Well, as life would have it, things between my last post and this one didn’t go as I had thought it would. UGH.
Last fall I got through show season and that was great. Lots of fabulous customers, some laughs, a lot of serious conversation, and many more ideas for the future. Then we had an election (we could talk about that for a month)and we headed into the holidays. We’re a small family so we had lots of time together. As is tradition we cook together for each holiday and choose a different category each time. Thanksgiving was Indian cuisine and Christmas was Asian. Such fun to create things we’ve not done before…and delicious!
Then right after the first of the year everyone got sick. My son came down with the flu. My husband came down with the flu…and my daughter came down with the flu. And just when everyone was starting to feel like they kicked it…it all happened again! My son and husband both got hit by the flu twice! They tried very hard to give it to me but other than a couple days of feeling lazy and tired I didn’t get sick.
The worst part of all of this was our lovely 16 year old dog was getting more and more feeble. She had lost the use of her hips so couldn’t get up and down by herself. That meant that for many months we were up at all hours of the night helping her get outside to go potty or eat or just get some exercise. We tried getting her into a little wagon for some trips around our block but she hated it. As February approached she was more and more miserable. She began howling in the middle of the night, every night.
We had a wonderful vet that came to the house only to tell us she had lymphoma and wouldn’t be getting any better. With lots of discussions and heartache we made the decision to help her over the rainbow bridge. So during the second week of February our lovely vet came to the house and we said goodbye to Sunny. To say it was hard would be an understatement. Losing a furry family member is the worst.
So all of this to say that I messed up my application to Irvine this June. First time in something like 18 years. In the midst of my emotional distress I got it in my head that the deadline was April 1st (after as long as its been you’d think I’d have the deadline memorized) but what it really was was March 1. And I totally missed it.
Now it’s July and here I am in my studio surrounded in my art. There are literally 100’s of pairs of earrings, necklaces, and bracelets in this studio. I was contemplating applying to a couple other shows but I’m on the fence about it and feeling like I need some mental break time to refocus and reinvigorate my creativity. Everyone needs some down time right?
Stay tuned while I figure out what’s next…
Thoughtfully Yours,
Susan
