moving along...

now that I have experienced:

receiving the largest cash gift ever (thanks mom)

an iphone (sheesh)

a christmas day kickball game

countless hugs

spending two holidays back to back with my family...

I am pretty much set to enter the new year the same way I entered it last year. Satisfied.

It was a glorious holiday filled with all of my favorites.

I am not prone to melancholy the way some are this time of year. Perhaps I am growing a tiny bit wiser with the passage of time, but I haven't the energy for sadness or regret. The universe has been good to me and it urges me to be good to myself. I have decided against choosing a word for 2010, rather I will just do and say what comes naturally. I think I may follow suit with some other blogs I've seen and create my own reel of 2009 highlights. That will come a little later this week. till then

keep well

in pictures...

I don't pretend to be a great photographer. what I lack in actual ability and talent, I seem to make up for in my knowledge of image manipulation. I've taken classes but could never quite get the hang of f-stops and all the rest of it. Thankfully, my inexperience hasn't diminished my love for the camera, or that amazing feeling I get when I find something captured by accident. Here are a few of my happy accidents from the last several days. The picture above was taken the day after Thanksgiving. It was super cold out...at least for my family who are used to a significantly warmer climate. Despite the cold, we enjoyed a festive day out and my coffee loving dad got to hang out at the very first Starbucks.



This picture was taken on Thanksgiving day. Before we began the arduous process of cooking. We all got up early and walked to Top Pot where my sister enjoyed her very first latte (on the house) and we all ate some very yummy donuts. Everyone was in such a jolly mood and it set the tone for the rest of the day. When we returned to the house we walked across the street and I shot this picture. I like how the black and white makes the photo feel. It totally captures how perfectly satisfied I felt looking at the city with my entire family beside me.



This is my friend's new store: Assemble. It is a delightful combination of art gallery, retail store and workshop studio. I visited them the other day to discuss teaching a few workshops. I'll be sure to let you know once the details are hammered out. In the meantime, I am marveling at the way these two young ladies have taken their dream of owning such a store and making it happen. I also love how devoted they are to indie artist and buying and selling handmade. It is in the cute neighborhood of Phinney Ridge. It was my first time driving in that direction and I got lost twice. A well detailed map was provided to me so that my return home was easy and uneventful. Thanks Andie and Emily. They are having their grand opening on Friday, the 11th so if you are around you must stop by and say hello.



After an entire month...I have finally completed unpacking. I actually finished a few short hours before my Mom's plane landed:) This is pretty much how it will remain, except for that wicker chair in the left corner. That will be replaced by a nice deep reading chair...when I find one I love. I will also be adding pictures to the walls...but haven't gotten around to those final touches yet either. The absolute best part of the room besides the great big windows that run the entire length would have to be the wood burning fireplace. It is almost 100 years old and worked like a charm. We have already had the pleasure of lighting our first fire. So thankful that my family got to share that with us.



The other half of the room is my studio redux. I think my studio experienced more changes than anything else beginning with a massive purge before we moved. I knew that I would be moving from a room of my own to a shared space. I also knew that I wanted to invest in furniture that could have multiple functions. It wasn't until we decided to move that I realized how little my office furniture worked in other spaces. I had created the room for the space and not for my self. Don't get me wrong...I loved my old office in Atlanta, but it wasn't realistic in terms of how I work. I like to move around, I multitask, I like to be a part of my surroundings. This room, while doubling as our dining room on the rare occasion we actually dine there has provided me with the kind of workspace that can easily be incorporated into any room. Form and function=a happy girl.


This is a picture I took right outside of my building where I take Akira on her walk. That's the bay straight ahead although you can hardly see it on account of the fog. It was super cold this morning. I was wearing a long sleeved t-shirt with a sweatshirt, hoodie and gloves and I was still cold. It is supposed to snow next week. It's nothing like the bone chilling 10 degrees I experienced in NYC two years ago, but 40 degrees is still pretty cold to me.


...and I'll leave you with a picture of the bay this morning. Shrouded in fog, it looked like part of the sky. It was beautiful. The only thing missing was my guy standing beside me.

a letter to my blog

Dear terribly neglected blog,

Please accept my sincerest apologies. I have a very good excuse for my absence although you may not see it as such since you have a bit of experience with this song and dance. I have spent the last few weeks trying to pack three bedrooms worth of stuff into two bedrooms. Never mind that the square footage is the same, the layout has caused what can best be described as design dilemmas. I hope you don't think that I have forsaken you for some other outlet such as Facebook or Twitter for I have not. While quick and certainly more succinct, they don't provide me with the same feeling as you do. Plus I have trouble being witty when so few characters are allowed.

I know that this apology may seem somewhat familiar as well as the promise to be better and visit more often, but I offer the refrain with every intention of making good on my vow. I am nearly done with what can best be described as an extreme make under and I think you would be delighted with my progress. As we head into the holiday season I will post pictures and record my activities no matter how mundane, and you will find yourself sick of me I'm sure.

So, dear blog, after reading my aforementioned regrets, I do hope you find it in your virtual heart to forgive this faithful patron, and when once again I find myself putting finger to keypad you will happily accept my return and embrace my poor sentence structure and lack of proper punctuation.

All my love,

France

no fair

thursday rundown:

7-11 will now carry wine...
what was boones farm?

my first real rain since moving to
Seattle

I'm 100% ok with it

almost done unpacking the kitchen

just the kitchen

i'm having trouble recycling my
garbage properly

yay for cable

all caught up on Madmen

Dexter next

did i tell you the movers put a hole in my wall?

well, they did.

read all the books I bought

time to go and get a
library card

i don't dare take a photo of my place right now

it's that bad

I can't find my wine

but I did find my wine stopper

broken i might add

bought a dining table

still need to buy some other stuff

studio boxes still unpacked

I NEED MY CRAFT FIX

oh...and I want these: