Raining Cats and Dogs

Pavlova happy to cuddle on the couch

I'm glad it's raining. It sucks it started pouring before I could get the Halloween decorations in. At least one, maybe two or three are completely ruined. Hope I have time to get them in tomorrow before they get totally washed away. The kitties are glad they are not out in the rain and the dogs... god forbid they should get their feet wet by going outside to pee!

Today was an odd transitional day. I got a few things of the list, but there were no big, satisfying accomplishments. Tomorrow morning I have piano and then a woman from my jewelry class asked me if I want to meet to do open studio (finish up our last projects) and then have lunch. I said yes, but probably should have said no. I have glass orders to work on and ship, shipping supplies to receive, and of course the persistent A Fair of the Art to wrangle. I hope I feel more settled and driven in--if not one direction, then at least one direction at a time!

Now the down comforter and the spouse snuggled under it call and I must answer.

Physician, Heal Thyself!

Sacked out spaniel--going to the vet wore him out!

I am not a physician, nor do I play one on tv. So today was my day to deal with health issues--both mine and the dogs. The cats get their turn on Thursday. It's a good thing I hold in my mind that I only have to do three things a day and everything after that is gravy, because today it took everything I had to get in three: I spent a long time at the doctor have my glucose levels (not really glucose--the other thing like glucose they check the level of for diabetes) checked. They were a tad higher than they were before I went on medication. To help me see what's going on, they prescribed a glucose meter thingie for me so I can stick my finger and read my blood sugar levels. They also changed my blood pressure meds because I have the strange cough symptom that is a side effect of Lisinopril... And now I am truly old, prattling on like a geriatric about my various medications.

After I escaped from the doctor's office--without having seen a doctor in the hour+ I was there, ah modern medicine!--I checked in with Todd and made the decision NOT to do ACRE next year. I am going to stick to my guns and try to make the business work with primarily a web interface between me and the galleries I serve. We shall see.

The afternoon was spent at the vet with all three dogs. What possesses me to schedule their appointments like that? I always think it will be easier to take them all at once and get it over with, but who am I kidding? An old slow spaniel at one and and a bouncy Irish wolfhound at the other. Oh, and the shepherd-basset hound who hides under my chair (and my skirt) trying to escape the vet tech's notice. It felt like we were there hours because, well, we were! But they are all fine--even Baxter--and I get to do it again on Thursday with the cats!

Tonight the call went out for emerging artists (students 18 and under) to apply for A Fair of the Art. We just reached a midpoint in the established artist section. I really hope we get a big push before the end of the week.

Sunday is a Rest Day

I lied, again! This is becoming a habit. Even though I said there would be, there are no pictures of the garden from today, nor video. I have to fix the Grim Reaper who fell over at the waist (poorly soldered thin metal), and I still have lighting issues. I just didn't have the spunk today to fix the lanterns, but I need to so something. It's almost tempting to break out one of the four panes of glass so I can reach in on that side to turn the little candles on and off (getting in through the top is nogh on impossible). Of course then I couldn't use real candles in them as it would be too dangerous. I did find some wonderful solar landscape lights on Amazon that got rave reviews (over 3,000 of them--reviews, not lights I purchased...) and were only $12 apiece so I picked up a few. I have been wanting landscape lights of the garden and the trees so these will be perfect for now for Halloween lighting, and after Halloween they will be good for lighting trees and the front of the house--with solar!

Getting the lights and a few other things on my shopping list was all the work I did today. The rest was relaxation: I took the dogs to the dog park with Zaga this morning, I read and watched woodworking YouTube videos this afternoon, and then I napped (well, read some more in bed). Now I'm in another sugar coma from Dave's spice cake and ready to head off to bed. But I'm not truly tired and it is only 9:00. Maybe I'll read a bit more or play some more solitaire. Tomorrow is time enough to work.

Too Tired to Really Post

I lounge in almost a sugar stupor from the wonderful four layer spice cake the spouse made today. Honestly, I could go to sleep right now. Part of my fatigue comes from having spent six hours in the garden today putting up the penultimate Halloween Decorations. All I have left are the lanterns I bought to highlight the vignettes I've set up at various points in the garden. I am annoyed with how difficult they are to light so I'm thinking of cutting a hole in the bottom of each of the floor plates and siliconing in the battery-operated lights (the switch is in the bottom of the candle so if I cut a hole in the base of the lantern, I'll be able to turn the light on from outside). But honestly, I am so tired right now that I am going to go straight to bed. We just finished watching the wonderful movie Cabin in the Woods, and it was a perfect post Halloween decoration and pre Halloween movie. Tomorrow pics--and maybe even a video--of the Path of Terror.

No Post Tonight In My Coffee, No Post Tonight In My Tea

Name the band and the song from which I mangled my post title! Tonight is another night when I am going to skate a bit on the post. I have an obsessive, compulsive personality which resulted in my obsessing over choosing food trucks and compulsively trying to get more artists signed up for A Fair of the Art. Unfortunately I should have taken a day off as it felt like I mostly spun my wheels. So I  accomplished very little today--other than taking the child to school and getting more big Halloween decorations as Home Depot FINALLY put them on 50% off.

I am very much looking forward to getting everything Halloween up tomorrow (I have given up on the styrofoam tombstones as the wind up here makes frisbees out of them no matter how I weight them down). Then I'm going to invite the Jacob kids over to walk The Path of Terror (with candy and what have you at the end). I wonder if they like caramel apples? Dave knows how much I love them so he's going to make them tomorrow--with scratch caramel. Yum. Yes, that's just what I need for tomorrow. Something ELSE to obsess about.

