resolutions

Originally uploaded by teagrrl.

I plan on adding to this list. so this is by no means final

1. more yoga, less avoiding doing it.
2. create art each day.be it photography, or printmaking.
3. walk with the dog more often, it's good for both of us..
4. learn how to snowshoe.
5.spend more time with my sister.
6.live in the now.
7. listen to that inner voice, it's always right. (always!)
8. grow older with grace and style (yeah i want to be the sexy older chick).
9. view my self with realism (yeah I'm the cute older chick).
10. laugh more.
11.travel more.
12. to be continued.....

the eve of christmas eve

Originally uploaded by teagrrl.

a moment of calm...reading I Spy books.

Eve of Christmas eve

this year different than any other , we did Christmas on the 23rd, it was a Friday night, and my whole family had the night off,kinda.

it was chaos at it's holiday best.

there was a *terrible twos* two year old, there and he was terrible, and loud, and amazingly rambunctious.

there was the 7 year old, and she was sick... and she puked, all over my living room rug. which honestly, the dog had bled on just days before, and we have been meaning to get another one,as this one had many stains on it. pale beige or umm sand colored rugs, just aren't very realistic, in the world of dogs and kids.
so right then and there, they rolled up the rug and out it went into the cold night air. gone.

so thanks karlie, it's all good.

who knew i had such nice wooden floors.

and then there were those ice lanterns, that never unmolded very well, or at all I swear...I will figure those out. But they wasted my time and stressed me out...

and gift giving was chaotic, too.
You saw nothing of what people gave or received, so next year we...Me ....The Man...and the boychild...er ... the Young man have decided to open our gifts together, after all our guests have left.So we can fully enjoy what other people are getting .

so next year my plan:

one less lasagna

christmas music

baked ravioli

italian meatballs...serve some with supper , and some as an appetizer. while the lasagna and the ravioli heat up.

no more shrimp, it was kind of uninspired, and limp.

dips and chips only.

no puking
no terrible two's
no stress.

just lots of chaotic fun.

Merry Merry and a Happy New Year~
to each and everyone.

16 days until winter

the days are getting shorter.
the temps are getting colder.
winter is on it's way.

Halloween

It has always been a holiday, I get psyched over.
it's not the candy really, the costumes are fun.
I was drawn to the thought of this holiday celebrating witches,
witches riding their brooms over my house, on Halloween.
Leaving a glowing pumpkin on the doorstep,
as a "hello, how's the flying up there?"
like even though I didn't have a broom, I could still
show solidarity with my lit pumpkin.
I became aware that this was somehow a female- centric holiday.
After all witches were females, so that made me one of the girls.

One Halloween, when I was young,My Aunt Laurie, decorated her room,
and invited me in for my own private look.
It was magical. I felt special, and loved, so this is Halloween for me too.
That night on ride home, I looked out the car window, glowing clouds in the sky, as the moon raced alongside the car, and for a brief second, I saw a witch, flying her broom,then she was gone, under cloud cover.
I smiled the rest of the ride home , it was like I was let in on the secret.
I am older now, not so sure of what I know or don't about witches, but I am enamored nonetheless...So I leave a pumpkin, or two or three, burning bright on the porch, to
say thanks, for letting me see they existed.

happy Halloween to you all, and to all a good night.

treasure

my sister, found this when she traveled south.
i was touched by how thoughtful and special a gift that was.
i believe it to be a token for future travels, I hope to take with her.
you'll notice the hairline crack,
that's where I superglued it back together.

autumn does color right

autumn

I can see for miles and miles

the cat upstairs part deux

Originally uploaded by teagrrl.

the cat upstairs

Sounds kind of mysterious.
It isn't really, It's my cat Megs, adopted from my sister, when she moved away.


Megs is a bit of a shy cat, she doesn't like our dog Wilma.But she loved her old dog Cali, but that's another story.
She truly is a one person cat, you become her end all and be all, but that's the way she like it.no ifs ands or buts, your hers.
A typical bedtime scene consists of me sliding into bed and Megs minutes later padding over , she doesn't jump into the bed , she has to do a stretch, claws out into the bumper that protects my butt from the hard edge of the waterbed.
which if you own a waterbed, you know what getting in one is like, it's a bit like falling back into the water, the same way you would if you were say snokerling.
So now i am cozy in my watery cocoon, joined by Megs.
She has a body slamming way of showing affection, and once she's plugged into you it's very loud purring until I either fall asleep and don't hear it at all, or maybe she drifts off and becomes silent.
Tom comments on how loud she is, which a sudden move from him, sends her bounding off the bed, she tolerates him,it seems but really prefers sleeping on top of his pajamas, after he's out of them after all. Like i said she is a one person cat.
what better time to end this meandering piece about one of my favorite sleeping partners.

vay-kay-shun

I love vacations.

