A Good Day

My dear friends, I've run out of apologies except for the "this is life" one that seems to happen always around this time of the year. Why is it that the season that should be calm and peaceful always tends to be anything but? It's hectic with busy and full days... you can't even do regular grocery shopping anymore without running into crowds and waiting in line at the checkout. When I think of Advent and the pre-Christmas season I always imagine beauty, candlelight, peacefulness, hot chocolate and cookies.

Nothing of that - except for the hot chocolate - did happen this year.

Instead we were all in an insane run for - what? Kaefer has been spending hours at the computer, filling out applications for the universities she thinks may be a good fit for her. Finals will be this week, so she's studying for long hours. Last day of school will be on Thursday and then on Friday night she will have a potluck and a night hike with the TeenNat program at the nature preserve she spent her summer internship at - that's a nice event and she looks forward to that. It's a good start for the winter break as well.

I had my last class a week ago, but still spend many hours preparing for the artisan holiday fair. One of the last things I made were these ornaments.

It was a lot of fun creating these - I just love to "invent" these little winter scenes and fill them with moose, howling wolves, trees, a full moon, cats and snowmen. Some even got the Big Dipper.

I did a practice set up of my table, took pictures of it - and promptly forgot to print the photos and take them with me! So I had to set up from memory which actually wasn't too difficult.

The fair turned out to be a really good day. Since I sold at this fair last year I knew that it was a good one, but it by far exceeded my expectations. I actually ran out of some of my items - note to myself, knit more hats in more colors. I even sold the hat I was wearing! The things I expected to sell like the hedgehog mittens didn't move at all!

I guess this part of Northern California is not a good location for hedgehog mittens! This is luck for my two little nieces in Germany who will each get a pair for Christmas! They do need mittens in Germany!

In the end I was very happy with my sales and the entire day. The vendors next to us were lovely and we had quite some fun together. The entertainment program was excellent and we even did some dancing! What more can you ask for?

Kaefer was my assistant again - perhaps for the last time since next year she probably will be off to college. It will be very different and only half the fun without her.

Sunday Gratitude

On this last Sunday before Christmas there is a lot I am grateful for.

- There is still color in my garden. The rain has knocked off most of the flowers that were still standing, but the Pineapple Sage still is strong and beautiful. Real eye candy at this time of year.

- The rain. Since the beginning of December we have had a lot of rain, and boy do we need it. Although we got quite some inches it hasn't put a dent in the drought yet. Conditions are still pretty severe. However, everything looks so pretty and fresh. The hills that were brown most of the year are green. I think the cows have a field day (literally!).

- We had a huge rainstorm the week before last. School was cancelled and we were advised to stay at home if possible. Nothing happened here - no flooding, no power outage. Some towns and villages nearby weren't quite that lucky and were flooded. Many roads were closed due to flooding, even the freeway. However, everything cleared rather quickly, but there certainly is some damage. We were lucky that nothing happened here and are very grateful for that.

- Kaefer was my assistant at our second artisan holiday fair. Our booth was much smaller than at the first one where we had a 10' by 10' booth. Here, we only had one 6' table and I had to redesign my display quite a bit. The day before I changed my sign to get more space on the table. It is now hanging from the burlap at the front of my table. Even though we had much less space, we sold so much more and got lots of compliments for the display and my items. The energy at the fair was happy and positive, the organisation of the event was excellent, the entertainment great and the food was good as well. Kaefer and I had a wonderful time. She is a great helper!

- Re-discovering knitting has been such a blessing. By now I have knitted so many doll's winter accessories and sold some of them during those holiday fairs. The next project is boot socks for Kaefer which she would like for Christmas but probably will turn out to be a sometime-in-January gift. After that I'm planning on a hat and infinity scarf for myself. Jo and I love to go to knitting stores, and I usually go through the patterns to get some inspiration. There's always the Internet for some wonderful inspiration as well.

- My friend Jo and I had our Christmas breakfast when we chose a nice café somewhere in the county, have breakfast there and exchange our gifts. I am so grateful for this wonderful friend. We got to know each other when our daughters went to the same charter school for fifth and sixth grade. We connected immediately and our bond has become stronger over the years.

