Lions & Tigers & Bears, Oh My!

I've been away for a very long time, both physically and mentally.  New year, new directions, leading me back to where I need to be.

There's nothing like 2 weeks in glorious CA to revive a person, especially when you return to NC and temperatures below 40, dressed in your wispy short-sleeved warm weather attire.  Reality revisited!

For the last few nights I've been unpacking from CHA.  Stacks of catalogs to look through now with no distractions.  One order has arrived with many more to come.  I've rearranged the studio yet again, moving furniture but also art.  New canvas art has been hung, art dolls have been shifted around the studio to new perches so I can appreciate them once more.  Everyone tells me how energized and creative they feel in my studio but without the occasional facelift, I tend not to see it.  So by shifting and reworking areas, I'm hoping to rediscover some of my inspirations from projects past.  Last night I was mostly discovering dust!

Look at that explosion of color.  My first visit to Disneyland in CA.   We arrived just in time for the parade and I swear I got all choked up when it first began...the music booming.  Felt like a little kid...overwhelmed.  Hate to admit it but we didn't know all the characters, which hardly mattered.  It was magnificent.  But I was drawn to all those colors, thinking about how I could transfer that to the pages of my journal.

New classes will be taught in the studio this year, including several guinea pig classes.  An acrylic album class, an acrylic CARD class!, an art journal of techniques class that of course will be my favorite, and so much more.

I placed a big order for tape at CHA...washi tapes in SO many patterns & designs, fabric tape, and wait for it...LACE tape.  There's a class for sure.

New stencils should be arriving any day and that will be another class...on canvas.  But students will have the option of a stretched canvas to hang on the wall or Claudine's sticky-back canvas so it can be adhered to a book cover, storage box,  tote bag, apron, or even cut up for cards.

I'm most excited about the order I placed with Ranger for Dyan Reaveley's new stamps, stencils and sprays.  Probably won't receive any of that til the end of March or first of April according to my email acknowledgment, but oh how worth the wait!

Another class I'm excited to offer is a small accordian book working with paints, ribbons & fabric on paper.  Woo Hoo!!  It's a twist on my techniques class, introducing a few new things.

Tonight I've got the girls coming over for a bit of fabric stamping.  That should be interesting.  Some are bringing totes and aprons.  I've got quite the collection of aprons pulled out but I'm thinking about one of my white men's shirts that I wear in the studio.  And I found a stash of little cloth drawstring bags that need a little something, so they may see some action tonight as well.

Since my one-day mini retreat in October went over so well I'm toying with the idea of another.  I can tell you felt beads, paper, buttons, wire, and more will be involved.  Interested?

Back tomorrow with a rave and a rant.  Do come visit, won't you?

It's the Holidays

Somebody was sick for 37 days and has now shared the bungus with someone else.  Not good.

Somebody got a new Lexus for Christmas with built-in navigation, back-up camera, and side mirrors that tilt down when you put the car in reverse.  Somebody still backs out of her garage looking over her shoulder while her hubby stands there hollering "use the back-up camera!".

Somebody spent Christmas Eve at the Emergency Room...the entire day...with a hubby who has kidney stones.

Somebody needs to start tending to her blog, once all the excitement dies down.

Somebody thanks you for checking in and hopes you'll do it again...soon.

Girl, Where have you been?

Sick, sick, sick, that's where.

Don't know what I've got but I've had it for 17 days and counting.  Cough, sore throat, earaches, no voice, and a nose on the fast track.  Don't I wish I owned stock in Kleenex!

It's no fun getting sick Thanksgiving weekend and still being sick going into week 3.  That's a fact.  The miracle is that I haven't given it to hubby, thank goodness, who's having a bit of surgery tomorrow.  Zithromax didn't touch this plaque, but the cough syrup with codeine is a godsend at bedtime.  I still can't sleep through the night, but the coughing calms down for a few blissful hours.

Ask me if my shopping is done and of course I'll laugh out loud which brings a coughing spasm, so please, don't ask.  We did get a tree set up in the living room on Saturday night but the decorations remain in the attic.  Wreaths are on the downstairs windows and carriage lights either side of the garage door, but not on the second floor windows yet.  The pumpkins and gourds were moved off the porch this weekend after sharing space with a snowman for several days.  Keep in mind, I haven't been leaving the house during this illness, so that snowman didn't get picked up on my radar as quickly as it would've in normal circumstances.  Tsk tsk.  And my fabulous wreath with all the big, glistening ornaments is somewhere in the attic with the stockings and reindeer and other mantle decor.  Can't guarantee any of this will get done since we'll both be pretty much out of commission starting tomorrow.

