tabula rasa... { and a giveaway }

First of all, please overlook the fact that this photo is out of focus. My perfectionism has taken a holiday! ;)

In honor of the NEW YEAR, I'm trying to clear out my Etsy shop! I've reduced the prices for the four remaining items. It's time to start fresh! Tabula rasa. Clean slate. I've been working on some new illustrations but they are all in various stages of incompleteness (the story of my life).

I'm also holding my very first GIVEAWAY! If you would like to own the illustration pictured above, leave a comment for this post and make sure I can contact you (through your blog or e-mail). I will choose a winner at 11 p.m. on Saturday, January 10th by using a random number generator. The illustration shown is an original and is mounted onto metallic silver paper and lovingly housed in a 5x7 black frame.

Thanks to everyone for being a part of my online life. Thank goodness for the blogosphere!

can't stop thinking about...

I can't stop thinking about this web video: The Story of Stuff

warmest wishes

Happy Holidays to everyone I know and also to everyone in blog-land. Warmest wishes, today and always.

I am the diamond glints on snow

We continue to get snowed upon and are completely buried in it. But that's not what this post is about.

I had a weird moment last night: I took both dogs outside at 1 a.m. so they could do their business and while standing in the the yard I saw a red streak of light, directly above me in the sky. It was a totally blinding flash that lasted only a split second and it completely freaked me out.

I'm the type that needs a scientific explanation for everything. After doing a bit of research today on the web, I now have to assume that what I witnessed was part of the Ursid Meteor Shower, which is actually supposed to peak tonight. I'm not totally sure if that's the explanation. I suppose I should stand outside tonight* and look for the same crazy effect.

Curiously, though, the streak didn't seem to be high up in the stratosphere or mesosphere, it seemed to be a couple hundred feet above the house. What the heck? Of course the flash was probably amplified by the blanket of pure white that our neighborhood has become. I'm sure the snow helped to refract some of the light, making it seem brighter and closer than it would have been sans-snow (???).

The title of this post was taken from a poem written by Mary Elizabeth Frye
*update: I wasn't able to stand outside that night. I was lost in deep, deep, lovely sleep.

thanks for the cookies!

Sometimes the best gifts are the kind that are destined to end up in my stomach. J's mom has a true talent for baking and we're always so happy when she sends us cookies for Christmas.

deep freeze

Today marks this year's winter solstice. We're buried in snow and ice and boy-howdy it is CHILLY! It all reminds me of my Montana years.

weekend scribble {three}

my current crush {three}

If I ever make it to New York City, the first place I will seek out is a boutique called Roberta Roller Rabbit so I can buy one of Roberta Freymann's amazing quilts. Oh, someday... *sigh*

rainy (very, very rainy) day

laundry day

One bright spot amidst the endless succession of domestic TO DO lists is when I get to fold my freshly laundered tea towels.

Tea towels are yet another material obsession for me – for some reason I get a weird bit of satisfaction out of folding them up and stacking them into a tall pile (especially when they're all warm and fresh from the dryer). Yep, I'm a laundry nerd.

I bought my very first tea towel ages before I had a kitchen of my own. I bought it as a gift for someone else but I decided I should keep it for myself. It moved with me from dorm room, to apartment and so on and so forth. I still have it and will probably continue to use it until it falls apart.

blog nation

Hi y'all. I was tagged the other day by Marchi Made It and I'm playing along but in my own abbreviated way (sorry, I like to break the rules)! First and foremost, saunter on over to Marchi's blog and check out her work and her words (and make sure you check out her serene industrial photographs – they are especially nice).

The normal tagging rules require that I reveal 6 random things about myself but since I was tagged once before, I think I've already exhausted the short list of random things about me.

SO, I'm going to list FOUR things that I love about blogging:

1. You meet truly lovely people through blogging – people you would not have met otherwise.

2. Meeting people through blogging reminds me of having pen-pals – remember doing that in grade school? The whole pen-pal thing never seemed to last, but "blog-pals" don't disappear after a few weeks.

3. Blogging is my new therapy – I get better results AND I don't have to pay for it. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

4. Reading other blogs is a good way to realize that there are things in the world that I didn't know I wanted or needed, but OBVIOUSLY I needed a pair of rainboots (in black) and it took reading about them in a blog to find that out. Whew, did that make any sense?

The normal tagging rules also require that I tag 6 other bloggers but the last time I tried that I was ignored by everyone I tagged and I just can't handle that type of rejection again. :)

lonely little garlic clove

We thoroughly enjoyed our turkey-day feast last week... so much so that we made a second batch of garlic mashed potatoes and cornbread stuffing on Saturday. I refuse to feel guilty about being so gluttonous. It was lovely!

We used a lot of garlic over the past five days (and I'm sure my co-workers appreciate my spicy aroma. hmmm, sorry!). I had to giggle a little when one of the garlic cloves turned out to be itty-bitty; perfect for a lilliputian.

Anyway, this tiny clove reminded me of a cute Thai saying but I can never remember the exact phrasing. The saying is about being alone without your family: when you are by yourself, you're a lonely little garlic clove that has been separated from the head of garlic. I know I don't have it quite right, but I've already pestered Phil too much about silly Thai translations, so I won't bug him again about this phrase (maybe later).