Lost Summer, Mislaid Camera and Other Travails...

I know I have been away for quite a while; well over a month, at least. Iwas beginning to wonder myself, whether I could find my way back to my blog. My Sundial Sister Cindy told me I was taking a blog-cation; stepping away for a while in order to focus on other things.

Those other things--namely getting my sons off to college and getting our first tuition payments, etc. under our belts--have taken most of the summer. I feel like it was a lost summer...for so many reasons.

My sons and I would always go on wonderful daytrips and adventures when they were younger. Our summers would be filled with everything from trips to The Bronx Zoo and New York Aquarium to hikes on local nature trails and visits to some of the many historic sites that dot our part of the Hudson Valley. On really hot days we'd splurge on matinee movie tickets and soda and popcorn and go see the summer blockbuster--whatever it was.

This summer...they've been holed up in their respective rooms or off with friends. Last weekend we dropped Wyeth off at Champlain in Vermont. Warren has a little over two weeks left before he heads to Philly to start his term. I've been swamped in paperwork and mothering. Getting in my last licks before they truly become the men I can already see in them.

I've also been completely sucked in by the world of facebook. I joined up, ostensibly to keep up with my sons in college and to connect with other college parents and I have been hypnotized by being able to reconnect with long lost friends and the games. Who knew I was a game maven? I now have a few virtual apartments, a few virtual pets; I'm a supermodel and a restaurant owner among other things. It's very distracting and time sucking, but also the perfect easy go-to-spot to destress.

I haven't abandoned creative pursuits. I'm actually pursuing them harder than ever. I have a series of handpainted pressed paper boxes done and another one in progress. I'm painting Day Of The Dead skulls and also doing handpainted ornaments for Christmas. I'm experimenting with materials. I'm also working on a series of simple, hand-sewn prim-style dolls...flower faeries and the like.

I'd have oodles of lovely photos to show you......only I've managed to mislay my camera for the third time this summer. No idea where it is. I had it in hand a week ago; I was taking self-portraits for my facebook photo. I set it down--most probably in some clever-at-the-time spot and now I've been pacing round and round my house looking for it and desperately wishing it had some kind of tracking device on it. I have pictures of my recent painting projects and was intending on posting them.

So.....for now, all I can give you is this texty post reassuring you all that I haven't abandoned my blog or my art.

I promise I'll post pictures as soon as I can. And I won't be away for nearly as long...

Forgive my absence and neglect and forgive my lack of pictures if you can.... (the photo of the rose was taken by my husband...I just couldn't post w/o a picture!)