HaPpY NeW YeAr - 2011 whoop whoop

"Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man." Benjamin Franklin


I can always count on Benjamin Franklin to provide me with sane and rational quotes with respect to life. What a practical man even if the word man should really read as " person ". The new year rapidly approaches and although I have not made any resolutions and certainly can not remember any from last year, I sit here and think that the past year has been a good one. I have laughed and loved and lived and created. I have immensely enjoyed all my days - even the challenging ones. I remain grateful that I have a life and blessed to be doing what I love and calling it work. 


For the world, I am wishing for peace, medicine for the sick, food for the hungry, care for the neglected, love for all of us. I am wishing that we all treat each other with kindness and respect, keeping our good humor intact. 

For my family and co workers, I want a year of health, prosperity and joy. I can ask for nothing else, but can be grateful for all. Happy New Year!! With love, Lois

A Winter's Day

I am a weenie and will be the first to admit. I had some oral surgery yesterday on my front teeth complete with stitches and I am so sore, miserable and sick from the drugs, stitches and antibiotics; I can barely function. Since I was up at three am - I caught the beginnings of a light dusting of snow. At seven am, a wicked hardest - I - have - ever heard hailstorm hammered us. If a hailstorm can wake a sleeping teenager; you know it is a loud one! Beautiful round bits of hail over the light snow turned us all white outside.

Studio Deck

Little Blue Warehouse

Studio front window 

Sidewalk to studio

More writing, when I am feeling better. Enjoy the waning days of 2010.

Three Forest Trees & the Noise Beneath Them

It is the evening of Christmas day. Late. Nearly midnight. At last  the house is quiet, the TV silenced, Jake long since given up his video games and snuggled into bed. Phil is snoring in the living room recliner. The day was full of love, peace and sunlight. We feasted on belgium waffles from Jake's new waffle maker with which he proudly proclaimed, " my first kitchen tool. " Gifts were opened, we did our yearly search of something is missing, this can't be all, wait there are gifts still hidden in the studio. The sun allowed us a nice walk in warm temperatures and Daisy was our constant companion. The day moved sweetly, slowly and became a beacon of peace, an oasis of family in our busy life. I love days like this one!

Merry Christmas!!

Bundled up for a cold, wet December's Christmas Eve.
( note the studio apron I am wearing )

The solstice moon seen with Christmas lights from the studio.

My favorite of favorite-est Santas!

Jake opening his Christmas Eve package from his sister Paula
& family. 

Phil with my birthday gift book from Paula. 

Wishing all my friends and family who peek in at this blog a very Merry Christmas and a season of love, peace and healthy blessings. I am so grateful to have all of you in my life.

Hallelujah Chorus -Quinhagak, Alaska

Happy Winter Solstice!

The evening feels kind of magical as we wait and hope that the sky will be clear enough to see the lunar eclipse and the solstice. What an event the heavens have forecast for us on this dark winter's eve.

love Affair with Crows

Stanley Rill's work - Port Townsend.  I want!!!

I continue to have a love affair with crows! People ask me why and I have no ready explanation. Is it their wit? Their chatter? The beauty of them in flight? The resourcefulness they possess? I can not say but I never cease to wonder at them in life and remain entranced by them when captured in an artist's work.

Christmas Party

My fancy Sangria drink. It was fabulous!

 All the business owners in the James & Hastings Building last night had a Christmas gathering at the Galetea Tappas Lounge in PT. We were relaxed, chatting, having fun and recounting all our years in business. Michelle, Katya and I have been in a retail business since the 70's in PT! What a wealth of adventures and experiences we have had over the years. As for me, I would love to stay in this business, this spot, this retail world until my ending days. I have so much fun and an outlet for creativity in all forms. Plus, the biggest benefit is that I love being with people!

Phil in mid sentence.

Gina, Victorian Square Cafe and Michelle, PT Kids.

Frank, PT Tees.

And finally this incredible light display on the roof of a 2 story
house! It was awesome against the dark night sky. 

The Tree is Up!

 FinaLLy, I have a good picture of Daisy. The little sprite finally stood still long enough to capture a picture! Even if it is through the sliding glass door! She was hoping for some extra meatloaf or ham or....

This is the tree that Jake helped unload from a truck full of Christmas trees. He was thrilled to get a tree for only $ 5 over cost. When I walked in the door tonight, it was up and he had installed the lights. Using a very clever trick that he thought of; wrapping the inside of the tree with only white lights and adding the brights on the outside. In another day or two we will have added ornaments and I will post another picture. Incidentally, the tree takes up the better part of our dining room. Jake wanted a big tree!

Some Evenings

The newly redesigned window in the shop.

 Now that I work a bit more in the shop ( a bit? Ha! ) I see things that I can change
or redesign. My mind is always onto a project. This window used to hold the gems that needed
to be kept under lock and key, on suction cups. I have displayed that way for years but it truly
and desperately needed a change.

