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Spring – New Lease on Life

/ still a dreamer

Ripping apart an existing workspace, cleaning, and putting it back together – with a new rug – is a very satisfying thing. And I thank Spring for this. With the longer daylight hours and warmer temps so I can open the doors, I was finally in the mood. Ahhhhh – a new work space!

Having a clear workspace to write, edit, sketch is, I think, critical to an artist – at least, this one! I have a studio space upstairs, and a nice area for my computer/graphics work, but on my main workdesk, all my children’s book stuff was in stacks, hanging on to corners, etc. I knew it needed re-organization, but those short days and always-too-quickly-arriving winter evenings were not conducive to tackling the job. I’d bought a nice new area rug to fit in the U-shaped workspace last September, but there it stood, rolled up and leaning against a bookcase. Then Spring hit!

As the rug was too wide for the space, (I had eye-balled it, not measured), I had to take my desk apart. I built my desktop years ago out of a birch veneer flush door to which I attached 1″ square molding all around, to fit snugly on top of 2 file cabinets. Heavy file cabinets. So there was no choice but to take it all apart and start all over so I could make room for the rug. EVERYTHING got sorted, cleaned, re-organized. Now, all my children’s book stuff is at my fingertips. Stuff that I no longer work on got trashed or relocated so I can sit and be inspired the second I sit down, surrounded by everything I want to be working on.

I’m amazed at how exciting this is, but now I have direct access to my dreams, all the time. My friend said I Feng Shui’d my office. I know a little about Feng Shui, and if I did? It was a fortuitous accident. But there it is.  Woo hoo! Thanks, Spring!

And .. if you hadn’t noticed … the new set-up immediately got the Claude Seal of Approval.

The First Signs of Christmas

/ still a dreamer / 2 Comments

December begins and my house is seeing the first signs of Christmas. Take a look – see it?

Not my desktop – that Christmas mug over on the right. See? Yeah, that’s it.

Each year in my house as the Christmas season begins there are two small items that lead the way … my red Christmas mugs from Germany, (bought so many years ago when I lived in the city that I can’t even remember where I got them),  and my wonderful dollar store Christmas plates. They’re the first hints that soon the holiday placemats will sit under meals, festive touches will soon start appearing all over the house and that soon … there will be lights and pine  boughs gracing the front porch.

I think a little tradition is good nowadays. How about you? Do you have something special at your house that whispers about the magic of Christmas or the holidays?

Fall – Just 2 Days Later

/ still a dreamer / 2 Comments

Autumn is on her own schedule. She seems to pay no mind to temperatures, to incoming storms; she just pulls out her paints and brushes, and in her own time gently strokes the trees with gold, oranges, crimson and amber. Here, just 2 days later, is the same tree that appears in my last post.

Home-Across2

Fall Within 100 Feet

/ still a dreamer / 2 Comments

I have had a 100 things to blog about, all swimming, swirling in my head. But at the moment am coping with something else, and the thoughts are just not solidifying. (One thing I want to write about, having just seen Where the Wild Things Are and finished reading Coraline, is about what happens when children’s books become movies. Stay tuned …) So when inspired writing fails and I still have a ton of work on my desk, what to do? Take a few pictures …

Home-Across

These photos are taken without me walking more than 100′ from my front door.  The first, my neighbors across the street, taken from my front porch. Not much wind today, but Old Glory always looks so nice in all the seasons.

Home-CaddyCorner

My caddy-corner neighbors …. their fence is always lined with some kind of blooming flowers, daffodils, lilies, and in the fall, white shasta daisies

Home-Porch

My front porch … have to have something of fall there! Each year the local deer inevitably take down whatever live flowers I put on the steps, but I will prevail! Or at least I’m trying – my neighbors had success in protecting their Hostas with Deer-Out, (nothing horrible in the way of ingredients), which is no small accomplishment, so I’m giving it a try. Doesn’t bother next door’s cats, so it must be deer-specific. Time will tell.

Home-2Delaware

Looking down my short block from in front of my house … I’m on the corner. At the very end, if you look carefully, you will see a spot of blue/grey. That’s the Delaware River. I’m happy to live near a river, near any water, really. I’m very happy for the little town I live in and how un-modernized it is. Real people with real small stores and local friendliness. I’m lucky.  Grateful, too.

The Deer Ate Them

/ still a dreamer / 2 Comments

Who was it that said “No good deed goes unpunished?” Seems so true on this count! Because I am so behind in getting flowers in pots around the house, I decided a couple of weeks ago to at least buy two big pots of lovely pink, dark-leaved begonias for the edge of my front porch. Left the impatiens behind because I know the deer love `em – begonias not so much. Or so they say.

BegoniasEaten

Looked out yesterday morning to see the begonias had been dragged down two steps and mostly consumed! This means that the deer had to literally come up a step or two to eat them. Now that’s a first! The irony of this is that even though I live “in-town” and am surrounded by farmland, fields, etc. the deer have PLENTY to eat. So they’re just cruisin’ for BegoniasEaten-2candy!

This is no surprise to anyone living in Hunterdon. If I come home late at night, the deer may literally be in the street, sometimes in my driveway. So my begonias are nibbled to the nub, and keeping anything on my front porch is out. Do I care? Nah. Not really. I love the deer – they are such elegant and graceful animals. I know they are considered one step down from vermin by many people out here. Not to me. I just have to be a little smarter than them in where I put my plants when I DO pot them and where the begonias will be recovering in safety.