Friday Foto 2/3, Miscellaneous

• This is to remind us all of what it looked like in February of last year. Yesterday was Groundhog Day and it doesn't really matter if the rodent saw his shadow or not. If we get six more weeks of winter like we've had so far, it's fine with me! We've had a few little snows, none more than 3", and none recently. Both last winter and the year before I was constantly checking the weather reports and comparing with my schedule. It's been nice knowing that I can get out any time I want to!
• If you've been reading for awhile, you know that I've been on sabattical from jewelry making since the beginning of the year, and that's been just what I needed. I'm enjoying "piddling" (Which I read in this month's Southern Living Magazine is a cause well worth a lifetime of study.) and not feeling pushed to do anything that I don't want to do. It's described as "The act of passing time, without waste or regret". All the art supplies have been living on the dining room table and I've been dabbling with that whenever I feel like it. I don't have anything to show for it, as most of what I do is Art Journaling and therefore I'm not willing to share. However, I do have a large blank canvas that's been taunting me for some time, and I may start laying paint on it any day now. I'll share when/if that's ever done.
• The yearly house/studio purge has been going well. I have two closets and most of the studio sorted. I got rid of lots of stuff - some to Goodwill, some to other people and quite a bit to the dump. I finally went through my Mother's jewelry box and decided to sell some of her pieces. I put all of her Wedgwood jewelry up in my Etsy Shop and sold some gold pieces at a local gold buyer for a very good price. This is all to help finance my trip to the PMC Conference in Cincinnati next June where I'm looking forward to meeting some of my "imaginary" friends in person!
• I do have jewelry ideas that are knocking at the edges of my brain trying to get out and I've sketched some so that they don't get forgotten. I don't think it will be too long before I'm back to working with some metal because I'm starting to get excited by that prospect instead of thinking of it as "work" or a "chore". This is good.
• The next big thing to work on is taxes. Ugh. Not my favorite thing, but I can usually have everything ready to go to the accountant in just a few days once I get going. I just need to move all the paints and brushes off the dining room table first... or maybe just bring in another table temporarily?

Whatever's going on in your world this week, I hope you have a good one and I'll be here just piddling along!