regrouping

finally.. i am able to take a little bit of a breather after several months of filling deadlines. my studio is in ToTal disarray. i suppose i need to motivate myself and get in there, organize a bit so that i can get on with painting and playing in there. at the moment, all surfaces are covered with various paints, books, tools, papers... OY! where to start??? while at the annual lettering arts conference, i picked up a cool new thing from Brenda at Paper and Ink Arts it's this cute little bag, with handles and pages for keeps pens and brushes in. i LoVe it!!!! it makes finding the right tool SOO much easier. before aquiring this little goody, i kept my pens and brushes, organized by type (flat brushes, pointed brushes, edged pens, expressive pens, etc) each in their own separate roll up thingy. VERY hard to locate just what i am looking for while taking a class and having to work in a limited space. the best i've been able to do so far is to get all my tools organized in this little bag. i suppose i'd better get to some serious regrouping in there--then i can PLAY!! this time of year, all my licensees are satisfied with the art requests they've made, giving me time to make art just for me. i hope i still remember how!!

Latest Additions

While i am not in the habit of calling my space a basement... it's my studio and office!.. it still is very much a basement. it gets cold down here in the winter!!! jim has been researching wood burning stoves. we polled some people on the pros and cons, but let me tell you, these new stoves are built right! clean burning when run properly, toasty warm, and doesn't seem to generate the dust which was one of the 'cons'. well, it arrived and was installed this past thursday, and what a fabulous investment!! three guys came early and went to work.. of course, kona puupy was more than eager to help!

the chimney goes through the ceiling of the studio, up through the laundry room, the attic and finally outside. it was fascinating to watch. thay have all these cool little devices for finding the location of the joist beamsone guy worked from the top down and the other guys assembled the chimney going up. the foreman guy must have been joking when he told me they'd be done by 2:30 after arriving just shortly after 8 am, because they were done and gone by noon! And here she is, in all her glory and warmth!!
we were told (and really weren't expecting) for this little baby to heat the entire house, but by golly... she does!! looks a little lonely there now. the three of us have found ourselves sitting on the floor down here every evening since. next, we're going to get a couple of cool floor rockers we saw at the furniture store. kona LoVes lying in front of the fire! --and so do we! as things progress, we'll be doing some stone work behind the stove, along with the rest of the finishing that needs to go on down here. all in good time, i suppose!

last night, three more guys arrived with a truck load of seasoned wood.... looks like we have plenty enough to get us through the winter!!



a few weeks ago, i bought a futon couch for my office. it's perfect!!!! makes for a cozy little space to sit when looking through books and such. now jim says it's a lot nicer to come down and visit me! when i bought it, it was covered in a black cloth. i ordered a nice cover for it which arrived on the same day as the stove.. how handy!

Life and times

I have been threatening to update everyone with what's been going on here in the Ozarks, and I FiNaLLy have a moment. Life has NoT slowed down for a moment since I returned from the Lettering Arts Conference. Deadlines, more deadlines and then some. Look for LoTs of new and exciting things on the shelves of your favorite stores soon. More on that to come.

In mid September my parents made the big move from Hawaii to an assisted living place just a few miles from us. I am very happy to have them so close. It's taking the Beauty Queen a little while to adjust, but she is slowly beginning to enjoy her new life. The first order of business was to outfit their apartment with new furniture and all the accessories. I'll get a picture soon. I've been taking videos, but no stills. silly me!

Last night was Daddy's birthday. We had planned to go to a nearby steak house, just a mile down the road from their apartment. Gaskins Cabin must have awesome food.. they will only take reservations for 7 or more people, otherwise it's first come, first served. We figured with wanting to eat at 6 pm, that shouldn't be a problem. Well, when we pulled into the parking lot, there were hoards of people milling about. I rushed in to get our names on the list, only to find there was a two hour wait! YiKeS! By then it was 6:15, so I called the Horizon Restaurant and they said they weren't taking any reservations until 7 o'clock. Okay. We want a 7:00 reservation. It was about a half hour drive from where we were, so it all worked out. We still got to have steaks and they were Delicious!!!!!

We had LoTs of fun and laughter, watched the sun set over the lake, enjoyed our meal, our waiter and each other!

As for Gaskins Cabin-- we will return on a quieter night. Wednesday is prime rib night. Jim and I have been wanting to go and now we have the perfect excuse!!!