Lemonade, September 2026

Life is sometimes challenging.  No one I have ever met claims to have a perfect life.  We plan for things to go well, we hope they will go well and sometimes they do, but sometimes those plans just don’t work out the way we had hoped.  It happens in life in general and it sometimes happens in my studio.

  Two months ago I arrived home from an amazing cruise with a sore throat and spent the next week in bed with a horrible cold.  Passing it on was not on my agenda so if I had to venture out, I wore a mask.  Even though I had a wonderful adventure it ended on a bit of a sour note.

  This past week, I returned from a holiday in western Canada visiting my sons and their families as well as many of my cousins in Saskatchewan.  It was two and a half weeks of catching up, great food and many adventures.  The day I was to fly home from Calgary, I tripped on an uneven sidewalk and did a face plant on concrete.  Luckily, strangers came to my aide and helped me to a nearby clinic where I was assessed and treated for scrapes and bruises.  Deemed fit enough to fly, I made my flight.  Going out of the house required sunglasses for many days to disguise the massive bruises. 

Both of these holidays ended in a very weird way but it could have been worse.  My illness stayed as a cold and didn’t become pneumonia.  My fall left me bruised and scraped, but didn’t break any bones or give me a concussion.  Sour lemons were served up but I chose to make lemonade and focus on what might have been and how lucky I was that it wasn’t worse.  Going forward I will remember the great adventures I experienced on my trips rather than the sour endings.

Things happen in my studio that also present lemons.  Artwork doesn’t always come up to expectations.  A bright idea can sometimes go terribly wrong.  One of my recent Gelli Plate prints was a complete bust.  The picture of the cathedral I was using got lost in the colours, and when I pulled the print not all of it lifted from the plate.  What was created was a piece of fabric that had nice colours and subtle pattern but was very defective.  Rather than toss it out I chose to cut it into heart shapes and mount them onto cards with gold fabric circles behind them.  Voila, a dozen unique cards.  The residue that was left on the plate added unique interest to my next print.

My approach to life and its ups and downs is to look for the bright side and when I am presented with lemons to make lemonade.  My wish is that my readers do the same.