Catch up

Well the wheels kind of fell off over here.  I have been designing all week but also taking some time out to get some family things done. 

I have so much new stuff to bundle up and some fun new things for NSD next Saturday,

My daughter is heading off to camp on Monday and it is sooooooooooooo cold here. They were supposed to have a summer camp this year but the bushfires put at end to that. But now an icy blast is hitting us here so I am not sure how they will go. 

I am still brightsiding or at least trying :) I guess I am focussing more on the 'life is too short' message. My brother who passed away nearly 3 weeks ago was only 54 so yes life really is too short. Time to stop making plans to live and actually live a little more :)   

One of the things we have been talking a lot about here is how the memories are what is important not the other 'stuff' that fills our homes. I have been scribbling down some of my memories that havent made it into my scrapbooks yet and now I am putting them into a notebook so that I can turn them into pages as I go. This was something I did when I first started scrapbooking but I let it go over recent years.  

So we have also been getting rid of stuff. I have been trying to do this over the last few years but this last couple of weeks it has really been a lot easier to let stuff go as I realise it is only just stuff.   Here is a link to the story of stuff  that is worth watching - http://www.storyofstuff.com/

My daughter is the least materialistic girl you will find so she doesnt really have a lot of stuff besides her huge collection of books and her stuffed toys.   Her birthday and Christmas lists for years has listed books first then usually a note about lots of hugs and then she might add a note about a treat for the cats and the bunnies.  I can recall her coming home in year five I think it was asking me 'what is a Wii?' and why does everyone want them for Christmas?" LOL   I explained what it was and she still didnt get why people wanted them. She doesnt get 'stuff' unless it is linked to making music or books. 

Right now she is yearning for a new guitar and I think that is the first time she has ever yearned for anything besides a kitten or a book.  She has been teaching herself fingerstyle guitar for 8 or so months and she is actually quite good I think. That is my observation as someone who has no musical ability at all but when she goes into stores to try guitars out people look pretty amazed :) Last week a woman who was shopping gave me a card and invited her to come 'jam' at a restaurant where they play. She plays all old 60's or 70's music.  It is fun because she hates to shop for anything except books so I am delighted to just have her in a shop. All those dreams of having a daughter to go shopping with went out the window years ago. 

She has played the cello for years and plays very well so I guess it was a natural progression. If we can ever figure out how to get tapes from our very old video camera onto the you tube I would love to share one of her playing. 

So the guitar she has been using is one of those starter guitars that is too small for her. She is brainstorming how she can earn money for a new guitar but never once does she ask for one. Far out of our budget for now anyway. She wants to go busking LOL.. not sure about that and a catch 22 because she would need the guitar to do it.   So she has won a little money first in a music prize for her cello playing  and then in a writing competition so she is scouring info for writing competitions now she knows some have small prizes.  But I think she is finding that the inspiration doesn't always come easily when you are driven with a purpose other than the pleasure of just doing.  She thought about a fundraiser but I have explained fund raisers aren't really for that purpose.  I think her next best option is to get a wealthy family to adopt her.   So her focus on the guitar has been a welcome distraction and distractions are very welcome right now.   

She does write some beautiful poetry, if only there was a demand for poetry out there she would be ok. This is one I can share with her permission. She wrote this one several years ago when she was 10 and I may have put it her before but if not here it is.  This poem was shortlisted in a poetry contest.

The Black Opal

The hammer beats on the cold charcoal rock,
The cave of many colours discovered
The miner’s safety vest darkened,
As into the cave he strays.

Atop a pillar of ebony black,
A stone in which colour had no lack
An amethyst dragon,
A saffron cloaked king,
Sapphire seas, a scarlet fire,
Ivory clouds, emerald plains
Danced in the miner’s eyes.

His dull, sooty hands reach out,
Brushing the colours of the stone
A fiery haze of orange
Licked at his fingers,
A patch of crystal colour twinkled
As his hand slid across it.

Honoured he felt to have seen
The long lost treasure,
The gift of time,
But dare not he take it,
Should its beauty be destroyed

And time lost forever. 

All her writing is about nature and the environment.  It must be a scary time for kids growing up right now in an uncertain world. Anyway it is the words she writes and the laughs we have and the games we share that mean something to me rather than 'stuff' we have.  

Talking of stuff. I gave myself permission to just design this week and I had the best time just letting myself go with no purpose in mind and come up with some things I wanted to use and some easy to use stuff. I think that is my thing lately to just make it easy to get back to scrapbooking the stories. Don't get me wrong I love the art side of it but I also want to balance that with getting the memories recorded and I am seeing first hand how important that is. 

This week I am packing it all up for NSD (and some a little earlier).  I am a little behind with the plans but it will all work out this week with my daughter away.

This weekend I have over 60 products up for $1 and many will go. I need to put more in the the clearance section and really declutter more from the store, something I have been trying to get done for months. 

Oh my goodness I wrote a book! I guess I am making up for missing this whole week. Please stop by the shop.   If you have an bright ideas to suggest to my child let me know!  

Keep on looking on the brightside! Keep safe.

Tracy

OK I wasn't going to tell you this .. but you really do need this blinkie.  I cant tell you why YOU need it so you will just have to trust me... you will need it.   Believe me.. ok?

Take one.... it doesn't matter which one. One says TADA one says Tracy Ann.. both are me. I think I will make a new one too that says TADA it is Tracy Ann! One and the same!!!

Do not forget to link it back to the shop :) www.tracyanndigitalart.com 

Good things may happen to you if you are caught wearing it but if you are caught not wearing it?  Well that will not be good so don't be caught without it!!!!

Comments

[Roselily]

What a precious daughter, I truly enjoyed her poem ! She is evidently a true artist !!

[Sandy H.]

Your daughter's poem is so well written for a 10 year old - it takes you right into the mine with the miner. She sounds like a very creative person - with her writing skill and her musical abilities. Thanks for sharing her story. I am looking forward to your new designs.

[Amandac]

Ok I popped in here after doing a little Dollar Deal shopping to say thanks for the great sale and I read your daughters poem - WOW! If she wrote that when she was 10 I would LOVE to read some of her latest works. Please ask her if she would mind sharing some more, it would be an honour to read them. Your daughter sounds like a delightful girl, thoughtful and intelligent. I wish her every luck in her saving for a guitar.

[amyjo]

Tracy Ann, I nearly busted a vein in my head when Kurt told me he'd purchased $800 worth of guitar and amp for Alex (my stepson) for Christmas/birthday a couple years ago. Seriously, I was LIVID - but man can that kid play!! Kurt used his entire Christmas bonus to buy it for him (so the money sort of just fell from the sky). Now, I am glad that he did it - so we will pray that somehow a blessing falls onto your daughter so she can pursue the music in her heart too!

Maybe she could write an E-poetry book?

Glad to see that even with the whirlwind in your life, you are still looking at the bright side of things, can't wait to see the new stuff, I have all of my 365 photos scrapped for each day so far, but none of the hundreds that weren't the photo of the day :) Simple, quick, catching up, would be delightful :)