Hi, Everyone.
My name is Barbara
I am happy to introduce myself to you
and show you a few of the projects I enjoy.
One of the rare pics of myself
and my eldest granddaughter Luna.
I feel that I am a less likely guest poster since I have read and been impressed by many of your grand adventures and unique lives. I have loved my life enjoyed it immensely, but it is far from glamourous. It is to me however interesting and quirky.
I grew up in very poor circumstances in numerous small and large towns in Texas. I learned to make my own entertainment by drawing and sewing, taught by incredibly talented and resourceful women of the family. I earned scholarships for college but opted for the hippie vagabond life.
It was the sixties after all.
Met my husband, Curt, in San Francisco and we just recently celebrated our fiftieth anniversary.
I’m the short one in the center, with friend Jennifer, and my husband Curt in Long Beach, WA.
We have four wonderful sons, six treasured grandchildren-
Luna, Josephine, Marion, Elam, Eamon, and Maggie…
scattered between Oregon, Nevada, Connecticut, and New Hampshire.
We look so forward to seeing them all again post-Covid.
I have done a variety of jobs mingled within the years of rearing our four sons.
I’ve been a school custodian, sewing factory laborer, and finally a health unit coordinator in a neonatal unit.
I returned to college when I was fifty and working full-time night shift at the hospital.
I received my degree in psych/neuroscience to demonstrate to the sons that it could be done by me,
therefore easily by them. And to finish something I had begun many years before. We have lived too many places to list here, from Venezuela to Alaska, but recently relocated to New Hampshire after 30 years in Portland, Oregon and are becoming accustomed to the retired, rural life in the snow.
The surprise outside our windows this morning.
Since childhood, I have loved drawing and sketching and nothing boosts my mood like a fresh sketchbook and new art supplies. I enjoy painting, sewing, and crafting of various kinds too, at least for long enough to master a new project. Then I tend to give away the results and go on to something new.
But sketching is always there waiting to be enjoyed again.
During this pandemic, I had begun sketching my favorite bloggers and decided to email the sketches to them.
One sketch I did was for Corey of Chelsea
and her beautiful son Gabriel.
Corey and several other bloggers chose to
feature the sketches in their posts,
making me grateful and happy. Here are a few of them:
Years ago, when I began to travel with my friend Renelle,
I also started to keep a daily journal for each trip.
At first, I mostly wrote and inserted a few shy sketches.
Over time, these became more like sketch journals.
I love browsing through these so much; it is like living the joy all over again.
Photos from the same vacations do not compare in triggering memories.
I deconstructed each journal and made bound copies to be able to lend them
out to friends and they’ve become lovingly worn.
Another use for my sketchbooks has been to sketch the authors of books
I read and enjoy, as well as meals, grandkids, pets, and all manner of things.
If nothing else inspires, I’ve been known to sketch my own feet.
A few years ago I became interested in shoemaking and attended a shoemaking school in Ashland, Oregon.
Made some very ugly shoes and boots,
a few nice sandals, and then fancies inspired by on-line examples-of crepe paper shoes.
And I painted some clogs, which I found oddly meditative.
The most successful sandals for daughter-in-law Noriko.
I have always needed “something to do” and tried painting with acrylics, and for a while supplied many friends
with tote bags and purses, dolls, and recently I’ve been making little Altoid can shrines.
And finally, here is the first sketch I ever had the nerve to
send to anyone, and still one of my favorites.
It’s been so nice sharing with you all,
and this has helped me settle on my next learning project:
I need to learn to format a document and enclose photos without mass spaces between!
That should keep me busy the rest of this snowy New Hampshire winter.
Stay warm, and stay safe. Barb
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