Happy

This week I'm living with a high-tech peacock and a super-hero Raven. Adding to our fun, our friend Robert (age 11) is here visiting and it's so wonderful to have games, special meals, play, play, play and today we're off to see Where the Wild Things Are together with dear Mary from around the corner.

We still have our full holiday decor up, and Grandma and Grandpa are coming today for a New Years celebration complete with fresh crab, a homemade angel food cake with a chocolate glaze and a redwood hike.
Then we are going monastic.
Seriously.

Bright, Bright Day

As far as we can discern,
the sole purpose of human existence
is to kindle a light of meaning
in the darkness of mere being.

-Carl Jung

The Waiting...

...is the hardest part. For Annie anyway. She's been counting down for the big day since around October and now it's down to "I go to sleep tonight, then go to sleep tomorrow night, then it's Christmas Eve day!" She seems distracted, hardly eats and barely wants to leave the house because she might miss something. So to keep her busy and hopefully, exhasted, I moved her new stereo (thanks Mary!) into the dining room, pushed the table into the corner and created a "dance floor." I can hear her now, above me, dancing and rockin' out!

Holiday Poses

Ugh It's been too long since my last confession!
I'm wondering if the addition of a small business to my life has completely gobbled up my energy and time for blogging? Or maybe it's just that we're in the holiday season + Bill was out of town on business + running a small business that kept me away? Hmmmm. I guess time will tell.

I really love December, Solstice, Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Years. I also love balance, so it takes a lot of thoughtfulness on my part to make December a month of joy, not one of obligation and overwhelm. We've already taken a few things off the calender, and even opted out of plans at the last minute two or three times, once choosing a long bubble bath instead, once a walk in the redwoods, once reading in bed, and more than once, impromptu hot chocolate parties for two.

The photo below of Annie and the two dogs became our holiday card this year and I am so happy with it. Click on it to see see it more clearly if you'd like. I'm also having fun taking pictures of Harpo. What a poser! The top photo is super clear and darling. Again, click for the larger view, and to see each hair on her head.

Here's hoping you are all taking care of yourselves during this season of warmth.

Over the River and Through the Woods

...in search of fungus and fresh air.

We found both.

The photo opportunities were endless,
and I only had the battery power to shoot these few photos.

Warmth

I think the glow of the candle light captures the mood of our Thanksgiving gathering.

Mary took these two wonderful photos of our "spooky silly storytelling" session after dinner. I only wish we had gotten a photo with Mary in it.

Thanks everyone for making it such a wonderful day!

Staying Home

From what I can hear throught the oven door, our turkey is not singing this song.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Goodbye Scully

After seventeen+ wonderful years,
we said a final goodbye to our most beautiful cat Scully today.

Really, it was Bill's kitty.
He picked her out of a newborn litter and took her home at nine weeks old.
Scully was utterly devoted to him every day of her life.

Bill in turn spent almost every evening after dinner holding her,
giving her her full share of scratching and petting, and she purred and "knitted" his shirt and slept happily.

So, with tenderness and great emotion, we sewed her still body into a golden fabric pouch, then buried her in the side yard, right outside the studio window.

Ugh.

Tonight, we're each raw and stunned and tired and sniffley and inward.

Goodnight Scully and thank you.

We miss you.

Just Cockoo for Coco

Cuckoo doesn't really describe it.

Over-the-Moon comes close.
Truly, Madly, Deeply touches upon it.
Crazy Happy too.
Nothing compares to Chloe for Annie.
Thanks Tiger, Travis, Rinny and especially Chloe for making Annie's day.
Or week. Maybe month...

Annie and Chloe-2.5 years ago on moving day.

Another lightning-speed post here.

I'm so enjoying my life and being immersed in the joy of creating in the studio! Annie and I have had many days together here, trying new things and getting really excited for Thanksgiving and all the fun of Christmas. I love Alameda StudioTime, and I only wish I could stand outside myself, photograph and post all of the magic as it happens.

We've had turkeys, more robots, drawing, advent calendars and angels, etc. etc. etc.!
Really, we could hole up here in the studio for weeks, dogs at our feet, stream movies on the computer, listen to great music, dream up new projects and only stop make small meals and go right back to work.

The Lions Are Coming

I can barely stop to post these days I'm so abuzz with projects, plans, and holiday spirit. There was a wonderful napkin workshop in the studio this weekend. Ahhh. The combination of linen, leaves and paint bring the outside onto the table!
The little lion ornament is a little lap project I've slowly been working on and I think they are adorable.
Now, production begins.

Try Not to Smile

I was looking thru pictures from Annie's first year and couldn't help myself,

I had to post these.

Here she is at 3, 5 8 and 10 months old.

Try not to smile.

Baby Frida's first pumpkin pie on Halloween 2001.

Felt Fun in the Studio

I love working with felt. Especially the wool felts.

It's so easy and satisfying with little (or no sewing) and such wonderful colors and contrasts. I will add another Fun and Easy Felt Workshop to the Alameda StudioTime calendar soon. If anyone out there wants to come and make ornaments, gifts, patches, brooches and other wool treasures, please let me know so I can schedule it in time for the holidays.

Isn't She Lovely?

I've been laying low for two days now with a cough + lower back thing and my dear Annie has been my cozy companion and court comedian. This morning, after multiple trips down the stairs, and quite a while in the kitchen, she prepared this lovely breakfast tray for she and I. She also stepped up to clean the kitchen so that it didn't pile up, and ran many small "fetching" errands around the house for me, so I didn't have to get up.

*Blink*

*Blink*

Not that she isn't helpful and willing on a regular basis, but she has never made me a meal, cleaned the kitchen or taken responsibility on like she's done the last two days.

*Can you hear the triumphant choir from above singing
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah?*

Wow! I can. For the first time I'm getting a small glimpse of how, after eight years of what seems like constant giving and doing for her, there might be more shared responsibility and independence down the road.

And...
Isn't she so lovely?

ooooooooh

I'll Meet You There...

...out in the fields, beyond that tall stand of trees, where the witches meet and dance and conjure up the spirits of this world and the next!
Happy Halloween!

A Day and a Half...

...until the witching hour! Annie thinks she likes scary things now that she's eight and a half, but really she's still very unsure of masks, dry ice fog, being out at night, and of course spooky sounds and screams.

Little Golden Circus Dog

My friend Mary gave me a gold fabric wine gift-wrapper thing recently, and being right on the heels of seeing Bright Star, (Fanny Brawne hand stiches a wonderful four tiered mushroom collar), I had to make our lady Harpo one to match. She really is our Little Golden Circus Dog! Now I'm now making a matching skirt...

Oh, and go see Bright Star right now! If you love poetry, Jane Campion, period pieces, and fantastic art direction and locations, it's for you. Bring a hanky.

Spooky Birthday Bash

We are just now baking the birthday cake, the house is fully frightening, and the costumes are finished! Now it's just countdown to the arrival of Grandma and Grandpa. I will try and get a good photo of the front of the house. The light just isn't right at the moment.

Compliments to Annie on the invitation.
(See photo below of Harpo.
Annie did the photo retouching
and it turned out so well we had to show it off!)