hmmm...i just said about four words in front of the biddeford city council. that's all i managed before i blanked out. i'm not built for public speaking. didn't say half the things i meant to...gil wanted to go but he's teaching tonight. alas. oh well. down with merc.

lovinganvil.etsy.com -- check out the greetings from biddeford cards.....

wow. it's chilly this morning. or at least that's what the thermometer says...i actually did pretty well getting out of bed this morning. i mean, it didn't feel particularly cold. all the insulating gil has done to this 1880 home is making a difference. altho, he says he's always impressed by how well it's built and that it has a lot of insulation, already. so cool. or warm. whatever.

but REALLY what i sat down to write is gil sold a painting at milling around again! we've very happy. it's a beautiful painting. i'll post a photo later. he's starting to work on a series about el paso, tx. i love it already.

so it was a good weekend and feels like it's going to be a good day, knock on wood. i couldn't sleep much last night...just lots of ideas whirling around...so i am a little extra sleepy...but good.
oxo

soooooooo....really. what do you make of this. i heated up a tortilla on the stove...and can you not see the skull image burned in? i mean, it's not la virgen de guadalupe...but still! ok. so we coated it in a glossy fixative and will preserve it for pilgrimages...or at minimum, later artistic use.

today, i taught a class at the portland studio. kind of INTENSE. teaching is hard. all the information in your head you have to get organized enough to impart it to other people. i don't know how i feel about the whole thing. right now, gil's teaching his biddeford art class. it would be cool to get the barn ready and just bring our teaching gig in house. weird how administrative it can quickly get going thru an institution. once again, probably old hat to everyone but us.

we have two art openings this saturday, which is very cool...they are related. both biddeford mill scenes. a couple pieces at the union house show and then a two day show with a slew of artists at the northdam mill. very cool. gil will have a solo show at union house in november and i'll have a solo show in february..around valentines day. i'm not going to jewelry for the union house, tho. which feels liberating...as much as i love jewelry. it's hard to remember that my first experience in art interest was drawing and painting. seems like another life ago.

also, we're set to be in brooklyn at the bust magazine craftacular this december. the 7th or 9th. i'm a bit confused right now. but i'll figure it out and i'm sure write lots about the prep in the time to come.
oxo

oh good lord. check out www.themusehotel.com and click on reservations and then on specials and packages. i was checking the site, planning a trip for us to go up for the bust sale at the start of december. imagine my surprise. all we can think of is the stock photo shoot we participated in a BUNCH of years ago in pdx. or maybe staying at a kimpton hotel in the past. but WOWIE ZOWIE, that was a weird shock.

two years ago today, abraham peck killed my sweet mom. so if you find yourself sitting in one of his lectures, maybe you should ask him about it.

holy moly, i've got to say my 36th year is starting remarkably well. had an AMAZING day, got lots of sincere bday wishes from people that are very important to me...including some folks i didn't expect to hear from...kristen and jeff, who bought our home in pdx remembered. tammy and russell brought over a rockin chocolate cake. (and a bottle of good tequila). sweetness from jan, as always. my pa, my sister -- linda, camille, my motherinlaw. finally made contact with tsunami tattoo and i'm psyched about that.
we had an amazing dinner at the jewel of india. biddeford is really trippy...some incredible cuisine just tucked away here.

but mostly, what i sat down to say is that it's taken me 36 years...or 29 at least, to figure out how to make a slinky spring down a whole flight of stairs and TODAY I DID IT TWICE. this is totally an accomplishment for me. no snags, no double springs. but i figured it out. you have to kind of propel it down the first step and it carries the momentum. it totally rocked.

oxo

stripey did it!!! she's a butterfly!

we came downstairs yesterday morning and there she was, all black and golden and flexing her wings. amazing. with big ol antennae waving around.
so we took her outside to the garden and set her on a sunflower leaf and watched her for a while.










gil checked on her a few times during the day and finally reported that she had flown the coop. we are all SO proud. and amazed. what a cool experience. holy moly.

wow. it's been a while. things have been busy, for sure.
but also september has been SPEEDING by. crazyweird. next weekend is the thing in falmouth, so i'm scrambling making as much work as i can for that. tiggam bought the orbit ring on etsy!! i'm so excited, and relieved that there are others out there with the same rockin good eye for design....;)! so i'm also working on sizing it up this week a bit. and then got another order off our our website so that feels amazing. i think -- hope -- a box of stuff made it to pdx to be photographed in a spread for the next issue of the livery (theliverymag.com)

