Welcome 2021 and Good Riddance to 2020

Happy New Year everyone!  I can hardly believe my last blog post was May of last year.  So much has happened -- where do I begin?  2020 was off to a very rocky start and just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, Covid-19 was out of the bag and running!  My dad passed away in January and my mom was living alone in a senior complex in Alberta.  When Covid hit and there were lock downs, my mom could not see any family.  Her meals were brought to her room so she couldn't even visit with her friends within the complex.  She was so lonely and I was worried that she was a high risk of catching the nasty virus.  We had talked about her coming and living with me after dad was gone and so I decided that it was time to go out and bring her back to stay with me -- at least as a trial run or until all of this blows over.

She stayed with me in Chase for several months and we then decided to relocate together to the city of Kelowna (about 2 hours away) where my brother lives.  Things have been a blur ever since --  preparing my home to sell, packing and putting most of my belongings into storage until we could find a suitable place to live.  Fortunately my brother and sister-in-law have an Airbnb suite which happened to be vacant (lots of cancellations due to Covid), so we were able to stay there for several months while looking for a new home.  After a lot of searching, we managed to find a comfortable condo-style apartment that was spacious enough for us to live as well as have an extra room for my art studio.  This photo shows a sneak peek at my new studio before moving in.  We have since put down all new laminate flooring plus still doing some other updates which I will show you later when it is all done.

My art studio took up 2 rooms in my previous home which meant downsizing to 1 room in my new place.  This has been a real challenge in organizing the space to make it as functional as possible.  I like the large corner windows which allow plenty of natural light without direct sun. This is the view from my window and if you look close enough you will see one of the many ducks swimming in the stream.

The other day my brother-in-law and sister-in-law were visiting outside (so we could social distance) and a bunch of ducks came up to check us out to see if we had any food to offer.  They were so polite and I felt bad I didn't have anything to give so I am planning a trip to the Wild Bird store to pick up some proper food for them -- especially to help a bit for over the winter.

So, back to my studio -- or lack thereof at the moment.  To make more useable space I had to acquire some new cabinets and shelving which meant a lot of building.  I love Ikea furniture but I tell you, I have come pretty close to learning to swear in Swedish!  I managed so far to put together a dining room buffet, 2 dressers, a nightstand, some kitchen cabinets, several shelf units and 4 Alex drawers.  So now that I am almost done, I can unpack the remainder of my boxes.

I have found I really like living in Kelowna.  It is a large enough city where it has pretty much everything and yet not too large and overcrowded.  I also love the underground parking and so no more snow shoveling or yard work to deal with anymore.

So I promise I will get back on track as soon as possible.  I am anxious to finish unpacking and get back to my art work again as it has been way too long!  I have had a lot of time to think so I have lots of new ideas brewing and looking forward to sharing them with you soon.

In the meantime, good riddance to 2020 and all the best of health to you for a new year!