I'm back!

Well, back to blogging. I haven't actually gone anywhere. What I did do was take time to focus on making a very special project my #1 priority - My Fitness Project, a centerpiece of which is my goal to lose about 40 lbs. I'll confine details and ongoing progress reports to my decluttering blog and you can read my first post on it here.

Meanwhile, all sorts of things are going on for me and around me. Good things, I'm pleased to report, like having some things on display and for sale in the gallery at Arts Illiana. The monthly poetry readings I cohost at Coffee Grounds with my friend Sarah Long continue to be well attended (a record number of people have already signed up for tomorrow night's reading.) I have the opportunities before me of more of my work being displayed at other locations in the fall and winter, and, next year, a possible fiber arts show at a local gallery.

I've fallen into facilitating Lit Night twice a month at ArtReach. Here's a picture of me facilitating a few months ago. ArtReach is a great free community art-making space. Lit Night is an opportunity for people to share their written art with others and I bring interesting activities to inspire more.

I'm still working with The Maple Center in memory of my son Patrick. I'm serving on the board, doing a variety of things. My primary mission, however, is the promotion of the expressive arts as a healing modality. The major project is our annual workshop Creating a Path Through Loss: The Arts as Healing Tools. This year we just don't have the funding to do the full, day-long event. So we are going to create a half-day event on a shoestring to 'hold the space' and focus on fundraising for the 2010 workshop.

Here's a project of The Patrick Burkett Memorial Fund at the Maple Center that puts the FUN in fundraising - Solmate socks!:

You can buy these through Martha at RiverWools or at The Maple Center. I will also have some in the fall at the booth we're doing in the Crossroads Arts Fest. For a pdf download of the flyer, just click on the link on the Maple Center home page.

Lots of links here and not many pictures...I'll close with a couple of "stuffies" that Raven & I made a few weeks back on one of our Tuesdays together. The basic idea of these is in an article in the latest issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors.

Cat by Raven

Angel by Zann