I've come up with THE MOST FABULOUS class ideas, and yes, the clock is ticking on me.  Surely this weekend I'll find the needed boost to climb those stairs and knock out some samples.

In the meantime, I wanted to share a few holiday ideas with you so you won't feel too slighted with this post.

A tree for limited space indeed.  I'd never put that many nails in my freshly painted walls but if those Command strips would hold them up, I'd consider it.

I really like this simple giftwrapping idea.  Unfortunately I don't give wine at the holidays.  Mores the pity...

I am such a believer in "presentation is everything" and something about this simplistic array appeals to me.

As does this... what fabulous little gift bags.

I love these simple coordinated color schemes.

But I like this one the best. 
And I've got a couple of trees that would be divine for displaying tiny gift parcels like the ones below, if only I felt like making the parcels.

Did you collect any pinecones yet?  It's not too late.

I'll be back, I promise.  Do come again.

Nature at its best

Did you by any chance watch Super Soul Sunday on the OWN network yesterday?  It aired twice that I know of, so undoubtedly, reruns are still being shown.  Do tune in for the first segment on nature.  My stars, it was glorious.  So much so in fact, that I ran it back and set the DVR to record it.  Watched it in its entirety and then watched it again last night with ACC when he came in from toiling on the new pergola.

The time lapse photography was magnificent...watching seeds fall & germinate, vines begin to grow and climb in the dense forest.  Or a tree in Australia that grows in salt water.  Who knew?

Awe inspiring.  That's what it was. 

Last week's cool temperatures are gone and today its sunny and glorious outside.  Too late.  We've already begun moving the big pots of outdoor plants inside.  The biggest, heaviest of them is still on the handtruck, sitting in the middle of my front porch.  Need to find a strong body to help get it inside tonight.  Maybe the plumber due at 5:30 could be persuaded since I'm not sure he can squeeze past it anyway.

But you know that cold weather is coming and it will be here before we know it.  I found this photo on the BH&G site and instantly it sent me back in time to the street where I grew up, near Five Points in Raleigh.  Mr. Peebles, right across the street, owned one of these huge cedar trees.  I can see it in my mind, as real and true as though I just looked out the window from across the street more than 40 years ago.  Funny how your mind can play tricks on you like that. 

Where has the time gone?  Did I really move out of that childhood home 40 years ago?  Sure did.  And yet I can remember it like yesterday.  The year I fell in love with yellow and orange and Robert Wagner played Al Mundy on It Takes A Thief.  I had his picture on my wall, next to a huge sombrero. 

And I can see the crepe myrtle trees by the front porch where I got my first kiss at 12 (my word), and all the hybiscus planted along the property line, and my play house in the backyard.  I can even see the shade of pink on the walls and the curtains at the windows.  And that big old apple tree pecked entirely from top to bottom by that pesky woodpecker. 

Might be time to cruise back by the hood and see what's changed since my last drive by.  Good Grief, my drive by...makes me sound like a gangsta.  Have mercy.

I digress.  You should check for a rerun of that fabulous nature segment.  And stick around for the short with the big mic.  No Impact Man was less worthy so you have my permission to check out when he comes on, or at least after a few minutes.  Giving up toilet tissue and electricity was not a good thing, Martha, and you don't need to be witness to it.

Time to Gather

Pinecones, that is.  We've had rain, and lots of it, last night and today.  Which means pinecones are falling from the trees.  And it's time to gather them up and stash them in the basement til they dry out for use around the house.

Like this.
Did I tell you I took my parents to the beach last weekend?  The weatherman predicted cold and rain, and he was wrong, wrong, wrong.  We had sunshine and warm, lovely days.  Of course we stayed inside for 3 days playing dominoes, so it hardly mattered.  But we did have hot chocolate, which makes me think of Fall.

I gathered up all the Halloween decorations yesterday.  So sad.  But I've still got my overflowing pots with pansies and cold weather plantings on the front porch, plus my pumpkins and gourds, and my wreath, so all's not lost.

I just need everything to last til it's time to start with the holiday decorations.  I can almost hear the jingle of bells in the background, can't you?