... and then christmas was over ...

i've had a lovely holiday ... how 'bout you ... 

i just spent my evening watching the star trek movie and editing my photos from the week ... 

luckily, kirk and spock, the young versions, saved the universe .... 

and ... luckily, many of my photos are going to be lovely reminders of a happy holiday ... 

here are a few of my faves (for lack or any art to put on this art blog that has gone woefully astray ... but we have a whole new year to solve that...)

here's my most lovely dog... little.dog.beck.artist ... posing like the perfect little thing that she is ... so that you can get a good look at her christmas outfit ..... she's wearing the hood down .... so you can see her eyes and her smile ....

here's mr.e.beck.artist .... doing what he does best ... taking care of all of us ... more specifically in this one, he's carving the roast beast .... (just like we are whos down in whoville ....) .... you can see little.dog.beck.artist watching carefully to make sure he does it right ....

... oddly ... here is little.e.beck.artist with a lampshade on her head ... wild christmas chez.beck.artist ......
.. and boy.beck.artist, little.e.beck.artist, and girl.beck.artist in what i have been told will be the last matching pajama picture .... but i'm not taking that .... 
 ... and here is a photo of new dish towels in my favorite colors .... i told someone that it was one of my favorite gifts ... i do like my new tennis racket too ... but there's nothing better than new towels and new socks ( i got some socks too)
this might be my last post of the year .... 

i have to start thinking about some artistic new year's resolution .... i'll get right on that .... 

how was your christmas ... or your break if you aren't a christmaser .... and what are your plans for new year's eve?  .... and for the new year ? do you have a plan or a dream for the new year?

.... christmas joys .....

we had a festive dinner for 12 .... then went to church .... christmas eve service ... lessons and carols .... 

for the last 12 or so years we have gone to the early service ... aka the children's service ... aka mass chaos centered on an elaborate children's pageant ... totally fun and funny and poignant and dear ... vast majority of church goers are under the age of seven .....but we skipped it this year ... yup ... we're growing up ... we went to the six o'clock service .... more adults than children .... the average age shoots up decades ..... we'll try something new .... if we don't like it .. back to the other next year .... 

so we went .... and upon entering the church (our church, our very familiar church, our church home where we spend most , er, many sundays ..... we KNOW this place) .... and upon entering the church there was a giant basket full of candles ... candles with paper circles around them .... bigger than a birthday candle ... smaller than a dining room candle ... MOMMY! what are these candles for ..... and i told little.e.beck.artist .... those candles are for the end of the service ... we'll light the candles, someone will turn out the lights ... and we will sing silent night by candlelight and think about what it was like on that silent night when baby jesus was born ... when maybe the only light for mary and joseph was the stars in the sky ..... ok ... i didn't get it all spit out then ... but i did get it all out eventually ... when we RAN home to change her skirt that had ripped apart and was falling down (more on that later) .... so .... let's pick up a candle ... no, you don't have to get one for daddy, grandma, grandaddy, your brother or sister ... they'll all get their own if they want one .. yes, they'll know they can have one too .... you just know .... everyone just knows that they can have a candle ... that's why there's a big basket of them ... just the possibility of being allowed to hold a candle THAT WAS GOING TO BE LIT was just more than she could take in .... i get to hold my own canlde? lit? she then spent the next hour (plus) living for the possibility of the joy and magic of holding her own candle with a white circular wax catching piece of cardboard ... oh the joy!

so there we were ... clutching candles .... found a row .... saved it for our whole entourage .....little.e.beck.artist sat in the row in front of me with her best pal .... all our people  came and sat with us ... they all had just known to pick up a candle .... and little e.beck.artist held her candle .... it's hard to juggle a hymnal, a program, and a candle, but little.e.beck.artist was working it ... she nearly lost her hymnal a couple times .... better to sacrifice the hymnal that is always there than the candle that seems so particularly special .... 

everyone else set aside the candle .... not my little one ... she held that candle .... for a long time .... then it was time to go up to communion ... she carefully put down the candle in her seat .... and walked up the aisle .... the folks at the front of the church, as they returned from communion , were getting their candles lit ... little.e.beck.artist saw all those lit candles and tried to SPRINT back to her candle ... no, mom, we have to have our candle now ... they're getting lit up in the front ... no honey, after you come back to your seat, that acolyte will light the person on the end's candle ... and then all the way down the line everyone lights each other's candles ... 

little.e.beck.artist looked at me ... looked at all those lit candles at the front of the church ... and said, no, mommy, i don't think that's right ..... honey, please trust me ... i promise to make sure that your candle gets lit no matter what ... no matter who is right .... ok ... you'll get to sing silent night with your own candle no matter what  .... 

