Ice Age and a Zebra

We went to the Museum of Idaho on Saturday to see the exhibit on Ice Age Mammals. This guy below is quite impressive. He is a Columbian Mammoth.














Dave had to pose with the the Wooly Rhinoceros.















This evening I worked a little more on this zebra. He came out looking like a juvenile I guess I will try doing him again sometime and see if I can do a better job. Art is so frustrating sometimes.















I still can not seem to get back into the creative mode yet. If I didn't know better I would think mercury was in retrograde or that the planets are not aligned. Just what were all those things I wanted to do when I had no time to do them. I should have made a list.

The Golden Compass

Yesterday we went and saw the Golden Compass and I loved it. It seemed to follow the book pretty close but then I haven't read it in years so I am not sure. I do remember the horror of the daemons being torn from the kids as being more awful than they showed in the film and Mrs Coulter to be even more evil but maybe that was in the next two book. The graphics were really incredible. Nicole Kidman plays Mrs. Coulter to perfection, beautiful and evil at the same time.


The one thing that made me sit back and wonder is what are people thinking taking little kids to a movie like this. There was this family behind us with a toddler, and a baby and I saw others too. Not to get on my high horse but I never took my daughter to movies that weren't age specific. I can still remember movies from my childhood that gave me nightmares.

You can help finalize my daemon, do you think this is me?

They said we'd have snow

I woke up this morning hoping we had gotten dumped on but its barely a dusting. We were at the edge of a storm coming through. It was supposed to start at midnight and snow all night and day but we only have a dusting and it seems to have stopped. I could go for a big storm where I am stuck here.'

Last night we tried out a new local Pizza joint. Franco's Italian Pizzeria had been open only 6 days so they had a lot of kinks to work out but the Pizza was fabulous so it was well worth the weight. I really do like supporting local people trying to make business go.

I saw cut out Christmas cookies on someones blog yesterday and now I have a desire to make some. My recipe for sugar cookies has sour cream in it so I picked some up on the way home from dinner last night. I'll drag everything out sometime this weekend and start that long process.

Usually making these kind of cookies is a real chore but I think I will do it mindfully this year. I have done that with my Christmas decorations and it has made it into a very pleasant activity. As I unwrapped each ornament or decoration I thought about where it came from. I have these porcelain Santa's that my sister gave me years ago so I thought of her and her life and said a little blessing for her. Then there is the Angel music box that my sister - in- law gave me thirty years ago. It is laced with memory. Then there were the many decorations I have that a former neighbor made me. I don't see her anymore so I thought back on the time she lived nearby and felt the love and time she had put into making me such wonderful gifts. This went on to the things I made myself or purchased. It really made decorating take on a different meaning. It was no longer a chore but a gift in some ways. I hope to do the same thing with the cookies. Cutting out all the shapes I will pull in memories when my sister Peggy and I did this as children or when I did it with my own daughter. I am thinking that we really don't need all the cookies in the house so maybe I will package up some plates of cookies and take them to people who won't expect it. Perhaps the Post Office or the greeters at Walmart or the customer service department at Target or one of the many other stores where people seem so harried and overworked. It so much fun bringing a surprise to people.

Another Silly quiz

Another silly quiz I couldn't resist.

Your Power Bird is an Eagle

You are spiritual and able to soar to great heights. You are a true inspiration, and many people look to you for guidance. And you are quite demanding in relationships... but you're worth it. People know that you will become even greater than you imagine.

What's Your Power Bird?

I spent yesterday as a total vegetable. Oh well maybe not, I did finish addressing Christmas cards, spun some yarn, did a mini cleanup of my studio, watched Whale Rider and 4 episodes of Monarch of the Glen and took a nap too.

You'd think today I would be raring to go but I am still dragging a little. No art or anything else to show. I find this happens to me a lot when I work on something intensely, when its over it takes me awhile to get back into the groove of life. I tend to let everything go and it seems that it takes awhile to find myself again.

Cookies, Cards and Dinner Out

I am baking cookies to send to Sarah and then doing Christmas Cards. I do not know what made me think it would be cheaper to make my own cards. I am constantly heading to the craft store for more supplies. It seems never ending. I have made about twenty and I need to do that many again. Oh well it is fun anyways.

I got the tree decorated, I have saved a few ornaments for Sarah to put on when she gets home for the holidays.

Wine Dinner

On Tuesday we went to a Wine Tasting & Four Course Food Pairing at Johnny Carinos. It was a pricey evening and we usually don't do this but we gave it a try and it was wonderful. This was our menu.

