I Welcome the New Year at Last

It's 59 degrees outside and dry, and school is cancelled for tomorrow due to weather... In the school district's defense, I had a doctor's appointment in the morning which has also been cancelled as they expect to be closed for weather too. It's supposed to rain starting soon, turning into snow and ice as the temperatures plummet by morning. With the hill at the end of our street, if the roads are icy, we won't be going anywhere tomorrow. I wish I had done my kiln loads today when it was 65 degrees out and thus warm in the studio too. Tomorrow and the next few days are going to be miserable.

As mentioned in yesterday's post, the fashion show is over. I am also coming to the end of the data.world doc project--Dave would like me to be finished writing and him to be finished reviewing my writing by tomorrow. Oddly enough, I think I can make that goal. Then what? My in-laws asked me the other day what my next big project is, and I didn't have a specific one in mind, just a feeling I wanted to get down into the wood shop. I also need to finish my coursework for the level one master spinner course by the end of February, and I'm headed to Destin for a five-day spinning retreat in a week. SO it looks like wood and wool are on my horizon.

But more important than anything I'm winding up to do is stopping and relishing this moment of being DONE. I'll be honest, I have come to dread the holidays. There's too much going on at the end of the year and too much pressure to connect with friends, family, co-workers, and the world, and to celebrate your relationships and good feelings. Even this year when I managed to keep Christmas down to a dull roar with two presents for Dave, two presents from Dave, and fewer presents than previously for Jessie, it still was too much. I thought the cruise would take some of the pressure off because we wouldn't be back till Christmas Eve, but that wasn't the case. Between the art fair, starting the SQL docs, getting sick on the cruise, all three of us sharing a room on the cruise, Christmas, and the fashion show I have been stuck in a time of no personal time and no personal space. But now time is coming back to me.

On the idea of wood projects, Dave and I were discussing what to do with the "room" at the far end of the downstairs. We call it a room, but really our downstairs living area is one big room with the great room at one end, a dining room squeezed in between it and a kitchen, and then what we're calling a sitting room at the far end. Right now there is a piano, a couple of comfy chairs in front of the fireplace and a couple of bookcases in that room. And we never use it. In the interest of using it for more than piano practice and lessons, I proposed moving one chair and the bookcases out, moving the games cabinet in, and putting a 2-4-person games table in the middle of the room. We have been enjoying playing games of an evening, and this way we wouldn't have to worry if the dining room table was sticky. Dave thought my proposal was marvelous, and guess who's building the games table? As I am a member of the Wood Whisperer Guild I checked to see if there were any plans for a games table there, and, huzzah! Now I have plans! Though I think I will modify them some as we just want a 3.5 ft square pedestal table. We do want a lot of bells and whistles though including a cloth-covered, recessed gaming surface, cup holders, individual play surfaces, and modular accessories like dice trays, surfaces for plates of food, etc.

On a smaller scale I have decided to take all the remaining redwood from the old deck that's still piled in front of the garage and cut and plane it down into smaller pieces which I will use to build little redwood boxes and other small items. I like boxes and I want a project where I can practice skills like dovetailing, routing and inlay on a small scale. As soon as it dries up outside, I'll get right on it!