we went to communion .... we came back ... little.e.beck.artist got her candle and came back a row to sit with us .... the acolyte, our pal william, lit the first candle on our row .... and we all passed the light down the row..... we held those lit candles while the people behind us went up for communion .... we discussed the wax being hot ... we discussed not setting your sleeve on fire ... or someone else's sleeve .... or the hair of the person in front of you ... the people in the row in front of us had their candle tips go flat before our pointy tips had burned down .... how long would it take to burn the whole candle down ... are they people in the front row going to get in trouble with just a little stump of candle by the time we finally sing .... do we have to blow them out after silent night? ..(have i ever mentioned that i'm not very good at being quiet, even in church? ... or especially in church?) ..... and then the music stopped ... and the lights went out ... hey, why are the lights up there still on? um... maybe because the organist needs to see? and then those lights went out ... and it was really dark ...except for the candle light ..... and we noticed the front stain glass window was reflecting color on the ceiling ... and we wished we were sitting in the balcony so that we could see the candles that might seem like star light on a bethlehem night long ago .... 

and we sang silent night .... and little.e.beck.artist only knew the first verse ... so she sang it again when we had moved on to another .... all the while clutching her little candle with the wax cather ... she didn't catch her sleeve on fire ... or anything on fire for that matter ..... but she was in the moment .... she had found her piece of christmas magic for the evening .... she was a tiny pinprick of starlight ..... 

so ... maybe even if you aren't a christmas-go-to-church type there's something to be learned from my little girl .... find something good ... something new ... something exciting ... something wondrous ... and hold on tight .... don't let go ... don't put it down ... and then be patient ... and believe in the magic of possibilities ......

.... so .... i had this whole notion for this sweet story about my little one ... and how things really are different through the eyes of a child ... and how we all need to hold on to that even as we become old and less magic aware ..... but ... i have a bit to the story that is an entirely different tone ... it didn't fit .... so i'll stick it here at the end .... after we got our seats ... and our group all had seated .... we decided to up and go to the bathroom before the service began .... she was wearing a kilt .... and tights ... and looked lovely ... normal (my prejudice here) girls pick up there skirt, pull down their tights to go to the bathroom ... my kid pulls down her skirt and tights .... she is STICK thin ... no hips no butt thin .... if she doesn't have a fitted waist line on her skirt or pants they will fall to the floor .... so ... kilt ... authentic .... funky buckley closures to hold it up .... not her usual elastic .... pulled that skirt down and the leather belt bits disattached entirely ... both of them ... um ... mommy? i think i have a problem ... just a minute, i'll help you when i get out ..... oh .... you ripped this buckle off ... oh ... you ripped them BOTH off .... note to self, teach her correct bathroom/skirt procedures ..... we used the santa pin to rig the skirt ... we went to church to get the house key from mr.e.beck.artist ...... and we RAN home ... literally ran ..... she clutching her skirt up cause one half was waving around unattached to anything .... luckily, i live close to church ... running distance, actually ... we ran in .... got another kilt .... such good fortune! a hand me down kilt, a vintage kilt and a a new gift kilt to choose from ... well... the hand me down kilt has bit the dust, she gets the next smallest one (that's how she originally chose from the three .... and we get it on ... and we run back to church ... and all we've missed is the first hymn ..... no, you don't need to get another candle, even though that basket of them is so tempting .... so there you go ... i tell the sweetness and light part of the story first ... but i couldn't leave out the most real bit ... the messy bit ... the i-was-sweating-on-christmas-eve-bit because i had to run home and rekilt my kid .... so which part will we remember in ten years? the candle joy or the kilty wardrobe malfunction? i'm thinking we'll have candle joy for years to come ... but next year, she's wearing pants .... 

merry christmas ... or if you don't celebrate christmas, magical joys to you ..... because to me christmas is about the magical joys ..... 

it is now christmas eve midnight ... perhaps i'll edit this tomorrow .. or the next day!!

celebrating the holidays ... by torturing the children and then feeding them too much chocolate ....

hooray for christmas time .... 

first ... i'll just confess right up front .... our holiday tradition begins with just a little bit of torture .... we exchange gifts on christmas eve ..... so the kids all make or buy gifts for each other and we get stuff for them, and they make or buy for us .... and the grands' gifts ... and sundry others .... and they all get put under the tree (or near the tree if they are large!) as soon as they are ready .... hence, the torture .... 

i put out these three large heavy packages out on friday ... without gift cards .... they are FROM me ... but no one knows who they are for ..... three boxes, three kids, duh, they are for us ... no, if they were just for us, they'd have tags on them .... i claimed they were not for them .... at least not all of them ... naughty nice list? ... yup, i'm at the top of one of them .... when mr.e.beck.artist got home, he was quickly taken to see them ... they better not be for me! .... they might be cause they don't say they are for us .... we don't know who they are for!! .... and he looked at me ... and said ... they better not be for me ....nothing like giving a little christmas-giving-reciprocity-anxiety ..... insert a wicked cackle here .....

and then today .... i got the rest of a gift in the mail ... so i could wrap it ..... and this is what it looks like .... 

it does have a tag on it ... to girl.beck.artist from mommy and daddy .... it is tall and lovely and elegant .... and, as of now, there is no corresponding lovely gift under the tree for the two other children ..... there's always one good gift ... or, like this, a collection ... as well as pjs and books and ordinary gifty things that you appreciate but that don't necessarily make you lose sleep at night in the days leading up to christmas ..... refer back to blog post title .. torture ... uh huh ... and then you cross your fingers that santa will bring you something more than a lump of coal ... or socks ... santa always brings us socks .... he used to bring underwear, when they wore cute underwear ... only one still has cute underwear .... maybe that's how you know you're grown up .... no more days of the week underwear or dora or power rangers .... i digress ...... 

