HAPPY NEW YEAR! WOOHOO! 2008!

Christmas Spider
Gee, it's hard to believe 2008 is here already! Amazing how quickly time seems to pass as one ages! I've become my mom, my children have become me and time marches on. Marriages, birth, deaths....menopause...ye gads! well, i won't bore you ( although one of these days i will get into a discussion on being a woman and growing old)...but today is a day to celebrate...i mean...it's 2008 and we are still here to talk about it....and that IS a celebration! It is just midnight here in Kilauea, and in most places New Years is over.....here, all the neighborhood kids (yeah, right...) are lighting fire crackers (rolls of up to 10,000....which are legal) all at the same time! It is VERY noisy..... but hey, it's NEW YEARS!
Gawd, I hope and pray...NO.....I INSIST! next year I WILL BE MOVED TO THE MAINLAND!....that is my resolution!... (ok, OUR resolution, my DH wanted to be included)
i've got to move closer to my boys and family....
Here are some Christmas week photos of my DH, my son Skylar and Me - Sky took a lot of photos, despite the constant rain.....he really liked my camera, so "Santa" brought him one of his own....i've put them in a slide show so they won't be too boring .....the goose is a Hawaiian nene, pics of the Kilauea lighthouse.....the beach, Haena cave, etc. sorry for the repeats...i don't know why "Rock You" widget is doing that....anyway, enjoy.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER!....and I've been tagged-twice!

My husband has been going on and on about a present he had gotten for me for Christmas - something he said was "fit for royalty". He told me it had shipped and would be ready for pick up today.
Yesterday I finally got both of my boys' Christmas stockings packed and ready to be mailed. Lance insisted that he mail them since he was going to the hardware store anyway and there was no sense in wasting gas twice. Meanwhile, my youngest son Skylar finished his reality show job in Big Bear on Sunday. I talked to him yesterday. He was out Christmas shopping, but he had plans to spend Christmas with his brother at my sister Lori's house in San Jose. Unfortunately, when I talked to his brother Vincent, he was sick with the flu. He said he had to work Christmas Eve and was hoping Skylar would be content to just visit him for Christmas and that they would not have make the trek all the way to San Jose (about 4 hrs from Vince's home). He has to work the day after Christmas too, poor baby!
Well today Lance went into town to pick up my present. He called, very unhappy, to say that not all of it had arrived.....When he got home he went to shut the main gate and asked me to get the pizza he'd gotten for dinner out of the car. Imagine my surprise when I opened the back door ....
and there was Skylar! My DH said he tried to have Vincent come too, but Vince just couldn't get the time off from his new job - they'd been trying to make it happen for a month!
But I was thrilled to have Sky here for Christmas.
I couldn't believe they had all kept it a secret from me! I told my DH that this was the best present ever and he can give me the same present over and over again and I will always be thrilled....next time I hope I get to see both of my boys!

I got tagged by my friend Joanne Thieme Huffman and then again by another friend from England, Wendy Coyne. So here are 7 things you may not know about me:

1. I had an idyllic, blissfull storybook childhood. When I was a teenager I had friends who were planning to run away, I wanted to go too- it sounded exciting - but I had no reason to leave home!
2. I only use one eye and have minimal depth perception. I had vision problems as a toddler and when I was 4 yrs old I had eye surgery that was unsuccessful. I was legally blind in one eye and wore thick glasses. About 3 years ago I had laser surgery. Now I can see far perfectly with the one good eye - but I need glasses for my close vision. When my mother died she left a tape with messages for each of us kids. In my message she said I was her most beautiful baby, and because she bragged about me so much, God cursed me and made me blind. Some message, huh?...I never knew!
3. I have 4 sisters and 1 brother. We are all about 14 months apart or so. I also grew up with 2 foster brothers and many many other teenagers -friends of mine and my brother and sisters- who needed a place to stay. We had an "open" house. Anyone was welcome, any time, to stay as long as they needed to. Dinner was rarely for less than 20.
4. I am very bad at all sports. My coordination in general sucks too.
5. I did not drive until I was 25 and had moved to LA and had to learn. My first car was a stick shift. Pity the poor folks who got stuck behind me going 40mph on the freeway.
6. I seriously wanted to be a nun. I walked a mile to church EVERY morning when I was 11 yrs old to go to 6:30 am Mass. yeah right. ..me a nun.
7. I raised rats and guinea pigs as a kid. I had elaborate breeding cages/nests for them that my dad built for me. I named them all and adored them. I got 25 cents per rat, and $2.50 per guinea pig. When I was about 14 I found out my mother was selling them to Stanford University....for RESEARCH! (Coincidentally that's the same year my religion class told me me the old testament was mainly not pure facts. I was doubly devastated. Thus ended my potential careers as an animal breeder as well as a mother superior.)

OK. so now I need to tag some other friends. I will do it off the blog, I think... then if they reject my request there won't be any pressure. I know, that's not following the rules........

New projects...inc. UHU glass glue...

