It's the MOSTLY wonderful time of the year . . .

I promised more show details, so I'm going to take a break from my whirlwind Christmas preparations to give you some.




Santa is cautioning me to be more truthful -- if you could see my house, you would rightly ask, "What whirlwind preparations?"

Actually, my focus has been mainly on the gifts I need to make (we have a tradition of making gifts for each other at our house. There will be more on that later, because it's become my favorite thing about Christmas!) The sorely neglected decorating will have to wait a few more days.

But back to the show -- as with all shows, it was a "best of times, worst of times" sort of experience, which makes it easy to organize your blog post when you return.

Not-so-wonderful:


Someone saw this piece and asked if they can order it with any initial. I'm confused by that.



I have this little "grow" framed in a large frame with a giant "G" -- the name of the piece is "Big G, Little Grow" -- I know, cute, right? But this piece has caused me no end of grief in my booth. A memorable one this year was when two women stopped and saw the "G" and were terribly excited about it -- one of them came over and then got a very disgusted look on her face. "Oh," she said, "I think it has a piece of work in it!" And they walked away. Whatever.

One woman spent quite a bit of time in my booth reading and studying each piece. Then she turned to me and said,
"You have a weird mind."
No smile, no conversation, just that observation. Thank you, . . . . I guess?

But luckily we can move on now to:

Wonderful:



We got our portrait of Cooper that we commissioned from Anne Leuck Feldhaus! It is just perfect, and was well worth the wait. My favorite thing about it may be that although she had a year to finish it, Anne was putting the varnish on late Saturday night so we could take it home on Sunday. Now that kind of procrastination is an endearing quality, and it has made me like Anne even more. Here's a picture of me picking up the portrait in her booth, where I am all smiles. If you wonder why our dog is "Special Agent Dale Cooper," I have two words for you -- "Twin Peaks." Surely we'll have to have "Small Works Twin Peaks Week" sometime during the February doldrums!

Most Wonderful:

There's something so wonderful about seeing people connect with a piece of my work, I can't even describe it. It's like watching a light go on, then comes the smile, sometimes a laugh . . . it's just the best thing that can ever happen to a person! It's like going to parent-teacher conference and getting a really unbelieveable report about how your child is the most amazing thing that ever set foot in the school! It makes you feel like perhaps you're not alone in the world, after all. Someone gets it.

We always put a favorite piece at the front of the booth with a spotlight on it -- the colors really come alive under a spot -- and this year we chose Stay at Home Mom No. 2.


(click on it so you can read the text)

From where my chair was, I could watch women's faces while they studied that piece, and it was the most satisfying experience I think I've ever had as an artist. I'm still a little tender on the "empty nest" thing, still working it out. One woman turned to me and asked, "Have you found your perch?" I had to admit that I was still a bit unsure. She smiled and assured me that I'd find it and I'd be happy there.

And I realized after watching the softening on the faces of many, many (too many to count) women -- the wistful smile, the shared moment of understanding -- that I'm part of a very old club. A club that cuts across race and religion, time and place.

It reminded me of another mother who "kept things in her heart". Wherever there's a mother, there's a full heart. I was blessed to get a glimpse.

Good luck in all your holiday busy-ness! I have more to say, but I'll save it until I've accomplished a few more things on my list.



It is the most wonderful time of the year.