I did it....

I finished NaBloPoMo

I might not have been very interesting but I posted every day for a month!

I am still at work and will be for quite some time tonight.

My brother's machine shop has their ISO audit tomorrow and the final days of making sure all our T's are crossed and I's dotted are in play right now.

The shop is being swept and looks all pretty...

It is a spring cleaning of sorts

In the meantime, we are burning the midnight oil

I knew I would be too tired to post later tonight, that and my brain will be too fuzzy to think.

I will post again, just not tonight.

Adventure Food

Cowboy breakfast



On our little adventure last week, we only stopped a few times coming up the coast so I could pee....we packed some food, but we never seem to pack the right things so when the time to eat comes around we never want to eat what we have so carefully packed.

argh...maybe someday we will crack that code

On the way back out, we left before the sun came up and by the time we were an hour or so out we got hungry...seeing as we only had candy bars and carbonated water and some sadly post refrigerated leftover food ( you know the stuff that has been left in the cooler, then placed in a fridge and now has a funny damp smell) to choose from we stopped for breakfast. We were in cattle land...so we had a choice of Denny's or a "cowboy cafe" we choose the cowboy place, as it was a small diner and we figured it would have more locals and or good cookin'

Our cowboy breakfasts arrived and it was the perfect meal to help get past a hangover.
Sadly, neither of us was hung over so it was simply a greasy spoon.

Giddy up little Tagamet®

Big Girl

The piece that made the show card:
"The warm wind filled the air with dry earth"

I dropped off three new pieces of work to a big time gallery. I awoke early, anxious and excited....but mostly anxious.

I had a short but real questioning with myself about the quality and value of my work...it was a short speech.

I drove into Santa Barbara and delivered my work to a white walled gallery, and chatted with the super nice  lady who changed the spelling of my name and took my work into the back, behind the scenes. I could hear her walk away and feel a bubbling sense of pride with every one of her steps.

I had hoped to get some work into this gallery, I had said a little word....and here I am 1 year later.

WOW

I am still in shock, but have many distractions before Thursday so I think that floating feeling will last for a little while longer.

To ground myself even further, I spent the afternoon making terriaums for the two holiday boutiqes I have coming up this week. Living gifts...life in a cubicle.

Happy

My work is the tractor under the "a"

I was finished framing my work for the gallery today. I like it, there is always this moment when the piece is finally tucked into it's frame and I put the final screws into place...that I turn the frame over to view the image as a viewer would. It is a thrill...It makes it seem real and wonderful. I transport myself into a gallery and imagine it on the wall in front of strangers. Is it straight, is it clean, does it look clean and do I look at the image or the frame?

It is magical and wonderful

This evening I got to see the card for the show too, I was so excited to see the card/ advertising and daydream about and that I am a part of it...that it took the second time around to realize one of my images is on it!!

Wahoo...

I am happy and excited

Busy like a Bee

image from: Riverwalk Jazz

In the next week and a half I am so busy my head is spinning like a plate at the top of a tall pole!

I have two art openings, two holiday boutiques, an ISO audit, open house at the community garden, Hanukkah starts and a photo shoot.

I made a HUGE pot of soup for dinner and sat in front of the TV tonight watching The Wizard of Oz.

I own the movie as well, but can never help myself when it is on TV, I am compelled to watch.

My most favorite part is at the very beginning when the house falls from the twister and all the sound and chaos stops and there is the amazing quiet....

then Dorothy walks thru the silent house and she opens the back door to technicolor Oz.

I feel a little like Dorothy right now, caught up in the chaos and wild winds.

Thank you day

Making Nana & Aunt Elizabeth's Sweet potato puff 

I am thankful every day of my life

I have been taught from a very early age that there is no reason to wait to give a gift,

say what you feel

and

hug someone.

I am thankful for that.

Trippin'

We have just had a wild ride.

We spent 9 hours driving to a location to meet family and spend some pre-thanksgiving

time visiting.

My father in law spent a lot of time finding a place where we could all meet and cook and be warm for two days.

After we had been driving for 6 hours we got a call telling us that there was no electricity at the house and that the family that had arrived was trying to light a pilot to get some hot water.

Well 2 hours later, we got another call that they were leaving and to meet them at a hotel in the town down the hill.

We arrived an hour and a half later, at a hotel in a little goldmine town. Shortly there after our family arrived and were exhausted. They had tried to make the cabin work; there was no power, no heat, snow and ice and no way to make the place warm despite all their efforts!

So we took all our food and shoved it into the mini fridges and headed out to the local grill.

My family, was trying to make lemonade out of lemons.

I admire their efforts, and was sorry that we were still driving to the location while they were shoveling snow and searching for warmth.

