100 Days - 100 Dreams: 7

Greetings - 

The morning is that damp warm grey-green that sits early on some Summer days. The days one can sense that stuff is growing all around you. Especially invasive species of weeds... boo. And peeking out of the dark brown soil are the tiny baby beets - at last - yay! If one has something to look forward to - well, today might be THAT day! Or it just might be another day... It's hard to know in early mornings.

Because of a recent high-tech doings my word I want to be is EAGER.

Eager to start the day. Eager to try new things. Eager to have some Adventures and even adventures. (You know - there is rock climbing and then there is trying a new variety of tea.) Eager to feel Eager.

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I forget to do the above.

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I have to make more dancing bears. The sitting bears are fine and dandy, but it's time to do some movin' and shakin.'

Time to get wild in use of color again. Time to "Not Care." Which actually means a different kind of Caring.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I AM giving myself a Pep Talk.

It's O.K. for you to do the same for yourself.

Really.

We need more Pep Talks.

Really.

***************

On to our three-day weekend, and the start of Summer. I am not ready for the traffic that is already building in dear "quaint" Stillwater, MN.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

But we are downtown business people and I LOVE when folks are on the sidewalks and in the stores and down by the St. Croix River. 

        Dealing with traffic is a way to get in some Zen practice.                                             "Patience, Grasshopper."

                     ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

             So, on to the day for all of us. I am glad we have one.                                                                           Whatever it's color.

Fare-thee-well,

Sue

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

www.suerowe.com

Facebook Page: Sue-Rowe-Studios

                   

100 Days - 100 Dreams: 6

It is THURSDAY AGAIN.

     Where did the days and nights of the last week go?

I dream of being "Caught Up." Of having tasks finished, for the moment, and having a lovely stretch of TIME straight ahead, to be used in a joyful and relaxed manner.

Scurry. Scurry. All the doings, walkings, writings, plantings, paintings, and yet there are still art festivals to pay fees for, pastels and oil paintings to finish and frame. Deadlines are looming!!!

But.... there are also that pile of books to read, that Bill Bryson audio book to sneak in a listen, maybe do a little book-keeping? (hahahahaha)

Not Bitching. We are blessed with being to do what we love doing - as a living.

But the layers of Living can be a bit overwhelming, even when one loves all the layers.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

This Spring it appears that the Lupine will be lovely. 
The ferns and Bleeding Heart and sedum are flourishing.
The iris... look iffy for the first time ever. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Most of the vegetable garden is planted. Playing with climbing beans and squash for the first time. And have been transplanting the sunflower seeds that the squirrels planted for us. Always find a row's worth in the lawn and flower beds. Thanks, squirrels, for giving these seeds a few weeks head-start on the other sunflowers!

****************

Pals have been giving me suggestions for seed and plant catalogs for next year's growings. Time to find the garden journal and write down the various sources. I very rarely buy seeds or plants other than from local spots - but there is "always" next year. One hopes that there is always a net year. It is one thing that keeps a gardener going!

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Now it is back to work at filling wholesale orders, and finding inspiration in playing with gouache and crumpled and torn pieces of watercolor paper. Work and Play. Play and Work. The teeter totter of life. 

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Next Time: HOPSCOTCH - or Wow, I Didn't Know Kids Could Dream So Big!

Fare-thee-well,
Sue

www.suerowe.com
Facebook Page: Sue-Rowe-Studios

P.S.: Our first outdoor art fair of the season will be the first weekend in June. In Stillwater, Minnesota. Of course I'm not ready!
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May all have a Safe, Solemn, and Joyful Memorial Day weekend.

Keep Working Toward Your Dreams!!

100 Days - 100 Dreams: 5

I sort of dream of Dancing Bears

Not while I'm sleeping
But when I lie in bed
Or in the hammock

I am NOT a dancer
But often the folks who buy the dancing bears 
Are

They know how to Waltz
And Tango
And Quickstep

And so the bears
Must learn THEIR steps

And I must learn them
Too
Damn and Yay

One Two Three
One Two Three

Under the Moon

Sigh,
Sue

www.suerowe.com
Facebook Page: Sue-Rowe-Studios

100 Days - 100 Dreams: 4

There are our dreams.

There are George Lukas dreams.

There are Yoda dreams.

There are Yoda at Grand Marais, Minnesota dreams.

Dreams of Lake Superior. 

Dreams of finding big agates.

Or heart-shaped stones.

Or fresh-water "sea glass."

Dreams of Lake Trout and Salmon.

Sea Gull Dreams.

"Use the Fish, Luke."

On to using the Energy of the Day!

Sit for ten minutes and play with your words?

Sit for ten minutes and play with YOUR words.

Fare-thee-well,

Sue

www.suerowe.com

Facebook Page: Sue-Rowe-Studios

100 Days - 100 Dreams: 3

DREAM ABOUT CUPS ~~~~~~~~

A few years ago I needed a new way to think about drawing and writing. Sketchbooks aren't "precious" to me, but they mean "work." If you looked through my sketchbooks you might not think this, but this is so.

