Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Still Soaring

I went back to work today. Everyone wanted to know how the workshop went. Every time anyone asked I would almost tear up. How do you describe the indescribable? It was, I finally decided, like being in a little corner of heaven. I spent every day surrounded by beauty and love and creativity. People were kind and accepting and genuinely friendly. I think I was hugged about five or six times a day, usually by E (I forgot who said I could and couldn't use their real names, so I'll be using initials for everyone until I am told otherwise!) My biggest fear in going to Squam was would I really be able to make a friend in five days? Well, let me tell you...these were some of the nicest people I have ever met and I felt like I made a friend every five minutes. Here are some of my closest friends from Squam, my cabin mates, The Ladies of Easterlieigh. I am so grateful to have met each one of you!
And yes, if you caught that in the beginning, I went back to work TODAY, not yesterday. We had quite the wind storm in upstate NY on Monday morning about 2 a.m.ish (and elsewhere, I imagine). Power was knocked out all over and schools were closed!! So to top off my beautiful weekend, I got a "snow" day in September. God is smiling on me this week. Except that He didn't let me have internet access on my snow day, and after Squam, that was almost like taking away the air! That's my excuse for not having a more detailed post up by now. I would have blogged, but instead I spent the day making more tomato sauce. So for now, I will leave you with some more dock pictures (that's what seems to be on all the other Squam blogs!) and I will tell you more this weekend!

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Denial

I should be getting ready for Squam. That's what I told myself I would do today. But instead, I cooked. All day. The tomatoes finally ripened and I figured I should really do something with them. So last night I made sauce. Today I made roasted tomatoes and salsa. Then I got out the dehydrator that Dan got me for Christmas (No- I really did ASK him for a dehydrator for Christmas) and I got to work drying a small part of the endless cherry tomato crop. And last weekend we picked apples and I don't want those going to waste either, so I also made apple sauce and this really delicious apple upside down cake (I will post the recipe later if anyone is interested).
I'm really looking forward to Squam... I think I'm just really nervous about going. It's kind of like what everyone else is saying in their blogs- it really does feel like the first day of kindergarten (except I think it will be a lot more fun). I don't know. I guess it won't be any fun at all if I don't start packing! Thank goodness one of you other bloggers mentioned a flashlight because I had completely forgotten to add that to my list! All right... I'm really going to start packing now.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

During a 5 minute break...

Every now and then I think about changing the studio name... And then I am reprimanded.

Posting some work

Ok... I'm finally posting some artwork. I don't know why this makes me so nervous, but here it is. This is what I did with what was left of my summer vacation after all the vacationing was over:
This is a box I painted for my neighbor's baby shower. It's her dog when he was a puppy. All I have is Christmas wrapping paper and I was about to go buy some plain wrapping paper, but then I thought of this and thought she might like it.
Here it is all wrapped up, waiting to be opened...
And here is a painting of our beach in Plymouth (in progress)...
And at long last, we finally got the kiln going, and I'm really happy with the way these turned out. Now I have to get some blades for the grinder so I can put groves in them and get them all wired for wearing!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Getting Away...again

Well, so much for getting stuff done around the house this summer. My brother found a cottage for rent so we all went to Plymouth earlier this month with a few friends. Aside from the usual stress over leaving the animals, we had an incredible week. Fortunately, we have some great friends who were willing to stay with the little beasts at our house- that made things much easier. Anyhow, we were a little worried at first about renting a house because we'd never done this before, and on top of that, it was in Plymouth! What is there to do in Plymouth? Turns out, quite a bit. First of all, even if we hadn't left the cottage, we would have been totally content. There was a beautiful sun porch where we all spent a lot of time reading and playing games. I set up a little studio in the corner. There was a great beach, even though there were no waves. My niece Madalyn enjoyed having her toes dipped in the water. When the tide came in, the beach disappeared, but there were some nice rocks to sit on and read.
And in town, we found plenty to keep us interested. We visited the Mayflower II...

And Erin found a cute little stained glass shop where the owner taught classes. She could only take four of us, so there was a little fighting over who would get to go. That really surprised us. We had planned it to be a girls' day, but it so happened that the boys were pretty interested, too. Troy won. On the way to the class we went shopping for sweatshirts because it was a little cold and very rainy. There was a really big puddle on the side of the road that splashed up when cars went through it. I saw it happen once and warned everyone. But not everyone heard me.One of my favorite things was the "Dead of Night Ghost Tour". We picked up our tickets and lanterns from a hearse parked out in front of Plymouth Rock. Then the tour guides took us around the town and told us about the past residents of certain buildings. When it got really dark, they lead us into Burial Hill Cemetery.So while we were on the tour, we were told to take pictures... LOTS of pictures. And use the flash. We might capture an image of an orb which we were told was actually a ghost. Hee!! Totally silly, but tons of fun! The tour guides took this very seriously. Ryan got the best orb shot.
One of the days we drove out to Provincetown. We went up to the top of the Pilgrim Monument to see the view..
Then we checked out the museum. Here is the creepiest doll in the world.
Here is the second creepiest doll in the world.
So that's IT for the vacations this summer. Now I'm painting and making art. I am trying to get brave and post some of it, as this is a studio blog!

My Flickr Self Portrait


This was a blast- you have to try it. I found this on Claudia's blog. I will copy the instructions for you.
Type your answers to the questions below into Flickr search. Using only the first page choose an image and copy and paste the URL's into the mosaic maker (3 columns, 4 rows).
1.What is your first name?
2.What is your favorite food?
3.What high school did you attend?
4.What is your favorite color?
5.Who is your celebrity crush?
6.Favorite drink?
7.Dream vacation?
8.Favorite dessert?
9.What do you want to be when you grow up?
10.What do you love most in life?
11.One word to describe you.
12.Your Flickr name.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Returning to the gardens

With all the trips up north and the family get-togethers and the storms we've been having, I haven't been in the gardens in about 2 weeks. I can't believe how fast weeds grow. I started weeding the Maple Tree Garden today because it's the easiest and maybe I would feel a sense of accomplishment if I could finish it. Then this butterfly stopped by to tell me that he still enjoys the garden even if it's not perfectly weeded or beautifully edged. This made me feel a lot better because as we were enjoying each other's company, another storm cloud was rolling in from the west and needless to say, the weeds will live to see another day. Or maybe another week. Or longer.