I have been working on Christmas presents - wrapping and shipping all week. It is a mystery to me how I can plan for so long and yet get caught short once again. I always run out of time. Suddenly Christmas is a week away and my projects aren't wrapped, or sent - let alone finished! What happened? How did I lose track of time and my commitments? But it happens every year....maybe it is just part of getting old - everything speeds by.......
I did a bit on my painting. added more threads and roots. darkened it a bit. I still haven't added the bubble pictures..... This is it upside down. I am undecided if I like it better upside down or right side up.


And here are 2 of the glass pendants. I made PMC bails for them (UsingUHU glass glue - a 2 part epoxy - my big test!) and fiber for the chain. I made fine silver wire clasps for them too...kind of primitive....


I also finished the tulip/flying horse hanging. I quilted it and added hanging corners to the back - I didn't take pictures of that.....I wasn't thrilled with it - but it is a good beginning for another project I'm going to work on.
....and lastly i finally mounted a stone cabochon my sister asked me to turn into a piece of jewelry. She had chosen the stone. It sort of looks like either a face of the "wind" or a wild boar.....I used PMC for the mount and made the chain with amethyst and amber. It turned out very heavy....(as in ...it weighs a lot....) My second completed PMC project...live and learn.... I tumbled it in my Lortone tumbler and I have to say, it sure works better than trying to hand burnish the whole thing. I made the clasp too.

Lorri comes to visit....

Dec 5th, my fabric artist friend Lorri Scott came to visit. We spent the day in my shop working with PMC, a medium she had not tried yet. As I discovered, I, certainly, am not the best teacher.... Nevertheless, we had a great time! Here are the items she made:

She later found a piece of drift wood to mount her pmc paper "tree of life" onto.

The following week we got together again to go shopping and had a divine lunch (ahi tortilla wraps) at "mermaids".

Lorri at mermaids...
I will miss her!

Outside my window

This morning I woke up to this:

Cool, huh!?!

Promised pics...

Here are the slobette studio pics. i took them at night, that's why all the windows are closed, and the big door. it's a big space for a big mess.

...actually this is pretty clean. when I'm sewing, it's a real disaster.

i worked on the painting some more. another layer of paint....got a bit bolder.

i did not clean my studio today. manana.

Next Step of my painting....more art slobbery

Here's the next step of my painting. I have begun to paint in the background and emphasize the bubbles. I am approaching it DJ painting style - sort of a derivitative of the painting style she taught me last year. After this has dried for a few days (it has a lot of caulk on it right now) I will start to really layer on the paint and glazes.
I am hoping to do one painting a month....and ...hopefully.....finish them....
This is my 3rd painting. My dear dear friend Joanna Lovetti works in an art gallery in Santa Fe New Mexico and the gallery owner/artist said that no one can call themselves a "painter" until they've painted at least 50 paintings. This has stuck in my brain, so I want to see, after I've done 50 paintings, if I am now a "painter". 47 1/2 paintings to go!
This is my art table:

I am an art slob. I have 3 art table areas in my studio space. I usually mess up each area very badly. I cut things out, trim, etc and just let it fall on the floor. Paper towels covered in paint, Q-tips, and teriyaki sticks stash in any space they drop to. As I look for the "perfect" paint or texture or embellishment, I pull things out and spill the contents. But I can't stop to make it all orderly....when my brain is working I have to take advantage of those precious creative moments. By the end of a creative session, I can't get around the shop without hopping over this or avoiding tripping over that. Somehow everything has come out - the ironing board, the boxes of fabric scraps, the jewelry findings I need for another project I may want to take into the house to work on while i watch TV....Soon all 3 workspaces - oh my gosh- the ENTIRE SHOP -is unnavigatable....and somewhere, buried under all the heaps ...is that one item I need now. I have moved the junk on the computer table to the printer table and the stuff from the printer table to my work chair....and then my back is aching from standing and I need to sit down. yeah right.
I have many many shelves for my supplies. Yet somehow, it is the most unused and obscure stuff I have that is most visible. The good stuff I need and use all the time I keep in boxes and bags and envelopes stored near my work tables. This makes them conveniently close - but EGADS! I can never find what I need quickly! here is how I store my paints. It is not a pretty sight.
...and I ALWAYS lose my cell phone. My DH has to call me so I can find it.


Of course, by the time I am full blown into a project ALL of the paints are somewhere, somehow on my worktable.
The good news is I am obsessed with having a clean studio to start a new project. My brain cannot focus and it is way too confusing to START a project amidst a mess. It makes me CRAZY! So when all 3 areas have been used for 3 projects (In this case, one is the painting, and 2 are covered in glass....oh, and my cutting table has a bead project on it.) ..and I have hit the creative point of letting it dry for a few days, or I'm waiting for the bails for the glass to arrive in the mail ...or in other words, I'm moving on to something else for now...... I MUST CLEAN IT UP....and I do. I put everything away, back where it belongs, I sweep the floor, I reorganize. It is never spotless, but the tables are all clear...and then I start over again.
My DH says I should show you the WHOLE shop. So you can see what true slobbery is. I will take a pic tomorrow, and add it to this post.
And tomorrow .....I clean up.