happy new year ... just a titch early ...

Here's what I have to say ... in all sorts of languages ..... 

Arabic: Kul 'aam u antum salimoun

Brazilian: Boas Festas e Feliz Ano Novo means "Good Parties and Happy New Year"

Chinese: Chu Shen Tan

Czechoslavakia: Scastny Novy Rok

Dutch: Gullukkig Niuw Jaar

Finnish: Onnellista Uutta Vuotta

French: Bonne Annee

German: Prosit Neujahr

Greek: Eftecheezmaenos o Kaenooryos hronos

Hebrew: L'Shannah Tovah Tikatevu

Hindi: Niya Saa Moobaarak

Irish (Gaelic): Bliain nua fe mhaise dhuit

Italian: Buon Capodanno

Khmer: Sua Sdei tfnam tmei

Laotian: Sabai dee pee mai

Polish: Szczesliwego Nowego Roku

Portuguese: Feliz Ano Novo

Russian: S Novim Godom

Serbo-Croatian: Scecna nova godina

Spanish: Feliz Ano Neuvo or Prospero Ano Nuevo

Turkish: Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun

Vietnamese: Cung-Chuc Tan-Xuan

...i especially like the brazillian one ... i got the info here .....

and here's a list of the top ten resolutions every year .... how many of them have you made in years gone by? ... i'm currently most inclined to 8 and 10 .... and i'm good at 2, so should be better at 3 than i am ...4, 5, 6, 7 are NO problem for me ... and 1 .. that's kind of all i ever do ... so ... that leaves 9 ... not a bad resolution to have by default ....

here's another list:

-my 2005 resolution was to clean a closet a month ... did that ... SO boring ... 

-my 2006 resolution was to read and journal about 100 books ... did that .... i thought i wanted to be a writer ... come to find out, i'm a great reader and an unmotivated writer ... why is that?

-my 2007 resolution was to play 500 games in the year ... did that ... SO fun ... got to 514 ....very good for my family to do that one ... fun, fun 

-my 2008 resolution was to complete 100 canvases in a year ... did that ... VERY good for me .. highly motivating ... i should just do it again, but that might be dull to do a redux .... 

-my 2009 resolution is, as of yet, undecided ...... should it be art? home? exercise? organization? self help? learning something? learning what? spanish, french, welding, spelunking (i'm not sure you can be a successful spelunker in this city), photoshop (YES, i do need to learn that), french cooking, belly dancing (i have a girlfriend who does this), video editing?  ... i've actually learned that quantifiable is very important .... to make the resolution specific .... 

i started this list at 2004 cause i don't remember before that .... they were all boring, probably ... except the one year that i read the WHOLE bible... 1999ish .... don't ask me any questions about it though ... i was reading FAST and sleepy most of the time ... 

SO... two questions for you to ponder through the new year ... 

what resolution should i have this year ... 

AND

what resolution will YOU have this year ....  and don't say my resolution is to not have any resolutions .... where's the fun in that one ... if you don't want a hard resolution, make a fun one ... like eating chocolate every day .... or like going to 20 movies this year ... or to bungee jump ... or to write a dream journal .... or .... well ... go ahead ... resolve away ... i'm listening ..... 

ho ho holiday happy ....

ahhhhhhh .... 

we had a lovely christmas time ... 

so lovely that i can't pry myself off the couch and get my camera and load the pics onto my computer to show you a thing ... 

GROOVY

so ... instead ... i shall say ... my WAY grooviest gift was THIS .... i actually got one, not loaded with pics, from santa ... and i gave THREE .. one to mr.e.beck.artist, one to my mom and dad, and one to mr.e's mom and dad .....so there were four of them ... i had loaded mr.e.beck artists with 100 pics from the year ... and there they are across the room flashing away ... every once in a while this evening , someone would shout "look at THAT one" .... boy.beck.artist actually said, it's interesting that there are only good pictures on here .... he hadn't figured out that, duh, i only put on good pics .... ha! 

happy

my happy one was from little.e.beck.artist ... she gave me a gift certificate .... on it she said she'd come get in bed with me on sunday and wednesday mornings ... i'd recently bemoaned the fact that she used to come slip into my bed EVERY morning and that now she hardly does it all .... she was willing to give me twice a week ... that's pretty good, right? 

cool

my coolest gift was yard art ... a giant metal flower and a fish .... i'll take pics for you .... soon .... well ....soonish?

so? did you get a gift? two gifts? many gifts? 

what was your favorite ... which was coolest ..... which was grooviest .... which made you happy?

happiness to you and yours .... 

count down to christmas ....

one last thing on my 2008 art list of things to do ... finish one last commissioned piece that is meant to be a christmas gift ... whew! did i ever procrastinate that one .... even when i had the time to get it done, i didn't... even when i knew life was about to go crazy and that i needed to get moving, i didn't ... but now ... with just days to spare ... done ... finally ... whew ... and ahhhhhhhhhhhh ... what a relief ... this was commissioned by a mom for her daughter .... has been delivered, and by now, is probably wrapped and under the tree ... 

what groovy things have you put under the tree? my grooviest thing has not been delivered yet! eep!!! but i have faith it will arrive tomorrow ... right? 

my family did get three different types of christmas treats made today... three kids, three different baking tasks ... thank heavens for the grandma! ....

ok ... what's the grooviest gift you are giving ... and what your one last thing you'd like to get done before christmas .... 

rockin' now ....

we are rockin' the christmas thing at my house now ... 

we FINALLY got a christmas tree .... with less than a week to go .... it is up and lit and decorated and lovely .... not too charlie  brown at all, considering it was child picked, child lit, and child decorated ... mr.e.beck.artist and i participated, but we were absolutely not in charge ... but you'll have to wait on pictures of that .... cause i have rocks ....  the promised rocks! 

these are three of the four commissioned pieces i am doing ....

