MORE THANKS GOING TO...

to all my ex-students who continue to check on me, 

visit me

 and be in my life.

Because of technology it makes it so easy to keep in touch.

I'm so thankful for that.

Here is Alumni Nicholas Tudor,

 who I believe graduated in 2013ish, 

who came to visit with his his lovely girlfriend.

Nick had taken Ceramics I & II with me 

and hadn't thrown on the potters wheel since he graduated.

He was curious if he remembered how to do it.

Learning to throw a pot is an incredibly difficult global skill to learn,

thus it's the same as riding a bike.

Once you learn,

 your muscles remember the steps and feeling.

So as you can see Nick took to it like a duck to water as they say.

Just look at that smile on his face.

Doesn't get any better!

Here I am with art alum as well as Art Instructor,

 Jordan Joyce.

I believe he graduated Whitney in 2011 0r 2012.

He went on to study art at Cal State Long Beach with famed Fiber Artist

Carol Shaw-Sutton.

I ran into Jordan at the retirement party of our beloved Drama Teacher,

Jodi Improta.

He participated in several of Jodi's productions

and he is the grandson of one of our favorite retired teachers and administrators,

Gary McHatton 

It was wonderful to catch up with him.

I was so hoping he would be the one to take over for me when I retired.

He really wanted to come back to Whitney to teach

 since her practically grew up there,

hanging out as a youngster with his Grandpa.

But it was not to be,

our Principal had other ideas.

Happily,

 Jordan was hired to teach art at a High School in Azusa, Ca.

which is a town right below the San Gabriel Mountains (near Pasadena)

So I'm thrilled for him and he's on his way. 

Gosh, 

I've known Jordan since he was in Elementary School,

 and taught him art from 7th grade until he graduated Whitney,

6 years.

Happy Thanksgiving and much love to my thousands of art students around the whirled.

You will always be in my heart.

PUMPKIN LOVE - part one

I love the changing of the seasons from summer to fall,

it's my absolute favorite time of year.

And I notice it as soon as I don't feel that intense summer sun's blistering heat on my shoulders

while I'm watering up at the cabin.

For me it's such a big sigh of relief.

And this year was no exception,

we had some major heat waves here in the California Southland 

along with all the crazy fires. 

This year my son Zach and his gorgeous bride are in their new home in the valley.

They gutted their grass in the backyard and planted a veggie garden.

Because we had amended the soil with lots of goodies like chicken and steer manure,

the plants took on a life of their own as you can plainly see all around them.

It was like veggies on steroids.

Ha ha

And the kids have a fairly large size yard

 because that's how they used to space houses in the 1950's and 60's

in the San Fernando Valley.

The pumpkin vines grew from one side all the way to the other side of the backyard.  

I had pix to share but 2 weeks ago I lost my phone and all my pictures and contacts.

So sadly I'm starting over again.

And no,

I didn't know I could save them to my cloud.

I just automatically thought they were up there.

I still have so much to learn.

😕

But the great news is I don't need to go out and buy pumpkins this year.  

My son is my pumpkin patch.

Their largest one is in the photo above with them and it's still growing.

I'm thinking the County Fair.

This next one above is my personal favorite.

It puts a big smile on everyone's face.

The kids let my daughter Dani and myself take home as many as we wanted.

I'm placing them around my front door here at my husband's home 

amongst all my Cacti, Succulents and Xmas Lilies,

and then around my Home Studio door below.

But my favorite place is among my daughter Dani's eclectic mix of pumpkins from Trader Joes.

The really bright orange ones were grown by the kids.

And of course I love the pix even more because of the two best grand pups in the world!

GIVING IT ANOTHER TRY

I found this delicate fuschia at my garden center.

They need the perfect combo of sun & shade,

but not a hot sun,

so summer will be tricky.

This will be my 5th try to keep one alive.

I'm hoping this corner will be the perfect spot,

since my fragile Fairy Garden seems to be thriving here.

I scooted the Fairy Garden over and put the Fuschia in its spot.

This is a shady corner at my home/studio on the patio of the 2nd floor.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Meanwhile the Fairy Garden is going to town. 

The lone red Impatient I stuck in there last summer is flourishing,

and made it thru the fall Santa Ana winds. 

