Welcome to the creative home of artist and maker Charlotte Lyons.


birds of a feather

1frombrenda

A gorgeous package arrived full of playful paperie. Everything inside and out was so pretty, so sweetly Brenda and the bundle dropped onto the doorstep just in time for my new scrapbooking class.

Mom and I have been stalking her neighborhood rec center, lunching next door at the diner and then stopping in to see what the daily offering might be. Hoping that some event would be a good match for her interests, she was surprisingly eager to try it all. Yoga was great, Current Events, too, Bingo- not so much, but there wasn't anything to fill that creative arts need. 

So I offered to teach a class on scrapbooking. I figured that the creativity plus sharing all those photos of loved ones or self as a younger person would help form new connections in a scene that continually reminds me of the first day at a new school.

And I was right. I hauled all my scrapbook stuff and tools to the first meeting and jumped in. Who can resist all that beautiful paper? Or a book full of someone's artfully composed life in pictures? Or even the personal history of an old photo? Our small group bonded pretty fast. In the space of an hour, a little community came together.

My mom and her brand new pal, Marge, chatted throughout, told each other their stories, exchanged phone numbers like school girls. It turned out that almost all the women were new in the area, mostly moved from out of state to join their grown children, settled and busy with their own lives. Such amazing women so full of courage and spunk!

LoC2girls

(photo courtesy of Library of Congress archives on Flickr)

We decided that we could try lots of different arts as a group in our very sunny, cheerful activity room on the lower level. Scrapbooking for awhile, then maybe knitting or textile arts and then painting for sure. After all, Shirley has 2 art degrees, Sheila is a well known basket-maker, Marge used to knit dresses and coats for her family. The average age was about 80, but I have a feeling I'll be a student myself. Each of us a teacher with stories and expertise. 

I was sitting there cutting paper, listening to the busy chatter- increasing with laughter, thinking about how each time I moved, the first thing I did was find a group to knit, craft, quilt, sew, yak with. Even wrote that book about it. Don't know why it took me so long to realize this would be the way to go- for Mom and kind of for me, too.

Sneaking into the senior center underage, and it's awesome!

teaching and travel

the love-mouse

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