 

they are well coated in polyurethane, so they should stand up to weather if they end up being outside... they are rocks, ya know? i'm not sure if they are going to be domesticated rocks and stay inside now ... you can get a good close up of them over on flickr ....

i have one more commissioned piece to do .... a small canvas similar to this one .... 

my nicest news of the day is that my christmas cards arrived ... with less than a week til christmas ... now the trick is getting them out! oh my! ....we'll go with "better late than never" ....and now that i've bought them, and love them, never is not an option! .... so that's now on my list of things to do ... wow, that list is long!

so a bit of art .. a bit of christmas ... a bit of busy, busy, busy .... 

what christmas business did you accomplish today?

just another thursday ...

the big kids had their last exams today...

all three kids are out for break as of today... 

it was HOT here today.... 

mr.e.beck.artist is home from an away trip today ...

i worked on an art project today ... 

i'll show you a pic tomorrow .... 

it's a rock.....

really...

well...

not really ... 

it's actually three rocks ... 

well ... 

three commissioned rocks ... 

how odd is that? 

finally... getting a little merry .... at long last ....

oh!

i'm finally getting into the christmas spirit ... as evidenced by:

1.  took the dog to the groomer ... so that she's not just clean for the grandparents' visit, but she also has tiny green bows with stockings on them ... 

and i believe she is finally settling into the rental house ... she's not quite so restless and out of sorts .... 

2. boy beck artist and girl beck artist got out of school at noon today because of exams .... and i took them out to lunch... bagels .... and we got little.e.beck.artist a candy cane shaped bagel while we were there ...

 i gave it to her when i picked her up at 3 ... she was VERY excited and asked if she should save it to show daddy .... hence, the picture! ... no honey, go ahead and eat it ....

3. i wrapped 21 gifts this afternoon .... teacher gifts and friend gifts ....

click here to see what is inside the wrapping .... 

AND ... click this link to go to flickr and see my wee notes all over the pic ... i explained the what's what ....

so ... ho ho ho ... what merry thing did you accomplish today?

ho ho ho .....

for lack of art to show you, i have a christmas tree i did last year ....

tomorrow, i am going to dig my way into my studio space and my christmas nook, and find this piece, and hang it up here in my rental house ... 

heidi, that cute every day cookie girl, was wondering about the lack of blogging on my part ....

three days ago, on saturday, we moved! to a beige blah brown rental house ... a rental house that is perfect in its size and price .... and oh so wron

g for colorful me! ... but beige will just have to do for a bit ..... i have a six month renovation going on at my real sunshine happy house .... we are updating the kitchen, growing the family room, and finishing the attic with two bedrooms and a bathroom ... the tricky part there is that there are no stairs to the attic, so the very nice architect figured out how to do it .... and the very nice builder is going to do it ... 

the whole renovation thing has been chugging along as an idea for TWO years ... now BOOM it's real all of a sudden .... it went from a notion to a flat out fact in the blink of an eye ... or so it seems .... and now i'm in it up to my ears ... unpacking and settling in at the rental house ... taking DOZENS of trips to goodwill .... and trying to get my sweet family some semblance of a christmas celebration ..... life is a whirlwind and art and blogging (which are linked in my life) have screeeeeeeched to a stand still .... oops! 

so, let's take a moment and talk about appliances, shall we? 

i spent my morning at an appliance store .... 

you probably know about dishwasher drawers already, right? 

that's kind of new and funky ... 

but did you know they have microwave drawers now? 

how weird is that? 

my question was, when someone microwaves nachos and the salsa explodes all over the microwave, how do you wash the TOP of the inside of the microwave drawer .... clearly the sales guy has never had a salsa incident .... 

so .... what's your favorite appliance in your house ... that you really like .... 

and....

what appliance are you unhappy with in your life, which one needs an upgrade? 

not that anyone should be giving you an appliance for christmas!

5.....4......3.....2................

i'm moving tomorrow ... 

big truck, on the way ... 

boxes everywhere ... 

took the first hand-toted load this evening .... 

the kids and the husband saw the rental house for the FIRST time (trusting souls they are) ..... 

little.e.beck.artist danced around like a lunatic (i searched for a better metaphor but came up empty) ...... 

she was thrilled to have been given a bigger room than the boy.beck.artist or girl.beck.artist .... 

then we went out to dinner and i asked:

since we are having a pared down christmas, what is it that you NEED to have in order for christmas to feel complete for you .... 

mr.e.beck.artist: cookies, lots of cookies

little.e.beck.artist: cookies and setting up some of the nativities in the new house

girl.beck.artist: a real christmas tree with ALL the lights (we sometimes skimp) and ALL the ornaments (i'd asked if half was ok...no)

boy.beck.artist: i don't know ... it'll be fine however it happens (i think he didn't want to say presents!)

and me? christmas will happen whether we are ready or not ... boxes or not (really, the question is how many boxes, no if boxes) ..... and whatever we can get going for it, that's what i want ... clearly it will be a tree, mangers and cookies .... and presents ... sounds perfect, right? 

now, to get moved so we can get on with the christmas thing .... 

ho ho ho .... oh!

woof woof

this video clip cracked me up .... 

how's your christmas prep going?

i bought a gift today .... 

a slow start ... but a start .... 

my duck wrangling is not going smoothly! ...

so ... i have lists upon lists upon lists ... 

one of those things on my list is art time ... for some commission work ... eep! ... and i keep skipping that one because i've trashed my studio ... as i pack up the house, anything i don't want to drag along to the rental house, i stash in the studio ... mostly on the "other side" but occasionally on my working side ... which has become my not-working-so-much-side .... between christmas and moving, the art is so falling by the wayside! ... double eep! .... 

just to give you a little glimpse ... the packing and the art and the getting my ducks in a row are being hindered by so much ... in the last 48 hours: four basketball games, the second grade evening christmas program, the social studies fair ( the ziggurat and the porch of the caratyadids are entire blog posts unto themselves!) , the dog's second birthday, and that pesky trip to the the ER at the children's hospital ..... not broken, just a jammed thumb and strain/sprain in a brace .... 

tra la la .... so ... in case i am not up to your amusement standards ... here's a link to a very funny video .... 

stay tuned ... i have to do that commissioned art eventually, huh.... or i could show you pics of my boxes .... 

quack quack

...i'm just trying to get my ducks in a row .... 

and i have way more ducks than usual .... 

i got christmas packages mailed .... 

i've done most of my holiday shopping .... 

but ... hmmmmm 

i've not even hung a wreath .... 

not baked the first cookie ..... 

no tree ... 

no decking my halls....

no christmas card.... 

no fa la la la la ..... 

uh oh! .....

and lest you get the wrong idea, i'm SO NOT a scrooge ... 

rather .... 

i'm moving .... 