 .....so then .... like they aren't all amped up enough with the impending christmas joys, then you fill them with chocolate .....

here's and easy peasy lemon squeezy recipe for you ... the kids can do it without my help at all .... shae, do you read my blog? i think i got this idea from you ..... 

1. preheat oven to 250 ... 

2. put pretzels out on a tray ... we did two trays full (trayfuls?)

3. put a chocolate kiss on each pretzel .... get your brother and sister to help you unwrap them ... wonder why they don't sell kisses unwrapped for just this sort of thing ... 

4.  put in oven ... set timer for three minutes .... 

5. to see if they are ready, open oven, try to squash a kiss down with a pretzel .... full squishiness is ready ... hard bottom and you need to bake another minute or two .... (don't, like i did the first time, wait for the kiss to melt and lose form ... won't happen ... they are well and thoroughly burned before they lose shape)

6. when the kisses are adequately squishy, pull them out of the oven and plop another pretzel on each one to make a glorious chocolate pretzel sandwich 

7. let cool .... or eat as many as you can before you get caught ... and then pack them up in a tin to enjoy over the holidays ....

i could be a recipe writer huh?  is there such a thing as editorialized recipes? 

what are your noteworthy holiday traditions?

... a good day .....

so ... just a quick ten good things for you .... 

1.... my dog is wearing a sweater ... with a hood .... so cute

2... sold a painting today ... this one .... good and texturey ... makes me want to paint .... 

3... having a brunch tomorrow for my women's group ... and with age i have discovered ... i LOVE throwing a party ... if ... big if .... if i don't cook ... so ... 20 pals for a potluck morning and gift swap ... 

4....lunch out today with the twins ... they had half day because of exams (boo! hiss! exams!)

5....little.e.beck.artist made banana bread today and was filled with joy over the mixer usage (we should all find joy in such ordinary things as mixers)

6 ... i ate banana bread tonight for dessert .... a fan favorite ... 

7... grill cheese and soup for dinner ... easy peasy happiness ... comfort food on a rainy examy day .... 

8..... i made a friend standing in line at the post office today (the not-so-great post office visit needs a happy spin) ... she and i bonded over how many people in line needed post office remediation .....  (i just deleted all the snarky things we were whispering to each other about .. that doesn't go on a happy list ...)

9.... the amaryllis bulb that allison gave me is tall and huge and gorgeous and blooming ... and it is blooming ORANGE .... how perfect is that for orangey me?

10 .... i just  (four whole minutes ago) ordered my christmas cards .... putting me nearly a week ahead of my usual seasonal schedule .... in my world, ordering them by the 20th is good and on time ....

so? got any happiness going on .... good day?

artsy christmas .....

i had one of those take-your-breath-away-i-think-i-might-cry moments .... 

little.e.beck.artist had picked out a piece of my pottery to give to her teacher ... she wrapped it ... and then said she also would like to make her teacher an ornament too ...  i went off to tend to laundry or dishes or twins studying for midterms and left her to fend for herself in my art room .... when i went down to check on her progress i nearly cried at her oh-so-dear-and-ernest drawings on the ornaments ..... 

... little.e.beck.artist depicted mrs.k. with a gaggle of little children ... and mr.b. with two .... 

i loved them SO much that i quickly insisted (gently) that she make one for everyone in the family so that i have a whole passel of ernest third grade stick people ornaments to hang on my tree from here to forever ... (i peeked at them later ... you should see the one she made for her sister ... so so so so so sweet) ..... i do wish i could freeze this sweet little girl moment forever ... and i suppose a handful of ornaments will nearly do that for me .... 
then here's a slew of pottery that i have for gift giving .... above are the groovy bowls that i originally showed you here .....scroll down to the fourth pic to figure out how i made them .......

and below are from the same day of glazing ... on a turquoise kick, you can see .....these are all wrapped up now to be gifted away ..... 
a little bit of artsy ... a little bit of gifty .... a little closer to ready for christmas ... how 'bout you?

... a question .... or two .... or, actually, seven...

do you like chinese food? 

do you get it often?

do you like the fortune cookie?

do like to eat it? 

do you like to read your fortune?

if you and your pal got identical fortunes, would you consider that crazy good luck?

or would you think that the fortune cookie company is slipping? 

i'm sure you can guess, seeing how's i'm a happy go lucky optimist and all ..... but i think it's crazy good luck .... and i like to eat the cookie ... and i love to read what the fortune says .... 

our numbers on the back didn't match ..... 

life is full of surprises ..... 

had any surprises lately?

home sweet busy home ....

i'm a ducks in a row girl .... like a plan, make a plan, follow a plan .... or kind of follow a plan ... but i like to be loosey goosey too .... stay in the moment ... go with a feeling .... but lately, my ducks are not lining up and my goose is so loose i can't find it .... i'm still blaming it on the november lost to nanowrimo ... i am still trying to catch up .... 

