Where Bloggers Create lV

 The first thing you might notice about my studio is that I have way too much stuff, a circumstance shared by many artists and crafters, I'm sure...  but my collections and supplies comfort and inspire me on a daily basis. 


With everything visible and within reach, my creative spirit bounds to life as soon as I walk into this overstuffed room.

Favourite artists' works are always close at hand. On my door is a poster titled, "One World, One Hope", designed by Joe Average for an AIDS Conference held in Vancouver some years ago. 


Its plea for united brotherhood never fails to move me.

While it's true that I have a lot crammed into this tiny space, it is organized and tidy...at least, most of the time!

Drawers, shelves and containers of all sorts are pressed into service in an effort to keep the chaos at bay. I particularly like clear jars that let me find what I need at a glance, be it scrabble letters, buttons or beads.

I continue to believe there's a little magic to be found in my storybook tins.

Unfortunately, time restraints

 have often kept me from 

pursuing my artistic efforts

 to the extent I might have wished, 

but as I have just hit the magical 

retirement age, I will finally be 

able to chase a few of the

 dreams I have kept on hold 

for years. 

What a glorious feeling of

 freedom and

possibility that is!

This picture was taken
as a scrapbook
project was ongoing.
I could have tidied it up, but desks are made to work on after all, not be show pieces.




The carpet has long since come
out and I've been waiting, (a while!), for my dear husband to finish putting in the hardwood floor.
Growing weary of 
drab plywood 
underfoot, I painted
on this cheery rug.
 I will miss when
it finally gets 
covered up, though I don't think I need worry about that just yet!

Inspiration boards spill over with 

opera programs, postcards 

and assorted bits that

have captured my 

imagination.

My Artful Dodger poster always 

makes me smile...Nick Bantock's

 artwork simply

amazes me.

This is my muse. Isn't she beautiful?

We rarely see figurines of this sort 

here in Canada...I was delighted to

find her while on a visit to the States.

Her grace and quiet beauty embody

all the qualities of a sincere

and giving heart that I work on

emulating every day. 

Always the dilletante, I am easily pulled from one project to the next.

While happily prepping journal pages, I'll spy my colourful stack of wool and decide it's time to knit another scarf. The fact that it may be summer does not discourage me from rooting through baskets of woolly balls to begin a new project.

I am hooked on all Stampington & 

Company publications. In neat and 

orderly rows, I store every issue 

of Somerset Studio, Artful Blogger 

and Where Women Create. 

My goal is to be published in 

Somerset Studio. Of course, 

that  means I need

to control my procrastination

habit and actually submit

something!

It goes without saying that books are

 an important part of every room. 

I have always been a bibliophile, and 

own a sizeable collection of 

art and crafting books that I pore 

over lovingly.

If I could only control that 

evil doppleganger, 

Penny Procrastination,

I have all the tools I need

to produce great art!

Photography being my 

first love,

I'm fond of setting up

 vignettes

of vintage sewing goods 

and 

stationery supplies.

I love the little

medicine cabinet  

below and am always on the lookout for

antique jars to

fill it up.

A collection of tiny chairs line up on the window ledge, ever-ready should very small visitors come to call...I'm sure there are faeries at the bottom of my garden.

As convenient as computers unarguably are, doesn't everyone love the look of old typewriters?

By now you will have guessed

my secret...that I spend

more time talking about making 

art than actually doing so.

While photography and writing 

are my passions, and I do

pursue them avidly, I am aching 

to expand my creative 

boundaries. 

I am making progress. It certainly helps to have my own space with its bounty of supplies and endless inspiration. Wonderful things are bound to happen here!

   

I know how fortunate I am to have my own space and never take it for granted.

I am also doubly blessed....my studio adjoins our personal library which is stuffed to the brim with books. How lucky can one lady be?

For more inspirational studios, do stop by Karen Valentine's blog and check out her party. It promises to be spectacular...

http://www.mydesertcottage.com/

Where Bloggers Create Glitch

Please bear with me. I am, indeed, participating in the Where Bloggers Create IV studio tour. Unfortunately Blogger has decided to mess with me and absolutely will not post my pictures properly.

I'm working on a solution and should by be up and visit-ready by 

tomorrow. I would love you to come back and visit if you have a chance and I will try to drop in on each and every one of you.

Thanks for the patience...I'm really looking to seeing everyone's creative spaces!

Many thanks to Karen Valentine for providing us with this wonderful

event....

http://www.mydesertcottage.com/

Still On The Fraser

Since my last few 

posts have been 

of the Fraser River, 

I thought 

to wrap up with 

these 

few pictures of 

well-used boats 

and buildings 
photographed 

on yet 

another Sunday 

drive. 

My eye is always drawn to the tattered, the battered and the abandoned.  Capturing them against a dramatic sky or floating in reflective waters is a bonus.

The Fraser River provides me with a bountiful supply of possibilities.  We've been watching this old boat shed collapse slowly over the last few years, but it suddenly seems to have lost its fight altogether. 

  

The same can be said of this little boat we've driven past many times. Pictured here on a brighter day three years ago, this comparison makes clear that time and the river's ebb and flow have definitely taken their toll.

Along this weather-beaten pier, some dear soul had bedecked the rails with flower baskets and flags to celebrate Canada Day.

Their bright joy was an exclamation mark against the somewhat murky background.

