Mary Richmond Design

Ladies who quilt...

Over the last few years I've done a few workshops for a group of quilters that meets every week to work on various projects. We've done a little drawing, painted on tiles and made paper and hand stitched books among other things. This group is a wonderful, organic group that contracts and expands naturally as time goes on. Somebody moves away, another joins and another travels half way around the world. They come together as they have for about 30 years I think and they laugh and cry about all those things women laugh and cry about when they've spent all that time together. They know each other's stories and each other's hearts. My old art group was like that and it's wonderful to be invited into this group and welcomed even though I'm not really a quilter....

Today I was there helping a few put some books together and listening to and watching these women talk while they work just seemed like a calming, healing thing in a world filled with worries, illness and distractions. 

For these few hours those things got shared for a minute or two but then the fabric, yarn and thread took over. Thoughts of color and shape, size and texture occupied their minds  and hands just as they used to occupy the minds and hands of women through the centuries. I have drawers full of linens and quilts made by generations of such women in my own family.

I've begun to sew again recently, making the puppets I used in my presentations. I will show them tomorrow but for today I just want to share some of the work I saw and enjoyed while there. This last quilt was designed and made by my next door neighbor who I have known for about 25 years now. Her talent is extraordinary and seeing these quilts she designs always blows me away. She sells the patterns for many of the quilts she designs but I for one would rather just look at hers ;-)

Making, Not Breaking, the Mold....

For those of you who know me, remember the ornament debacle of last year? The local business that called me at the last moment and needed 300 custom ceramic ornaments.....like that day?! They're back! At least I knew they were coming this year but once again we are down to the wire....(refer back to the post about people not answering phones and emails...)

Anyway, I did learn a lot from last year and this year have made more than one mold and better molds as well.

They are still drying but should be ready to fire today and I should be ready to go into production tomorrow!

A Day with Friends....

is a day to remember and one that helps soothe the soul and the heart, especially after a stressful, difficult time....and for some reason this past summer and early fall have been tough on a bunch of us...

I called two of my wonderful friends the other day and everyone said "What the heck" and we all jumped in the car with our lunches and our warm jackets and headed down Cape. I drove which meant one of my patient and ever bearing friends got to ride with the ever shedding Arlo. She insisted she was fine but I think she could have had a whole new sweater by the time we got home.

We went to a number of wonderful beaches to walk and vistas to view and had lunch overlooking Wellfleet Harbor. It was a beautiful day and though we had plenty of work to do none of us was ready to give up and go home so we headed to Pilgrim Heights in Truro. Imagine my surprise to find out two seasoned Cape girls had never been there before! I love it when people get to discover new places and I love it when I discover new places, too. 

None of us look quite our best here but it was fun taking the picture together to remember a wonderful day....

 

That's Diane Heart, me and Sue Pellowe....

Communication Overload?

My newest pet peeve is people not returning phone calls, texts or emails. I'm not talking about casual calls here. I'm talking business. At the moment I have several custom jobs going on and getting these folks to answer back is like pulling teeth. And it isn't just people I'm doing business for, it's people I want to do business with, too. I may email with a question and days go by before I get a response. Or not. What's up? I can't even tell you how many businesses have lost my business in the last few months because they didn't respond. Other companies were happy to pick up the slack and not only answered right away but gave awesome customer service. 

Are we just overwhelmed with communications, both on the phone and on the computer? Because I am self employed I always try to answer emails and phone calls as soon as possible. Otherwise I lose work. As a free lance writer an editor often sends out several emails on a prospective job and the first responder often gets the job. The same with other free lance and custom work. So why don't other businesses answer their calls and emails? 

We all understand that emails add up quickly. One woman I'm working with has such an intense spam filter on her email that all my emails with attachments go to spam, which she doesn't check. This means the drawings and work I've done for her isn't being approved or disapproved in a timely manner, we are way behind schedule and now she is upset that it is taking longer than she wanted. It took her 2 weeks to answer my last email and today she hasn't returned a phone call to confirm an appointment that will be taking place in about an hour. It is very frustrating. I first contacted her per her request in July and we have yet to begin a project that she now needs in a week or so.

She is not alone. There are several people I am working with that are not answering their emails, texts or calls and then they want to know why things are taking so long. I'm at the point where I'm no longer working on jobs that I'm getting no response for. If someone can't be bothered to answer their phone or email then I'm not going to worry about it. And when they get hysterical that something is late, well, that's really their problem, not mine. And it totally stresses me out.

I've also noticed that this is happening on a personal level as well and lots of people are talking about it. People are shutting down. There is too much communication, too quickly and too frequently in many cases. So, filter it, but please, respond, even if it is to say, sorry, can't deal with that right now....

....it only takes a minute or two and will move your projects along!

A Walk in the Woods

There are days so lovely and golden that we hope they will remain gilded in our memories forever, that we may take them out to enjoy on those colder, darker days when hope seems slim and stingy. Yesterday was one of those days here. Our trees turn color later than most of New England due to the still warm ocean that surrounds us. Of course the slow warming of the ocean in spring is what keeps us from the lovely springs other areas enjoy but we enjoy our falls and try not to think too much about our non springs at this time of year.

 

I have a favorite place I like to go in the late afternoons in late October and early November for that is when the sunlight streams through the yellow and gold leaves of the beeches and hickories.