this morning i woke up to the thought that i am hosting a book club christmas party tonight and haven't finished making my gift exchange gift yet ... oops .... what's that about ... i'm not really the last minute type ... well, maybe i am, but i don't want to be ! .... so i decided to paint before i went to my (i'm insane) 30 odd degree tennis match .....

so at 8.30 i started painting .... in my family room(don't tell on me!) ... cause my studio is too big a wreck full of crazy distractions .... and i needed to get down to business ... and ... because my ducks are not aligned ... nor are the stars in a row (might as well fully mix my metaphors), i didn't work on one painting ... i worked on three ... so now i'm ahead for next week's gift exchange too .... whew .... 

and i just spoke to mr.e.beck.artist .... and he asked how party prep is going ... um.... well .... i painted three paintings and had a tennis match ..... did you win .. no, we lost .... but it was fine ..... i was trying a new racket and playing with a friend i'd not partnered with before and i enjoyed being with her .... and party prep? .... um .... i painted three pictures .... 

.... and i know i have some stuff to do, ahem, party prep ... but i have three new paintings ... so i really need to get them on my blog before i forget ... 

do those ducks ever line up? 

not in my world...... 

how are your ducks? in a row? 

next post: pursuing a phd in procrastination .....

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas ...

.... we are done with our decorate-the-house-for-christmas-frenzy ..... we did it on the weekend ... and then i had to tweak it .... for instance, i went to michael's to get ORANGE ribbon for my wreaths .... i got a life time supply .... the only wide orange ribbon was a bit plasticy, kind of like a disposable tablecloth, and came in a thousand yards or something crazy ..... so ... life time supply .... we're set for orange ribbon joy ....

if you go to this flickr page ... there is a photo where i've tagged all the bits and pieces for you to read ... there are some other xmas pics there too ... ho ho ho ....

confessions of a slacker blogger ....

slacker blogger, here ..... i most prefer to post loads of pictures and write a lot .... or ... post a pic and write a lot .... or post a pic and write a bit .... 

or ... slacker day ... post two weak effort pics taken with my phone and write just a smidge because mr.e.beck.artist has been saying to me for the last hour: are you going to shower? .... clearly he means: go shower .... the underlying concern is not that i stink but that we are going to a party in .... well.. it starts in exactly 45 minutes from this point HERE .... and well ... i need to shower still .... and do all the other girly froufrou fixy things that girls do ....

above are two angels made out of papier mached cups and balls ..... girl.beck.artist and boy.beck.artist made them at school years ago and every year when i unpack them and put them out my heart gives a little squeeze remembering how proud they were of them.... can you see one angel is winking .... what's not to love? 
and the second pic is a camera pic (slacker blogger feebleness) of my dining room table .... i put out every candle stick and votive i have .... lifted some up on my grandma's china saucers and dessert dishes ... and sprinkled liberally with old silver gold and blue glass ornaments .... oh... and there's a crystal bowl upside down in the center for some bulk .... easy peasy centerpiece ... and ... just for full disclosure ... i didn't really do it ... i coached little.e.beck.artist through it .... 

not bad for a slacker, huh?

we pulled boxes out of the basement and it looks like christmas threw up all over my house ... in a good way... with a bad metaphor .... what did you do today?

christmas perceptions vs. christmas realities ....

i am the kind of girl that likes to do the slow and steady thing leading up to christmas ... i like getting some of my gifts made and bought in october and november ... i dislike most shopping on a good day ... and i hate it infinitely when there are crowds and pressure to buy because of a looming calendar deadline ... so ....e, are you about ready for christmas? nope, not at all ... in fact ... i wrote a novel in november ... and ... well .. that's all .... novel writing month is over and has segued into what? laundry month, why haven't you cleaned your desk in an eon month, did you forget it was christmas time month, you shirked your responsibilities for too long now get with the program month .... we'll see .... 

so .... my usual ducks in a row self is a titch discombobulated ... but ... well ... let's embrace that .... for instance, i COULD say, look a these lovely christmas topiaries.....lovely, right.....

well ... i thought about polishing that tray ... 

wait ... no i didn't ... i thought, that's good enough without polishing .... and i slaved away for hours lining up all my gumdrops just so ..... or ... the reality of it ..... i made everyone else do it with me .... 
and my kitchen area still has a good coating of sugar on it .... well .... it might not any more since my dog spent the whole day licking the floor today ..... four days after the topiary gum drop sugar fiesta she has finally decided to lick the sugar and the polish off the floors .... bless her .....

and then ... the perception of this lovely spot in my home .......
oh look .... hope, dream, wish .... lovely christmas sentiments and some bright baubles above.. but what does dear mr.e.beck.artist say? every time he walks into the kitchen he thinks he's at a motivational seminar and is annoyed that someone is DEMADING for him to hope and wish and dream .... uh huh ... he says that .... 

