Grieving or Reminiscing?

Yeah, I wasn’t sure about the answer to that question myself. I was in the basement looking around for a cool piece of wood and ran across the open sign I used to use when I had the gallery. It was a sidewalk sandwich board sign, and I carted it outside each morning when I opened the store and brought it back in each evening. I painted it by hand all those years ago and the finish aged and mellowed in the weather. I unscrewed the back from the front and brought the most weathered side upstairs and put it on the desk in the kitchen.

It feels right. I love it there. The bold graphics were a perfect fit for my shop back in the day, and they are a perfect fit for the kitchen now. I love it that they cover up a badly located outlet. And I moved the clock. (And I’m still looking for an interesting bit of wood.)

I’ve been following the tracking information on my hinges hoping against hope that they would be here by Saturday. There has been no movement recorded on the system today. I suppose that the weird weather may not help. We have some very strange crispy ice stuff coming down outside, too bad it's not snow.

I went looking for photos of the shop and I was disappointed that I couldn't find much on my backup hard drive, I'm not sure where they all are. I certainly took photos along the way! This was the ribbon cutting, see the sign?  There it is!  (And look at that HANDSOME dog who was visiting with his human!)  My parents and some big wigs were there for the ribbon cutting, it was a fun little gig.  I had food drinks, lots of folks visited to get a look at the new place.  It was great.

These photos were from a "Christmas in October" show, the colors were far more muted than usual.  It brings back the memories of that place and how much I loved my work and my time there and the people who found me there and became a part of my life.

There is an OPEN sign in my kitchen. It looks good there.  It comes with lots of good memories so I'm pleased to have it out where I can be reminded... to live the dream.  I think we all need those reminders.

Live the dream, there is no substitute.

-Carmen Rose