Kicking Ass and Taking Names

I didn't think any more about doing the Philly show in February today--it didn't even come close to the top of the day's list. Neither did laundry, but I could die happy if all I left undone was folding laundry (not that I'm planning to die anytime soon). I repotted a couple of orchids to flex my fingers and warm up for the day, and then I got right to organizing A Fair of the Art and sending out the next round of tasks and requests. When I was about 3/4 of the way through, I accidentally deleted my message and almost lost it. Fortunately there is thing called the Internet that holds the sum total of all human knowledge (and tons of cute cat pictures), and on it I found how to recover the deleted draft email. Whew! Then I decided that, if everything went well, there would probably be a LOT of responses to my email and I didn't want to flood everyone's mailboxes and annoy them unnecessarily so I created a Google Group for the project and added everyone to it. Screw inviting people: I don't have time to wait for people to make up their minds if they want to hear from me or not. I just added them, welcomed them, explained why I set up the group, and got on with the important email. Wheee!

In the midst of My Fair Frenzy, I took some time to talk to one of my NextDoor neighbors about how to work with food trucks. He is a life-long carnie who has recently retired to Austin and is now in the concessions business--mostly with non-profits. His advice confirmed all of my hopes and suspicions, and allayed my fears. Yes, we are right to ask for a percentage of the profits--25-40% is standard and for a new festival 25% is a good place to start (everybody wins). In order to determine what 25% is, we sell $.50 tickets that are used to pay for food, and the food trucks don't actually take cash. At the end of the festival we pay them for the tickets they turn in minus 25%. Three trucks is a good number for our event. Three is actually a bit difficult to me as we have had twice that many trucks apply, and I hate turning anyone down. But I don't personally have to turn anyone down! There are a lot of other people involved and we can decide on the food vendors by vote, not fiat.

After the A Fair of the Art communication, I cleaned our apartment for this evening's renters. It was a very satisfying activity. Thirty-five years ago I cleaned houses and condos in a ski resort for a living. Today cleaning the apartment took me back to those times and the satisfaction of doing a menial job really well. After we finished rehabbing the apartment and when we started renting it, I had it cleaned by a cleaning service a couple of times. Today was the first day I went in and did all the cleaning myself, and I approached it from the ground up; I cleaned things that had obviously been passed over by the cleaning people (the back 1/4" of the wooden blinds on all the windows), and at the end the whole apartment was so clean it gleamed. As I worked I kept picturing my grandmother as the prospective guest, and I made sure it would be clean enough for her. My grandmother used to make me strip off my clothes down to my underwear inside the back door after I had been playing in the backyard. then I had to go straight to the sink and thoroughly wash my hands. When I came in and put on clean clothes, I wasn't allowed to sit on the couch--only the floor. My gramma cleaned her house professionally and religiously, and if I could please her, I could please anyone. Our guests tonight: Three guys in for a couple of days of mountain biking. Sexism aside, the chance that they actually appreciate the cleaning I did: 2%. That's okay. I did it for me, not for them.

The night finished with a family movie night to see Shaun of the Dead at the Alamo Drafthouse. A perfect end to a really kicking day.

Raining? It's POURING!

Today was one for the record books! I had my last Wednesday morning ceramics class after my last 8:00 am piano lesson with a trip to McCallum to take Jessie to school in between. But those were the easy things. For big things, I finished up the web site for A Fair of the Art tonight including creating both an on-line emerging artist application and one for download. I also took in two more applications from established artists and two more from food trucks. Just as I was finishing up, I got a request from someone on HomeAway to rent our apartment... tomorrow through Saturday. Of course I haven't cleaned it since the last guests last weekend! Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow morning  (along with folding the laundry I didn't get to today, putting up the tombstones and the last of the Halloween skeletons in the garden)?

In a weird bit of déjà vu, I also have to decide--or at least think about--whether I want to do the replacement show for the Buyer's Market in Philly next February. Now that Nancy Vince isn't running it anymore, I am willing to consider it. I talked to another artist today who does it and he said he had a better show there last year than he did at the last winter American Made Show in DC. That show was pretty decent for me so I'm betting Philly would be pretty good too. It's not going to be a big show--500 exhibitors max--but it might be the right thing to do. My thinking is something along the lines of make money instead of spend money. But do I really want to get back into the big show thing again? Todd said he's game for anything so it's pretty much on me. There would be no chance of driving: I'd have to fly from Austin. Work would have to be shipped out and back--and I don't have a crate for it anymore. The display crate is still in storage out on the east coast, but I was just contemplating getting it shipped back here so I could have the display materials to use for the show the beginning of December.

Right now I'm signed up for the second level in the Master Spinning program through Olds College the same weekend as the Philly show. It's being held at Spry Whimsy in Wisconsin again (where I did the first level last year). If I did the show I'd have to cancel my class and change to an independent study course--which is possible for the first and second levels. I even know an instructor who I think would be willing to take me on. So I could have my cake and show it too.

So tomorrow I have much thinking and doing to do, and I also have to get with the marketing team for A Fair of the Art to do a big push on announcing that we're accepting applications from emerging (student) artists and to get the poster made up. I also need to follow up on musicians with the person in charge of that and get back to the food tracks that have asked to do the festival.

We are going on a little vacation right before Christmas and I am already thinking that I am really going to need it!

Shoe, Meet Other Foot

As the workday wore down I started keeping an eye out for Dave. I watched, and ket working, and watched some more (and worked some more). Finally at 6:30 when I was starting to get worried I remembered that he had a work movie night tonight to see Bladerunner. And I got a taste of what it's like to be home alone in the evening (alone as in in the same house with a teenager who hides in her room all night with only a brief foray out to make herself rice and beans for dinner) while the spouse is out having fun (taking a class, seeing a movie, you know: fun). It was lonely, but I got a lot done--I can see the top of my desk again and all the mail for the past month has been opened and dealt with (though sometimes dealt with meant putting in a pile to do tomorrow or Thursday). I also got all the clean laundry put in baskets and moved to the bedroom to fold or hang up (also tomorrow). I even took the child out for lunch today because I thought she forgot her sandwich and didn't have any food. Turns out she made herself tortellini and put it in her cute little Bento box, but I took her to McDonald's anyway.

