Reflecting

That’s what we all do around the turn of the year, isn’t it? Reflect, and look ahead.

This year was a maelstrom. I entered some work into my first awards and won a couple of Addys. I started to blog on an almost daily basis. I got married. I went to Europe for the first time, for a long long honeymoon with my new husband, and learned some Italian in the process. I saw the Alps and rode in a funicular. I turned around on my heels and went to Mexico to embrace a friend’s new marriage. I fell in love with photography. I worked, and learned, and collaborated, and opened a little store to sell what I create. I made friends. The Husband and I made this crazy decision to sell our house and move in the worst housing market in years, and yet, we were fortunate enough to walk that tightrope and make it to the other side.

And you have been there with me.

This has been one hell of a year. The joy, the stress, the excitement, the despair, the love, the uncertainty, has washed over me, and changed me, and I am thankful for it.

I’m not really sure what my hopes for 2008 are, what I will make of it, or what it will throw at me. Maybe I will finish this degree that I’ve been working on for what seems like forever? Maybe I will learn to slow down a little bit? Maybe this new space I occupy will get unpacked and organized and art will go up on the walls. Maybe, like 2007 was the Year For Change, 2008 will be the Year For UnChange, and things will just be. Maybe I will strengthen the friendships that I cherish now, and maybe I will build new ones yet. Maybe. So many maybes.

When I came to occupy this space in the blogosphere this year, I did it as another way to get some creative exercise, to flex some muscles, and build the strength of some other muscles. Like so many other bloggers, I didn’t really expect it to become more than that. But it has. Thank you for being here with me, it has been an amazing thing to get to know you, and know that you support me. It means the world, truly. I am excited to see what 2008 has in store, and I hope that it includes all of you.

The most spherical snowman I have ever seen built, down the street

Now, go glitter and confetti and wear funny hats and blow horns and yell Happy New Year and sing and kiss someone and celebrate the things that were and the things that could be!

Late In The Evening Randomness

As of today, 4 of my Flickr photos have hit Explore. That’s pretty cool.

1. Frost, 2. 2008 Calendar, 3. Washboard, 4. Floating

G’night!

Missing A Glove?

I heard an interview on NPR yesterday about One Cold Hand?, a project started by artist Jennifer Gooch of Philadelphia. Every winter I inevitably see lost gloves, mittens, even hats, and it makes me a little bit sad to think that their owner now has only one of the pair, and that the other of a possibly loved pair of handwarmers is now wet, soiled, covered in road salt and grime. Perhaps these lonely lost items will be gathered and used in a mismatched pair, like the one thin red glove and one thicker gray glove that I wore during my snowshoe trek in the woods this Christmas, or even found by the original wearer who goes back to the spot to look for it. But I’m sure many of them are lost forever. Tossed away with the garbage. Jennifer had the same sentiment, and started a project to gather, photograph, and catalog them, and maybe try to reunite them with their other half.

She has had reunited 4 pairs so far. I love the sentiment and unique vision of this project, and that its subject is one that so many people simply disregard, push aside out of their minds as something that isn’t important, bury under the snow of winter. Part of the satisfaction is simply in the doing, not the product, which is just a happy side effect. That, my friends, is art.

A Christmas Adventure

The Husband and I spent a couple of relaxing days at my aunt and uncle’s house for Christmas. They are about an hour’s drive, but it took us 2 to get there, as we decided to go in a blowing snowstorm of great proportion. My aunt had warned us that their long driveway was quite impassable due to the drifting snow, but we scoffed, figuring with our Jeep’s four wheel drive capability, that it shouldn’t be a problem. After another report that two cars had made it in without incident, we were even more encouraged.

Taken by The Husband

As we were driving along the backroads approaching their house, the snow deepened, and yet, everything was quite fine for us, and we began to be boastful. Until we reached the end of their driveway, and were stunned by the confrontation of a most daunting landscape. The smiles were wiped off of our faces, and as our brow furrowed, The Husband uttered a low, “Oh. My. God.”

It looked like the drifting expanse of Siberia, or a remote arctic tundra, or as close as I can come to imagining those places. The snow had drifted so much that it was a few inches deep in some places, then multiple feet deep in others. The Husband hit the gas, and we surged ahead, the snow exploding at the car bumpers, showering over the roof like those truck commercials where they are driving 40mph through vast, deep fields of snow in slow motion sequences to illustrate the power of four wheel drive. We bogged down, slowing, in a deep mountain of snow, yet we perservered, until we came to a stop at the garage. And then exhaled our held breaths and erupted in laughter.