packing.... 

undecking my halls .... 

moving this weekend coming up in fact ... 

just really decided at thanksgiving ... 

to move in two weeks .... 

which is now four days ... 

eep!

so ... getting those ducks in a row ... 

and packing them in the  100 or so boxes that i have going ....

so ... moving on saturday ...

and starting the fa la la la la on sunday ... 

ok?

off to wrangle the ducks ... 

yoinks!

feel free to send me an email or leave a  comment to holler at me!

e, where are you?

e, why aren't you posting? 

e, are you doing art?

e, did the turkey day triptophan do you in all together?

e, did you shop on black friday and not make it home yet? 

go ahead ... ask me a question .... i'll answer it....  or hadn't you noticed i've been preoccupied!

knit knit knit

i think i have more than two feet of scarf .... i really had no clue what i was doing when i started .... and not know more ..... i made it 30 stitches across .... which is maybe ten more than i'll do on the next scarf .... if i remember that information ten years from now when i start that next scarf project ..... so ..... i'm more than half way done ..... it's been a nice activity in the hubbub of a very full holiday house .....

hope your holiday weekend has been lovely! 

gobble gobble

on thanksgiving, sometimes you can be the main chef ... in charge of everything....the turkey, the timing, the menu ... sometimes you are the second in command, being the main chef's right hand man, knowing what to do before you are asked .... sometimes you are a helpful third ...maybe making pies, doing as bidden .... and sometimes ... like me today? you are fourth .... i'm not in charge of anything ... but i peeled potatos, chopped celery and onions, helped set the table ... in charge of nothing .... just the way i'd choose! when i am at my own home for a holiday? i'm a bossy number two ... my husband is a better chef and enjoys it more .... so i just grocery shop and tell him what we're having and he does the number one spot .....i'm a grand onion slicer ... i'm a fine potato peeler ... a happy table setter ..... and even a capable dishwasher ..... for the chance to be all these things for the people i love is my greatest blessing today .... that ... and the pumpkin pie ... can't forget the pumpkin pie when you are counting your blessings ....

in my free time between kitchen chores, i've been knitting, as donna guessed ..... i'm half way through that skein of yarn now ....

hope your day of thanksgiving is lovely .....

what's your favorite bit?

two days til thanksgiving .....

i had two shows this week that carried my art .... they were fine .... but certainly not great ....there were lots of "it's the economy" comments..... the best news is that this large canvas sold ..... three feet square ..... it is always extra nice to sell a big one ..... my thought is: if someone likes my art enough to have that big an e statement, that it is a bigger complement than just having a petite painting ..... so there you go ..... 

hope your turkey plans are coming along ..... hope you have an artsy plan in your immediate future ..... check back in soon .... i have a new endeavor to show you .... here's a hint .....

pictures!

this pic is from a couple days ago ... every fall the trees in the median in front of my house turn FLAME red .... lots of people stop and pick up leaves .. this year a family was taking posed photos with the trees ..... little.e.beck.artist asked if she could take a picture of me and the tree ... so there you go ... just by serendipity, i was wearing the groovy toovy scarf that jeannie knit for me .... was it last year? or two years ago ... i feel like i've had more than one winter of wearing it .... but i'm not sure ....

clearly, dixie the wonder dog was not cooperating and smiling for the camera ....

and .... because i was wearing cute shoes, i didn't crop them out .... again ... different shoes though ... 

those are orange lands end shoes ... new this winter .... cute, huh? or .. cute for a girl with a thing for orange shoes ... and those six canvases hadn't been photo'd yet ..... they were done to be teacher gifts .... but i've put these all in a second show... i'd just put price tags and such on them ... i currently have two art displays at two different events ... both run through sunday .... this one below, i set up today .... it is at the episcopal cathedral in atlanta ... about 100 artists i'd guess ..... the proceeds go to supporting work of our hands, an episcopal art ministry ...... 

.... i just took two grids for displaying .. and guessed the right amount to take to hang ... i'm getting pretty good at my estimating how much can hang .... 

below is a collage i did on commission ....the bible verse is from isaiah .... you can read about it on my flickr here ..... it's a sweet little story ... and i'm happier with the end result now that i've seen the buyer's reaction ... i was a titch worried about it ....not confident .... i liked it, but with such specific notions in the buyer's head, you just can't be sure that the art will match the idea .... 

so ... i've been busy ... painting for me .. painting for others .. trying (with so much effort) to be the organized artist who can do two shows at once ........

not sure what art tomorrow will bring ..... but i'm certain there will at least be a bit! 

time flies!

where has the time gone? 

i never go this long without a post unless i'm out o'town .... and i'm here!! 

i guess the long slide to the end of the year has tilted a bit ... cause life seems all a whirlwind ... 

here's a quick post so you know i'm still doing art ... 

i originally did some of these to be teacher gifts ... then i put them in a show ... and now, i'm putting more in another show! .... so i need to see if they sell ... and then i need to make more to be the teacher gifts if they did sell .... 

please notice the groovy toovy shoes .. i bought black mary janes .... and wear them with coolio socks .... tra la la .... 

come back SOON for a longer post and way more pics! 

set up ....

this is my set up for the home show .... i was the first one to set up in this room ..... it is the dining room of a spec home .... there will be 90 artists and vendors ... that's a ton .... i'll have to go back when it opens cause i can't even really imagine that big a show in a house .... 

i'm pleased with how my display looks ... right amount of bigs and smalls ..... i was pretty close on guessing the right amount to fill up the space .... a couple collages are propped at the bottom ... those were my overflow .... 

i'm dropping off this week for yet another show ... my favorite kind! ...drop off .... let someone else sell them ..... go back and pick up some art and a check ...no complaints ..... 

hope you are having a great weekend .... we are having a dinner party tonight ... the best kind ... all old friends ... we took all the extraneous shoes from under the coffee table and set the dining room table ..that's the extent of our cleaning ...not too bad, huh? 

the weather is windy and chilly here ..... fall is in full force .... what's it like there? what are you doing fun this weekend? 

this and that and an invitation ....

i got only a little art done today ... but i got a LOT of other stuff done... 

let me tell you a story .... 

i am messy ... i think that's been established in the last 400 and something blog posts .... my children? pretty messy as well ... but ... to varying degrees .... 

