The Two Big Projects 2013 Style

My goal in this upcoming year is to accomplish Two Big Projects (obviously with the help and cooperation of my beloved partner Bob and probably a few helper elves). The Great Gods of Time and Money willing, we will at least get under way...
The first is the crucial Enclosing of the Carport. This is important for my happiness and mental health. Why, you may ask? Do I love my car so much that I dread it's spending yet another cold and lonely night beneath the stars? No, it is because Enclosed Carport is the Future Home of the Artist Know as Rita. Let's be real: the living room has been a satisfactory space. It's actually a great space but it's supposed to be the Living Room. When we lived in Bridgewater, I had a fine studio but it was really a "family room" (replete with hideous pink carpeting that needed disappearing). If truth be known, the doorway was so narrow I couldn't work on bigger projects and had to work outdoors or "borrow" Bob's studio. And the ceiling! The ceiling was really low, and even I, short stuff that I am, had dreams of elevations soaring faaaaaaaaaar above my head. The living room that I presently occupy has a very tall ceiling and that has made me desirous of "head room". Therefore, I say ,"Raise high the roof beams, Carpenters!". (Paraphrasing J.D. Salinger)
And the second assignment for Casa de BobnRita is to remake the famous deck:

(We are tactfully ignoring that white residue also known as snow). This batch of slowly decomposing wooden planking will be replaced by stones. Can't wait! This is a really do-able project as we have probably half the stone needed (thanks in no small part to Bill and Gloria and their quarry). As we really enjoy sitting out here at day's end (when the snow's all gone, of course!), this will be a great addition to this side of the house. And maybe it will motivate us to replace that dreadful broken trim board to the left of the door frame... but don't lets get carried away!!!
Hey, I know there are other things that majorly need doing or would simply be swell to do. But I'm a part-time realist and if these two things get done, I'm good for a few years.

2013 Here we Come!

I am so surprised sometimes by my own work and how it manages to emerge from me. Even in the darkest, coldest time of the year, when I feel cranky (haven't I honestly mentioned that recently?) and it would seem I/we should be creatively "frozen", all kinds of things pour out of me. The last week or so has been ridiculously productive...
As sometimes happens, I have been motivated by the endless debates in Congress about whether to end Bush (ugh) era tax cuts, go over the 'fiscal cliff" (voted one of the most over used phrases of 2012) raise the debt ceiling, get partisan politicians to agree for once, blah blah blah, blah... But I have made a small suite of collages and a fabric piece and I made an entire new (very silly!) alphabet book; the list goes on.
And I was remarking to Bob the other morning, over coffee in bed, that we still don't know where "creativity" comes from. They've located places in the brain that hold memories and dream centers and language but the formation of creative ideas-or thoughts in general!- is elusive. It seems like one minute you're debating whether to have peanut butter and jelly on your toast and the next minute, your next overwhelming concept/ project is arrayed out before you. I know; it's a hackneyed discussion, but miraculous none the less!
So the piece above is done entirely in flesh toned magazine samples. I feel that is appropriate as Congress often seems to "traffic" in us. (Like the proverbial pound of flesh). How else can they justify giving themselves raises while they argue for years about raising the minimum wage (how it will hurt business to give workers something like $10 extra a week. Don't get me started!) And the price of not raising the debt ceiling is real in human terms.
Anyway, the alphabet book I made is an exercise in fun and games and an antidote to all that budgetary hogwash and dreck. Gotta lighten up some how!

End of Year Resolutions- Bah!!

Hey! Looks like we're about to resolve to make resolutions!
That unfortunate man (above) is my latest acquisition for my "bad painting" collection. I know; it's sort of trendy circa 1989 to collect bad art, but I'm an artist and I can do whatever I want. In any event, this poor wonker looks like he's got syphilis and bug bites and a co-worker suggested he looks like he's stuck in the outhouse, so he's got all KINDS of trouble. My year hasn't been that bad...
So, do I really make resolutions? Do I keep those resolutions that I make? I try.
For the umpteenth million time, I resolve to make more money. Not loads more, just MORE whatever that is. (Rule #1: Set the bar realistically low, then you can actually accomplish the goal. Like if I resolve to generate a million zillion dollars this upcoming year, I expect I'll fail. But if I vow to make a few measly thousand dollars more than this waning year, I have a good chance of success. That's the name of the game).
But ouch! that shows where my values lie, if money is Numero Uno resolution. Hmm... how about being nicer and more compassionate to my fellow (thoroughly awful, despicable, gun-toting) men and women kinds? (Whoa! What did I just say about realistic, achievable goals?)
Okay, maybe I'll settle for the hackneyed (but do-able) ideal of loosing a few of those jiggly pounds and maybe drinking a tad less at social functions? THAT I think I can manage...
That's enough for me! I'm going downstairs and join my beloved Bob for a glass of some kind of bubbly and what looks to be a really nice meal. To hell with resolutions tonight!

Are We Ready For This?

