This morning I get to take a quick trip to the Big City.

Going to pick up my beautiful daughter!

Joy!

Opening the front door in the morning presents me with a sight so seductive i just have to venture out with the camera.

The first thing I see is the beautiful yellow-green of the leaves.

Such a large tree and so many leaves. They change and fade and they fall.

I slept in this morning and then found I’d sold a Dragon to a California near the sea. I got busy soon after these pictures were snapped and I’m just on a short break now.

Here are some little sunflowers growing in the rain gutter.

Wonder how long they can stay anchored there?

Isn’t the sky a rich blue?

It’s a beautiful day.

Frank and I had fun yesterday. The Thanksgiving meal was smooth and very low key. We ate our meal while watching Peggy Sue Got Married. We clicked it in from our Netflix instant watch list.

Grandma buddied up to the Andy Griffith Show. Her very best and most comforting alternate reality.

I finished and mailed off a  lovely custom order Wednesday.

Someone from Calgary, Alberta asked me to make gray whales with the words “Save the Whales” and “End Whaling” on them. I decided to put them on banners.

I think they look pretty cool.

I have a great stash of vintage buttons that I use for eyes on the long sleepy-eyed whales.

They are from a craft sale at the Discovery shop last year.

I decided to add them to the DarcyArts shop as custom banner plush critters. I’ll embroider anything on the banner for you.

Well, almost anything. No hate phrases, f*&%ers.

Naughty is fine. I’m toying with the idea of making banners that others can attach to whatever they want.

I’ll get on that next week. I’ve got big starts to sew and possibly a very large octopus.

I really enjoyed the embroidering. Pulling the thread through the vintage muslin material seemed comfortingly turn of the last, last century. Maybe it was echoes of Bright Star.

I am hoping to see that film recognized in some fashion at the Academy Awards. Jane Campion is very good.

Ah! I just discovered Campion is a Taurus!♥

Last week was busy in and around the DarcyArts shack. We wrapped up red tape matters, ran errands, Frank went to all his classes and I volunteered at the Shasta Arts Council Holiday Sale.

Old City Hall was looking good.

Lots of colorful creations. It was pretty slow as far as customers the day I minded the store.

It probably picked up later in the week and will continue to do so.

I pulled out my Bitty Pix for the Holiday Sale. I loved making these.

I put them in a little shadow box.

Frank sent his incredibly cute sea serpents to the sale. They are made in three pieces.

The sea serpents are brightening up the gift shop in the office.

If I worked in there I would want to see them in the course of my day.

I missed seeing them from my post in the gallery room.

I love the curls on the fins. Franks is getting really good at that flair.

I noticed this really cute cloth doll while developing the photos today.

Too bad the blown up crop is blurry. Ah pixel math.

Cannot escape the dictate of physical reality.

I need a class in Photo Shop or I could buy the Gimp how-to book.

I feel very wild and ornery when it comes to signing up for regimented or organized undertakings. I want to forge my own works from start to finish. I love feeling, finding my way through any art-related process.

I am working on two whales for a Canadian gal with a whale loving friend. I will be embroidering “End Whaling” and “Save the Whales” onto little old fashioned banners to be attached to the plush, grey whales. I like this project and am very happy to have been asked to do it. Rendering with tender loving care makes me happy.

I just returned from a trip to the local cable office where I left off the beloved Moxie box and a standard digital receiver. No more cable. No more triple digit TV bills per month.

We bought a fine little Dell laptop and hooked it up with the big HDTV as a second monitor. We easily watched everything we ever watched but with far less commercial interruption.

This will cut down on the drone TV watching and the MSNBC addiction. I feel lighter already.

There is not enough space in my head to allow all that yacking.

All I’m going to miss out on is Sarah Palin shite and Republican destruction derby. It’s just too sad to watch pompous assholes wave the flag of deevolution.

I like stars. They look so good from so far away. They may be, at our sighting, light that has just now passed through our universe. The source may have transformed into some other type of energy.

One day last summer I was thunderstruck  by a desire to  have some color on my upper arm. I wanted a brownish red star and got one, more or less.

I think it could use a second infusion of color. I’m not sure the artist knew about the circular color application technique.

I made a curly star stamp before I chose permanent symbol for my bod.

I’m really taken with the curly star. I decided to create a plush version.

Here is the star in it’s “Mighty Star” pose.

It looks like it’s flexing it’s starry muscles.

I have toyed with the idea of putting eyes and a mouth on them but I’m not there yet. I think I may try it on a smaller model. This prototype measures about 23″ x 18″.

The star looks different at every angle. You can rotate his position and he becomes something new with a different feel.

The red star looks less macho like this, as if it’s floating happily. Wee!

We had the distinct pleasure yesterday of getting to know Yayoi Kusama! A DVD docu on Kusama arrived. It was really really interesting.

