Tag: New Year

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New Year = New Website

Some people are all about spring cleaning, but I am a New Year cleaning kinda person. I take down the Christmas decorations and get all inspired by the uncluttered spaciousness of the house and I’m off! My studio always gets cleaned up for company in December because it is technically the formal living/dining space and we host Christmas dinner, so by the time January comes around, the studio is already in pretty good shape. But there is always room for some organizational improvement and the purging of hoarded “I might use this someday” art supplies! This year I tossed a bunch of old magazine and sorted through a pile of random packing materials and papers on a shelf of the workbench. Usually, that would be enough procrastinating and I could get back to making art, but noooo….

My arch-nemisis “Big Dumb Brain” decided that maybe Ink & Bone Alchemy should include a Society6 account in addition to the Esty shop. Oh and we should probably learn to use a new vector art program while we’re at it. And if it doesn’t seem like I hate myself enough, yesterday I decided to redesign my website!

oh. my. fucking. god. why??!!!

::deep breath::

::one more::

I’m fine. I only obsessed over it for a day and a half. What theme will best bend to my will? Galleries or pages? And I still am not sure how things should be organized! But I think I have the site looking and functioning close to what I wanted. I still have more new work to add (I’m going to have to warm up my scanner soon) and a shit-load of information to add to all the new galleries, but at least it is up and running again.

I was just informed today is Sunday, not Saturday like I thought. huh. I should probably shower.

I have also been buying/transplanting a bunch of plants. I obviously am not killing enough things in my new video game! #elfinikills #brownthumbforever #poorplantsneverdonenoonenoharm


One last Christmas procrastination to complete!

One last Christmas procrastination to complete!

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On your mark, get set, go!

Happy New Year!  (just a couple weeks late – not too bad considering my blogging track record)

Christmas is over and so is the club volleyball season. I would do a “no more volleyball” happy dance, but conditioning for the high school season starts next week. So yeah… the volleyball, unlike the holiday season, never ends. It just changes uniforms.

Hey, here is some great news for the new year – Chris has finished his last class and is getting his Masters Degree in Financial Services!! More alphabet soup to add to his business cards. CFP and MSFS – so proud of him!

I’m still working on my 20+ year AA plan. One of these days I’ll take that damn Speech class. Really! But this semester I’m sticking with Printmaking. Class starts on the 28th. Can’t wait.

In the meantime, thanks to Santa, I have the supplies to work in encaustic (painting with pigmented wax) at home and am trying to find my groove with this new medium.

Finished a piece I did at the Wax Works West class last Nov:

Photo Jan 03, 5 16 29 PM

And the new pieces I created:

Encaustic on 6"x6" cradled wood panel

"She Called Down the Moon" Encaustic on 9"x12" cradled wood panel

"Generic" Encaustic on 12"x12" Encausicbord

I also did a small mixed-media painting and have another panel started.

"Bull" Mixed-media on 9"x12" cradled wood panel

So yeah, I would say 2014 is off to a good start!

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Death Chicken ’08 Tour

1 ½ days left of 2008 and I’ve got to tell you, I can’t wait for this year to end. You may not have noticed, but it became painfully obvious to me earlier this month, that 2008 has been trying to kill me!

Seriously. This has been the unhealthiest year of my life. It all started with a small filling in March and the initial shot of Novocain that zapped my tongue. Which was followed by the horrible evil horrible horrible pain that eventually led to a root-canal. Fun. At least that stopped the pain. But then I noticed the cough. Remember the cough? It wouldn’t stop. And my old doctor just kept throwing asthma inhalers at me. New doctor gave me the “liquid gold” cough syrup and eventually the cough went away. But not my migraines. They were worse than ever! New doctor didn’t like that. Started experimenting with different drugs. Again – not so fun. A couple changes and the headaches seem to be behaving better. But then my eyeballs started to rebel. One pair of reading glasses later… and ’08 decided to break out the big guns. Kidney Stone from Hell. Damn. That was not cool.

Silly me, I thought I would end the year with a nice holiday wrap-up post and maybe some photos. I even managed to download my memory card into Lightroom last night and start editing. But ’08 isn’t over yet folks and it made one last attempt at taking me down by turning last night’s dinner into “Death Chicken”*. It even made a play on Kyle. Sharon thinks it is more likely the flu that is going around but whatever, I’m not going anywhere near those leftovers.

I got a Xmas card in the mail yesterday from Michelle, an old friend in Detroit. It is probably the best Christmas card I have ever received. It says, and I quote “This year sucked! Hope your’s was better…” I am preparing to write her a long letter.

And starting Thursday, in 2009 – the Year of Health and Happiness, there will be photos, Flickr updates, posts of happiness and joy! Yoga, climbing, and air in my bike tires. Hell, in 2009 I might even master that damn hula hoop!

* Rachel has already called dibs on ‘Death Chicken’ as her band name. She is fast.