HAPPY errrr... JANUARY 3rd!!!!

Wow--That was the holidays! I'll give you the abridged addition:

--Came home from Thanksgiving

--Got a terrible round of hives (boyfriend is a welder and I'm allergic to the nickel in metal--YOU think about that really hard for a sec...)

--Boyfriend was rear-ended at a stop sign totaling three week old car. He was ok except for a great big black eye that everyone kept saying I gave him.

--Spent days and days getting insurance settled. They finally gave us money and a seven day rental car. We had to find new car in 7 days.

--Got food poisoning with boyfriend while looking for car.

--Got car on Christmas Eve from a car auction set in a crazy dustbowl parking lot that looked like Mad Max ---- cars were being towed all over, and there were trucks and people doing donuts. We affectionately called it "Carmeggedon".

--Drove to in laws in new wonderful car, it's a 12 year old Volvo and it makes you believe that everything does happen for a reason.

--Experienced Christmas, worked all last week, experienced New Years

AND--am finally home again, back to my routine, which makes the Little Old Lady in me Very very HAPPY!!!! I don't know why I like routine, but I get all bent out of shape when there is none to be found.

I'm sure the last thing anyone wants to see at this point and time are pictures of treats, but I did manage to do Two Things; bake beautiful Christmas Cookies with Stella, and start to bake Whole-Grain Yeasted breads and make sculptures out of them. I took the pictures of all thinking to put them up here, so Belated It IS, but here you go--my culinary masterpeices:

I have Long Loved baking bread from Scratch, so I am very happy to be back at it. And if you do the whole grain thing, it takes a bit longer, but the bread you get from it is INCREDIBLY healthy!! Crazy! It's a good project for the multi-tasker in me: If nothing else works out, at least the bread gets made!

Did I just take a Hiatus???

It certainly feels like it!! But real life called, and I didn't take the computer!! But I am certainly back! I spent a True Wonderful thanksgiving back in New England with the people I love best. I was supposed to go to a Highschool reunion, but my two oldest friends and I decided to REALLY be nostalgic---in our PJ's in front of the TV, chatting and gossiping. It was wonderful.

We were mostly with my Best friend, with her family by the beach. I have known them since I was 9 years old! I have known them three times longer than I have not known them. Isn't that strange? I take pride in that somehow. If nothing else speaks well of my life, then the relationships up there in that house do. It was nothing short of Bliss.

Other Snippets of News; we bought a car. I have never been a car person. I have no idea how the Whole World decided to Balance Itself on the Four Wheels of Automobiles. I have owned but one other car for 10 months in the early 90's. I see the convenience of it, but the expense seems ridiculous!!! I was semi forced into getting it---my Honey needs it to get to jobs that have no public transport. And it was kind of nice to go to a grocery store and not bike the groceries home....... but it feels like such an expensive, wasteful luxury. I took the Bus to work yesterday just to Spite it. It's a sweet ole thing though, a 1991 Wagon. It has very few miles, which apparently is a very good thing. And it is very spacious. And no one wants to break into it for sure!
And now I am home. Back to the real world. I have closed my Etsy Site, and I will be opening a website in the next month. I am refocusing my energies into a few good projects between glass and thread, and will go from there!!

xo

P

I am not an Italian Maestro

I Feel like I am always out of time These Days--and everything is only Half of what it Should Be. But my Spirits have been lifting after quite a few weeks of Self Introspection. I keep mentioning that Venus is in Retrograde--and I know it's just superstitious Nonsense, but she IS the House of Art, Luxury, and Creativity, as well as Profit, and she IS my signs Ruler, so since she is going Direct TOMORROW and I am feeling BETTER--I'm just going with it. Forgive me for turning into Stevie Nicks just to get out of my rut.....

I have been working, as you can see, but not just for me, which is why everything has been quiet here. Gotta Pay the bills. But what I have been coming up with has some merit.

These are new ideas in Crocheted cottons and cashmere. I am also working on a high necked version of a collar, but it is not going quite as I had hoped. We shall see. The Ring at the top of the page is called Russian Tablecloth--it looks like Russian/Slavic Peasant Embroidery to me. I am sure my Mother, who has great disdain for Anachronism, would be more than happy to correct my perception of the piece, but that's what I am going with. Anyways---

I like the idea of the Russian Tablecloth so much I am going to be working in those colors and ideas with these crocheted collars. I have not thought out how that will work, but I like the design of these so far. I think I need to rethink the base colors. I need a Mustardey Greeney yarn....Anyways--I think they could be beautiful.

And lastly, I have sat with my glass work for some hours, and have realized that I love glass, but I am no cup maker. I have to let the idea of functional glass go. There is no future in it, and honestly, I don't like making things like goblets, or cups or bowls. And you can go get those at Target for 2.50. No--I have decided, the Glass work has to be for love of the Process, and Love of the Medium. I have to get a Kiln up and running, and start getting back to my castings, without putting pressure on myself to be a Italian Maestro. I am. not. an. Italian. Maestro. It has to be about loving the medium again.

The good news is? I don't have to hate Glass anymore if I stick to my Guns.

Other News: I am going to join the BeeKeepers Guild. I am going to become a Bee keeper. Well, I think I am. I am going to a meeting tomorrow night to see if this is something I could get into. I have always been fascinated my the whole thing, so I am going to go see if I could be a Keeper. Apparently it all really starts in January/February for the Bees --Long before we think of Spring, so I am just in time to start the new Season!