We ate, drank, and laughed with a few members of my family that night, and the next. We played in the snow in the daylight, I tried snowshoes for the first time, while the rest of the crew cross country skied, and the big furry yellow mack truck romped in the drifts.

I tried to get some good portraits of my aunt’s horses. Paulo is so photogenic, with the deep contrast in his coat and mane. Zonka, with her black figure, is hard to capture though, and I didn’t get any good shots of her. Maybe I will have better luck in the summer.

The wind calmed down and we had a lovely evening in the hot tub on Christmas eve, in the still cold of the night, under the stars, my glasses fogging up every few seconds from the steam. The hot tub soaks with a bucket of beer and my aunt and uncle are becoming a sort of Christmas tradition. The first year we visited them in this place, 3 years ago, we had a hot tub at 8 am in 5 degree weather.

Channeling My Mother

I sort of can’t believe Christmas is passed already, for another year. It came and went so quickly.

This Christmas, I was the farthest behind that I can ever remember being. I may be exaggerating, but I believe it. I had made many of my gifts, but had not wrapped any of them, and on Saturday night, I just couldn’t get motivated to do so after mixing up a batch of lavender oatmeal milk bath jars, and procrastination took control. So, channeling my mother, I was wrapping gifts in a blurry frenzy on Sunday morning before they were given.

Also at the last minute, I made a couple of journals, handbound, with covers printed on linen paper from a couple of my recent photos. The pages are repurposed white and graph papers. Then, when it seemed they were pretty cool, I made a couple more that fateful morning for some needed gifts. A few will be in the shop soon!

We got some merry Christmas news that the baby on the way for a couple of dear friends will be a little girl. They recorded their trip for the ultrasound to show their parents as a Christmas present, so we were able to watch it as well, and experience their excitement. I can’t wait to meet little Madeline, and I have so many ideas for little gifties to shower upon her when I do.

I hope your Christmasses were merry, and lovely. Happy Boxing Day! Whatever that is. I suppose, since I’m not Canadian, I don’t get to celebrate it? But I love the name, and even though I may not know what it is, exactly, I say we celebrate it anyhow.

Be Still

We’re getting ready to do a little relaxing, and snow shoveling, for a much needed long holiday weekend. I will be back in this space after Christmas with a couple of posters and hopefully pictures of some new projects and handmade things. I’ve got a few last minute ideas up my sleeve that I hope I can pull off. I hope your holiday is full of good food, good drinks, good family, and lots of merriment. Happy holidays, friends.

From Home To Home

Here to there.

I kept drifting in and out of mild worry this weekend about my final project that was due yesterday, and whether or not we will have gifts ready and wrapped and shipped (if necessary) in time. But The Husband helped me with a crafty project for some gifts, the crafty guy. And the packages got wrapped and in the mail today, and maybe they won’t even get to their destinations until after Christmas, but that doesn’t really matter, in the long run. And maybe some other gifts won’t get wrapped at all. The final project got finished, late Monday night, and I’m slowly catching up on sleep. I’ve learned that I survive on 7 hours of sleep per night. 6 hours is not enough. It’s a fine line.

I took another long walk in the new hood on Sunday to take photos for my last photography project. It was sort of aimless rambling, and it was cold, but it was a darn nice hour.

I walked through the zoo and said hi to the polar bears.

I ran into a lady with an old, beat up, metal snow saucer, that just seemed so Little Women or something. Vintage.

Then I walked up to the big hill down the street where a gaggle of neighborhood kids and their parents were sledding.

The icicles are amazing right now.

Then I came back home again.

Here to there. Home to home.

In Which She Rambles About Christmas

With the change of venue, so too has my Christmas spirit changed, I think. For many years I have been pretty scroogey about the holidays. Part of it might be getting older, part of it might be the stress of the growing list of things to get done around the holidays: final projects, Christmas gifts to make, cookies to bake, places to go, things to wrap, trips to the post office, etc, etc, etc. You all know how it is. I’ve just never felt the need to swoon over the holiday like so many do. I still don’t, but on the second full day in our new house, I insisted on getting a wreath for that nail on the back porch, and for the first time ever, we got a Christmas tree this past weekend.