all of the closets are kind of a disaster .... due to that seasonal transition thing when there are suddenly too many wrong things on the primo shelves .....

so, last weekend, i gave each kid a giant trash bag and said, we are going to donate all our outgrown and unloved things in our closets .... i need you to each go to your closets and find 30 things to give away .... moans, groans, sighs, complaints ... and they trudged up the stairs to their messy closets .... and then we have a personality study....

first born ... girl.beck.artist .... perfectionist, over achiever .... she went to the closet ... counted out her 30 giveaways .. and then kept going .... cleaned off every shelf, gave tons away in not one, but two bags .... and had tidy pile of good stuff to hand down to the little sister ....

second born ... boy.beck.artist ... rule follower, don't work harder than you have to .... he got thirty things ... exactly ... no more, no less .... 

third born ... baby, life is a party, extrovert, "i have to do it alone!??" ..... she went to her closet ... and soon after the boy was done, she came stomping out of her room ... how'd it go, honey? got 30? .... and she started to wail ... sob ... cry .... I CAN"T DO IT! ...... 

today? i cleaned that closet ALL morning long ... it is a place of wonder now .... she came home form school and was stunned ... and has pledged her eternal gratitude, she'll keep it clean forever ... or maybe two whole weeks .... and she'll try not to outgrow stuff so fast .... what more can i ask for? 

i also spent what would have been painting time, working on my inventory for this show ... 

i have a drop off tomorrow morning, then they keep the pieces, do the show, sell my stuff ... and then when i go back in a bit more than a week, they give me a check and what i didn't sell .... 

i actually have two shows like this on the same weekend ... so it is good that i have a big inventory at the moment .... that new years resolution is really working out for me .... 

so that's my day .... how 'bout you? busy? not so busy? work hard? not so hard? 

fa la la redux ....

today? more or less the same as yesterday .... 

i procrastinated working on my commissioned piece, but i got working on 20 canvases .....
i got 10 six inch squares papered, glazed, and ornament circle attached .... i blacked the edges, but haven't made the big circles into actual ornaments yet .....i also did 10 canvases that are 12 inch squares ... i did five red and five green .. and cut out big circles to be the ornaments on them... but haven't attached them yet .... 

so ... 20 canvases started today .. crazy huh? allison got here at nine ish .... so we started earlier than usual ..... then when she left? i put in another couple hours ..... i'm feeling absolutely gleeful about having such a great start on my christmas to do's .... i have two shows coming up, and i'm thinking i have enough of these going on that i'll put some in the shows ... they aren't time consuming to make, so even if i sold a bunch, i'd have time to make more for christmas gifts ... right? 

and lest you think all i do is paint any more ..... i've also started internet shopping for christmas ... but ... just like real life in the store shopping, it is hard not to buy stuff for yourself ..... i did get a lot of online shopping done ... but my best purchase was this pair of orange shoes ... orange shoes are the personification of happiness to me ... you can't be grouchy in orange shoes ... i'm sure only happy people buy orange shoes .... one day, i'll write down my life philosophy and i'm sure an important part of it will be the orange shoe manifesto .... 

what shoes make you happiest? 

fa la la la la la la la la .... sing it now .....

yesterday, by the numbers? i said i'd work on sixteen canvases .... that was wrong .... so sorry ... i meant i'll complete 14 canvases ...... yup ... that's right .... the 15th and 16th pesky canvases just didn't happen ....i was too busy being happy and yippeezy about the first 14 ..... 

here, have a look see .....

you can see all the six inch squares ... i covered them in dictionary ...then glazed them .... 5 red, 5 blue, 4 green .....then i took a short cut .... in fact ... i do something i NEVER do ... i went crafty instead of artsy .... and it felt GOOD .... i took cute scrapbook papers and cut out circles .... instead of creating and designing my own papers, palettes and designs, i used ones that were just sitting in my drawer ..... and poof... instant christmas ornaments.....

i used my favorite glaze, raw umber, to outline the circle and put an ornamenty loop at the top.... so today, rather than doing the big artsy thinky thing .... i just had a notion and did it again and again ... and it was easy ... and i think they are cute .....while i was doing the only taxing part, the outlining (my outlines are a titch on the squiggly side)...while i was doing the outlining, i thought about how to make them special .... i thought about a coat of glitter paint for some sparkle ... i thought about personalizing them with a family name ..... the becks ....or ... i could personalize them with first names ..... and give one to each child in a family .... all sorts of notions .... 

so ... for starters, i think these will be teacher gifts for my kids' teachers .... 14 isn't enough though .. so i'll have to keep going .... 

today i did art with allison .... and she left all of the pieces she was working on here ...and is coming back in the morning ... more art ... rah! ..... perhaps i'll make 14 more ... or maybe i'll work on the commission piece that i was supposed to have worked on today!!!! ...hmmmmm .... i know full well what i'll do tomorrow .... ho ho ho ..... 

so ... have you started making christmas things? or christmas plans? 

the number game ....

today ... by the numbers ... 

35 ... temperature when i woke up .... 

5 ... number of minutes i moaned about how cold it is

1 ... number of seconds it took me to decide NOT to go to a tennis clinic

65 ... temperature when i finally played tennis

1 ... o'clock ... when i played

7 ... loads of laundry today (5 completed, 1 in drier, 1 in washer still)

45 .. number of minutes spent in my art studio (wah! measured in minutes not hours!)

4,372 ... number of art projects i dreamed up 

15 ...number of canvases i am going to start tomorrow ..... !!!! 15 !!!! (worth repeating) ... i plan to start my christmas this and thats ..... i try to give many of my gift recipients crafty stuff or canvases ... rather than shopping .... 

2 .. number of online shopping trips i've taken .... i started christmas shopping this week! 

2... number of times i've emptied the dishwasher today .... you know you are in housekeeping trouble when you empty the dishwasher, fill it, and run it again, all in five or so minutes .... 

2... number of photos i am going to show of you of my HUGE fish canvas ... in its new happy home ... a lake house .... 

2 .... number of MY pieces of art that i see in this picture .. the heartstrings i sold about a year ago ... 

