It is coooooold!

Winter finally arrived in Amherst. It is freezing! I think the high today was 10 degrees. I was picking up lumber at Cowls and I almost got frostbitten fingers. Handling that frozen wood was brutal. Some employee with thick gloves came to my rescue. Aaron's new space is nearing completion. It's going to be really nice.

Went to see Catch & Release with Pete and Pam this eve (Baird was at a work meeting/dinner). Film was quite good. Did a decent job depicting how complicated life can be. The characters were very real, believable. Had some depth to it... some humor too... not trite at all. The scenery was great. Takes place in Boulder. Lots of beauty to behold there.

No new art today.. no time. Boo - Hoo.
I have posted a few new things recently over at http://terranovadesign.blogspot.com/
Tomorrow: Breakfast at Stables with Pam & Polly. Yahoo!

Not so fast Garcia!

Not so fast Garcia!.... that's a line from an old Soules family joke...but used here to refer to the Feb. 4 Super Bowl Night. Guess I won't be free to boogie after all. Looks like Sweetside will be having a fete that evening even tho the Pats won't be on the screen. Oh well, people, food, fun... who cares whose playing :-)

Free Night Feb 4

Sadness...for the Pats. The large 18 pt. lead was lost by the half and in the end, the game was lost by 4 pts.

Well, guess that leaves me free to boogie on Feb 4. Don't imagine I will be watching the Bears play the Colts.

The Pond is Filling Up

The Democratic Party Pond is filling up. While I reveled in Barack's announcement last week, I fairly cringed with Hilary's this weekend. I have never bee n a Hilary fan and I fear that if both she and Barack seek the nomination they will be splitting votes and will make a clear choice much less likely. Could even open the door for some dark horse Dem and that in turn could leave the door open more widely for a Republican president in '08. But, what do I know? A political expert I am definitely not. Bottom line -- I just plain don't want to see her run; don't want to listen to her or to reports about her (or Bill) and don't want any distractions from Obama, a candidate that (so far as I can see to date) is one amazing guy. Someone the world MIGHT actually listen to! Well, we'll wait to see what Barack has to say "officially" on Feb 10. In the meantime, I'll follow the politics from my "arm chair" and keep surfing the real estate listings in Costa Rica, just incase :-)

In other areas:

Will the Patriots win tonight? I seldom watch football but the Pats are in the playoffs... so... like any good Massachusian, I tuned in last week, will tonight.. and we'll see about the Super Bowl.

As for the house, A. is closing in on the cellar project and Ben is installing cement board in our main bathroom so it can be tiled (floors and 43" high on the walls). I have been doing a lot of experimentation with art stuff but you'll have to click on the Terra Nova Design blog if you want to see pics of that part of my life.

New Blog: TND

I have begun a new blog: Terra Nova Design where I will now funnel my art and design related posts: garden, house and art. Check it out when you have a few minutes.

Barack's "Announcement"

This is an excerpt of a longer email I received today from Barack Obama. I subscribed to his email months ago b/c I wanted to follow his goings on. Here is what he announced to his email list regarding the upcoming campaign:

Years ago, as a community organizer in Chicago, I learned that meaningful change always begins at the grassroots, and that engaged citizens working together can accomplish extraordinary things.

So even in the midst of the enormous challenges we face today, I have great faith and hope about the future - because I believe in you.

And that's why I wanted to tell you first that I'll be filing papers today to create a presidential exploratory committee. For the next several weeks, I am going to talk with people from around the country, listening and learning more about the challenges we face as a nation, the opportunities that lie before us, and the role that a presidential campaign might play in bringing our country together. And on February 10th, at the end of these decisions and in my home state of Illinois, I'll share my plans with my friends, neighbors and fellow Americans.

>> If you have not read his book, The Audacity of Hope, you night want to check it out.

A Webby Evening

After 2 days of playing with collage techniques I spent this evening on the web reading artists' web pages and blog, viewing their amazing works and reading wonderfully detailed entries about techniques used. One artist, Karen, has re-inspired me to try altered books. Another woman, Bernie Berlin, runs a dog rescue and much of her art helps to support it. All very inspirational. I could spend many hours more but alas I must sleep. Tomorrow is a work day.

Soon I will scan some of the 4X6 cards I made this weekend and post them. For now, good-night!

Might Want to Check This Out

A friend of mine recently blogged about this guy and an article he wrote in Catalyst called "Movies as Ministry."

Sounds worth checking out:
Brandon McCormick is a 22 year old filmmaker from Lawrenceville, Georgia. He creates short films weekly for Crossroads Community Church. Brandon has launched a production company called Whitestone Motion Pictures and is currently working on a short film for Sundance. He is also planning his first feature film.)

Listing on Etsy Now

So, I am attempting a new art venture. Today I listed some of my magnets on Etsy
(an art sale site). We'll see what transpires.
Check it out if you so desire. You can even make my Etsy store one of your favs and draw some attention to it :-)

PaperMania

Yesterday Baird and I went to Hartford to PaperMania, an exhibit / sale where hundreds of vendors and collectors converge to buy and sell antique paper goods -- old trading / business cards, stamps, ads, posters, pictures, books and more. It is a collectors' event but some of the vendors have castoff boxes ($1-3 or so) for items that have been too long in their inventory or that are not up to the collectors' standards and those booths are where we spent most of our time. I was able to find several old advertising cards, holiday cards a couple of pictures and some old postcards to add to my ephemera. Baird got a lot of old stamps, including some from Iran for me (the Dean's Book Course I am teaching this semester is on Iran). Many of the items I will scan and use the printed versions in my collage and magnet making. They may be castaways to collectors but I think they are awesome and cutting them up is too hard to do. One is on old Christmas card to Little Robert from Aunt Kate, dated 1883. The picture is a bouquet of summer flowers! Baird says 1883 was at the very beginning of the use of Christmas cards.

Twelfth Day of Christmas

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas I got my new stereo speaker base for my Nano! On Dec. 25th Baird had one all wrapped up for me but we decided the sound was not quite what we hoped for. So, today, on the way home from PaperMania in Hartford (a separate post is needed for that) we stopped and got a JBL donut (that is what I call it) and man-o-man is the sound awesome! It is sooo tiny but it fills the kitchen, LR and DR without any effort at all. The teenie weenie remote is RF so it works in most of the house. WooHoo... my Nano (received last Christmas) is gonna get some mega use now...as will Baird's new iPod. Listening to Imogen as I type.

January 4, 2007

A's space is coming along nicely.




Merci likes to sleep in the living room warmed by the fireplace... ooooo...... but those lights are just toooo bright!

Happy New Year 2007

2006 has passed and 2007 is here. May it bring good things. We celebrated the Eve in NoHo at First Night from 2-10 PM, seeing Brooks play, as well as Japanese drummers, A2Z Yo Yo Team, our former NoHo neighbor Tom McCabe doing story telling, and more.... returning home to watch the final count down in Times Square with Dick Clark and all. We didn't see Jess and Ben and friends in the Times Square TV crowd but they were there somewhere! They sent cell phone pics to prove it :-)

Here are a few of Baird's pics from NoHo First Night, including the #3 in the World Yo Yo 'er, me with old friends the Finn's (owners of A2Z Science store), and Tom McCabe the story teller as well as fire works (& moon) over Main Street.