April 14 – Tuesday
–Washed the wet and used items brought home yesterday after the Hot Springs.
–Took my plumber friend to lunch at Ethiopian restaurant for fixing the washer. Joked about I got a “free lunch” out of the deal as this was to pay him for the work, and lunch for two would cost about the same as his bill. Then because my meal took a really, really long time to get prepared, they wouldn’t let us pay anything! No tip, nothing. And this was a bad day for the owner, an oven had died. No amount of arguing would change their mind, including my saying I owed K money and this was his payment. So will just have to come back again with K and enjoy a meal there again. (We did leave a tip under a napkin.)
–Wrote up the Art Festival committee meeting agenda. Clarified the account of the Memorial Tree / PARAB drama I experienced on Friday night to discuss how to proceed in response to this situation. It needs to involve many groups and community members and will not be an easy fix.
–Attended Trust Funnel & Expert Media Show webinars.
–Researched covers of other Kids books.
–Posted on Fest FB page about Gallery show opening Friday.
–Gonna see if I can at least finish 2 more sections of this book, but pretty tired . . .
April 15 – Wednesday
–Finalized Festival meeting agenda and notes from dramatic encounter on Friday night.
–Sorted some papers.Now 5 piles are only 2 piles. Discovered an ad deadline I almost missed. Emailed the info and got into the Chase Event 2016 just on time. Whew!
–Walked to Commonwheel via the Post Office. Made copies for Fest meeting.
–Walked back over the Osage hill and the over to mineral spring for water.
–Took photos of sculpture and blossoming trees.
–Cleaned living room & kitchen for meeting with help of my housemate.
–Fixed Chili Relloños Casserole and Gluten Free Cornbread for meal. Lemonade with natural spring water w/ Maple Syrup to sweeten it to drink.
–Strange meeting. Decided needed to meet at the Park next time to decide where to place Beer Garden, Stage and how to lay out the park. Conversation about the drama and threats to making it more difficult to hold the Festival in the park it has been in for 40 years minus the year of the flood was a bit odd. But steps to take this info next were agreed upon. Did some real fast decisions of easy things after these two lengthy discussions.
–Worked on the final pages of the Kids Squirrel book. Cover next. Then redo it for Squirrels on Kindle. But that will be easy once this version is finalized. Just need to copy and paste the text and add photos in a Word doc. Not sure if I need to downsize the images, but again, that would be easy to take them from 300 dpi to 72 dpi.
–Halfway through and will want to keep up this journaling. Should be posting in one of my blogs . . . will see if I can catch up there over the next few days.
April 16 – Thursday
–Had a meeting with the Chamber about the drama last Friday that also effects their events held in the park our Art Festival is held. Supportive and knowing we both need to address this with the City Council, but they have an event this weekend that will take all their focus. Gave them pictures and written info about the whole situation and the response of one Council member who makes this a very serious challenge.
–Waiting for my meeting, talked with their event strategist who saw my map of the park. I will send her a copy of my detailed and almost to scale map to help her lay out booths for the upcoming WineFest. Offered to let her come work with me on my computer with the program I use to do the Art Fest booth layout if it would be helpful to her.
–It is snowing! White-out style of snow. Went to Gazette’s Best Of the Springs Party anyway. Great food, and lots of people to chat with.Then had a disappointing to discovery, no Gallery was in the issue. Had been told we won, and so put in an ad. Weird. And the end of that story Friday was even weirder.
–Took advantage of a free 15 minute massage before I left the party.
–Came home feeling exhausted from stress and disappointment. Was going to work in my feather studio, instead went to bed and slept almost 12 hours. Guess I was tired.
April 17 – Friday–
–Woke to thunder and snow! Very strange weather. Around noon the sun came out and started to melt the snow. Spring Time in the Rockies! Gotta love it!
–Spent the morning writing a letter to be sent in confidence to a few community leaders. Still staying away from going public with this bit of drama until have more support for Commonwheel’s position. Or if don’t have the support, how to plan an exit strategy . . . not in the best interest of the town or our Art Co-op, but something to consider.
–I am not handling this as an outsider very well. 40 years of putting energy into creating an Art Festival that benefits our small town and is loved by so many people that is being threatened by an appointed Board of 6 people is not easy to be neutral about. And it is keeping me for doing other tasks with joy for the Art Festival or my own business. I do keep up with most tasks, but feeling very drained today.
