One peaceful day

I wish you a day filled with wonder, peace and love.

Merry Christmas!

I have really enjoyed this last few moments of quiet before the family frenzy! I completed my Chinese Dreams art quilt & made these little collages last night. I need quiet to allow the ideas that rattle around in me time to get expressed! Most Christmases, the days between Christmas and New Years are dedicated to creating and cleaning. This year, we have already cleaned and purged and donated, and we will be south of the border, so I am hoping this change will stimulate further creativity. A little chaos is good for the soul. If we do not keep things stirred up, we will stagnate. And we have all seen what happens to ponds when they stagnate!
I do not want to be full of thick green algae.



Left to do:
1. Pack toiletries
2. Gather gifts for tonights trip to Meme's
3. Confirm with dog sitter
4. Little bit of laundry
5. Holiday libations at Luna
6. Drive to Meme's

Final quilt of 2007

I finished this art quilt today. It is titled "Chinese Dreams", measures 27"x27". Lot of fun to make. The chinese characters are individual batiks. Most of the fabrics are batiks, with some prints thrown in for variety.
Found this in Boone yesterday:

I had seen on the site of one of my Flickr contacts on Friday. She had photographed it in Isreal. We saw it in Boone and I bought 2, 1 for me, 1 for Jacob. Trying to spread a little peace on Earth!

Christmas cheer and really good beer

From last Christmas, this photo is titled "Jacob & the Christmas Bird". I am so very proud of him!
Today is the first day of my winter vacation, so I began by sleeping until 9:15. Then coffee and crossword puzzle. The Grom lazed about until 10:45. We then ran about gather ingredients for my chocolate cakes and the Christmas friends at Luna and our friend Freddie. We also got some Holiday Duvel for ourselves! The cakes turned out wonderful. I have also performed the yearly task of purchasing, downloading and installing a year of PC virus protection. A PC prophylactic, hehehehe! I was also able to purchase sunscreen for our journey south of the border. Now, we prepare for a dinner party with friends, they have not 1, not 2, but 3 teenaged daughters who will be with them. 2 are biologic, 1 is a Danish exchange student. I hope Jacob will be okay.
Tonight's repast: Teriyaki marinated yard-bird, sea salted baked potatoes, tossed salad, various sweets for dessert. Tomorrow's activities: who knows, I'm on vacation!

End of year lists

This is my LBD (little brown dog) Sophie. She is very quiet and sweet and makes a neat little warbling sound to get attention!

I have XM radio for my hour long commute and listen to Broadminded on my way home each evening. One night this week they were talking about end of year lists that seem to proliferate this time each year. I have decided to come up with my own for this year.

My list of god things:
1. My dog, Sophie
2. My Big Dog, Murray
3. Friday nights, in my pj's, in front of the fire
4. Sleeping in on Saturday mornings
5. A good book
6. Another good book
7. Sunday newspapers
8. hugs from my son
9. Kisses from my hubby
10. Calls from my friends

What I am looking forward to:
1. Our dinner party with friends tomorrow night
2. Seeing my brother's new puppy
3. Finishing my current quilt
4. Seeing my niece Christmas Eve
5. Our trip to Puerto Vallarta on 12/26
6. The beach at Puerto Vallarta
7. Speaking my elementary spanish in PV
8. Did I mention we are going to PV?
9. Tequila
10. Whale watching

Peace out, sugarplums!

Great gowns

This is the gown Barbra Streisand wore in "Hello Dolly". My number 1 favorite movie gown.
I was inspired to write about my favorite movie clothes after reading Tom & Lorenzo's blog about "White Christmas". They show my #2 favorite gown which is worn by Rosemary Clooney when she sings "Love, You didn't do right by me". I found this blog after reading their Project Rungay blog. Both of their blogs are witty, biting and incredibly funny!
It's not really a great gown, but I love the "ice dacha" set in Doctor Zhivago. And Julie Christie makes even th drab commie garb look chic.

Here's the next one

The inside reads "These are our wishes for you this season."

New pic-collage

I have trying to come up with an idea for our Christmas card, but since we are not all together, I haven't been able to "pose" a picture. I cut and pasted these shots together today. I like it. But it isn't holiday. Maybe I'll get an idea later!

Mission Accomplished

Whew! I have really got it done today! I have not been working in my studio this week for a couple of reasons: my boss, and other visitors were in my office this week and was at the office very late each day; my studio has been a wreck. The boss and visitors left Friday. So I decided to tackle the studio today. As you can see by the pics above, I got it done. I am very pleased with the results. I needed to go through completed project piles and purge. I can not keep everything, I need empty, clean areas to work. Too much stuff makes me fidgety. I also cleaned the closet in this room and moved in a wooden shelf to hold more of my supplies. Amazing that I have waited all my life for such a room. A creative space, not a corner in the bed room, dining room or den. A space where I can store my stuff and organize it so I will feel relaxed and ready to create.
What inspired this? Well, I am ready to start another quilt. I had to lay the fabrics out on the dining room table since my studio was a mess. That did not make sense to me, especially since we are trying to get some holiday decor out! Now, I have the studio ready, which leads to the dining room being clean, and now I can put on the Christmas centerpiece.
Feels good to have a clean, organized space!