Wednesday, January 16, 2008

New Beginning 2008

This past year just flew by! I have been missing in action from the ornament group I am thrilled to belong to. Now that things have calmed down I am happy to start creating for EBay again. Especially for AHAO the American Holiday Artist Ornament group. Each member is a true treasure and I am so honored to belong to this group of talented artists. I am currently working on our Valentine challenge ornament as well as a commissioned order and bringing my booth spaces at Spencer's Alley up to current holiday status. I refuse to bring home any of the left over Christmas things so have rented a special booth for clearance hopefully that will finally sell and I can use the new space for my OOAK items.
We the spent last weekend cooking for the Oregon Crusaders Drum & Bugle Corp. My daughter unwitting volunteered to oversee and organize the cooking staff last year ,which turned out to be us! Neither my daughter nor I have ever cooked for more than 20 people, but we hit the ground running and now are quite comfortable cooking for the 90 plus people that belong to the OC. If you have never heard of DCI you have to check out their website DCI.org .
Our granddaughter is in the OC she plays the mellophone sort of like the french horn , the corp relies heavily on volunteers. The kids attend weekend camps once a month to learn their music. These are called move ins . We all literally move into to a school from Friday night and leave around 5PM on Sunday . During that time the kids spent somewhere between 12 to thirteen hours on Saturday and 8 hours on Sunday learning their program for the DCI competitions in August. During the move ins they develop not only their musical talents but friendships ,teamwork , they are taught be to leaders, work hard and to watch out for each other. Their ages range from 15 to 20 , they age out at 21. In the meantime we the cook staff cook over 400 meals a day . The kids devour enormous jars of peanut butter and jelly which is sort of a backup stable. We serve balanced meals , for example Italian mac & cheese , salad, fruit , veggies with dip. The kids love everything we make, but then so does the staff ! I have never met a more polite group of kids in my life. We just love them all.
Please check out the OregonCrusaders.org. Dr Phil. is our executive director, posts pictures and information on that site. There is also a little clip of the kids playing the new music from just the first camp back in November. Anyone who is intersted in more information check out the website. We have kids from not only Oregon but Washington , Idaho,last year we had one from Japan. Our next camp is Feb. can't wait!

American Holiday Artists

American Holiday Artists
Ebay Art Group I belong to visit us to see all of our members creations

Phineas Birthday Surprise

Phineas Birthday Surprise
SOLD

Hawaii in early Dec

Hawaii in early Dec
North side of Oahu

Earlier this week

Earlier this week

Old World Santa Glass eyes

Old World Santa Glass eyes
Gourd

Snow Dec 2008

Snow Dec 2008

Snowflake Santa Gourd

Snowflake Santa Gourd
ex large gourd sculpted

Mirek's sculpt

Mirek's sculpt
HUH??

Mirek's updated version

Mirek's updated version

Victorian look Christmas Angels AHA/Adsg folk art Ooak

Victorian look Christmas Angels  AHA/Adsg folk art Ooak

Smoking Pipe & Red/Blk Santa's

Smoking Pipe & Red/Blk Santa's
Gourd Art

Mad Hatters Teapot

Mad Hatters Teapot
Just listed on Ebay

Christmas Snowman

Christmas Snowman

Fall Celebreate 365 is out!!

Fall Celebreate 365 is out!!
Be quick and grab yours! this book is amazing!

Jingle Bell Santa 2008

Jingle Bell Santa 2008