and then ...  the last little bit of christmas decorating ... i waited to order this tree online (treetopia.com) until i could have it delivered and not have to tote it down to the basement ... i wanted it to be delivered the friday or saturday after thanksgiving so that i could get it and put it right up ... but ... when did it come? the day before thanksgiving .... i could tote it down to the basement ... or put it up ... but instead, i just kept that big ole box by the front door ... i was busy writing a novel .... no one will notice a four foot tall tree box holding a five foot tall tree ... (how does that work? )
the day after thanksgiving ..... between pumpkin pie and apple pie if you were in on that whole (wildly succesful) pie week extravaganza ... girl.beck.artist put it up and then we all did a bit to help her get it decorated .... the color is a bit off in the pic .... i had to desaturate the picture ... somehow it is just too bright to take a good picture of ...kind of like trying to take a picture of the sun .... 

so there you have it ... gumdrop topiaries, charming christmas sentiments, and quirky christmas trees ..... realities and perceptions aren't quite aligned .... but in the long run, what's it matter? i wrote a novel AND i have an orange tree .... life is good, huh?

oh ... ps.... i'm pushing publish without editing ... sorry 'bout that !

... get back up on that horse .... or ... i wrote a 50k novel and now i'm back to my regularly scheduled life ....

i just spent the month of november writing a novel ... fifty thousand words .... it was an interesting exercise in perseverance and procrastination ..... i probably learned more about my extraordinary procrastination skills than i did about my potential as a writer or a novelist .... 

i am completely behind in life! if anyone asks if i've done x, y or z ... i just say no, i was writing a book .... and it's kind of a lie ... i was writing a book ... but it didn't really interfere with what i had to do ... it was just a nice excuse to not do some stuff .... like clean out my desk (oh.my.gawrsh.frightening) ... or keep up with laundry ... or do any sort of christmas prep  .... first thing i need to do is take down my thanksgiving decorations ... oh wait, i didn't put any out .... 

so today, my first nano free day in a month .... i got going .... my best accomplishment (well, besides not getting lost going to my kids' basketball games that was so far away in the rain that i thought i should have had a suitcase) ... my best accomplishment is the 18 ornaments i doodled for christmas gifts ....i just did them tonight while i was watching dvr'd GLEE ... oh! i! love!that!show! ......makes me want to sing and dance ..... so ... ornaments ....doodled on them .... inexpensive, easy, fast, personalized .... some, i'll give as is ... others, i'll put in a box with some kisses or peppermints or something festive ....i want to say with something i'll bake, but we all know i won't be baking anything to give away ... if i bake, we keep it and eat it ..... 

so my christmas prep has officially begun .... tomorrow i'll show you my orange christmas tree.... girl.beck.artist put it up and decorated it with little.e.beck.artist and grandma.artist too .... i couldn't be in charge of that because .. wait for it ... i was writing a novel ....i'm gonna be throwing that in for a good long time ... oh ... i was writing a novel .... makes me a bit giddy still to think about ... 

wait ... so sidetracked ... next blog post will be my orangeliscious christmas tree and some other christmasy artsy joy ... ok? 

what holiday happiness are you up to ... don't want to start working on holidays? why don't you write a novel instead ... it's like a free pass .... 

....done ....

i'm a nanowrimo kind o' gal ... 

i signed up for national novel writing month ... said i would write fifty thousand words in the already much too busy month of november .... and now i'm done ... i did it ... 50k and a pretty good story, i hope .... i have a load and a half of editing to do .... but i'm going to wait and do that in january .... for now, i need to catch up on all the little bits of life where i have fallen behind .... well worth the falling behind though! 

... and ... fyi .... i never typed a dot dot dot of an ellipse in the whole novel.... i used traditional punctuation and capitalization ... more or less .... who knew i had that in me? not i .... 

hope your thanksgiving was full of happiness and pie .... 

thankfulness ....

.... how was your thanksgiving? ours was lovely ... right in the middle of pie week is a perfect spot for thanksgiving .... 

the pies above are pie 4, 5 and 6 for the week ....little.e.beck.artist labeled them ... there are getting to be so many that you don't want to get mixed up .....

little.e.beck.artist interviewed everyone today before dinner for her blessing ... she didn't want to leave out any points of view ... this is the prayer she read before dinner ... 

GOD I am thankful for our blessings and:

art

music

Dixie and 

other animals

you and your creashons

the people that help us learn

wii

mommys and daddys

pie

green beans and

bacon

basketball

cousins

good health

young ones

cookies

friends and family

shelter

and all the other things in life

Amean

did you count your blessings today? what are some of your favorites?

formal declaration of pie week ....

thanksgiving is just one day .... though i am very thankful for thanksgiving and all the things i am supposed to be thankful for, i would like to be thanksgiving to be more ... to be even better .... i would like to put thanksgiving to be in the middle of pie week.... 

from this day forward, the week surrounding thanksgiving should be known as pie week.... everyone celebrating pie week (and really, you all should be) needs to make a pie plan.... 

