It's a Whole New Year!

Happy New Year, my friend! I hope great things for you in 2018.

How was your holiday season? It was a rollercoaster for me, as always, what with some traveling and last minute art sales. The seasonal flu hit my little circle hard (not me personally, thankfully), and this year's strain is the pits. My holiday gatherings were minus a number of dear faces as family members hunkered down to recover. I used to be rather ambivalent about getting a flu shot until the season I went down hard with it, thinking it was just a bad cold at the time. And in the midst of a serious fever I can recall being fearful for my life, and I never want to experience that kind of a 'cold' again. I know flu season hasn't peaked yet. If you experience it at all, I hope its visit is brief and gentle.

Tax Season has arrived here. (Ick...) But because I did some additional art shows in 2017 and vowed at each one to let customers Pay What They Wish, my annual sales were up for a change, and I never get an opportunity to show my Tax Guy that I can make more than 50-cents a year. (I hope he's proud of me. I'm proud of me.) Because my year-long experiment was interesting and fortunately worked out in my favor, I want to try it again for another year -- just to see if the surprising results I experienced were just a fluke. Fingers crossed! I would LOVE to make this Pay What You Wish platform a forever thing.

As I write this post, I'm busy gearing up for the North Artists Studio Crawl (Studio G on the map again!; last year's experience was wonder-filled) and the St. Paul Art Crawl (Carleton Lofts location). And I'm creating Leaflings as fast as I can. Sharing them this past year with the public has warmed my heart and given me hope for the future.

So there! A bit of news to begin this year's blogging. I look forward to keeping you updated! And I hope that 2018 is grand for us all.
...

Happy Solstice

It's less than a handful of days before Christmas here in Minne-snow-tah, and there's NO SNOW. I'm having a heckuva time getting into the spirit....

Feeling a bit desperate today, I tried wrapping gifts while listening to instrumental holiday music. I enjoyed some eggnog, took a bite or two (or ten) of peanut brittle, and even threw a top hat on my wraith -- "Old Blue Eyes" -- and dubbed him the Ghost of Christmas Future. But his Dickens vibe still didn't put me over the edge. And Dickens always puts me over the edge at Christmastime....

There were cards in the mail and brown paper packages (sans string) on the doorstep. And snow could be smelled on the air....

Still.... No 'holly jolly.'

I stood for a long moment at the front door and breathed in the scents of woodsmoke and the promise of snow. Twilight had come early in tints of slate and lavender. My Little Free Library was a shadow at the curb. Rowanberries trembled on their branches in the chilly December gusts, while a rabbit sheltered beneath the tree in a stand of frozen coneflower heads.... 

Suddenly I got it. And gone were thoughts of Burl Ives and Toys R Us and Amazon Wish Lists and whether or not I should schedule a haircut before Christmas. I'd been focusing on the wrong stuff.

(*Deep breath*)

So now I pour myself a glass of wine and raise a toast to that rabbit, that twilight, those shadows and wintry scents. And to you.

May the season wrap you in its wintry arms and fill your heart and spirit with peace. Happy Solstice.

Love,
...me.

The Party's Over (yay!)

I see you, 2015....

I look at the archive listings at the side of this blog and it bugs me to see that I posted next to nothing in November/December of 2014.

No posts about trying to gear up for Black Friday, Small Biz Saturday, Cyber Monday, the Christmas shopping season, or about the long hours spent taking photos of new products and then trashing them all and starting over again because they sucked.

No posts about how reluctant I always am to advertise my work at this time of year because it makes me feel like just another businessperson begging for your Christmas dollars.

No posts wondering what kind of businessperson wouldn't milk the opportunity for holiday sales??

No posts about how much I wish I could wrap up a Little Something for every one of you here and slip it in your Christmas stockings. Because you're important to me and I appreciate you.

No posts offering Christmas greetings. No holiday wishes. No 'tis the seasons. Nothing like that....

My apologies....

You were in my thoughts, however. Along with about a million other things. And I'm confident that your December was every bit as overwhelming as mine.

But now the big crazy holiday is behind us and the new year's begun. One with no mistakes in it yet. One that's still full of promise and possibility. One with a fancy capital 'A' in its adventure.

I plan to do the best I can with it.

And I hope you'll continue to join me, my friend. :)
...

Dear You:

Season's Greetings from Tumbledown

A heart full of happiness.

Loved ones just a phone call, postage stamp, status update, email, heartfelt thought, arm's length away.

Good health getting 'gooder' by the minute.

Time enough to spend engaged in your heart's delight.

An already dipped-in-gold year to look forward to.

Whatever you celebrate at this time of year, I hope the season finds you over your head in all of the above.

Love,
...me.
...

Santa's Got the Right Idea

Go, Santa; you can do this!

I'm with the Big Guy on this one.

There he is -- ambushed by the Christmas Crocodile of Stress and chased by some festive partygoers as he gets out of Dodge with a sleighful of snacks and a drink in his hand!