And Tea: I am visiting my family next week after a rather large Rift, of quite a few Years. I am taking Tea. And I am very excited.

xo

P

Pretty Pretty

I'm working I'm working!! I'm going to post these on etsy this weekend.

Mysterious Bag

Well--the fact of the matter is I am getting up there. I am not 40, but it is Looming, not near enough to see the Crows Feet, but Near Enough to know I have to start taking care of myself. So like any Modern Day Girl would do---I went to a Chinese Doctor!!! She asked me lots of questions---far more, frankly, than any doctor I had been to before. Reliving the details I was forced to tell her about my body make me want to Die of Shame, as my good New Englanders upbringing so dictates. Agh.

I go elsewhere for Acupuncture (FYI: There is an amazing movement out there for Community Acupuncture---they have them in most big cities, the standard is $15 a visit. Do not be afraid--just go!), so I just went for the Herb, as they say.

She asks all these questions, and then she gives you a paper bag with about a pound of stuff that looks like styrofoam Slivers, Bark, Mold and Twigs. Well, for my perscription anyhow. Then you Stew this in a crockpot for 8 hours until the smell is so overwhelming that People in your Building start asking "What. the. hell. is. that?" with their faces all shriveled up. It's a little humbling to tell them you are about to drink it....

A few actually love the smell, most are disgusted. I am on the disgusted end. But I am nothing if not Committed to this Process (I just spent money on) so I drink 4 oz of this brown "tea" morning and evening. I am a week in now. I went to level off the Monthly Crazies, and I didn't notice much change there (when I was weeping to my Guy this weekend that he wants to leave me because he bought a pair of skinny jeans....he really is such an angel....). But my other complaints do seem alleviated somewhat. I am determined to stay on it. So I have another 3 weeks of what I would call "A fair trial". My Guy tried a sip of the brew (I warned him that it would be balancing his PMS, but he dove right in)---he said it tasted like dirt, coffee grounds, cinnamon and vodka. It's a pretty apt description. I would add "burnt licorice".
To kill the lingering taste of this mornings cup, I followed up with a pot of Chocolate Cinnamon Ceylon Tea. Ahhhh! I am home today, and yesterday I did all the Domestic Duties I was supposed to. So today is Just Art all day. Yay.

xo

P

Working Working

I have had the lovliest weekend! The weather has been quite Agreeable--perfect Fall. My Better Half had the weekend off, so we spent all day yesterday Walking and Talking and enjoying . Stella has said it, and I have said it, but I always forget it---there have to be Dates. If you don't have dates--well--it makes all of it harder. You have to leave the house with lipstick on and see them talking to new people. It's so good.

Today has to be a work day--paperwork. But I DID get a nice bit of designing and sewing in this week. The above is Tiny, Little. It look like a tiny little Russian Tablecloth. I am really liking working small.

This one is small too. It's not as complicated as the other. It reads better from a distance. In my head all my projects have been getting smaller. If I want to analyze it, I would say, I am finally working in a size I can Manage.

I finally seem to have rid myself of the need to Shout from across the Schoolyard. Working the Fine Painstaking detail in 1 inch Ideas.

Today's Tea was Jade Oolong. Quite good! I got myself back to the straight good tea! But I have begun to blend some really good teas---lemongrasses and vanilla, and chocolate. Some are disasterous--but a few have been quite good. I am working up to a Holiday Blend of some sort...

Well that's it for this beautiful Sunday Morning. I must get to work--hope everyone is having a beautiful weekend.

xo

P

I really wish I had made this!!! But I am feeling inspired just by looking at it. I like the idea of it. I think sometimes artists get tripped up by their material---they love it so much it gets in the way of the work. It happens in all three of my favorite mediums---Film, Glass and Fiber. The Trip up in film is complicated and I won't do my Soapbox Thing right now--suffice to say that the idea of the Red Carpet ruins 80% of films, from seedling to finish. Glass----it's the process. Glassblowers get drunk on process. To Make, To Make,To see the Hot glowing goo do what it does. And with fabric and fiber, it's the Sumptuousness of the whole affair. I have both Tattered Bits and 15 Yard Stacks of Fabric that I can barely touch because it is so beautiful. It's almost painful to cut into it. I do my best work with the ugly crummy stuff I practice on.

I have been away for a couple weeks, but I am back!! And I have made some decisions!

1. I was reading an Etsy post about pricing your work. So I sat down and did some REAL math. Labor, supplies. The upshot is---the collars cost $1200 retail, and the rings cost $750 retail. Ummmmm.....

Two choices: Dumb it down or stick to my guns, make them Finer and Better and more Beautiful. Price Accordingly.

I'm going after Price Accordingly. I have to. It's just Time. I became so worried about making a sale--with my glass especially ( I know I haven't shown much here, but I have been deciding where to go with it and it was a little painful to talk about), that I started lowering the price--and --oh my--the quality. That's not who I am. So--a recommitment to Quality, and I also--WOW--am going to ask for what pieces are worth from now on. And I think I need to think outside of Etsy. I can't compete with the pricing that people have there. I just can't!

Next: I need Deadlines!! Does anyone else want a Deadline? I am going to be handing out a Deadline Sometime in the Next Two weeks. If anyone else would like a Deadline---please ask---we can Share one. I need the Deadline.

So that is is for today--I am hopefully back again--barring any Apple Malfunctions!!

xoxo

Perpetua