Welcome to 2010. (That's "twenty-ten" in my head, not "two-thousand and ten", which seems and sounds like an unnecessary mouthful.)
There was the Christmas Eve blizzard, causing great inconvenience to many, many people. Fortunately for us, we had no big plans, plenty of food in store, and were happy to hide away in the 'hood for a few days. Fortunately, too, the Red Cup is only a mile or so away; a not-too-stressful stroll brings us the daily dose of coffee and socializing. And the cemetery along the way is an added bonus.


New Year's Eve was as usual for us. Sara and I had our annual gig of face painting downtown for Opening Night. Tony dropped us off (along with the other painters, Tina and Chandler), and returned to collect us at 11 pm, which goes a long way toward easing the potential hassle of finding and paying for a place to park. It was strange to arrive at our designated area, only to see a posse of clowns had invaded and taken over. They begrudgingly made room for us, in the back, and then proceeded to somewhat monopolize the crowd all evening. Now, we were being paid to do a job and help entertain the crowds, so a little wasteful thumb twiddling didn't sit well. Eventually some people found their way to our tables, including this charming couple who requested the kissy fish. Aren't they cute as they lock lips at midnight, under the rising ball?


And now the rush of festivities and parties has ebbed, and the real world beckons. Super duper brutal arctic air is supposedly headed our way (I heard something about 2 degrees F - yipes!). If tomorrow's last bit of warmth (38 degrees) can thaw that frozen hay bale in the front yard, I'll be parceling it out over the more delicate plants like lavender and pineapple sage, in hopes of preventing their total demise. The front path rosemary has been dying off over the past months, and looks completely finished now. :( Still, it's dead dry branches will smell lovely in the chimenea. My other, biggest, oldest rosemary is somewhat sheltered against the west side of the house. Let's hope that exposure, along with the matting of sycamore leaves tangled in the lower branches will help protect it.

While it's bitterly cold outdoors, I'll be working my little fingers off with the newest collection of text pendants. This batch incorporates more of the Jugenstil-esque wire designs, making them a bit more ornamental and versatile. See a small sampling here, and the entire collection at Studio Six on Paseo next month, when I'll be the featured guest artist for First Friday's Gallery Walk.
cheers gang, happy new year, and keep warm!

Blizzard! .....or not......

That's right, you're looking at the 6-8" of snow predicted for Oklahoma City. It never arrived last night, as far as I could tell, and this puffy little dusting started in the afternoon and finished shortly after. Not the best photo, but I was compelled to document the "big snow of '09" before putting a box over the tulips so they might survive to open in the sun tomorrow. It is kind of cold though, and mostly gloomy outside, & despite my best intentions, I wasn't as creatively productive as I'd hoped to be. But I've a three-hour bat mitzvah coming right up, which will force me to flex the painting muscles for a while. Seeing as I have to leave the house in 15 minutes, this'll be a quickie of a post, just a catch-up mostly, to let everyone know I survived the gloom & doom fearmongering of the weathermen. Again.
Here's one of the collage mirrors; not complete yet, but in the final stages of polishing and cleaning. What I hate about working with mirror and clear glass - so difficult to get it properly clean, all smudges and smears and bits of lint removed, every trace of flux and polish scrubbed out of the crevices. Then, after all my painstaking efforts, I set them out for public view and they get covered in greasy fingerprints and blowing dust. Maybe I can find a polish-cloth-wielding assistant......