We had a good holiday here. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any good holiday-like photos because my camera’s battery died on me. We just had a quiet time… a nice dinner with friends before Christmas. My father @C_L_O_G came by for Christmas day and we had a great time going out for dim sum and playing with the baby (and watching her play with ribbons, bows, and pretty paper). She’s getting into the toys now lol…
Aside from that, painting continued as always. I have to get on some commission work now and finish up the Stained Glass collection to take for the grand opening of Artifactia in Bearden on Jan 12th. I promise good photos of that event.
Another recent painting on distressed plywood.

I have to admit it can be a little awkward to be a non-Christmas celebrator. I’m not opposed to Christmas in any way, but I don’t get into it either. One person I bumped into asserted that my baby would revive the Christmas spirit in me… Yeah… well… not so much. I like seeing her happy, but I can buy pretty paper and ribbon for her to play with any day. I don’t celebrate overconsumption of goods or food. Our family celebrates our togetherness daily. So I just don’t feel like Christmas is any different than any other day I’m lucky enough to have coffee and people around me whom I love… except I can’t go to the grocery store easily if I run out of something lol…
Oh well. Another Christmas is passed and I can look forward to the days getting longer again. That’s the awesomest!
Onward and upward and may you all be blessed in the new year!

By the way, @roadkill_spatula did receive the Xanga-gift painting Thank you all again for participating in the gifting with me! May Tim and Alicia’s fairy tale continue!

Or… holding a baby rather… lol
With much happiness, I packaged three paintings for shipment today (including @roadkill_spatula‘s) and we had a great time talking to strangers at the post office.  Then we went and played for a little while at the park down the street from our house. 
But the first task of the day was finishing this piece up. 

It was a still life. Now it’s not.

I know you guys probably get sick of hearing me say it, but life just keeps getting more and more wonderful…
Wonderfulness #1: The discovery that the grow lights we’re using for our overwintering of plants seems to help my normal wintertime melancholy

Wonderfulness #2:  Finding lots of awesome ukulele tabs and a tuner on the internet so I can play music while baby naps in my lap.

Wonderfulness #3:  The way she wakes up, rolls over, and hugs the ukulele.

Wonderfulness #4: Yesterday, my husband poured the last of our concrete countertop AND made a magnificent pumpkin soup as well.

Wonderfulness #5:
A finished painting

Window
Acrylic on canvas w/lace
17″x21″ including attached frame

I had a couple interesting comments on this piece so I thought I’d write a little about it… This canvas has seen probably 5 different paintings. I put the lace on about 10 years ago and because of the really high relief, it’s been difficult for me to be happy with the result. I’m just like that…
So this works for me.  The shape in the center reminds me of an eye. That’s all I can see.  Stained Glass Window to the Soul?  Sounds too cheesy for me to use as a title, but brings all these great ideas to my English major brain… Lace, glass, eyes….
That’s about as firm as I ever get in a painting concept and I rarely care to reveal my own thinking very much. I generally think a painting should speak without my words attached to it, but there it is anyway…

Onward and upward
I gotta go practice the ukulele.
*

So I was planning to introduce the ukulele to the little one when she was maybe two or three…
Today totally changed my plans.
We were at a friend’s house where they have PILES of instruments. This couple collects instruments… So the lady puts a cool, homemade simple drum in front of S. I watch her figure it out. Then, out comes a Dixie banjo (cast aluminum, open back, very cool!) and we played with that for a LONG time.  Then, she pulls out a little old yard sale ukulele and gives it to S for Christmas! It’s not an expensive thing, but I was so surprised to see the baby take an instant interest in the instruments! She was fascinated – couldn’t quit playing with them! 
So I spent the last hour learning about the uke. I have played guitar for a long time, but I haven’t tuned a uke or changed strings on one etc… and the bridge is pulling up a bit and needs a minor repair. (No worries, my husband can totally handle that).
I guess music is on the to-do list…
I am the happiest woman on the planet tonight.

I am going to send this painting to @Roadkill_Spatula and his new wife as a wedding gift from Xanga Family.  Whomever donates to the cause will be listed on the card from all of us. The size of your donation will not be listed, but I’d love to include as many people as possible on this.

Link to contribute
Thank you to those who have already contributed to make it possible for me to give this gift to our friend!  If you don’t like to use the internet to send money, you may certainly message me for an address to send a check. 

Re-vision
Re-seeing
Re-imagining
Re-doing
These days I’m feeling kind of reborn. It’s lovely. Usually as the chapters of my life change, I feel a lot more pain. This time around, things are much lighter and easier.

Yesterday I took my work out of Gallery 133. They’ll be having their final First Friday show on the 7th. The space is being leased by someone else so that adventure is changing form. The group may seek another space and I may rejoin them there after a bit, but in the meantime, I have another location that I’m going to go to. An old friend is opening a shop in a good location which will be kind of a vintage/antique/gallery/boutique themed venture.  I think I’ll be putting a lot of work in there and it has all signs of being a good launch so far. I dig the name: Artifactia. Cool eh?

Other things… Seren is crawling well now and doing very well in all respects. She and I are going to deliver a painting this afternoon and talk with a girl about redoing her room – kind of from little girl to big girl I guess. I don’t recall her exact age, but I know we’ll have a great time drawing ideas and talking about possibilities. I hope to be able to help… Regardless, sometimes just talking about ideas helps so I’m sure it’ll be an afternoon well spent.

And the literal revision:
Some of you will, no doubt, remember a previous version of this painting. My husband was really disappointed when I repainted the background, but I’m just not going to store stuff indefinitely. I have no doubt that there was some place it could have made someone happy as it was, but repainting it made ME happy. So I did it lol… Selfish selfish me.
I think the dragonfly in the lower left stands out better now with the revision. The dragonfly was always my favorite element in the piece.

I am extraordinarily busy these days. I’m constantly packing and shipping paintings and running around to deliver paintings and things like that. Good busy. Good tired. 
Onward and upward
*