What didn't make it in the winds was the gorgeous Coleus I planted last summer.

The stem is still left so I'm hoping it might come back.

TRIM JOB

For Mother's Day 2016,

my son drove me all over tarnation to find the perfect supplies

 to build my own Fairy Garden. 

 If you click on that link you can see it in it's early stages.

Since that time it has morphed into this unrecognizable planter below.

The good news is that it loves it's location,

the bad news is...

well I guess there isn't any other then I can't find my fairy or her home anymore.

So this weekend I gave her a trim and there she be with her birds,

 pumpkin and clay tepee (used to be a roof over a porcelain birdhouse that broke,

but I couldn't bare to throw it away.

I think tonight I'll put up a closer view so you can see her better.

I guess it's still a bit overgrown,

but it's happy.

FALL DECORATIONS

I love to decorate for each season at my little studio/home where I house & host family,

visiting artists and store all my artwork and supplies,

  and have a large studio space.

We have a lot of Association Rules and Regulations so I can't do a whole lot,

plus I do break a few of the rules and always manage to get a letter,

but it's so worth it.

Here is my 3 story tiny studio's doorway.

I believe I have about 900 square feet inside.

I also have a love of gardening 

and my newest acquisition is the Plumeria in the right front.

Just waiting for it's first flowers.

But this season I'm proudest of my 10 Pomegranates that grew to fruition.

Last year only 2. 

My dear son gave me this plant in it's infancy about 7-8 years ago.  

I've been babying it and it's paid off big time.

Thank you Zach,

these are my favorites of the season! 

AN ARTFUL PEEK INSIDE...

my home away from home,

actually only a hop, skip and a jump away from where I live with my hubby,

my home/studio.

If you are new to the blog,

when I married my Jim in 2011,

 I went to live in his home,

only,

none of my things fit inside his perfectly appointed home.

Not a spare inch to be had.

And we are not only talking about my clothes & furniture, car, computer, bicycle and appliances,

we are talking a lot of artsy fartsy things here like my 6 spinning wheels,

my floor loom,

my Navajo loom,

my 4 Featherweight sewing machines along with my Pfaff machine.

And what about those 4 huge storage bins of handmade Xmas ornaments,

2 bins of Easter goodies and 3 bins for Halloween.

And then there is my collection of Professional artists works

 that I've been collecting and teaching with for the past 37 years,

oh yeah,

and the student artwork I've been purchasing to teach with as great examples,

as well as all the other art supplies I store that don't fit inside my classroom.

The list is ridiculously long.

Jim took one look at all my stuff and said I don't so!

That's not gonna fit honey.

  ha ha

So what to do?

I had to buy a house to put all this stuff in.

And at the time I rationalized it as 

this will be a great starter home for when my children move out.

Wrong!!!!

They turned out to be slobs,

there's no way I'm going to let them move into this cute little place and mess it up.

And I can say that because they never look or read my blog.

HA!

So there you go,

3 stories of art & supplies,

all artfully arranged in this 800 square foot loft.

My neighbors see me walking back and forth constantly between the two homes,

driving when it's raining,

don't want to mess up my hair.

Some know I live in two different homes,

some just think I'm a nut-ball.

So anyways,

back to my original post,

a Holiday peek.

This is the tiny entry way that you step up to from the front door.

Or if you want, 

you can take a couple of steps down into my garage/studio space.

That peek will come another time.

The children & grands are all represented except for Syd,

in the process of framing him up as I write this.

The artful is this new-old rug I thrifted recently to show to my 3-D students for their weaving unit.

It's handspun wool colors were perfect for a Xmas display.

Not sure if it is Mexican or Navajo,

leaning towards Mexican,

perhaps done in the weaving village of Oaxaca. 

It washed up beautifully without felting.

The tiny green treen holds tiny handmade ornaments that were gifted to me from past students.

Next is the small display I did around that ginormous monstrosity of a T.V.

Fireplace to the right.

The handcarved Santa in sled with Reindeer belonged to my mother,

the patchwork stocking I made years ago for a felting unit with my students.

My favorite part of this display is the "Thankful" banner draped across,

and the recycled newspaper tree below.

