... a red boot kind of day ...

this morning i woke up happy and ready ... yes, i will wear my red cowboy boots to celebrate the first day of december ... moments after that red boot decision, i was checking my email and realized it was NOT in fact december yet ... my red boot celebration of december lasted all of ten minutes .... that celebratory red booted tooth brushing and hair brushing was just a fine fest .... that ended abruptly in front of the laptop .... darn.... isn't that just like me to be discombobulated?

red boots are a funny thing ... people really, really notice them .. i got comments all day long (luckily i did not change out of them when i discovered the sad factness of it still being november) ... it made me laugh that it was such a big deal to wear red shoes and for so many to comment ... why don't people all always wear colored shoes? why are all men's dress shoes black or brown? (i know, i know, i'm making vast generalizations)  why do most women mostly wear black and brown and boring shoes? (next time you are in a boring meeting, look at all the shoes).... it just doesn't make sense to me that bland shoes are the norm.... but i am SO off track ... 

so, i am celebrating today, i spent the month of november working on the NaBloPoMo challenge ... national blog post month ... write every day .....and i did it ... never skipped a day ... had some great writing days ... had some just say anything to get it done posts ... but in all felt like it was a worthwhile experience ... it got me writing ... not just the blog, but other stuff too ... and that's good ... i like it ....

the main thing i learned is that it is easier to write when you have been writing ... just like it is easier to paint when you have been painting ... it is easier to cook when you've been cooking ...or, well, when you have at least gone to the grocery store .... starting something after a big break is like starting from square one, brand new, beginner ... get doing something and it feels like you have momentum and can absolutely keep doing it .... maybe i need to get some red shoe momentum ... wear happy shoes every day .... maybe you shouldn't wear your red boots on the days you wake up happy .. but on the days you wake up crabby too .... maybe if all world leaders had to wear red shoes every day, they'd be happier, freer, smarter, easier going, kinder, gentler .... people in red shoes certainly don't start wars or shoot guns at people or cut in line at the grocery store  .... 

so, the moral of my month of writing is get doing whatever you want to be doing and do it every day cause it gets easier ... and .... color up your shoe wardrobe, please .... 

doc, happy, sleepy, grumpy, dopey, bashful, sneezy and slobby ...

why is there not an 8th dwarf named slobby? clearly there was a slobby in that house if snow white had to show up and do all that tidying and dusting and bed making, right? slobby probably just didn't want to be in the show and wouldn't sign the reality tv contract so he wasn't on there ... just like one of ozzy osbournes kids who was never seen on that show .... yup ... slobby was a mess, but he had the good sense to stay hidden ...

not so much me ... i'm a mess and i'm going to show it to you on my blog ... perhaps to shame myself into cleaning up my studio ... but maybe just because it is nine o'clock and i am ever so very tired and trying to be a pal and stay up with my studying high schoolers .... so i'm quietly blogging the pictures i took today ...

here's the first ....

 can you even see the dog in that mess? she's posing ... such a good girl .... but between her turquoise jacket and her evil photo eyeballs, she's barely recognizable ... let's call her waldo .... so this is looking into my studio space from the garage .... or the hall ... by the stairs .... now, i'm claiming that some of that mess isn't mine ... i asked little.e.beck.artist to wrap some christmas and she did ... and where the remnants landed, is where the remnants, the tape, the scissors remain .... on the floor .... don't trip when you come in ....

so if you were brave enough to enter my studio, and turn right you'll find ... allison! ... i wonder how long she's been trapped in that back corner!? .... my table is about 9 feet by six feet ... and we each scraped off a tiny section to work on ... the good news is, some of the mess she left there three weeks ago was still right there where she left it ... some of it had another layer of mess over it, but her birdies and feet and cut up bits were still there .... and on my side, there had been interlopers (girl.beck.artist and two of her pals had spent an afternoon painting a while ago) ... so i scraped away their mess .....
just enough room to paint ... so we painted the day away ... and then i dug out allison so she could escape on home to her own family ....

we could do a betting pool and you can guess when i'll actually get the seven dwarfs to clean up with me .....

monday grumpy gloomy and doom ...

so, my monday started out not quite right .... mr.e.beck.artist was not in my bed ... instead little.e.beck.artist had decided to sleep in his spot since he is out o' town .... that's ok with me, but somehow it started me out all disoriented when my alarm trilled (generously kind description of the heinous noise) at 5.55 ....
... and it was cold ...
... and it was rainy ....
... and the last of my beloved (no kidding, awesome holiday company) house guests were leaving me ....
so my monday was starting grumpy .... mix in a soggy dog and you have the multi sensory notion of what my morning was like ...

and then i went to pottery .... and left the rest of the world behind ... i picked out a bag o chocolate clay .... even though i'm not done with the white ... i was just feeling off the white .... and i made an extra large , really extraextra large textured bowl ...

and i picked up four pieces that i had glazed last week ... they actually work great as a set .. can't you imagine having all four pieces and setting the perfect spread of apps at a big party? if in fact, you are the big party throwing type?