In the past I have put out a little fake mini tree, with perpetual lights, that I got when I was in college, but even the last few years have seen very little in the way of Christmas decorating. It was too much work to get a tree, and decorate it, and my bah humbuginess kept me from getting into the Christmas spirit at all. This year, however, I was like a little kid getting that Christmas tree. We went to the tree place at the mall, yeah, the mall, picked out one that we liked, the dude wrapped it up in the barrel chute, and we strapped that bugger to the top of the Jeep. It was even snowing as we walked among all those trees. The only thing that could have made it any more Christmassy would have been if there was hot chocolate and it was nighttime, I think. And let me tell you, that tree smells GOOD.

We decorated it as best we could with our limited supply of ornament hooks, and of course, the next day, half of one of the strings of lights had gone out. Hm. Oh well. It was nice to see our collection of glass ornaments, and add to it. Seeing his and mine, mixing them together. There was a search for some new ornaments that have gone missing, and still I have come up with nothing. Oh well, again.

We signed, stuffed, and sealed the stack of Christmas cards this weekend too. I was contemplating not sending them out this year. I figured our friends and family would understand, with the move, and the completely separate set of cards I sent out to announce our change of address. But I’m glad we got them done. I am proud of this idea I have had since last Christmas, and I just didn’t want to wait another whole year. It’s sort of an inside joke between The Husband and I, ever heard of the Trans Siberian Orchestra? Rock on. Maybe noone will even get it. But it makes us laugh every time.

As Promised

A week ago I promised you a poster, and a poster you shall get.

I designed this baby to promote an art club meeting.

I’ve got a couple other posters in the works, to advertise another group get-together, that I will show off when they are finished.

Unsolicited Meme

Here are some of the images that I am inspired by this week, lovely winter hues and abstracts are pulling on my mind of late.

1. Untitled, 2. 304: 12.1.07, 3. holiday nap time, 4. Untitled, 5. in austin tx, 6. Untitled, 7. paid for the mist, 8. budding branches, 9. Oh the weather outside is frightful………, 10. Untitled, 11. 50 Sn, 12. disjointed, 13. evening, 14. 3 days exhibition, 15. light and color, 16. gocco tester strips / business card

I know, I know, I keep saying I don’t like memes, but this one is cute, and seemed appropriate given my state of household upheaval. I stole it from h&b.

What kind of soap is in your bathtub?
Sheer Blonde shampoo. I like a little Bath & Body Works Coconut Lime Verbena body wash too, but I’m out, or it’s packed, or something.

Do you have any watermelon in your refrigerator?
No.
A. I’m not a fan of watermelon, so we rarely have any on hand, and
2. It being thereabout winter here, watermelons aren’t in season anyway.

What would you change about your living room?
Put away the moving boxes and furniture that doesn’t belong there. After that, I don’t know yet. I’m sure we’ll need a love seat or a few additional chairs. And we’d like to build a little self serve dry bar, too. It’s a pretty long room, so it will be a challenge to make the decorating work.

Are the dishes in your dishwasher clean or dirty?
Dirty.

What is in your refrigerator?
Beer, leftover pizza, milk, a couple of hunks of foccacia, leftover crock pot stew, condiments, a number of cheeses, more beer.

White or wheat bread?
Wheat, with as many additional grains as possible.

What is on top of your refrigerator?
2 new baskets for holding “stuff”, a roll of paper towel, a number of bags of dried hops {inside one basket}, our stainless steel oldie coffee percolater which we repurpose as a watering can, all of the ceramic mixing bowls, dust.

What color or design is on your shower curtain?
Clear liner, with wispy black with some kind of brownish pattern curtains that came with the house. We bought a new liner for it the other day, in a glass block pattern to match the few glass blocks in the bathroom, and I will probably make a new curtain sometime with a more eclectic color.

How many plants are in your home?
Ten?
One of them is close to death though, it got too cold during the move and is all droopy and sad. It hasn’t started dropping leaves yet though, so maybe it will make it through. 2 of them will go outside in the spring though, they are not normally inside houseplants.

Is your bed made right now?
Yes. We made the switch from unmade to made a few months ago, with the acquisition of a new quilt. Sometimes we are still lazy and don’t do it, but I try to do it right away these days.

Comet or Soft Scrub?
Comet. I don’t use it all that often, but The Husband recently discovered the joy that Comet on stainless steel sinks can impart.

