It's Holiday CONTEST time!

Good morning!

I'm having my first blog contest! It's an easy one, too...

1. Just become a "follower" of my blog by clicking "follow this blog" in the "followers" section. This enters you in the random drawing. If you are a current follower, thank you, and I'll enter your name, too.

2. Tell your blogosphere friends about this. (Thanks!)

3. Check back on Monday, December 22 to see who wins!

What's the prize you wonder? A set of 'wordy' wine charms, each charm is a different color or pattern or has a different word. There are 6 different charms in the set with random words like hot, LOL, wino, and others! A "WINO" set is photographed here.

Join me in the followers fun! Thanks!

Australia

We went to Australia, the movie, not the country (been there, done that!) over the weekend. We all really enjoyed the movie, but I wasn't expecting it to be about Aboriginal people...I thought it was a love story, without kids! Anyway, when we were there a few years ago, we learned a little bit about the past treatment of Aboriginal peoples by white society and the government. It makes me cringe to think how often people all around the world have been and still are, treated as less than human, by the rest of us. And how dare we consider our civilization and way of life as the be all and end all of civilization? We allow our babies to be killed before they are born - how civilized is that? I just don't get it.

I did get some art done this weekend - had 10 kids here to learn a little bit about Salvador Dali (we were at the SD museum in St. Petersburg two years ago - fantastic!). Each child did an acrylic painting of a dream or dreams that they could remember...it was fun!

Our youngest daughter came home, for maybe a month or so. She's been making art in Fargo and is now busy applying to MFA programs across the country. She makes beautiful pots, check her out at amyuthus.com. We both should have shopping carts on our websites in the next week or so. I'm excited for that.

I was fortunate enough to have an etsy mentor look at my etsy shop. She gave me a lot of good suggestions that I'm in the process of implementing. I hope to get a lot more listed throughout this week!

Happy Advent all - may God bless you this week!

Clock Fix & Photographing Art

Thanks to Cindy for her hint on finishing up polymer clay with Future Floor Finish! I'm busy today redoing all my clocks and wine charms to rid them of their sticky feeling - I'll be glad to have that project finished so I can confidently box them up and ship them off to happy new 'clock watchers'. I can say they make me happy, lined up on my work counter, when I turn off the lights at night and their little buttons glo in the dark!

My hubbie is working diligently to figure out our new camera and how best to use it to photograph art. He has stools and a ladder in the living room, with clamps to hold up the lights, a cloth draped down the front of the fireplace and across a low, Japanese-style table. I'm so thankful he'll mess around with it because I don't have the patience for it!

Two of my pottery students, a fifth grader and a third grader, had success yesterday centering their ball of clay on the pottery wheel - all by themselves. They were thrilled and so was I...it is such a feeling of accomplishment for all of us!

My felted wall hangings, madonna and child, and landscapes will continue showing downtown through the holidays so that was good news. I guess they don't have another artist scheduled yet - happy accident for me! I'm going to lend my curio cabinet to our daughter, Amy, so she can show her pottery there for a month or so (go to amyuthus.com to see some of her work). We are both in the process of getting shopping carts on our websites - hopefully, that work will be done in the next 10 days or so.

Thanksgiving was such a fun time - our daughters (3) were all home, along with our son-in-law and two granddaughters. My youngest sister, Julie, and her family also came, my parents and two other sisters/hubbies. We played Wii (Mario Cart was a fave), cards, 'Katie's game' (a word/drawing game, sort of like written 'telephone') and Chase the Ace - besides eating more than plenty all weekend! Such fun to have company!

I've posted my schedule of Sunday kids' classes for January through May on my website (www.jackiesart.com). I'll add a pottery class or two a bit later...

Happy day to all!

No before Christmas show and sale...

Well, the Dec. 6/7 show didn't work out. It was too short of notice for most artists that I contacted. One of the painters suggested having a Sweetheart Sale on Jan. 31. We'll try for that and with our target audience Valentine's Day shoppers. We'll work on it next week and see if it'll be a go or not.

We had a house full of company for Thanksgiving - lots of fun to have family here. The oldest was my dad, 79, and the youngest guest was our 13 month old granddaughter. Every towel in our house was used - I was surprised to find the linen closets empty when everyone left and we started doing laundry.

I have been dismayed because the acrylic spray that I used on my clock and Wino wine charms has remained tacky after 10 days of drying time. I called Krylon and they sent a Min - Wax product that I am supposed to use on top of the Krylon. Three coats with a natural brush and it should take care of the problem. I wish I didn't have to spend the time brushing that stuff on. I guess Sculpey clay has a lot of oil in it that reacts with the Krylon spray - they've had other similar calls. I think they should have a caveat on the can that it isn't good to use on Sculpey.