237 ... number of blogs i plan to visit tonight ... i am woefully behind on visiting my favorite cyber spots .... but i've gotten my blog posted early, so i'm good to go .... 

let me know if i owe YOUR blog a visit!

what are some of your numbers today? 

what color do you think a feather boa should be?

i am going to a party tonight at church ... a fund raiser ... an auction ... a dinner party ... you buy a table and decorate it yourself .... the tables are meant to be for eight ... but that seemed not enough to me, so i got a double wide ...instead of an 8 seat round table, i got two big ole tables together ...and invited seven other couples to sit with us at our double wide .....i went over this morning to decorate mine early .... 
someone this morning, while i was decorating, said, i wish i understood how your brain works .... how'd you think of that ... and the simple answer is, i have no idea .... the table decorating is a contest .... so in my brain i knew there needed to be some effort .... but i didn't have much effort to give ... i was sitting in my kitchen ... i saw three small bobble headed birds in my kitchen (gift from a groovy sis in law) and decided those were more fun than flowers or candles .... then though, oh, i have big bobble headed birds in my yard ... and that table is going to be big ... and there you go ... one small leap took me to feather boas .... and with little thought and less effort, this tabletop decor is suddenly noteworthy ... probably not the best, the funniest, the prettiest ...but certainly the biggest! ... and perhaps the oddest ... though i've heard about some others, and this might not be the oddest ... we'll see ... 

think of me tonight ... i'll be wearing a feather boa ... 

here's a story ....

here's an arty story ... 

on saturday morning, i woke up early, had breakfast, went to the high school where i was participating in an art festival, price tagged my big paintings, tidied, chatted with best pal and art neighbor at the show allison, and waited for the event to begin ... ta dum ... begin ... at 8.45 there was a loud speaker announcement :if you are not a vendor, please exit the building..... and some milling about folks left .... then at nine o'clock, the gym doors swooshed open and in a flurry and a frenzy, a kabillionjilliontrillion rushed in .... oh, we've started ... and within seconds, a woman dashed into my booth and said I MUST HAVE THAT not to me but to her shopping pal , her daughter i believe ... then she pointed to another and another of my six inch canvases .... and that and that ... i want them .... hooray, i said to myself ... then ... she looked at me and said I AM IN A HURRY .... ok .... and she started picking up and sorting and chatting and figuring and about ten times she said I"M in a hurry ... and i took paintings and hung them back up if she decided no and held onto them if they were ones she seemed interested in ... and she I AM IN A HURRY kept shopping and lookin ... for a good two or three minutes .... yes, these four will go together on the wall of the cabin and I AM IN A HURRY .... and then she turned around in the booth away from the wall of small and saw this: 

I AM IN A HURRY and i want that one ... oh, you want this big one instead .. no I AM IN A HURRY and i want it as well as these .... ok .... and she wrote a check and she said, can you hold these for me for a bit .... yes... and i got a bag, and i held them for a bit thinking SHE IS IN A HURRY ... and she didn't come back .. huh, i wonder if she was in such a hurry that she forgot them? ... so i stashed them away and went on with my day ... then, HOURS later, she returned .... carrying more bags, to retrieve my art .... i think she'd been shopping all that time .... not leisurely shopping ... I AM IN A HURRY shopping .... do you think she went to all the booths in her happy frenzied flurry? 

no matter, she loved my art, and bought five canvases ... lovely start to that day! 

come here to go there ...

rah ... thanks for coming to peep at my blog today ... 

but i'm sending you to my flickr .... 

go look at this set of paintings, check them out .... and then come right back .... 

go ... 

didja go? ... 

are you back now? ... 

did you look?

whadja think? 

that's pretty good huh? 

were any of them surprises?  ... like, i can't believe someone wanted that one.... 

was one of them a fave ... one that you remember from when i first blogged it? 

my busy day got away from me and i'm blogging very late for me .... i spent too much time organizing my photos on flickr .... had to find the ones i'd sold ... anyway ... it is late .. and again today, i promise that tomorrow i'll tell you some art show stories ... really ... 

election day

happy election day .... 

no matter who you are voting for or want to win, it is an historical day (a historical? that's probably right, but i like an historical) ... both sides have a FIRST ... first woman ... first black man .... either way, it seems that our democracy is making some headway ..... 

my weekend was disproportionately huge to the rest of this week ... i'm still yawning ! .... we had five guests spend the night for halloween .... and then i had an art show all day saturday .... and it went great .... it was different than other years .... SO busy in the morning ... kinda dead in the afternoon ... but i still made some big sales in the afternoon .... all in all, successful .... though i'm always a bit surprised but what does and doesn't sell ..... 

i still haven't unpacked anything ... or gone through my receipts and records and such ... once i do that, i'll tell you some details, stories and such .... 

in the meanwhile ..... a photo .... 

first ... an oh-no .... i am pointing to the m ... it is missing ... clearly it still works ...mmmmmmm ..... even though it is just a wee rubbery nubbin ... ew ... nubbin is a yucky word .... alas, i think i've been too busy to drag myself to the apple store to get it fixed ....or even find out if they can fix it .... i'm not REALLY that busy ... but i tell myself i am ... clearly it is just a low priority ... it hasn't even made my list of things to do .... 

the other thing interesting about the photo? didja notice? YES .... i believe yes, you did ... sunday morning, my class was doing another story from life is a verb (remember that phase when all i ever did was read this book and talk about it? well ... i'm still in that phase!) ... we did the story called wear pink glasses .... and one of the actions was to write yes on your hand ... be positive, take charge, take a chance, be brave, be open, say yes ..... well... that was my class's interpretation of the story ... and it is an art journaling class .... and there were sharpies right there .... and i made a nice big purple yes (the directions were for black, but where's the fun in that) .... and then thought ... i don't even like purple ... the next day i went over it in green ... now it's blue ... sharpie wears off surprisingly fast! ..... so .. we're meant to wear this yes on our hand for 37 days ... i'm not sure my attention span is long enough for that! .... but i'm guessing i might be able to do a week or two ...or three? we'll see ... no pressure ... it is what it is .... 

so ... when you have a big ole YES on your hand? other people might FRIGHTEN you with how loudly they read it to you .... on sunday a waitress got VERY close and said YES ... right at me .... i cowered and said, yes what? .... she pointed to my hand and giggled .... relieved, i giggled too .... anyway ... loads of people see it and shout it ... quite odd! 

my children walk up to me, swing my hand to right in front of their face, ask the hand if they can have some halloween candy .... then say thanks and walk away ... all cause my hand says yes ... ha ....  