So Phil and I came up with an idea of wood slats to hang the stones from. He did the exacting things like measuring and cutting and I painted them a soft, pale yellow and painted either gold stars or spirals on them.

I think it gives a fresh, new look to my window.

My sweet friend Regina stopped on her way home
from work on the Kitsap Peninsula to get
these candy canes for Santa's sister's visit on
Saturday!

Right up until the football games started at 1:00, I had Jake all to myself. We went to a local craft show where I was able to persuade him to have a picture taken with Santa. He towered over the jolly old elf and then we did some shopping for Phil. After that we had lunch together at the Spruce Goose Cafe and really had a chance to talk. He is my sweet boy, the last of my children still at home. I need to savor every moment and of course, I am beyond thrilled that he will still spend a little time with me.

A nice dinner at home on this warm, wet evening rounded out the day. Peace.

Holidays

This is the time of the year when I am running around like a mad, mad woman! I have no end to wonderful ideas and I think how lovely it would be to bake and snuggle into the house and make Christmas happen but and it is a big but; I just do not have enough hours in the day!

I love so much about this season. Lights, trees, music, food but in the end being a retailer - I wish I could celebrate it two weeks later! Now, that would drive my family crazy!

I love reading Dickens at Christmas and this Christmas tree makes me think it is right out of A Christmas Carol. I never tire of reading that story and making the moral of it my own.

I would like the weather to be a bit colder, no snow mind you, but colder temperatures make me feel all Christams -y and reminds me of the sometimes snowy holidays of my hometown. How do you find Christmas?

Could NOT Resist!

Support Your Local Badass Fatass

From the Fat Acceptance Blog - this is me - a local Badass Creative Fatass and proud of it, blessed to be it! 

Gallery

THE gallery in Port Townsend is WYNWOODS GALLERY. That is me and is a great place to hang - my paintings - and a place I like to hang around. We are blessed to be 18 years old and this holiday season I am working like a mad woman to have more of my silver work ready for the gallery and Tucson. New pieces are back from casting, new paintings and drawings done and all round it feels good to be on Water Street in Port Townsend in MY OWN SPACE. No more co -ops for awhile. What brings all of this on? A new five year lease on my gallery and shop spaces in the historic James & Hastings Building in Port Townsend! I am deliriously happy to be doing what I love with the work I love with the friends, customers and family that have been my encouragement all these years!

Here we go with five brand new years at Wynwoods Gallery! Thank you, Lord!

John Lennon - Imagine Lyrics

This IS GOOD!

Friends in PT

Lunch with my friend from Facebook, Elaine.

We had a wonderful lunch of coconut fried rice with prawns which prompted Elaine
to look up a recipe on the internet and send it to me which means that
shortly down the road a bit in my very orange kitchen; I am going
to make the recipe myself!

I am trying to stay in the season this holiday, keeping it simple and
enjoying friends and family. Sounds marvelous but very hard to put into
action!

Finishing up knitting projects and drawings to send off to friends
and family. Working on a new series of crow drawings
and with a handy new watercolor set, I am sketching the wonderful
tropical landscape that exists in my head.

Rain is pelting the house right now and although the temps are kind of balmy for this
area. I am freezing! Rain makes me want to snuggle down into my bedcovers and read.
So off to my grand mountaineering books with me for the rest of the evening! 

Busy Weekend

The Port Townsend Chorus' performance of Handel's Messiah.

The reflection in the drums was so pretty and just fascinated me.
I was only sitting three rows from them.

This was a weekend that not only greeted the area with sunny, dry and sort of warm weather but one that had plenty of activities to keep me moving the entire time!

I worked all weekend and gave all my energy to my customers so much so that when I did get home after work; I pretty much crashed and burned. Off to early bedtimes for me!

At the last moment today, I had to work the shop for a bit and teach a group of 7th grade girls. It has been ages since I spent time with girls; just listening to them talk. Hearing what is important to them: mascara, weight, what books and TV shows they can watch, what music isn't censored for them, how much money they had to spend on themselves and holiday gifts. It was a class for me in just listening.

I had a ticket to go see The Messiah performed by the Port Townsend Community Chorus and since I had never seen it performed live; off I went at 2:00. I met a friend there and we enjoyed it although I think maybe I dozed off in the first part... zzzzzz.... Still it was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon during the holiday season. I am promising myself to do more things like that and get outside myself and the shop for the holiday.

Now off to lala land for me! Good night!

New Drawing

I still have a couple of sketchbooks on the little table next to my living room chair. I just start drawing while my mind wanders and occasionally checks in on a TV program. I have a passion for natural things, organic elements that I like to incorporate: leaves, flowers, moons, stars, animals and landscapes. I never know what something is going to be until it is done. Like meditating at the end of the day.