I had two etsy sales this week so that was fun...Namaste and LOL both sold. I hope to get some more listings up on etsy this week...now's the time for Christmas shoppers to be browsing around.

Fine Art Show & Sale

I've decided to try to put together a Fine Art Show and Sale for the weekend of Dec. 6 & 7 at the Columbia Mall. I'll need to bring between 10-14 artists together to help share the cost of the space. It should be a busy weekend at the Mall, so hopefully sales will be good. I'll need to confirm with the Mall manager on Monday of next week.

I've finally gotten a few new listings into my etsy shop: some nightlights (Christmas trees and other designs) and "Wino" wine charms...perfect gifts and handmade besides! I plan to get some pottery listed, along with a few other items, too. I've been frustrated with my photos turning out bluish or greenish - this after I figured out how to get it focused on things that are close. We are liking our new camera, but I wish it didn't come with a learning curve! It's so hard to learn things the hard way, by trial and error.

Art Show Coming Down

My show at the Dakota Harvest Bakery comes down today. I plan to get busy and photograph the felted landscapes and felted madonnas, along with a bunch of my newest pottery, in a pretty light green glaze, this week. I'll get them listed on etsy just in time for Christmas shoppers. I am also hopeful of revamping my website and adding a shopping cart feature to it - our good neighbor, a computer guru, is taking care of that for me.

After returning from Egypt, I started an Egyptian art unit with my 28 weekly students. We are doing tempera batiks and some clay cartouches in the pottery studio. The more I read about the ancient Egyptian culture the more interesting it becomes...and the connection between the culture and the art is SO pronounced - one could hardly exist without the other. It was fascinating to be in the tomb of one of the high priests from 4,400 years ago and see the relief carvings and learn why they were done...my kids are doing paintings of themselves doing something they enjoy in this life, that they also would like to enjoy in their next life.

One of the boys is hang gliding, Egyptian style - his face is in profile, with a frontal eye and shoulders, but feet and hips in profile. One of the girls is swimming with a long Egyptian gown on, complete with fancy pectoral collar - quite a swimsuit! We are having fun learning about and trying out some of the Egyptian art ideas.

My husband is trying to get a new TV and Wii up and running - I think I'm happy to watch our old one. It has far fewer buttons on the remote. I'm not sure I'm up to learning about the new one. We're hoping to have fun with the Wii at Thanksgiving when family will be here visiting!

Holy Land & Egypt

We're back! It was an awesome trip - to walk where Jesus walked, to see the sights of Jerusalem and Jericho, to climb Mt. Sinai in the dark of the night in order to experience the darkest of skies and a magnificent red sunrise, to float in the Dead Sea (the first time in my life that I have really floated!), to have a boat ride on the Sea of Gallilee,

to pray in the Garden of Gethsamane, to have communion in the Garden Tomb site, to visit Capernaum where Jesus did much of his teaching and ministry, to go to the site of the Miracle of the Five Loaves and Fishes, to see many ancient Roman ruins and aquaducts and learn about their marvelous building accomplishments, to put our feet in the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized, to visit Bethlehem and the place where Jesus was born,

to go to the Dome of the Rock where Abraham was ready to sacrifice Isaac, to learn about the Bedouin nomads, to walk around the top of Masada and see the caves at Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, to walk through a tunnel and touch the Western Wall that stood in Jesus' time in Jerusalem, to learn about Hasidic jews and a bit about their lifestyle and culture, to see the Treasury at Petra, one of the Wonders of the World, to see the Sinai and Sahara deserts, to ride in a tunnel under the Suez Canal,

to see the well where Moses met his wife and the site of the burning bush, to see some of King Tut's tomb treasure and his golden death mask, to see the Giza pyramids and the vendors hawking camel rides, horse rides, postcards, head scarfs, beads, photos and other merchandise, to see the Great Sphinx without his nose and beard (because French soldiers used them for target practice), to see reliefs carved in the tomb of a high priest 4,400 years ago in all their original colors, to see places where soldiers and police are everywhere, to experience the culture shock that is Cairo - this trip will be a resource for the future for me, spiritually, emotionally and artistically.

How blessed we are to live in the United States - to have the freedom to travel to other places in the world, to say what we want, when we want and not fear reprisals, to know that in large part our well-being is directly proportionate to how hard we work and what we envision for ourselves and decide to pursue!