frosting

Cold today but the sun came out for a moment. Hope everyone's holidays are going well :)

playing with string

I had a sudden whim (prompted by a gift request) to see if I could learn juuuust enough crochet to make a cute creature. Here's what I made - it's one of those learn-as-you-go projects since I hate making practice sketches/stitches/swatches. I'd rather just try it and see what happens - which is why any experienced crocheters out there will undoubtedly see tons of mistakes. It's nice to pick up a project that's low stress because I don't really mind mistakes if it turns out cute :)

The kitties have been also been playing with strings (see what I did there?).

festive

Our tree is up and decorated, and I'm even pretty much done with xmas shopping (although the wrapping is way behind). I try to add a couple new things each year and this year it was pom-poms and sort of Scandinavian looking straw things. The heart above the fireplace is straw and I got a couple little garlands for the tree. The pom-poms are made with this brilliant little item and inexpensive yarn. Full disclosure: making them is very addictive.

wintry things

I noticed a lot of pretty things stacking up in my favorites, so I thought it would be nice to put them all together. I don't know why these are so fun to make - must just be the eye candy factor.

thanks

Hey everyone -

Thanks for all the kind words I've gotten here and in my email. I really appreciate it.

I'm doing ok, I guess. It's very odd to go from being outside to do horse things several times a day and having my whole schedule for the day organized around feeding times and such to...nothing. I think I still expect to see her when I catch myself looking out the window. I know things will get easier in time.

We had a nice Thanksgiving at home by ourselves. The weather was pretty wild around here that week (you may have seen the footage of the bus sliding sideways down a steep Seattle street). So we made some food and relaxed and it was very peaceful.

Hope you're all doing well.

update

We had to put Boo to sleep on Sunday. She colicked again and this time she needed surgery...unfortunately the section of intestine that would have needed to be removed and reattached would have given her a low survival rate and a terribly painful recovery so we thought it was better not to put her through that. I know she was fine up until it happened and we got her to the vet hospital really fast, so she didn't have to suffer for long and this type of colic hits very suddenly. For anyone who has an old horse, I had never heard of old horses having tumors on their intestines until this June when she colicked the first time. They're benign but they tend to block things up and cause colic. So that was almost certainly why she colicked the first time, according to the vets. Probably more detail than anyone wanted to know...

Anyway, I won't be online much and I guess I like to know about other blog-friends' animals so I wanted to let you guys know what happened. Hug your kids (human kids and animal kids) and tell them you love them. I did every day, and I know she was happy.

A little branching out

8x10" watercolor, gouache, and graphite on Stonehenge.

I wanted to try putting down a watercolor wash before I added the gouache to this piece and I think I like how it turned out. It gives the various opacities of the different areas of gouache a different effect. I'm trying to incorporate more brush-y, wash-y, scribbly looking areas in these drawings to loosen them up a bit.