Bob posted this Christmas dinner picture of me on his site. I stole it. The second one is of Bob and me at his kitchen table a few days after Christmas.

New Year's Eve and all's quiet here at home. Hercule Poirrot and Sherlock Holmes are keeping me company.



I've been working on Bob's Panoramabob SmugMug site most of the day, labeling and moving around photos there.

Here are photos from yesterday. First is Bobbi with their tree at Acampo which she decorated with her beautiful glass ornaments. The other pictures are Cathy's decorations at San Andreas. She decorated their tree with my angels this year since I don't do a big tree any more. I'm so pleased to see how wonderful they look there.

Post Christmas Chatter

So many things have taken place since last week. Christmas Eve, Christmas, visit with family, lots of good food, driving the freeways and lesser roads, art books to read, dogs to pet, grandchildren to spoil - all in all, life is very good to me.

I just did my first artwork for awhile. I cut up some of my abstracts and am constructing books with them. I will try to find some suitable quotes to put in them. I'll post pics when glues are dry.

Trip to SF

These are photos from trip. It was a rainy day, so the ride on Amtrak was very comfortable and such an easy way to travel.  My best friend Cat and I stayed


 at the Hayes Valley Inn. There were only 4 people staying in the hotel that night so we had the parlor to ourselves in the evening. We sat by the tree and had tea and cookies.  And looked out the windows at the lights.

Studio before the clutter

These are photos of my studio when it was first built and uncluttered. It is10 x 12 feet.

 Since these photos were taken I have unloaded box after box of supplies and materials for my art work. Now it is cluttered beyond belief, and a general mess. I don't have room for visitors or even to spread out things to dry. I need to change this. The reason for posting these pics is to remind me that the studio started with a clean slate, and the clutter was made by me and can be undone by

I don't want to give up the altered books, I don't want to totally give up mixed media - but my major emphasis is painting.  I need to refine my options and materials, and get rid of the rest. Okay, that's the plan. Now for a nap.

Tea for four

Friday I enjoyed tea with some art friends from the MixedMediaArtistsofNorthernCalifornia group. Although attendance was low, we had a fine time. Our hostess Susanne has a huge home which she formerly used as a bed and breakfast, so she is a veteran at entertaining and making people feel comfortable. We had a tour of the house, her studio and got to see some of her recent paintings. One is on the far right side of the group photo. Tea was lovely, the company was great, and I had a great time.

blogger help group

Well, much as I hate to admit it, I needed help - again. Everything on my screen had changed on the blogger posting page, so I could not upload photos, but then I tried the help pages and finally as a last resort I tried the blogger help group. I learned that other people were having the same problems, so I tried what they suggested. The first suggestion worked to bring back the right upload screen - I just needed to refresh the page - but the images still couldn't upload.
Then I tried another suggestion, to empty the cache - which I did the other day to log into blogger. Now the images can upload. So, perhaps I have to train myself to take these steps often. Or maybe, hopefully, it is resolved. Think so? I'm writing this to remind myself of what I did - I may need to know this again. Frustrated, but not giving up on blogging. Thanks to those who come up with the answers. All I come up with are questions. Janene

Tea for three - Sutter Creek