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!