Tin Bins is an all-purpose eatery in downtown Stillwater, Minnesota. It's built within an old grain elevator. It serves lovely pastries. And good hot beverages. My daughter and I started spending many early mornings there. I began to amass a stash of tall while paper "to go" cups. I would use these to water plants, as paint brush holders, that sort of thing.

One day - no, I have no memory of "why," I decided that the PAPER these cups were made of was too good to waste. Taking a scissors and trimming top and bottom I then pressed the Once-cups under a Plexiglass sheet on my work desk. Ta da! Strange partial disks ready for whatever might happen.

What happened is an on-going accidental project. Because the paper is not a rectangle, and is just a junky old cup, my brain feels more able to play with whatever I'm using to cover the surface.

Here are just a very few:

See? It's O.K. to admit to mistakes! It's O.K. to draw lines just to see what happens! Maybe to Dream a little landscape.

Another:

And another:

Yes, many hold words of personal motivation. That's peachy. I need a mild command more often than I'd like to admit. And if it comes from a flattened cup so much the better. But some are more artsy. You never know until one is finished!

There is a small box filled with these objects now. I've shown them to a few people. Some are impressed. Others - not so much. LOL.

It doesn't matter. The cups, well, not Not-cups now, have their own power and reason for existing. They have truly been re-purposed.

A small dream is to present them in an informal exhibition. I have not thought this though at all, but I know that putting the cups on view might suggest people look at common objects in an uncommon way. Or to show how one thing can turn into another thing, simply by looking at it from a different perspective.

Tea or coffee, anyone? One sketch, or two?

Fare-thee-well,

Sue

www.suerowe.com

Facebook Page: Sue-Rowe-Studios

100 Days - 100 Dreams: 2

I am not a great gardener, but I AM a gardener.

I am not adventurous. I like to plant and grow "normal" stuff - Romaine lettuce, Swiss chard, sunflowers, even green beans ( I used to HATE green beans).

I LOVE certain plants more than others - the Blue Dwarf Kale, the sweet basil, tomatoes. No, I don't know why. These three are are simply my favorites. Yes, dear sunflowers, you, too.

After years of filling the plot with almost every apple from our apple tree and almost every leaf from our lawn we have needed no commercial fertilizers the past two years. We have a compost pile, but generally Todd just digs a "grave" and buries apples or leaves. Laziness works - so far.

As to Dreams... Each winter I get through the dark white time by occasionally thinking just a little about the coming Spring. I will hope that rodents leave us a few daffodils and tulips to bloom in the flower beds, and I make a list of things to plant in the "real" garden.
I ask friends and family for suggestions for new or different green things. This year we will try growing a few things upward. More "space" and a tad of experimentation. I am not a daring gardener. I want plants to produce. I try not to tempt fate.

Right now the garden looks like this:

With luck and care and another good Summer I dream it will once again look something like this:

I dream of more and taller sunflowers this year.
And of more hours to spend out simply watching the insects, birds, and other creatures making their visits to this little patch of hope.
And of time to study the gardens of others - each with its own personality.

Tomorrow brings some days of warmer weather. Tomorrow will hold planting. The Dream of Green continues.

And then, of course, there's Art...

Fare-thee-well,
and plant something.

Sue

www.suerowe.com
Facebook Page: Sue-Rowe-Studios

100 Days - 100 Dreams: 1

                 Another go at more frequent Blogging - 

Once upon a time I was an unpaid cartoonist for an "alternative" magazine. I or several years I sent piles of four-inch square bear cartoons up to Duluth, Minnesota. The folks at "The Reader" would print them, and many people laughed. Not all. But many.

      One pictured a bear with it's head down at a table. Caption: 


          Motivation can be a bitch when one is 
                            self-employed.

I am still self-employed. Motivation can still be a bitch. Lately, I have had weird dreams while sleeping. But no real DREAMS while awake. This can be a problem when there is no "boss" to give a person a goal, mission, or purpose. We free-lance types have to decide these for ourselves. Or just watch bad TV, surf the interwebs, or live our lives on Facebook.

                                (I'm kidding - a little.)

So, this little Personal Challenge is to change my outlook, re-find a purpose, refine a purpose?

I need to become re-EAGER, excited, and Aware. 

      This little person is still in this big person.

               Afraid AND Excited - LOL.

So, the day is sunny, the grass is green, the sky is blue, and I have got to be on my way - it's time to start gathering up Dreams again. The Waking kinds. The doing/being sorts.

I'm dreaming now of completing this Challenge.

On to the DOING ~~~~~~~ Orange. (private meaning to me.) 

Sue 

www.suerowe.com
Facebook Page: Sue-Rowe-Studios

Adenture

Heading
for Adventure

Old Life and New Life collide and mesh

Safe Travels
to all
on our
perilous
Frivolous 
Joyful
Stressful

Loved

Ride

on this Planet

Reminder...

I need this again:

Mock not The Hound of Accountability.

Especially when he's WAY bigger than Reality.

Best of Luck with YOUR May 1st.

Time to get back to the art doings at Color Crossing in Roberts, Wisconsin today. Our Creative Routes lead through so many places.

Fare-thee-well,

Sue