Wow! Where have I been?

Yesterday I was suddenly taken back to the blogging world by a link to an old friend's blog. I was told she had just lost her husband and I wanted to try and leave some words of comfort for her. In doing that I started to read her last posts and then saw links to so many online friends that I had made over my years of blogging - and I suddenly realized how much I missed everyone and their blogging posts.

Strange how life takes you away from something that had occupied you for so long and had created so many happy times as well.

But that's me. I get caught up in life and trying to accomplish too much at once and my mind wanders away and I forget. In fact I've forgotten more things than I know. I'm reminded of this almost daily by The Man and it surprises me every single time. Isn't that life?

All this being said - I did want to say how my heart ached reading past posts of my blogging friends around 3am this morning. I realized how much everyone meant to me and looking in the mirror I wondered 'what on earth is wrong with you Aims!'

Life - the grueling part of every single day that drives me crazy! I'm one of those people who can't deal with stress and it shows. I'm also one of those people that is driven by my past - and that shows too! Perhaps being here and talking about it all will help. I believe it really helped me before but then that life thing got in the way.

Patience. Huh! That's one thing I'm discovering I have very little of as time races by. How about you? Anyone else finding the same thing? I thought as we grew older we grew more resilient and calm. I'm not discovering that at all. In fact - as I come up to my leap into the next decade later on this year, I'm not so happy about it. Indeed I'm quite angry about this aging business. I refuse to believe that I'm going to be ?! old!! I've always said - I think I'm 22 - and I'm trying hard to believe that thinking you are young keeps you young. The jury is still out on that one I think.

Back to this life interfering business. The Big Blue Barn is almost done with renovations. I discovered that I'm not so happy climbing up a ladder and trying to paint the outside of the barn around the third floor level and up. So I hired someone. After last year's fiasco with a 'painter' who just made a mess of everything and then me trying to fix his messes - I caved. Something I rarely do.
And - I hired someone to do all the heavy work in the kitchen renovations after I realized I just couldn't do it myself. Sure The Man would have helped but getting time away from his work and his studying is something that is hard to do. So - hire away and pay out the money and be happy with it.
Of course I'm still waiting for them to show up and tear apart the kitchen for the remodeling - but while the weather is 'sort of' good I have to be patient with this man's other outdoor work. There's that word again - 'Patient'. Bah humbug!

My studio has been 'Aims free' for some time now and I need to get back there and create. I have 3 shows this Christmas season to do and I'm not ready for them at all. Somehow I have to fit that into the last renos and get it all done. Last winter my brother and I did 7 shows and it wore me right out. So this year we decided to only do 3. I hope I picked the best ones to do but you can never tell.

And what am I doing in my studio these days? Metalsmithing, jewelry, creating pretty things to glamour us all up with I think - or hope - take your pick. And this year I'm hoping to get my website up and full of pics of those creations. We'll see. That's taking time from The Man again and believe me - it's hard to do.

I've also had many requests over my absent years to finish the story about my past experiences. I need to do that. Not only for me but for all those patient readers who have sent in their requests for the ending of the story. Let me work on that....

Right - that's me for now just putting down thoughts and letting you know I'm thinking of you all - even those who no longer blog...I know how that happens so easily.

Hopefully I'll be back  --- well --- that's the plan for now.