Thanksgiving

Perhaps I can blame it on our move this year, but I really can.not.believe that the Thanksgiving holiday is coming up this week! How can it be the end of November, and is Christmas really only a few weeks away?!?
While I absorb all of that, and cook and host Frank's family for a Thanksgiving feast coming up on Thursday I might be pretty quiet around here, but perhaps I'll pop in with some images of our celebration.
I am feeling extra thankful after a quick trip that we took last week, we drove down to Disney in Florida and met up there with my mother and also with Sarah, my closest friend from childhood who flew down from New Hampshire with her kids.
We all stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge, where we had a view of safari animals from our room's balcony which was pretty cool,

My friend Sarah has a son who is Jasper's age and a daughter who is Carys's age, which is an amazing serendipity, and the fact that they all love each other and play so well makes me happy on many different levels. Watching them play makes me think of the way Sarah and I used to play when we met when we were only 4, and it also makes me realize anew how thankful I am for her and for all of my deep friendships that have seen me through the years.

Another side of the trip was actually tough, Sarah's husband Jamey died 3 years ago in a motorcycle accident, and this was the first trip that Frank and I have spent with her family since the accident. So, Jamey's absence was tangible, strange and aching. Seeing how their children have grown and watching their son's face form the same expressions and smiles that Jamey would do was a constant reminder of their loss. It made me so grateful, so deeply Thank-full, for my own family. The simple fact that Frank and I get to wake up every day together and watch our beautiful children grow is a joy that never gets old and something that I am thankful for every single day, and I could taste that on this trip.

I plan to celebrate that joy, especially this week as we give thanks on the holiday. This past year has been a huge one for my family of 4, as we moved together to a new place where we only had each other and together we have branched out, made a new home and new friends slowly making this place our own. We have come through it all together as a stronger family unit, they are my joy, my strength and my thanks for them overflows.

Future memory log

Going to the studio

Our house officially went on the market this past Thursday evening, and some how with that I feel like our planned move is all the more real. Now, as I walk around all of my familiar places, I find that I am trying to make myself remember the details of our day to day. So, I'm starting a new feature here on my blog, my future memory log, I will include pictures of places that resonate with me deeply here in New York as well as places that I see often that I want to remember.

We have had our studio space for nine years, it is in an old warehouse underneath an elevated subway track, in a gritty area of Brooklyn called Gowanus, only a 5 minute drive from our house. Even though I work at home now, I still love going over to our old studio space, where both Frank and I have years of work stored and Frank's paintings in progress are so exciting to see. Last night we went there with friends we are also moving away, and wanted to buy some of our paintings before they left. So we did one of my favorite things with them, a studio visit where Frank and I pulled pieces out for them to look at over glasses of wine, until they chose their absolute favorite ones...one of Frank's and two small ones of mine.

Time and Distance

I've been working on a couple of new paintings with this idea in my mind of Time and Distance, the idea started when my brother left after our Thanksgiving visit, to return to his home across the sea in England. I was thinking about how undimmed our childhoods are to us when we are together, how time does not matter for us as we always pick up at the same spot with each other. I have other friends like that as well, and I'm sure you do to. Those are the special people, what ever you call them.....a soul sister, a true companion, a dear friend, a soul's mate (and not just the romantic kind)....these relationships are some how outside of time and place, they can be across great distances and still remain strong. These thoughts were swimming in my head as I made these,

Day and Night

Time and Distance

OK, I know that this is silly but, I guess that as I was seeing them with different eyes, I did not realize that they are so appropriate for Valentines Day (read: big hearts) until just last week! So, I figured it was a good time to add them to my shop, you can check them out here and here.

