Mrs. Pettiford's Rule to Live by

I had an interesting conversation with a friend last week. At one point in her life, she felt it necessary to attend finishing school. She went faithfully, two time a week, to an upper society woman's home for several weeks. My friend, who I'll call Judy, said she went with a preconceived idea of who this woman (whom I'll call Mrs. Pettiford) was, what she was all about, and figured she'd just grit her teeth and get what she needed to get out of this situation. After a while, the other women in the class stopped coming regularly and often, Judy and Mrs. Pettiford had the three hours all to themselves to talk and get to know each other.

Judy learned that Mrs. Pettiford, was, in fact, no shrinking violet. She had built quite a power structure within her formidable world by knowing the rules and Judy was putting herself in a very good position by learning the rules from her. Mrs. Pettiford shared the secret to feeling secure within yourself in any situation: Know The Rules. If you Know The Rules, then, and only then, can you break The Rules.

I thought a lot about my conversation with Judy. It seems to me that there are two kinds of women. Women who Know The Rules in order to follow them and women who Know the Rules in order to live life tossing them aside. I have been a rule follower. I follow the recipe, the pattern, the map. But as I said to Judy, I'm pretty damn familiar with The Rules. I want to see what life is like outside The Rules, coloring outside of the lines, not playing well with others.

This should be interesting.

I'm Always Learning

Well, since I bought my new camera, I've decided that learning Photoshop Elements would be a good idea. Then I learned that there's this whole Digital Scrapbooking world. I had no idea! After much searching, I found a very reasonably priced tutorial at DesignerDigitals. For $25 I downloaded 7 video lessons with the accompanying PDF documents plus a folder full of digital papers and embellishments. I completed my first lesson this afternoon.

What fun!!

IC Clock Tower

I loved this photo I took on the Ithaca College campus this past weekend. I'm trying to learn Photoshop Elements 8 and Fotoflexer (free online) and used this image to play. I did this on Fotoflexer. Pretty cool, huh?!

IC Band Reunion Weekend

I just got home from a great weekend at my alma mater, Ithaca College. It the first IC Band Reunion Weekend. 187 alumni strong came (51 clarinets!). I was really looking forward to getting my clarinet out again. My mouth was shot by the end of rehersal on Friday, but it was a blast. I shared my stand with classmate, Sarah Winston. She's hysterical. She's teaching at a private girls school in the DC area. The girls are lucky to have her. She's a great teacher and has an obvious passion for the work.

I got to play for every conductor I had during my time at Ithaca and even had a chance to catch up with my clarinet professor, Dr. Michael Galvan. The best part of the weekend was getting to spend time with my college roommate, Laura. When we met 20 years ago, it was like meeting my sister. We hit it off from the word go. I've never had a friend like her who gets me so well and is so accepting of me. I could burn down the town and she would have no judgement against me. I wish we lived closer so I could spend more time with her and her girls. But the distance make the time we do spend together so much sweeter. I guess that's the way it is sometimes.

First Day Photos

First Day with New Camera

I took the plunge and bought myself a brand new camera. I'd been saving a little money over the last few weeks and decided to use for this special purchase. I haven't been this excited about an electronic device since my father took me to Value House and I put my first CD player on layaway. If I might quote our Vice President: "This is a big f&*@ing deal."

I'm headed to Ithaca, NY this weekend for a Wind Ensemble Reunion and I can't wait to use it while I'm there. Ithaca is filled with incredible gorges, so I'm thinking I'll have some pretty good stuff to shoot. Today, I took some starter shots out in the backyard to get a hang of things. Truth be told, the very first photos I took were of my friend Susan who owns the nail salon under my Pilates studio and my feet. I got a pedicure this afternoon and used the time to read through the Owner's Manual (Good Girl alter-ego insisted).

Look out Annie Leibowitz, there's a new girl in town.

Visit to Jane & Paul's Farm

I bought some lovely strawberries and other goodies at Jane & Paul's Farm today. I love this time of the year. "Keep it Local".

The Medium & the Muse

I've been reading Oriah's book What We Ache For about creativity. I've always considered myself to be a creative person, but in a very prescribed way. I'm a rule follower, so I thrive on patterns, recipes, classes and workshops. My creative endeavors have included music, sewing, machine embroidery and other small craft projects. I've never faced a blank canvas and challenged myself to create something from nothing. Recently, I've challenged myself to do just that.

So, I've been scouring the book, craft, and fabric stores for some jumping off points. I was urged by a creative mentor not to spend a lot of money getting started. Just invest in a few good tools and supplies, and then use what I already have. Fat chance. I LOVE book stores and craft stores and hardware stores and fabric stores. Oh, the possibilities. I wander the aisles, waiting for something to inspire me. To jog a memory (Oh yeah, I've always wanted to try that...).

I found these clear tiles at Joann's over the holiday weekend. Wasn't sure what I was going to do with them and started prowling around Etsy, Jim Holtz' website, and got some inspiration. When I sat down to "play" tonight, I had such anxiety. I don't know what makes me think I can pull this off. I am NOT an artist. But Oriah talks about the importance of going to the journal, the canvas, the "medium" as a regular practice. Inspired or not. Ideas or not. Just go to the medium and see what comes up. And lo and behold, after a while, I got some good stuff out.

So, here's to meeting "the medium" and hoping the muse might peer over my shoulder and whisper one sweet, small "yes".

The Storyteller

by Breean Cox

I don't know what story I want to tell...