I'm not afraid to take them, and request as many as I am able to each year.
The summer are prime weeks, just like if we were talking about your weeks at a vacation timeshare.

Where I work we request the summer weeks by seniority, thank goodness, I have hung on for 21 years,i'm 3rd from the top.
I'm a nurse,and after that many years this where the benefits get good, or you figure out the system to have a life and not go nutty and burn out.

We spent our summer vacation , as we always do camping, it's relaxing, many books are read, and games of rummy are played too.
There are walks down the nature trail, and swimming in the icy cold spring fed pond.
I tend to take a lot of pictures of the clouds, or the flora and the fauna, and always of us, and our little campsite we set up.

Over the many years we have camped together, we have brought bigger tarps, tastier and easier dishes to make.
This year we introduced the ShiskaNator it's our new shish kabob grill, it's long enough for many skewers, and frankly all you have to clean up are the skewers and some silverware.


ah camping is a good thing

the picture that got away

Earlier today I was at the studio.
I was a hot humid day, even with the AC going.
It was a fair to middling printing day,I had more mishaps than successes.I destroyed a plate, had a roller marks on my prints...i haven't done that in years...Yikes!

well they can't all be masterpieces.

So later I am home,after my lengthy drive, sitting in the back yard, surrounded by tall groups of flowers. An armful of Beebalm, a forest of Echinacea, I'm there chilling with a cold beer,grimmacing over my dissapointing printing day.

In speeds a tiny green hummingbird, he's excited ,peeping as he darts from flower to flower, trying to decide, where to eat first. He doesn't care I am there, he does fly over,hanging in midair, seeing what I'm all about.Does he really notice me, can he smell me,do I smell? Then in a flash he's off drinking sweet nectar.
If that wasn't cool enough, my hungry friend, zips off and returns with a tiny green twin, to continue feasting on the beebalm.

alas my camera is no where close, all I can do is sit and observe them.I smile while I witness their bravado against the competing bees,shooing them away, guarding the flowers for themselves.

and in that instant, it doesn't really matter that I flubbed up my prints.
my disappointment is fading away , then gone.

and I am very thankful.

high in the sky

Originally uploaded by teagrrl.

sometimes all you have to do is look up.

6 x 8 = 48 - 2 = 46

46 multicolored snapdragons (should've been 48 but 2 were "no shows")
24 pink and white cleomes *
18 multicolerd asters (6 left)*
1 foam flower
2 blue salvias
2 perrywinkle scabiosas
1 golden echinacea
1 corydalis
2 dark purple heucheras
1 blue hosta (that I divided into 4)
2 white echinaceas
2 dark blue delpiniums
1 nasturium
2 wooly thymes
1 stone crop*
1 worm grass

a lot of kneeling,
hauling water....then watering
waist bends,
digging then planting
and some judicious weeding and like magic you have a flower garden.
well not like movie magic, but with time there is going to be a mess of flowers blooming around mi casa.

*not planted yet :)

st.paul's cathederal, London

Bombing

Recently I went with two good friends to London.We had a wonderful time.



This morning ...I read the news today...
just like in that sad Beatle Song.



"Police said incidents were reported at the Aldgate station near the Liverpool Street railway terminal, Edgware Road and King's Cross in north London, Old Street in the financial district, Russell Square in central London, near the British Museum, Aldgate Station and Leicester Square, which is the equivalent of New York City's Times Square. A police official also told reporters there was an incident on a bus in Tavistock Place."




sending love and support to London.

petunia

the Studio

Over 4 years ago I googled non toxic printmaking
and lo and behold, up popped Zea Mays Printmaking.
At the time I first searched those words, it was under the encouragement of my first printmaking teacher, Tom Lewis. At that time I wasn't ready to leap from, a classroom to open studio,left to my own devices. But I knew someday...someday I would journey there and find exactly what I needed to continue to grow in printmaking.
Now I travel once a week, it truly is a sweet ride, okay it does take about an hour, but in that hour I can focus my head on what I might be doing, that day in the studio,I can also just chill, to get ready to print.
At the studio people are truly nice, caring and quick to share any information, they know , there is also a camaraderie between us, which makes it a wonderful place to create and learn.
I truly enjoy everything about it,the mixing of the ink,tearing paper, preparing the copper plates. I'm an etcher, love the weight of the copper,the surface of it, how little lines, sometimes scratches show up, that add to the character of the print itself, and sometimes not....but those can be burnished out quickly enough.
In 2006 we will create a portfolio of solarplates, a process that's really new to me, but looks equally exciting, now just to figure out my image,do I want to print itaglio, or relief...Decisions, decisions,decisions.

You are Here

...So here I begin, at the beginning that is.
Crossing my fingers hoping I won't get writer's block at my first posting.
I figure this Blog will contain more pictures than, words,but sometimes what you plan isn't really where you'll end up, so I'll show you the map and let you take it from there.