Spirit Ship

My good friend Kristin, is one of those people who seems to be endlessly creative. She is a mama, makes beautiful jewelry, children's toys, and paintings....she has an insightful poignant blog and I have even done a few craft fairs with her selling our art! But her true love is Little Creatures, the children's film company that she and her partner Sean founded. A couple of years ago they shot a short film for children here in Brooklyn called Spirit Ship, and friends this short film is true beauty (that's a still from the film in the picture).
I was lucky enough to have Kristin give Jasper, Carys and I a screening of the rough cut of the film last year, so that my children could give her their feedback, and Jasper was talking about it and acting the adventure out in his play for days after wards! There is a mysterious, other worldly quality to the film that my children could completely relate to. It is about the hunt for what is hidden, the thrill of finding a mysterious treasure, the wonders inherent in an afternoon playing in the woods, and the joy in telling the story. You can check out the trailer for the film here, and catch a glimpse for yourself. It is really the sort of children's art film that I wish there were more of.
Right now, through January 2, 2011 they are a part of Kickstarter, an online pledge drive in which they hope to raise $5000 so that they can finish and distribute Spirit Ship. If you feel moved by the trailer for their film please consider giving to their pledge drive, even $1 would help. The crazy thing about Kickstarter is that if they don't raise the $5000 by next Sunday, January 2nd, then they don't get ANY of the more than $4000 that they have already raised! Crazy, but true.
I just love seeing artists realize their dreams, so I wanted to share her dream here with you!

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas!
xo

Our Nativity and a Giveaway!

At this time of year I take great pleasure in decorating our home for the holidays. I have such dear memories of unpacking our family Nativity, a wooden Nativity set from Guatemala, when I was a child. My brother and I looked forward all year to the moments when we would slowing unwrap each delicate tissue wrapped figure, and we were of course thrilled when we came to the baby Jesus figure with his manger!
For a few years now, I have had thoughts of creating a Nativity set for my family, especially for my children to enjoy.  I had fantasies of needle felting it myself, but I just had never found the time. I met Nicole this year, and we struck up a friendship through Etsy and our blogs. I love visiting her blog Lebenskuenstler as I am always inspired by her creative life in Australia, and I marvel each time at how alike our lives are as mothers and artists on opposite sides of the earth! I immediately fell in love with her fantastic wool Nativity set, offered in her Etsy shop full of amazing wool creations, it was literally the set of my dreams....and the rest is history.

The day that we received our Nativity set in the mail was so thrilling. We unwrapped each piece carefully, and arranged them just as I remembered from childhood. My children were immediately entranced with the set which I placed on the shelf where our family "nature table" sits for the rest of the year. We all love the tiny details that are so well done, like the different textures of wool used for hair and clothing (and the sweet little sheep!)...

Even the special angel watching over the scene, seems just so effortlessly put together!

I'm so happy that now, every Christmas season we'll be able to look forward to unwrapping this beautiful Nativity set as part of our family tradition.
Nicole has generously offered to give away one of her beautiful necklaces that she made during her family's most recent trip to Bali with old Indonesian glass beads,

I don't know about you but for me just seeing that tropical leaf in the picture is doing me all kinds of good right now! One lucky winner will receive this lovely necklace to cheer the coldest of winter days! Just leave a comment on this post to enter the drawing. I'll chose a winner next Tuesday, on December 21st, the winter solstice up here in the Northern Hemisphere.
xo

Winter Spiral

The winter spiral for Carys's Waldorf playgroup was the other night, this is a festival celebrating carrying our inner light through the dark winter months ahead, and it is very beautiful. As we entered the room in silence the head teacher sat playing a small harp next to the spiral of winter greens, with a single candle at the center.

The children sat expectantly and as the ceremony began each of them got up one by one and walked the spiral to light their candle from the central candle, and then place their lit candle somewhere along the spiral,

With each candle the light grew and grew,

Until the spiral glowed brilliantly.

Then we all got our coats on and left in silence (well, as much silence as you can have in a dimly lit room filled with young children) and a feeling of reverence.

Surprised at the Swallow Opening

I wanted to do a post with a whole bunch of pictures of my opening at Swallow last week, but then I went through all of the pictures that Frank took, and none of them did the event justice! Not blaming Frank though as I know that taking pictures at openings is hard, especially when you are having fun yourself. So friends, these will have to do.

Even though seeing the work up on the walls was great, the highlight for me was chatting with the people, and also seeing some of the work sell on the night of the opening. The show will be up through February, so I'm looking forward to going back often, seeing what has sold, and finding out what people are really responding to.

