Birthday Week

I was going through some photos and realized that I never finished posting about my birthday week. 

So I'm playing catch up today.  These are from the day I turned forty mumble!  ;-)

The guys at work couldn't find the birthday candles so they lit the match and stuck it in the cupcakes, 

silly boys!   Then they sang to me... well... two of the three sang while I kicked my boss in the shins... 

he apparently thought they were doing just fine without him.  LOL!  

They are so fun!  And those cupcakes were actually pretty good!

Then I spent the afternoon with the guys from the wood turning club and they started 

showing me how to turn wood.

A big big lathe... and really long handled tools.  

They feel so good in your hand, perfectly balanced!

The big saw thingi, good for cutting the basic shape out of a big chunk of tree.  

What did I do with the chainsaw photos?  Oh well. 

These three sang "Happy Birthday" to me and sent me home with that bottle of Shiraz Dennis is holding. 

Served it later with a wonderful dinner, it was delicious!

The master checking the student's progress.

Keep at it.  Yes, it's time consuming but so cool!

And then they sang Happy Birthday to me again!  

This time with the Swiss guy on the left, who gave it a great twist!  

It was one of my all time favorite birthdays!  

My guys just made it so fun, thanks boys!!!

Now who is going to loan me their lathe so I can learn this new art media?

Trees around here are NOT SAFE!

LOL!

Using ANY excuse to celebrate,

(and make a mess with wood shavings!)

-Carmen Rose

Birthday Week Adventures

I had one of the most delightful birthday weeks EVER! I'll tell ya, I highly recommend turning forty mumble with some excellent friends!  I spent some time with my friend and her family who live near DC.



The food was amazing!  We feasted (this doesn't include eating out where I must have forgot my brain because I don't have photos of the restaurant food!  O Bother!!)

I enjoyed her creativity a great deal, aren't these little jello bugs the cutest thing ever?! She made the jello in an egg carton! =)

We had a lovely time at an art museum in DC, I took a few photos of my favorite things.

Sometimes it was the words more than the artwork:

Or a quote included as part of an exhibit:

This one just fascinated me!  I just LOVED it SO MUCH!

And a huge installation of the map of the US.  This is just before I set off the "You are too close to the artwork" detector thingi.  Oopsy!  It was cool, there were so many screens and each state had video on a loop that had to do with that state specifically.  It was a fascinating piece.

And we had to get a photo of me with all the Steelers stuff (this trip was the week before the super bowl) because my friends are raving Packers fans! 

Which is a good thing, because the Packers won! And what a great game it was!  

I loved my adventure, I have the best friends a forty mumble woman could ever hope for!

 And while I was there she taught me the art of Kumihimo ~ ancient Japanese braiding. 

Now THAT is fun!

And who doesn't need another new art media?

LOL!

Happy Trails to you,

-Carmen Rose

A Lovely Day in Birthday World

I had a rocky start to my morning, but finally made it off to work in one piece. The photography studio is looking great, the equipment is in and things are starting to feel as they should in there. I brought in a screen to give the models some privacy when changing and a table for my makeup gear. I wrote a few emails and finished things up and headed home.

All the cabinet doors are back up in my kitchen except one. I had it painted and up, but when I touched up the paint late at night, I didn’t catch the drips. Bummer! So now I need to sand it down and try again which is no big deal. It’s just that I can’t quite say that all my doors are back up yet. Hopefully by tomorrow evening I can say that all the hardware is on. Who knew that it would take me “alllllll year” to paint my kitchen cabinets! LOL! Still toying with changing the wall color now, but I’ll give it some time to sink in a little and decide later on. I suppose the only detail that I will attend to now is getting a range to replace the harvest gold one. (It's time!) Then I will lay aside the updating for a while. (Course that’s only temporary, I’ll get the bug soon enough.)

It started to snow and I had some driving to do, so I set out as soon as I could to start my rounds. First stop was a great old place called “Glen’s Fair Price.” I suppose it’s a bit of an old country store or five and dime, it’s dirty and quirky and you never can tell what’s going to be there. But they have an extensive collection of theater makeup and oddball stuff so I picked up some liquid latex, some eye lashes and some peacock feathers. Very interesting place, I spent quite a bit of time there. That store is a bit of a fixture in the Burg, I remember going there in college to buy fish. I dated a man who had a great salt water tank of fish, and we’d go to Glen’s to pick up fish to feed to the fish. I can’t believe it’s been around that long. They don’t sell fish anymore though there was a squawky bird in there who was very chatty. I doubt the bird was for sale though.

