This weekend:antiques

This weekend we visited the New York State Fair Grounds to see an antique show there. It was like a trip down memory lane-everywhere you looked you saw items from childhood & both of my grandparents houses. There were wonderful items for Halloween & Christmas and amazing collections of every kind. Toys and comic books, dishes and jewelry. Furniture and rugs. Old spice tins and wonderful hats.

The fair grounds are amazing to behold for a city kid-so much space and such lovely old buildings!(With wonderful tile work ) There was a nice 9/11 memorial and beautiful trees in the process of changing color.

We also got to meet friend's sweet dog Lily (Or is it Lilly?)

A bigger version of this show is held every August and I am hoping to return for it. With all that cities have to offer there is nothing like a good, old fashioned fair grounds to make you realize what you are missing...

This weekend:

I managed to do 2 very important things this weekend:

1. wash all of the windows-lovely to do this before freezing temperatures set in!

2. put up the Halloween decorations!

The 2 activities go hand in hand as you have to clean the windows before you can decorate them. I love clean windows as, for about a day or so,the glass is so clean that it looks as if it is not there and all of the colors and sights of out doors shine through perfectly.

I also happen to love Fall & Winter decorating-Halloween coincides with the shift in daylight and decorating for this holiday counteracts the impact of the fading daylight & darker evenings .

How I spent my weekend:

As a hospital Artist-In-Residence there is often a great deal of prep work to be done long before you show up for your actual days of work.

Supplies have to be researched and purchased-this step is made even more time consuming as, in order to stretch the materials budget I use coupons which limit me to purchasing one item a day...!

Samples have to be made to show folks just what they can achieve & to entice the hesitant.

Then there is the odd jobs-cleaning of supplies, sorting of beads into color families, sign making, displays, holiday decorations...the list goes on and on and some days there is no time for it all.

This weekend I spent every spare moment not engaged in major FALL cleaning (Talk about an aching back!) making samples and creating visual variations meant to inspire and motivate. It is fun, when you have the time and it is almost as engaging as making one's own art work can be. There is one added element - the happiness I feel as I imagine the excited reaction patients will have to seeing the samples and the satisfaction I will experience when all this extra (and unpaid) hard work pays off as patients get lost in their creativity, loosing track of time, realizing their often annoying side effects are fading fast and as what might otherwise have been a hard day for them transforms into one filled with artistic fun. I love those moments!

P.S. I love the photo frames-from Michael's Arts & Crafts. Coated with a layer of paint, stickers or rubber stamps work well on the surface & with very little effort you can get a beautiful end result.