Baby It's Cold Outside!

Here is Rose wearing her Winter finest. When I asked my son if her ensemble went together he said "Why are you worrying about it now. It never seems to bother you when you wear it." It is part of my going to feed the goats chore outfit :) Come to think of it I feel a bit jowly wearing the hat too! It has been so cold here the past couple of days. 11 degrees below zero when I woke up this morning and it is supposed to get colder yet tonight.

Christmas Present

For Christmas my art friend Jill Shulse made a family portrait of me with my dogs Rufus, Valentine and Ziggy. She added our heads to a vintage picture and enhanced it ala' Jill. I am so lucky to have such a talented and good friend. (That gives presents :) This will be the first piece of art to add to our bedroom. Check out Jill's link to see more family portraits.

Hardwood Flooring Project

Wednesday night Mark & I tore out the carpeting in our bedroom. When we built our house we bought the cheapest grade carpeting. Kids were young, plus we always have always had dogs. Our 5 year carpeting was now 14 years old. Time for a change. Thursday my sons Aren, Casey and I started on the flooring. My job was to lay out the boards and cut the end ones to length. I love construction work. I even worked for a construction company for a couple of years doing clean up of the sites. Our whole upstairs has hardwood maple flooring that we removed from a school that was about to be demolished. I paid $50 for the lot at the auction. The boys are experts at hardwood flooring as they were only 8 & 9 when they helped to pull nails out. That year in 4th grade Casey won the lumberjack contest at school for pounding nails into a board. All the joints had to be cleaned before it could be laid down. They were filled with varnish and lots of glitter! The original finish is still on the floor, not pristine, but full of character. I wasn't as ambitious this time and bought flooring that was already prefinished. A pneumatic floor nailer was another luxury this time.

Thursday night Mark and Casey had 1/3 of the flooring done and on Friday we finished it.


Sunday we finished putting the trim around the room. How exciting, I like the new room look without furniture and stuff. Sunday night we put in the main furniture. I plan on taking my time decorating to enjoy the process.

Auction Winnings

Sunday I went to an auction. I needed to get out of the house. Too much cold and snow, very little sunshine here. It has been awhile since I attended one. I just love the thrill of it all. Too many auctions results in too much stuff though. It was a relatively safe one for me to attend because there was only clocks and some clock parts. I was good at this one. I only bid on items that I had planned on with the exception of one mantle clock. Box lots of dismantled clock parts - perfect for me as I don't like to wreck antiques even for arts sake. I stayed the whole day waiting until my boxes went up for bid. I spent some of the time taking pictures of a wonderful variety of old clocks - about 100 pictures. I'm hoping to use the clock pictures for collage images. Free entertainment!

I hope to make a lot of assemblage pieces with my loot.

Christmas Anticipation!

Ziggy hoping looking cute will work to get a present. No little kids in the family so it is a Dog Christmas!

Rufus and Ziggy waiting to open Christmas gifts...oh that one is for Simon.

Valentine and Ziggy puppysitting Gertie's puppies while she is at work with Brook.

Dog Christmas Pictures

Here are some more pictures of my daughter's dogs. Gertie and her puppies all dressed up for their Christmas pictures. The puppies are taking advantage of Mom's pose with a quick drink.

Gertie, the puppies and Gunther (not the puppies biological dad ... we haven't told him yet :)

Rose (Rose's sister Flossy who visits often) and kneefye in front.

Casey's Graduation

On Saturday, December 13, 2008 my youngest son Casey graduated from UW-Stout with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree. He studied Industrial Design. Mark and I are both very proud of him! I'll post his senior project in the near future. If you know of anyone who is looking for an extremely talented person to add to their Industrial Design team let us know.

Casey's grandparents Sue and George attended the graduation. Thank you for your support!

FEEDJIT Live Traffic Feed

I found FEEDJIT Live Traffic Feed on my friend Jill Shulse's blog and have added it to mine. Now I can see who is visiting me :) Welcome!

Geraldine, Olive, Laverne and Gertie

Time to post another picture of the puppies. Aren't they adorable? Geraldine, Olive and Laverne are now 5 1/2 weeks old. Gertie is just about done nursing them as their teeth are coming in. I am amazed at how much they have grown if I don't see them for a day or two. Gertie weighs about 13 lbs to give you an idea of their size.

Workshops

I will be teaching at Whispering Woodlands March 28 & 29, 2009. Whispering Woodlands is located in Verona near Madison, Wisconsin. The picture above showcases one of four Interactive Art Book workshops that I offer as a teacher. The interactive techniques that will be taught are based on my new book. Click on picture to see a larger view. I hope to see you there!

Good Mailbox Week!

Above is the beautiful gift that I received from Catherine Anderson. What a good mailbox week! The book is filled with inspiring quotes and photography. Thank you Catherine! Catherine is one of the contributing artists for my book Interactive Art Workshop: Set Your Mixed Media in Motion.

Contributing Artist Gift

A couple of days ago my art was returned, it will be featured in a upcoming book by Jane Davila and Elin Waterston Art Quilts at Play. Along with my art I received a gift of quilted postcards, one from each artist/author. What a wonderful surprise, thank you Jane & Elin for the beautiful postcards!