Happy Holidays!

I adopted me some kitty!

She looks a little cranky here, but I think it was just the camera phone. She's fun and playful and stuck her arms out of the cage to get my attention from among 150 cats at the no-kill Small Miracles Cat Rescue in Ellicott City.

Bridget (new name forthcoming) and her cage mate Jill were by far the most animated of the house full. President, owner and founder Moira Leskovic is a saint. Check the photo gallery on their Web site and help out another lucky kitty or adult cat or the shelter.

Bridge is six months old, born June 6, a spayed female, and a look-alike for my former Mookie, whom I had for 18 years. I'm picking up the new little one Dec. 29. She looks big here, but she's only a kitten of three or so pounds! I wish I could have adopted several.

I'm so excited! I finally 'did' some art.

I woke up just itching to paint...which is fantastic, since I've barely touched a brush in probably 10 months or more. Just haven't been motivated. But today I knew I would paint. Something big. And big-eyed.

At first, I thought I might paint a picture of a Blythe doll and started out with a face and eyes of that ilk. Then I remembered my Suzi Blu class and all the wonderful mermaids on her Web site. I had painted two 16 x 20 canvasses already from a class I took last winter: Marie Antoinette and also Rodeo Girl. And I had one empty spot next to them anyway. So I looked at some of the mermies in Suzi's group for inspiration and also a gorgeous Mermaid ATC I had received from Shonna Bucaroff of Twisted Figures. And then I was off!

I sketched; I mixed colors. I painted; I glittered. I smashed sea shells to attach along with a net-like piece of ribbon and little bottle (message in a) I had just gotten in a swap with my Zettilicious friend Jade Adams. I dug through cigar boxes for treasures and found a couple of gold 'things' for earrings and a hair ornament. I smudged with charcoal and graphite pencils. I sponged with punchinella and paint. I made bright circles for bubbles.

And then I made myself physically leave my property so I would quit touching it! Cannot wait to hang it up; I am happy. Happy to be making art again. And ideas are exploding in my head. Zentangles! Felt matroyshka ornies! Journal pages! A stitched journal cover! A china doll head with art canvas body! I am so ready.

Invasion of the Sock Monkeys

I played host to my niece Abby, 13, from Indiana Thursday through Sunday so she could go to a Blythe Meet with me and go to the Visionary Museum's Sock Monkey Saturday. We joined nearly 500 other folks who traveled to Baltimore to make sock monkeys. The free event provided patterns, instruction, needles, thread, yarn and stuffing as well as human helpers and a photobooth to capture our first moments with our sock friends.

Last year I attended but wandered in so late, I could only take the pattern home and make Gladys myself later. She's the bright blue one. This year Abby and I got there right when it started, and four hours later we were still stitching and stuffing away, having worked through lunch or even a stretch break. When we left at 3 p.m., Abby's Gary (the squid-like grey one), had only one arm and some other surgical needs. My Bob, in traditional sock monkey socks, needed some more work, too.

But we had more fun things to do, so we hurried through the museum and gift shop and back to Columbia, and then on to Triple A antiques to search for vintage vinyl. I was so proud of Abby's selections: The Carpenters, Carole King's Tapestry (a must-have, I told her), and The Doobie Brothers.

Besides all this, we made cupcakes and hosted nine guests for a doll collectors' meet, ate at a seafood buffet (Abby was not impressed), had cheeseburgers, onion rings and milkshakes from Cheeburger Cheeburger, watched movies Little Miss Sunshine and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, some cute television, like a Lindsay Lohan movie and a Miranda Cosgrove television special, and Abby went with me to a business lunch where she said all of us healthcare sales people were "talking in a foreign language."

And to top it off, she flew home to a big snow and a two-hour school delay....which was perfect since she still had homework waiting in Indiana. Auntie G went straight to bed to rest and recover from the whirlwind of a weekend.

Happy Birthday to my Little Buddy

20 years ago today I was greatly relieved. Why? Because my two-week-overdue, estimated 10.5 pound bouncing baby boy finally came out 20 years ago yesterday, with surgical assistance, which was fine by me. I was pleading with anyone who would listen, including the bump in my abdomen, to pleeeeaseeeee come out!

Turns out he was only 9.25 pounds, a very nice size for a baby if I do say so. Nice and filled out and not so small that you worry you will break the baby. Or maybe it had something to do with Alex being baby no. 2. I was a little older and wiser.

Now Mr. Alex is a sophomore at Ball State University in Muncie, IN, majoring in hospitality and doing well in school. I am sure he is on the countdown for winter break though!

When Alex was about 2-3, we enjoyed reading the Little Critter books by Mercer Meyer. We didn't know what kind of critter Little Critter was, so for some reason I said it was a "ratfink." Alex repeated after me, "sink, mommy, sink." That soon turned into "woosink" instead of "ratfink," and somewhere along the way, Alex dubbed himself Buddy Woosink. I still call him that now and then, but Bud, Buddy and Little Buddy have all stuck, as well as Al and Big Al and AJ. Then there was his pre-school teacher who called him Alex P. Keaton Smith, as he was a lot like Michael J. Fox's character when he was about 4-5. Of course, 'Alex' always works, too.

Happy Birthday, Alex, my little buddy woosink.

Happy Hanukkah

Happy Hanukkah
Originally uploaded by Gina2424