Booo-tiques and such

Our Halloween came early and eerily with scratchings and groanings in the darkest hours of the night. DH and I both heard all manner of strange sounds coming from a high corner of the bedroom and immediately guessed we had squirelly co-inhabitants in our attic. so the local pest control was duly contacted and a handsome young prince was sent out to do battle with whatever furry monsters were lurking above our heads. he climbed into our attic and found.......NADA......NOthing....NoONE and no signs of any mortal creature. Hmmm.

So DH led the befuddled prince outdoors to show him some other beasties that were nesting under the eves of the winged kind. All of sudden they both charged into the house begging me to join them to view a wonder of sorts..they had found our noisy beastie. I wish I could have gotten a photo of him, but he was pretty much tucked under the edge of the roof peering out at us weird Halloweenies with his great big owlie eyes. Yep, we have the most gorgeous gold and cream colored Owl living up under our roof edge, right over the bedroom window. I was so excited that I immediately gave him permission to stay with us and eat any verminous characters that might threaten our castle. so between some late season spider webs draped delicately around the roof edge and our new guardian, we are all ready for any tricks that might appear on Sunday evening!

So what do these images have to do with Halloween..um..nothing...They do, however have a great deal to do with the Unique Boutique I am participating in just three weeks away. ARGH !!!!! I decided after being accepted to sell almost exclusively prints and reproductions of my favorite works..keeping the originals for a future and as yet unscheduled exhibition. I used the folks at moo.com for postcards, greeting cards and mini business cards. They do a great job and are really fast and affordable. They use recycled paper and the results are just wonderful. The art prints I had done are all on the highest quality paper and high quality inks. I love the way they came out and have mated some of them and then mounted a few on art boards so they are ready to hang.

All of this ordering, mounting, packaging and planning has kept me insanely busy. I feel like I am whizzing through the days with scarcely a bit of time to visit with our new feathered boarder. That said, there have been some lovely Autumn-y moments of deep appreciation for the softer fall colors on the trees this year and a few moonlight wanderings with my faithful studio dog, Demi. I get the sense of year running down... a year that has been a bit if a roller coaster ride emotionally. Losses and gains seem to balance in the long run. the pleasure of playing with glitter charmed little girls is a definite salve to the grief of losing a parent. Not a replacement by far, but a smile to the promise of future wonders. One business is slowly replacing another, this place becomes more of a home. Change is constant , balance is there if you look for it. In yoga, one can only hold the delicate balance of tree pose if one concentrates completely on focusing attention on a single point. The trick is choosing a focal point with benevolence and wisdom