I am glad we all ended up together, and spent a whole day visiting before we all headed homeward again.

Hangin with my homies

In preparation for traditional thanksgiving festivities we are doing what many multi-family families do...spending time in with different parts of family at different times of the week in order to spend time with them all.

No hurt feelings, no one left out...

call us the peace keepers

Scenic

We have spent a fair amount of today watching the world go by.

Day trips allow you to recharge your mind and soak in a new vision of the world around you.

Today was no exception; rain showers, rainbows, cattle, vineyards...

it was a wonderful day to fill my mind with new imagery and renew my desire to make new work.

Thanksgiving is around the corner and the week will be filled with family and friends. Sometimes you just need to start the week calmly.

Drama is always a part of thanksgiving.

I have more stories about that, but will save them for this week...

Working

I have been making a few new linocuts for the holiday season...I love carving them and always seem to be amazed that a little pile of shavings can produce such an unbelievable result.

Inspirations from nature once again...but with a little geek undertone.

I will be adding color to them by hand and hope that someone else will fall in love with them too!

Sorry about last nights post, the seduction of the wine and cheese made me swirly and not wanting to talk really. I ended up peeling my contacts out of my eyes and settling into a HOT bath then slid into bed...all toasty inside and out.

I don't do that very often, but might change that up too.

It was a yummy change.

morning flush

I shot out of the house early this morning in order to make the community workday at our garden.

Seeing as water was falling from the sky, lightly...workday was canceled.

I spent an hour and a half alone in the garden weeding our plots and making them look far less wild.

The remainder of the day was spent making new linocut work for my upcoming boutiques and holiday sales before heading out to Fondue with friends.

Currently feeling the effects of cheese, wine and carbohydrates

yummmmmm

Overheard

I LOVE listening to other peoples conversations in public places. When out with hubby we often shift our conversations to match what we are hearing around us....it is a guilty pleasure we share.

Dinner can be even more entertaining when a good conversation is simply a booth over

or

we are in a funny mood.

Today I was running errands and stopped by the local "get everything here store", I was cold and wearing three layers of clothes and I noticed a bundled up couple, snuggling out in front of the store on the bench.

 I love to watch people in love and I was taken by how close and loving this nomadic couple was being.

The woman nestled into the man, she was sitting on his lap, arm wrapped around him. He had his arm around her waist and they were sharing a cigarette. I could smell the smoke and could see that he was softly speaking to her; as I passed I heard the last part of his sentence " you know what I mean man?" to that I heard her response: " Stop calling me a man, I am a woman and it is really not cool"

His response: "Ok, ok I was just telling a story."

I found this a lovely moment and example how we are all the same

222nd post

This is my 222nd post.

When I started this blogging thing I never thought I would ramble so much or have so many things to want to share, discuss or contemplate.

222 posts ago I had left work to gain back my sanity just months prior.
My whole adventure was just beginning, this crazy road was just being laid out.
I often find myself in the course of a day, stopping and thanking my lucky stars.

222 post ago I was just finding my voice again after being the voice for someone else.
222 posts ago I was reclaiming my identity.
222 posts ago I was lost.

222 posts later I am here, present and thankful!

Wordless Wednesday

Plotting

My poor garden, it has taken the back burner for several months now.

I am currently only growing squash and some crazy looking spinach.

Hubby's garden box is overgrown with a combination of volunteer tomatoes and a weed that looks tomato but has little round green fruit on it.

Needless to say, I need to turn the soil and add manure.  

After years of doing it with my trusty shovel and some good old fashion back work, 

 hubby figured out how to use the gardens rusty rototiller.

It was amazing the first time and and it makes the whole thing sooooo much more tolerable.

Now it is simply finding the time to do it.

I don't trust that motor on a stick and so I have to wait until I can get hubby to join me at the garden.

I am still waiting for the perfect time,

every time I think of it the sun has already set, I am exhausted or the garden shop is closed and we can't fill the back of my car with bags and bags of steer poop.

So let's add turning the garden to my long list of desires for the next week.

Our community garden is having an open house in December and it would be really embarrassing to have a boring looking garden.

So I am motivated by shame...and the desire to have some yummy lettuce and snap peas.

Half way thru

Today is the half way point in NaBloPoMo, posting something everyday for a month ...

I am kind of a quiet person so thinking about something to blog about everyday is really getting hard!

I made some new plates and printed earlier this week, in fact I cut myself on a plate for the first time ever!

It would have created quite a boring tattoo had I not cleaned it so well.

I told you this blogging everyday thing was hard!

no you have to suffer with my ramblings....

I got a submission out in today's mail and I need to get more out tomorrow night for a gallery.

I have a growing list of goals before the end of the year, so as this month quickly ticks away I am getting a little nervous that I might be falling off course.