I had a nice birthday lunch at the Taste of Thai. It’s one of my very favorite places to eat! The first course was a chicken soup with mushrooms, it was spicy and warm and lovely. Second came garden rolls, which is a roll with lettuce, sprouts, shrimp with a sweet peanut sauce that is delicious. There was a dish of a variety of sea food with a sweet and spicy sauce and vegetables, that was fun! However, Red Curry is still my favorite, no matter how many others I try. I even ate a chocolate pyramid, which was loaded up with a light and rich hazelnut puree, chocolate mousse and cake. It was rich and wonderful! A quick trip up the hill to the Oriental Market and I have some very exciting ingredients to cook with, so let’s just say that I hope to be trying some delicious experiments at my house soon. It’s a little harder to read the labels there, but it was fun to look through and find a few things to try. I wanted to find a decaf jasmine tea, but so far no luck.

Onward to the gallery to check in on displays and do the February change over. I created a featured artist display of jewelry, it’s just in time for February’s ridiculous little fake holiday on the 14th and the Oasis has an excellent selection of artisan jewelry. It was fun and the display came together nicely. By that time the snow was starting to make a difference on the sidewalk but the streets were still fine.

Next I went to this wild and wooly fabric shop in the Burg, they’ve got a lot of stuff crammed in that space! “Ragtime Fabrics.” I found some cool feather and some leather that looked like the animal just discarded it and some other interesting trims. I was able to find some cool stuff and was very pleased. There was a good bit of snow on the ground by the time I finished up there.

I changed into my combat boots for the stop at Sharp Shopper for a few groceries. And by the time I was piling stuff in the van, the snow was laying on the roads. A fairly quick drive home on the interstate and then the drive up the hill to the house. Except that it didn’t work. So… I waited for the 4x4 to come get me but the snow plow came and I was able to get up the hill without too much trouble. It sounded strange and the gadgets on the dashboard were dancing around and it felt a bit weird, but I’m home and settled in.

Lots of friends left messages on my Facebook page wishing me a Happy Birthday today and some emailed blessings. What a treat that has been! I’m grateful that I have so many interesting and thoughtful people in my life as I look forward to my 41st year. I loved being 40 and met some really fascinating people and got to explore new ways to be creative this last year. And here I am encountering a new adventure and seeing my creative juices take me outside of the box farther than ever before. And so I throw myself into my work in this new year knowing there is a place in the creative flow that I love, and that gives my life a sense of purpose. I'll meet you there.

With gratitude,
-Carmen Rose

Bone Sighs

I’m tickled PINK to be on the front page of Terri St. Cloud’s website! Her business is called “bone sigh’s” Now isn’t that the coolest name for a poet/artist? Seriously! She does this nifty “artist of the month” thing and guess what? She chose me for Feb! Terri is an amazing woman who lives out there on the ragged edge exploring everything that comes her way full tilt and fine tuned. I just think she is one of the coolest empathic types I’ve ever met, very deep, very compassionate! Check out her website for the coolest poetry ever! I used to carry her work when I had the gallery and women would come in and read her work and before long I'd look over and they'd be wiping tears or hugging each other or passing the different ones back and forth to each other or reading them aloud. She has touched many with her work and I'm thrilled to be on her website!!

And guess what else? I’m turning 40 on groundhog’s day! LOL! Yeah, it’s a milestone and don’t even bother pulling out the vultures and tombstones because I’m not done yet, this is finally getting really good! I’m in a good place right now. We’ve been through some difficult seasons and seen some painful things along the way but I am at peace with my life and looking forward with expectation to the addition of three children to our home this year! I’m just SO excited about that! And I can't wait to show photos of what my talented artist brother made for me! It delighted me SO MUCH, so I'll get photos of it soon and share it!

I’m still deciding what color to paint my kitchen. I’ve covered the rainbow by now, first I wanted green, then a beautiful azure and lately I’ve been giving some thought to orange or yellow/orange. I guess I’d better buy some samples and bring them home to try out and see which ones I like best. I am going to avoid doing what I’ve always done, even though those colors were perfection - I am ready for a change of pace, something a little more vibrant and outside of the box! It will be marvelous!

Surf on over and check out Terri's site and her blog! She's a treasure!