Walnut and Pear salad with Ecco Domari Pinot Grigio
Pasta Cabonara with Robert Mondavi Private Selection Chardonnay
Three Pepper Strip Steak with creamy Gorgonzola potatoes and the wine was a Banfi Centine Rosso Sangiovese/Cbaernet/Merlot Blend
Caramel Mascarpone Bread Pudding with a Chateau Ste, Michelle Reisling

All the food was exquisite and the wines were great. The wines really complemented the dishes they were served with. It was the best steaks I have had in years, maybe it was the 24 hour marinade in Merlot that made the difference. I felt like I was in an episode of the Top Chef and needed to give my critique at the end. In fact the Chef came around and talked to every person there it was really quite the treat. They do these dinners monthly and the proceeds go to charity. It was a fun night but I drank way too much wine. Today I am paying for all the excess but it was worth it.

TGIO Party

We had our TGIO (Thank God It's Over) party with my NaNoWriMo group on Saturday and it was great.I had planned to give a little Moleskine Cahier notebook to the person who finished first and the one who was way behind and still managed to catch up and finish. I was not expecting gifts from everyone so that was a pleasant surprise.

I got this great calligraphy pen and ink and this really nice journal with maps on it. I usually don't like journals with lines but this one has faint lines and wide spaces so that will be nice to use. I love that they got one with maps on it so appropriate since my book is about a map. What a great group. The next best thing is that they all want to continue to meet. So we are going to have meetings once a month from now on. How cool is that.















Here is the ornament I made for the exchange that I am in. I like the way it turned out. I hope to get this in the mail tomorrow. This is the front.














This is the back. I think that both sides look pretty nice. I used one of those paper mache' hearts and covered with decorative papers and ribbon and stickers and cut out images from a card. I hope my recipient will like it.



















We bought our tree yesterday afternoon. i have no tromping in the wood story to tell, we went down to Lowe's and picked one out. The first tree that we looked at. I had gone into the store to look for something while Dave got the tree hauled into the truck. When I came out he was nowhere to be found. I saw this guy load 5 Christmas trees into his vehicle. It was so unusual that I had to ask what he was going to do with all the trees. He was buying a tree for all his family members. I has wondered if he was one of the very wealthy with a huge house with a tree in every room but alas that was not the case.

I have started decorating but as you can see my poor tree is still naked. I should have better pics tomorrow.

Winner

Did you notice the change in Icons on my sidebar in case you didn't here it is again.







I had a devil of a time with Word 2007 and Vista,normally you scramble your file before you upload it. I tried 3 times, and every time it scrambled it WORD told me I had 1277 words. Yikes. I finally just had to upload as is and I was so relieved to see the letter saying YOU WON. There is nothing like that feeling.

In case you are curious, no I am not finished, In fact I will probably dump a lot of the first draft and add a whole lot more. Doing this the second time was really interesting. I think its the fastest best way to get a first draft pumped out of you.

What Planet are you from

My friend Sue over in England posted this so I had to play along. I have always had a fascination with Jupiter so now I know why.

You Are From Jupiter

You are exuberantly curious - and you love to explore newness. Enthusiastic and optimistic, you get a kick out of stimulating intellectual discussions. Foreign cultures and languages fascinate you. You love the outdoors, animals, and freedom. Chances are you tend to exaggerate, so try to keep a lid on that. If you do, you'll continue to be known for your confidence, generosity, and sense of justice.

What Planet Are You From?

Art of Appreciation

I found this on Christine Kane's blog yesterday. If you are having trouble getting into the groove with the upcoming holidays or you just need to find a different way to celebrate this year go to her blog and read her post.
It is incredible. Make sure you read #6 that one really got to me.

Now go read it and then come back to the rest of my post.

I try to talk to sales clerks all the time. Use there name treat them like a person. Sometimes a few words can make their day go better. I think it would be fun to just give some random sales clerks notes of appreciation. Its easy to think of the postman, and other service people who you see regularly but how about the people who never get any appreciation. How would that make them feel, How would it make you feel.

I am not thrilled about the holidays coming. Don't even want to decorate but I will for Sarah cause she needs it. I am going to do some appreciation of people in my life who don't usually receive it. I'll let you know how that goes.

Word count is at 47000 only 3000 words left. I could do it in one day but I am not going to push it. If that happens then it will be awesome. I will be glad when this project is over.