oh ... one more interesting thing ... 

go peek at this post .... do you remember it? 

i sold that painting ... whew!

ok ... back to the election ...i voted last week because i had a jury summons for today .... luckily, i was number 558, and they only called up jurors to number 132 or so .... i'm sure if i hadn't voted last week that i would have had to go to the courthouse today! .... so ....  did you vote? was it easy? 

friday night special

i do love halloween ... it just makes the kids SO happy .... what's not to love .... 

there were 13 kids here by six o'clock.... most had dinner here and then impatiently waited for it to get dark .... 

we had a big mile stone ... the big kids went walking with pals, without grown up supervision .... 

we have five extra kids spending the night .... the candy consumption is still going at a break neck speed at 9.30 .... 

the dog was dressed as tinkerbell ....  

but enough of that ... on to the important art stuff ... prior to the halloween festivities, i set up for an art show tomorrow .......here are pics of my booth .... 

that's me sitting at the table in my booth ... really, the only reason i need a table is to have a place to hide stuff underneath! .... i'll put a few pieces and my cards out on it ... there are two stools behind it ... boy.beck.artist was my HERO today ... he helped me set up ... the last thing we did before dashing off was take these pics on my phone ... 
this is a shot of behind the table, and the back of my front panel .... 

this one shows my sign up at the top ... and then all those little canvases i've done in the last few months ... 

here you can see the HUMONGO painting that i did for a show .... it is bigger than one of my panels ... 

and this last pic, you can see what it looks like walking up to my booth .... 

now i just have to get all these kids to go to bed so i can get a good nights sleep before my long day tomorrow .... 

tra la la and trick or treat .... 

do yo have big weekend plans? 

fan mail

i've had some happy moments and want to put them in writing ... so they'll last even after i forget them ..... and i've chosen here to write them ..... 

yesterday, i wrote an email to a friend .... who i had heard some good things about .... and though i loved him already, it made me appreciate him more ... so i told him .... it was kind of like fan mail... to someone who probably didn't expect fan mail from moi .... he wrote me back a very kind email ... 

then... whaddddaya know ... i got fan mail ... from someone i don't really know ... i know who she is and that she's lovely ... but we aren't more than acquaintances .... but she did some connect the dots and figured out that she taught my daughter, admired my art that some of her friends have, and that i was the teacher of a class she had been wanting to be brave enough to take .... all separate things that aren't really separate at all .... they were all me .... so ... i got the nicest email ... and sent back a lovely email ... and there you go ... 

i think YOU should write someone fan mail ... a pal, a kid, a relative, a teacher ... someone who wouldn't expect it .... it can be short ... just tell them you were thinking about them and how groovy they are (unless you don't use groovy as liberally as i do ... you can use your own favorite adjective)

happy day to you .... go make someone happy with just an email .... 

1 day to halloween, 2 days to art show, 3 days to curling up with the oh so lovely vampire book , breaking dawn

art? well ... not actually painting .... 

but i got nearly 80 canvases ready for my saturday show ...

made sure they were all signed, had painted edges, had writing on the backs .... 

then i made an inventory sheet ... with pictures ... since my titles are a bit quirky and repetitive, i don't really know what anything is called ... but i can keep track with a little pic of the art ... so that i can come home after the fest and keep my records of what has sold up to date .....

i loaded, with child labor, all the art into the car .... also loaded in the big metal grids that make up my booth walls .... 

i figured out the three extra paintings i had ... they were on my blog, but i'd never loaded them on my flickr site .... i use flickr as a catalog .... it dates when things were painted ..... if i'm looking for a particular painting i can find it in the appropriate set (like flowers, fruit, mona) ..... so ... these three canvases that showed up with no record of them .... i had to pour through the zillion and seven photos i have on iphoto .... and there they were .... and now they are on flickr ... and filed away appropriately ... you can see them here ... where i blogged them but apparently didn't remember to flickr them ... you might remember them ... i clearly did not .... 

tomorrow: 

-go to the bank, for change for the fest

-go to the grocery store for a post halloween breakfast (we have a bunch of spend the nighters)

-gather my art show stuff (pens,signs, receipts, duct tape, advil, mints....you know, the vital stuff)

-clean my house for a swarm of halloween dinner visitors... and spend the nighters .... 

-at 3, go set up my booth

-be home by 5.30 for dinner and halloween ghoul prep 

i'll try and blog tomorrow night so you can see what my booth looks like pre show .... if i don't have time to set it all the way up in my short window of time, i'll go in early saturday to finish ..... 

tra la la .... busy, busy, busy .... happy, happy, happy .... 

so ... new subject .... what are you passing out to trick or treaters? i usually buy something i don't love so i won't bet so tempted ..... this year i got smarties and a tootsie assortment ...neither a fave of mine .... both adored by my kiddos... though, i do adore the dots in the tootsie pack...but my fave? .... i love twizzlers .. hopefully i'll score a few from the kids when they get home tomorrow! 

happy halloween .... 

oh my!

....i'm doing a show on saturday ... which means set up on friday afternoon .... which is halloween .... adding a touch of frenzy to an already frenzied type of day! .... 

but for today ... i worked on a couple canvases ... didn't finish any .... and then tried to get organized for the show ... it sure would help me if i was JUST organized ... instead of trying to create organized with a deadline! .... 

i'm trying to make my inventory sheet and have three paintings that i have no record of ... they aren't on flickr ... i don't think i've blogged them ... they are just here .... magically mystically ... maybe elves painted them instead of going to the shoemaker's house? 

so i'll get pics of them tomorrow .... and post them here and on flickr ... i kind of use flickr as my inventory sheet ... i can tell when i painted something and find it easily by looking in the different sets ....

i made a fresh set today of the paintings that will be at the show this weekend ... check them out at this link ..... 

and i might finish another canvas tomorrow ... though i don't know if i have enough hours in the day actually ... a pediatrician appt (mono check), tennis match (foolishly in 40 degrees), haircut (i have a short do that needs cutting more often ... might need to rethink that!), and working on getting my ducks in a row for the saturday show .... oh sure, that sounds like i'll have time to paint .. uh huh ... i'll just keep telling myself that! 

do you work better busy? 

or do you thrive on empty days? 

