painting again!

As you read in my last post, it's lazy winter time.  But my laziness has come to an end, I'm pounding out freelance projects and getting out my leather paints again.  PAINTS, I said, not PANTS.  Haven't spent a lot of time typing, obviously, but here are two things I painted recently.

But the fire is so delightful

I have a few odd favorite days of the year.  One of them is the day in the spring when we turn the clocks ahead and suddenly it's light until late.  One of them is New Years Day.  One of them is the day after Christmas, when all the world is sleeping off their excesses and no one expects me to work.  This whole week between Christmas and New Years is my time to rest and celebrate the end of the busy season for another year.  Right now I'm in front of the wood stove, looking out at the beautiful frosted trees decorated by the first snowfall of the season.  The driveway is shoveled, but I don't have to go anywhere.  The cat just weaseled his way onto my lap between me and the computer.  Contemplating a second cup of tea.  I'll be back with you in a few days....

doh doh doh

I recently cleaned out a closet, and found some good stuff tucked away in there.  There was the box my friends Heidi and Jeff sent me a dolphin skull in.  There was my Duran Duran record collection (that's right).  A bunch of Christmas decorations and a stray menorah.  A pile of old calendars awaiting re-purposing as envelopes.  AND my baby book and school-days book....which included this awesome photo of me at 2.5 years old, with our old dog Arne in the background.  I now recognize that the flowering shrub behind me is still alive and gigantic in my parents' yard.

I'm pretty sure I won't be sharing my 9th grade photo with you anytime soon, though...so sorry.

oh the winter winds are coming in...

This is just a sweet and pretty song which I discovered this fall on my road trip.  It's become a favorite sing-along song at my house...

Don't forget your towel

Well I realized somewhere around when I last made a blog entry during my epic road trip that I'd rather be experiencing the adventure than writing about it.  Really there's too much to share without writing for hours and boring you to tears. 

In summary, the basic trajectory starting from my last entry was to fly over to Kauai for 11 days (love love love), then a red-eye back to Seattle on Halloween where I picked up my friend Jenny.  (She makes amazing woodcut prints, you should check them out.)  We started with a ferry to Whidbey Island (my other favorite island), then headed on back basically along the I-90 corridor with a stop in Yellowstone and the Badlands, and some friends and family along the way.  By the time we got to Chicago, I was feeling ready to be home, which is a good feeling for this restless girl.  Of course, now I want to do it all again, but not necessarily immediately because sitting in a car for 8,919 miles makes me want to run for miles just to leave the feeling of the car seat far behind me.

And now the Christmas season is in full swing.  However, instead of feeling all burnt out and tired as I often am by this part of the season, I say BRING IT ON.  I have some events coming up, which I won't list here but you can read about them on my website calendar.  More about that later.  And, ahem, I'm ready to ship out any card or calendar orders immediately, should you feel the need for anything from my website.

I've been letting the trip settle in, and here are a few key observations and travel tips for you, gentle reader.

1) My stars, I am RICH in friends and family.  The hospitality and kindness shown by my lovely network of people who were willing to take me in and feed me and show me around their worlds was really awesome.  I am blessed and grateful to have such good people.

2) I think I definitely got a better feeling for what it means to "live in the moment."  People say that all the time, but I didn't get it until about a week into this trip when I realized all I was thinking about was what I was doing that day, instead of planning out every moment of the next week and keeping so many things in the air at once like I usually do.  Of course, it's easy to "live in the moment" when that particular moment has you sitting in a tree on the beach in Kapa'a with a cup of good decaf looking at waves.  But I'm trying to keep that ability and flexibility going as I'm back home, to focus on what needs to get done today and let tomorrow happen tomorrow...and to enjoy whatever is happening at any given time.

3) If you are in close proximity with someone for a long time, in a situation where it's important to get along and have a good time (i.e. 12 days in a car), the question to ask is: "what do you need?"  Then say what YOU need, and then make sure all those needs are met.

4) Practically speaking, food co-ops are the way to go for road food.  Liz and I figured this out on the drive out...find the co-op in the town, get some good deli food and maybe some kombucha, and you're set for lunch and snacks without having to be at the mercy of fast food and other desperate junk. 

5) Feel at home in yourself and you'll feel at home wherever you are.

6) Carry tea.  Carry a travel mug that you really like.  Bring a fork.  Throw a towel and pillow in the car.  Keep things organized enough that you can then FIND that towel.

