Angelas Diner

Sam and I went to the park for a test geocaching run before his upcoming bd on Sunday…. we had a good time struggling with understanding what the heck the GPS meant during our search; and found the two caches we went looking for.

I went to “Atonement” yesterday afternoon, and the staccato typewriter clicking punctuating the film made me come home and dig out my dad’s old Smith Corona.  He was a sports writer for the Orlando Sentinel around the time of WW II -and while writing for that paper, he met my mom.  I’ve hung onto this old machine for many years, and haven’t tried to type anything for at least 30 years on it.   After I placed it on the kitchen table, the kids just had to have a chance typing - and it actually worked!  The ribbon held enough ink to be legible!

Here are some action shots:

Tonight was the regular gallery stroll from 5-8. The back gallery is filled with children’s art, and our work is up in the front.  The back is bright and cheerful - it’s a really great show.

Then, just two doors down, there was a Raptor demonstration.  Here are a couple of shots from that - a screech owl and a red tail hawk.  There is a raptor rehab in Bradford, RI, and they brought some of their raptors and gave a talk about them in the Old Stone Bank building.  What a great space there.

I haven’t been out torching as it’s been just too darn cold for me. So, I’ve been reading a TON, and knitting stuff too. Just finished a book about “the Loomis Gang” that may be about my husband’s ancestors in upstate New York. Here’s a pic of the cover:

And a page on the Loomis Gang from Wikipedia.

After I finished the book this morning, I got online to see how far back I could trace my husband’s lineage. He went downstairs and got out all kinds of old photos and fun stuff. I sat at the computer for about six hours on & off doing research on ancestry.com (they have a free 14 day trial, and we decided to give it a shot. GREAT site - if you know certain things about relatives, you search on their name, birthdate, etc, and you see if they were written into early census documents, and can print the original pages) We traced him back to relatives born around the late 1860’s. But there the trail is cold. That was right around the time of the most notorious gang activity…. we plan on more searching, and maybe even a trip out to NY at some point. If you’ve never looked into your genealogy, let me tell you it can be addicting! I hardly noticed the time fly by.

On a different note, I finished the anti-stress scarf I have been knitting since Christmas. Here’s the scarf - the really cool yarn is “Tundra” by Traveling Rhinos. It was a blend of fibers that mixed all kinds of colors of the north - and it inspired the color choices for the rest of the scarf. It’s a wide scarf done in garter stitch (no stress cuz there’s no pattern to remember!) I wore it yesterday doubled over and tucked into my fleece jacket. It’s nice, wide, and warm too.

my children have a sense of humor; look what they made for me today! Anybody know what the significance of a deer and my pickup is? I had a deer run into the side of my truck back a couple of years - he left an imprint of his head in the driver side front door!

the beads i really enjoy usually have “something going on” inside with a clear glass encasing…

i snapped these pics this morning (can you tell i really should have had more coffee first?)

Four beads - two have golden aventurine swimming around the colored cores… one is an earthy brown with green and blue enamels, and the third, the center bead, that one has pastels enamels layered over a grey core.  That bead has a funny story to go along with it!

It’s a BIG bead, it took a while to make over the torch.  As I’m working, I have the garage door open, and my neighbor across the street came over and watched me…. this was a couple years ago, and I was still a new lampworker.  Well, I got all nervous as I made it bigger and bigger and rounder and rounder.  I actually DROPPED it on the garage FLOOR as I was putting it in the kiln!! And she was watching the whole time, fascinated, as I quickly picked it up and popped it in the kiln…. man!

Later, when I took it out, after it finished annealing, I figured I’d have all kinds of garage yuck stuck to it.  But NO!  It only has a tiny little crease up near the hole.  Survivor, that’s what that bead is.  I should hang it from my rear view mirror, it has great depth, and the story always makes me laugh as I remember what a klutz I was.

yesterday i worked my normal shift at the gallery - and didn’t really expect to see anyone since the weather report predicted heavy rain and wind from the remnants of a hurricane that was passing to the east. it was funny how busy it was! karen maynard stopped by and we talked for a while about the work, her work, my work, and the gallery in general. her work is always some of my favorites - her palette reflects what i would choose if i worked in oils. here are a couple of pics of what she has in the show this month:

at our auction this summer, i grabbed a painting of pears by karen - it’s hanging in my cubicle at work…. funny to see “real art” in a cubicle farm!

my work this month includes the felted bowls - here’s a couple of pics of how they are displayed:

I love the complementary colors - the bowls are really fun to make, as I mentioned before.  Even in the rain and wind, we had some shoppers yesterday.  First, a woman bought a scarf that Karen made - and said she “loved shopping for gifts at the gallery” during our November and December shows especially.  THEN, I ended up making my first sale of my own art while I was there! Up until now, my stuff has sold when I haven’t been gallery sitting.  This time, I got to meet the person purchasing - FUN!  She bought one of my felted bowls from the left photograph above.  It’s a gift, so I won’t say anything here to identify her - but I was so happy to meet her.  She loved the bowl, and I had some of the yarn with me that I showed her as well as talking about the lampwork beads embellishing the front of the bowl…. absolutely a wonderful day, even in the wind and rain.

My 9th grader WON the costume contest at her high school today - she won a 4G iPod Nano ! unreal! and this is the costume she put together at the last minute:

Later that same night…..  BOO!

the whole family went up to Pawtucket last night for the Pumpkin Extravaganza…. here are three of the “pumpkin heads” we saw….

it is just so hard to get good photos of these things!  i love the one in the middle, leaf head man.  the detail up close was incredible!  i’d love to try and do something that fancy this year.  my oldest daughter also took pictures, I’ll see if she will share with me and I’ll post ‘em.  I think she made out better with less blurry photos…

Spent my day way the heck up in Massachusetts (a 2 hour drive - ugh) at a class that was just awesome - mySQL.  It’s rockin…

My boy was busy today too - makin’ little dudes like these:

They rock too - don’t they!?!?!