The Garden State is Turning Green!

This month has been a really busy one.  No joke- I have commissions that involve sewn fish, a giant paper mache head, making more album covers and promoting our album release show, and designing a book cover.  My studio looks as though someone came and raided the place. I currently have a paper mache head drying on my studio floor.

The cardboard armature.

I'm really proud of myself for making some time to do things that I really want to do for myself; for my own emotional, psychological, and intellectual growth.  I've been walking more and I'm loving all the red buds, singing birds and smells.  Normally my free time fills with spending time with friends and working part time jobs, but this week there was more time put aside to work on art and prepare for a show I was asked to participate in this summer.  I even made an Escher inspired egg- something I always wanted to do! It was challenging matching the colors and working without visible pencil lines, but it was a valuable (and time consuming) experience.  Escher's piece is titled, "Rind".

I've been getting into a new hobby lately (oh sheesh, like I need another one!). A farmer actually encouraged me to take a class on "spinning" and promised me bags of alpaca fiber to work with.  I took a class, bought a few tools, carefully cleaned the fiber and worked on my technique.  It's not as easy as it looks; it takes lots of patience and practice... and time which is something I don't have a whole lot of. This week I made the time to do more of what I love, and I think I've been a lot happier.

It's that time of year to start picking up herbs to plant and eggs. My parents have chickens and they are laying so many eggs I can't keep up with them! It's evident in their productivity that New Jersey's slowly getting warmer.  I love using the fun, sea foam green eggs and tan eggs for pysanky.  I just wish the girls would slow down!

Five of us all bought tickets for a show in January. Only thing is... the show is in Colorado.  January might not be the most appealing month to go on a road trip, but we're doing it.. because the show is at the Stanley Hotel! We got together to go over the details and agree on some stops along the way. Apparently there's a restaurant in a cave and  "World's Largest collection of the World's Smallest"... anyways..  we're looking for some interesting places to stop during the 30 hour drive.