Well as luck has it – being stuck with my leg up in the air and being confined – along comes GIFITUP 2016 – so at least I have had some time feeling like something was getting done.
I haven’t been making a lot of GIFs the last few months – but using the DPLA archives always is a treat in creating new art. It is quite amazing to view the submissions. Last year I submitted 3 and I did the same this year. I thought I would be farther along in my skills by this year- but …eh…not really. It does become a learning process. I learned new features in Photoshop and new tools to use. Community of ds106 provided feedback and by doing so pushed me to go back and do more tweaks.
I am not going to document the process of each one this time – another habit to come back too.
I am still here. I have been checking the Twittersphere when I can, viewing Flickr and Instagram, keeping up with family on FB. My art for the last 4 weeks has been in organizing moving and juggling a housing purchase while prepping the current house for listing!
We list on July 8 with an Open house on July 10. Hoping for a quick and clean sale!
Movers are coming in 15 days! So getting things packed, labeled and organized.
And – remembering why we are doing this – Landon! Squeezing in a day to go visit. Soon we will be close and we will be part of the day care team for 2 days of the week and as needed. 🙂
Looking forward to getting my office set up and back into a digital creating cycle again.
So far – it is still creating – just different ways.
Wow! Still pinching myself and trying to figure out what just happened. Almost seems like a Thelma and Louise moment of decision-making! But with a better outcome!
We have a new grandchild – our first. Our daughter lives about 6o miles from our current residence. Not a horrible distance, but enough to make visits something that have to be coordinated. No pop ins either way and no “can you just run over for 15 minutes and help me out” types of things.
Leaving from a visit about two weeks ago as we were driving out of the neighborhood, I spotted a house and just casually pointed it out to my husband and said that I really liked that house and could see myself living there if it was possible. Just mostly dreaming and in a way story telling in my head. I had no idea what the house looked like on the inside etc.
The next week I went to spend a few nights to help my daughter out while her husband had to be out of town. A 3 week old and new mom need extra hands. We were chatting about how it would be nice to be closer for helping out over the hour plus drive. As we were chatting – we heard activity outside. A FOR SALE sign was going up on the house I had admired! We quickly brought it up online. I had been watching the housing in the area for more than 18 months and new styles, looks etc. I had started watching when my daughter was looking for her home and never stopped the search updates. Over that time I really never saw anything that said MOVE NOW. Some things that were like dream places and way too big, too expensive, and too much upkeep for us in this stage of life, or too small, too old, too many projects that we just don’t want to do anymore. BUT- this one was different. It actually looked like it was meeting all the dreamy checklist items I created in my mind that I thought would be impossible to ever come up.
Next – my husband is not a change lover like I am. He puts up with my change addiction, but does have some comfort boundaries.
I showed him the house online and reminded him of our previous conversation before it was for sale. He said – let’s look at it. WOW! Not expected.
Then things just get faster and more connected.
We made a showing appointment for a Wednesday. We took our daughter with us and we toured. It spoke to both of us as soon as we entered. Some of the customized features of the home were things we have done in our homes or have wanted to do. The finishes were not a downgrade from our current residence and several are actually upgrades. Some of the perks one thinks they should have after working hard for many years. Touring we noticed that most of the color pallette in this home were the exact same colors I have chosen over the last 2 years in our current home as updates. We got to the mechanical room of the house and found it has radiant heat and a boiler. My Dad was a great believer in radiant heat and we had learned a lot from him on what to look for, what was good etc. in a system. We couldn’t find anything that wasn’t pleasing or comfortable.
We went home and had some conversation. Should we move from the area we have known for almost 60 years of life? What would it be like moving to a rural town? But we would be closer to family. Very close to our new grandchild and 40 miles closer to our oldest daughter as well. We know our current residence we love -but taking care of 8 acres and a large home is getting to be not what we want to spend our time doing. This new place would still have things to do, but at a scale that is more enjoyable and not task mastering.
We decided to make an offer on Thursday. Did the research came in with a lower offer than asking price, but still fair for all as we saw it.
16 hours later we received news the offer was accepted in we were now in a legal contract to purchase! Closing will be within 30-45 days!
