Stones and Glass

The Museum is holding their annual fundraising auction tomorrow night and I am donating (among other things - this is like my own personal yard sale) a pile of jewelry I made.

It has been a looooooong time since I have played with these stones, and I couldn't remember what they all were with the obvious exception of the glass beads, the dalmation jasper and the mother of pearl. So, out came a huge pile of receipts and my handy dandy guide.

I think I got it all figured out.  Now the problem is I'm all fired up about stones again.  I love the way the colors in certain stones are all swirly and mingly.  It's the same thing I love about paint.  Wow - light bulb moment.  I just realized that the same three things I love about paint are three things I had already incorporated into jewelry, back in the day.  The swirly colors for one, and the texture.  And words.  Which is why I made Morse Code bracelets.  Genius.

On an unrelated note, I am doing a happy dance today but I can't tell you why yet.  Let it be known a (somewhat self-imposed) burden shall soon be lifted.  Woo hoo!

The Name Game

After my last post I've been thinking of how many fabulous possibilities there are if I want to name my paintings after towns in Montana.  For instance, we have:

Checkerboard
Eureka
Paradise
Elmo
Big Timber (that would obviously be a tree painting)
Three Forks (not to be confused with Bigfork)
Roundup
Circle
Sunburst
Ekalaka (population 332)
Azure
Belfry (AWESOME!)
Muddy (well shit, that will be easy)

So this begs the question.  What happens when I move back to Vermont?  Do I paint something and name it ... Putney?  Huh.

Finder's Keepers

So remember last year in March when I was talking about my trifecta?  And how I can't seem to get more than one of those three areas of my life in order at a time?  Well I'm working on it again, and I might have gotten two out of the three.  First off, as evidenced by my 31 miles last week and my 17 so far this week, the exercise department is looking good.  In the art department, I painted something new the other day.  I named it after a small town in Montana.

"Two Dot."  Yep.  Thirdly, in the area that still needs some work, let's just say I had chocolate and potato chips for dinner Tuesday night.

Um hmm.

Oh yeah, but back to the finder's keepers part.  I used to be not so diligent about recording my deposits in my business account, so on a fairly regular basis I would "find" money when reconciling the account.  However, that has not been the case in quite some time, since we live pretty close to the bone during the winter.  Imagine my surprise when I sat down to reconcile the account on Tuesday and made some offhand announcement about "boy I wish I weren't so diligent about recording ..." blah blah blah, only to discover I hadn't recorded the very first deposit listed on the statement.  HA!  Found money.  Awesome.

Seeing the sights

Last week I ran or walked a total of 31 miles.  Roxie not so much -- she missed a 5-miler.  Here are some pictures of what we see out in the world.

And this is where we play ball, over past the pond, and that's where we live, in the background:

And this is our happy face, after we play ball:

Life is good.

To post or not to post.

That is the question.  I've had this painting sitting at home for weeks.  I really like it.  Abstract stuff like this doesn't appeal to all people, I know, which is why I've kept this one at home.  Out of the public eye.  But as I said, I really like it.

My current problem is that I've built up quite a collection of paintings that need to be framed, and although I know some pretty good framers, they are wicked busy.  So the pile grows, and in the meantime I can't put anything new on my Etsy store or in the gallery.  Poo.  Not enough hours in the day.  If I were smart, I would paint some things that don't need frames, but I'm not that smart.  My Coke Zero habit killed off too many of my brain cells.

Speaking of which, today is day ten of no soda.  Woo hoo!  And so far this week Roxie and I are up to twenty miles of either walking or running, with another three on deck for after work.  Which is now.  Gotta go bye.

Rainy Days and Mondays

For the record, today is neither rainy nor Monday.

In fact, today is supposed to be 74 degrees.  So I wore a wool skirt and a fleece vest.  Yes, I am smart that way.

On Sunday poodle and I went for a three mile run.  It was sunny and a bit breezy.  On days like that I find I am unable to sit still, so then we went for a three mile walk.  And to round it all out, we went for another two mile walk.  Plus poodle played ball twice, so she got about a week's worth of exercise in one day.  Monday was sunnier and warmer, so we went for a four mile run.  I'm trying to break out of my three mile rut.  Too nice to be inside, so we walked another two miles.  Then I came to work at 4:00 to prep for a meeting, was a guest at a meeting at 5:00, and hosted a Museum board planning meeting from 6:00 - 9:00.

Today is sunnierest and warmerest, but I need to go to my part-time, part-time job after work so may not be able to enjoy the weather.  Except from in here, with my nose pressed to the window.  Roxie is out working on her tan.  She just heaved a great sigh.  I know she wants to be running and playing ball -- it is hard for her to wrap her head around the concept of a full-time job.

I haven't painted anything since last week but I have a few ideas percolating.  I'm still waffling about that barn painting.  Do I leave it alone, or do I mess around with it?  Can't decide.  Maybe I will try another one, see if it comes out any better.  Some night this week, since it is supposed to be fabulously warm all week, I might haul all my crap outside and paint in the yard.  Any bugs that fly onto the wet paint will just add another dimension, right?

Maurice Sendak died this morning.  This is very sad news.  My uncle forwarded me something on facebook that I think perfectly sums up Sendak, the way he thinks, and the effect his work has on people.  It is an excerpt of an interview with Terry Gross of NPR:

Terry Gross:  Can you share some of your favorite comments from readers that you've gotten over the years?

Maurice Sendak:  Oh, there's so many.  Can I give you just one that I really like?  It was from a little boy.  He sent me a charming card with a little drawing.  I loved it.  I answer all my children's letters - sometimes very hastily - but this one I lingered over.  I sent him a postcard and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it.  I wrote, "Dear Jim, I loved your card."  Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, "Jim loved your card so much he ate it."  That to me was one of the highest compliments I've ever received.  He didn't care that it was an original drawing or anything.  He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.

Beautiful.  Just beautiful.

Side by Side

Okey dokey, someone asked me to post a picture of the two cherry paintings side by side.

Not that you can tell by looking at my famously crappy pictures, but the paintings are the same size - 5" wide x 7" high.

And guess what sold first thing this morning?  Yeppers.  The pair.  HA!

Speaking of none of that, today I am stitching down a pair of antique leather gloves for a shadow box and since my contacts are for distance I am wearing cheaters so I can see what I'm doing.  It's making me go blind.  Man, I don't know how people wear bifocals.

Rise and Shine

Lesson learned today:  there is a good reason why I am not a morning person.

Second lesson learned today:  it's cold at seven a.m.

Whenever I set the alarm clock, I sleep like crap and wake up at least ten minutes before the alarm is due to ring.  So this morning I was awake at 5:50 a.m.  Meh.  I crawled out of bed at a little before 6:30, and poodle looked at me like I was smoking crack.  We were out the door by 7:00.  WAY too early, and WAY too cold outside.  I went to my part-time, part-time job for almost two hours before my 9:00 board meeting, so my day was pretty much over hours ago.  My eyeballs have been practically glued to my eyelids, and I've been dragging ass since the middle of the afternoon.  Mornings are for the birds.

You know, the early birds.

So here is the second cherry I painted for the Everything Cherry show at the Museum, which opens tomorrow.

I did, in fact, name the first piece "Bada Bing."  Since the two are being sold as a pair, I was told there is only one obvious name for this one.  Go ahead -- guess.   I'll give you a minute to think about it.

I'm on my third day of no soda.  I had developed an unhealthy relationship with Coke Zero, and finally decided it was time to walk away.  Actually, I was trying to do a week of zero sugar, but I lost that challenge after a day and a half.  But the no soda will stick.

"Bada Boom."