Holiday Gifts

It’s past time to be thinking about making gift type items for sale this holiday season,  I’m starting anyway.  Last month I did a couple wine bottle dolls using the bottle cut in half.  I thought about using the top of the bottle next until I walked into my studio recently and noticed this bottle.

This is not a very good photo, the bottle sits on top of one of the tall bookcases in my studio.  I made it years ago and never did anything more than put it up there.  On another shelf sits a stump doll I made a couple years ago; she won an award and I realized she had a shape rather like a wine bottle, no legs.   Hmmmm …  maybe I could put a head on the cork. Oh yes, and then perhaps one of the many inspirational quotes I collect can go inside the bottle… another prototype is now in process and I’m really liking this one….

Still a ways to go on her but I know the head works.  This one will stay here with me.  I’ve got a small collection of wine bottles but I’ll need more and I think something other than Chardonnay, this one has very droopy shoulders.  Guess I need to drink more wine

West Virginia Retreat

I’m just back from a week spent with 6 wonderful women that I graduated from high school with.  We’ve all taken different paths in life yet the bond remains strong 53 years later.  In this first photo 6 of us are headed off on a hike while our hostess takes her afternoon nap.

She and her husband bought this lovely spot in West Virginia as a place for their large family to gather because they are scattered around the country.  Fortunately for us, it’s large enough for us to gather too. 

Our week was spent just relaxing, enjoying conversation, cards and our surroundings….

 

I took along sketching supplies and some wine glasses and glass paint so everyone could paint their own glass.  Everyone had fun doing the glasses and I did a bunch of zentangles and a few sketches.  The sketches haven’t been scanned yet.

It was a great week, I feel blessed to have these women in my life.