She is amazing. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that Yoko Ono was influenced by this amazing Japanese artist.

To call Kusama prolific is a grand understatement.

If you are an artist dealing with the dwindling stores of energy as you grow older you should take heart from Kusama’s example.

Here is an interview with Yayoi Kusama.

I had high hopes. I wanted the hats to work. I wanted the public to embrace Marla but it wasn’t to be. At least not on Etsy.

My big hat opening day got no response. Months later I decided maybe Marla was too much for most people. They didn’t understand her beauty, so rough, so German Expressionist.

Not only did I not sell hats. My sales of other things dried up almost completely.

I removed all the listings with Marla stylings last evening. This morning I had sold two things.

Coincidence? I think not.

I love you, Marla.

I like some TV. Especially when a show is well written, entertaining and has a really good cast. The Mentalist is one of those shows.

The first season was great. The second season?

I have a bone to pick with the person who hired the rogue makeup artist and then allowed the to go nuts with the female cast members.

WTF?

I am confident that the hideous make up jobs are the first thing noticed by anyone watching the show.

The makeup person is seems to have been beamed in from another decade judging by the Joan Crawford eyebrows, the blue eye shadow, the bright  orange and red lipsticks and rouge. It is deeply distracting and disturbing.

Could it be my HDTV? Maybe I just didn’t notice the horrible makeup on my old TV. I don’t think that’s it.

The girls, Robin Tunney and Amanda Righetti, also got new school hairdos. They look like they are all ready for their first day of elementary school. That’s another clash. Infantile hairdos do not go with Joan Crawford makeup!  What is with this really crazy shit?

The show has lots of interesting outdoor locations. The makeup looks even worse in the sunlight.

Something has to be done.

If only I could get a letter to Tunney and Righetti. Their careers are being ruined by this hack makeup person(s).

Jim Henson was lucky.

His strange puppet thing fell into place so sweetly when it joined forces with Sesame Street.

The fortieth anniversary of the show was the occasion for a really cool NPR’s Fresh Air today.

Jim Henson had mentioned, in correspondence with friends, that at his funeral he’d like certain songs played.

Caroll Spinney, enlivener of Big Bird, attended Henson’s  goodbye in costume and sang It’s Not Easy Being Green. Let yourself imagine that and there will be tears.

I learned today from Terry Gross’s Fresh Air was that one of the songs Henson mentioned was Lydia the Tattooed Lady.

If you do not know this song get thee to a showing of The Philadelphia Story. Rent it from Netflix. Go there now. They have a fabulous trailer that will sell you.

Did you know that Nick Cave wrote another novel? It’s about a traveling salesman and his son. You can buy an audio book through iTunes.

His first, And the Ass Saw the Angel,   was published in 1989, written while he lived in Berlin.

The latest is The Death of Bunny Monroe. I almost bought it. Maybe I will someday but I’d rather write one myself.

I am full of aspiration.

This little button of Nick Cave photographs so well. It is nestled here in some moss. There is a rusty nail and a tiny dark heart adjacent to the button. I like to compose.

One of my first aspirations was interior design. Does anyone hire someone to make there home look as if a crazy artist lives there?

I’ve got a DVD of  interior designer Thom Filicia (isn’t that a wonderful name for the adorable Taurus?).

In the Vogue Living interior on his site there is an amazing silver chair. There is also a chaise lounge. I want one.

Here is a really cool lamp I picked up at the thrift shop. I love the flames. they remind me somehow of Tibetan imagery. It’s brass and very heavy. It’s perfect for the spot on the fireplace skirt. Kitty can’t knock it over.

Cost: $10.

I like this picture with the beige chair from my living room makeover. I like the things that you can see in the mirror.

I am enjoying a cup of mostly decaf coffee. I bought decaf Medaglia de Oro.I dumped a bit of chocolate flavored coffee into the can to give it a bit of caffeine. Buzz.

I am making fresh Bitty Pix today to fill out my display box that I will take to the Shasta Arts Council Holiday Sale.

The box is all watched over by Afro-clad Marla and Zombie Kitty.

I bought a bottle of Beeswax Orange oil to put on this little shelf. I want to make it look great.

Bootsy Collins is on the top shelf.

You can see another – Green Bootsy- down below in the full box picture.

Yes, that is Fozzy Bear.

I made a new Mayan Bitty Pix.

And a butterfly.

These are fairly big Bitty Pix 2″x3″ and 2.5″x2.5″.

I really like making these. I once had a second Etsy shop for my Bitty Pix but I gave up on it.

I think I will put a few up at DarcyArts.

The photos will have to be much better. It’s a gray day.

The rain is coming to the north land. The veggies are giving their last and slowing down, turning yellowish. I have more chives than I’ll ever use. Can I make chive potato soup?