No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on March 5, 2011

Today is my Mother’s Birthday.

She is an amazing woman who raised four children who turned out well. She has many other achievements in her profession as a Professor at the Emory University Nursing School which she retired from a couple of years ago and finally stopped altogether this past year.

She enjoys teaching. Whether it is roomful of students or one of her children, she would always seem to be teaching us something. I learned so many skills from her, some consciously and other subconsciously

She is a great believer in leading by example. She didn’t swear so we didn’t swear. She would say please and thank you to us and expected the same courtesy. She raised us right and we became polite productive members of society.

Since she has retired she had received her Master Gardener certification from the Georgia Extension service, gone on trips around the world including a recent safari to Africa, and finally finish those mystery novels that she always wanted to get around to reading. She may have retired from the job but she is still active in the world.

She is also active in the lives of her granddaughters. Because of iChat and Facetime, she can spend time talking to them and getting to know them better than just letters and telephone calls. She reads this web log to hear about Caroline’s adventures and later asks her about them. From a young age Caroline knew what her grandparents looked like because she saw them on the computer, so when we got together there was no hesitation for hugs and kisses because these faces were not strange to her.

She has always been there for me no matter what the circumstance. I know I have her in my corner in both good times and bad and that has helped me through some pretty tough times. I know she loves me unconditionally and I love her the same. She is my Mom and she is wonderful.

Happy Birthday Mom! Hope it is a good one and we’ll try for an iChat this afternoon.

I am so so grateful that my Mother is my Mother.

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Posted By Kathleen David on March 4, 2011

Today’s topic Believe in Yourself

This can be hard to do. You look at one of my puppets or dolls and see the whole thing. I can see all the flaws and imperfections in the piece. Kind of a forest for the trees thing.

It took me years to be able to say that I was an artist. I called myself a craftsman for the longest time. It was an artist that I respect who changed my thinking by calling me an artist rather than a craftsman. He told me that he was in awe of what I could make because even though he could paint for days, he couldn’t sew to save his life. He was impressed at what I could make fabric do. And, for some reason, that changed my thinking.

Everyone creates art in one form or another. Some draw, some sculpt, others cook, and there is even art in the ability to organize a drawer or a closet. We start creating when we are small. Give a child a pencil and paper and they are off to the races making pictures of things that are important to them. Then our inner censor starts up and for some we don’t feel anything we draw is good enough. It goes even further when our peers jump in and tell us we aren’t good at something. We figure they are right and go from there.

Caroline sometimes gets frustrated when she can’t get what is in her head out on paper. I tell her that part of it is practice. The more you do something, the better you get at it. I can make a puppet from fabric and foam to finish puppet in about 4 hours but I have been doing it quite a while and I have had a lot of practice. Everything isn’t going fall into place at once.

And don’t be afraid to fail at a piece. There is always another piece of paper or fabric or clay that you can try again. Failing is how we learn to succeed. That method didn’t work so now we try something else. I have a box or two of puppet parts that didn’t make the grade but I figure I will use them for something else down the road.

So believe in yourself. There is an artist within that is willing to come out and play if you ask them to.

I am grateful my inner child and I get along so well.

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Posted By Kathleen David on March 3, 2011

I think that is the longest I have gone in a while without posting. Part of it was that Peter had to try to finish some deadline work so he was on the computer and I haven’t found a word processing program for the iPad that I feel comfortable using. The other part is that Disney hasn’t upgraded to wifi so we are still ethernet dependent at a rather pricey price.

I am putting this behind a cut because it is going to be long.

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Posted By Kathleen David on February 25, 2011

The bags are packed. The cat sitter is in place or will be when she gets over here about 10. I have a few things I need to do to get us ready to go again. Back to back conventions can be a slog but we’ve done it before and we’ll do it again. This one is pretty simple for me since I am going as wife not as participant.

We have parts of this down to a science and there are other things that stay fluid because the means and the systems change.

I’ll be web logging if I have internet access which is not always a sure thing.

Off to take care of a few things that need to be done before we get to the travel part of our day. Right now we have rain coming down which I am hoping will be gone by about noon.

I am grateful for smooth travel.

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Posted By Kathleen David on February 24, 2011

Due to all kinds of things happening

This might be on Thursday of Next week as well due to taking a real vacation for a couple of days.

I want to talk about the wig for Ariel’s “Why Cats make lousy Green Lanterns” costume.

I had some thoughts on how to do it but decided to consult the internet to see if there were any idea there. I came across a web site called Instructables (www.instructables.com) which had a great tutorial on one way to make a cat wig in the style of Cats (http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-a-Cats-Wig/). side note: I have been spending too much time on that website. There are so many things to make on there.

I took the basics from the tutorial and put my own spin on it. I used fabric tack rather than hot glue to attached the plugs. It worked pretty well for what I needed. I found a great hairspray that had hold for days. I didn’t trim it as much as I might have but I was trying to do this without Ariel’s head to compare it to.

How long did it take? Well the prep time took the longest. I would estimate that getting the yarn into plugs took about 8 to 12 hours depending on how you count it. I got it down to a system of pulling the threads out (3 per hank) and tying off the plug. I figured I made about 800 plugs total. Applying the glue took a long time but it wasn’t at one time. I had to do it in pieces so one section could dry before applying the next one. I did that over two days. The styling and ear making took about two hours not including giving the hairspray time to set. So I am estimating about 18 hours total not including drying.

Once we get back I am going to finish the cloth postcards of the exchange. Then onto to LunaCon I think. I am still debating about it. I always have fun there but we will have been doing a lot of travel. I guess I’ll put in for a table and apply for a membership soon.

Pictures of the process under the cut

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