Cycles

I feel very drawn towards completion at the moment. I enjoy having different projects on the go, so that I can work on whatever I have time for or am in the mood for. At the moment however I am drawn to finishing. The first thing I am finishing is my Deanne Fitzpatrick hooked rug kit.  It's a lot father on than in this photo.

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The next thing has got to be my ATCs for Bee Shay's Artfest ATC book, and then finishing my fatbook pages. But in and around that there are many other things like flickr uploads and negative scans.

10-things: I had a big clear out in the art room, I reached the point where I absolutely had to have a clear working space. So I tidied and threw out and put away and rationalised and now at least I have a workspace. I didn't want to count all of the little bits and pieces I threw out, so I had a break from the 10 things. There is a lot to come though so do not worry! That room has shelves down both sides of it and not a single bit of space anywhere.

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Broad horizons

I am going to Beijing!!!
It didn't seem at all real until I booked it. It hardly seems real now. It is a real odyssey for my Mum and me. I was born there nearly 36 years ago, and my Mum was only 24. She and my father grew up in a village in rural Nova Scotia and moved to the big city of Halifax and suddenly here they were, across the world in Beijing. Mum and I have been wishing this trip into possibility since I was approaching 30. It seems imperative to make it while she is still living on this side of the Atlantic. You may remember the first troll bead I bought was one called red china, that I chose as a pledge to live out this dream. And now here we are, 4 months to get our heads around the reality. My first step was to book myself into Mandarin lessons! And just so you know, I have no natural gift for languages, particularly out loud! I feel brave and adventurous (oh and scared too).

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1. new generation of Beijing, 2. 798 Art District, Beijing, 3. The Kwik-E-Mart in the backstreets of Beijing, 4. Bu ke hui shou wu, Beijing, 5. 北京胡同 - "Hutong" in Beijing, China, 6. Beijing Rail Station, 7. Boat at Suzhou Market Street, Summer Palace - Beijing, 8. Bicycles Over Beijing, 9. beijing- great wall, 10. Beijing Hutong, 11. Industrial Beijing, 12. Beijing night, 13. Beijing - The Loaded Bike(c), 14. busy night of Beijing, 15. Hello Good Morning Beijing, 16. The Backstreets of Beijing, 17. streets of beijing  [2007], 18. Snapshots from the Old Beijing #1

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January? Blech! aka the January blahs

I am stomping around like a petulant teenager (no disrespect to petulant teenagers intended, naturally). Yesterday and today, my overriding response to almost anything has been "but I don't wanna!" Then today I got talking to someone at work and we realised that lots of people are feeling like that at the moment. I have certainly read that 24 January has been deemed the most depressing day of the year by a British study, so I am putting it down to that.

Progress on my 10-things decluttering:
Perfect example of my blechy state of mind - my camera needs charging. Easy answer - charge it, dear Liza! But the charger is in a box and it is one of two boxes and I don't know which and to find out I would have to look in the boxes, but they are behind some packs of film and I can't move those because there are several and that would be too hard and I don't wanna and you can't make me, so there! I fully expect to get over myself any day now, I am at the stage where I am laughing at my own behaviour, which usually means the end is in sight.

So there are no photos, but I have done 3 sets of 10 things over the past few days.

a) 5 x art supplies that I am not using - a pair of finished dowels, a nice album, a box of wooden hearts and stars, 2 make-your-own scrapbooks - all to be donated to a woman I met on freecycle with crafty children

b) 10 bits of random packaging from the art room, display boxes and packets from embellishments, etc.

c) 10 tiny weird things - bits of wood, bark, film canisters, etc

All of this is quite hard for me, because I always think it is such a shame to get rid of them, they might come in handy and I like to reuse and recycle. But, but, BUT I want to be making art in the art room and if I can't get in there/see the table/find the chair I won't be making any art. And I am really jonesing to make some art!

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