I'll put a few more photos up here in the next day or so, but for now I must get back to work and live in this moment of my Wednesday morning...

Palm trees and rainbows in the water

Aloha my friends!  A quick update this morning before I head out to the beach.  I'm on Oahu, reconnecting with cousins and exploring an new island (and spending an unfortunate amount of time in terrible traffic in Honolulu, there's only one main road artery and there's no escape).  I have two photos to share this morning which sum up my last few days.

Yesterday I went to the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor.  I've flown over it many times, and have always wanted to go see it and learn more about this chapter of history.  My aunt grew up in Honolulu, and has a pretty powerful tale to tell about living through this attack and subsequent wartime life.  She was on the Arizona the night before the attacks for a band concert.  The memorial is sobering and respectful, I'm so glad I went.  The Arizona holds 1,177 sailors who died in the attack, can you imagine?  The ship is still leaking a little bit of oil to the surface, which makes a constantly-changing rainbow slick called the "Tears of the Arizona."

I also had some beach time yesterday, and time to explore the island a bit.  Here's a classic view of the island known as Chinaman's Hat, on the east side. 

A friend of mine is apparently quoted as wondering whether I'm coming back, because I keep going farther and farther away, and to nicer and nicer places....

Go west, young woman! Part II

Time for another photo essay on the Great Trip West.  I'm writing to you from the comfort of my brother's pub, the Brewers' Union Local 180 in Oakridge OR, and I'm happy to say that my shiny red car has gotten me this far comfortably, safely and stylishly.  I have a few more photos to share today of the second week of the drive WEST, just a brief taste of the many small adventures and long empty roads between Colorado and here.

When we left Durango, the first stop was one of my long-time dreams...Mesa Verde National Park.  Whoa, this was as cool as I had expected.  I love thinking about what it must have been like to live in these cliff houses.

 Then off to the Four Corners, through some of the craziest open country I've ever had the pleasure of dropping my jaw over.  It was so big and open and weird that there was no way I could take photos of it.  We chased rainstorms through the desert all the way to the fine little town of Bluff, Utah, where we scored the last hotel room for miles.  The next morning the clouds and storms were still present, and made the drive through the Valley of the Gods moody and exhilarating.  I almost cried, this was so cool.

Then off through the desert until a welcome oasis: Zion National Park.  We planned two night here, to allow a day of exploring the canyon and resting up.  Zion was particularly nice because the HUGE red rocks (we've seen a lot of big red rocks in the last week) was balanced by the coolness and shade offered by the Virgin River.  Really a beautiful place.

After this, Liz and I blasted through Las Vegas (seedy and abandoned on a Thursday morning), through the desert by Area 51 where we saw a disappointing lack of aliens, and on through the evening to get her home to Nevada City.  That was a long long long drive, and it's frankly a bit of a blur although I do recall seeing Mono Lake.  Nevada City was a welcome break, and a beautiful little mountain town with charm and history and a perfect climate and I confess to fantasizing about moving there.

Then I ventured out on my own for a few days.  Had another dream-come-true by visiting Donner Pass, where I ate a twix bar.  Here a photo of the pass from Donner Lake, you can see why those poor souls with their wagon trains in the snow were unable to get over that wall of rock.

 A little time exploring Tahoe and Reno and generally enjoying the Sierra Nevadas, and then I drove and drove and drove because I decided I wanted to camp on the coast and say I had driven all the way to the Pacific.  This was a success, got the last campsite, and had a leisurely drive up the 101 and then over to Oakridge.

More soon!

For the folks back home

Sabbatical update photo essay!  Huzzah!  I'm one week in on the big trip, and all is going super well.  I'm traveling this leg of the journey with my friend Liz, and we are getting along like peas in a pod.  Really, I even sing in the car in front of her.  We've been experiencing the blessings of the road, serendipity and hospitality and happenstance.  I'm writing right now from Durango, Colorado, and it's time for a quick tour of the trip to this point.

We had two great visits with friends in Pittsburg and Goshen, IN, but the photos only get interesting  once we cross the mighty Mississippi.

Then we had a great night in Iowa.  Really, all my preconceived notions of Iowa as a flat corn-riddled wasteland were shattered, it's a beautiful state full of rolling hills and big skies.  And llamas.  We stayed with Becky and Brian in their cool geodesic house and got up at the crack of dawn to walk the llamas in the Iowa sunrise.  I now love llamas.  Becky and Brian are fantastic hosts.

