Artful Blogging

By | May 19, 2008

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I just discovered Artful Blogging by Stampington and Company.  What a beautiful, inspiring magazine.  Each copy is like a beautiful piece of artwork that you can enjoy page by page.

You can buy a copy here:  http://www.stampington.com/html/artful_blogging.html

 

Topics: Creative Pursuits | 1 Comment »

Things I Do…

By | May 7, 2008

Losing Weight over and over and over again,
Going to Fun Fly-ins with my husband,
Taking long drives just because we like to buy gasoline,
Dating my husband,
Having long talks in restaurants with him while waitresses tap their toes waiting for us to leave,
Checking out airports,
Talking with my kids,
Going to lunch with my kids,
Bugging my kids about dating,
Watching sky divers,
Sitting at sea base airports watching airplanes land and take off in the water,
Swimming,
Meals On Wheels,
Volunteering,
Reading books in the cafe at Borders in Logan pretending to be an intellectual. You do this by hiding the magazine you are really reading - People- inside the book “Intellectuals for Dummies.”
Counting Calories then eating them,
Making up new words,
Capitalizing words in the middle of sentences just cus I like how it looks,
Telling our dog to quit barking,
Singing at the top of my lungs while driving down the freeway,
Strolling art galleries for the best abstract paintings,
Blogging
Painting abstracts,
Taking Aspirin…because I’m not as young as I used to be.

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Sun, Fun, and Lots and Lots Of Planes!

By | April 16, 2008

     

I’ve been to heaven (for a week) and it was called Florida.  Wow, what a beautiful, fun place to take a vacation.  Our reason for going was to attend the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) Sun and Fun Fly-in.  A whole week of really cool airplanes and about tens of thousands of crazy private pilots willing to fly — oh —just about anything. 

My husband, Jeff and I went to the Gulf of Mexico with its pretty white sand beaches and played in the water.   Locals came to fish just beyond the waves in hip high water and were catching one fish after the other.  It was the coolest thing.  One fisherman told us they watch out for Catfish, as their spines are very poisonous so they just cut their lines when they catch one.  Sailboats sailed along the horizon and we watched schools of dolphin from the shore as well as from the boardwalk. 

The rest of the trip was pretty much spent at the Sun and Fun event listening to pilots who knew their stuff, and others standing in the crowds that just liked to brag about things they obviously didn’t have a clue about. It was hard to say which was more fun.  Egos in planes.  We went to the sea base to watch amphibious planes land and take off on the water.  As the sea base workers walked through the lake waters to pull in planes from tow ropes right next to “beware of the alligators” signs.  They thought we the tourists were funny about our alligator fears.  That’s okay, we thought they were just plain nuts slugging through the waters playing gator bait games. 

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Meals On Wheels

By | April 6, 2008

 


 

Okay, my version of Meals On Wheels used to be driving through the McDonalds drive-thru for a cheeseburger and fries.  That is until a friend recommended volunteering time every week to the real version of Meals On Wheels at our local Senior Center.  I was hesitant.  Would I feel comfortable going into strangers homes to deliver meals?  The answer is yes.  I’ve been doing it for several months now and I always look forward it.  I started out doing it just one day a week.  It takes less than an hour where we live.  I loved it so much, I signed up for a second day and I’m considering a third day! 

If you have extra time, consider adding an hour of volunteer service at your local Senior Center doing Meals On Wheels.  It will add a truly happy spot into every single week.  Promise!

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Me and Pepe Le Pew…Okay, It’s Just Vanity

By | April 6, 2008

Okay, I caved.  My hairdresser said the wash-in color would only wash out to the base color.  So that means that I would have to grow out the gray step by step making me look a little like Pepe Lew Pew for at least a year.  I don’t think so!  Too much vanity in this old girl for that!  HA.  So, I’m back to brunette. 

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To Go Gray Or Go Clairol…

By | April 1, 2008

I’m not sure every late forty-almost fifty woman struggles with the idea of giving up her Clairol for gray hair. In fact, I think for many it’s simply not a question. Why be gray? Just like the word “middle-aged”, the word gray conjurs up images of OLD (said with a groan.). However, I have always, even in my youth (being yesterday of course), wondered why we give so much credence to young when young comes with so little experience. I believe our attitude about -old- comes from our fear of death. If we get old, we will die. Guess what, we will die anyway. It’s our embrace of dying that breathes real life into us. Only when we come to grips with our mortality do we finally begin to let go of all the daily silliness that just is not important.  That’s why forty+ women are so hard to get along with, we quit putting up with the crap.  Finally. 

