the goods are gone, time to make new goods

Wednesday, shortly after 4 PM, I dropped the last two boxes off at the post office. These were the six small bowls for the gallery in Florida. She passed on the two wall mounted pieces and the shell sculpture. I was surprised she didn't want the two wall pieces but not the shells. I don't know why I continue to try and do shells as they have never come out that great, though this was the best so far, and they never sell. Ah, optimism springs eternal, an Island famous for it's shells, I figured it was a shoe-in. Too trite I suppose.

I'm OK that she didn't want the two wall pieces though, the bee one and the lizard one, because I was thinking about doing a grouping of small framed pieces like that and I thought those would make a good first start. So now I'm going to expand on the idea.

Anyway, Thursday morning after falling asleep early the previous evening, I woke up feeling heavy, my eyes never really woke up and my body was full of aches and pains so I spent the day mostly just being outside pruning here, weeding there, nothing too strenuous or busy. It's been a pretty labor intensive couple of months.

The three botanicas that were in the kiln with the shells cast very well and I washed them and did some very basic cold work, grinding off the little bit extra at the bottom. I probably won't do any more cold work on them til after the last four molds are in the kiln but before I can start on them I have to clean up the shipping materials and reorganize them in boxes. Right now it looks like a foam factory exploded in there.

So next week we have to go into the city to deliver an etched window panel so it can be crated and shipped. We have several errands to do while we are there and I need to meet with an architect for a possible job. I don't know how big the panel is yet but they want an 'old fashioned' design. What the fuck does that mean? Oh well, I'll get more guidance. I also have some sketches to do for a roughly 3 foot square window, a log cabin with a tree line and mountains.

I have mixed feelings about that. We can certainly use the income but I'm not ready to shift my focus.

here I am, late to the party and probably dressed inappropriately

Already the 4^th and no end-of-the-year/new-year post but I have been having fun with my three grandgirls cooking and snuggling on the couch watching movies and working on the jigsaw puzzle and going to all the little shops on the Square and our favorite re-sale shop in Glen Flora and sleeping late. Needless to say, I have not made even a tiny bit of progress on the work I feel behind on.

They were fetched home yesterday evening.

So...2014. It was a year of momentous changes starting out with a heavy load of commission work which we didn't complete til June and during that time we were agonizing over whether to sell the old homestead or not but even if we did not sell, things would change drastically anyway since our daughter and son-in-law who lived next door were definitely selling. Then, last April, the opportunity we thought we had lost to buy the old auto body shop across the street, came around again and we bit the bullet and bought it. Now there was no doubt about selling the city property but it was not easy. Oh, it was easy enough to find a buyer who gave us a premium price but extricating ourselves from a place we had occupied for nearly 40 years was hard on everyone. The Boy and Wife had to find a new place to live and it took them two moves to get settled. The Girl and her family didn't find a rental until the very last second and the uprooting and re-settling was emotional. And as for me, I had to turn a hard heart to my house because I knew deep down that once I left it it would be torn down, which it was, and now for the first time in my life, I had no base of operations in the city. But summer was full of the visits from the grandkids and moving and too damn hot to do anything in the new shop which was just a jumble since, during the nearly two months it took us to move completely out of the house and move the shop, we just put stuff in there helter skelter. Fall came and with it cooler temperatures and we got in there and sort of arranged it and got to work on the two small commissions we had and the small castings for the annual open house in which we participate and also starting on the small bowls for the gallery show in March. And I finished the last 7 models for the Botanicas. Fall has usually brought a new round of commission work but not so far which was a little bit of wish fulfillment as I want time to focus on the cast glass work, something I haven't had much of for the last two years.

Whew!

So, New Year's Eve the rest of the grandgirls' family came out and we had a fireworks extravaganza. No photos of the aerials as I could watch them or try to successfully photograph them.

The bone piles.

a day of rest and the last selfie

I trust everyone who celebrates Christmas had a wonderful day.

I never did feel like I really woke up yesterday. That's usually what happens when my body is telling me to knock it off. Plus I had a pain in my back. So while my brain had a work day scheduled yesterday to fill the 2^nd bowl mold, I could never find the energy or motivation to get up off the couch. Oh, what the hell, I figured, most people in this country and other predominately christian countries are taking a day off so even though this is not a day I celebrate, I did too. Take the day off. Wouldn't have mattered what day it was though, when my body says rest, I rest. So I lounged around all day and finished my book. The only time I got up was to go take care of the cats.

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So, the selfies...

My face retained a relatively youthful appearance right up until I turned 60 and then it was like some sort of switch was flipped and the skin got crepey and deep wrinkles appeared. And spots. Either that or the clear mirror and bright florescent lights in the bathroom of the country house illuminated what the small silver stained antique mirror and the dim light in the bathroom of the old city house had disguised.

I was shocked, I tell you, shocked. Dismayed by the image looking back at me. Disturbed that it did not reflect how I feel. Unsettled that I could see the beauty in the aged faces of others but not in my own.

And so the Selfie Project was born. I figured that if I took enough pictures of myself and posted them for all to see I would, if not see the beauty in my own aged face, at least get used to it, accept it.

Well the year is done and the selfies are complete and the only thing I achieved is to realize that I do, indeed, look like the old woman I apparently am.

Sobeit. Not that I mind being 64 years old. I find it kind of amazing actually... to have survived and still have my health intact (so far anyway), to still have the drive, energy, and desire to work...and consider myself lucky.

The smiling selfie as requested, also the best one I could come up with that didn't look like a grimace.