OH and stripey went chrysallis last week!! it's very exciting. he has these beautiful irredescent flakes you can kind of see thru the cocoon. i had a dream last night that he finally emerged. we also have a BIG pumpkin growing in the garden. and we're getting lots of pinto beans! it's hard to time picking them, kind of. need to go look for more ready pods today.

ok. just a quick update.

oxo

wow! i'm on etsy.com 's front page right now. very cool. knock on wood rings. which rocks because i really love those rings.

and i am just figuring out all of the cool resources on etsy. i need to investigate further. there's a spot where you can list your fave picks and others check them out. this is probably old news to everyone ...but me. i also learned while cruising etsy lists that other...ahem... people are watching rockstar supernova and we're not freaks. i'm totally hooked. and could actually talk about it a lot.

on that note, if anyone has any cellular phone suggestions. we have a verizon contract...i guess it's up. but i know if i trade in my old gimpy phone for some new whizbang thing, i get a credit off the price, but also another two year commitment? any new verizon groovy phone recommendations?

so we have this caterpillar that started out super tiny and now is almost two and a half inches long. and eats a ton of milkweed. and while i'm sure there is milkweed closer to us than the middle school...that's the only place i KNOW there's milkweed so every two days i'm driving across town to pick a few leaves for stripey (named by chloe) with a VORACIOUS appetite. dang. he is cute, tho. or she. s/he is cute, tho. antennae waving around and all that. i know more about caterpillar poop than i ever thought i would.

and we got a drill press. i'm psyched. i set out to put it together myself. the directions were to macho nacho to just tell me how to put the bolt bits together so i had to wait until gil got home and ask him what i did with the weird little split black ring. he said it was a locking ...nut? or locking washer? i can't remember now. at any rate, i had it all headed the right direction so it would have worked out ok.

GIL is at the high school, teaching his first class!! drawing. very cool! he described to me what he'll be covering and it sounds like a really amazing class. very psyched and proud. i'm teaching a one shot class kind of thing at the portland studio tomorrow. to nine year old boys. six of them. the elected to learn how to make silver rings. i'm not sure what nine year old boys are like. either solo or in a group of six. i'll let you know how it went.

oxo

ok. so i've been looking for these bumper stickers for almost two years now. finally found them in a filing cabinet by the computer. looked there a millions times before but whatever. i don't want to put them on this car anymore, but hopefully we'll be able to trade in for a hybrid soon, and put them on there. i guess. i just really like them. i've never put bumper stickers on my car so it's all very exciting to me.

the mug in the photo is full of hot water, oranges and scotch. before that i had benedryll. before that, sudafed. intermixed in all of that, major doses of multi-vites and green tea. i'm totally sick and the mediation with the lawyer is tomorrow. i feel like i'm in a fish bowl. the timing is an outrage. or just related, i guess.

chloe did the most amazing drawing today. she drew a stick person...or a head with arms and legs. can most three year olds do that? i remember doing that when i was five. i was so excited i sprinted across the whole hog farm to tell gil. which made chloe even more proud.

it's a couple days later from when i started this posting...still have the cold but it's getting better. chloe rode with gil on the little tractor yesterday to help mow the lawn. she LOVES to drive. we have a crazy big yard, especially for being in town. kind of hate the fact that we have a sit mower...but it would be five hours of mowing otherwise. it is really funny to watch gil do the thing, tho. he puts it in it's highest gear and hauls tushie around the yard at high speeds. it's kind of a chaotic mowing experience.

starting to work on some hair accessories, and getting together a few items to send out for a photo shoot in pdx. just trying to update everything. and recover from the past couple weeks. i'll be teaching classes at portland pottery and metalsmithing in ...well, in portland. excited about that. not sure if the biddeford ed. class is going to go...which is fine either way. things are busy enough. gil will start teaching right after labor day. kind of crazy getting everything ready.

so more updated shots of the garden. it looks a lot lusher in person, with tons of sun flowers blooming now and marigolds and other random flowers from the seed mix. i haven't posted any work related shots in a while...but i'll get a few things done and here long enough to shoot. i thought i was going to write a lot more of relevance...if i remember, i'll write more later.