12/12/08: Gabby plays the cello!

It’s no secret how proud I am of my nieces, and how I love to brag about them at any given moment.  So with that in mind…check out my little musician, Gabby!!!!

I’m so proud of her that I could just BURST!!!  I can’t wait til she’s a little more advanced and we can play flute & cello duets! 

When her Uncle David & I talked to her after the concert, we told her how proud of her we were, and she asked, with an earnest look on her face, “Could you tell that I didn’t know what I was doing during “Jingle Bells?”

We told her, “Of course not!  We thought you were leading everyone else!” 

12/11/08: Holiday Greeting Cards Class

Tonight was the last session of the fall semester Holiday Greeting Cards class I was teaching through Ann Arbor’s Rec & Ed Dept, and we held the last class here at my studio.  We had Christmas music playing in the background, lots of chocolate goodies on the table, and mugs of hot cocoa topped with swirls of whipped cream. 

After indulging our sweet tooths (teeth?), we got to work, assembling our final cards for mailing out to family & friends. 

Over the last few months, I’ve had the great pleasure of getting PAID to play with paper with these amazing women (who I now consider friends) – we’ve spent weeks playing with cardstock, die-cuts, rubber stamps, paints, paper punches, ribbon, handmade papers, gemstones, buttons, confetti, embossing plates and so much more.  I LOVE this job! 

Here are pictures of some the cards I designed for the class to make:

 

 

   

And if you’re on my mailing list for Christmas cards, expect to see a brand new design this year!

12/08/08: For all you mixed-media folks…

One of my previous students from Paper Arts Studio (Gretchen M, not Gretchen G from last week) recently finished a STUNNING piece of mixed-media art and I have to showcase it ’cause I’m SO PROUD of her!!

Here’s her photo of the piece, as well as a link to her blog.  Check her out – she’s AMAZING!

Visit Gretchen’s website to learn more about this civil engineering graduate student-to-be and her other amazing pieces of art!

12/07/08: Ann Arbor Women Artists’ Holiday Party

The Ann Arbor Women Artists held our annual Holiday Party this afternoon, and as usual, there was plenty of great food (I LOVED the pumpkin & cream cheese roll that you brought, Sue B!), great wine (excellent choices, Corrine & Lois!), and a great climax to the afternoon – the White Elephant Gift Exchange. 

Every year, we have a contest to see who will bring the gift that provokes the most laughter, as well as the gift that’s the most popular (others request it rather than choosing a new gift). 

And every year, Karen Gallup seems to win with the gift she finds while working her volunteer shifts at Kiwanis Thrift Sale.  This year was no exception – here’s Sandy D.  (our 2006-2008 AAWA President) holding the dancing, moaning, purple monstrosity that Karen brought this year:

That thing TOTALLY freaked me out!  I was sitting next to Sandy during the White Elephant gift exchange, and every now and then, that purple thing would lift it’s neck, jiggle a little, and say something unintelligble in a scary voice that reminded me of haunted house movies.  CREEPY!

Sandy was having awful luck, ’cause before she ended up with this purple monster, she had this pirate’s necklace, which was promptly taken by another mom for her son:

It was a bad year (gift-wise) for our past & present Presidents – here’s our current President (Barbara Brown) with the smelly corn-huskish necklace she started off with:

And before she left, Barbara B. had this very odd, very creepy, light-up squishy cucumber thing:

I found out later that my best friend Barbara Carson (who couldn’t make it to the party ’cause she was selling her art at the 10th Annual Gift Fest) had sent along that creepy cucumber thing with another member (Cathy M)  – how I ended up sitting next to the two folks who got the creepiest presents is beyond me.  

12/06/08: Toasting marshmallows in the fireplace

My nieces Gabby & Ani came over this evening to work on their Christmas present crafts – they’re assembling foam Christmas ornament/picture frames for all our family members (so if any of you are reading this, ACT SURPRISED when you open your gift!) 

After decorating the ornament/picture frames, we started our FAVORITE cold-weather, indoor activity:  toasting marshmallows in the fireplace!

(Yep, that’s Chippie’s butt in the lower right corner.)

If I’m never able to have children of my own, I’ll still consider myself incredibly fortunate to have been given these two precious little jewels as my nieces. 

My greatest wish for them is that they’ll grow into young adulthood knowing that they’re loved beyond measure, that they’re more beautiful (inside and out) than I could have ever imagined, and that I’ll ALWAYS be there for them, no matter what. 

Auntie Katherine loves you to infinity and beyond, Gabby & Ani.  Always remember that.