... 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 !