 

Photographs really cannot capture the warmth and fullness one feels when surrounded by all this glorious color. It is no wonder poets gush....simple words are really inadequate.

 

There's just something about all that orange and blue that makes my heart go pitter patter...

 

All that yellow and green playing together....

 

Even the oaks are beginning to join in the color parade. This scarlet oak is not common in our area but for some reason is common in this particular woodland. It is redder than other local oaks. Our other red trees such as swamp maple have already lost their leaves but the oaks will end the season with their deeper reds and rusty browns.....

 

Speaking of rusty browns....here's someone practicing a little camouflage.

A Good Beach Dog....

Arlo has become a class A beach dog. He loves to run and explore but he stays close enough to return on command. We practice a lot and watching him look up and then run full tilt toward me is the cutest thing ever.

 

 

He's also getting  very longgggggg

 

And who couldn't love those big ears?

Beach Walking

For those of us who have grown up at the beach, beach walking in all sorts of weather is as natural as breathing but there are still those days that are so sparkly and wonderful that even the most jaded among us has to stop and catch our breath...

 

The ocean stretches into the horizon for as far as we can see and the sand is as clean and soft as anything we could imagine beneath our tired feet...

Gulls stand guard at the water's edge and waves that are neither gentle nor dramatic brush the shore...

The receding tide leaves rivulets of water behind like abstract brush strokes across the sandy canvas...

 

And the light off the water from the low autumn sun shines like diamonds all across the sea....

I walk the beach almost daily and I still can't get enough of it....

Happy Halloween!

Last Sunday my sister and I decided to go to Salem MA on a whim. We knew it would be crowded, being the week before Halloween and being a city full of bewitching lore....but we were not prepared for the size and mass of the crowds or the huge motorcycle parade that was also taking place that day....

We decided we didn't care. We found a tiny parking place, got some lunch and meandered around looking at all the sights. And there were plenty of sights!

Everywhere we looked there were people in witch hats and witchy outfits....

 

We especially liked this skeleton in the cemetery....seemed fitting...

 

The old cemetery was very crowded with tourists in some areas

but here there was just an expanse of a different sort of crowd....

 

 

My sister considered a tray full of magic wands....

 

And all in all it was just a beautiful New England day in a seaside town full of history, enchantment and not just a bit of shame.....perfect for getting in touch with the darker side of Halloween but also the fun and goofy side as well. It was a day well spent.

Happy Halloween!

Do you know Cynthia Morris? She is a creative life coach who runs Original Impulses and has a blog Journey Juju that is great fun to read and follow. I highly recommend her. She is celebrating 10 years in business and is running various lists of 10. I decided to post this one here. If you decide to do one, please link here and to her site, too. Here is the link to the post.

This list is called 

How You Became Who You Are Today or 10 Things That Have Formed You the Most

1. How you spent your time after school as a kid.  I collected all sorts of nature stuff and made my own little exhibits and museum in my basement and bedroom. I had toads, snakes, snails, bug of all kinds, turtles and so on. I read constantly, especially books about animals and adventure stories and I wished I was a boy so I could be a pirate or explorer. I drew a lot and wrote stories and had a very active inner life. 
2. What you studied in college.  After realizing that dissection was not my thing I went with my other love, art. I have a BFA in painting and studied watercolor with a wonderful Chinese calligrapher because watercolor was not considered serious enough to be a major course of study. I also studied psychology, zoology and philosophy. 
3. What you did immediately after college or high school graduation. As soon as I graduated I headed to NYC to find my fame and fortune as an artist. I met my soon to be husband just before leaving for New York and he was going there to be in theater. We were very poor, lived in a tiny walk up studio with my dog and cat and I painted and drew cards every night that I sold the next day in Central Park.
4. How you spend your money. I have never had much money so most of it pays basic bills. We live in a very small house his parents help us buy when we had kids. When I have extra money I go to the city and look at art or travel somewhere different.
5. The people you surround yourself with. I have trouble with this one because I seem to surround myself with people having problems or who are a little crazy.....hmmm....or at least that is how it feels a lot of the time. I am still friends with many people I've known since childhood and college and not all those alliances are healthy ones for me. Most of my friends where I live are artists or naturalists and most are self employed. 
6. What you failed at. I have been a good parent, a good wife, a good friend, a good daughter and very active community member but I have failed at every business attempt I've made. I am apparently more a dreamer than a doer....I have great ideas but my follow through is not so good...Most days I think of myself as a failure.
7. Who grabs your attention. Barbara Kingsolver jumps to mind because she does so much and does so much well....I would like to be more like her....;-)
8. What you read. I read all the time--essays, short stories, good fiction, memoirs of interesting people....
9. What you say to yourself and others. too much and too little....
10. What you eat. I try to eat healthy foods but have a wicked sweet tooth....    

Life Without the Computer.

Life went on. Really. It did. The first day was tough. The second day was great. I think I'm going to turn the computer off more often and be more productive on it when it is on.

Funny how the things we think will aid us, will open up time and energy are often the very things that suck it all out of us. As a self employed person I spend a lot of time on the computer but as more and more marketing tips are given for using social media I find I waste a LOT of time reading silly things. Fun, for sure, but not helpful when I am supposed to be working....

How about you? Are you a disciplined computer user?