I hope you've enjoyed my river pics. I'm linking up today to both Skywatch 

Friday and Weekend Reflections...if you wish to see more shots from all over the world, do check out these great links...

http://skyley.blogspot.ca  http://weekendreflection.blogspot.ca

Tugboat Ballet

 In our meandering drives, we often end up on a stretch of River Road in Richmond and Surrey that runs alongside the Fraser River. Imagine our delight a while ago to come across a bevy of tugboats wheeling and twisting together in an intricate water ballet.

 Unable to resist the lure of six tugs at work, we stopped to enjoy the dance.

It appeared  several log booms had to be joined together into one before moving the large mass further up river to the mills for processing. Clearly, this is a job that requires skill, timing and artistry. To further complicate things, a boat pulling a barge full of gravel was slowly making its way ever-closer to the performance.

With the ease born of practice, men and boats worked  seamlessly together to accomplish their tasks. 

Captains deftly piloted their boats while boom workers leaped effortlessly along the logs, spears at the ready to position each new piece in place.

 

 It was a joy to watch, with the laughter and chatter of workers sliding  across to provide the soundtrack for this dance of life on the river.

Once all was secured, the performance wound down and the sextet moved off gently into the next phase of the dance, just in time for the gravel barge to take his place on centre stage.

How could we not be endlessly fascinated by this vibrant river.....?

I'm linking up to a meme that's new to me..."Our World Tuesday". Do stop by if you get a chance, for glimpses of life around our amazing world...:)

http://ourworldtuesdaymeme.blogspot.ca/

You might also like to check out "Sweet Spot Tuesday", another great meme I have just discovered...

http://kentweakley.com/blog/

         

More Fraser River

.....        

   Our weekend drives take us to some curious places. On Saturday, we set out with only the vaguest of plans...to explore lengths of the Fraser River as it finally starts to recede after recent floods.

Since our favourite way to spend rainy days is tooling along in the car with the music cranked, we set Sirius radio to the Bluegrass station and chewed up the miles effortlessly.

 After the inevitable stop at Starbucks for chai tea lattes, we soon found ourselves in Matsqui, standing ankle-deep in yet another washed-out park.

 Once again, warning signs were being ignored, though not in the numbers we encountered last week in Langley.

 Local wildfowl are loving the wet weather. Canada Geese have happily taken over the former picnic grounds, and a stately Great Grey Heron picked his way delicately through the new wetlands, not seeming to mind our quiet presence.

The arrival of a rowdier set of visitors, however, gave him reason to flee.

 Under the steel girder bridge that crosses the river into Mission, we checked out  the water gauge with its measure of previous floods.

 Of course, we crossed the bridge into Mission and continued driving. One can never go home the same way one has come, after all!

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Remembering earlier visits, we made our way to Stave Lake, a hydroelectric reservoir where the now-decommissioned generating station acts as a visitor centre.

 From inside the gift shop, I could see a tiny boat on the sparse riverbed below that I wanted to photograph, but could not capture  it through the wired windows.

Although it was almost closing time, the staff cheerfully gave us permission to make our way down to an outdoor viewing  platform. To my delight, we were allowed to descend, unescorted, down steep stairways,  passing banks of huge, yet silent, turbine engines. 

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.

I stopped to take a few quick shots as we flew past. I have no idea how any of these machines operate, but their sheer bulk and bold colours definitely captured my photographer's eye.

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Stave Lake itself was fenced off, a necessary deterrent to incautious people like us who might proceed in spite of the risk involved.

(It may not surprise you to learn that we did manage to find a small chink in the armour.)

                    Eventually, we settled a while to watch ducklings get their bearings on a nearby pond,until a fresh cluster of showers convinced us it was time to wend our way homeward.

I am submitting this post to Weekend Reflections...do stop by to see what others have captured in their lens...

http://weekendreflection.blogspot.ca/

The Fraser River

With snow melt and bountiful rain, the Fraser River is overflowing its banks, and once again, my husband and I risk being labeled as scofflaws.

Given our shared fascination with water in all its forms, we took ourselves up to Derby Reach this weekend, one of our favourite Langley spots to visit.

 Over the years, we've seen this river at times fiercely frozen, and even seen it dwindled markedly in the heat of summer...but never have we seen it overflowing. Mindful that flooding puts people at risk, we simply could not resist a chance to see the river cresting.

 We found the parking lot full, though the camp ground host had sensibly pulled out his trailer, and large signs made clear the inadvisability of entering the camp sites.

In our defense, there were a good number of us squeezing by the warning signs for a peek.

 Still, it must be said that of the dozens of adults and children lining the riverbank, we were the only two who ploughed along the flooded road to see how deep the water got...well above my knees, as we went further along!

 Somewhere in the heavens, I'm sure my mother looked down, tsk-tsking about her flighty daughter, (who never had an ounce of sense), and bemoaning the muddy ruin of a perfectly good summer frock!

Sorry, Mum...but we enjoyed our whimsy. Of course, when the weather took a turn with wind and rain battering against my bare arms and sodden dress, I might have questioned the veracity of our decision, had I any sense indeed.

 We saw one adventuresome couple who'd carried in wood and built a fire...several fishermen who threw in their lines with optimistic enthusiasm, and when the sun put in a very brief appearance, it became just another Sunday in the park. It seems we're all so desperate for summer on the Lower Mainland that we'll celebrate the season, no matter what the weather throws at us!

With any luck, the river has done all it means to, and further damage can be averted.  Our prayers go out to those in peril and our heartfelt wish that they stay safe.