I love Tuesday. It's one of the days when I have absolutely nothing scheduled but checking things off my list. Tomorrow is my last double-duty Wednesday (piano and ceramics all before noon-thirty), and starting next week I go to piano on Wednesday and ceramics on Thursday. But Tuesday is safely past the mound of tasks dumped onto Monday after a weekend of businesses being closed, and it's typically a day when I get a lot done. While I really only accomplished household manager stuff today I did take time to fantasize about setting up an enameling area in the jewelry studio. Maybe I'll actually have time to do that Thursday. Then I can finish the pieces I have left undone form the Arrowmont workshop.

I love Wednesday too because it's a designated creative day. I haven't practiced piano in three weeks, but I know I'll be back on track after my lesson tomorrow. Ceramics has been difficult this quarter as I throw a lot of pieces each week, but I'm lucky if even one turns out. Tomorrow I might not even throw. I have a mug and a bowl to glaze and might just stick to that. Though I really haven't been having luck with the glazes either. Last week I got back two bowls I threw last spring and glazed a couple of weeks ago, and they were... beige. Actually more cream than beige. Just... meh. I was very disappointed. I have some underglazes that fire to cone 5 that I could use at home. Maybe I could use a couple of them and then cover them with a clear glaze. The bowl is a beautiful little piece that I made as a rice bowl for Jessie last spring. I am planning to give it to her for her birthday next week so I do not want to mess it up!

The spouse should be home any minute now, time for me to curl up with a book and a glass of Viognier to wait for him.

Monday Floated Away

Wow! Monday passed very fast and with not very much action. I exchanged email with a friend of my mother's who knew her from high school, and that, combined with my fatigue from yesterday and the digestive malaise I've had since last Friday pretty, much did me in for the day. Friday, if she were alive, my mom would be 77 years old. This is the first year since her death that I have thought of her so much in the week before her birthday. Usually it's a sharp, sudden pain on the day as I remember, but not this year. This year missing her is a constant ache. Over the past two years I have managed to let go almost all of my anger at her for giving up on life and leaving us. Me. Now when I think of her, I remember her in her prime with zest and spark and life. And a wicked sense of humor. I miss her.

Tonight was the last steel and wood class, and I used it to clean up the welds on my couch table frame. I didn't do anything with the top as I have a plunge router at home and will use it to level the top and bottom and to route out a river that I can fill with the black inlace resin. I just didn't feel well enough to stay for all of class tonight, and Zaga had other things she wanted to do too. So, steel. I welded! Not well, not elegantly. But I welded! at the beginning of class I thought I'd be all hot and acetylene torch weld. But no, I used a mig welder and was perfectly happy with it.

Tomorrow I am going to try to catch up a bit on the projects I let languish today. Honestly I can't believe I am so relaxed and casual given that I am both putting on and participating in an art fair in under six weeks. I have a feeling things are going to get more frantic in the weeks to come. But tomorrow I do three things. I can only do three things in a day, and tomorrow I will do three: create a student application for A Fair of the Art, put up the tombstones and last skeletons in the garden, and clean the kitchen and put away the laundry. There. I have some domestic goals. Now I have an eyelids-closed goal as I so often do at this hour of the night.

Formula One at Circuit of the Americas

Lewis Hamilton wins his 4th Austin F1 in five years.

I am sooo sunburned! It was cloudy this morning, but I meant to put on sunscreen anyway because I knew the sun would come out, and we would be sitting on the grass at Turn 19 of Circuit of the Americas watching the Formula One cars go round and round the track all afternoon. I forgot, it did, and we did. Now I'm lobsterfied. So how was the race? I'm glad you asked. It was a social scientist's wet dream. There was the golf crowd, east side Hispanics, tech folk, yuppie families, women standing and breast feeding two-year-olds*, hippies, middle aged British women**, rednecks and the hunting crowd***, and foreign nationals (including pasty white Chinese students who probably qualified in both the geek and foreign groups). It was, in short, the perfect steamy, packed, boisterous, jubilant blend of Austin society.

The prices were higher than Cirque du Soleil and _everyone_ was buying merch! The cheapest tickets--the one-day lawn seats (bring your own seat)--were $109 each. Corn dogs were $10 each. lemonade was $6, water was $4. Budweiser was $9, French fries were $7 and the lines went on forever. Baseball caps were $30 as were the cheapest t-shirts--and they sold out of EVERYTHING! Jessie talked me into trying to buy her a Lewis Hamilton t-shirt (he won) but they were sold out of all sizes but XXL. And it wasn't just because he won. Everyone was running out of everything by the end of the day. As we were squished on the shuttle bus back to the parking lot, Dave had a $1,250 Gucci bag pressed up against his face belonging to the woman standing in front of him (we had seats--go us). It's no wonder Justin Timberlake played the concert last night and Stevie Wonder played tonight (the concerts were included in the day's tickets).

It was Spectacular Spectacular, and once was enough for me. I can't help but think of all the tools and materials for one of my various hobbies that I could buy for $1,250 and some woman spent that on a bag whose material looked like cheap vinyl. Unbelievable. But the important thing was that Jessie enjoyed herself immensely. As we rode the shuttle past the various expensive-ticket parking lots she pointed out the cars to me: Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche. It was amazing how she could identify them so quickly and confidently from a quick glance out the shuttle bus window. She also said she would like to be a race driver--or a stunt driver--but she still has no interest in driving a regular car on regular roads. Too boring. She also wonders how the drivers can bear to drive normally after racing.

For me, I'm glad I'm home. I'm glad Dan and Zaga are home (I gave them a tour of the haunted botanical garden in the dark when we got back from the race). I'm glad tomorrow night is my last wood and steel class and I will finish my table. I'm glad the week ahead has fewer deadlines and lots of fun projects on tap (more on A Fair of the Art, and McCallum Secret Pal Gifts to name two). And I'm glad for my post-race Negroni. And I'm not even going to bed now! I'm going to curl up with a new friend's good book (Meredith Rose is a steampunk young adult novelist and she's also the designer of the poster for A Fair of the Art and her daughter is in the Cinematic Arts program with Jessie). This new friend thing is very cool and unexpected.

