas and an artic fox comes to the door and the owner says "do you want him?".......what would you say?................be groovy!
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.....ps- so i have been searching the house for this 1 photo of me and tea bear and all i can find is the book that came with the him.....so one day when i find it i'll post it for you to see how adorable he was!.....see ya