Sometime back, I'd mentioned that some of the














flowers along the edge of the deck had started blooming ~ And the weather cleared up just enuf the other afternoon, to allow me to get a couple pictures of the pansies, all cheerful and looking like they could care less about how much snow they've had fall all over them! The larger pot of flowers happens to be on the table to the left of the 3 flower pots in the corner of the deck ~ The picture just wouldn't come out any clearer, no matter how hard I tried! ~ But you can get a pretty good idea of how cheerful those little pansies are. I bought them on sale last fall, and Noah went ahead and put them in the pots one afternoon for me. I'm suprised they've come thru the winter as well as they have!

And now there will be some other pictures - but not until tomorrow - I want to go outside an' take some shots of the bulbs that are coming in, along the roadway. They are some nice yellow/green blooms - daffodils, but with just a hint of opening on the petals on each plant. They aren't any type that I've seen before we moved here, but they seem to do very well in our crazy temperatures - even with some early heat, they seem to just shrug it off, and keep on blooming! That's what I call "Hardy" flowers!

I'm fixing the little mermaid that I showed the other day - she was just a rough sketch then, but now she's gettin some color and other things added around her. I'm glad she's getting to look less than pale now...at first her color didn't look so good, like she was fighting the flu or something!! ~ But now she's coming around, so that's making up for some lost days over the weekend....

And speaking of the weekend.......

It's really one I'd rather forget - I did make the trip up to the city to retrieve my work..and just as my inner feelings had predicted, it wasn't good at all ~ Tom kinda sprung the trip on me unexpectedly, as we weren't going to go till after church on sunday ~ But he changed his mind, so quick like a bunny I changed clothes, and off we went. The trip itself went just fine..it's the shock of when I walked into the shop that I honestly wasn't expecting.

Not one of my pieces were hanging where I'd left them ~ Not one. And as I walked thru the store, looking and looking around and over each new item, and some re-set pieces, it just got heavier and heavier inside of me. It really did feel like I'd been kicked in the stomach, it just was so dense feeling ~

So I asked "Where are my pieces" to the store manager, and she claimed she didn't know anything about them ~ "You'll have to come back tomorrow and talk to the owner..." I told her, while on the verge of having an hysterical crying jag, "Look, I drove over 90 miles one way to get here, and I'm not coming back here tomorrow. My husband didn't really want to come up here in the first place, and all I want right now are my pieces of art.." - She just stood and stared at me with a complete blank look on her face.

Then she started moving this HUGE piece of shelving/storage..mumbling while she was doing this.."Well, I think I put your things back in here just after Christmas..."

That's when the complete and horrid feeling that something BAD had happened to my art.

She fumbled-bumped around for what seemed like forever, then asked if tom could come in & help move this behemoth thing for her..I walked outside to see what he'd say - he handed his phone to me, so while I talked to our middle son (He was livid at what happened to me, by the way...) tom went in and helped the lady.

AS IF it wasn't bad enuf that she was all fumbliee, then she tells tom, "I don't think her things are here...I don't really know what happened to them..."

Yup - Tom went OFF!! ~~ He demanded to know just what the $^%$@ was going on, and the lady finally moved another piece of furniture, and lo and behold, there were some of my pieces...all smashed into a box, an' not looking all that great. I asked abot 4 other pieces that the owner said she'd hang up for me (I"ll get you your inventory sheet in the mail, an' I'll take care of those pieces for you!) - "Oh, you'll have to call about those..."

I'd counted my inventory sheet, an' thot that maybe the other pieces were there..I was on the verge of tears, an' just picked up the box, said thank you and walked out.

Numb.

In shock.

And feeling really sick to my stomach.

By the time we got home (Tho we did spent some time w/ the other 2 sons) I was absolutely dead to the world...I'd felt like somebody had just beat me to within an inch of my life.

And sunday I was still to numb to do much of anything.

'cept realize that 4 pieces of mine never did get put in that box - and that nearly 1/2 of the pieces that I did get back, were in some way damaged - frames dented or scratched. One has some paint from something else on it. One frame has a glob of something from the top of the frame, onto the back of it.

2 pieces were knocked loose from their frames.

Have I mentioned that this year has been somewhat rough for me?

So today I've been re-arranging the studio - what pieces that I could clean up, I've put into a seperate box for taking to the gallery down the highway, should the need arise. The ones that were beat up an' shaken/knocked from their frames, I just put away, and have no idea of what to do with them. The other ones I'll try and figure out something down the road.

I'm just getting over the shock of it all.

The woman owner/manager told me not quite a month ago, that all my work was fine, nothing was wrong with them, everything was great...don't worry, nothing is selling, but it's a slow economy...yadda, yadda, yadda..............

Needless to say, the 4 missing pieces are just going to be that - I'm not sure if I have the energy to try and attempt to retrieve them - what with all that's happened I'm not sure what avenue to take.

So in the meantime, I'll just paint the new little mermaid over on the work table, and get back on my feet again.

And hopefully this kind of thing WILL NOT happen again.


So that's all for now - noah's walkin' toward the studio, an' he probably wants to get on the computer, so I gotta go.

An' maybe take a nap this afternoon an' try an' feel better............


Lady of The Tulips