springing forward!

Here's a little picture from our front garden for all of you that are up north and under a foot or more of snow!

Think warm thoughts!

brrr it's getting cold!

Brrrr! It's starting to get really cold here!

I spent ALL day covering up all the flowering plants in our garden to keep them warm. I also put down every single christmas light strand that we own in all the flower beds so they can keep things a little warmer (hopefully!). We now have more Christmas lights on display than we did in all of December. They look really pretty shining underneath all the white landscape fabric.

Tonight we are supposed to have a wind chill in the low 30's and then tomorrow night it's going to be in the 20's! For Florida that is crazy cold. The TV news anchors are acting like mommies telling us silly tips like "to stay warm try wearing a hat and scarf!"

I am having a bit of freak out about the plants, it would cost us a lot of money to replace everything so I hope they all live! Please live little plants! Keeping my fingers crossed! I'm off to snuggle down with a mug of hot chocolate!

rainy day

It was crazy rainy here today, which is a good thing because we need it. Everything is parched.

But the cloudy rainy weather made me sleepy all day. I had a hard time working. Toby didn't like it because it ruined his walks and Stan and Mabel aren't happy about their favorite bird watching seats on the porch being all wet!

Even though it was rainy and I was sleepy, I did get some work done.

I got a couple of custom artworks further along. One is a big one with 8 people in it! It was giving me a hard time, figuring out how to dress everyone so they don't clash, but I think I managed to beat it into submission. I had to put it away and will look at it tomorrow to see if I liked what I did today!

Tomorrow I have to run some errands in the morning, my sister in-law and I are inventing something and we have to pick up the prototype - it's top secret, so I'll tell you more later!!

Then tomorrow night we are going out to dinner, it's Paul's birthday! Happy birthday to my wonderful husband!

put on your hat and scarf

It's been really cold here! Nothing like what you guys up north have, but very cold for Florida. I've had our plants all covered up, because the last 3 nights it's been in the 30's! gasp!!

I spent the weekend pretty busy working on commission orders and getting things ready for my workshop this week in Bonita Springs. I leave on Tuesday and teach Wednesday-Friday. I made the dreaded trip to Kinko's on Saturday to copy all the workbooks for my workshops for the next few times that I teach. I hate going to Kinko's so much and am always glad to have it done! Now it's time to staple all the books!

Speaking of workshops, I only have 3 more North American locations this year - Vancouver, Virginia and Portland and then that's it! There is still room in all my classes too! And of course Italy in April too!

Paul and I managed to watch a few movies this week too. Thanks to Netflix we saw:

1. Flags of Our Fathers (very good)
2. The Science of Sleep (I liked it but I thought the guy was creepy and not sweet & endearing like I thought he would be from the trailer, but great visuals in the movie makes up for the weird guy)
3. This Film is Not Yet Rated (good documentary).
4. Enduring Love (good thriller about a stalker)
   

I have a migraine coming so it's off to bed for me! See you tomorrow!

etsy question

On Etsy stores can you sell reproductions or does everything have to be handmade? I think I read somewhere on the site that it all has to be handmade but I see people selling repros. So maybe it's OK? Anyone know? Thanks for your help!

we're OK

thank you to everyone who has emailed checking up on us. We were very lucky, the tornadoes did not hit us they were about 45 minutes north of us. very scary stuff! My heart goes out to everyone who wasn't was lucky as we were.

brrr! it's cold!

It got really cold and chilly today. Tonight it's supposed to get down to 40! I just got back from covering our pentas outside. I don't want them to die and those plants do not like cold weather.

The good news it that this is perfect weather for our new roof. The guys aren't too hot working up there and it's nice and dry. Today they arrived at 8am and starting scraping off all the old roof. It was loud!

Poor Mabel ! She was so upset, she ran under the bed and didn't come out until they left. Then she ran straight to her food bowl crying. Poor girly!

Stanley and Toby weren't bothered at all by all the noise Toby slept through most of it, snoring loudly, and Stan was as frisky as ever. It looks like the roofers will be here tomorrow and then probably finish up Thursday. It will be nice to have a brand new roof well before hurricane season!

rainy day

It was a stormy Christmas here. It poured yesterday and there were even some tornadoes reported around Florida. Yipes!

We were lucky to only have rain and lightning here. And we were all cozy in the house, having hors d'oeuvres, wine and hanging out with the family.

Today it's still rainy and gloomy out and it's making me very sleepy!

I have some work I need to finish up and I am having a hard time getting motivated. Stanley is snuggled on my lap and all I want to do is doze, but then I feel guilty for relaxing. I think I'll try and get some work done so then I can relax guilt free!

brrr! it's cold!

It got really cold here, supposed to be in the low 40's tonight. Brrr! I can hardly stand it. Toby loves this weather though, he's super frisky when I take him out on walks, he's been on 4 really long walks already and wants to go out again. Meanwhile this weather makes the kitties very snuggly. Mabel and Stan are sleeping all curled up.

This week, I have been working away on commissions. Holiday orders have started coming in, so getting working on those early. If you were thinking about ordering a commission, now would be a great time to get your order in before I get too busy, hard to believe it but it's almost November!

Last week Paul and I got a DVR ( it's like Tivo) and it has been amazing, we are totally in love with it! I still can't get over the fact that I can pause TV while the show is on. That rocks my world! We have set it to tape all our favorite shows and now we can watch shows like Heros that play the same time as other shows we like. oh boy!! TV watching will never be the same.