Is your closet organized?
Post move – no. Currently it is all out of sorts with boxes and hangers all out of their places. But normally it is pretty organized.

Do you drink out of glass or plastic most of the time at home?
Glass, all the way.

Do you have iced tea made in a pitcher right now?
No. I don’t even like iced tea.

If you have a garage, is it cluttered?
We went from a house with no garage to another house with no garage. The lawnmower lives under the porch and we’d like to get some kind of little storage shed for the side of the house.

Curtains or blinds?
Mostly blinds. There were some nice linen curtains on some windows in the old house, and there are some lovely half curtains over the bedroom windows in the new house, but every window has blinds.

How many pillows do you sleep with?
Two, always two.

Do you sleep with any lights on at night?
No.

How often do you vacuum?
I don’t generally vaccuum, I hate it. I’m the sweeper of the house, and The Husband takes the vaccuum duty of the rugs. Once every week or two. It’s not a science. It happens whenever I start to feel like the dog hair is going to collect itself into a living being and come chase me around the house.

Standard toothbrush or electric?
Standard. Soft. Small.

What color is your toothbrush?
Lime green.

Do you have a welcome mat on your front porch?
Not yet. There is one on the back porch, and probably the front porch will get one. Eventually.

What is in your oven right now?
Nothing but racks, baby.

Is there anything under your bed?
Nope. Usually shoes make their way there, though.

Chore you hate doing the most?
Vaccuuming. I don’t know if it is that I hate the old vaccuum we own, or if it is the pushing of the appliance, or the lugging it up and down stairs that I dislike about it, but I hate doing it.

What retro items are in your home?
We’ve got that vintage stainless steel coffee percolater, and an old vintage oscillating fan. Does the 8 year old Mac G4 count? I suppose not.

Do you have a separate room that you use as an office?
Yes, and it doesn’t even have a bed in it anymore!

How many mirrors are in your home?
Currently, five. One is hiding in the mudroom closet right now. All are either bathroom mirrors or full length mirrors for bedrooms, etc. More to come for decorative purposes.

What color are your walls?
There’s some orange in the mudroom, red in the kitchen, bronzey orange in the foyer, slate blue/green in the bedroom, gray in the bathroom, dark brown in the powder room, light brown in the dining room, and cream in the living room. Most of it I like, but that bronzey faux finish in the foyer will need some rethinking, I think. I do sort of miss the old red living room, though, too. I like strong colors.

Do you keep any kind of protection weapons in your home?
No, not really, although sometimes there’s a hunting rifle in the house. I keep thinking I want a baseball bat by my side of the bed, just in case. Or a giant Maglite. Does the dog count? We hope he is a deterrant.

What does your home smell like right now?
Not much, as I haven’t burned any candles yet. Soon it will smell like pumpkin spice and baking bread.

Favorite candle scent?
The aforementioned pumpkin spice, vanilla, or anything fallish spicy.

What kind of pickles (if any) are in your refrigerator right now?
Kosher dills.

What color is your favorite Bible?
I think the only bible in the house is a super old, falling apart one, that is like, 4 inches thick, with a gold cover. I like it because it isn’t pretentious. We aren’t very religious.

Ever been on your roof?
Nope. Afraid of heights.

Do you have a stereo?
We have a 3 disc CD player but we plan to get a receiver to jack the iPod into and connect to the speaker system.

How many TVs do you have?
Two, having just finally gotten rid of the super old one that couldn’t be connected to any contemporary entertainment wiring system.

How many house phones?
Two. Now if we could just get the phone company to hook our phone up…

Do you have a housekeeper?
No, I don’t think I want anyone other than myself or close family members and friends touching my stuff. I don’t even like when the housekeeping people at hotels come in and clean the room.

What style do you decorate in?
Nothing specific, really. I like to mix things up, combine old and new, wood and metal, strong color and muted, textures.

Do you like solid colors in furniture or prints?
Solid.

Is there a smoke detector in your house?
Wouldn’t live without one.

In case of fire, what are the items in your house which you’d grab if you could make only one trip?
Given that the Husband and cats and dog made it out safely, I’d grab the laptop and backup hard drive, the camera, maybe the slides of my college paintings, maybe the little quilt I made a couple of months ago.

I will not solicit, but if you’d like, you can tag yourself for this meme, as I have done. Just leave me a comment to let me know if you do it as I’d like to read your answers!