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?