Goodnight from the Formula One Capital of America!

*okay, only one of these.
**okay, only one of these too.
***we didn't actually see any of these that we know of, but we heard about them attending from our horrible contractor (who was in the redneck hunting group).

A Day (Sort of) Off

Today I had every intention of finishing the installation of the Halloween decorations, but instead I worked on the documentation for our HomeAway rental all day. Dave and I both wanted to sleep in this morning, but between the dogs wanting out to pee and the cats wanting fed (and all five animals roaming the bedroom making their wants known--cats on top of the bed and dogs squiggling around it), there was no way. It was a normal 8:00 am day. So I worked on docs until my eyes (almost) bled, and then I napped.

Tomorrow is the Formula One United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas, and for my sins, I am apparently spending the day there. Jessie's birthday is in a couple of weeks and all she wanted for it was to go to the race. So tomorrow morning we load up the folding chairs, lots of battery-powered devices, and my knitting and we go off to watch cars go round and round in circles for several hours. Stevie Wonder is putting on a concert at the end of the race and I hope we have enough energy left to stay and watch it.

I am definitely dragging and feel the need for a day of doing nothing but curling up and reading. Maybe next Thursday...

Halloween Has Come to Stone's Throw

The ghostly woman in the garden

Today is our first day renting the apartment and I spent all day getting ready. I discovered at 1:30 that I had dropped the ball on replacing the toilet so I quick called our handyman, and he zipped out and put in the new toilet I bought at Home Depot between calling him and his arrival. I put together the crib I borrowed from Bryon and Vanessa, and I set out a cute little arrangement of Tassimo coffees and teas, and a vase of flowers from the garden. I turned two twin beds into a king, and fluffed freshly laundered towels. I hope they enjoy their stay and write us a good review.

Today is also the first major push getting the Halloween decorations put up. There is a ghostly woman, a grim reaper, three large human skeletons, the tyrannosaurus rex skeleton from a previous post, and a bunch of bat, cat, rat, crow, vulture, and snake skeletons--even an alligator skull floating in the pond. There are also a bunch of gravestones and some cool lanterns to turn the botanical garden into a ghostly fright-land. I really like the rat skeletons.

Jessie helped and put almost everything into place for me, I just have to install it all (anchor it to keep it from blowing away in the wind) and put up the lanterns. Too bad I can't set them up to turn on and off automatically. Tomorrow we'll finish out there, and I'll have two more big things off my list (Halloween and cleaning/mailing).

And now I lay me down to sleep...

Does There Need To Be a Title?

I thought I'd do a longer post tonight, but I'm too sated. It was a good day, almost a great day. I'm behind in what I need to get done this week and totally over extended, but it's fall. The days are cooler and the nights are downright nippy. The weather alone makes me happier than anyone has any right to be. I was able to examine all the beehives today without sweating more than, oh, a quart or so. And it looks like I'll even end up with honey from one of the hives. I wasn't anticipating getting any honey at all this year so that will be pretty cool.

I didn't get the Halloween decorations up today--have to do them tomorrow. Also didn't get to put the finishing touches on the apartment (like take the cardboard off the stairs leading up to it or pick up the loaner crib from Vanessa) so those will also be tomorrow. The highlight of today was a wonderful lunch at Asti Trattoria with my longtime friend Lize. I don't see her enough since we moved back to Austin an I'm making an early new year's resolution to change that.

I also floated at Liquid Floats this afternoon as I had two floats expiring tomorrow. It is a sensory deprivation tank where you float in heavily salinated water two degrees above your body temperature in the dark with no sound. Well, no sound except for my snoring. I kept falling asleep and either twitching or snoring myself awake.

And now the husband calls and I must go. I leave you with a little ee cummings:

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

                                                      i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Nothing. Just, Nothing.

I have done so much typing on the computer over the past few days that I can feel a tingle in my right arm tendon indicating a strain. Good thing I'm not going to work on the computer at all tomorrow! Concomitantly with working longer on the computer, my posts are getting shorter. I guess after a day of website and Facebook and even Twitter, I don't have much energy left for Blogger. Well, tomorrow I will have more interesting things to post!!

Organizing a Juried Art and Craft Festival

I have been spending more time that I planned on organizing A Fair of the Art, the holiday art and craft market sponsored by Students Making Films and the Cinematic Arts Program at McCallum Fine Arts Academy (where Jessie goes to school). But fortunately tonight at the meeting, the five other people who came took up the mantles of many of the jobs that need to be done, and I will be assigning others in email tonight. Tomorrow. Dave has an off-site tomorrow and I have a piano lesson followed by ceramics. It's time to get back into life. I think I said that a day or two ago. But, wow. Two weeks to wrangle over 40 artists into applying for a first-year festival during the holiday season. Sure, we're the only game in town that weekend, but artists are worried about having enough inventory for multiple shows so are hesitant to apply. So tomorrow I'll assign a bunch of stuff and then step back. Really.

Oh, and as if my plate isn't full enough, the neighborhood is talking about resurrecting the Homeowner's Association and covenants to block potential (not even proposed) development. Over my dead body.

Another Penultimate

The camera angle was weird as I was rushed taking the pic,
but here's my couch table!

Tonight was my penultimate wood and steel class at The Contemporary Art School and I managed to finish welding my couch table! I still have to clean up my welds next week and to decide how to finish the metal (it's raw steel so if I leave it as it is, it will rust). I've already cleaned up my previous welds a lot so they are all bright, shiny silver color--not the dark grey of the surrounding unpolished steel--so I don't think a clear coat would look nice with the contrast of the surfaces. However I'm not thrilled about painting it black either. But maybe I can find a a dark greyish brown that would look nice.

I also haven't decided how to finish the wood. I have a bit more sanding to do, but first I think I'll fill in the holes with the black resin. I also have to decide whether I want to route a design into the top and fill it with glass, steel, resin, or wood inlay. I most likely won't have time to do any of that in class next week, but that's okay as I have my own router and orbital sander to finish it up at home.

