Sometimes I am in a writing mood and I can go on and on as if I am speaking to a very good friend in the same room. Other times, my thoughts are all internalized and I can not make them leave the corridors of my brain long enough to get them written down. Days then weeks have slipped on by and I realize that all my time is spent and I have not yet written any of those precious time moments down.

Getting ready for my Tucson show is both exhausting and stressful. There is the sorting and pricing and compiling of inventory. Packing and making shipping arrangements can take days. Then there is all the minute, annoying details of everyday life to get taken care of. The housesitter. The cats. The newspaper. Jacob. Paperwork.

The shop is another child that needs attention. Is it staffed? How much inventory is on hand? Is it ready for me to be gone? Are all arrangements made?

Then there is the little sadness I feel at leaving my nest. I like being here. I like making things in my studio and being with customers in my shop. I do not need to leave home to find home or contentment. I am here with all of that.

The thing that takes me the most time to get ready to leave? Packing my projects. What to read? Knit? Bead? I prepare journals and art supplies to accompany me. My mind thinks I will have time, much time to craft and read but in reality, I am exhausted at the day's end and can barely have dinner before I am lost to the evening. The night becomes only about sleeping.

I am excited at the same time to see a different place. To experience color and air that will infuse my work, especially my painting and drawing with new direction, new flavor. That part of journey is a bonus! Friends, I will see them too and I will once again feel I am part of my tribe, infused with the energy that comes from being with people who experience the same things you do.

For now, here are pictures of what I have made over the last week that will be part of my display in Tucson. I am designing with a palette of colors in orange, yellow, turquoise, sapphire blues, deep browns, blacks,  and earthy reds. Much of my jewelry display will be deeply painted with these colors.

Now as I head into dreamland, I will think and perhaps even dream of my coming Tucson trip. On giant winged crows, I fly into a new show in a favorite location, The Windmill Inn in Tucson. I have not stayed there for several years but I suspect that living there for a couple of weeks will feel like an old friend has welcomed me back. Plus there should be some sunshine!

Oh my, but it has been a long time since I posted on this blog! So much has happened and I have felt so busy that by the time my day ends, I drop off to sleep in my chair while knitting at night. Getting ready for my annual trek and selling adventure in Tucson takes most of my free time and exhausts me. Crazy girl, all I seem to do is work in the shop and get all my little charms ready for the show. Now, it is mid late evening and my family calls to me to watch a movie with them. How can I say no? Posting on the adventures of these past weeks will have to wait until tomorrow or later or sooner. I will write again! xo

Maybe it is because this current year is ending or the new one beginning but I am feeling a teensy bit lost. I have had a surge of creativity and I have been rocking it but now all I want to do is sit and watch mindless programs on television and knit. I am seeking the comfort of the familiar and knitting relaxes me, removes my stress and helps me cope with the things on my mind.

What else to say as the new year approaches? I am thinking of resolutions of course, changes to the current way things are. If I did everything one way in 2012, I want to do it another way in 2013. If I am in a rut, albeit a comfortable rut, I want to shake it up and do things differently. The universe will show me the way and the things I should be making changes to will come along.

First change this new year? I am not going to open the shop on New Year's day. It will be a studio day for me, to get things done for the shop before I launch myself at all the stuff that needs to be done for Tucson. After a day or so, it will be necessary to place my head to the proverbial grindstone and balance shop, home, Tucson and creative me time.

What will you do in 2013? I am open to your ideas so that maybe I can use them too. Perhaps there is something I should change but am not thinking of.

Here's to the best ever new year. A year of friendship, love, companionship and health. A year of life lived at a pace that makes all of us happy. Health, happiness, prosperity. I wish it all for you and me. Blessings abound. xo

" I will live in the past, the present and the future! " Scrooge repeated, as he scrambled out of bed. " The spirits of all three shall strive within me. Oh Jacob Marley! Heaven, and the Christmas time be praised for this! I say it on my knees, old Jacob, on my knees! "

It was not until I was an adult that I read Charles Dickens', A Christmas Carol. I have heeded the advice of all three of Scrooge's ghosts and tried to live my life in accordance with their lessons of forgiveness, charity, kindness and love. As a business woman, I have kept those very same lessons close to my heart. I can see clearly in my mind, the awakening of Scrooge both physically and mentally on Christmas morning and how the spirit of renewal coursed through his veins. I will always think of that at this time of the year and indeed, every day of my life.

