On the Occasion of an August 21st Non-Event

'Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable.'
Coco Chanel


This is exactly what I want for my birthday, the espresso machine of my dreams:


Unfortunately for me, it is a German one-off and not really available except to tease me. If you ever see this in production, contact me immediately and I'll locate my tiny cups! (Notice the German font?)

It's been a very long time since I was actually quilt related in my posts, probably because I get my fill from the lists I belong to and all my arguments are repetitious, but Pam asked this morning exactly who we make our artwork for. I didn't have to even think about it and answered right away that it is ALWAYS made for me- mostly because it's always ABOUT me! I don't think I have ever made a quilt, or a collage, or anything else for that matter, that wasn't based on what is going on in my life or at least in my head. Frankly I don't much care if they are ever seen, though I do enter anything I have that fits in a particular show. I have never made a quilt to fit a show, have hated the process of commissions so much that I have pretty much stopped doing them, and don't want to listen much to other people's ideas of what I should do next. It all depends on what happens to ME next, right?

(nice how I highlighted 'always about me', isn't it?)

So, it's my birthday today, nice that I am able to celebrate some good things that happened over the past 12 months. I'm in a couple of good shows, I am thrilled happy over a current piece now on the work table, and have a pile of entry forms to finish up today. Tonight I have been told to get myself a Blue Sky Lemon Martini and that sounds like just the ticket at Blue Ginger, my favorite restaurant just about ever (excpet for the one in Luxembourg where they brought me a full portion of every dessert from the cart when I mistakenly said 'They look so good, I want them ALL!') Oops, a problem with linguistics or Germanic pragmatism, or maybe a plea to actually have it all...you decide, while I finish up this thirteenth piece of linzer torte.

And that taught me the lesson that SOME mistakes are really good! This has carried me well for years because I learned to work *with* mistakes rather than 'fix' them or get upset. Truthfully, it is the pieces where there have been major booboos- mistakes or accidents that make me think more creatively beyond the problems, that have been the most successful so it is a good thing to just step aside and let things take their own direction. Admittedly it sometimes take longer than I would like, but problems tend to solve themselves, or get so old they are not worth solving so you just work with it.
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Editorial: Unfortunately, that philosophy didn't work as well in some aspects of my life. Oh well, win some lose some.

Yeah? SO? Get over it.