Tree. Ornaments. And All The Hullabaloo.

December is always crazy time.

While many folks have been out and about, hitting the malls, fighting over parking spaces, and all that jazz....I've been delightfully holed up in my little home. Painting, drawing, making a few gifts, feeding the backyard birdies, and setting up the tree. I had to trek to the city today to pick up some much-needed gesso and after two hours of fighting the traffic and crazy people, I was quite glad to get back to my quaint and quiet town.

I snapped a few shots of my little tree and a bunch of new additions to the quirky ornament collection:

I think this robot and jellyfish are my two favorites for this year. The 'bot was spied in a small shop here in town and, me being me, I could not resist a glass robot ornament. The glass jellyfish I snatched up from a recent zoo trip. I think I may have squealed a little when I first saw it.A German handmade wooden crocodile (with stopwatch!) from Leavenworth, WA. The gal sitting on a glitzy moon was handmade by the ever-amazing Very Merry Fairies.Teensy glass acorn and birdy made in Poland and bought in Leavenworth for mere pennies.An oldie but a goodie--a Beatles ornament I made years ago from a toilet paper tube. Also, a recently rediscovered Han Solo ornament that had been hiding out in a box of all my old Star Wars geekiness. Han, you do my tree proud.

And here's some tree shots:

I hope you are all doing well during this busy time of year!

A Pinch of Gothic-y Goodness

Hello, hello!

How's everyone doing? Are you all surviving December? I'm taking a little "lull" in art production to focus on what I love best about this time of year: spending lots of time with friends and family, cozying up under blankets with a good book and hot cup of coffee or cocoa, working on "nesting" projects (*cough* finish quilt *cough*), and doing lots of crafty-holiday-creating (baking, making paper decorative thingies, setting up the tree, etc).

This isn't to say I'm not painting...just slowing down a tad to enjoy the end of the year. I actually hope to have a few more original paintings listed in the online shop over the weekend (barring, of course, the natural light--which has been a little pathetic as of late for picture taking).

I have some sharing to do as well! This is a painting finally completed a few weeks prior:

"Bats Loom Among Us" acrylic on hardboard, 16x20"

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It's really big. I never paint this large and struggled with this one as a result. The sketch has been in my book for a year now, and I started planning the painting months ago...before I got overwhelmed with the size. It just couldn't be done any smaller. I'm happy with it, but will be more happy when I can find a good frame for it. I'll be frame hunting next month and have plans on putting it in the spring show I have set up.

Also, since it is December and all, I finally made my two "unusual" ornament purchases for the season. I collect odd and unusual ornaments, with a focus on handmade ones, and like to splurge on a couple every year for the collection.


First, I saw and fell hard for this typewriter one from Sundance.com:
It's so perfect. So utterly perfect. And I just got it in the mail today! A swell addition (I'll definitely vouch for the quality of glass ornaments through Sundance--the details on this are amazing).

And brace yourself for this bit of awesomeness:
!!! I lucked out in scoring this one from timberps.etsy.com (picture above from Timber). Words cannot describe how insanely cool I think this ornament is. And the heads even *move*! My tree this year has a bizarre story-like feel to it--lots of black and white ornaments of early 1900s men, sea critters, gnomes, typewriters, felt keys... I'll post pictures here real soon so you can all see what I mean.

Alright, kids. My poor unfinished quilt is calling my name, despite the desperate pleas from my sore fingers. And snow is a'coming...

Keep warm, cuddle your pets, and drink lots of tea!