Found this old gem cleaning out the basement…
Time flies. Been MIA for a little while now with work stuff. We had some long days and crazy hours getting ready for a big series of tests, which all went well. I’d love to post some pictures of the hardware and test facility, but I have a feeling that’s probably a no-no. So here’s this instead:
How is this my life?
But now things are finally slowing down and getting back to normal, and I’m slowly starting to be able to work on art stuff again.
…like an almost-flooded dock.
Somewhere right before 9pm last night, I was at my parents house and the power suddenly goes out. We look out the window, and it’s bright as day out there. We run outside, and this is what we see:
It was nuts. 70,000 people lost power, so it’s total blackout except for the occasional battery-powered Christmas light, and the entire sky glowing with this pulsating blue, red and white light. There’s this low-level electrical or magnetic hum. It fills your entire field of vision, and all you can hear in the silence is this hum. It’s sensory overload which something I can’t comprehend. As a friend so eloquently put it, it was both beautiful and frightening.
At the time, when we had no idea what it was – on the eve of the Mayan apocalypse, no less – it was scary. Now, it’s both funny, and one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen.
Moms running around yelling DO YOU SEE UFOS! ITS THE END OF THE WORLD! Dads pulling out the guns, and I’m shooting video. It was ridiculous. The UFO was my favorite part of the night. That and my brother standing sentry at the door with an empty shotgun. Said he’d put the fear in ‘em.
They’re saying a local power station lost two main feeder lines, but they don’t say how. Some think fire, some an explosion. But power was restored within a couple of hours.
Weird night.
Found awesome type/design inspired wrapping paper this year at 5 below and Marshall’s. nerdy, but I was excited…
Lady at the store: oh, these will be so much fun to make with the kids!
Me: …yes. Yes they will.
I don’t have kids. They were for me. And I made them happily.
New additions this year:
And this guy from the white elephant gift exchange at the studio:
This was my contribution to the exchange, a set of these:
I call these guys my lego army. I don’t know what it is, but I love these things. Part of it is that I’m a sucker for a mystery pack, but they’re just so funny to me. I will probably never grow up…
My grandmother started collecting ornaments for my sister and I when we were kids. She kept them in these floral cardboard boxes in the office closet. Sometimes she would let us take them out to look at, and carefully open each one. It was always pretty special for us.
They haven’t put up a tree in a long time, so a couple of years ago, she let my sister divide up her own collection of ornaments. Some of my favorites are the old, handmade wooden ones. And those little deer and mice under the tree are hers from the 70′s.
I have so many, I’d never have to buy another, and I’d be set for life. But somehow I keep finding another one or two each year to add to the collection.
I have limited space this year, so my tree is only a 4’5″ tree, and it’s packed with ornaments. This is not even half of the collection.
And this year, I found my tree topper! I love the top hat. 
I made a new wreath for my house this year. I’m really happy with how it turned out, but I’d like to get a better picture of it…
And then I saw this guy on the internet:
So I made this one:
Gallery
