i know i said the studio was my xmas gift . . . but i've had these paints on the brain . . . and doc asked today if i'd like them for xmas. of course i'd like them for xmas! are you high? so, since i bought him two new wheels for his bike, when he gets the money, he is buying me the paints and brushes and canvas boards. they equal about the same amount. i won't get them in time for xmas, but i don't care. we might not even have xmas on the 25th . . . if it is too cold to grill that day, we're going to put it off until New Year's Eve. we'll still open the presents, we're not fools.
he noted that the canvas boards were small. only 10x12 inches. i told him i'm used to working on trading cards, these will be big enough for me. i've done big work, big collages. i hate them. okay, i like to look at them, but i hate that i think about what could have been if i had been working in a smaller area. i don't spread well. i work best on small canvases. that way also, i can use just about anything for a canvas. so what if my art can't be seen from across the room? yeah, you have to get up close to it and look at it and study it, then you see. i like it that way.
Tulip is a nurfle monster. a "nurfle" is a rub of their face against your face. Tulip loves it. i make kissing noises and she rubs on my face and we make out like that. she always jumps on my lap when i'm on the toilet. she knows i'm a captive audience. she stands up on her hind legs and throws herself against the door until she opens it enough to get in. then she climbs up in my lap with little claw and starts to nurfle me. i spend a lot of unintended time on the toilet this way.
no cookie making today. i'm waiting for the candy making. condensed milk is on sale, and the fudge recipe i wanted to use calls for it. the one i didn't want to use calls for cream. and doc gets to pick the nuts. i keep telling him either walnuts or pecans. when cinnamon and sugared, they each have their appeal. the bitter of the walnut goes well with the sugar while the butter of the pecan brings out the cinnamon. either way, i win. he can decide based on what he likes best and what is cheapest.
he has about a half a cup of chopped hazelnuts that are going to go rancid soon. i want to make him biscotti with them, but he is being awfully protective of those nuts, like they are the last hazelnuts on the planet. it's odd what he latches onto. at least i'm obvious, toys, stuffed animals, real animals, shiny things. with him it's a mug or a bag of chopped nuts or candy to bake with. and still he resists as i bake with them. he is an odd duck.
there's a box on my glass work table that i need to go through tomorrow and empty. it is a solid box. a new box. a sturdy box. it will be good to pack things in when i pack things for storage. so i need to empty it. i will do little else in there tomorrow as most of the studio and my wood table are piled with bike parts.
oh, good news! doc is taking the money he would have paid B to do the bike and getting the tool he needs to do it himself! one less thing we need B for. now if doc could just learn how to overhaul the bike . . . right. i can dream. B won't be around forever, he keeps saying they are going to Florida. i don't think he realizes a cross country move with stuff is a multi-thousand dollar adventure. because they aren't going to ride their scooters to Florida. we won't even get into why anyone would want to move there, B belongs there, he's batshit crazy.
years ago i was given a round, rattan coffee table with a glass top. i painted the table and later, when i got glass paints, i painted the top. you may have seen pictures of it. well, a few years ago it broke and there has been a chunk out of it since then. we've tried to mend it, but to no avail. today, on a trash pile, doc found a replacement glass top for the table. right there. and the guy pulled up while he was trying to figure out how to get it home with his bike in tow. and the guy, who has two dogs and knows him from Chewy, puts the glass in his car and follows doc home with it! how cool is that? in one week, two guys and two vans have come to his rescue. i think that is so neat.
so tomorrow i'll clean the glass off, it's a mess. and then i will replace this thing i hate. the colors have all turned with nicotine exposure to take on an eerie yellow hue. i hate it. and the broken bit, that's just dangerous. and it's ugly. it's just something that screams "white trash" and i hate hate hate it.
kelli teased me about my xmas present today, knowing when i got it i was putting it under the tree and not opening it right away. i told her, hah! it will take you forever to get into your gift! i had a gift box from an extravagant Harry & David's gift one year and it fit everything just perfectly, then after i got it packed up, doc said it wouldn't withstand the rigors of the postal system. and i couldn't find a box to switch the stuff to. so i cut apart another box and made a box with the cardboard and tape, around the packed gift box. heh. she'll never get into that thing. i ended up not wrapping each of her movies. i figured she would have saved that up and kicked my ass the next time she came out here.