Dust Bunnies and Apples

Ever have one of those days where you start one job, which leads to another job, to another job, and you never seem to get anything done? It is a way of life for me. This morning I began getting ready for art girls by cleaning off the table. I picked up some receipts that needed to be filed, but then I needed to put away the receipt file for 2011 and make a new one for 2012. While I was doing the switcheroo with the files, there did not seem to be enough room in the file cabinet for more files. So I had to get out a box and put years worth of old receipt folders away and make room for new folders.

Eventually I got back to clearing off the table for art. We were going to work in pastels today, so I started getting art supplies out of my art cabinet. I could not find one set of pastels. As I dug through the cabinet, I found all sorts of things that were out of place - needing to be put right. There was lots of stuff that just needed to be thrown out. Once I got going cleaning out the cabinet drawer, it was hard to stop. I cleaned out several drawers of my art cabinet, but I did not find the pastels that I had been looking for. Thinking that I had last seen the pastels in Jesse's art bag, I went to her room, and looked in the usual places. I did not find the pastels, but I found a pack of letters written by me to my dad through the years. I only read one, but it was enough to send me into a tailspin of memories. I put the letters away and text (ed?) Jesse to get to the pastels quicker. After a few texts back and forth, I called her, "Where the heck are my pastels?" "Search my room." was her answer. Great - like I had not thought of that myself. I eventually found them, ahem, in my art cabinet.

With the pastels out on the art table, I went in search of pastel boards. I found a few, but not enough for the seven students. Where the heck were all my boards? I probably loaned them to students. I thought it would be easy to go to the barn and cut some more boards on the table saw. Besides, I needed some wood putty from the barn for another project anyway. Out at the barn, I found my big piece of masonite board, but it was covered in dust and cobwebs and was a bit warped. Trying not to think about the cobwebs, I cut up several 12x16 pieces and brought them back to the house to clean the dust and cobwebs off.

I created lots of dust bunnies in the house while cleaning the boards, searching for pastels, switching file folders, etc. I still had time to vacuum before the art girls arrived along with the usual cleaning. When they did arrive, I was a bit sweaty and dirty - just right for some pastel work, which is dusty too. We worked on apples today.
Here is my art - it still needs work, but after my art girls left, I needed rest. I painted this on white pastel paper, while my students used black paper. I would have used black too, but there were not enough pieces to got around (and I was not going in search of any more stuff).
Here is one of my student's work - not finished yet. I think she did very well so far. The other girls took their work home with them. I warn the girls that if they do not take their work home, it will end up on my fridge. They don't know about my blog. Heh!

Actually, I got quite a bit done today - just not quite as I planned.