lingering memories

colorful sugar skull, a photo by Digital Heather on Flickr.

So I made a special trip to Target today just to buy markers... I really wanted to color the coloring page I made yesterday. You might notice that the printed features are kind of cranberry-ish instead of black. My printer is sucking up her ink from the bottom of the barrel. But it printed out neat. At the top of the picture, it started out darker and gradually got lighter as it printed. I'm quite happy with it.

I can't remember the last time I actually colored with markers. When I was buying them today I was actually thinking of another woman named Heather whom I met in the psychiatric hospital. She spent all of her free time coloring those big velvet posters. Her husband would bring more every time he came to visit her. It seemed to make her happy. I wondered if she did it at home also or was just killing the time as best she could. I never asked her.

I was the exact opposite and refused to do anything creative or crafty while I was there either on my own time or during designated "recreation times." Other patients and employees would ask me if I just wasn't crafty or didn't enjoy those activities. Of course the answer to this is, I LOVE BEING CREATIVE AND MAKING THINGS! In the beginning, I would explain that I actually did arts and crafts daily at home and then blogged about it as my "work." I didn't want to ruin what I love. If that makes sense. People had a hard time understanding what I was saying meant so after a while I just started saying, "No, I don't enjoy arts and crafts." I just didn't want to associate crafting with being in the hospital. I wanted to eventually go home and not have any lingering memories. Too late?

I guess I wanted to keep it sacred. Perhaps it was a bad attitude to have. Martha Stewart wasn't like that when she was in jail. I dunno, maybe that's an unfair comparison? To her? I'm no Martha. To me? I wasn't in jail. Oh well. And even though I did my best to avoid crafting or creativity while hospitalized, it still took me awhile to actually get back into it once I was home. A couple months actually. Oh well.

Come to think of it I actually painted one watercolor which I'll share another time.