Saturday, January 02, 2010

Portait of Greg & Nick

I have been crankin out the art lately. Feeling overwhelmed with inspiration. One of my best recent works is this portrait of Greg and Nick. You can see my other new stuff on my art blog at

Maya Sledding

Maya Rae is enjoying our yard here in Newfield. It comes fully equipped for a 10 yr old kid with a steam, woods and lots of hills for good sledding.These shots where taking from the bathroom window.She was at it for hours. Wore herself right out!

Snow family

Yesterday Maya kept busy buiding snow people. First it was a snow MAN.
Then that man was transformed with better hair and 'boobs'.
Snow-woman.

Then this woman...seen here alone because the snow MAN was at work of course....was blessed
with a yard full of little ones. :)

It took 12 yrs but...

Well Happy New Year to ME!
Once upon a time, 12 yrs ago, when Jody and I were dating- he made me pancakes every Sunday morning. Then......I married him. Sigh. Havent seen a pancake since.... LOL. Really.
Well I am not sure what inspired this but he woke up New Years day...2010....and made pancakes again. WOW.
For the record, they were the best pancakes ever. Maya and I are hoping for more of this.
Lets see....Maya Rae will be 22 in 12 years. Maybe for her birthday? ;)

Whats Ben doing?

Barnes & Noble
Ben is working at Barnes & Noble these days. Hes up and out most every day. He looks very proffesional. Hes been working in the back room but has just now been moved out to the main floor. Hes saving up to so he can get a place of his own. He seems to like it and is very committed.

Mayas still sewing

Maya is forever sewing. I call her a textile artist because she loves to create most anything out of fabric as long as there is no pattern involved. These days shes creating her family.... Daddy, Mommy, Ben, Elanee, Vayda and herself...and I think there are others to come....in sock doll form. Too cute.
She inspired her friend, Alexandra, to sew and craft too. Thats awesome. Every time they get together they create more dolls.

Vayda's school picture

Heres Vayda's 10th grade school pic. Good one.

Whats Elanee doing?


So- as we all know now, Elanee is in Santa Cruz California at Bosch Bahai School.
Bosch is a Baha'i based retreat where they teach classes and have conferences. Elanee is part of the service (volunteer) team of youth who help with hospitality for the guests.
You can learn more about Bosch here... http://www.bosch.org/
These are some pics from her Facebook page.
She says its warm and sunny. Shes been gardening and cleaning. She says its just like home but with no snow :)

Hair Dye

Vayda had her friend, Courtney, over the other day for a sleep over. They got totally into Vaydas recently favorite hobby... dying their hair purple.

On the note on this dye. Its organic, very subtle and washes out over time. Just in case you were worried.While they were doing that, Maya and I were finger knitting and making friendship bracelets. (and in my case...not looking attractive AT ALL-ick- oh well- cannot rock the hotness all the time )

Kid Brag

I have to take a moment and brag about my kid whome I am O so proud of.
This is the portrait Vayda drew of her BFF Jojo. It totally rocks!!!! I always knew this was in there!
GOOOO Vayda!


Ravyn came for a sleep over

The night Dan and Becky came for dinner, Ravyn came for a sleep over. It was nice to have her around. She was the first sleep over friend in our new place.

Dan & Becky come to dinner

Dan came into town for the Xmas break. While he was here we arranged to have he and his girl friend, Becky and her son, Kayden, to dinner.
Heres Kayden. This munchkin rocks! So pleasent and smart. We really enjoyed meeting him.
Maya spent hours playing with Kayden.

Vayda and Jody gave us a little show. (this is Vayda's new passion....the electric bass)

Nice visit!

We moved!

After 3 months of living with Heather at her house in Enfield we decided it was time for the Nortons to find a place of their own. We found a wonderful ranch style house in Newfield...just 10 min outside of Ithaca. Perfect.
I have a little studio space where I've been crankin out new art.

The cats are settling in. They were traumatised at Heathers. Shes got dogs inside...which, honestly, they hardly ever saw... and coyotes outside. They were pretty shaken up but are adjusting. (what can I say? they are scardy cats)
We have a wood stove which makes us all soooooo happy. We let the bread rise by the stove.

This makes me happy.....the clothes drying for free on wracks next to the wood stove.
We are all very happy with the place.

Elanees Going Away party

Several months ago Elanee and I decided to look into having her do a few months of service at Green Acre Bahai School in Maine. When she contacted them she found they didnt need anyone at this time but 'boy did they need people at Bosch!'
So she contacted Bosch Bahai School in Santa Cruz California. "Wo! Thats really far away", I thought. As I was getting over that shock Elanee was filling out paper work for Bosch.
She got reference letters and shots and had several phone interviews. After all that and the pile o paper work was done we were prepared to wait till the end of Dec or even early Jan for a departure date. Not so much! All of a sudden we got an email. Can Elanee come next week?!?!

We said yes. Suddely we had just a few short days to buy her a ton of new clothes, luggage, get her packed and throw her a going away party.
Though it was very short notice a bunch of friends from Romulus and Ithaca came to support Elanee and see her off to her new adventure.(here the friends are staring at Elanee as we embarrass her with words on her behalf ;)
Two days later she was on her way....flying all the way to CA on her own.
Wow! My babys all grown up :)

Great Uncle Geromes B-day

Dell, Helen, Trevor, Maya Rae and I attended Great Uncle Geromes 84th B-day. This is my Grandpa Wendell's brother.
Maya and Trevor were a hit as they served cake to all of the guests. :)


Cute Cousins

In November I spent I ton of time over at Dell and Helens house painting a Yo Gabba Gabba mural in the new play room. (you can see that mural on my art blog at http://handcraftedbyme.blogspot.com ) While there Maya Rae had alot of play time with cousins Danny and Trevor. That was great for her. They all get along so well. She can keep those boys running and jumping for hours!
I got in lots and lots of chat time with Kari. That was good for me ;)

A trip to Canada

In November, Heather and I went to a womans empowerment conference in Toronto.
The conference was ok....no Tony Robbins thats for sure! But, what was eventful was the fact that it took us 11 hrs to get there. There was a major traffic jam on the way. We used Heathers phone to watch UTube videos to pass the time. That was fun.

Thanks Giving

For Thanksgiving Day we all went over to Dell and Helens for dinner. We enjoyed the day with them as well as Rick, Judy, Danny, Kari, Trevor and Jace. Good times! Unfortunatly, my camera died after these two photos :(