The highlight of the evening came at the end, when Frank and I were getting our coats on to go out for drinks and tapas with friends....suddenly he slyly pulled out this ring, that I have been swooning over, and presented it to me. I couldn't believe it.

The ring was made by the woman who runs Swallow, who is an amazing jeweler. Being a serious jewelry appreciator myself, something about this ring captivated me the moment I saw it, and I couldn't stop talking about it. One of my favorite features of the ring is that Eternal is inscribed on the back. I also love that now this ring will remind me of this moment in our lives, of finishing this body of work, of celebrating, and loving with my whole heart.

Felt-a-licious

There is something about heading into these winter months that makes me just feel like crafting with wool. A friend and I started sewing wool felt food for our children's play kitchens two winters ago. I jumped right in and I think that winter I must have sewn about 12 little cakes and cupcakes. Then last winter a friend offered a workshop for the parents in our Waldorf Playgroup on wool felting. From the moment I started working with the soft wool, and all of those colors, I was hooked! There is such a meditative peaceful feeling that comes over me when I have my hands in wool, and that is why I was so excited to learn about this delicious looking online workshop, being taught by two beautiful women who I have become friends with online recently, Nicole and Emily.

The wool that Nicole is sourcing from Australia, where she lives, looks so yummy doesn't it! I'll be taking this workshop and I'm really looking forward to it, as it feels like the perfect way to decompress after the busy Thanksgiving holiday that is fast approaching.

If you'd like to join me you can find out more information about the class and teachers (they are lovely!) and registration here. I can't wait to make lot's of wonderful woolly Christmas presents, especially these felted ipod/phone pouches, so sweet!

Mountain Weekend

We spent this past weekend visiting friends who recently moved out of New York City to the sweet hippie town of Woodstock, nestled in the Catskill Mountians of New York State. After driving out of the city in traffic the night before it was such a pleasure to wake up to the quiet of day break in the woods on Saturday morning,

and the calm of beautiful asian details through out their home....

We had the most magical weekend with sunny perfect weather as the icing on the cake. We feasted on food that we bought at farm stands,

Hiked a trail called "Poet's Walk",

Stopping at this mysterious structure that seemed almost to have grown in that spot,

We enjoyed the bits of foliage that were still changing color,

Meeting some wildlife along the way, my "animal whisperer" boy's favorite part!

My favorite part, truly, had to be the huge bonfire that we made on Saturday night. It felt powerful, wild and dreamy...that's just how bonfires make me feel, especially when I can look up and see a sky full of stars. It really was the best way to finish off a perfect time spent with friends.

Open Studio

For the past eight years Frank and I have been a part of the annual Gowanus Artists Open Studio tour, a tour of artist studios in the Gowanus warehouse district of Brooklyn. While I no longer work in our warehouse studio since I have my studio at home, Frank always gives me space to set up, and I love being back in our old space full of memories where I used to make my art. The weekend is usually a fun filled time of talking about art and sharing glasses of wine with the people walking through.
This year was no different, there was a great turn out with a steady stream of people all day. Lots of friends stopped by, and Frank and I even gave an artist talk about our work to a large arts group from our church that came by.

I had fun setting up my wall with paintings from the past year, and I was able to sell prints, lots of cards and postcards, as well as magnets. In past years the tour has been over the whole two days of the weekend, but this year it was just on Saturday. Frank and I have sold paintings on the tour in the past but that usually happens when people see our work one day, then come back the next day to buy it after thinking about it over night. I guess that paintings are not often an impulse buy!

My kind parents came to watch the kids for us, so Frank and I had the special treat of being able to talk about art all day, and then head out to dinner together. As we were leaving the studio, we were treated to a beautiful classic Brooklyn sunset.

I think that the energy that I gained from the Open Studio carried me through this week. I often think of myself as an introvert, as I do enjoy my alone time, but then after an open studio or a show I also gain energy and get excited from talking with people about art, this weekend really was packed with that! I also had a nice surprise on Wednesday when I was featured on Stacie's Jewelry blog as her Artist of the Week, you can check it out here.

Now, how can it already be time to prepare for another weekend?