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I had a crazy kind of unexpected Thursday and Friday, which kind of threw off my regularly programmed scheduling, but reminded me how much you can actually fit in a day.
Here was my itinerary:
Wednesday stay up finishing things find that it’s 3:30 AM Thursday morning so I just stay up for my 7 AM flight.
Leave the house at 4:30 AM (Thursday morning) to get to the airport that takes 7 minutes to get through
Fly for 35 minutes.
Arrive in SLC for a 4 hour layover
Arrive in Idaho Falls after 30 minutes in the sky (no wind)
Pick up my car, a big ol’ mini van
Ask myself if I’m now a mini van person? Maybe? It was really nice.
Check into my hotel, it’s 2 PM now.
Try to unsuccessfully rest for 2 hours before I have to get ready to go to dinner with some of the professors from the art department.
I still know how to get around town. It’s weird. I haven’t lived there in ten years, and I can’t get lost. Love that.
Go to dinner at 5:00. Love them. It’s so fun to connect with the. Can’t eat a thing.
Leave dinner early to go to a memorial/reception for a dear friend’s wife who passed pretty suddenly.
Head to the location of my talk
Deliver talk at 7:15, speak until 8:45
Stay and talk with friends until 11:30
Get driven to my car with one of my longest dearest friends and we talk more until 12:30.
Get back to my hotel and fall asleep at 2 AM.
Wake up Friday morning at 8 to get ready for my 10:00 AM workshop.
Check out of hotel.
Teach workshop. I spoke for 3 hours straight. About building community, sourcing, manufacturing, creating bad work to make good work. I mostly talked about being willing to try for 3 hours, and the need to see your work in real life and off a screen. It was good.
My voice is tired. I am tired.
Head to my friends house and talk more for two hours.
Then head to the Eastern Idaho Museum of Art to see a show, and meet some of my Bornholm cousins.
At around 5:30 we go to a tiny Japanese Garden on the river and say goodbye.
I head to the airport, turn in the rental car, and trek across the parking lot in the blazing sun.
By 6:15 I’m checked in a through security and drinking a cold club soda with a lime. I am very red and very sweaty.
Flight leaves at 7:50
My seat mate saw that I was reading a book and we started talking and had so much in common. I haven’t had so much fun talking to a new friend on a flight in probably a decade.
We both have big layovers so she and I got dinner. That was fun too. I never get dinner in the airport. Made the time fly by
10:50 PM I get on the plane
12:00 AM Saturday morning my sleepy people pick me up at our home airport.
I went up to BYU-Idaho where I graduated school (16 years ago) and gave an art seminar/artist talk about my career and being an artist. I talked a lot about the path being winding, and how little choices compound to big things. I talked and cried and talked for an hour and half… was even asked for an encore.
Then the next day I led a workshop about product manufacturing and sourcing. Answered lots of question, spilled lots of beans.
I felt something in me that I had almost forgot about. I know in a practical way that I love teaching, and public speaking because I did it for so long. But it has been a really long time. In a lot of ways I closed that book. I know now that was temporary. It wasn’t until I was in front of people that I really felt the call. It’s like I’ve had the tiniest ember in me, barely glowing, and this whirlwind was a fan. That flame is growing and I want to keep it lit, and keep going.
Magnolia was very brave with me gone. It’s the first time I’ve ever been away from her for more than a few hours.
I’m not exactly sure what’s next.
I think I might host a series of one day workshops online, just to keep things moving, and to share what I know. You know… along with all of the fabric, and patterns, and more fabric, and new artwork, etc…
For now, I’m happy to be home. Back in the garden. Back with Ben and my sweet girl. Grateful for the good things in my life, and grateful to God for granting me all of it, and continually showing me the way.
xoxolizzy
Later this week!
For all subs: I’ll have a progress report on my new quilts! And maybe a garden report! Can’t wait to show you.
For paid subs: you’ll have the update, and a handful of fun summer things for you to download and use at home.
Oh beautiful! Praise the Lord for these good times- for the good sort of tired and that you are back in your hobbit hole with those you love most 💗
So glad to see you finding your voice again!