Help! I Need a Clone!

Real life (business) has gotten in the way these past few weeks - even more than usual! Been tempted to give up the blog altogether; after all, it’s been nearly six years! That’s a pretty good run. But, to be honest, I have truly missed it (and my readers – hope you are still out there!) and would like to get back into the online swing of things a little bit, as time permits.

I’m in the middle of so many projects and commitments, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to participate in the Sketchbook Challenge. The theme this month, "Highly Prized," was so broad; I found it difficult to narrow down my choices. Of course, DH is most highly prized – and his sweet visage can be found in every Santa doll I make. (Everyone who knows him says so!) My little cats are highly prized and I certainly prize my doll collection (got a few new ones for Christmas, including three American Girl dolls!) as well as a few favorite pieces of antique lace and porcelain. But I just couldn’t decide what to illustrate. I had nearly given up, when I set about the bittersweet task of taking down the Christmas tree two weeks ago. I think I’ve mentioned before that the Christmas tree has many ornaments made by my mom over the years. Well, the choice for the highly prized theme hit me like a ton of bricks! I decided to draw a couple of my cherished ornaments! The sketchbook I’m using is Canson’s Mixed Media. It is spiral bound with perforated pages and will accept both wet and dry media. I’m very happy with it. A bargain at $8.99 each, I bought two (sport that I am!). I’m using the other one for my nature journaling.

Boy with Toy...

Took this photo today of DH on his new tractor. He spent Christmas night, until 6:00 the next morning, digging a draining ditch in the front yard by hand. (We had water coming into the house from all the rain!) When he came in, he announced he was gonna buy himself a tractor – and so he did, dad-gummit!

Beatrix and Bridget

It has been cool and rainy all week. Today, the temperature is in the 70s with intermittent thunderstorms. I love the yard this time of year when the trees are just leafing out. Here are two of my little girls, Beatrix and Bridget, having a confab while enjoying the view from our bedroom window. Note the lovely “distressing” on the windowsill...

My New Space…

Here are two photos of my new office/music room thus far. It’s not finished but I wanted to post pictures before I took down the Christmas tree. I still need to purchase or make a valance for the window and add some decorative touches. I will also be adding shelves over the desk. DH is still wiring equipment. Ultimately, most of the wiring will be hidden. (I don’t care much for cable salad!) The room is tiny – only 9’x10’ but very functional. At first, we were just going to transform this area (previously used for storage) into a home theater but space is so limited in our house that it made more sense to make the room multi-functional. We brought my digital piano up from the living room (where the cats were using it a sliding board!) to occupy the wall below the TV. The TV can also function as a computer monitor, as you can see. The Yamaha PSR-S900 (next to the computer monitor on the desk) was one of my birthday gifts this year. That will be used for composing/arranging using Sonar software.

The two office chairs are extremely comfortable and they can be placed side by side at minimum optimal viewing distance from the TV so we can watch movies – YAY! DH spent the last couple of days fishing wires through the walls and crawling around in the attic to install a 5.1 surround sound system - and it is truly awesome! No need to ever set foot in a movie theater again! Neither of us really wants to leave this room.

Christmas Questionnaire

Last year, Mary-Frances of Frequently Wrong, But Never in Doubt, tagged me to answer a Christmas questionnaire – and I was so far behind in my blog reading that I didn’t see her post until after the holidays! I figured I might as well just wait until this year. So here goes:

1. Wrapping or gift bags? I definitely am a wrapper – and a terrible one at that. DH is the best gift wrapper, ever. An artist! His corners are always perfectly even – and he can wrap any shape of package with ease. I love the idea of gift bags, but I’m pretty much hopeless with them, too…

2. Real or artificial tree? We use artificial trees, usually several. For the first few years we were married, we always bought real ones and planted them after Christmas. Only one survived – and its growth was severely stunted.

3. When do you put up the tree? It usually goes up the day after Thanksgiving. We are very late this year because we are in the process of creating a feline-free room where the tree will be safe from the cats and the cats will be safe from the tree.

4. When do you take the tree down? Oh gosh! I always threaten to take it down right after New Year’s Day – but it’s been known to be up until the end of January. I would really like to have a room someday just devoted to Christmas – and then it could be up all year. Can you tell I am into Christmas?

