42. Art & All That Packing ..mmm Better have a Holiday

THE ART OF MOVING

Now who was the idiot that thought that would be a good idea!!!!  Fourteen days in Bali sounds nice, yea right!  Mmm…might have been moi ! (well Bali was fantastic, it was the aftermath that sucked! Lol) You see the timing of this little holiday really sucks but it worked out this way as we had our house on the market for a while and decided to live our lives as we always do regardless which meant painting and sculpting and also having holidays.

We had no idea that the week after sunning ourselves in Bali (at the time of booking the holiday) we would also have to move the entire contents of the previous 17 years of our lives out of our huge farm house. We tried to change the settlement date but had to work in with the new owners,   so for the first part of the holiday we were feeling  decidedly STRESSED, so much to do and so little time! Not only did we have to shift all our stuff but also all the animals we own, birds and cats as this painting shows and also the dogs too.

Just looking at my lunch!

COMEDIAN; THE OLD FELLA

I suppose I only have myself to blame with the timing of this but I couldn’t help but laugh when a comedian friend of mine Rodney Gregory, you probably know him as The Old Fella from the Australia’s Got Talent (check him out on Youtube here) said:

“Good luck with shifting, great idea to go away in the middle of it??”  I might try that, we are shifting in about 3 weeks, can hardly sleep in anticipation”.

There is no way in words to describe, what a terrible and stressful time we had for that last week at the farm,  as we sorted, gave away, threw away, burned, packed, dusted, scrubbed and cleaned and I thought it would never end. As the settlement deadline loomed closer and closer we were 5 people working our fingers to the bones, including our cleaning lady and the window cleaning guy and my baby boy.(here is the window cleaning guy, Craig as he has appeared in a previous artwork, in ceramic and mosaic)

THE ART OF SORTING

Of course we could have hired removalists, however as we were downgrading and only taking half of our belongings we actually had to go through everything ourselves anyway.  We had of course started packing before we went away but we are talking 17 years of accumulated stuff.

We also have many objects of value and sentiment, however I cannot understand why I agonize so much about throwing away stray bits of paper and ornaments with a chip in it and clothes that are out of fashion, never mind the perfectly good rubber bands and paperclips and the like.

Why do I think it will all come in handy one day lol! Someone SAVE me and just put it all in a big skip!

For the last 2 nights Bryan and I only got 3 hours sleep each night, the pace was that frantic that I’m surprised we didn’t have heart attacks so I can only deduct from that our hearts are probably quite healthy!  We still managed to go over the time limit by 2 and a half hours but the new owners were very gracious and did not complain.

So here are some wise words from Ernest Hemingway (writer) that I think fit well here. “Never confuse movement with action.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting to you.

Love Marie xx

Why not come and have a look at Marie Jonsson-Harrison’s PAINTINGS FOR SALE, GICLEE PRINTS FOR SALE and SCULPTURES for sale or WALLBASED SCULPTURES.  Enjoy an original artwork on your walls or perhaps one on your bed ARTnBED.