Here's how I often begin....

I always see pictures of other people's sketchbooks and art journals where they tidily record their thoughts and ideas... It's not that I don't have such journals and sketchbooks but they're never around when I am having an epiphany...but pads of good old sticky post-it notes are everywhere in my house.

So that's what I use and so I wouldn't lose them by putting them away, I'd stick them on bulletin boards, walls, door jams etc... and even then I'd lose some.. Now instead of sticking them on walls I scan them into my computer and make notes while my thoughts are fresh and put them in a file on the computer.

After I posted about doing a piece for the Alzheimer's Quilt Project I started thinking about it after I went to bed and finally had to turn the light on and grab the pencil and post-it I keep on the bedside table.... Not that all my night time ideas are brilliant but if I don't write some things down during the night I forget them by morning...and I'm doing a piece about memory loss?? Right!! LOL

I cannot begin to tell you how much I adored my little MIL.. She was totally sweet to the core...truly a gentle soul. She used to come visit us every summer and loved to sit and tat by the window watching all our birds... She'd ask me names of all of them but as the years went by and her mind faded, she stopped asking and ALL the birds became just "canaries". At one point she had to stop coming because the flight was confusing, stressful and scary.. Thinking of her always brings warm and loving thoughts...

So in doing a charity piece for AAQI, it had to be about Mary and the birds... After she passed away I did this watercolor with her recipe for sour cream rolls and a couple anecdotes about her for my husband.. It is framed and hanging in our kitchen... I later made copies for siblings, grandchildren and great grandchildren...

Near the end of her life DH went back to ND to see her and they had a really nice long visit... As he rose to leave she said "You're such a nice young man... Is your mother still living?"

AAQI is a worthy cause... check out all the options they have to offer to raise money for alzheimer's research. Doing a hummingbird on felt is a good "on the plane project" and I can fit the flowers right in with Allie's workshop in CT...