I spent today inviting artists to apply to A Fair of the Art and contacting guilds and art groups to share our application with their members. Tomorrow night is our meeting to assign tasks and I am really looking forward to handing the marketing--including twitter and Facebook--off to other people. I hope the posters are finished as I would like to distribute them tomorrow night too so other people can deliver them.

Tomorrow day I want to be outdoors a good part of the day. I have the Halloween decorations to install in the botanical garden. The tyrannosaurus rex will be joined by a bunch of other skeletons and a graveyard full of tombstones--I am going to try to get Zaga to help. We should also look at our bees. It was so beautiful out today (high of 72  or so and breezy) that it was a sin to stay indoors working on the computer. Tomorrow outside for sure!

Yesterday Zaga and I took most of our dogs to the dog park (Baxter stayed home) and at the end she bathed Jig and I bathed Gallifrey. They have the coolest stands for washing your dogs at the dog park! The dog walks up a ramp, you tie its leash to a post, and then you wash your dog without having to bend way over. I want to build one on the side of our house so Gallifrey can stay a clean, sweet boy.

Enough chatter, off to bed. I'm pooped!

Let a Fair of the Art Begin!

Today was a day spent almost entirely on the holiday art and craft festival I am spearheading for the Cinematic Arts Program at McCallum. I finished the website, created the facebook and twitter accounts, sent out a mass email to the artists who did a similar festival close to ours last year that is not happening this year, and sent out an email with the agenda for the meeting Tuesday night to the other parent volunteers. Spreadsheets are filling with tabs and data, and the web is full of our presence. I spent two hours easily manually optimizing our site for search engines. I'm not sure how much it's working as I couldn't find our webpage on Google with a flashlight and both hands on it. I hope our ranking improves as more people go to the site.

On the plus side, we've already had two applications from people who are not me (I also applied) today with photos, and payment and everything. Woot Woot! Tomorrow I get to focus on my own work with an order to ship and stands to track down. Tomorrow night it's back to the Wood and Steel class and I'm planning to weld the rest of my table frame. If I get it all done with time to spare, I might go ahead and put the finish on the wood--though I can just as easily do that at home.

I am lucky enough that such is the case every night, and tonight the time has arrived where my sweetie awaits and I must go.

Another Year, Another Anniversary

Everyone needs a Tyrannosaurus rex in their front yard.

Thank you for 22 wonderful years my heart. It was a great day today, and I can't tell you how happy I am that I came home from Gatlinburg last night.

So how did the old people celebrate 22 years of marriage? Well it started with Torchy's Tacos for breakfast after stopping to pick up the blood pressure meds at the pharmacy after a couple of rounds of wild monkey sex. Then came assembling the tyrannosaurus rex in the front yard followed by a small rest and more monkey sex. The evening ended with Blade Runner 2049 at the Alamo Drafthouse. It's hard to believe that the first Blade Runner came out 13 years before we met. Now it's time to get these old bones to bed for some more wild monkey sex. You think I'm kidding...

Homeward Bound!

The more time passes, the more plans change. I was going to go home tomorrow starting at the god-awful hour of 4:00 am. But at noon I thought I'd just check to see of there was a flight tonight I could feasibly catch and a shuttle to the airport that would get me to it. There was, and there was! I couldn't change my ticket with an agent because Delta's hold time was *over two hours* to speak to a representative. I put in for a call-back when my place in the queue came up and went ahead and booked a ticket with my miles to get in at midnight tonight. When the agent called me back two hours later he cancelled my new ticket, changed the departure time of my old ticket to today's flight, got me Delta Comfort seats (which I had been unable to do), refunded the $6 charge I paid for the ticket, AND GAVE ME BACK 2500 MILES FROM THE ORIGINAL TICKET!

So now I am packed and waiting for the shuttle to take me on the first leg of my journey back to my sweeties. It's a beautiful warm fall day, and I'm listening to Bob Dylan playing from the speakers belonging to the University of Tennessee art student sitting next to me working on the chalk drawing for the dinner menu board. We're discussing American music from Johnny Cash to Roy Orbison and the Traveling Wilburys to Townes Van Zandt.

I am exhausted and brain dead (and NOT [entirely] because of last night's drinking!), and ready to be home. I met some people I would like to stay in touch with and see again, and I met some people I could do without. "Yes". "Right". "Okay". "Uh huh", like every comment the instructor made was to her personally. And maybe she thought it was as she had already taken several classes with him. I was okay until 2:55 pm when I was working on my big piece and asked if anyone still have blue glue out as everyone (else) had been cleaning up and putting tools and things away since 2:00. The talker said, "You shouldn't be doing that because the instructor wants to turn the kilns off at 3:00"... Our class was scheduled until 5:00, and the instructor said this morning that we could work until 4:00 then clean up from 4-5. I communicated that information to her, but by then I was so rattled by her admonishment and the bustling cleaning of everyone around me that I lost track of what I was doing and messed up my magnum opus for the week. Yes, my fatigue certainly contributed, but I felt rushed and pressured to finish because everyone else wanted to be done, and I let myself get caught up in their drama. After my firing failure (overfired and fallen wires), instead of doing anything more--even grinding or polishing--I just packed everything up and left.Whatever, shake it off. I'll remember the good parts of the week and let the rest go. 

Now it's time to go home and wake up tomorrow morning with my honey on our 22nd wedding anniversary. I do love me that man.

The Penultimate Day At Arrowmont

I skipped dinner tonight. I had a big lunch, and by 4:30 I was absolutely punchy from lack of sleep so I decided to forego the meal, have a couple of glasses of wine, and go straight to bed. It's 11:50 pm EST and I am just now posting so clearly the evening took a different turn. Let me explain.

