I've spent some time this morning reconfiguring things--I wanted more shelves under the table, but instead of driving down to town and spending more $$ on another shelf unit, I just took one apart and moved one so that the table fit better. Amazingly enough, it also gave me another wall--I'd been hearing so much about "vision boards" and was wondering where I could put one--voila!

So now I'll get the old corkboard out of the garage--or maybe I can make my own, prettier...hmmm.

A New Work Area!

Made a new 'table' in the back room of the studio. The back room is mostly for storage, with lots of shelving units and a couple of file cabinets. There's a big sink in there, as well, and, until today, a brown table that held my paper cutter.

Today I took that table out and put in a new one that has storage underneath! It's 38" high, too, so I can stand and work at it. I'm sure it sounds dorky, but I'm so excited! I've been sorting through stuff out here for a while now (as opposed to actually making art), and I've made a real dent in reorganizing--and now I'll be able to spread things out more. Very cool. It doesn't take much to make me happy.

Steps from the Studio

I'm almost finished putting in these steps down to my studio. It's been a lot of digging, and while they don't (maybe) look like much now, once the grass comes back in and the dirt settles a bit, I think it will look nice--very rustic and practical. It probably won't rain much more this year--for those of you who don't know, the Central Valley gets approximately 14 inches of precipitation IN A YEAR, the vast majority of which falls between November and April--but if it does get wet and slippery, at least I won't have to worry about falling on my way down to the studio. I have to cut one more board and dig just a little bit more, and then at least one project will be finished!

Illustration Friday: Homage

A question: Is a very literal illustration, better?

Crazy Around Here

Baseball games, musical rehearsals, band pictures, board meetings, sick kids, sick mom, and oh, by the way--one of Jenny's friends has LICE.

aaaaaaaaaaaah!

(that should be echoing, like I'm falling down into a bottomless pit)

We're all getting healthier, Jenny does NOT have lice, I have a doctor's appt for next week, but my friend the nurse says the little funky patch of skin looks like it may be something fungal, so I'm putting Lamisil on it and I think it may be looking better... Yes, you heard me--we don't have lice, but I'm happy I may have fungus...

aaaaaaaaaaaah!

I quite literally have not touched a paint brush in ages, so today I'll just pick one up and start back in again.

I got an email from a mother of one of the kids' classmates, and she signed her note, not with 'see ya' or 'love' or 'xoxo' but with 'grrrrr'. It may be my new sign-off.

I Need To Just Let Things Go...

Okay, so about a week ago, I found this funky little patch of skin on my chest about two inches below my collar bone. It doesn't itch, it doesn't hurt, it's just kind of a patchy, raised, weird-shaped little spot.

Now I know, I need to go get it checked. I can't stop thinking about it. BUT--as strong as the impulse is to get it checked out, there's an even stronger urge to just ignore it and hope it will go away. It's that whole thing where hearing bad news is even scarier than wondering about it.

I'm an idiot, I know, and I will call tomorrow when everyone's back in school and make an appointment. But oh, I'd rather not.

Playing

Played some yesterday down here in the studio, and cleaned, too. I've been 'out of the garage' and in my studio now for almost two years, and I haven't always put things back where they belong, so there's lots of sorting and organizing to do, too.

Oh My Goodness

Did I ever wake up in a vile mood this morning! I was even irritated at the people in my dreams--feeling very cross and out-of-sorts.

I'm the only one up so far, so I'm down in the studio with a glass of iced tea, trying to get back in the swing of things.

And the Winner is...(drumroll, please)

Rebecca! I finally got back out to the studio today, made up the slips with names on them, and took them back up to the house. Katie chose one, and Jenny was very sad, so I promised her I'll do another giveaway, soon, so keep your eyes open!

That board meeting really knocked me for a loop. There were 75 or so people there, mostly parents, but teachers, too. I've heard that people felt that it was the 'same old same old,' which is disappointing. Another disappointment was that the board member who asked that we all write out our findings from our interviews with parents and teachers, didn't even bother to write his findings up! I spent all day Wednesday writing mine--probably a good seven hours. Grrr. And the two other board members basically wrote "Everything's great." Grrr again.

But it's over, I did the right thing, did what I could. I'll have to take comfort in that.

While I've been gone from Blogland, Jenny got sick and had a temperature for two days, and KATIE TURNED THIRTEEN! How did that happen, anyway? I swear I just brought her home from the hospital all wrapped in blankets...

Board Meeting

Well, tonight's a board meeting. Parents compiled a list of ten broad questions after the last meeting; board members were supposed to investigate and write up a response with their findings. I've spent the last week and a half talking to people.

What I've heard has not been very uplifting. My hope is that all the board members have done their 'homework' and now we can begin to work together to make the school better. I really believe that this should be about the kids.

Big sigh. Not really looking forward to all this, but I'm trying to be in the moment--any worries I have about tonight are not real in that they haven't happened yet. I'm trying to stay focused on the feeling of my icy fingers on the keyboard and the wonderfully gentle warmth I feel on my right leg from my little oil heater (at the moment, my right leg is the only part of my body that's warm).

Joel had a big paper on "Romeo and Juliet" due this week. He loved the play, which the teacher performed/read for them, and really wanted to write a great paper. That same night, Katie got all interested in the whole Shakespeare thing and we ended up sitting up until 11 p.m. (!) talking about it and reading excerpts from different plays. Gotta love those kids--they drink tea with me, make art with me, and love Shakespeare! Could life get any better?

Yawn

It's just the girls and me here tonight--Joel had a doubleheader about an hour away--first game at 11, second game at 6. Richard went, so it's just been the three of us all day.

It's dark and I'm out in the studio all by myself. I want to know how some people can stay up late and work all night long! I'd like to do that, but I'm so sleepy by 9 p.m. that I'd never make it!

The girls have been designing houses all day long on the computer, having a blast. I put the finishing touches on "In Flight," plus started a new piece, so I wasn't totally unproductive.

Friday Confession

Sometimes I want to walk down my driveway, turn right, and just keep going. I wonder where I would end up?

Illustration Friday: Garden

She only picked a single flower...

In Flight

In flight, fantasies become real...

Scatterbrained

I'm feeling very scatterbrained today--more than usual, anyhow.

I've spent the past week talking with parents and teachers about the school board issues; we've (the board members) been given a list of ten questions to research. We're to write a written response for next Wednesday's board meeting.

The things I've been hearing are disheartening, to say the least.

So today I'm going to try and immerse myself in painting and forget about all this. I finshed something last night while Joel was out in the studio working on a biology project. "In Flight" is scanning right now. I'll post it when it's done.

P.S. I found the most amazing glue stick! It's the Power Pritt glue stick and I love it love it love it. I put an Amazon link because it was quick, but I got mine at Office Maxx. Definitely worth the $2.88.

Giveaway!

Okay--In celebration of my 20,000th visitor, I'm going to give away a matted 5" x 7" print of "Hope Springs Eternal," pictured above.

Leave a comment on this post before midnight (California time) on March 11th, and I'll put all the names in a drawing on March 12th and announce the winner on that day.

Twenty Thousand!

My visitor counter went over 20,000 this morning! I'm going to come up with some type of give-away, so stay tuned!

Long Day

Joel's playing a double header today at a school ~30 minutes away, but of course he needs to be at school at the crack of dawn to catch the bus...

Katie has her last NJB basketball game today--if they win, they tie for first, so it's a big game. Her basketball game is in between Joel's two games.

It will be a day of athletics and driving.