20/20 holiday hindsight

everyone has had some holiday experience. 

my own was a little different than it usually is, since i had the flu. 

other than that, it was special as heck. 

i can say that cause there was little that passed as drama. 

PHEW!

we always seem to have some drama happening. it is a waste of time, you know?

my eldest and i had spent a couple of days before the big X-MAS day 

on a mom-daughter date. 

we went to the artist's supply store in town.

 i went crazy and spent major dollars on some supplies for my own nefarious interests

considering the time of year perhaps it was a little tacky.

usually, i don't spend money frivolously on stuff like this 

or on myself other than to further my jewelry based interests.

it just seemed impossible to ignore the itch this time. 

it came about because i was

reading some of my fave bloggers and traipsed with rapt attention paid to 

that of pam garrison. 

her blog is found here... and is well worth reading. 

 http://pamgarrison.typepad.com/

Pam is a modern day journal artist, painter, textile artist 

and she does loads of other creative stuff. 

her interests are not always concurrent with mine, 

 however i do really enjoy what she does with her marker collection. 

{and other materials as well.}

currently, my favorite elements of her wide range of talents

 translate into some unexpected embroidery patterns. 

she is selling the imprinted fabric patterns for embroidering, note cards and

 posters of sayings that have a certain cache and style once she made them hers. 

i can't believe how much i dig them. 

surely you would too if you were addicted to embroidering as well.  

 when i practiced architecture many years ago, i had tons of markers. 

they really exuded a horrid smell when they were used. 

i think in a fit of common sense, i threw them out. 

i had been holding onto them for at least a decade ... allowing them to dry out and be useless... 

{forgive me mother earth, for adding them to the trash piles on the planet.}

i never had time in between the years i used them daily 

and the purge, to replace them. 

after the years of child rearing and careful purchase and use of non-toxic markers,  

i spent a while chasing down the vastly improved,joyously-colored palette of copic markers. 

their gorgeous colors, the indefinitely refillable marker containers, 

and the non-stinky application potential are all wonderful. 

i don't know when or why the interest has resurfaced, 

but i want to draw again!!!!

this could be short-lived, but still... i am loving every minute of it!

oh yeah, and the markers make it all so fantastic.

just plain and simple, they do everything that i want them to. 

one of the reasons i went whole hog on them,

 is that both my daughter

(a digital art major at her college)

and other cool artists that  i admire,  draw with them. 

i can't believe it, but my daughter is allowing me to post some of her drawings, 

i will boast loudly about how cool they all are...albeit maybe a little creepy.

she is a comic book fan and her drawing retains a lot of influences which are a blending of 

a "mad men" drawing style and comic book bad guys. 

in other words, her characters seem to be evolving as her own style.  

she has been drawing with copic markers, with photoshop

 and/or with pen, paintbrushes and ink.

here are a few examples:

anyways, 

i am all kinds of interested in old studies again. 

as for the other inmates in the post holiday torpor, 

my son has been working on his freshman first semester bucket list. 

so many things on that list. 

i do not want to out him as to what they are...

but when did teaching his little sister how to play "water-pong" top the list?

she is sure that by the time she reaches college, 

she will be pretty good at beer pong. 

oh what a mother's dream that is. 

(imagine the sarcasm font for that last sentence please)

the pair of them have taken over the kitchen table and have been turning my beloved table 

diagonally to play water pong on. 

also they darlings have been playing both

rap and country-western music while playing this game. 

i figure if i let them just work this stuff out of their system,

 they will be back to a more conservative middle ground as we enter our nursing home years. 

my fingers are crossed. 

so other than drawing, 

beer /water-pong, 

holiday shopping, 

and other flu made experiences...

the holiday went off without much of a hitch ...

finally. 

~~~

also, i am working on a pair of white necklaces. 

when i finish and the light returns, 

i will post photos. 

~~~

i belong to a group on facebook that is made up of other artists. 

it is very supportive and great for sharing info... about all the stuff needed to be done

for the joy of making and selling artistic  creations. 

apparently someone suggested trying it out and 55 artists shared that they wanted to participate. 

this is what i sent out...

i will take fresh pics in the daylight of the beautiful bowl that i received from my secret santa. 

sorry for the delay. 

anyways, it was a really nice holiday.

we enjoyed a ham with brussel sprouts and roasted herbed potatoes. 

i think considering how crummy we all were feeling, 

it was one of those miraculous meals. 

everyone here is still enjoying leftovers and cookies made before i went sub-rosa with a myriad of crummy symptoms. 

oh yeah, and luckily, i am not suffering any weird side effects from taking some ibuprofen 

with the water glass my son had been using for storing his beta fish in. 

totally gross. 

til normalcy returns, and all. 

happy holidays to everyone. 

xoxo. w.