Yes, that is what you think it is... a large pile of fluffy white stuff that has been pushed through elaborate mechanical means to a heap at the end of the driveway. And we pay people to do this!  I can think of all sorts of things I'd rather be spending money on right now: vacations in the south of anywhere warm, saving towards my eventual studio, even that crown I so badly need on a left rear molar. But instead we must pay to rearrange frozen water molecules that given a few months would melt on their own.
I am sorry; I'm still crabby and not enjoying this foray into winter. Where is Climate Change when you want it? The weather did serve to keep my indoors where I played (quite happily, it must be admitted) in my studio where I made several collages. I think I'll post a couple tomorrow; I have been exploring that irksome fiscal cliff and all the implications for us 99%ers. You'll see!
Meanwhile, I am confessing that I wanted to do nothing more than ride my splendid steed through snow banks, large and small. It was just too damned cold- and windy- to even be considered. Maggie looked bored and stood with her butt to the wind all afternoon. There was the constant drone of snow mobiles from next door as our neighbor and his son circled their house endlessly, dreaming of Arctic conquest. In short, a day at the end of the year!

A Ramblin' Endish O' Yearish Postish

So I can't report that I have much to report, but the weather is so blasted awful that I thought it would serve us all right if I posted a cranky end of December post. (That, by the way, is a fuzzy flower computer drawing to make us all forget about the ice and snow that persists outside...)
We missed what was no doubt a lovely Boxing Day party last night at our good friend John's house. I'm sorry to have not be available to chat up close friends and hear tales of their Xmas day festivities, but I must admit that staying in due to inclement weather offered it's own low key charms. For example, I didn't consume (further) vast quantities of rich and/or sauced, cheesed, seasoned, oozing food stuffs. I think I am swelling in this end of year binge-i-ness. Like many others, I regret my extreme lack of self control!
However, soon enough the Christmas cookies (remember those?) and the chocolates and the dips and snacks will have vanished like yesterdays snows.... or so we can hope!
I expect to sign on to the old New Year's Resolution band wagon and vow not to let anything more digestively strenuous than water and thin gruel pass my lips for at least a fortnight. But in the next couple of days, Bob and I seem to be finishing off that box of chocolates that we were given...
What else? Can someone please remind me to take my camera with me when I think of doing interesting stuff? Like yesterday I had a wonderful time riding Maggie in the snow and today on my morning ramble with Jules, we saw the neighborhood bobcat, up close and personal. Woulda made great pictures! Maybe that's my New Year's Resolution: bring the camera along!

So Hungry I could Eat A...

Ooops! Sorry Maggie; only kidding! (She doesn't look amused at my lame joke!) I am happy to report
 that- just in time for consuming loads and loads of Christmas goodies (and baddies) I am cured and feel fine. My appetite has returned, along with my usual high spirits. It was a weird "bug" and I subsisted on a diet of (boxed) mashed potatoes and white meat chicken, and a bit of Bob's bread and apple sauce; you will notice the entirely beige complexion of the food I ingested. But whatever! It worked and I am anticipating our trip to Byron and Dan's for a lovely Christmas Eve celebration.
Last year, Byron and Dan regaled us with a multi-course epicurean escapade with fish and cheese and fruit and wine and cordials and nuts and roots and tubers and berries and things in bowls and on trays. It was really wonderful. Fortunately, we didn't embarrass ourselves badly enough that they saw fit to invite others to dine in our stead... Good friends for the holidays!
Now I am off to my studio to try and complete a collage, again about financial mayhem in our present peering over that dang-nabbed cliff. I say give them a good push!
Then I must prepare for tonight's repast. I will probably wear my new leggings:

I got so excited! I loved this print and they had them in the grey in my size, which I bought. The red was equally fabulous, but only in large and extra large. So I contacted my sister Beatrice and she scored them for me at her local (get this) KMart... and they were on sale! The things we worry about in the holiday season. God bless us, everyone!

In Which The World Does Not End and I Take Sick

So I begin to experience symptoms that I first attribute to the consumption of too much cookie dough while preparing greasy lumps of sugar for the Cookie Exchange at work. And as a true Lover of All Kinds of Cookies, you can only imagine my despair at being unable to attend and swap out my Ornamented Sugar Cookies with Colored Sugar and Creme de Menthe Chocolate Chip Cookies for equally elaborate and delightful extravagances. (I must be very ill indeed; I'm playing with needless formatting!)
Anyway, the feelings that I was feeling did not abate after a reasonable time, but worsened. I became seriously nauseous and started getting chills. Bob and Jules and I attempted to watch a movie, but I bagged and simply lay in bed freezing and wishing for the deliverance that a mighty hurl would bring.
We slept for hours, and upon awakening, I felt no better, nay worse. My head is killing me and I continue shivering and dizzy. I forced myself to consume a piece of Bob's bread simply to enable my ingesting Ibuprofen in an effort to rein in the thundering headache.
It doesn't help that the weather is abominable- worthy of the end of the Mayan calendar. It is pouring rain, driving wind and general unpleasantness. As with the hurricane last year, the odd direction of the wind has forced rain backwards through the door in my studio and there is a major puddle on the floor beneath our Christmas tree. Even poor Jules, despondent that we are unable to take our daily walk, seems less than enthusiastic about a trip outside.
Bob has been dispatched to our local supermarket to procure provisions should I live. I figured some external corroboration that the world had indeed not ended was in order. Although I did call in sick to work and someone who sounded remarkably like my co-worker Erica (and not a Mayan deity) answered. Alas! All those lovely cookies beyond my grasp!