Looks like he's gonna make it, too. And with that magick fairy wand in the back, he's got everything covered. Bottomless drink, endless holiday snacks, the perfect gifts. I'm envious....

Actually, those aren't all 'festive partygoers.' That's really supposed to be a little LEGO Me in the background. I tried to make my own 'mini fig' this year but the selections at the LEGO store were slim. I got the glasses and the messy hair right, but I was looking for bibber-alls to dress my fig in, and when I couldn't find them I chose to give myself some serious cleavage to go with those serious hips. 

And look at that -- she's smiling even.

That's so not me. At least not in recent days. 

Things are getting down to the wire here. The Christmas clock is tock-tocking and I just want to reach in and yank its dang pendulum out.... I've yet to bake, clean, wrap, write. I've checked my gift list. Counted it twice. Rethunk EVERYthing. Wondered if the toys I've purchased are too small, or too difficult, or too babyish, or too simple, or too cheap-seeming. Wondered if the grown-up gifts I'm giving are too lame, or too silly, or too handmade, or too weird. Wondered if I'll ever get Christmas cards sent or letters written. Wondered wondered wondered.... *BOOM*

(Momentary clean-up at the keyboard....)
 
I look at my mini fig in the photo above and know that if Santa'd just hold up a sec, she'd hop in that sleigh, pour him another drink, and start dishing out that pizza. I want to join them! And I'd let them both have dibs on the food and bev. 

Because I want that wand so I can wave it and make everything Perfect....

 

'Tis the Season

The Christmas Conundrum

This reminds me: Holiday baking! Gah....

In an email to friends recently I wrote that the older I get the harder it is for me to like this time of year....

It's not the snow; I like a change of seasons, thank you. It's the holiday commercialism. It's ads on television telling me to buy a car for everyone on my list. It's me second-guessing myself.

It's Time getting away from me and all of a sudden Christmas is here and I've got all of five minutes to get everything done. It's my kids having a million places they've got to be for the holiday and so I take Tumbledown off their list so that they're not run so ragged.

It's knowing my grandbugs will be spending almost an entire week opening gifts day after day from people who just want to see them smile. It's me wondering what that does to a kid after all....

The 'T' Word

I'm writing from the hip today, just throwing stuff out here without too much thought or edits or even the benefit of Spellchek (sorry!). Because it's that time of year again. The one where 'time' is the operative word....

Do you do this?: In my head I envision late autumn / early winter as 'that period during which one holes up and cocoons.' I see myself in my comfy chair, curled in lamplight, with a purring kitten on my lap and a book or project or drawing pad in my hands. And snowflakes dancing outside my windows, of course, turning my garden into a wedding cake. And the whole big beautiful scene wrapped in all the time in the world.

No surprise: The reality of it is just the opposite. (Sigh.)

I'm not alone in this, I know. It's chaos where you are, too, I'm sure. Less than a week until the holiday and I've only just begun to shop. Any baking has yet to occur. There's no snow (yet) and little is expected before the Big Day. The stomach bug has infiltrated our ranks and is gleefully running amok, so in addition to being overwhelmed and sleep deprived I'm now a freakin' germaphobe, washing my hands until they're raw. I don't have time for this.

Not surprisingly, my cocoonish fantasy has gone by the wayside to be replaced by January in all its Snowpocalyptic glory. In my head I see drifts up to the windowsills, a pantry stocked with soup ingredients, that warm and lamplit corner by the faux fireplace where the kitten is already curled and sleeping. And the holiday all cleaned up and tucked in for another year.

Wait.

What am I doing, wishing the holiday the heck away?!

Let's start again. Ahem.

Here's me now attempting to enjoy the moment while I can and not thinking about germs or gifts that need buying. And one way for me to do this is to focus on wishing YOU the very best of holidays.

SO: I wish for you good health. Safe travels. Good moods and warm smiles. Enough to eat and a safe place to sleep. Sincere hugs. Family and friends to surround you, laughter and memories to cheer and comfort you. A cup of Christmas tea in that Cup of Christmas Tea cup (you know you've got one; we all do). A kitten on your lap or a dog at your feet or both. A good book to unwrap and enjoy at your leisure, one that warms your heart and whisks you away. Eggnog. Layers. Something handmade to keep your neck warm. Money enough to cover your needs. Courteous faces in the check-out line. Eggnog. Preferably with a little brandy in it. Some big-as-sequins snowflakes to put you in the holiday spirit, and some snowshadows to add to the effect (they're blue, did you know that?). Maybe an ethereal soundtrack wafting in the background, like lutes and woodwinds playing The Coventry Carol (oooooh, one of my FAVES). Pine-scented greenery. Red hollyberries. "Five gol-den rings!" Mistletoe. SIMPLICITY. Lots and lots of rest! All the blessings of the heavens. "And a par-tridge in a pear treeeeeee!"

There. Now I feel better. Thank you!

And may you have a most magical holiday, my friend.

<3,
...me.