Holiday Gifts

Tomorrow I'm hosting my First Annual Holiday Art Sale. (Calling it the First implies there will be more to come, so I'm putting the positive energy out there.) Six local artists are offering Fine Arts and Crafts for Holiday gifts. Along with my boxes, collages and paper quilts, we'll have 2 jewelers, an artist who paints silk scarves and ruanas, a potter, an artist who sews exquisite pieced garments and wall hangings, and a smattering of other handmade items. It's all very exciting, I've never done anything like this before, and, of course, I'm not nearly ready enough.

I made 6 new boxes this week and I'll post them soon. Wish us luck!

Asking the Experts

I just returned from a trip to visit our daughter and some other relatives in the Northwest. Great week, lots of catching up to do, and even enough time to just hang together. This sort of thing is rare when we live so far away from loved ones.

More than once during our visit I was reminded of how detached I am from what's happening with technology today. Case in point: I humbled myself to ask my daughter to show me how to text message. I know - I know - I'm probably one of the last holdouts, but I really haven't felt I needed to know. I have no problem leaving a voice mail if someone cannot take my call. I still don't think I need to know, but at least I can do it if I have to. While waiting at the airport long before dawn was even thinking of cracking this morning, I thought of a message to text my daughter. Of course I wouldn't dream of waking her with this completely silly message, but in this case, texting would be the perfect medium. Sadly, after taking about 5 minutes to type the six word message, I entered something I wanted to correct. I couldn't figure out how to backspace, pressed one wrong button and my whole sentence disappeared. I never did get the message out until our layover in Chicago when I simply called her.

Reminded me of a quote from The Little Prince: "Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them." Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Finished Work

My November 11th (Tools of the Trade) post showed a photo of my workspace with partially prepped boxes. Look at that post and note the box in the upper left and the one in the lower right. Then, compare that to the photos here. Back to work now...

Blog Header

You may be wondering about that header. I spent a year documenting the tokens that visitors leave at Emily Dickinson's gravesite. I used the photographs in a collage I made from those efforts which I titled "Alabaster Chambers." The header is from one of my favorite discoveries at Emily's resting place.

Tools of the Trade

So much to do and so little time! I'm trying to make a lot of inventory but inspiration cannot be rushed. I must get more boxes into the Arts Co-op, because I know that the more boxes people see, the more likely they are to buy. It's not just that they have more to choose from. There's something psychological that happens when customers see a good stock of inventory. If there are just a few pieces left from an artist, those pieces might sit on display for a year. As soon as more work joins those lonely pieces, a sale happens. And, more often than not, one of those year-old boxes moves right out! Go figure...

Some pics from my prep space:

Elected!

History has been made and I am rejoicing!

Great Pumpkin Poses

I know Halloween 2008 is over, but I just have to share these photos from my collection with you.