There was an opening reception for an artist in the main building at Arrowmont tonight. I meant to drop in, but I was busy working. However one of the Arrowmont staff came through our studio towards the end of the show carrying three bottles of wine that were clearly surplus to requirements for the show, and he offhandedly asked if any of us wanted a glass of wine. When some of us said yes, he replied to go to the opening. I asked him if instead I could buy one of the bottles of wine from him. Emily and I already had plans to run out for a bottle of wine right after we finished in the studio before dinner (instead of dinner for me), and scoring a bottle from him would be even better! He replied that if we wouldn't drink it in the studio (against the rules) he would give me one. I agreed, and he gave me a very decent bottle of cabernet sauvignon. Woot!

I ended up staying in the studio till about 8:30 when Emily and I left and came back to the lounge of my dorm to drink the wine. We polished it off over stories of old boyfriends and life, and then Judy joined us. She brought out her bottle of applejack, and we just kept right on going. What a wonderful night! I could have been 20 something, I could have been 30 something, (I couldn't have been 40 something because there was clearly something wrong with me when I was in my forties--I blame Atlanta), but I am 50 something and the experience was timeless.

Now it's almost midnight on the night before the last day (a short day) of class. It has been a good experience: I have learned a lot as Ricky Frank is (after 40 years of honing his craft) a font of knowledge. I'm not ready to go home yet, but I will be after tomorrow. I'll finish up my last few projects (I've already shopped for tools and materials), and have one more evening with my new friends, and then after far too little sleep, I'll be catching the 4 am shuttle on Saturday morning to head home to my sweeties. Tomorrow will be the recap post with the final photos. Now I need some sleep!

More Than I Can Chew?

leaf sketch for my pin

Those who know me well... No, scratch that. Those who have a passing acquaintance with me could probably guess that I'm going for a BIG project in my enameling class. It's based on the leaf drawing shown, and I began tonight by starting the process of rolling my own silver foil from sheets of 22 gauge fine silver. I will roll them, texture them, flash them (heat them to bright silver with a torch without burning through them), and then cut one of them into the leaf shape to add to my base. I have an heir and a spare--mostly because I want to roll them finer than the rolling mill will go so I'm doing two (and sheets of paper between and on top and bottom) at a time.

Before I attach the leaf (in foil, not leaf ;-) to the base, I'll prep the base with black enamel and silver leaf (not a leaf shape). Then I'll do a color wash over the leaf (the foil) and follow it up by attaching the silver leaf leaf to the base (whew!). Next come the cloisonné wires, followed by the color layering on the leaf. It's a pretty ambitious project, and I hope to bezel-set it in sterling and make a cloak pin out of it when it's done. I have two days of class let.

Z is for...

Here's what I've done so far--some of the pieces are color samples, some are in-process, and some are finished cloisonné. I also have two sketches I drew today that I want to work from for my first series.

Mostly finished pieces

After

Befor

Unfinished trout sketch

Cloisonné Day 2

Today's three cloisonné pieces

Today was another day, and apparently sleeping on what I learned yesterday and attacking it fresh this morning made a big difference. I spent the morning bending wires and then in the afternoon I took prepped domed ovals (they already had white enamel on the front and counter enamel--the balance enamel--on the back) and added gold and silver leaf, fine silver cloisonné wire, and black enamel to them. Finally after dinner tonight I started adding color to them and I finished three before finally coming back to my room at 11:00. I say finished because I have finished firing them. They still need to be ground and polished.

I have to be up early in the morning, whether I want to or not, because the bathroom for my floor in the dorm is right across the hall from my room. The door is left open, so as all the perky (loud) morning people are in the getting ready it sounds like a barnyard at feeding time. They're really nice women, but, sheesh! Talk about chickens cackling in a barn...

Ovals prepped with gold and silver foil and fine silver cloisonné wire attached--one even has a bit of enamel on it
(pre-firing) 

Cloisonné

I have posted too many time to count about being exhausted, but tonight I am REALLY exhausted! Class started at 9:00 this morning, and with the exception of a break for lunch and a break for dinner I went until 9:30 tonight. Ricky Frank is a very laid-back instructor who wants us to internalize what we're doing and why so we aren't moving fast (this isn't a whip-out-as-many-pieces as you can and push to your limit kind of class). But fast or slow doesn't matter when you get into the 12-hour range.

It is also very humbling to be starting something brand new and to have to suck at it just like every other beginner. Sure I work with glass all the time, and enamel is glass, but it's also metal. And it's glass in a super-color-saturated form. Between the intensity of the color, and the way the glass and the metal behave together during firing, I am having to learn a whole bunch of new principles.

The cloisonné wire looked so big up on the monitor when he was demonstrating, and of course he just whipped it around into perfect shapes with walls perpendicular to the base. When I was mangling it with my tweezers and my ginormous sausage hands (everyone has ginormous sausage hands in comparison to the wire size), it wasn't easy AT ALL. I managed--after three tries--to get two wires embedded into the enamel on the top of one slightly domed piece. I should have reiterated I mangled after three tries to get two wires embedded...

But I ended the day with several prepped pieces (white enamel on the front and a counter layer on the back of copper discs), a red color tile, a prepped piece with cloisonné wire embedded in it ready for enameling tomorrow, a black and white piece for illustrating contrast, and a couple of pieces with transparent enamels on silver foil to try blending. Two of my pieces had too much enamel on the front and not enough countering it on the back so large pieces of the enamel flaked off the front.

Anyway it's all a learning experience, and I have learned that my eyelids MUST close now. I can't even re-read this post to edit it. Sorry.

Gatlinburg Day 1

On the campus at Arrowmont

In the movie The Ref (one of my two favorite movies of all time), Dennis Leary looks at Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis and says, "I'm in hell. Connecticut is the fifth circle of hell." Clearly he has never been to Gatlinburg. But Gatlinburg is not the fifth circle of hell (anger). Gatlinburg is an unnamed later-stage circle. I looked up the top ten favorite activities for visitors here and five of them take place in distilleries or wineries. I'm not sure what people who come here for vacation do other than drink and shop. And eat. Moonshine and candy are the staple comestibles. Pancakes are also big, going by the line outside the Pancake Pantry. In the rain.