So here I am a Clairol girl thinking seriously about going gray. My gray will actually be more of a platinum white. I have seen women with their platinum white hair that were simply stunning. I’d like mine a little long and straight. For several months I switched from a permanent color to a wash out color and so have begun the process to my natually gray platinum look. It’s the process of getting there that is so painful to me. I don’t love the middle-aged punk look of three different colors that are now displayed on my head. The growing out gray, the wash out non-permanant color that hasn’t quite washed out, and then the remainder of my permanent color. Sigh. I think I have 6 months left to go, maybe a year. And then when it’s all said and done will I love my look? I’ve always been a dark brunette, so this will indeed be a different look for me. Gray or Clairol? Well…both for awhile, just not permanent.

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Mr. Magorium and Other Middle-Aged People

By | March 28, 2008

 Okay, as it goes Mr. Magorium of Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium is purported to be 234 years old, which means he was “middle-aged” at 117 years.  SO, given that it seems a little presumptous as well as short sighted for people to label us after-forty types as middle aged, I say enough!  A term I have rigorously objected to for quite some time, say since age 39 and 3/4s. 

Who is to say when my middle will come?  And the term middle-aged (!!!) as if somehow I am now in the same league as say cheese, wine, or even a fine violin.  I might concede the violin if it’s shape is curvy and it is especially attractive but still the term “middle” implies an average sort of thing, which I am not.   An odd sort of thing, maybe.  Certainly well out of the circle (square, rectangle, or oval) of normal.  I am as abstract as the abstract paintings I love. 

Our Mr. Magorium states, “Your Life Is An Occassion, Rise To It.”  Conjurs up images of flying up to your wildest dreams.  He also said, “37 seconds well lived is a lifetime”.  One, one thousand, two, one thousand…

Tick, Tock, Tick Tock.  Have YOU jumped on a bed recently?  No?  Well then…TRISKADACKTAPHOBIA!

Oh go watch the movie…then you’ll get it.  :-)))

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A New Life At 47

By | March 18, 2008

  On January 1, 2008 I bravely went where…well…I had never gone before.  At the age of 47, I decided that it was now or never and took serious steps to becoming a full-time artist.  After 12 amazing years as an online media publicist to some very great and wonderful individuals I sold my online businesses, my ecommerce domains, and all things associated with my serious life as a full time marketer and publicist to move into a world I had been dreaming of for some 25 years.  I want to be an artist, an artist whose work will support me, and whose days will be filled with paint and brushes.   

You see, I have this plan.  The perfect ten years from age 50 to 60 whereby I live my personal dream.  I have breathed art since I was a child.  My parents were divorced and my mom didn’t have enough money to take art classes and get a babysitter for me so she COULD take art classes.  So since the age of 8 until I left home, my mother managed to get the art class teachers to allow me to attend her classes with her.  I shared all of my mother’s art supplies and learned all the same techniques just as all the other adults in the classes. 

Since, I have breathed art.  I have admired the work of other artists for what feels like forever.   Although I am subtly involved in all types of arts and professional crafts, it is abstract art that makes my heart beat faster.  That kind of art without explanation.  Pure emotion.  Raw, vivid, and completely real.  And now in training for my new life I am taking my own art classes.  Some are surprised that you can take art classes in abstract painting, but it’s very true.  There is so much more to the art than you might ever have imagined.   

This blog is my written journey.  I had to have a written journey because you see I am a writer.  My education was not in Art, but English and while I worked as a publicist, I am also a published writer, so writing just makes sense for this new adventure of mine.   I am interested in anyone that is taking on a new adventure, especially if you are doing it as your mid-life crisis.  It’s good to have a plan.  My plan will become my new life.  It’s a leap of faith.  I’ve always done the expected, and now I’m doing the unexpected. Well okay, maybe I haven’t ALWAYS done the expected, but I expected it…I certainly didn’t expect to do this unplanned leap. 

If you are leaping as well, share your journey with me.  Send me pics of your art, your story, your adventure and I will post it here with my own.  I’m so excited.  Breathing is vibrant again.   

You can write to me at annemarie@whopple.com. 

The art posted with this blog is not mine.  It is the art of abstract artist Christeas.  I love it. 

Oh, and by the way?  I am just learning WordPress, so you should be seeing some vast improvements as I make my way into the blog world, and most especially into the WordPress Blog World.  I’m sure there is a “dummy” book out just waiting for me. :-)))

Topics: Whopple Rambles | 1 Comment »