To jog my memory I go through my phone pictures to see what happened over the course of the last few months. Good thing I am finally doing this post because my iphone is getting low on storage so I keep deleting large batches of photos…but I’ve still got the most recent.

In the fall I decided to try to sell a few of the things I had made, especially since it included the advent calendar which people would likely only buy in the just-before-Xmas timeframe. So I sold assorted things including handmade sketchbooks, resistance bands, tarot deck, postcards, and bracelets from Jacob’s tears. I did OK at a couple markets, not as well at others. They’re fine but I personally don’t really like doing the markets. I’m happier to have my stuff sell passively…I have stuff at a gallery and my postcards are for sale at a bakery (through DSAL exhibit) and there’s my website. Of course, mostly this stuff doesn’t sell that way haha but whatever. A few pics below.

We were very pleased with some of the new plants we got started after the whole backyard project. At the time of this writing, it’s unclear if they’ve all made it through the winter. Fingers crossed! Among our favorite things are the silver ponyfoot groundcover, Pride of Barbados, Pink Muhly Grass, and crossvine which is actually in the front. A few pics below.

Did I tell you that Rock Star figured out to patrol the pool edge every day to pick out the bugs?

I was able to get an early walkthrough of a place that opened nearby called Oakwood Public Market. It’s an interesting place with a couple of food options, coffee shop, bar. We’ll probably do stuff their through the art league. In fact tonight Rob and I are going there for a DSAL volunteer appreciation event.

We had Chris & Lisa come visit which was really nice and just easygoing.

I got invited to one of the meetups of the Woo Woo Club (the art league has lots of member-driven clubs) to talk about paper crumpling/paper folding as I had learned about from a book. So that was fun I just brought some samples and then everyone made things based on that inspiration. You can tell these people are artists. I was amazed at the cool things they made!

Rob & I made the incredibly rare choice to BOTH leave the property to attend Rachel and Zach’s wedding. The dogs survived the trauma of the kennel, and the wedding experience was super duper for us! A few pics below.

At some point I went to a Texas Foraging class arranged by the library. It was hilarious that we never left the area around the parking lot…but still it was interesting. As a result, I went ahead and made our own juniper infused vinegar! It actually turned out nice- it tastes piney. We add a few drops to our gin & tonic (a little bit goes a long way). And the other bonus was that I saw a cute Rough Green Snake in the bushes! A few pics below.

I ordered a teleidoscope and have had a lot of fun capturing pictures with it. A few pics below.

And before you know it, it’s the holidays! I was very pleased that I never had to leave and I got to see everyone! For Thanksgiving, we had Rachel, Zach, Elizabeth, and Connor. We did all the fun things…including paper-fighting-ninja-bousts and remote-controlled-kayak-races…and everyone got in the pool! Oh and Lucha Libre at Suds Monkey! A few pics below.

This leads to Xmas when Raine, Paige, Ananth, and my Mom all came here! We couldn’t believe our luck with the weather…we could still swim (the pool has a a limited heating component so that helps but it only does so much). Mostly it all went so smoothly although I have some memory that there were cancelled flights and whatnot. Well, at least no one had COVID or anything. And we even ate a dinner outside one night! Loving the temporary tattoos of the animals and flowers from R&P! A few pics below.

I got a bit busier with art league stuff as the person coordinating Art Education had to step aside for awhile due to health reasons so I am temporarily subbing for her. This mostly has involved helping to coordinate our Art Across the Ages program at a senior living community. This is why I was recently gluing an antennae back on to a ceramic butterfly haha which normally wouldn’t be in my wheelhouse. Anyway, I will be leading one of the workshops which will be Embroidery on Photography. Oh I did attend the Butterfly Gala fundraiser there and I was quite tickled that it was the perfect occasion to wear the earrings that Raine made for me.

At some point I finally decided to just finish off the Fasciated plants book. I was sick of it just hanging around. I worked with the same guy that did the calendar and postcards and we did it!! So then I sold a handful to folks that had contributed to it. It’s for sale on my website. I also have it for sale at the gallery. I probably won’t sell more but that’s OK. Just glad I actually got it done.

Winter does eventually get cold so Pangea’s new house was tested…and it worked great! We can simply look at our phone app to learn the temperature of Pangea’s house - it maintained a warm temp all through the cold weather! Overnight we close it up to keep the heat in (there’s a heater inside) and during the day, if warm enough, we open up her door. I feel that Pangea is smart for a tortoise as she has so far always gotten herself inside her house for evenings or when it is cold. None of this “oh no my tortoise was stuck in the yard a few hours and I found her and it was so dangerous…” Pangea has really got it figured out!

And at the moment there doesnt’t seem to be a lot of grass in the front yard. I’ve been giving her some cactus or cuke or lettuce that I mix with Timothy Hay that’s been cut up, hoping she’ll start liking the Hay. But she picks out the good stuff haha. She gets a little of the hay just by accident so hopefully over time she’ll learn that it is actually food. It’s good for her and if there are times of less grass, it’s a smart thing to feed her. Oh and she’s a he I just got used to calling her her. A couple pics below.

Around the holidays we noticed Stony itching a lot. Well Rob mostly noticed that. I noticed that the small rug was always bunched up due to Stony rubbing his tummy on it. So finally we took him to the vet and they diagnosed it as allergies. Anyway, long story, but he had to go back again when it recurred after the medications were used up. So now he takes a pill every day. The thing is that all of this meant more trips to the vet which is SUPER difficult. Stoney freaks out and gets all trembly and most of all WILL NOT GET OUT OF THE CAR. So a lot of times the doc/technician have to hang out with him in the back of the car.

At some point one of the hanging storage thingies I was using in the guest closet broke and ever since then the art room has just been chaos. So Rob helped me to do a MAJOR renovation which was to get rid of the rod in the closet (that you’d use to hang clothes) and instead setup shelving from floor to ceiling!! It’s amazing. I have it all filled and the room is SO MUCH BETTER NOW!

One of the things Rob got me for Xmas was a virtual drum set. So there are no drums at all, just fancy sticks and you hit the air in front of you and it sounds like a drum! It works pretty well but sometimes it seems like it gets misaligned and then the drum doesn’t make a sound or else it “hits” the wrong drum. Then you have to “recalibrate” the sticks. I am trying to learn a few things from the Musora website.

More pics below.