But there is another side of Gatlinburg: a thriving arts community driven by Arrowmont School of the Arts, which was founded in 1912 by the national women's organization Pi Beta Phi as the first public school in the area. It is a nationally renowned arts and crafts school which hosts week-long workshops March through November. The beautiful campus is tucked into lush woods--we were warned to keep a lock-out for bears on the grounds--which nonetheless is right in the middle of Gatlinburg! There is a rich history of cottage crafts in the area--especially pottery which holds two of the top-ten spots of things to do in Gatlinburg. The juxtaposition of beautiful handcrafts and whiskey distilleries is jarring, and unfortunately it looks like the distilleries are getting the lion's share of the tourist dollars.

Fall here is incredibly beautiful--maybe even more so today in the rain where the colors are shiny and vibrant. The mist in the Smokey Mountains and the rain make me want to settle in front of a fire with my spinning wheel (even though it's 72 degrees out). Were it not for the very commercial, touristy downtown and the people who flock to it, this place would be paradise. But it takes all kinds, and I need to be more tolerant. So what if most of the people I passed on the street today probably voted for Trump and still think that was a good idea.

A Day of Travel

My dorm room at Arrowmont

What a surprisingly good day! Usually I don't like to travel because I don't like people, and traveling people irritate me more than most other people. But today I slept on the plane, had a good, leisurely, lunch in Atlanta (airport), and had a perfectly lovely chat with another woman on the shuttle from the Knoxville airport to Arrowmont School of the Arts in Gatlinburg. I'm not sure why I came in today because registration isn't until tomorrow and class starts Monday. But I'll use the time to spin, work on my website, work on the Fair of the Art website, and start contacting artists about participating. I think there are a couple of other people in the dorm where I'm staying, but I haven't seen anyone. It also looks like I don't have a roommate so I don't need to go out tomorrow and buy jammies (what a thing to forget to pack).

I also spent over an hour and a half on the phone tonight with another parent in the cinematic arts program. At first we were talking about the Fair of the Art. But then we got to chatting about our daughters, the program, filmmaking in Austin, networking, college, and then all the things we have in common. I think I have a new friend! Making friends is hard for me these days, what with the whole not-liking-people thing.  But now I might have two! One a year is not a bad number...

Now, like almost every night as I write my post, I am tired. Sitting in a plane, car, bus, and train all day was surprisingly exhausting. Maybe it was having to be around a whole bunch of people (Get Off My Lawn!). Off to sleep in my little dorm bed and dream of, oh, something pleasant.

New Website!

I published a new website today, but it wasn't the long-awaited Siyeh Studio website (though I did update my Zapplication portfolio and applied for a retail show today). Today saw the birth of the A Fair of the Art website--including a live application with image uploading and payment processing. I even tried it out by applying myself. :-)

Today wasn't all about the web, however. Zaga and I started the day by doing hive maintenance on all of our beehives. We both got stung. Mine was when a bee climbed up under the cuff of my pant leg, got to my knee, and stung me. Zaga's was after she was out of her suit watching me when she swatted a bee in her hair and ended up smashing it to her head. But we still love our bees.

Now I need to get to bed as I leave for Arrowmont for Ricky Frank's enameling class tomorrow morning and I'm not even (of course) packed yet!

A New Art Hat

Last night I went to the booster club meeting for the cinematic arts program at McCallum High School. The school is part of the Austin Independent School District (public school), but they are also a fine arts academy and students can graduate with a major--in Jessie's case it will be film. The major programs are four years long and in addition to the regular requirements for graduation from the state. This isn't the only high school with a film program in Austin--you practically can't swing a dead cat without running into a high school with a film program. But McCallum is the only school with fine arts majors, and kids from all over the city apply and jury into the programs. Even though we are districted for the school, Jessie still applied and was accepted This program was the reason we had to buy a house in Austin before we were ready to move from Atlanta--we had to be in the district in order for Jessie to be able to apply.

As you can imagine, equipment costs for a program like this are pretty high, and public school budgets are not. So it is a reality of life for all of the different fine arts programs at McCallum that they have to do a lot of fundraising. Enter the parent booster clubs. Last year we didn't really do anything, and the program suffered. We raised half what they usually raise and then the budget from the school district was cut in half this year. Both of these hits have left us needing to almost double the amount of money we bring in from fundraising this year. So we met last night to kick ideas around, Both of the previous events we've sponsored--a teacher's pageant and a student talent show--seem to have run their course and no one's interested in participating in them this year. We need something new and dynamic.

I said, how about an auction to which the program director replied, how about a holiday artist market. Oh if only one of the parents was an artist with 30 years of art show experience... Oh, wait! So yours truly is in charge of A Fair of the Art (I love acquiring domains), sponsored by the McCallum Cinematic Arts program. It will be Saturday and Sunday, December 2-3 in the McCallum cafeteria with 10X10 and 5X10 spaces available, and the halls outside the cafeteria will have student tables. Heck, we're a fine arts high school. What better place to find fine art?

I spent the day at the school today and drew up the booth plan. I also mapped out nearby churches to see if any of them are also having a holiday fair that weekend. If there are a few, we could go in together and make a map of the neighborhood festivals and publicize them together. Tomorrow I put together the initial website and the Call For Artists which needs to go out asap.

Working in our favor, it seems likes the biggest neighborhood holiday art fair--The Violet Crown Arts Festival at Brentwood Elementary--won't be happening this year and they had 69 artists last year. I'm going to send out email to all of them tomorrow too to see if they might be interested in doing our festival instead.

Todd was saying he wanted to do an art fair. Well, here we go!

