Doings

The craft fair life, it's an up and down affair, I'm learning. It's exhausting for me (at home I have just me, my imaginary cat, and Matt to talk to, but when I go to a craft fair, I have to talk to people all day!). But I've got a system down, and an excellent assistant (that's Matt), and lots of help from my dad with pre-fair printing and other prep. So it seems more doable than it did at first. And yesterday's Clover Market in Chestnut Hill was actually quite fun! Friends we hardly ever get to see stopped by, plus other great folks I haven't seen in years. Sales were good, the sun shone, we had a little celebratory dinner in a nice restaurant and I ate the best seafood risotto of my life, and the truck did not break down even a little bit. Thanks to everyone who came out! Thanks for buying art, and also being an all-around fun crowd.

That picture up there is Otto on a night like no other. He is available as a print in my etsy shop.

Back from Vermont

We spent two glorious fall days on our land in Vermont. What fun! I am at my happiest outside on a crisp morning, sitting on a stump, with a giant fishbowl-size mug of coffee clutched in my paws. My disposition is also at its least disagreeable level then. The picture above proves this. While on our land, we planted one pear tree, a few pots of ramps (wild leeks), and some garlic. We investigated what we hope is a viable spring, dug it out a bit, and then promptly befouled it with balsam resin, which does indeed (as we had read) do wondrous and entertaining things when dropped in water. Easily amused, yes we are. Can't wait to get back up there.

Completeandutterchaos

is my middle name.

Friends and family

Here we are, back from vacation! It was a fun whirlwind to North Carolina and back. Good times were had with family and friends - lots of laughs happened. We celebrated Matt's little sister's birthday; spent a soul-reviving few days with the Immortal Mountaineers and toured Cadyn's beautifully curated shop gathered in Front Royal, Virginia; and met up with another good friend to disassemble the awesome gift he and his partner are bestowing on us, a 16x20 canvas tent and platform which we'll live in on our land in Vermont next summer. Finally there was a wedding in Durham, with excellent food, music, and chardonnay that flowed so freely it nearly washed me out to sea. I have recovered.

In the picture above, it's a bear's head mushroom on the cutting board, not some bizarre orb from the etherworld. Or maybe it's both. Matt found it on a tree in North Carolina where we were camping, and we chopped it up and put it in our curry.

Our lives have been underwritten by the great generosity of others over the past month or so. I was so busy before this trip that I didn't take time to feel really grateful for that. Friends and family have offered up material things along with support and excitement as we plan our next move, north. We won't be outta here til the spring, but we're getting our ducks in a row. And I mean that literally. I'm buying ducks, damn it.

this week, a beast

It's a bear with some rose hips!

Things haven't improved any with my brain function. But that isn't all bad - like yesterday, here's what happened. I had tallied up all my completed drawings, based on my multiple countings, my torn apart scrap paper lists, my hormones, and the position of the moon relative to this and that but nothing much. I need a total of thirty pieces for the two shows I have coming up. My precise calculations had shown, disappointingly, that I had only 24 that were exhibit-worthy.

Then I says to myself, you know, you're more of a pictures person than a numbers person, so maybe you should spread all the drawings out on the bed, and see where you're at, just to be sure. Lo and behold, I had thirty-three totally acceptable drawings! That means I was off by, like, a really big percent. Which is no matter - I'm going on vacation soon, and my to-do list just shrank measurably. That puts it not quite into the can-do realm of things, but closer.

The moral of this story is, sometimes your own ineptitudes will delight you in the end!

the Each Week, One Beast project: week ?

The beasts are on hiatus, because their maker is overwhelmed. I feel like doing what Otto is doing above, fleeing from his responsibilities. Matt bought me an enormous bottle of gin, and it wouldn't be hard to go sit with it out in the garden, with the season's last flowers, and then eventually tip over, from which perspective I could enjoy the vees of geese as they pass by.

One thing about this art business is that my busy season is the holidays. Or so it seems - I'm still learning. So - I'll be sharing what I'm working on as I'm working on it, and beasts will come on an irregular basis, and if you want to come visit me, I'll make you an awesome cocktail and we'll sit on the back porch and not answer any of our email or fulfill any of our promises.

The f'n clutch

I haven't been around here much lately. So, I can tell you where I haven't been, but I'm not sure where I have been. I drove a friend's car to Philly and back this week. I'd never driven it before, and it's kind of newfangled, and I couldn't figure out how to put the car in reverse. So I called my husband to ask him how to do it, and told him that the solution he offered was totally implausible, impossible, and uncomprehendingly ridiculous. And here I am, there I was, stuck in my parking spot, with a curb in front of me, and nowhere to go but backwards. But I couldn't.

Then I pulled out the owner's manual, and it said, do what your husband just told you. And, well, shit, it worked.

So that sounds like a pretty DUH kind of moment, right? But wait - it gets better! Today, I needed to bring the car back to my friend. But it wouldn't start, so I said - silly old me, I left the lights on, the battery is dead. I fetched Matt and told him to please jump start it, which he did. It still wouldn't start, and Matt said, are you pushing the clutch in? And well, no, I wasn't, and no, I hadn't been, and yes, the battery was just fine all along, as it turns out!

Which brings us to the question: Where the hell has my brain gone? And it also brings us back around to the start of this post - and I do seem to be going round in circles a lot lately - but where am I, in addition to my brain? If you see either one of us, me or my brain, just sort of doodling along distractedly (distracted - the condition Matt has kindly diagnosed me with, instead of brain addled, which is what I might actually be), will you send us back round here, where we might bump into one another? Thanks.