SNOW DAY!

Okay, so in the upper midwest in the winter, there is one thing that I think student and teacher alike will say is a welcome sound -- the phone ringing to tell you that it's a snow day.

Now, I know that also means that we've got a driveway and a sidewalk to clean out, and it's going to be icky weather for people working outside. Having done outside work when I was younger - growing up on a farm, that's sort of a given - I 'get' that and really do appreciate it.

Doesn't matter, however, as there's a certain giddy sense to a snow day, ask anyone.

So, what did I do today? Anyone who knows me, knows I always have a list, and boy did I work on that baby today! I got a bunch of stuff crossed off, and that is good. I also went out to the Townline (our local overrun, overstock store) and bought a bunch of Sharpie Poster Paint Pens. I understood from Kelly Kilmer's blog that these things are now no longer going to be produced. Argghh!!! She's so correct in saying that those are great pens for journaling. Or... were great pens. Well, I bought up a bunch of the ones they had at the Townline today.
And...I read websites that I have wanted to read for a while, and generally chilled out. I drank a cup of tea. I sat with my kitties. I read a magazine. Yum. This was good.

I talked about how luxurious it was to be able to do the laundry in a previous post, and have to explain. The art studio is in the basement of the house next door. Yes, there's a story there, and yes, we own the house next door. My dryer broke at a time when there was no one living in the house, so I started doing laundry there, then asked if Mike thought I could move a table in there to work while I did laundry, "until we rent the house out." Ummm... a year later, and a lot of art supply moving, my entire studio is over there, and well, that's why it's pretty luxurious to go do laundry -- I actually love doing laundry now! LOL!! I giggle every single time I think about it!

Well, whether real or just in attitude, I wish you all a happy snow day some day soon! Take some time for yourself!

Wordle

Look at the cool wordle that I made today!



Make your own - go to www.wordle.net

Valentines Surprises

My sweetie gave me a beautiful bunch of roses and a special car -- a small replica of my Solstice! He painted it himself, and made it look just like mine! How great is this?

I went to the scrapbook store and found these wonderful rub ons - pretty letters and some great swirls and swooshes.


Hope everyone had a happy day! Now it's a bright beautiful Sunday & I think I'm going to enjoy my flowers and make a little art.

...and later the same day....

Okay, so on the elusive bright, sunny Sunday in the midst of 'the bleak midwinter,' what did I end up doing from my list?

1. walk - well, it wasn't a long one, but, yes.
2. art - yes!! I made almost 2 dozen cards with new stamps that I just got from Impress. Yummy.
3. downtown shopping - yes and no. I went, much of downtown was closed today. BUT, I tried!!!
4. laundry - yes. And right now, it's almost completely done, as I did it while I was stamping. One benefit of the laundry room being right next to the studio.

Thus, once I have sat and read for a little while tonight, I will declare today a supremely luxurious day!!! I hope all my readers have your own supremely luxurious day some time really soon!

Beautiful Sunny Sunday

It's a beautiful sunny Sunday here in northern Michigan. (If you live where it's sunny year-round, you don't understand what that means -- because of the big lakes all around Michigan, the winter time is often grey, grey, grey and cloudy each and every day. When you hear about "Seasonal Affective Disorder," think northern Michigan in the winter. I have several friends who need to use a light in the winter because not only are our days very short, they are cloudy and GREY.) So... what to do? Here are some of my thoughts:
1. Take a walk. (think I may do that, as it's also semi-warm -- 38 degrees!! I know, Blaiz & Kim, that's NOT warm, is it? It's all about perspective! Laura's reading that and thinking 'heat wave!')
2. Go make some art - tempting, but I'll wait til later, because my art studio is in the basement next door -- don't want to waste the sun.
3. Go downtown and go shopping - capital idea, as the merchants downtown are hurting a little right now, and there are several things I actually think I need....
4. Put away the holiday decorations (Mike is doing that, but I had to admit we still have them up....)
5. Take a nap. (Another quite tempting idea as yesterday was High School Solo & Ensemble Festival. Translation: It was a Saturday, I rode a school bus at 7:00 a.m. with a bunch of teenagers, and then was inside a school building all day on my day off, and on my feet the entire time.......)
6. Write a post for my blog. (Yipee - I get to cross this one off my list, because I'm doing it!)
7. Read some other blogs (Check - did that before I did this)
8. Do the laundry. (Sadly, this may win - I think we can all relate to this, but after two weekends of 'work related' activities, the 'home related' activities have taken a direct hit. Alas...)

Well, I'll start with the laundry, but gotta tell you, a walk and a little shopping may win out!! I'll let you know!

Blogging world

Hi All! I think this is pretty cool. I'm at an inservice about blogging. We're learning about blogging, and I feel pretty cool having my own blog up on this computer. So, I just HAD to post an entry to the blog. What a great world I live in -- I have so much to tell about what I've been doing lately, but it's enough to say, I think it is wonderful to post to my blog while at my inservice about blogging!!

More later!!

Where have I been?

Hello! I've not posted here, and Blaiz, I think of you each time I come to my Blogger Dashboard to check other's blogs -- I had told you my goal for this school year was to try to post 3 times per week. HA! Well, I know better, but I still have a goal to be a "regular poster" here in blog-land.

Since December 15th, I've: been to Chicago and back, been to Georgia and back, had several snow days, cleaned my kitchen (joy, joy, joy!!!), had a dinner party for friends, been to Okemos and back twice for meetings, and just done the regular stuff of life like work, home, etc.

I will post today about a toy that I won on ebay in the fall -- a Gocco machine! I had coveted these little marvels for so long, and decided to purchase one now while I can still find one. Then, I bought inks, and screens from Paper Studio in Teme, AZ (I love this store, and look forward to the next time I can walk around in there touching EVERYTHING -- last time I went there I announced to Cindy, the owner, that I had waited an entire year to come in and touch everything, and so I wanted to do that, and then, and only then decide what I wanted to buy -- she laughed very hard and said OKAY!) and promptly got busy with school and all of the accompanying committees and associations I have gotten myself into. So... I see the box, and from time to time, peek in and think about the art-ing ahead! Bliss!

I have worked on a couple of paintings from a Karyn Gartel online class on and off over about 8 or 9 months -- at times I get really inspired to paint, and others, I just don't think I can do it -- must be the inner critic telling me that I'm no good at this, what's a musician doing painting???

Well, I'm getting close to being done, and while I'm now quite a bit farther than this, here 'tis -- I'll post when I finish. (LOL - when will THAT be??? LOL!!)

These are long and skinny, and tall - about 8 x 24 or so -- hard to tell in the picture, but they are, trust me.

I have also been asked to produce the guest book for the MSBOA 75th anniversary party -- we're holding it at the Michigan Music Conference, and it sounds like there will be a lot of people flying in for the conference this year, and coming to the party -- after I was asked to do this, I sat through the rest of the meeting thinking about how I would do the cover, and what the inside pages would be like -- only half listening to the rest of the meeting. Since the Convention & the Party will be at the end of this month - I don't have a lot of time to daydream - I've got to get cracking! And, since the Convention regularly brings in several thousand band & orchestra teachers, I have to produce a pretty sizeable book. Well, I work best under pressure (most of the time) so, I'll get cracking, and I'll post here what I produce.

I have some other fun art-ish stuff to post over the next few weeks, so I'm hoping for a free evening to finish a few little projects and then post the results here. See you all again soon in blog-land!