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.