Weekly Wednesdays - and Volunteering, such as it Is...

Holiday China Set for sale at Centre Peace, Inc., Bellefonte, PA

Each Wednesday, I begin to update the local Bellefonte Art Museum Facebook page. It didn't seem like it was that big a deal when I volunteered awhile back. However, since PR must go up weekly, it has become more challenging that I had previously thought! I'm glad Facebook has an option where one can upload posts but schedule them for appropriate timing for the actual posting! Since the museum is only open Fridays - Sundays, 12:00 noon - 4:30PM, I like to put up a post Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays reminding everyone that we are open and giving them a taste of what they can see when they stop in for a visit.

Here's the PR for a current abstract art exhibit at the Bellefonte Art Museum. Mind you, this piece is all needlework - a very fine chain stitch is used to create this design!

And mid-month, I like to stop in at CentrePeace, Inc. to take photos of the latest donated merchandise to arrive on each of the two floors. These photos go up on their Facebook page to invite the public to come and see what's currently available for sale. Furniture, rugs, and appliances fill the main floor of the building. The household goods, small appliances, nick knacks, and at this time of year, Christmas items of every kind fills the second floor to brimming full! It's always fun to visit with the volunteers, who are busy cleaning the donated glassware, dishes, coffee pots, ornaments, bedding, etc. - whatever is donated and still in very good condition for resale in the store.

Christmas ornaments on display and for sale at Centre Peace, Inc., Bellefonte, PA

CentrePeace, Inc. website states:
CentrePeace began working with inmates in 1975 at the State Correctional Institution at Rockview State Prison. We continue to conduct weekly training classes there. Based on needs observed, we have created additional programs which reach throughout the state system. We have also become involved in state and national efforts to provide community members, victims, offenders, and corrections personnel with programs that promote Restorative Justice.

CentrePeace provides opportunities for about-to-be-released inmates to work at the store in various capacities, primarily moving/picking up and/or delivering furniture, learning the upholstery trade, working with the volunteers to clean and place merchandise out on display, and any other tasks that happen to come up. The transition from prison to the community can be extremely difficult for many. CentrePeace aims to assist in any way possible with a successful transition to daily life.

As for painting, it's been on the back burner for a few days. But here's a self-portrait I'm working on to be part of the Bellefonte Art Museum's upcoming exhibit by artist/members of the museum. We're all invited to submit a self-portrait for the January anniversary celebration and exhibit.

I'm thinking "I'm an old lady and now I wear purple!" as the title for the piece...

The Crazy Person I've Always Been...

Some days when I wake up, I just KNOW it will be a good day! Today is one of those days. Strange thing about these kind of days, however... I always get involved in WAY too many projects and never complete a single one of them in all that enthusiasm and good feelings.

I suppose most creative types bump into this aspect of themselves on a regular basis. This summer has been one week after another of me bumping into my craziness and getting too interested in doing too many things. One mark in my favor is that I chose to take the summer off from volunteering at Centre Peace, Inc. I love the group of women with whom I volunteer and I totally enjoy the tasks I'm given. Centre Peace, Inc. Our group is given the task of cleaning donated household items and pricing them for resale in our store. It's a fun job and we see all sorts of things from items that remind us of our grandparent's homes to things we have no clue of how to identify them, let alone price them. You know, those new-fangled things on the market that have little or no discernible purpose!

The reason I took the summer off is to prepare for our Fibers Unlimited art exhibit at Foxdale Village, a lovely, Quaker-established, retirement community in State College, PA. Since I volunteered a few years ago to initiate this venture, I'm now in charge of seeing to the completion of this task! Thankfully, most of the prep and advertising work is now done. We hang the exhibit on August 18th, have a grand opening on Sunday, August 21st, and take the exhibit down on October 11th. So only the grunt work of hanging and removing is yet to come - plus the celebration party hosted by Foxdale Village.

Back to craziness. Besides spearheading the above art show, I also am supposed to be doing more in my acrylic bird portrait series for our local frame shop, The State College Framing Company and Gallery. All nine of the bird portraits I submitted last spring were sold, and John McQueary II requests more. I've begun painting two of the 7 I have drawn up on canvas... and they are going to the Foxdale exhibit! So I clearly need to do some painting and SOON!

Then, to make matters more interesting, I decided to take Melody Johnson's on-line free Focus on Fusing class when she mentioned on her blog she is offering such a class... That involves buying more fabric, of which I have more than enough - but precious few solids live in my closet. I have enough batiks to make 17 quilts, but I have next to no solids, let alone finely woven solids, which she requires for her fusing methods. So I've been shopping on-line and in the stores to build up my little supply. I only intend to make small pieces, but one needs a LOT of different colors, doesn't one??? And bolts of Wonder Under... Hmmmmm. And time, energy, space, and storage containers!

And there are six old bananas on the kitchen counter-top awaiting my hands to mash, stir, and bake into wonderful loaves of banana bread...

And Frank is out grocery shopping, so that will require some putting away of goods. Not to mention the load of laundry in the dryer that will soon need folding, or the fabric I bought yesterday that needs to be fused, then cut into leaf shapes, etc.

So, in all my craziness, I really had to sit down and think about it all. Why do I do this to myself? Why do I find a zillion things so interesting that I must work on them TODAY? Why is it I see the dirty laundry and decide today is the day? Why do I remember I wanted to put up some photographs with my art quilts at the Foxdale show and TODAY is the day I want to get the photography taken, edited, printed, and mounted on display board? Oh, and I took a few photos last night of the humming birds - I want to put them up on Facebook...

So what did I do to think about it all? I sat down right here and wrote about it. Just why I did that, I probably couldn't tell you, but here I am. Then again, maybe I do know why. When I write, I have to slow down my thoughts and concentrate on what it is that I want to say with the words that are being written. What has been learned by this exercise? That if I accept my crazy self and celebrate her, I will enjoy myself. If I judge myself and believe that I ought to be doing something else for whatever reason,I will be unhappy, dissatisfied, and depressed...

The bananas are waiting, as are the clothes in the dryer. Frank came home, we put away the groceries and had a nice lunch. Now it's time to finish up what I started - with this blog, anyway! I may as well find a few photos to add to this post to make it more interesting to anyone finding it on computer land.

I hope you have as much fun today as I am having, all scattered and crazy and fun!