Not Everyone Makes it Through Winter

WARNING If you are very sensitive you might not want to look at these images.

Every now and then I come across a dead bird. Even in death they are so beautiful. This was one of our red tailed hawks. They seem to be very abundant this year so perhaps food is not.

Winter at Heinz NWR

And this is what I can do with fully manual focus!! You know, get the deer in focus through all those branches. There is a lot of gumbling going on here about the snow. 15" on the ground and it snows a few flakes everyday. But, I will freely admit, I love the snow!

Tyler Arboretum

Yesterday I went hiking through Tyler Arboretum. The snow was up to my knees, at least, and the trees were beautiful. Apparently there were only four other visitors that morning and they were on skis. A beautiful, silent space.

Ridley Creek State Park in Snow

Birds in the Snow

Stranded

Our school district sent out an automated call that basically said "Sorry some of the school buses didn't pick up your kids, but don't worry, we won't mark them absent." Seriously??? They left some kids standing in the snow on the side of the road for hours and they're thinking a group message was the way to go??? I think that pretty well sums up the rest of what I have to say about the school district/snow issues. Rumor has it (strictly rumor spread by the kids at school) that one bus drive said "F*ck this." And took the kids he had managed to pick up to school. But since buses were sited sliding backwards down hills who can blame him.

But if you weren't in any of those uncomfortable situations. If you'd already completed your 20min commute in an hour that morning. Then you might be wandering around the back yard taking pictures.

Incomplete

Hanging a show puts the work in such a state of completion that it's hard to remember how much mess I made on the way to making the works in the first place. Searching through my images disks (again...ugh) I found these images from my Harrisburg "studio". O.K. it's the living room. See how tolerant my family is? Anyway, I like these images although the painting itself was never quite what I wanted it to be.





A year or two later, after I painted lines all over it, it ended up here:

Finding Stuff

We found a lot of things during the three days I spent looking for my Temple id badge. We pulled the box of dresses I made out of the pantry. Olivia is already over 5'5" (to my 5'2") so my prom dress was too small but my wedding dress, while a bit short, fit pretty well. No we are not marrying her off. Just having fun. I made this dress 17 years ago, well almost. I was sewing it until I put it on April 9th. But I'm pretty sure I was working on it by now, back then.

Looking at Trunks

American Swedish Historical Museum

I went to the American Swedish Historical Museum in Philadelphia today. It's part of an new initiative I've begun. Seems like there are a lot of these little museums in the area and it seems like I should see what's in them. ASHM is about to end their Smörgåsbord exhibit but...the Viking knitting exhibit will be up in March. I'll definitely have to get back for that. In the mean time some charming views of the museum.

Fleisher Wind Challenge Show is Up

Opening Tonight!

Do You Know What You're Seeing?

First of all, this is my sewing machine happily sewing through the same material that killed the old one.

Second of all, check out the TWO enormous spools of thread. And if you follow the right thread down you'll see it's connected to a bobbin. Oh yeah. That's my machine enthusiastically threading my bobbin while I sew something else!

You are seeing, if you can't guess, the greatest sewing machine ever!

Tropical Textures

The Machine Has Arrived!

My new sewing machine is very cool! You are probably going to hear a lot more about it. But first a gigantic thank you to all those who contributed to its purchase!!!!

You can see it features an awesome (and stylish) retro look:



And an adjustable speed motor! (the mechanic was very disappointed when I asked him to leave it set to slow. But hey, I'm not planning to include body parts in my new work. I'm sure I'll get speedier eventually.)



And finally (for today) check out that spool of THREAD!