If I could I would take the whole month of January off from life. While the whole world is making New Year's Resolutions, I'm struggling just to complete my daily routine. After 50 years of it, I don't fight it because its really only
31 days and sooner or later it will be February This year it was a little worse than normal but as the days get longer, the sun on the banks of Lake Erie is out a bit more and I slowly come awake.
With that, I was looking for new project that would excite me. I have a to-do list but nothing has grabbed me enough to get me back into the studio. Until now. With all the Christmas sales, I managed to snag a quick online class with
Leni Wiener. I've admired
her work for years and was interested in her creative process. Well....in on afternoon I watched the class....perused her webpage....and finally,
read her book. (Its a little
amazing what you can do from your bedroom these days!)
Well to say I was inspired an
understatement. For the next few weeks, my mind has been ruminating on how to use what I learned. Since last summer, I've wanted to start some pieces that would reflect, the history of
Erie County, Pennsylvania. I really
love living here. It has just the right mix of beauty, community, and blue class flavor that I wanted to celebrate that.
hmmmmm but
HOW??
So I started at one of my favorite places in the whole world,
Blasco Library in Erie, PA. Now all libraries, any libraries have always been and will always be
my happy place. (That and Wegman's in the morning but that's a whole other post!) From when I was little girl, I'll walk into a library and all I see is a world of possibilities at my finger tips....for free!! I always say that its the best use of my tax dollars and Blasco is no exception!
It was built about 23 years ago right on the lake front. Naysayers at the time said who would want to go down on the lake front just to visit the main library? Well apparently....a lot of people. Attendance immediately shot up. We do have a nice smaller branches scattered throughout the city and county but
Blasco is the mothership. Its kinda of like Erie - concrete, brick and glass and looks over the lake. Its light and airy inside (although kinda echoey for a library!) and has two big stories. I love the layout with non-fiction on the first floor and fiction and The Hertiage Room on the second.
The Hertiage Room houses the history resources. They have genealogy, local/state history, newspapers back to 1822 (yes 1822!!) etc etc......PLUS all the tech to go with it. There are plenty of computers, Database software subscriptions, Microfilm machines, scanners and printers. Plus its
QUIET!! Here in an hour, I found all the inspirational photos I needed plus some seeds were sown (pun intended - LOL!) for some additional projects.
The best part?? Its
all free ...well free due to my tax dollars and donations. The library is open 7 days a week to everyone...from the homeless getting a nap out of the rain to the well to do retiree
looking up her families geneology. LOVE IT!!
This is only the first half of the treasures found at our local Erie County Library. I'll finish up this post next week!! If you haven't explored your local library recently I highly suggest it. With the advent of the internet, I know its easy to think we have the world at our fingertips just by opening up your laptop but sometimes its nice to go out into your community and actually look at the material in person.
This year I decided I'm going to add a new part of my blog....
Things I Like and Don't Like. This week, tragedy hit our small part of the county. 22 year old
Alex Cavanah was shot and killed while working a Saturday afternoon as shift manager at our local Wendy's. By all accounts, he was a special young man and husband who was studying to be a minister. Bad things happen all the time in
this world and in a blink of an eye a person's life is gone....but that doesn't mean I have to like it!
What
I do like is...that in this time of Democrat against Republican...Blue against Red....a country divided,
my community came together to celebrate Alex's life. On Wednesday, Wendy's reopened to donate all proceed's of the day's sale to Alex's wife and family. Wendy's also would match all the sales plus had donation buckets at all county Wendy's (that would be matched as well). Between social and local media, the word got out. From the moment the store opened at 10 am to when it closed at midnight
there were lines and lines of cars waiting to get in. The cars stretched for miles with over 2 hr waits in the drive through. Lines in the restaurants round around and around inside sometimes reaching out the door. It was crazy and heartwarming at the same time. My husband and I splurge on calories to show our support and waited 1.5 hrs for our meal at 9 pm at night. In the midst of it all people all celebrated Alex and community and a good hamburger all in one!
(Alex's GoFundme Page)
I really think that these two events woke me from my January funk!! Life is too short to sit around waiting for the sun to come out.
So What Have You Been Creating???
Sometimes projects are straight forward. Others....well they're not. Of course, I've landed myself into the later. I normally like my projects orderly and organized. Not this one .... nope, I've just begun and its gotten totally out of hand.