125,126,127th canvas of the year .... i'm just gonna be proud of that for the rest of the year ... and wonder what next year's resolution will be ...

yippee!

i finished threeeeeeeee paintings today .... collages ... does it bug you when i call a collage a painting? when i call my mixed media creation a painting? 

anyway ... i digress ... 

monday morning was good for me! all of the last two weeks' otherness is gone ... today was just painterness.... artist stuff .... collage-0-rama ..... do you know i have a show this saturday .... a booth at a fest? a booth at a fest next door to my best artsy pal, allison? so, i've taken this week to procrastinate the actual organization that i should be doing to prepare ... and instead? just painting.... joyfully, happily, busily painting .... hopefully the organizational stuff will just fall into place later in the week ..... 

none of these three paintings started new today ... all of them have been in the process for while .... i started the grasses on this last friday ... and the background, i don't know when .... i think it is interesting to paint with white, i SO seldom do it ... and i actually have a commission piece in whites .... not sure how that's going to happen! you can read about these flowers here at my flickr site ....

this next turquoise one is an 18 inch square ... larger than most of the nest paintings i've been doing lately .... you can't tell well on this photo, but there is some blue running through the nest ... like some wee bird family had a go at someone's sweater .... and got some blue fuzziness in the nest for color, warmth, comfort and style .... who wouldn't want some blue yarn when it can serve so many purposes .... you can go visit this nest on my flickr .... 

and then ... one last collage ... a red pear .... on an 18 inch canvas .... the plan was a blue pear ... but blue wasn't popping on the background like i wanted .... i have all sorts of painted papers and i "try them on" my backgrounds while i'm searching for the right colors .... sometimes i find the right color and then have to decide what to make with it ... or sometimes i want a particular image, a pear perhaps, and look for what color it should be .... 

so there ya go ... my day .... three paintings makes me feel better about all those painting hours i skipped entirely while indulging my tennis obsession .....you'll be interested to know that it was in the 40s this morning ... and HUGEly windy .... and i skipped the tennis clinic i had planned to attend ... so, if i weren't such a cold weather sissy, i'd probably only be showing you one or two finished canvases .... 

so that's my story, morning glory .... and you? did you do anything grand today?

i learned something new today ....

it's always a little surprising when you have a revelation ... an epiphany .... an insight .... a recognition of something new .... 

now ... after that big build up ... the epiphany was petite .... and i maybe already knew it ... i just hadn't said it .... or thought it .... or put it out there as my very own fact .... 

the more you paint ....... the easier it is to paint .... 

the more you paint....... the more the ideas just zip through your brain .... 

the more you paint ....... the easier it is to sit in your studio all day and be highly productive ...

and  ... that said .... 

i have NOT been in a "the more you paint" phase ... and i had a very hard day, art wise ... real world wise, my day was blissful ... rainy day, didn't go anywhere, cute white dog at my feet, hanging out in the studio .... cruising the xm radio stations on the basement computer .... hanging out and doing a lot of cleaning and sorting and sketching and doodling and anything but commiting something to a canvas ..... it was really, really, really weird .....i just didn't have a painting in my soul for the entire morning ... i just dithered and fussed and talked to the dog ... 

side bar: we had baked potatoes with our dinner last night because i ADORE leftover potatoes for lunch ... they're just ok for dinner .... but for lunch? my fave ...... end side bar

so... after a morning of dither and bother and very few dirtied paint brushes ... i stopped for lunch ... and had a loaded baked potato, that, due to the fabulosity of microwaving, turned into a creamy, gooey divine mess of mashedness .... ah ... much better ... 

so, after lunch, i went back to the studio with the intention of finishing a painting before my kids got home from school .... and i did ... 

that's it ..... the flower on a yellow background ... i love that background .... it's all english/french dictionary pages .... i love french ... 

so, because i'd resolved to do a painting, i picked something easy ... but that's ok, right? ... and then ... i got a good go on a next one ... and i hope to finish it tomorrow ... we'll see if i can find the time ... or if i just dither it away! 

so... how 'bout you? had any revelations lately? artistic or otherwise? 

bad news, good news ...

the bad news? 

my tennis team lost today ... playoffs .... eliminated .... season over ... done .... wah! 

the good news? 

back to art as my primary daytime focus ... whew! .... i've been feeling guilt about doing art enough ... and i don't generally DO guilt ... such a waste of energy .....

so ... i even got home from tennis early today .... that's what happens when the pummeling is swift and decisive .... so ... i spent the afternoon puttering in my art studio ... the best thing i did was write a list of the grand things i'm going to do, artistically speaking, tomorrow .....

the other thing i did was work on my cow.... mostly with purple, of all things .... it was too light and bright so dark purple changed it a bit .... i need to work on the face and the pasture tomorrow ...they are both on my list .... 

if you go over to my flickr site, you can see this cow there with all sorts of notes on it when you run your mouse over it ..... 

expect grand art in tomorrow's post .... 

i'll do a grand blog tour tomorrow, as well ... i've been remiss in keeping up with everyone else's art ... go make something fab for me to see .... leave me a message if i need to start my blog hop at your house ... 

today was a gorgeous glorious sunshiney fall day .... and i spent about five hours of it outside .... and then i painted for a TINY bit .....

my tennis team won our playoff match today ..... have i told you how much i love tennis? ... oh ... wait ... it's an art blog ... art .... um.... i'm not putting in the hours lately! i would feel bad about that if i weren't having SO much fun playing tennis .... 

that said ... i had a titch of paint time today ... just working on backgrounds since i didn't have the time, the energy, or the focus to do foregrounds ...or to work on that cow that still needs finishing ..... 

i'd like to say, to those of you interested, that golden fluid acrylic raw umber is THE most important paint you can put in your studio .... 

it works well as a thin coating over a painting to unify it ... it works well in larger doses to tone down over zealous colors ... raw umber was my paint of choice today .... 

and ... to make things easier ... here's a coupon to jerry's artarama, my e-artstore of choice ..... 

the coupon code is M3F4 for 20 percent off any order .... and here's the link to get you shopping ..... while you are there, check out the edge brand of stretched canvases ... you have to buy multiples, bulk..... but they are well worth the price ... much more affordable here than any store i can find ..... 

happy shopping, happy painting, happy tennis ... oh wait... that's me ... 