I finished my pages in the Round Robin book. I don't really like them but I am out of time and its time to move on. I haven't even started the Ornament yet so it won't go out on Dec 1. I figure it doesn't take that long to get to my person so I have some leeway there.

I need to start Sarah's sweater. There is no way it will be finished by Christmas so I she may be opening a box of yarn or maybe I'll have a front. I have never knit anything so complex so I know it won't go fast. She'll have other things so it will be ok.

SPC - What I Wear

I thought I would do another SPC before the months over. Theme is what I wear. Lots of warm cuddly sweaters. go here for more Self portraits.

The Last Write In

The Last Write in for our Nanowrinmo local support group met on Saturday. There were eight of attending plus a special guest. My daughter Sarah was home from college for the weekend so she came along with her friend Kristen who are both doing Nano.














Here is Sarah and Kristen, I don't think that Sarah wanted her picture taken.














Megan Kyle and Amber














Here I am with Amber, I had to show that I was there too.














Maggie, Lee and Kirsten














and look who showed up at our write in, yes its the one and only St. Nick.When he saw us with all our laptops and we told him we were writing novels he wanted to know if it was all the same novel. He said that would make for an interesting book if each of us wrote a different chapter. Alas we won't take the bait and will continue to plug away on our own novels.

Monday I managed to pump out 3200 words and that felt great. I have been struggling with my novel all month. Never liked it or where it was going but yesterday a new facet popped into my head that I really like and I am excited to be writing now. That felt so awesome. I now don't have the worst novel ever written. I can see some potential now and that is thrilling.

Round Robin Book

This is a little video about the beginnings of a round robin book swap I am involved in. I am in this with 8 other women. I have to get my pages and cover finished and mailed by the 30th so in between doing Nanowrimo and everything else I try to squeeze some of this in. I am running out of time so I really need to get back to it. I tend to be a last minute type of gal. Its not that I work well under pressure I just don't know what I want to do so I keep putting it off. The theme of my book is Kindred Spirits which has turned out to be much harder than I thought.




I have my last write in scheduled for this afternoon, so Sarah and I will be going to it and then I have no plans. She goes back to school tomorrow. Its been way too short a visit. Luckily she'll be on Christmas break for a long time. Last year it was about 6 weeks. She has a job for that time period so that will be great for her.

We watched Amelie yesterday, what a fun quirky delightful movie. I really enjoyed it. We have Whale Rider to watch tonight. I have heard its pretty good too. Strangely enough I don't have much to say today so I will spare you any more rambling nonsense.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope all of you have great days of Gratitude tomorrow or whatever day it is you plan to celebrate. Thanks to all of you for being a part of my life.

Sarah came home last night and we haven't done much writing since. I expected that to happen so I need to get back to focus. She had friends over last night and then is out again tonight. Tomorrow I am sure she'll stay home. We'll watch the parade's together and have some quiet times. We are having a simple dinner with a small turkey and cutting down on some of the side dishes. Dave is on this diet and doesn't want to be tempted by too many leftovers. I only made one pie instead of 3 or 4 that I have before. Downsizing always seems a little strange.

We went shopping today, Sarah picked out the sweater she wanted me to make her and of course it is one of the most complex ones in any of my books. We headed to the Yarn Connection and I came home with a bag of Cascade 220 in charcoal gray. I was all set to start a swatch and was in the middle of it when I looked at the gauge info in the pattern and it is 5.5 stitches per inch and Cascade is set up for 4.5 or 5.0 I was so mad at screwing that up. So I spent some time on the net to see if anyone else had made the sweater. I did find someone who used Cascade 220 so being the stubborn person I am I really want to use it so I will be doing several swatches to get it right. I figure if I can't get the gauge right I may just have to do a different size. Its annoying but I really don't want to take the yarn back and start all over looking for something appropriate. Sometime creating things involves way too much frustration.

Have a great Holiday!

My baby is coming home

My baby is coming home today. I haven't seen her since August 22nd so I can't wait. It has been the longest ever so far. Sure we can see each other via a webcam but its not the same by any means. Sarah has always been a big hugger and I can't wait to catch up on all those hugs and everything else. She is also doing Nanowrimo and we'll be having our own little write ins while she is home.That will be great. Its always helpful to have a partner supporting you.


7 Random things again.

Well I just discovered that Beverly from Embrace Your Gifts and Soar also tagged me for 7 random things so let me see can I come up with 7 more.

