Michael deMeng Workshop, the secret keeper.
A terrific workshop, just the right size. My surprise and pleasure to reconnect with a friend from the past, Lisa, and to connect with a new friend, Elizabeth.
Having taken so many workshops, I went without expectations of creating a masterpiece, but with the desire to try every technique. Amazing to see what everyone came up with. I learned techniques for attaching with adhesives, wire, and clay, texturizing with molding material (dap), and layering paint with acrylic washes to achieve color depth. I was awake in the night processing it all and transforming projects in my mind. I hope I will get to it in real life.

The black cloud on my mind has finally disolved, leaving me with sun and energy. How did it happen? I don't know, it's that time of life ( which for me could be any time). My life lately has been filled with long trips and long stays away from home, stressful working situations, stressful family situations, and no time to process any of it. I had signed up a while ago for a workshop called the Amazing Dremel, and although I was dying to know how to use it, I could not have been more challenged to make myself spend my only free weekend in 2 months at a 2 day workshop. But in fact, it was just what I needed.
One thing I loved about the workshop was the individuality of it. Although 12 of us were sitting around a large table, I felt totally absorbed and separate in what I was doing. Wearing safety glasses, a breathing mask, and ear plugs may have had a small part in that. But there was plenty of together time and sharing, during the informative demos, the sunny lunch on the steps, and Jill's sharing of her beautiful books.
Jill took the mystery out of the assorted strange looking bits in our box, giving us clear tips for their use, but also giving us permission to try all of them in any way we wanted. I definitely came away with a desire to use my dremel again. Right now I'm looking at those ugly plain switch plates on my walls, and wondering which bits will work best on them.
Top to bottom: mirror, wood, ceramic tile, metal, glass

My obsession with woodpiles spawned this handmade book. I was trying to capture the rise and fall of the pile with the seasons. I will submit it for the bookarts show in May.

barn and wood

barn and wood
Originally uploaded by pizza on earth

A sunny day in winter is a good day to load wood.
I enjoy stacking wood in the summer and fall, and I don't mind loading it into the carts and bringing it to the pizza hut and the house when it is a day like today, sunny and mild. Unfortunately, we also need to load wood when it is below zero and the wind is fierce. That is the hard reality of wood management.

Musque de Provence

Musque de Provence, originally uploaded by pizza on earth.

The beautiful specimen pumpkin.

Musque de Provence

pumpkin innards 2, originally uploaded by pizza on earth.

We had some spectacular pumpkins last summer that grew along the edge of our stone wall terrace. At first, the plants just kind of trailed along the top of the wall, but by the end of the summer, the vines had completely taken over, spilling over the wall and trailing into the yard below. Some of them were 20 feet long by the time we ripped them out in the fall. The beautiful pumpkin, Musque de Provence, are deeply ribbed, with huge lobes of dark green skin. We've kept them in the hallway, and now they have turned a beautiful russet color. Time to open them up! For our first meal, J made pumpkin risotto and cubed up the rest for the freezer. Of course that was just a quarter of one of the 25 pound babies. The other quarters have been given away to other lucky foodie friends. And the largest one is still the conversation piece of the hallway.

I've never really made any resolutions- I think it's silly. But because my life has changed so drastically in the last month, I want to make some daily changes. First, I need to post more often. And I need to attach stuff to my posts, like sketches. I need to draw every day, and keep a sketchbook. I need to explore and resolve the crazy feelings I have towards family, friends, and loved ones. I think that's it.
Guilt, resentment, expectations, judgement. These are the opportunities I have chosen for the exploration.
I'll get started tomorrow...