hope you are having a happy week ... hopefully my tennis team will win again .. but if we don't, at least i'll get back to painting .....

sigh ...

at dinner tonight .... before the first middle school dance .... 

mr.e.beck.artist: so, are you going to dance tonight?

girl.beck.artist:no

boy.beck.artist:no

e.beck.artist: oh yes you are! if some sweet sixth grader is brave enough to ask you to dance, you have to say yes to be polite ..... 

boy.beck.artist: ok

girl.beck.artist: WHAT?

e.beck.artist: please be polite at your first dance .... 

boy.beck.artist: what if a seventh grade boy asks her .... 

e.beck.artist: then she has to ask him his name and then dance with him....

mr.e.beck.artist: what if an eight grade boy asks her ...

e.beck.artist: then she has to punch him in the stomach and run ...... 

i just picked my twins up from the middle school dance .... 

the boy danced ... but only when girls asked him .... and it was only slow dances .... 

the girl danced .... only when boys asked her .... slow dances and fast .... 

how do they grow up so quickly? 

slow dances, you worry cause you have to touch .... 

fast dances, you worry that you look goofy .... 

i think your dance preferences say a lot about you.... do you dance? 

oh dear!

oh dear! ... my dear blog readers! .... i am a post every day kind of girl ... and i haven't been ... am i frustrating you no end? i hope not ! .... 

it is a GOOD thing that i got my hundred canvases for the year done already ... for if i hadn't? i don't think i could ... life has overtaken art .... and i'm just not putting in the paint time ... 

i do have this..... 

and what should i do with it? whenever i see turquoise ... which i paint a LOT of lately... i want to put red on it .... but i might need to do a different color .... or ... i could do another apple ... i think i might be in the explore apples stage .... 

also, i do have this .....

.... but it doesn't really speak to me yet .... is it whispering to you ... if so, please tell me ......

usually, if i have non art stuff to say, i squeeze it in and then give you the art talk ... today ... 

i've hardly any art talk .... and here's the rest of my stuff .... 

girl.beck.artist? well, she ended up having mono after all .... now she's on restricted activity cause mono can cause spleen inflammation ... and you don't want to wreck your spleen ... who knew?  this has added much drama to my life, her tennis team, and her tryouts for the middle school basketball team (which, come to find out, is the main reason she even went to middle school)

boy.beck.artist? well, he has many gifts, but academics isn't one of them ... consequently school can be SO very hard ... but, he made the middle school b basketball team .... only 6 of 20(ish) sixth grade boys that tried out made it .... so he's very happy ... he needed a good thing .... he needed a good thing AT school .... 

little.e.beck.artist? i didn't think she'd EVER learn how to spell creature for her spelling test tomorrow.... but i think she's finally got it .... she's a funny one .... we were delivering dinner to a homeless shelter tonight ... before we left, she asked, when are we going to the orphanage? .... i am pretty sure she was planning on going shopping and getting a new family member .... she was really disappointed when i better explained what we were doing .... she was under the impression that orphans were homeless ...... you never know quite what is in their heads, huh? 

mr.e.beck.artist? he was in new york at the beginning of the week ... he went to MoMA ... and saw van gogh's starry night ... as well as other fabo van gogh's .... so very unfair that i, the art history major, did not go ... and the business guy, got to .... he did say he thought about me while he was there .. some consolation .... 

me.beck.artist? i've been a tennis girl lately ..... i'm in a team league ... and we've made it through the season and to the playoffs ... but ... i joined another league ... with just a partner ... and it overlaps, so i'm doing that simultaneously .... and practices ... and pick up games ... and suddenly i'm e.beck.tennis and only giving you two background canvases to look at on the blog .... alas ... i WILL do better, i just don't know when ... it depends on how far we get in the playoffs .... so ... less art time ... but not a bad thing ....

my other time consuming interesting something or other? we are talking about doing some home renovations .... and have plans and bids and all manner of hub-bub as we figure it all out .... it's another sucker upper of art-time .... so ... less art time ... but not a bad thing .... 

the dog? she's great .... calm, happy, predictable .... not interested in trying out for the basketball team ....no spelling tests ... no travel away from me .... she is currently wrestling with her scooby doo slipper ...... i think scooby is winning ....

my computer? ... missing the m key ... it 's a little squishy NUB instead of an m ... and the n is very tempermental ..... it's a laptop.... i can't just get a new keyboard ... clearly it did not effect my bloggability ... 

so that's what's up here ....what's up there? 

trick or treat and have an apple

i had a blissfully happy day ..... 

it started with little.e.beck.artist getting dressed in long shorts, a life is good tee, and pink cowboy boots .... that's my girl .... it's all about the cute shoes ..... 

..... so this is a blog post not about art ... but of the 13 reasons i didn't do art today... 

1... the kids had the day off from school ... 

2... girl.beck.artist (she's the big one, would NEVER wear pink cowboy boots) was actually healthy after nine or ten days of blechy sickness ....

3.... i took a lot of photos 

4.... errands ... uniform shop, target, party city, trader joe's .... 

5 .... who knew party city could take THAT long ... three children ... a basketball playing werewolf, a blue haired punk rocker, and an indian princess ... luckily everyone had the the bulk of their costumes from ages past .... we just needed accessories ... like wolf hands (who knew they'd have that?) and indian necklaces ... and hair dye .... 

6... going into the attic is always an adventure ... luckily boy.beck.artist likes the chore and handed down the halloween boxes ... we have three big ones! how'd that happen? 
7... we unpacked our halloween boxes ....
8.... we put pumpkins all over the house ....
9.... we used our potato head accoutrements to decorate pie pumpkins ..... 
10 ... we decorated the front porch ....
11 ... we decorated the front fence ....

12 ... we lined up tiny pumpkin heads in the front window .... if you look carefully at my reflection you can see the red devil headband i was wearing .... 

13 ... we bought a cd at target and i spent the afternoon dancing to the beatles with an indian princess ... did you know you can't get the beatles on itunes ... and it's michael jackson's fault?  .... boy.beck.artist explained it to me .... how does he know? why did he need to buy a beatles album ... of course i said yes ..... 

and here is a painting i finished yesterday ... but it was too wet to photograph .... 

it's an apple ... 18 inches sqare .... 
it's probably juicy and delicious ... no worms ... 

what did you do today? i hope YOU did art ... one of us should ...