e.beck.artist pie plan:

tuesday.... blueberry pie a la mode .... an e favorite but not a family favorite ... slowly gathering momentum (pictured above, big hit)

wednesday .... cherry pie at dinner ... mr.e.beck.artist's favorite-ish ..... and the baking of a chocolate pie that girl.beck.artist is VERY anxious to make ... no waiting until thursday to bake it .... not sure if we will wait to eat it or eat it wedn... the plan is clearly fluid .... 

thursday .... the pinnacle of pie week .... pumpkin pie, a fan favorite, and chess pie  .... and perhaps that chocolate pie .... 

friday ... mandatory pie for breakfast ... all except mr.e.beck.artist ... he's just not a dessert for breakfast kind of guy ..... apple pie at dinner time .....

saturday .... have the ingredients to make a second pumpkin pie or a second chess pie .... i vote pumpkin ... 

sunday .... will there be leftovers? hope so ....

in case you are keeping count,  seven pies ... and there will be seven people in the house during this time frame (hi mom, hi dad) ..... 

and you? are you just having a thanksgiving dinner? or are you all about the pie?

this and that and 38074

it is november 22nd .... i have 8 days of writing left in my grand effort to get a fifty thousand word novel knocked out in november ... why am i doing this? because the nanowrimo website told me to .... i wrote seven thousand words this weekend ... i am ahead of schedule ... 50k divided by 30 days equals approx. 1667 words a day .... that's the schedule i'm ahead of ... i'm just over 38K right now .... it just seems oh-so-very-doable now ... i'm so there ... i have no worries about not finishing ... i had some concerns about running out of story before i got to 50k ... but i outlined the rest of it and i think i'll get to 50k before i get through the book ... so, like, that means i should get extra credit or something, right? ... i'd also like extra credit for still having a good attitude ... who's passing out brownie points? 

my nano page is here ... click on home to read up on all things nano ....

this photo below is my joy of the day ... the whole family's joy of the day actually .....

girl.beck.artist and i did a target run today ... reckless spending in the dollar spot got us this adorable sweatshirt for the dog ... 

the picture above is so that you can see dixie.dog.beck.artist's pocket.... apparently everyone needs a pocket ... cell phone? mad money? tiny dog treat? so far the pockets (there are two!) remain empty ... 

i'm now going to sketch some snowmen ... i have a christmas gift notion that i really must get a jump on ... or save for xmas 2010! 

i believe my family is serving five pies for seven people at thanksgiving dinner ... but don't you need everyone's favorite? what's your thanksgiving plan ... or really, what's your pie plan? that's the most important bit .... 

30648 ...

i'm past the three fifths mark ... i'm past 60 percent ... i'm past the point of saying never mind and giving up ...i've reached the point of no return ... i'm in it to win it ... i will have fifty thousand words written down by the end of november ... can i hear a yippee?

here's the interesting thing ... life is slipping into the book ... 

girl.beck.artist was having prime number problems ... there's now a riff on prime numbers in my book... 

nephew.beck.artist gets stung by his second bee in that many weeks and swells up like a balloon .... trip to the er  .... and fodder for some nanowrimo writing .... 

my pottery teacher dyes her hair fabulous orange or pink or green ... so does a teacher in the book .... 

the dead armadillo from my childhood is now dead in chapter three with a repeat mention in chapter four .... 

i'm writing fiction, but you pretty much can't mention a thing to me lest it show in the days writing .... 

i believe i am painting in the morning with allison .... so there's potential for a blog post with a photo .... or , maybe some one in my book needs a day of painting ... we'll see .... 

stay busy ... it's good for you ....

25090 .... and counting ....

today is the fifteenth ... halfway through the month of november .... and half way through the national novel writing month challenge .... i was behind ... but now i am back on track after an evening of plowing through writer's bad attitude (akin to writer's block, but not writer's block) .... i am so so so so so so so so so so so so very happy i just can't even stand it..... i do believe i really am going to be able to pull this off .... fifty thousand words in a month ....

i have "stickies" on my computer .... it is a program that makes electronic post it notes ... my desktop, like my life, is cluttered with post it notes ... one post it note on my desk top is a nano recap .. so i can track my numbers ... when i got to what milemark .... 

here ... look: 

4525 at the end of day 1 ... about three hours of work

5943 at lunch on day 2

6846 on day two at 1.30

7483 just before bedtime on day 2

8030 on day three .... before going to 9.30 tennis ... GREAT morning ....

9217 on day three before the kids got home (after tennis, lunch out, and grocery shopping)

10374 before pottery on day four

10808 at 9pm end of day 4 ... yawn ....

11o32 , start of day five, after dog walk, before tennis

 

12229 after dinner, friend died in real life, a tank of fish died in my writing .... so i could be dramatic and sad ...day five

12848 before going out to dinner on day six.

13795 on day seven afternoon after gala setup , before nap, shower and big ole' party .... 

day 8 ...no writing ... exhausted

day 9 ... a bit of writing before dinner ... while d and s cooked! ... 14343

day 10... morning got to 15K finally .... 15168

day 10 after dinner got to 16890

day 11.... before dinner got to 18082 

day 12 .... 19064 ... julia and sophie made dinner while i wrote .... 

day 13 ... 19203

day 14 .... after breadfast, 21123

day 14 ... at noon ...21755 ... felt great doing it at the kitchen counter with the family around ....

day 15 before dinner .... 23134

day 15 .... intermittently helping with dinner ... 23802 ... quesadillas ... yum .....