OMG!!! What just happened? Usually we take painstaking steps or research and revisiting and reflection to make a decision. It takes me weeks and samples to choose a paint color!
But this all seems right. If it doesn’t work – we can move again.
We don’t have jobs anymore to tie us down and work around. We have not made the “snow bird” life choice of 6 months somewhere else each year. We can still commute to see friends etc. when we want and that will become the planning and scheduling instead of planning and scheduling family. It just all makes sense. And too many coincidences and signs – too many to list here now that say this is going to be good for us and our next adventure.
Nothing we are going to do can’t be changed again.
We only have this one time to be part of our grandson’s development. He has already changed so much in his first month – we don’t have years to make this decision. We have to act in the present to make a difference in the future.
So many things we thought we would do leisurely like clearing out belongings – getting the current residence “spiffy” and ready for selling. Now all that gets moved up and fast paced! We do have the advantage of some pacing as we have a closing date on the new home and the current one is not even for sale yet – so some transition time. But still a lot faster than ever imagined.
BUT IT FEELS RIGHT!
Here are the realtor pics of the new home with the current owners stuff – so things will change.
and here is our current home – someone looking to move – let’s make a deal!
So – to my #ds106 friends and collaborators – I will be popping in and out for a few months. I won’t totally be gone – I don’t have that in me – I am #4life. Trying to think of it as my summer break. By the end of August we should be settled and set up again. I will be in the background watching and listening and supporting – not gone until then. Not sure if I can go that long without a GIF or video or design creation!
I see several hours ahead with my iPad blasting #ds106radio tunes as I am packing, cleaning, etc.
Also in my mind trying to figure out how to capture and create the story of the beginning of the adventure to put together once we are set up again.
And the awesome part is the online world doesn’t have to get packed or moved – just wifi! One less thing to think about. LOL!
The daily create may be enough for this summer – maybe it will grow into some projects with others. And there is the summer sessions at UMW to follow and interact with as well.
So I am trying to stay in the groove and make sure I do at least 3 daily creates each week. I think that was also my New Year resolution, but I never hold myself to those anyways since they are usually announced with the partying of NY Eve. 🙂
I am sure I will be doing some video and family story projects this summer. The plus of doing ds106 as well is learning new things to apply to creating those family stories. I have the site up and have added for birthdays etc. My original plan was to do the history – parents, grandparents etc. Much of that is lost and only in artifacts that I have to go over. While very interesting, that history is short-lived with my own kids. Once they get the 100,000 foot view that is enough. I finally figured out it is personal memories and connections that make one want more detail.
Foe example – I found a cassette tape of my sister and grandma having a conversation. It was a school project it sounds like. I remember very well my grandma’s laugh and that was good to hear even with the old tape and lots of noise. The part that didn’t register was her voice. I didn’t remember it the way I was hearing it. Now I am not sure if that is good or bad. But the laugh was very good to hear.
As Alan Levine aka – @cogdog – posted in his blog – capturing memories while we can is what to do. I missed getting my own parents. A few snips on some old video, but not much. But those 5 seconds here and there is gold to me and bring back so many memories in my mind.
So the direction I am now taking is capturing the memories we are making and not reporting the history. Those who are present now will have them to recall and relive moments and share with their immediate others as they grow older. I guess you could say it is capturing the present as it becomes history not an archival dig. There will be some looking back further, but more likely in the overview and 100,000 foot point of view to add context to today.
What does that have to do with daily creates? Well, each time I do one it improves my skills, makes me think of things differently, reminds me of someone or something. It also shows me how others looked at the prompt and what they created. When doing that I see my content in new ways to present, save, capture and enjoy.
So here are this week’s – and I hope to keep up the pace.
TDC 1596 – I found some footage of this flying squirrel. I was actually thinking Rocky from Rocky and Bullwinkle, but liked this one instead. It was kinda scary as the 31 second video was political and has the squirrel flying into the twin towers as a terrorist. The dialog was not in English either – so not sure what it was saying. Hoping using it for a positive spin is better. I used the YouTube GIF plugin – deleted frames to make the file size smaller and added the text layer.
You would think that being a part of ds106 would mean improving on your writing – it is still my most difficult area to create within. But for this daily I pushed myself and while it may not be poetry extraordinaire – it does come from the heart.