these pics look funny to me ... the platters are fairly modern looking ... sleek, shiny, dark ... and they are a grandma looking background ... not criticizing any grandmas or the background, for that is in fact what my christmas time dining room table has on it .... but it's not a great background to showcase pottery ... those three go well together ... you could put a long row of perfectly placed crackers on the long one ... and then special cheeses on the square one and maybe a pile of grapes and apple slices on the other .. or maybe you do fancier appetizers than i can think of .....

here's a detail of one of the pieces .... can you see the lettering .... when i see that, it seems like that's what makes it me ...

so my monday got better ...
even though my sole intention for today was to do some tidying in my basement studio and i did NONE ... so .. tomorrow ...
and tomorrow will start better too ... if for no other reason than it won't be monday .... tuesdays are usually good days, right?

i was browsing the internet ... and was at my newest happy place, pinterest, when i found a piece of art i liked, clicked it, and ended up on this VERY lovely artsy crafty happy blog, summerstead... at the bottom of each post there are links to other posts you might like (how do i get that on my blog, anyone?) ... and i clicked on this ... 31 days to finding harmony ... that sounds like a me thing, right? so i looked ... and read loads of posts ... and thought i could follow her harmony example ...

so, big idea here, once my november nablopomo post every day for a month challenge, i thought i might try posting every day in december .... harmony isn't such a me word ... but peace and joy? happy days? and i'd write about my joy for the day ... maybe i could even do a ranking system ... and mindfully not get all wiggy during the holidays ... i don't actually get wiggy during the holidays, but i know it's a thing, so if i feel it coming on, i avoid it ... so how 'bout it? are you a zen holiday type? or do you get wiggy and try to do too much?

any suggestions? if you are a regular reader and blogger, wanna do it with me? help me figure out what we want to do? hmmmmm ....
if you are a regular reader and not a blogger, what do you like to read about? 30 days of joy... or wait, i think december is 31 days .... i'm still thinking about it ... i have a few days to firm up my plans, right?

saturday holiday

today still feels like a holiday to me ....

except i cleaned up the pumpkins and pilgrims and indians from the dining room ....

 i went bowling with my family ... including the out of town contingent .... i bowled a 99 ... that's really good for me ....

 and then mom-o'-e.beck.artist and little.e.beck.artist and i made these candy cane candle sticks .... 

 we just used candy canes, rubberbands, ribbon and candles ....

i'm nearing the end of nablopomo ... the blog every day for the month of november challenge ... and it hasn't been hard ... maybe i could keep it up in december ... and do one tiny bit of arts and crafts decorating a day until christmas ....

red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple friday .. no black ....

 no black friday shopping in this house .... we played games, ate leftovers and did christmas crafts ... i got started on my gift giving ..... i always try to make something for pals and neighbors ....

here's a peek at christmas ornies from 2010 ....
and xmas ornies 2009 ....
what did you do today?

today is thanksgiving .... what are you thankful for?

‎'We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.' Thornton Wilder

i am thankful for cousins who love each other ...
i am thankful for family ...
i am thankful for friends ...
i am thankful to live in a place where groceries, grocery stores, and feasts are plentiful and easy ....
i am thankful for a family that helps with all the cooking and cleaning ...
i am thankful for afternoon naps ...
i am thankful for the joy and love that surrounds in my life every day ...
i am thankful for a day set aside to be mindful of thankfulness ...
i am thankful for pie ....


“I believe all joy is an extension of gratitude. If we can find something to be thankful for, no matter what’s going on, no matter how small, we can grasp the coattails of joy.”—Xian Horn

wednesday of thanksgiving week ...

today i did prep for thanksgiving ... 

 that's me carving a turkey .... it's like being a chef with power tools having a carving knife .... at one point little.e.beck.artist said "are you TRYING to saw the glass pan?" ... well no .... it doesn't cut .... might not be good for the knife though, huh?

i got a fried turkey from church ... will roast another tomorrow .... can't have too much turkey, right?

and then i set the table for 11 .... i put the centerpiece from the month back there on the buffet ... it was too much to actually eat around ... so i just did simple low flowers .... since this pic, leaves have been added ....

 adn here's a close up of the buffet .....

 i love the indians more than the pilgirms ... they seem so much cuter .... i think it's the braids ....

slot machines ....

i'm not even sure i believe in luck ... the prompt assumes that luck is a notion you buy into .... so ...
some lucky stuff ...
lucky that i went to emory, moved to atlanta, met mr.e.beck.artist, liked him, dated him 5 years, married him, had babies with him, had twins, could afford a house .... but that might be more blessed ... or charmed ... or serendipitous good fortune ...

oh ... here's a lucky story .... gambling ... you need luck for gambling, right?

i went on a cruise with my parents and three brothers when i was 18 ... i was graduated freshly from high school ... the oldest brother was fresh from college graduation .... there was a number 2 brother between and a number three brother, younger than i am ... got that? so all pretty grown up ....

the cruise ship casino opened once it was  a certain number of miles off shore ... and there was no legal limit to gambling on the high seas ... one brother or another said, let's go to the casino .... we all said YEAH UH HUH YES ... let's gamble ...

