The texture of homemade glue makes me happy

Art class was interesting. I felt a bit like I was back in second grade, playing with homemade glue. We kept working on our collages (the beginners that is, the advanced students are painting amazing pictures), adding texture with torn pieces of newspaper applied with a flour and water paste. While the finished product leaves much to be desired, I really am learning a lot. Before class next week I have to do the same textured technique on a thin piece of wood called fibro fácil and make sure it's fully dry. I'm also supposed to take acrylic paints and pieces of fabric to class to begin a new collage with the prepared fibro fácil.

Art is held downtown on the same block as the little fabric store so after class I walked down to check out possibilities for a tablecloth. I prefer cloth tablecloths over plastic (hey, they're washable) and I wanted a green that would coordinate with the paint in the dining room. I really like what I found and think I might buy more to make new slipcovers for our IKEA Poang chairs. Gotta do something to cover up the messy white that won't come clean.

Anyway, fabric stores have a calming effect on me. So I was feeling muy tranquila when the hubby picked me up.

He was running a little late because when he stopped to make a doctor's appointment, the doctor was in and free so he got in right away. His knee has been giving him problems since before we moved. He fell and hurt it in the spring of '08 while helping with some remodeling at a church and since then a lump has formed on his right knee. Anyway, a few days ago he had a sonogram done on that knee.

[During the sonogram he asked the technician "Is it a boy or a girl?" My hubby cracks me up!]

Long story short...last evening the doctor was able to aspirate the liquid from the cyst and we're hoping the cavity doesn't fill back up. For the next ten days he has to keep his knee wrapped during the day but otherwise he should be fine. It doesn't seem to have slowed him down any! Last night after supper he went out to his shop and put together his shaper (a carpentry tool).

Back to art class (do you find yourself getting distracted easily? I can hop from one topic to another and back again in no time flat)....more students have enrolled in the class and most are experienced artists who bring their paints and easels and we're spread all over the loft area, including the "hallway" by the open stairs. That's where I found myself along with my new friend Ivana. We had fun trying to communicate while we slopped bits of gloopy newspaper all over our gray collages. We talked about our kids, pets (I don't have any now but had a whole menagerie growing up), dancing (her daughter is a classical dancer but that led to a short discussion/confession of how poorly we dance), and of course art. Ivana may be a beginner like myself, but she's definitely way more talented. Her gray collage is stunning!

I was encouraged with how much we were able to talk about, considering my vocabulary is still pretty limited. I make a LOT of mistakes, but I'm trying not to be so self-conscious about them. We learn from our mistakes, right? So why do I keep making the same ones??? I keep saying "hay no" when it should be "no hay". Always the "no" first. Aaargh! You'd think I'd remember after being corrected forty-eleven times. *sigh*

TGIF! I'm ready for a mental day off tomorrow. Sit and sew, sew and sit, with the brain turned off. LOL I wish. I woke up at 5 a.m. this morning and the very first thought in my head was, "I used 'es' when I should have used 'son'". So now my brain is kicking into Spanish overdrive first thing. Ugh.

Hope everyone has a nice, relaxing, stress-reducing, muy tranquila weekend!