A new start...

... a blank page, a New Year.

Next to Thanksgiving, I think my favorite celebration is the New Year. It is wonderful to me to be able to 'begin again.' I am starting a new sketchbook; the large Moleskin. My plan, goal, resolution is to sketch something in it as often as I can (hopefully, daily.) And I plan to sketch things that I love. A sort of 'gratitude sketchbook.'

It may be a challenge to begin it today, as I still have my four grandchildren here, with all of their parents and my parents, as well. Twelve of us in all. We have been having a wonderful, wild time over the holidays. We ended up the year last night with 'game night.' Jenga and a made up game with Play Doh for the small set, and Chicken Foot and Apples to Apples for the adults. If you've never played Jenga with two three-year-olds, a barely four-year-old and a six-year-old, you should open your lives to that experience. It is a loud and fun one!

I look forward to my new year. I look forward to filling the blank pages of my crisp new sketchbook. I look forward to warping my looms and filling them with colorful weft. Looking forward is what this day is all about, and I am hoping for the best future possible for all of those I love.

Happy New Year, and may joyful, hopeful creations come from us all in this year. If we fill our little parts of the world with Joy and Hope, surely if will make a difference in the world as a whole.

That is my hope for the New Year, at any rate.

Hey, Bing! We've got what you're dreamin' of!

The snow is falling again; 'snow on snow on snow!' We're having a White Christmas, for sure. I hope it lets up in time for our children and our childrens' children to arrive safely! We will have four generations of my family here. And a storybook landscape. Our neighborhood looks like Currier and Ives designed it.


Looking out toward the street lamp, the snow is falling so heavily, it looks like a hard rain. The snow is starting to bend the lighter branches down. My husband said the streets were as slick as he's ever seen them as he came home.

We are all tucked in for the night now. The dog has been walked. The snow will not be a worry to us until tomorrow.

I'll probably not post until after Christmas, so I do wish you and yours a lovely holiday, whatever you may be celebrating.

The first day of Winter...

The shortest day is here. Winter has begun, tho' it began for us when the Big Snowfall came... the one worthy of capital letters. It has been wintry cold since then, so our roads are an icy mess.


The birds sit in a queue under the feeder, waiting their turn, and reminding us to refill it on a regular basis. We are happy to oblige.


Gus lurks behind the curtain, waiting for some unsuspecting person to open an outside door so he can run out and pounce, sending them all in a lovely winged flurry off to other feeders. I think catching one of them is beyond his indoor imagination. He just dreams of scaring them away.

I'm sending warm thoughts out to you all on this winter solstice. Scarves and mittens and wooley caps are very much wardrobe necessities here. And winter has just now begun....

a LOVELY escape!

Make yourself a cup of coffee. Dress it up however you like. Then go here and sit back and relax while a delightful gentleman of your choosing reads to you....

What an amazing and perfect ad campaign! ... A simple fantasy come true, don't you think? I hope they keep it up!

(I listened to Jane Austen today, and look forward to more coffee escapes when moments of time come my way.)

Heigh ho, heigh ho...

I have been frantically trying to clean house, decorate for the holidays, and catch up with laundry and errands before holiday guests come on Friday. With an attendant puppy at my heels since late summer, things have been piling up on me. So now, he is helpfully trying to keep me from catching up.

I can't blame all of my household neglect on Booker, though. I have also had a lot of painting and weaving, which I consider 'my work,' that has needed my attention since he came. For quite some time, I have put the studio work first. But now the housework, etc. has to come first, and I feel that I am neglecting my studio work! I have a tapestry design begging to be begun for the Enchanted Pathways exhibit, and I have several paintings that are partially done, plus several more I really want to begin.

Isn't it funny that one 'job' seems to make me have to ignore and neglect the other? I just can't seem to keep up with both at once. At least not now, with the 'help' that I have on my heels at all times. I'm sure this is probably a common conundrum for those of us who have in-home studios, and who often find ourselves running behind, trying to catch up with where we believe we should be.

I took the above photo in a main street diner. The man was doing business over coffee on his cell phone. Ah, if only I could get my cell phone to clean the house, while I sat and sipped coffee and watched shoppers trudge through the snow! But I clearly must have a cheaper cell phone than he has. I can do very little of my work with my cell phone.

Fa la la la la.... la la la la!

I am cleaning and decking and trying to get into some kind of spirit. I'm listening to some holiday music. I have to admit, though, that the old classic songs seem to be basically just to whistle along to in the malls, anymore. Whistling helps your family and friends find you. That's how we've always found my Dad in malls, and now it is also how I find my son, a certain friend, and how people find me. I don't realize I'm whistling, until someone says, "I knew it must be you; I heard you whistling." It is a fine family tradition. My grandfather could whistle in harmony with himself! It is a talent I aspire to.

The above video is of my very favorite all time holiday song. It cannot be beat in sentiment, and must also be sung along with - it's not a whistling song. I also really like The Weepies' new holiday song, "All That I Want." Other than that, I can tolerate the music for about a month, hearing each song a few times, then I'm glad to let it go for another year.



The tree is up, the mantle decorated, and my little cabins out for the grandkids. My parents are coming in a few days. 'Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...'
(Oh,yes, and I like any holiday song that the Muppets sing, including that one!)



ps. Speaking of holiday music, iTunes has a Holiday Sampler album free this week: 21 songs ranging from Mannheim Steamroller to David Archuleta to Aretha Franklin and Stephen Colbert. Go there. Get it. Sing or whistle along.

A quick warm-up...

It is warming up here, and the snow is turning to slush. It was supposed to warm up to the low thirty's (F), but it's already into the mid-forty's! And it has been raining. Quite a change in weather...

The little painting above is 4x4". It is in the miniatures show and sale at the Blue Pig Gallery. It was the same cup of cocoa and one of the same ornaments from the larger still life painting I did for our card.

Today I am finishing up the last sweater, so I can start cleaning for the holiday company tomorrow. We put the tree up, and it is still up, despite the fact that Gus is using it for a hide-out from Booker. Soon I expect Booker will figure that out, and the tree will be come a battle site. They love their battles, but there are frequent casualties, all being things that belong to me. I put very few ornaments on the tree, and none that are easily broken. I'm not as dumb as they think I am!