my mom said, no, you can't gamble ..that's ridiculous ... our family doesn't gamble ...
my dad said, oh, let them gamble their spare change, they'll learn the "no good can come from gambling lesson" before we've even been at sea a day ....

now, that's not my dad's normal modus operandi ... he is SO not a gambling kind of guy .... he's more of a depression baby: count your pennies, guard your hard earned dollars, waste not want not .... but my brothers and i merrily dashed off to the casino .... come to find out we were only old enough for the slots ... no one under 21 at the tables ... i guess brother 1 could have done the tables .... but instead we cshed in a ten for quarters ... time for the quarter slots ...

here's the lucky bit.

my FIRST quarter into that slot machine won 100 dollars.  truly.  400 quarters.  my brothers hadn't even put in a quarter ... we were laughing and giddy like we had won a million dollars ... OH MY ... we HAVE to go show mom and dad ... who were sitting on deck somewhere ... we gathered all those quarters in little paper cups and in our hands and in one outstretched shirt ... and tromped off gleefully to see my parents ...

we walked up raising a ruckus .. MOM! DAD! ... one HUNDRED dollars in quarters ...
my mother turns to my dad .... what was the lesson you thought they'd learn ... we laughed and promised not to become gambling addicts and to save some of it and back to the casino we dashed ...

and brother 2 put in HIS FIRST quarter .... and got  100 dollars in quarters .... WHAT??? no way ....more quarter stashing in cups and hands and outstretched tshirts and back to our parent on deck ...

we were loud and happy and LOOK mom, LOOK dad ... 100 MORE dollars ... yes!

and mom looked at dad ... about that lesson? have they learned it yet?

yup ... that was some luck, right?

this was a long, long, long, long time ago ... i need to check with my brothers and parents and see how different my recollection of it is from theirs .....

zzzz

nope ... no passion project for me .... right now the only thing i'm passionate about is sleep ... i just can't get enough ... i'm the queen of the second wind at 10 o'clock ....

i've had passion projects .... house renovating (success), novel writing (completion:success, succesfulness: fail), 100 paintings in a year (success), dream galapagos vacation (success), clean my basement (fail) ... oh wait ... cleaning my basement was never a passion project ... it was just a pipe dream! ...

i did pick up two pottery pieces yesterday and glazed four more ... maybe i'm passionate about pottery occasionally ... but if its occasional then how passionate can it be?

sometimes reading is a passion ... and i go full tilt reading book after book after book ... i'm going to do that now ... and then i'm pursuing some sleep ....

gifts ....

a while back, i posted this blog bit ..... read this now, then come right back ..... that was three weeks ago ... my pal got married in january .... so i painted him and his new wife a painting (... and they all lived happily ever after ...) ... and then i sorta accidentally sold the painting ... fine ... it wasn't accidental ... but i sold it ... and then i forgot .... and then i remembered ... and then it was suddenly fall and i couldn't even remember when the wedding had been ... oh no, was it in the fall ? is my one year of leeway over? .... and i started a pottery class quarter and decided to make a late wedding gift .... and i did ... and then the happy couple got pregnant ... and bought a new house .... and then, hurrah! i got my act together ... and this is the note i attached to their gift ....

dear sweet friends ... 

hooray you're married! ... yes, i know i'm late with a wedding gift, but i believe i'm still within emily post's statute of limitations on gift giving .... but i'm now ahead on gift giving too, because this box also includes a house warming gift AND a baby gift .... i was considering getting really ahead and getting a gift for the second baby... but decided that might be pushy .... much, much love for all your happiness: marriage, home, family ..... 

love, e.beck.artist and mr.e.beck.artist

p.s.i looked it up online. miss manners says when wrapping a wedding/house/baby gift in combo, to split the difference and put it all in a christmas box.  uh huh, she wrote that.

... i think they liked the two ceramic pieces i gave them ... and the baby soft teddy bear .... and if they ever wondered about my dorkiness, now it's been confirmed ..... but, i am ahead on gift giving and that success should keep me going for a good long while ....

have you started thinking about christmas shopping?

.... weekend work without a prompt ....

i was asked to make an advent calendar for my church ..... and there it is ... is it too tiny to read in this scanned jpg? the real miracle is that i even managed to jpg it and get it posted here .... the other miracle is that my poor printer was able to print it out after i had a wee fit at it .... oh ... and if we're talking miracles ... my deadline is tomorrow morning delivery at church and i'm not even going to have to work on it sunday morning! yes!

my month of blog writing is going well ... it does bug me that they don't have weekend prompts .... and i did no art today to blog about ... i don't usually do art on saturdays, too much family stuff going on ... so instead of an art recap, you can have e.beck.not.artist recap: i stayed out late last night, slept late today, went to a basketball game (he won!), did some christmas shopping, out to dinner, advent calendar fishing touches, and now blogging ... an easy day .... i believe from here on out it's a steep downhill fast run to new years day ... take a deep breath ... on your mark, get set, go ....