Happiness

My husband and I own a farm. On our 16 acres are three houses. One we live in, and the other two were kept rented, to cover our mortgage and taxes. A couple of months ago we decided to see if we can survive without renting the little house. It's a two room "bungalow", or cabin, or efficiency. On September 1, 2010, it officially became known as the "Oongalow". And as such, I moved in to my very own studio!

I now have a place to go and create and get lost in my work, not have to hear the phone ring and spend hours that fly like minutes, only to regret that it's time to go back to the house.

What a magical place I've been given! Down the rutted road, under the ancient, leaning trees, to the little cabin with the aged siding that blends so perfectly into it's natural surroundings, and truly looks as if it's always been there or that it had been planted and simply grew there.

Out onto the deck, you can lose your breath, it's so beautiful! There, right there, Right There is the creek that flows and eddys right at your feet. There's the sand bar with the phantom wild flowers that just pop up, brought down the stream by some storm or happy, pooping, little bird. I listen to the woodpeckers, the blue jays, the house wrens and watch the flocks of wood ducks that fly up into the trees and then fly up and off to the far bank when I open the sliding door to get a better look. The other day hubby and I watched a pair of great blue herons fly over, on their way south.

I am sometimes greeted by the kayakers and canoers who paddle past on their way to the estuary and out to the sea.

This, this gift, this is what happiness means to me.

My Christmas Look

Is it time? Am I too late? It is, after all October 18th! Yesterday I started uploading Christmas photos on my Etsy shop.

All my Little Felted Baskets are getting a holiday spiff up.

What are Little Felted Baskets?

They serve many happy purposes.

They're little gift holders

little candy baskets

little oranments

lovely little decorations for your table or mantle piece.

Who knew that spending the afternoon taking photos

could be so tiring. But it was fun and I look forward to

continueing with the holiday theme.

If you are visiting this blog, please take a look at my Etsy shop and let me know what you think. Are the photos good enough? Do they convey holiday warmth and the spirit of Christmas?

I know I've got some photos to retake. I'll get it right.

I'll be shooting most of my stock in holiday settings.

www.JudyAGoddard.Etsy.com

www.JudyGoddard.Homestead.com

www.Measureformeasuregrowthcharts.com

Wall Calendar Bonanza!

Three months ago I visited my favorite shop, before heading to the super market. It was, of course, the dollar store.

I stop by almost every week and look for cool little do dads that maybe I can incorperate into my art work.

I went up one isle and down the next, checked out the cheap little photo albums and,there, right next to them, I found a huge pile of old wall calendars. There so many different ones, some with horses, some with flowers, others with beautiful country scenes. And they were priced at .35 each! So bought $20.00 worth and brought them home thinking that I surely would be able to figure out a cool use for them.

I was concerned about making items for sale that would violate the copy right of the companythat produced the calendars. I looked all over every inch of each type and found no trade mark,copy right mark or address. All I could find was "made in China". That was it. I tried to look them up on line but could not find a site for the company. So, I feel OK about using the images, cutting them up, mixing them together.

I made a bunch of credit card envelopes, did a little decopauge, and glued them on to card stock to make little gift cards. I'll list them on my Etsy shop, in a new section and see who bites.

I figure that the worst thing that can happen is that I'll have enough gift wrapping paper to last me a really, reallylong time! 80)