fiberhart

Counting down. . .

No, not until Christmas. I have finally come to that place I remember seeing in my mother that I could never understand as a child- it will come, and I have plenty of patience to await the arrival. No, I am counting down until Thusday, when I will officially be away from work until January 7- longest length of time I have been off work in many years. I've already started my list of how I want to spend it.

I have been taken to task by one commenter regarding my feelings about winter. Trust me, I would GLADLY send all our snow to you- at least right after Christmas. However, in the spirit of positive thinking even when in less than positive circumstances, I took Sadie on a long-needed walk Friday afternoon. Fortunately, the river walk was cleared. I tried to pay attention to the details of winter, find the beauty in the stark contrasts. I do love the way trees make a dark web of branches in the sky, and this one really caught my attention.



And, up close was some fascinating bark texture. I played with brightness and contrast in Elements, and will probably see if this one has any potential as a Thermofax screen.



Further down, I loved the way the tree branches in the river had little circular icicles around them.



My studio is clean, ready to go. If I can ever find a shirt pattern that will fit me and not some super skinny twenty-something, I have some faux suede to make into a shirt. The rest of the time, I plan to be working on quilting related projects. In fact, I got the answer to my question, "What do I do now that the Journal Quilt project is over? on Karoda's blog. Sharon in Australia is hosting Take It Further, a monthly online challenge that already has lots of artists signed up. Go there if you want more information or to sign up!

We have a family Christmas party today, so I have been doing some baking. Made a Tres Leche cake, using a recipe recommended by my son Sean. He tells me he took it to Thanksgiving with a large crew of Latin friends and family (his wife is from Colombia), and they couldn't believe a 'gringo' made it, it was so good. I also cheated and got a cheesecake at Costco, but also got fresh raspberries and blackberries to go on top. And, finally, for us, I made my Christmas kuchen, a sweet yeast bread studded with dried cherries and apricots. Love it! Here it is, first rise about done, ready to be shaped.



Got to get ready, more later!!