Wingtip

Let's just get one thing out of the way first: I have chicken pox.  You heard me right, apparently I'm not too old for this.  It's uncomfortable, and I'm cranky, and staying in quarantine is less fun when you're an adult because it doesn't just mean you can stay home from school for a week and eat ice cream.

BUT, the good news is that my blog silence can be completely contributed to launching a new branch of my art business!  Introducing Wingtip, super cool shoes hand-painted by me.  So far I have several pairs on my new Etsy site, and getting lots of good comments and looks and some inquiries and a couple of orders from friends.  Here's a photo of my first pair for a client.  She mailed the boots to me, and specified colors and that she liked the Thai-style spirals from a different pair.  You might hear a lot about shoes on my blog in the next few months.

Having a new canvas to work on, and a new business to plan and promote, has been a true pleasure, and has saved me from complete Seasonal Affect Disorder despair.  It is also giving me justification to go shoe shopping.  I'm going to use some of my quarantine time constructively to see if I can figure out how to build one of those free flash websites for this.

Otherwise, spring is making it's painfully slow way to Ithaca.  The little wee bulbs are finally up and cheerfully blooming, it hasn't snowed for a week, and the chickens are starting to range farther in the woods.  The missing hen melted out of the snowbank a few weeks ago (probably hawks).  The Farmers' Market started up again last weekend!  I've started running.  Every year we all wonder if spring will really actually come, it always seems like a miracle.