Life, Work, Passion, Purpose

coffee mug going in to bisque fire

As I was leaving Jo Ann Fabric and Craft Store with Jessie tonight--having been there to pick up the Halloween skeleton decorations for the garden that I ordered online earlier today--Jessie asked me what I do. She said she has heard me say I was busy or I was tired, but she said she had no idea what I really did. For a bit of context, before going to Jo Ann Fabrics I been at a booster club meeting for the Cinematic Arts program for her school and was driving her home because she stayed after to do some work. I had then treated her to a fast food dinner (Dave made fettucine alfredo and seared scallops with garlic bread for dinner tonight, but she really wanted chicken nuggets...) before going to Jo Ann. We left Jo Ann for HEB so I could pick up her prescription which I had just called in. So what do I do...

glazed bowl going in to fire

I was rather dumbfounded by the question actually and wondered if that was how mothers who worked in the home instead of in an outside company felt. Had I not been feeling pretty self-confident and worthwhile today, I might have been crushed. But for the first time comparing what I do to, oh, say, what Dave does during a day (coding, the occasional meeting, more coding), I didn't feel like what I do is less in any way, shape or form. I hit the ground running at 7:20 this morning and didn't get home and put tools down until 8:20 tonight. Wednesdays have been like that lately.

Spinning with Pavlova

Part of why I felt good about what I do is that it _finally_ got through my head that Dave spends every day doing what he loves. Sure, there are some things he has to do that he's not thrilled with, but I clean the cat box every day too. I fill out benefits paperwork and pay bills. I fix our well system when it stops producing water. I also get to spin, make pottery, play with wood and steel, sew shirts, make glass, make jewelry, weave, and donate my time to support Jessie's teachers and the fine arts program at her school. The ONLY difference between what I do and what Dave does is that he gets paid money for his activities, and I (mostly) do not. But we both get paid in satisfaction, and I don't think I am any less satisfied with my life than he is with his.

wood and steel table

I do not do what I do with any less passion. I move through my day with  grace, verve, and poetry. I do not sit around smoking, watching daytime soaps, eating bon-bons, or nappping all day. I do not lounge in a hammock and read all day. I immerse myself completely in the activities I do--be they gardening or tending bees or whatever--and they are almost all aimed at making someone's life more beautiful and/or comfortable. Making someone--sometimes just myself--happy. I can live with that. I can feel strong about and proud of that.

Dave's birthday shirts

I guess I would feel bad--and maybe do something different (like get a 9-5 job)--if Dave hated what he was doing and only did it to bring in a paycheck. I would have to step up and do my part to support the family even if it meant working at the Container Store or the HEB deli counter. But in our mid 50's, that isn't Dave's and my life. We are both extraordinarily lucky to be able to do what we love every single day. And that's what I need to be teaching Jessie. It isn't that you get paid for what you do, it's that you do what you love. Life is worthwhile every day if you are living it fully. If you are working now to save money so you can live and enjoy life later... that's a waste.

Halloween Impends

It's raining again. I hope Dan and Zaga made it home (across the garden) before it started. They came over tonight for some of the luscious lemon cake that Zaga made for Dave for his birthday. While they were here, Zaga brought up the idea of decorating the Botanical Garden for Halloween and maybe having a party out there...

Oh I have been lusting after the 8 ft tyrannosaurus rex skeleton with the red led eyes at Home Depot, but with no trick or treaters on our street, there didn't seem to be any point in decorating. But we have at least two neighbors with small children who regularly visit the garden to see the fish and the frogs, why not to see the Halloween decorations? And why not have a party and invite our friends and neighbors?

Jessie told me yesterday that Halloween is her favorite holiday and she has been sad that we don't decorate here (we did sporadically in Atlanta). Now Zaga said tonight that she loves Halloween best too. I think it's a sign. We could put out food, have a fire pit, have a big cauldron of punch with fog (dry ice) and floating (plastic) eyeballs in it. Oh this could be so much fun!! As I was looking at outdoor decorations online tonight I came across this incredible 9 ft wide spider at Home Depot that has posable legs, six light-up eyes, and makes hissing sounds. The only downside is that if I put it in the yard, Jessie would never come home. She would be totally freaked out and terrified by it. House rule: No spiders. Of any kind. I was going to get one small spider skeleton from Jo Ann Fabrics, and Crafts and she lost it over that one. Too Bad--the Home Depot spider would be SUPER scary!

Zaga, if you read this, Jessie wants me to make sure you understand that if we do decorate the garden there can be NO spiders. Now to see what Dave thinks.

Flashdance Flashback Anyone?

Zaga left and me right in our wood and steel class tonight.

Today was supposed to be a big post. After all, I still have something to say about learning as an old(er) person, today was the first day of Spinzilla, and I had a wood and steel class tonight where I used a bandsaw, a spiffy tablesaw, a belt sander, an orbital sander, a mig welder, a metal chop saw, and a right-angle grinder. In spite of all of that--or maybe because of it--I am freshly home from a post-class dinner with my spouse and I am too tired to elucidate. Good thing I'm having all these vitamin B12 shots which boost my energy. I can't imagine how I'd be feeling without them!

One thing I will quickly write about is the bill I received from Travis County EMS for the ambulance ride from urgent care to the hospital. First, it's run by the county and so is a government agency--I assume somewhat paid for by our property taxes, but maybe not. Second, they didn't even turn the siren on. Yeah, they pumped me full of pain meds, but those aren't really expensive. Nevertheless, this bill epitomizes what is wrong with healthcare and the insurance industry in our country. The bill for a 12 mile ride in an ambulance with the siren off billed through a government agency was $1,061. I kid you not. When I was at urgent care for the whole kidney stone mess this summer (having driven myself there), there was no way I could have driven myself to the hospital. I was incoherent with pain by then. So urgent care called the EMS, and they came and took me to the hospital--for $1,000. How did we get to this point?!? I can see a couple of hundred dollars, sure. They pay the EMS techs, they have to pay for the equipment, but $1,000 for 20 minutes and 12 miles? (Which they could have covered faster if they had put the siren on.) It just blows my mind.

Next time I'll take a hydrocodone and call Uber.

Broken

It's after 11:30 pm and after hours and hours of work, I seem to have broken both my website and my email. I am exhausted and a bit dispirited--though I think the new site is good. It should still be able to be seen here (the parts of it that are done). A longer post on learning in all its myriad forms tomorrow.