Memories

Supposedly the strongest memories are associated with the sense of smell. I've been painting and have to attest that the smell of acrylic paint definitely brings back that sense of deja vu for me. How long has it been since I pulled out fabric paints?? Months, I guess. It was a real sense of coming home. A big "aaaahhhhhh."

This week in yoga, I finally got fed up with hanging off the end of my mat. The standard mats are 68" long, and I am 71" tall. I should say that three years of regular yoga has gotten me back up to that original height. I was appalled sometime back to get measured in the doctor's office (an indication of my mature years and the expectation that we women start shrinking as we approach menopause), finding that I'd lost 1/2". I'm always repositioning myself in yoga so that I can keep my hands and toes on the mat, or that I hang off in the right direction. Long mats are available, but after months of watching I had never seen a really long one for sale in either of the yoga studios I frequent. Thursday, there it was! 85"!!! Ten pounds??

The upshot is that now it won't fit in my carry bag. And finding a bag big enough is also a challenge. I've been looking at new bags for months as well, and it finally hit me that I should just make my own. So out came the paints.

I had this notion of something simple, and it started that way. I pulled out some Kona cotton and painted five black swallow silhouettes swooping across it. Today I thought to add some flowers, flipped through the reference books, and started sketching fuchsias in one area. That's when I found that a lot of my Setacolor and Jaquard paints are almost empty/nearly dry. No matter, this thing doesn't need a nice hand to the fabric; in fact, I want it to be sturdy and heavy, so Golden Fluid Acrylics filled in for some colors. What I didn't realize was that I would get so carried away with the painting. This was just one area on that big piece of cloth. So now what do I do??? I may decide it's too cool for a yoga mat bag...