1.I used to be an avid cross stitch embroiderer but I rarely do it anymore.
2.My greatest heartbreak is that I was never able to have another child.
3.I think that the Dalai Lama is one of the greatest people on the planet.
4.I do Buddhist meditation even though I don't consider myself a Buddhist,
5.My second favorite spiritual person is Thich Nhat Hahn
6.My favorite candy lately is Lindor White Chocolate Truffles...yummm
7.When I am eating a bowl of chips or other snack I hate it when my family comes and takes some out of my bowl. They know I hate it but they keep doing it. I know its weird.

I am not going to tag anyone else, anyone who reads this consider yourself tagged.

I have my word count done already so I hope I will be able to get some Art done. I stopped at the craft stores looking for new paint brushes. I don't think my watercolor brushes work that well with acrylics. I picked up a liner brush since that seems to be the first one I need. I also got a jar of titanium white, I just can't resist 50% off coupons. Plus my tube is almost empty so it was needed. Have an Artful Day if you can.

Random things a some yarn

So I was tagged by Olivia at Happy Luau to write 7 Random Things About Myself. These are the rules:

1. Link to the person’s blog who tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself.4. Tag seven random [?] people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog.


Ok 7 Random Things

1. My first degree major was in Political Science, second Data Processing.
2. If I were to go back I would study Art or Textiles, or Archeology,or History or.... I really love learning.
3. I love books, I think I have books in every room of my house.
4. I can be reading a half a dozen different books at the same time.
5. I never act my age.
6. I am highly allergic to fish
7. I prefer Red wine over white.

I am tagging.

Kai
Lisa O
Blue
Lisa F
Janet
Gemma
Julie

Spinning

I have been working on this yarn a long time. It really is gorgeous in person so her are a few pictures of it. It is made out of Blue Faced Leicester Wool and is mostly dark puple with other colors running through it. I spun it fine and made a 3 ply. It came out so much nice than I thought it would. I like happy surprises.

Self Portrait time

Since so many drawings turn out to look like me I figure it was a time for a self-portrait again. I spent just a little time on this. I messed with the eyes so much that one is way bigger than the other. I like the hair though.


















I sat in church this morning and drew this lady. A little boy was watching me and during coffee hour he wanted to see the drawing. He wanted to know who it was and I said oh just something from my imagination and he said, what is her name? I said she doesn't have a name yet, He said she should be Cassidy and then he changed his mind and wanted Cassy so that is what she became. I love have interchanges with kids about art.

Writing

I am up to 30,000 words in Nanowrimo so its going pretty good. I am finding I like to work at the library. They have these little tables where you get an outlet and an ethernet connection. I just plug in my earphones and listen to music while I write. Its like I am in my own little world. In my Art room at home there are quite a few distractions.

latest drawing

Another face done in pencil in a moleskine sketchbook. It wasn't what I intended but that seems to be normal for me.

A Spontaneous Trip

I played hooky today. Amy called me up today and said "Do you want to go to Driggs and go to the yarn shop and the bead store." I had planned to write all day and almost said no but then I thought oh why not. Driggs is on the back side of the Tetons, These are the Teton Mountains from a distance.















A closer up view.














This is my friend Amy holding this great skein of silk she bought.



















We also went to a bookstore called Dark Horse Books, it was really a nice store. I really like independent book stores. I bought this book as a gift for a friend.














I fell in love with this hat. It turned out the pattern for it doesn't exist. The owner had taken a hat pattern and revamped it. So I bought the original pattern and she gave me instructions on how to alter it like she did. I thought that was really nice.


















I found this yarn in the .99 bin originally 9.99 what a deal. I will use it as a gift for someone.

It was a really gorgeous day and a perfect way to take a day off. I am really glad I went.

I don't feel like writing.

I had this scarp of watercolor paper and I didn't like the colors I had put on it, sorry I don't have a before picture. Anyways I added some red blue and white and then stamped in white and denim on it and came up with a nice background and tried a female figure again. She is kind of sour looking like some others I have done. I am determined to do one where the person does not looked depressed.


















I really should be writing I haven't felt like doing it all day. I had an appointment with a chiropractor today. It was my first time. and it went well. The Dr. I went to has the most wonderful bedside manner. I am a little sore right now. I may just skip the writing and catch up tomorrow.

Time for a little art

I just had to do some Art its been driving me nuts. These three pages have been in limbo for awhile. I am not sure if they are all finished yet but its all I have to show.