I am still on my bloggy holiday. Really. I just have a few quick things to post.

I forgot to post that the giveaway art was mailed earlier this week. Sister Carrie and Yu-hui, you should be checking your mail boxes for goodies. I will, as promised, pop in and post photos of the small gifted art for the rest of you after I am sure the gifts have arrived in their new homes. Maybe next week sometime if I feel I won’t be spoiling any surprises.

I also wanted to say that I have decided to do the 46 series. That didn’t take long eh? I am going to post one of two things and I will let you know which I have decided on when I come back. I am either going to post a new drawing each day or a diptych which will include a drawing and an image from my daily life that I feel is autobiographical in nature. I have got to mull this over a bit to decide what will work best for me. After sleeping on it, I can say that I have decided that I would still really like to do this online project again in some form. I just think that colds that have taken over my house and some chores and expenses that have popped up around here have had me a bit grumpy lately so I am going to just spend a little more time getting out of my funk and focusing on my home and art and then I will come back –hopefully refreshed and ready to play. I really enjoyed putting together the series last year. I think I would regret it if I bailed just because I am feeling a little under the weather this week. A couple of weeks of tidying up should help me lots. So, mark your calendars if you are interested in such things and don’t wander too far away. I will be back over here to begin my big birthday countdown on October 21st! I hope you will join me again this year.

For now? Well, I am off to the Farmer’s Market for some good local fare and then I have plans to cook a big healthy lunch and maybe putter a bit around the house. There are some fall festivals going on this weekend and we had planned to go but my babies are coughing and a lot whiny and I have that pesky cold coming on burn behind my eyes and nose so we are going to stick close to home and eat lots of fresh food and mend ourselves. I have some new books to read and lots of painting and drawing to do. There are leaves begging to be gathered for crayon rubbings and our nature shelf and nuts covering the ground that need gathering. I have plans to try some new recipes with hickory nuts this fall so I had better grab a basket and gather them up before the squirrels take them all. I have some stiff competition around here, ya know.

I hope I will see ya back here in a couple of weeks! Wherever you are, I hope you are having a delightful fall weekend.

I have been thinking that, like last year, I would like to post a series of photos that are autobiographical in nature in the days leading up to my birthday. That would mean I would have to start in a little over two weeks since I am going to be 46 this year. Yikes! I can’t decide whether I want to commit to something like that again though–at least not without some sort of new twist. Since I have little I want to write about these days and this has become a photo essay sort of blog anyway, I am thinking this project may be redundant and boring unless I can come up with some new approach. And hmm–to be honest I don’t know if I have it in me to do that. I am going to take a few days away from my blog to get some work done and think about what I want to do–if anything. I have a couple of shows coming up that I need to complete work for and I am working on my last portrait for the year so my heart really isn’t into this blogging thing right now anyway. I need a blog vacation. I appreciate all of you that drop by and comment. I do. I just don’t feel I have a lot to offer anymore and really, I have to ask, how many more tree, flower and dog pictures can you stand eh? Not many, I am guessing. I think I am over them myself. So, since it is a really busy time of year for me and my family and I am feeling really distracted and a little tired, I am going to put the MacBook in the drawer and give this blogging thing a break for a while. There is too much noise in my head. I will be back in a couple of weeks–or whenever –to let you know what I have decided I want to do over here. We are about to wrap up another year and I am feeling like maybe it is time to wrap up this blog–but I am not going to do anything without thinking it over. You know me. I have been here before. Heh. I am just going to step out and get some air. I will be back soon.

Take care and have a great October!

Did you know that goldenrod used to be the state flower of Alabama? It was made the state flower in 1927 but was later rejected 30 years later in favour of the camellia because the goldenrod plant was seen as a weed. It is a wildflower and somehow I think it suits us better but I wasn’t around to vote. School children in Alabama had voted goldenrod the state flower because “… it blooms everywhere and brightens the fall months with its liberal plume-like flowers.”. The camelllia, in case you didn’t know comes from China. In 1999 the Alabama State Legislature adopted the oak-leaf hydrangea as our official state wildflower. I didn’t even know we had an official state wildflower.

Today we celebrate our dogs. It is Ruben’s 10th birthday and Nell’s 1st birthday (it was also Ivy’s. Weird huh?). Since we found the Raindogs and have no idea how old they really are are when they were born (they are about 2–we think), we have decided to make today the day we celebrate them too. Dog cookies all around! It’s celebrate the dogs day at our house!

I am sad. My fish died in the night. He has been sick but I thought he was getting better. He had pop eye and I treated it successfully. He seemed perkier this past week–but I guess something else was wrong. I feel badly that I didn’t know. He was my buddy for 10 months. He would swim to the top of his big 5 gallon bowl anytime I came into the room and I would give him a little treat. He would wave his fins at me when I waved at him. He looked out the window on sunny days and made beautiful bubble nests.  I am going to miss my fish. Twiggy and I had a little fishy funeral this morning and buried him up in the meadow in a bed where purple iris grow. I didn’t have the heart to flush him. Whimper. Bye Bye Tiger LIly.

This moss is all over my studio roof. I think it is so pretty.

The gallery where I show my work has a brand spankin’ new web page! Check it out! Bookmark it!
 Bare Hands Gallery