Our holiday will be very quiet. Just Phil, Jacob and me exchanging gifts and feasting all day. We will watch a movie or two, take a walk, relax and hug each other many times today. For this day shall be the best ever, the Christmas we have survived the end of the world, the Christmas we are yet all together, the Christmas that is the memory of Jacob's youth.

Merry Christmas to all and the happiest ever of days to you! xo

We have been so stormy these past few days with lots of high winds and water over the bulkheads and even snow. Big, fat, wet flakes piling up, making me dream of white Christmases only to have the snow vanish in a short, short time. It is also the time of the year that I truly enjoy being in my shop. I like the smooth comforting energy of people getting ready for the holiday, making gifts, visiting their families in town and just hanging out. I don't quite have to get into the swing of things and get ready for the really big Tucson show and most of my Christmas to do list is pretty small so I can relax and enjoy people.

Now as the wind is howling outside my door, the rain pelting the window panes and I can feel myself getting drowsy, I will let you know that I am continuing to draw almost nightly in my little living room sketchbook. I am transported to another world where colors are plentiful, people are happy, everything seems to have wings and light and love and people do not go about slaughtering each other.

I am dreaming of a peaceful place where safety and love belong to all of us and are given freely like rain to the earth. In this time of peace and goodwill to men, I am praying that we all have a life of love, comfort, safety, friendship and peace.

You know what I am thinking tonight? That Port Townsend does not have enough Christmas lights around town. Neighborhoods and streets seem dark and that makes me sad. I drove around after work tonight, took a different route home to see lights and really there were not many. I hope more people, businesses and homes add more in the coming days. It is so dark this time of the year that the lights bring so much cheer into the community. As for us, Jacob has draped the entire house, studio and fences with lights. LED lights so things are bright and I smile each night as I pull into the driveway. Bless that kid and his creative use of a staple gun!

Speaking of Jacob here are the photos of the finished Christmas tree. He decorated it by himself and only used the gold balls and lots of lights. It is a very handsome tree! Smells fine, too.

I am still drawing most evenings while in the living room. This is a small colored pencil drawing that I took at an unusual angle with my camera. ( Hint: Santa: I need a new camera..... just saying..... )

A poorly taken picture but I liked the way my hand shadow played
across the surface of this sketch.

A jaunty angle - very Star Wars tablet kind of look.

So anyhow, the wall heater is working overtime, my eyes are getting drowsy and my novel, Zorro, By Isabel Allende is calling me. Off to dreamland with me.

It is very early morning here in perpetually gray Port Townsend. I just turned off the outside Christmas lights, well, at least half of them; left on last evening in a show of pure decadence. All through my childhood and well into my adult years. Christmas lights were never, ever left on overnight.

The Christmas tree, a noble spruce, way more noble than just in name, stands like an early holiday sentinel in the living room waiting for the storm that is Jacob to decorate it. I love the smell of a fresh tree but this year, I am enjoying the scent with just a hint of melancholy. In just a couple of short years, Jacob, my youngest child, my sweet last baby boy, will be leaving home for his adult adventures of college, work, travel and girls. There will be no one championing for a live tree, no young long, long arms to drape it in lights and ornaments. Change is in the air. I know it is an old song to sing but, time moves so quickly.

Knitting projects fill my basket by my leather chair all waiting to be finished as holiday gifts and stocking stuffers. Will I make it to the finish line? I don't know but however close I may come, each stitch was knit with love and thought of the person it was meant for. No more am I going to beat myself up for not finishing a project and Christmas can happen any day I give one of these finished gifts to someone who holds a close, close spot in my heart.

Anyhow, my warm bed and sleeping husband are softly calling to me and I think I will head on down the hallway and see if I can drift off to sleep in a land where children never leave you and your knitting is always done.