WOW such a long absence... UPCOMING SHOWS

My deepest apologies for being gone so long. It's been just about a whole year (let's just call it a year cause in 11 days it will be). This isn't because I have not been creating or working, it is because of the life that I have been having to live regardless of creating or working. So much has happened.

After I posted in December last year the end of December was always hectic, as was Jan, Feb, and April. December was Aaron's birthday (17th), then Christmas (was always a big deal), and then in January Martin's (my husband) birthday on the 1st, then Hope's birthday on the 11th, and then in February there was Valentine's Day (never a big deal :( to my husband) and then my birthday. In March was our wedding anniversary (again, :( not a big deal to my husband). Then almost immediately in April was Angel's birthday. There was very little time to settle down enough to blog about anything short of just being about how hectic I was feeling.

Then things started falling apart for me.

Martin started cheating (I think) on me. He decided to move to an apartment and separate, then the adoption for the kids that we had been working toward was finally scheduled. It was set for Aug. 8, 2008 at 8:00 am. I let Martin know. And was in the midst of a move from Denton to Mesquite. I got the apartment all approved, and everything seemed to be going somewhat normally. I thought Martin would settle down when he saw the stress over the fostering / adoption was over. He said he would go through with the adoption because he didn't want to screw the kids up. I thought all would be fine after some time. He kept telling me nothing was wrong he was just overly stressed.

Well on 7-27-08 I received divorce papers. The next day the jerk had called the state and the state effectively kidnapped the kids from me. I was told while I was driving down the freeway and nearly killed myself, my mom, and everyone else withing a 200 ft radius of my car.

Let me just say the state, the agencies, the people who are charged with "child protection" don't have a blasted clue about what is right for kids or how to handle situations properly.

So here we are... it's December again. Thanksgiving sucked, I have no hope of getting the kids back, and Christmas is coming and I dread it. I am looking forward to meeting a fellow artist. She is coming to Oklahoma for some Christmas festivities and I will be travelling up to see her at some point in her holiday visit. Haven't set on a specific day yet, but we are working on it. You can see her work at http://teague-drydan.deviantart.com

I have also made some decisions about the future of me and where I am going to be. I am re-locating to the UK. I have a couple of very good, very dear friends there who have been a drastic support for me through all I have been going through and I have wanted to return there ever since I was there in 1999 studying art. It was truly the first place I felt like I was home.

I am going to go visit this summer, start getting some things together and set up and look for a place to live. Then I will be going back and forth quite a bit and deal with several shows here and getting shows set up there etc.

I do have some shows here set up and getting set up.

Because of all that has happened I missed the application deadlines of a couple, but here is a current listing of were I am applying and/or will be exhibiting.

I will / am trying to be in the following places:

April 4&5
San Antonio, Texas
La Villita Spring Arts Festival (Vendor & Exhibitor)

October 10-18
Houston, Texas
International Quilt Show (Vendor)

October 31 & November 1 (I think - new dates haven't been made available yet)
Carterville, Illinois
34th annual John A. Logan College Autumn Fest Arts and Crafts Show (Vendor)

I will be working on Blogging much more regularly, but I just started a new job so I will aim for weekly blogs rather than daily blogs.

Don't forget to sign up for my feed so you can read my coming and admittedly fascinating artistic blogs.