This sweet little tree holds favorite handmade felt/embroidered ornaments 

by artist Judy Coates Perez,

and Russian Needle Punch Embroidery artist Leslie McCabe of Earth Angels Studios.

This next fun tree is from illustrator Patience Brewster's Xmas collection several years ago..

So are several of the ornaments that are hanging on it.

A new addition are felted acorns that are difficult to see that I found on Facebook.

For the past 4 years I've bought a live tree for this home,

and Jim has made canes from every trunk and woodburned each year along the shaft,

but for some stupid reason that I can't remember,

I bought an artificial one last year at Big Lots after Xmas sale.

I didn't realize that it was going to be so small and barely fit all my ornaments.

But the cool part was the lights were already on and there are 4 different settings.

I put two of the settings here because I couldn't decide which one I liked better.

Not sure which way (real or artificial) I will go next year.

A closer look at several of the handmade ornaments by my mother, 

my children and past students.

And a closer peek at this cute new addition,

the stuffed ornament,

gifted to me this year from 1st Quarter 7th grader 

Ethan Zhang.

But it is my daughter Danielle's 4th/5th grade creation,

a catapult she had to make for her class,

that is still one of the most artful pieces on this tree.

So fun that it gets the prime spot at the tip top.

WHAT'S IN YOUR HEART?

Begonias, Mandevilla & Impatiens 

Fun Surprises ...

while walking the dog.

After our big rain a couple of weeks ago I found a lot of eco-prints on the sidewalks around our home.

I'm pretty sure these marks are from our ornamental pear trees.

All's I know is that they were a delightful surprise.

Summer Flowers and Plants at my Home/Studio

At my little home/studio in Anaheim Hills, I'm able to grow more shade plants then at our larger place because it faces a different direction .

It gets a bit of morning sun but the rest of the day is in shade.

So the same Mandevilla that you saw a few days ago on the blog at our home was a paler pink then the one you see here  because this one gets less sun.

And I love that it's starting to crawl up the wall.

There is one wall on my second floor patio that gets a bit more sun so I've hung this special succulent box on the wall.

As you can see it has a ways to go to completely fill up but at least a half of it is doing well.

One of my favorite flowers to grow because my mom loved them so much are Fuchsias.

They need a lot of shade because they are so thin and delicate.

My mother used to call them little ballerinas.

I have 2 varieties that seem to be happy, the larger pinks above and the variegated smaller blossoms below.

And I have never been good with ferns, this Maidenhair below is the first one that I've managed not to kill.  

It sits in the corner of my front porch next to the door and is so lacy and lovely. 

Christmas 2013 with The Sposas & The Agrums

We did 3 family parties this year just to make sure we covered all our bases, and as you can see the weather was gorgeous, 78ish.

This first one several days before Xmas was at our home with Jim's daughter Julie and her husband Mike, Jim's son James and his wife Carrie and their two children, J.V.and Kenzie Lou.

The best gifts were Kenzie's bow and arrow set that Aunt Julie taught her to shoot, and then of course J.V.'s cool microscope was taken over by his dad.  LOL 

Kenzie and I had fun doing arts and crafts in the garage, painting Popsicle ornaments that we had glued together last Xmas.

My girl Dan made a guess appearance after she got off work and opened up her favorite gift from Jim, a Mario game that she really wanted.

Good food and fun was had by all.

Christmas Eve

was celebrated at my tiny home/studio that I so enjoy decorating with all my children's ornaments they and I have made over the years, heartfelt Xmas cards my students have given me, and artist friend's Xmas art pieces.

You can see stitcher extraordinaire Jude Hill's Santa piece hanging to the left of the little tree in the stairwell.  I adore that piece and hate when Xmas is over and it's put away for another year.

And then Christmas morning was bright and early at Inars' house with the kids and Jim.

The rest of the presents were opened and a delicious breakfast was cooked and gobbled up (you get hungry after all that unwrapping and cleaning up)

Jim loved his new headlight for up at the mountains where there are no streeet lights to walk the dog by.  And Zach shows off Inar's great wrapping job with Danielle's knitting yarns.

And I'm just loving it all, my children are healthy and happy, and that we can all be together.

And of course the Bog was real happy with his new chew toy  :)

Good Dog

I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday Season.  

Warmest Wishes from all of us to all of you.