so thoughtful

THANK YOU, susie.

i love them!

our cabin solitude

no electricity. no cell service. no wireless. heaven

(kathy, this is the vest i bought with your christmas money. thank you so much!)

june got her own pair of skis for christmas.

she loves it.

happy solstice!

this evening i finished my last (local) custom piece! all of my christmas orders are shipped, and my etsy shop is now officially in vacation mode! yippee! i also finished this christmas gift for patty today:

there've been all sorts of fun holiday goings on around here.

we made a gingerbread house,

went to hazel's winter program,

(sorry so blurry)

attended hazel's pride day assembly where she received the "self-control" award,

and hazel's class party

also, at the pub show, i traded a necklace with a friend for ten hours of babysitting! glenn and i took advantage of that barter on saturday.

we finally had some snow, so we went for a beautiful ski

and then he took me out to a swank dinner, where i drank mojitos.

we leave in the morning for our trip. our first stop will be outside of eagle, colorado for our two-night stay in the cabins. apparently there is a lot of new snow up there, good skiing and sledding. then we will continue on to denver to be with my family for christmas. both of my sisters and their families will be there! (we will miss you scott, martha, jay, andrew, and ellie.)

don't know whether i will be posting or not while i am away, so i will wish you all a very merry christmas now, just in case!

skiing

sorry i haven't been around here much lately. i have been working very hard, first getting ready for the show, then stocking the gallery, now working on getting all of my orders out in time for christmas. i haven't been sleeping much. this is my last tough week and then i am going to take some time off, even close down the etsy shop for the week! i can't wait until i can go out to the shop and make some new pieces, not custom stuff!

so this morning i decided to take a break and go for a ski before i started working. unfortunately, there is still not enough snow to go to my usual, favorite, only-nine-minutes-from-my-house spot, boggy draw. if i want to ski, i have to drive for an hour up towards telluride, but it is sooo worth it.

my skis, the felice brothers on my ipod...

fresh, falling snow and a beautiful track.

what more could a girl ask for?

oh yes, some canine companionship. perfect.

(incidentally, molly is on two new medications and is doing great! i decided to see how she would handle skiing today and she had a ball. it made me so happy to see her prancing around!)

i made it all the way to the top today, something that never happens when we all go.

(sorry, family, i love you dearly, but it was really nice without you today.)

a really awesome, wonderful time.

until i tried to drive away...

oh yes. VERY stuck in a ditch.

two hours and three very kind and generous people later, i was free.

we also skiied in the same place on sunday, with our dear friends, the baldwins. we had a lot of fun.

annabel and hazel

annabel, zane, and hazel

juniper kathleen

horse feathers

the show was marvelous, and very much worth the drive. i had such a great time with emily too. (how did i not get your picture?) thank you so much for everything!

the venue was this tiny little all ages place and it might as well have been somebody's garage. it was cold. but the sound was wonderful, the feeling was super-intimate and the crowd was awesome. everyone was sooooo quiet and respectful. with this band, that's so important, the way their music ebbs and flows, builds and releases. anyway, they were amazing. i gave justin his guitar pick and he was really sweet.

this guy made me think of the chimney sweep in mary poppins. he played every instrument you can think of. in this photo he is playing the fiddle and the drum at the same time...

also, the opening band, y la bamba, were really great as well. very intense, with a fantastic female singer. a seven piece band, everyone switching instruments all the time. beautiful! both bands are heading west together from here; you should go see them if you can...

getting ready for christmas

on saturday we went and got our tree and watched the christmas parade

on sunday we decorated

(i have pretty much this exact picture of hazel decorating the tree when she was potty training)

inside and out

and, i am all done with my christmas shopping.

for glenn, i got two nights in a forest service cabin up outside of vail, colorado. we will stay there on our way to denver. lots of cross country ski trails, sledding, etc!

what are you getting your sweetheart for christmas?

and, tomorrow i go to salt lake city to see the horse feathers (and emily)!

i will just be gone for one night.

horse feathers

justin's pick

yay for the pub show!

so i had a fabulous show yesterday! it was so much fun and i made a lot more money than i had hoped to. there were a lot of awesome people there too, folks i rarely get to see. there's always such a great energy there.

the show is always very crowded. i had one table and even though it was pretty big, i had to squish things together a lot.

i had a steady flow of people, pretty much all day

there was a good crowd (and yes, even some dogs)...

good beer, good food, good people, and good music.

(incidentally, these are the folks glenn plays music with on thursday nights. )

i am working on listing some of the pieces that did not sell at the show in the etsy shop. some are there now and others will arrive tomorrow. most of them are small, less expensive pieces.