- Kaefer and I love to spend time in our locally owned bookstore. It's wonderful to see how much she loves to read - and she reads actual books! She has very similar sentiments about a book like I do. It is good to hear that from a teenager.

- School is over for the holidays. Kaefer had finals last week with Thursday being the last day of school. It is a big relief to have a two weeks break, and fortunately she has almost no homework. She can really relax and I'm so glad about that. She has worked very hard and she certainly deserves a break. We all do. And this is why we all take time off for this winter break - time off the computer and similar addictions. It will be family time for the next two weeks. That doesn't mean that I won't sneak over to your blogs every now and then, I just won't post here.

I wish all of you a merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah or whatever you're celebrating - winter solstice, Kwanzaa... - and all the very best for the new year. May it bring you lots of inspiration, health and joy.

Friday Finds and Paint Party Friday

It finally started to rain here - such bliss!! One storm after the other are chasing through the state and they are all dumping quite some rain on the dried out ground. It is such a relief, and I hope that over the winter months there will be more rain so our reservoirs will fill up again.

While looking out of the window, I was amazed how beautiful my small Japanese maple in the backyard looks. In this grey and wet weather - and against the dark fence - the color of the leaves really pops. A wonderful find for this week.

Apart from that the week has been busy - in less than 10 days I'll have my first holiday fair of the season and I'm still in full creative mode. There are two new paintings:

 Snowman Family on 6x6 wood panel

Mixed media on 8x8 canvas board

I've also made a few more ornaments from the leftover redwood of our picket fence.

Christmas Cat and Christmas Owl

For the holiday boutique in Ukiah we were asked to donate one item for the silent auction. This little owl mixed media painting on a 5x5 canvas is mine.

I'm linking to both Friday Finds and Paint Party Friday - perhaps you'd like to check them out.

Babushka-Inspired Brontë Dolls

In my last post I promised to tell you why I disappeared from my blog for a bit more than a week. The reason is pretty simple - I had signed up to participate in an arts and crafts fair. It was a rather spontaneous decision after an opportunity came up and I just couldn't pass it. I had two weeks to prepare, and I got extremely busy. I created like a mad woman and was more than grateful that my creativity was strong and present during those two weeks. I already had a rather good inventory, but I felt that I could do with a few more Christmas items. Of course I also practiced setting up my table several times with the result that setting up at the fair took us just an hour. I said "us" because Kaefer was my helper. She had created some polymer clay ornaments the evening before the fair and she actually sold some of them and made a bit of extra money.

Kaefer took a picture of me behind our table.

Sorry for the bad quality - it was an indoor show and I only had my small camera with me.

The show went pretty well for us which was nice. However, I almost enjoyed more talking to the other vendors and the interactions with the customers. All in all it was a great experience.

One thing I did for the show was creating these babushka-inspired dolls.

This yellow one was the first one that sold.

The inspiration for them I found in one of the classes by Christy Tomlinson. Guess what the inside of each doll is? An old lightbulb - those that we don't use anymore because they are not energy-efficient. The lightbulb is wrapped with air-drying clay and then further decorated.

Here you can see them in various stages of progress:

After the clay had dried overnight, I painted the dolls with a layer of cream acrylic paint. After that was done I changed my mind again and decoupaged them with torn book pages. These pieces came from a cheap edition (thrift store find) of "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë. That's the reason I also call these dolls "Brontë dolls". The decoupaging of course was the stickiest part of the entire project. When the dolls were completely covered in the torn book pages, I painted them with acrylic colors and then embellished them with stamps, rub-ons, small rhinestones and a white marker (Sharpie's mean streak). I had attached a screw-eye to the top when I had wrapped the clay around the lightbulb, and now I knotted a piece of lace ribbon around it as a final touch.

Brontë doll in red and green

I am very happy how the dolls turned out and really like them. I am glad that I decided to paint tiny faces on them - I looked at real babushka dolls and loved the simplicity of their faces, so I adopted that idea and applied it to my dolls. I think they're quite cute.

Brontë doll in red and blue

This doll will end up in our Christmas tree

(it was the first and only one that is not decoupaged)

I am linking up to Paint Party Friday. I have no idea when I did so the last time - probably several months ago. It feels good to be a part of that talented group again.