LizzyHouse

Happy New Year

Ashlee's birthday

We had a little party last night for Ashlee's birthday. I made dinner and a pie, instead of a cake. It was a big hit. Here are some of the highlights. I love the little desert bowls.. (actually they are tea bowls) I got them the last time I was in San Fransisco. I love the stripes and they are great for everything!

happy 21st birthday Asher.

and a happy new year.

Christmas was great. My Mom ended up waking us up at around eight (a good two hours before normal everyday holiday wake up call)... we opened present, and that was nice. I got the first season of one of my favorite cartoons, and Melissa, my little sister, got us all i-pods. What a doll! Mine is a product red Nano. I gave books, and prints to everyone, because I am books and prints rich, not so much i-pod rich...

we spent the afternoon at my Grandma's house. It was so great to spend time with her! It was funny though: I walk into the main room, and there are all these new pictures on the wall... I was wondering how she got them because I had taken them in Idaho, and then I realize that my Grandmother is a regular Hacker, and she has taken every usable picture from my BLOG! I laughed and laughed. She has gotten really good at the computer in the last little while. I am really excited though, because when my Mom comes to visit me in Idaho (the week after mother's week) she is coming too! It's going to be a lot of fun

we really had a great Christmas. Later we went visiting some of our dearest friends and we recounted our tales of Belgium.

Speaking of Belgium... I am working on a project that requires some research that can only take place in Belgium and Germany. I will be making my way over there in April. I am still working out the details but I am looking for a field assistant.

Ashlee loved the quilt, and it made me happy. It really wrapped up that quilt experience for me... picking out the fabric, cutting it out, piecing it together, basting it, (watching it being quilted, and bound) and then giving it away. What an interesting set of emotions goes along with that.

somebody likes me! go listen to Simple Arts, Annie Smith's new podcast about Houston Market. She, her daughter Kirsten and Holly Mabutas do the podcast and they are just a riot. It's a fun recap of the show. Come back to Houston!

I hope that you all had a great Christmas, and that you have a wonderful and safe new year. So many wonderful and crazy things have happened this year, and I can't even imagine how it went by so swiftly. But I am so looking forward to this coming year, and all the opportunities it holds. To be really honest I feel really nervous about the next four months...I don't know why but I just do. Keep your fingers crossed for something good though. I am so grateful for your friendship and support. Thanks for caring, it means so much to me

well wish me luck, and I'll do the same for you

Lizzy 

No, really.

so I am at home, and in the past 5 days I made 20 books. I schlepped all my supplies home with me and just went to work. It was really important that I get an inventory again, as I was down to one book. You know I always set goals for whatever I am doing... so for the books I would produce 2-3 of the same book to hone in on my duplication skills. I'm a machine, you're a machine...

Already 4 of them have been sold, 5 gifted, they deplete so quickly, but It's nice that people really respond to them. Here are some pictures for your book loving pleasure.

more soon. I still have 8 to make... i ran out of glue. Also, my cityscapes that I started a couple of months ago, just got finished being quilted... bound tonight, and then a gift to my sister on Christmas. I will post some pictures of it. I am really happy with how it's looking. It hasn't been much of a break as far as work is concerned, but it is really nice to be home. Merry Christmas

do you realize?

home for the holidays

so, tomorrow morning I am going home for a couple of weeks. It's kind of hard to always be coming and going, to not really have a home. I mean, my apartment is my home, but there is a real instability to it. I'm ready to feel safe, and that doesn't necessarily mean staying in just one place, but the people you are with effects that a lot also. They too come and go, and what was, is no more, and you start from the beginning again and again. I am terrible at getting started... It is a precarious time, and I just want something permanent. Also, it doesn't feel like Christmas to me, I find myself saying Merry Christmas because I feel like it's the right thing to say. Maybe it isn't. Hopefully while I'm at home (where it is warm) I can feel a little more Christmas. At this point, I just wish I had a river, I could skate away on.

on a more positive note.... I sold everything but four pieces (4 out of 30) that I put into the show. It was a nice feeling to hear so many people interested in buying my work. Ok, off to pack and clean and say goodbye to more friends.

crayons

SNOW!

it snowed sooo much today. I woke up and looked out my window, and it was just ridiculous. Also. I will have you all know that I have been through four winters up her in Rexburg, and I have only fallen like 6 times. That's pretty good! Well, tonight we had to run to the store, and first Melissa ate it on the stairs, and then on the way back I ate it on an ice slick in the parking lot. It was like a cartoon, one leg in the air. Some how I managed to hurt my knee and my butt. The ice is really the worst part of the snow, also, I have never had appropriate snow shoes... priorities I guess.

tomorrow begins the Art Sale! I made some special books for it, pray that I do well, please! I will post details later. Also, i am thinking about opening a store on here to sell some of my prints... but you all know by now that I am really bad at getting that kind of thing done (failed etsy attempt...)

bye!

charlie brown

from the time that I was very little, in our home there were only a few things that really truly mattered.

1. the gospel (church) understanding why we believe what we believe, where we came from, where we are going.
2. Each other.
3. Charlie Brown.

everything else just happened

Charlie Brown and the Peanuts were always treated with a sort of reverence in our home. It might seem silly but we really did love them, and we understood it... I thought of all of this today during church when we sang "Hark the Harold Angel Sing".

For the past couple of years around Christmas time, Ashlee (my sister) and I would be sitting in the meeting, and if this was the song that we were supposed to sing, then one of us would whisper Charlie Brown to the other  and we would proceed to sing the song as the kids in the recording from the recording in 1969. It's always funny...

hark_the_herald_angels_sing.mp3

It is hard to explain the love I have for them, it was never just a cartoon. They were a part of our lives. I feel like it in a way has shaped my humor and my aesthetic. So, hooray for Charlie Brown.

holiday orders!

i took a couple custom book jobs in the past couple of weeks, and it has been interesting. I guess I am not so used to doing custom work! I used to do custom paintings, but I guess I have always preferred to make something and then someone like it... needless to say, I got the jobs done. Here are a few of them....

i won't mention names as they are gifts...

the steam punk journal. I didn't know what that meant... but luckily the internet truly is a wealth of knowledge, and I have a friend who new a little bit about it, and was able to point me in the right direction! I used copper and leather, and I think it really came together.

the frog book. I was asked to make a book with a frog theme.... well, you will be hard pressed to find paper, that is the right quality for end papers, with frogs on them. So, I got to carve a linoleum block after a frog that I designed, and I printed my own end papers. I was really happy with how it turned out, so much so, that we might print some fabric with the frog, and definitely more paper. I hope the recipient really enjoys it.

just one more week to I go home for the Christmas Break!

something sneaky

My sisters and my best friend Jessica, always try to think of the grossest way to say any one thing. Some things have gotten so gross we made Mom sick. We just gross each other out, and it's really funny. SO, I was trying to think of the grossest way to say "sneak peek".

Sneakle Peekle. I think that was the grossest I got.
well here it is as promised.