The hardest thing about posting again is trying to collect and organize my thoughts.

I'm just going to have to start writing and see where it takes me.  It has been 14 days and I know I have done a whole lot.  Maybe I should write a list.

Took a picture of myself where I should not have but I had to, it was too cool, a room tiled with mirrors.

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I've got 10 people in my class on January 1oth.  How did that happen?  I'm really happy about it though.  I have room for a couple more but that's it.

Deryn Mentock and I have been planning and working on publishing a "jewelry zine" sometime in January and I have been writing a couple hundred emails over the last 10 days.  So far I have 30+ contributors' work in my hands and some more on it's way.  It's going to be gorgeous and inspiring.  More details to follow in January.

Researching all the things I am going to print the zine on.

I got new artsy postcards with photos of my birdhouses on them.  Really pretty!  See.

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the back

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pretend the outer edge of the card is where the grey lines are.

I sent and got my goth postcards back from Gillian all the way from the U.K.  Here is the link to art-e-zine to view them all with the links to the artists who made them.  I was really excited to be invited to do the swap and when they were all posted I noticed that mine was pretty different from all the other artist's cards.  At first I thought "oops, maybe I don't really know what goth is" but then I really like the way Gillian placed mine between two goth ballerinas and maybe ballerinas are about as goth as my postcard.  Maybe because I am from California, yeah, 'California Goth' with a little 'asian gothic lolita' meets 'hello kitty' wearing black tights and eye shadow and spikes coming out of her heart necklace.  Hmmm, O.K.  I feel like I am fitting in better.  But really when I go look at all the wonderful artists that participated I think "WOW, how did I get in here?  I feel very lucky and included and now I know of a whole bunch of artists that I never even knew existed plus the ones that were there before me.  Thanks Gillian! 

But I'm not done with art-e-zine yet.  I heard of it a few years ago when I was just a noob.  Now you got to go see what is over there.  Especially this, and THIS! and her version of the art stamp tutorial., and things that have been added this year.  The pages are really big with lists of links like you have never seen.  

THEN,

I downloaded a few games and photography apps from itunes.  Boy are they fun!  And after you get them you don't have to be at a hot spot to use them.  They are yours and if you have loaded your photo album off your computer to your ipod touch in my case, you have unlimited fodder to alter.  I have Photo Lab, Camera Bag, Photo Wizard, Picture Flip, oooh, Face Melter, 

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Morph 123 and one Solitaire game and 4 versions of Mah Jong.  Like I have time, right?  It does come in handy when you are waiting to get into the carwash, waiting at the doctor's office, when your friend is on her cell phone and not talking to you at all and when your kid said she would meet you at the tree after school and she's not there.  That's when it is a stress reliever and since it isn't an iphone you can forget about calling (she doesn't have her phone on ring anyway) and just relax.

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My favorite ipod app right now is called CoolIris. For that one you do have to be somewhere where there is an internet connection because it is a browser thing that you type in a search subject like 'fish' and then you get a wall of photos that are each related or tagged with the word fish. You can then tap on any photo and it shows it to you one step closer and then if you tap the screen again the photo fills the screen. Subsequent taps make the photo smaller and then you are back to the wall grid with unlimited choices for experiences and inspiration.

I did October in an 'art calendar swap'.

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My friend and teacher Mona Clee and I did step outs for a silver etching tutorial for the zine.  Here is a picture of her cute cockatiel Alberta posing for us.  I've been searching for a good link for Mona, but there is so much out there so I'll tell you that by day she is lawyer, the rest of the time she is an artist.  She wrote two Sci-fi books that I found at Amazon and also an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.  She has a lot going on and she made time for me.  Thank you Mona!

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Made a fruit sculpture with my husband and daughter one day.  I was merely the photographer.  I'll bet Alberta would like this sculpture.

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And working on jewelry for our annual Christmas Boutique.

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a ring for Grace for Christmas.

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loaded kiln

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It's all in the tumbler right now getting really shiny.

I reorganized some parts of my workspace.

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I got the greatest storage drawer system ever.  elfa from 

The Container Store.

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and while I was outside I got a few pictures of the beauty around me - click on this one please

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after the flower dies (my japanese anemone)

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looked inside a poppy and even though it's not sharply focused, it's pretty

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saw a ladybug

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and left another stamp out!

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Now I am going to go get some rest so I can do some more tomorrow.

Wish I could go to Teesha's Christmas Party...