Christmas review

I'm good to my kids, but the grandparents are even better, especially at holidays. Among other things....

Son got new Wii games and has pretty much been plugged in 8 hours day during this school break. I forced him to stop and make Blinkybugs from the kit I got him. I helped with the pliers, but both kids understood the concept. Daughter even understands how to make the lights go off.

They make us giggle.

Daughter got a Fisher Price Kid Tough Digital Camera - Pink (New Version) The picture quality is low, but she gets surprisingly artsy and fun shots. She can drop the camera a gazillion times and it still works. She could care less about picture quality. She just wants to take thousands of pictures and then turn everyone upside down on the computer. Here are a few examples of her photography. Click on each photo to see it larger on flickr.

She can hardly slow down long enough to shoot a focused picture. I like the dreamy bright light effect on this shot of our living room.

Full head shots are not important. Just go for the important features.

I have spared you all sorts of cartoons-on-tv pictures, but here's one of the computer screen.

Occasionally she lets her brother snap a picture. Here's one he took of us in the kitchen. As you get older, full heads become more important.

If you decide to give your child a durable camera to take unlimited photos with, unattended, I recommend a few things.
1. Get a memory card. These cameras hold 60 pictures in the built-in memory. Children can take 60 pictures in exactly 7 minutes.
2. As they race off giggling wildly, shout "Hey, no more butt pictures!!!" Thank God for digital cameras with a preview and delete function.

Cookies and Snow

The Husband bakes biscotti at Christmas

Anise and Pistachio
My favorites are the Pistachio Biscotti. Son likes the Anise best, dunked in milk.

Daughter prefers traditional

I made these oatmeal shortbread cookies dipped in semi-sweet chocolate, one of my favorites, a little salty, and not too sweet.

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Now start singing to yourself, that "Mama told me not to go" song...

I told him not to do it...

I told him "We can call the snowplow guy for this one."

Husband is a Good Guy.

and Yeah, I left a message on Snowplow Guy's cellphone.

Not About Christmas

It's always all about Me.  Christmas is part of the rest of my life that belongs to my kids and my husband.  The blog is just about Me.
Here's my heart laid out before you;

the heart I made as a demo piece during the workshop that is. 
It's bronze, approximately 4 x 4-1/2 inches.  The design started off as a morning glory leaf and looked much like one for about 2/3rds of the way through the workshop.  Then I needed to show the students the final surface, what I call "frosting the cake."  You get so close to completion, then you start the surfacing, which can be another day in itself.  It's like starting all over again.  I didn't have much time to think of a surface scheme and I haven't drawn any morning glory leaves lately, so I started playing.  And look at this- spirals, a heart, kind of breasty, a little bit like eyes, psychedelic perhaps.... all sorts of things that I've been too artsy-educated to consider. 

I need to do this more often.

Wisconsin Hoarfrost and Minnesota Workshop

I've been busy, but not too busy to stop and photograph this lovely morning sight

It was so cold all day long, but still, a tad bit warmer than the day before, and certainly warmer than 2 days before. 

The workshop went very well.  Here's a taste....

1. Guild Workshop '07 in MN -1, 2. Guild Workshop '07 in MN -4, 3. Guild Workshop '07 in MN -2, 4. Guild Workshop '07 in MN -3, 5. Guild Workshop '07 in MN -5, 6. Guild Workshop '07 in MN -6 Created with fd's Flickr Toys.
Minnesota is just the best place to teach a workshop.  The students are ready to learn and always surpass my expectations.  They teach me too.  You'll see, when I photograph the piece that I worked on as a demonstration piece....

Chasing tools and Christmas goodies

First- handfuls of chasing tools!

I am teaching a workshop for The Guild of Metalsmiths in Minnesota this weekend.  I have plenty of tool sets prepared and should have some available in my Etsy shop next week.
I am entering what I call "the railing and interior ironwork season."  It's when builders/homeowners/designers finish up all the exterior construction and realize that they now need railings and other stuff, hopefully installed by the end of April for a spring flings.  All of these jobs are rush jobs.  I may be neglecting my Etsy shop for a few months.  If you need some jewelry or handforged leaf work, please contact me through my blog, email, or Etsy shop.  I will find a way to fit it in for you.

Next a gift to myself, for our family Christmasses.  It's a bronze leaf, close to six inches long, similar to the one I made for the WIST (Wisconsin Street Team on Etsy) ornament swap.

and now the tree!

It's a tall and narrow wild balsam fir with short pointy needles- my favorite old fashioned look.  It's about 12 ft tall, but not heavy. The trunks are never wide enough for our stand, so as usual, we duct taped the trunk to thicken it up enough to tighten into the stand.   It works!

(psst.  Notice that the blacksmith still has a temporary wood railing after living here 3-1/2 years.)

Jewelry, Cookies, and Crafts

Jewelry first

Two are already claimed.  The other two will go on Etsy soon.  I'm working on some other custom jewelry too that should be done in a few days.

Now to the cookies, kaleidoscope pinwheels from the Betty Crocker Cooky Book - basically butter cookies dyed with high fashion artificial colors and coated in sugary sprinkles.

and now the crafts.
After hours of tv, cookies, and computer games, my son announced that he must make a felt craft. I pulled out wool felt and two felt craft books to give him ideas.  He decided on the ipod case from Heartfelt.

front

back

He cut up the wool felt (recycled from outgrown pieces) and stitched them together.  I sewed on the button because the daredevil didn't want to poke his finger with a sharper needle.  He cut out the star, which we decided to glue onto the back.  He says I can use it until he gets his own personal mp3 player. 

Daughter decided to personalize her own clothing with some fabric markers (with my complete approval.)

 
She did a shirt for me too, but I think hers is better.

Kids do the best crafts when it's their own idea. 

I'm still here!

I'm still here! just not taking so many in-progress photos.  Here are a few leaves.  I prepped a lot for the show last weekend and am now listing the rest in my Etsy shop.

About that show last weekend...
Well, let's back up about 3 weekends.  I came back from a visit to my mom's house with a horrible cold.  That cold turned into a bad cough.  After 3 weeks of coughing, the NP said I had reactive airways and gave me an inhaler and some other symptom treatments, with instructions to call back if I didn't improve.  A week later, last Friday before the show, I came down with the throbbing headache and fatigue of a sinus infection.  So I called in, talked to the nurse and got a prescription for antibiotics.  I did the show anyway, a Holiday Faire at a local Waldorf school.  I did alright, although I'm not sure the customers appreciated my juicy coughs and tissues. 
On the way home in Saturday I was driving home in this ridiculous wet snow storm, still miserable with my sinus infection.  I thought for sure I'd get stuck somewhere.  I made it all the way home and 1/3 the way up the driveway before the truck's wheels started spinning.  So I parked it and walked up the drive.  Husband tried to move the truck further, but ended up driving it off the driveway, where it was really stuck.  Next day, we try to plow.  That wasn't snow.  That was a 3 inch slab of snow-ice.  All we could do was stab it with a big shovel and move snow-bergs around.   I called around and got a local guy to plow for us. It was fun to watch him.  He would back his truck up the driveway, awfully fast by the way, to crunch up the snow slabs.  Then he plowed the snow back down the driveway.  He also pulled our truck out of the yard and back onto the driveway.

I'm feeling much better and have been working for the most part, despite all sorts of distractions like snow days, kid sick days, me sick days...  Someday soon I'll have a studio update.

For now, see what my son drew on http://crayola.com

Both my kids really enjoy the site.  To get to the digi-color, click on the spinning palette under the "About Crayola" link in the left hand sidebar.  Check out the games too.  Little kids love 'em.