This is the time of year when I start to worry about the fact that I haven't done anything about Christmas yet.  I start to make lists and ask people what they would like.  Then I do absolutely nothing and more time goes by.  Invariably I see the Martha Stewart magazine with the Christmas to-do list calendar and see the that the things I haven't done should have been done in October.  Then I start to panick.  However nothing terrible has ever happened because of leaving Christmas until the last minute.  In fact,  the only time I really had a problem was when I had everything ready by the first week of December.  The decorating was done, the presents were bought and wrapped.  Martha would have been proud.  That was the year  my son was born on December 14th.  I got home from the hospital a few days before Christmas with a giant howling baby and no recollection of what was in all those packages I'd wrapped or who they were for.  Childbirth had erased my memory.  I had to unwrap and re-wrap everything.  So I learned my lesson; leave things until the last minute and don't forget the tags!

-I'd love to put the above watercolour in my store but it's so nicely framed and the jpeg I have of it is so small.   I could only make a card sized print of it.  Maybe I'll do that.

Doing a collage is a little like doing a jig-saw puzzle.  You've got all the pieces there that you think will go together and sometimes they all fit together, snap, snap, snap!  Such a good feeling!  Other times you sit and look forever at the pieces and nothing seems to fit.  The collage in this picture is Gyro Flowers and I've got a print of it for sale in my shop.  It was one of those happy collages that seemed to put itself together.  As you can see, I kind of liked it because I put it in my banner.  I fiddle with my old banner for a week and I don't think it was as good as this one.  Sometimes things that just go together in an intuitive sort of way are the best!

You may have noticed that last week I was a little stressed about blogging and all that goes with it and my lack of knowledge of it.  This week I've realized that's silly.  I'm not an expert in photo editing and I don't have a fabulous digital SLR that takes great close-ups or special editing software, but I don't need it at this time.  Maybe some day when I've sold some art... alot of art... I'll get these things, but for now my little 5 megapixel point and shoot will do.  With a little cropping it's not too bad.  Here's the same cup as in the picture below.  It's made by Becky, my daughter.  I think this picture is better, more me and took alot less time.  Also real sun light helps alot!  From now on I'm only taking pictures on sunny days.

This is part of my new print, "Go out and Play", which I just put in my store.  Two posts back, I mentioned that I had my store critiqued.  The number one comment was that I needed more art.  So that's what I'm concentrating on now.  Enough worrying about photos and blogging.  I'm going to relax and make more art now.   That doesn't mean I won't be keeping you up to date.  I'll be posting, I just won't be worrying about it!