Even though I named my cat after Nebraska, the less said about this next leg the better.  We drove through a whole of stuff that looked like this.

But then we got to Colorado!  Spent a few days in Denver catching up with friends, work, dinosaur tracks, altitude and sleep.  And exploring Red Rocks!  You can see the famous amphitheater in the middle distance, and we also took a hike around through the rocks.  Bonus to the beauty was that a three-day Grateful Dead "Further" concert was about the start, and the place was hopping with a dose of Dead culture and it was pretty entertaining.

And then off through the mountains, where the aspens are peaking RIGHT NOW and the mountainsides are bursting with incandescent golden craziness.

Bonus serendipity was a random stop at a place called the Pony Espresso in Jefferson, CO, where the lovely women who own the shop decided on the spot to carry my notecards!  I can't fill the order until I get home, but am excited to have a presence in CO in such a sweet place.

Tomorrow, on to Mesa Verde (a life-long dream) and points west.

The year in preview

The calendar is done!  As you know because I kept harping on it, I've been pushing for the last few weeks to get this new series of paintings done.  Here they are...and they are at the printer even as I type.  Lord willing and the creeks don't rise, I expect to have them on my website and at the market this weekend.  Which is your favorite?

Autumn creeping in around the edges

Well hello there September.  Where did August go?  I was just having a nice conversation with summer, but he seems to have left the room.  It's suddenly September, with little leaves on my running trails, and I needed socks yesterday.

Happily though, I haven't been blogging because I've been creating.  August was a busy month.  Remember those 360 wine glasses that needed to be painted?  The LAST load of them is cooling in the oven even as I type.  I'm concentrating on getting my 2013 calendar paintings done, and have the lofty goal of getting the calendars to the printer on Monday.  I'm in Handwork now.  And I'm leaving in just over a week for my mini-sabbatical and need to get cracking on the packing.

Sabbatical!  YES!  I wanted to do this a few years ago, and it didn't come together...but now the stars are aligned and I'm taking off across the country in my shiny red car to see the world outside of Ithaca.  I won't be back until early November, so many stray ducks also need to be aligned along with the stars.

 Here are two watercolor paintings for the calendar, Miss February and Mr November.

PS- I've had some inquiries about the baby chicken...sadly, she disappeared one night a few months ago.  I went out in the morning to let everyone out, and the front door of the coop was wide open.  It's a mystery.  The flocks is doing very well though, the new hens are laying now and they are friendly and hysterical.

Artists' Market!

Last Friday was the annual Ithaca Artists' Market, and my booth was absolutely gorgeous if I do say so myself.  I took all the shoes, loads of paintings and prints, and a smallish selection of cards and other goodies.  Borrowed a rug, and my booth was palatial and included some lights.  Makes me want to re-do my regular booth.  The event was a success I would say, definitely a different crowd from the usual weekend market shoppers, and they were focused on buying ART which is always nice to be around.

Today you also get a bonus photo of my new flocks of hens, almost all grown up and being very cute as they run around outside.  Their names are Potato, Olive, Snow Flower (her toes are crooked, and they remind me of bound feet, poor dear), Carmella, and the interchangeable Ginger, Mary Ann and Mrs. Howell.

Out like a lion

July is going out like a proverbial lion!  Two big things are going on during this next week which YOU should know about.  First, I will be at the Ithaca Artists' Market this Friday, July 27th.  This event runs from 2-8 PM at the farmers' market pavilion (which means I get to spend three days in a row there this weekend), and includes over 70 artists from around the region in a variety of media.  Plus food and libations and music, you can make an evening of it.  I will be in booth #43.  Please come, support the local arts, try on my painted shoes, bring me snacks!

I am also joining Handwork, a cooperative art and fine craft store in downtown Ithaca, starting next Monday the 30th.  I'm excited to have a place to present my Wingtip shoes in a gallery setting, as well as a whole lot of my cards and calendars.  They are open every day except major holidays, so if you are local then you need never run out of my cards.

In general, this week is a little nutty.  All of the above, plus a major home improvement project involving carpets which I won't go into here.  I do have some nice new art to show you though!  I've started my new watercolor paintings for the 2013 calendars, and here is Miss February, working from a photo I took of a Thai temple dragon.