5. Do you like eggnog? Yes! But I just add milk to it - no alcohol! I have a family "legend" to share about eggnog. When I was little, my father worked as a milkman, and he dropped his last bottle of eggnog on the ground right before he was supposed to deliver it. Some spilled out. He panicked and scooped up as much up as he could and replaced it, dirt and all. When he talked to his customer after Christmas, she said it was the best darned eggnog she ever had – and wondered out loud if it was the extra nutmeg… My father, keeping a very straight face, said he believed it must have been, indeed, the extra “nutmeg!”

6. Favorite gift received as a child? That is a tough question. All my Christmases were terrific! My sister and I always had gifts piled high. Does anyone remember the Emenee organ? That stands out in my mind as being particularly desired – and received. DH says he got one, too. That must have been a hot ticket item back in the day. I also remember receiving a doll trunk so overflowing with beautiful new Barbie clothes (that my mom had sewn) that it couldn’t be closed.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. My sister painted a beautiful ceramic nativity scene for me that I treasure. Unfortunately, I haven’t displayed it for years, because the small pieces are too tempting for the cats to carry off. One Christmas, Baby Jesus was stolen from the manger – and we found him buried in the litter box! Evil, evil kitties!

8. Worst Christmas gift I ever received? I honestly don’t know. I pretty much love everything and am very easy to please! And I never look a gift horse in the mouth…

9. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards? Snail mail, but I’m running awfully late this year. I bought cards over the summer – and can’t remember where I put them…

10. Favorite Christmas movie? My favorite Christmas movie just happens to be my all-time favorite movie, "Bernard and the Genie." We watch it every Thanksgiving to kick off the holiday season… Another movie that is pure magic is "The Polar Express." We just ordered the Blu-ray version so we will be looking forward to watching that.

11. When do you start shopping for Christmas? It’s ongoing for me. I pick up things all through the year – and love to take advantage of sales.

12. Favorite things to eat at Christmas? Same as Thanksgiving - Stouffer’s vegetable lasagna with a nice big salad and a glass of sparkling cider. I’d rather spend the day playing with my new toys than cooking!

13. Clear light or colored on the tree? Martha Stewart would not approve of this, but we love all kinds of colorful twinkling lights on the tree. Plus we throw on a couple strings of reproduction bubble lights.

14. Favorite Christmas song? I love so many of them, it’s hard to pick a favorite. I love the charming French carol, “Noel Nouvelet.” I found a delightful version, here, by the group, Anuna. Another favorite is “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” – especially the words in the third verse:

Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris'n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

15. Travel at Christmas or stay home? That’s easy, there is no place like home for the holidays… or any other days, for that matter…

16. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? My first impulse was to say, nope. But then I thought about it and I can name them, after all: Dasher, Donner, Dancer, Blitzen, Comet, Cupid, Prancer, Vixen and, of couse, Rudolph. For the true story on the origins of Rudolph, click here.

17. Angel on the tree or a star? A little angel my mom made years ago. It’s tradition…

18. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? My birthday is Christmas Eve, so I get to open a bunch of presents on both days!!! YAY!!!

19. Most annoying thing about this time of year? I love absolutely everything about this time of year, except the song, “Holly, Jolly Christmas.” See question 22.

20. Do you decorate your tree in any specific theme or color? The big tree is a hodge-podge of ornaments, many handmade by my mom through the years. We have a small tree I used to use in the kitchen, before we were inundated with kittens, that is decorated with fruit-shaped ornaments. I store it decorated. And I have another old world style tree(the ornaments are glued in) that I made for my Mom when she was alive. We used to display that in the bedroom until the kitty deluge…

21. What do you leave for Santa? We can’t leave anything out with thirteen kitties! So far, Briar, the baby, loves coffee, tea, cherry yogurt, pretzels, popcorn, tortilla chips, tofu, brown rice and stir-fried vegetables…

22. Least favorite holiday song? “Holly Jolly Christmas” makes my blood run cold… There, I’ve said it! God help me…

23. Favorite ornament? I treasure all of the ornaments my mom made, of course. But there is also a little tin cat angel ornament that I love (my sister bought it for me) that reminds me of the cats we’ve had over the years who are now in heaven. I always hang that near the top of the tree.

Celebrating with Frida…

We celebrated our 35th anniversary today (a couple of days late) by having a nice lunch at the Olive Garden and then seeing the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It has been years since we visited the museum – so long, in fact, that we couldn’t remember ever getting so winded climbing those steps up to the entrance. By the way, everyone still raises their hands in triumph (a tribute to the movie, "Rocky") when they reach the top! It was a treat to see Kahlo’s work up close – and since it was the exhibition’s only east coast venue, we thought we’d better take advantage of it. Here is a great link with biographical information and many images of Frida’s work.