–Read in our local weekly paper almost exactly what was said to me in anger in very “pretty phrases” in the PARAB monthly report by this person.
–Went on Art Walk and couldn’t keep from talking about the PARAB drama piece. Two people took a moment to read the article in the paper that was at one gallery. At least 4 people, maybe 6, want to write letters in support of the Art Festival. Just ask them. Just need to keep myself calm and put forth the truth in ways the Art Festival gets support and a solution can be found.
–Came home and worked on the cover of my Squirrel book. Started with a totally different image and think I now have it . . . except the title isn’t solidified.
–Have the Squirrel Kindle version’s cover and title done. Working on Sub-title and CreateSpace Cover.
April 18 – Saturday–
–This Night Owl got up early and walked over the Osage hill to the HealthFair to get blood drawn and a few other health assessments.
–Talked to a City Council person about the drama and she was shocked. Some support there is really good. And at the “stress test session” was asked to talk about what is the most stressful thing for me right now. So mentioned the drama. This person will also write a letter and congratulated me on being able to laugh and focus on things beyond this. My blood pressure was higher than my normal very low reading, but still lower than most people’s.
–Had a few responses to the email sent yesterday. And answered a couple of their questions.
–Finalized the CreateSpace Cover and sub-title for both books.
–Worked on the Word Search Puzzles that will be part of the bonus attached to the Squirrel book. Have poems and images created to go with them for this also.
–I spent 4 hours in my feather filled studio creating 5 masks and 6 pairs of earrings, just shows my head isn’t totally on straight over the drama that has been coloring my life. But I am Awesome enough that I did get past it on some level and was able to focus in my art studio and create some different looking masks to take to Commonwheel.
Not the way I usually photograph my work, but they are all headed to the Gallery on Monday where I can photo them individually easily.
–Took a fun break of watching a couple of TV shows I missed last week.
–Just realized how late it is . . . to bed!
April 19 – Sunday–
–Had a rough start to the day. Went to grocery store and wandered trying to figure out what I needed for my 3 day trip to the Creative District Conference later this week.
–Sat on the porch and had a chilly lunch break. Trying to shake off the horrible thoughts of what PARAB is trying to do to make the juried beloved Art Festival that I have been involved in for all of its 41 years to not be able to use its home park in the near future.
–Created the page on my web site that the bonus download book will be connected to so I could have the URL in the books. Have work to do on the page & the bonus.
–Played with the Squirrely maze concept. Actually like what I came up with.
–Got all of the images for the Kindle book created using the ones for the CreateSpace version. Learned the lesson long ago if I want to create both types of books, just do the CreateSpace one first with all the 300 dpi images. Then can just translate those down to 72 dpi and some resizing works well for Kindle. Also get to check that all CS are in CMYK, and did find some that needed fixing.
–Gathered some items for packing for my trip.
–Took care of some bills and other business today.
–Joined Tony Laidig’s new training. I know, not suppose to train with 2 trainers at the same time, but I really love his classes, so couldn’t resist.
April 20 – Monday–
–Long day 9:30 am – 6:15 pm) working at the Commonwheel Artists Co-op. Started with a computer challenge that took two people to resolve. Was then able to place my masks and earrings in inventory & put out for sale. Took pictures of the masks, but not processing them to post anywhere tonight.
–I always have fun with visitors who come in while I am working there.
–Wrote what I plan on saying at City Council Tuesday night to address the drama that threatens the financial future of our 41 year old Art Festival and all festivals held in Manitou’s Memorial Park.
–At 6:15pm went to the Manitou Springs Art Council Board meeting. Since they are advocates for the arts, I brought this challenge to their attention. One member came up with the most awesome, brilliant way to approach to bring to City Council to find a really winning solution for all festivals that are held in the park. I love this guy! Other board members brought up new points neither I nor the Chamber had thought to mention. It was a really awesome brainstorming session that will result in one or more letters written. At least one will be endorsed by MSAC and sent to City Council and may be a letter to the editor to engage more community members. Felt so appreciated for what I have done in the past and that there will be great community support to resolve this challenge with a positive outcome for the arts community as a whole.
–Need to do a few things to get ready for my trip to represent Manitou Springs at the Creative District Conference that starts on Wednesday. Really looking forward to three days where I get to be around so many positive people who have made differences in their communities for all the arts!
–And hopefully to bed a bit early tonight, as I am exhausted.