9 o'clock ...day 15 ... 25090 ... made everyone stand up and do the happy dance with me ....

 tra la la .... i'm writing a book ... what have you got going on?

21,755

today, i reached thursday's then friday's word counts ..... i've written for much of the morning at the kitchen counter as my favorite people swirl around me in buys day activities ..... this is my break from nanowrimo writing, a bit of blog writing ..... 

i just went down to my studio to supervise little.e.beck.artist as she tried to figure out what base to put her coffee filter teepees on .... the box top, the wooden board and a tray were all rejected... she chose an 18 by 18 canvas .... she's currently painting it green except for where they dug out the grass and that part has to be brown for the dirt cause you don't have grass in your teepee and you don't build a fire in the grass either ....  

i was clearing a spot for her on my studio table and had trouble...you know how messy i can get ....so messy ...the last canvas i painted had dried attached to my table top ... or attached to the paper that covers my table ... i had to rip it up and recover the table.... an instance of what should be a small job turning into a bigger job than you want .... 

but that canvas i ripped up was gorgeous blue yumminess .... if i hit my 25 thousand word mark tomorrow, i am going to paint on monday to reward myself ..... rah .... 

hope your weekend is happiness and sunshine and artsy fun .....

this and that and 18082 words....

today is veteran's day in the grand old u. s. of a...... and my kids were in a veteran's day assembly .... so i started my day watching little.e.beck.artist speaking on stage ... girl.beck.artist played patriotic songs on her saxophone ... and boy.beck.artist was doing his loud percussion thing, as well as being a stage manager and having a speaking part .... 

from the veteran's day assembly i went to pottery .... 

i picked up these .... above and below are two bowls that i blew bubbles on ... i had put soap in the underglaze and then used a straw to make bubbles .... the top one looks fab in real life ... this bottom one looks a bit on the wonky lopsided side ... but is still pretty ....

i picked up these pears too .... i made them for mr.e.beck.artist's parents for christmas .... the colors work for them ... a blue pear wouldn't suit them as well .... 

and lastly ..... i made a dozen small bowls ... i blew up balloons .. a dozen of them ...and then put them on top of yogurt cups and the like .... then draped some textured clay over them .... when they are dried and flipped over they'll be kind of free form ... if they work out , they can either be teacher gifts or girlfriend gifts ... i thought it would be fun to give them away with a bag of candy .... cause it would be a perfect little candy bowl ....

and then a nano update (nanowrimo, google it if you don't know what i'm talking about!) ... i'm feeling really encouraged ... my two girls enjoy reading what i've written .... which gives me hope that it it's not just me i'm amusing ... at least i'm amusing them too ... i'm just over 18, ooo words in my quest for 50 thousand words in the 30 days of november .... 

the whole novel writing thing is an interesting commitment .... i didn't get my word goal done yet for today ...i'm about 300 off (i bet this post is more than 300 words) ....instead of pressing on and finishing my word goal for the day, i stopped and made a great dinner for my family ... i'd been making not as great ones for quite a few days in a row ... apparently i can't get it all done .... something falls by the wayside every day! ... but ... there's always december, right!!

i have some christmas paintings in my head that i need to get going on .... if i don't do them soon, i certainly won't get them done before THIS christmas ... 

what are you busy with these days?

...13795 .....

i'm still working away at my nano writing .... the weekend was a bump in the road ... too many responsibilities and not much writing ... but luckily, last week i got myself ahead of the game in projected word counts .... so ... i'm still ahead .. and on track ... but not way ahead ... i'll try to remedy that this week early, cause next weekend seems like it will bring about the same lack of minutes to write.... 

i've been a good reader lately ... finding some new favorite blog spots ... 

here's a great article ....i'll be curious to see how many of you FIT this topic ... i know quite a few of you who do ..... 

here's another site i've been reading back articles on .....

and its companion site ......

and here's one more ... an old fave with a new name .... happy reading ... and writing (if you are so inclined) ... and art .... i have a plan to paint this week .....

happy week to you!

10,374...

i sat down to work on my nano novel ... but decided to give you some quick bloggage first .... 

i've broken the 10K wordage .... a couple days ahead of time even .... 

my oldest child, girl.beck.artist, comes home from school and first thing asks me my word count and then asks if she can read a bit of it ... it makes me completely and totally nervous to let her read it ... but so far she likes it .... 

i've learned something about myself in my four days of novel writing endeavor: i do not need an m (as you can see above) ... but i do need diet coke .... my m has been missing for ages ... i no longer miss it ... i had cut way back on diet coke and my caffeine addiction ... but i've amped it way back up in these four days ... i really, really, really, really like diet coke .... so there .... 

and... above is another page of the journal due in early december ... tra la la ... life goes barreling along ...

freak? or freaking happy?

i am so freaking happy i don't even know what to do with myself .... 

i've signed up for this write a novel in a flurry of novemberness and i thought i was going to go crazy or kill myself... come to find out, three days into it, i am crazy happy .... i feel smart and strong and organized and yippeeee ... if you've never tried yippeee, you should .... 

somehow, having such a big goal, to write 50 thousand words in a month, and promising myself to not let it make me fail in any other parts of my life, is not just working, it's invigorating.... i've done loads of laundry, played tennis, exercised, walked the dog, made meals for my family (nutritious and delicious, if you don't poll the youngest) ... and written almost 10 thousand words ... and re done my novel outline TWICE .... today felt good cause i didn't change the outline ... i'm sticking with what i have ....

there are only two things that have slid down the list of things i do in a day ... watching tv and wasting time on my computer .... 

today at tennis, a pal asked if i'd seen vampire diaries this week .... i said no, i've quit watching tv ... are you kidding me? i love tv ... i have loads of shows i follow in the evening .... i don't watch any tv til 8, but my evenings are tvful .... and then computer time? i turn off email and safari when i'm typing my story ..... so i don't get too distracted ... no online  sudoku ... no endless blog surfing (though i've been haunting some writer blogs and nanowrimo stuff .....)

so, with the promise of not neglecting other parts of my life, i still have pottery tomorrow ... i still have some canvas ideas in my head that need to get painted .... i still need to blog ... if not for the multitudes of faithful followers, then at least for my mom and the few others of you that there are (yes, i know YOU are one of my faithful) .....

the pics in this blog post are in a journal i'm working on .... with a submarine (bizarrely) theme .... 

i think the old adage of the more you try to do, the better able you are to do it ... incredible motivation helps too ... i'm way motivated .... in fact ... my next blog post, i'll give you some info on the book i'm writing .... so i don't have to speak about it all abstractly ... ok? 

as of day three at 6.22, i am on word 9217 ... so close to 10 percent of my goal .... here's my nanowrimo link if you want to follow me there .... tra la la ... 

4524......

.... 4524 words on day one of national novel writing month .... so i had a good start yesterday .... 

today, i am writing from 9.30 to 11 ... i think an hour and a half is how long i need for the 1667 words that i need to do each day ... so i'm doing it by appointment ... setting up my time for each day ahead of time (and crossing my fingers that life follows the plan!) .... you can check up on my progress at this nanowrimo page .....

my weekend was exciting ... i was really intent on getting a grand start to my novel .... mr.e.beck.artist is being very supportive, giving me all the more incentive to not just successfully write 50k but also to write something remotely worth while .... so ... my relaxing build up to nano kickoff included a trip to the ER after the-great-pumpkin-carving-incident ... and then gaggles of girls spending the night on halloween .... 

in hindsight, the sugar buzz might have helped me hit the good numbers in my writing ... good think i walked that extra mile this morning ....

as i write this, it is 9.10 ... so i have 2

0 minutes to do the dishes, switch washer to dryer, fold the dryer load, start a new load, and take a shower .... so ... maybe i won't take my shower yet .... interestingly, i walked an extra mile this morning ... i think it was some passive aggressive procrastination .... not sure .... i'll letcha know in .... um, 18 minutes now .... 

so, on top of the novel that i am writing this month, i have a journal project due in the first week or so of december ... and here are two pages i have going for that .... i think i'm going to color them ... crayons, craypas, color pencil, watercolor wash, marker ... not sure how i'm coloring them yet .... when i know, i'll tell you ! ... it might not be til december, huh? 

12 minutes til i'm meant to be sitting and writing ... gotta go .... 

what are you doing today?

nanowrimo obsessed

national novel writing month is imminent ... and i have become a bit obsessive ... i follow blog and article threads across the internet to glean every morsel of information out there ... heaven forbid i miss the most important tip ... the one that's going to get me through 50K words (or more!) in a mere 29 days (it's really 30 days, but i hope to have at least one day off) .... 

but ... i shall take a break from my obsessive novel thoughts to show you ... well ... to show you the beautiful journal i'm using right now .... um .... to take notes in for my novel ... ha .....you, yourself should dash off to the nanowrimo site and sign yourself up for some novel writing .. i could use the company! .... it will also explain that in 30 days i won't be DONE with my novel ... just done with my first draft ... or so they say ....
here is another journal .... not beaded and lush like the one above .... it is a plain brown rapper kind of thing .... but it is for a journaling event ... i'll send in back in when i'm done .... to be in a show ... and eventually in a gallery library ....

and they gave me a topic ... yellow submarine ....and here's my first page below .... i think, given the impending novel writing, that i am not going to make this extraordinarily artsy or collagey ... rather ... it will be doodliscious ... more of a sketch book and words ... still artsy ... but with some sharpie love going strong .... 

and, lest you think, i've given up on family life all together (girl.beck. artist has this fear) ... here is our halloweeniness on our porch ... we still need to carve pumpkins ... but this was a fun start for the kids ....

this is my favorite one .... 

so ... what have you got going on in your part of the world? have you carved pumpkins?