Whew..........

***GRINCH ALERT***

DON'T GO ANY FURTHER

IF YOU AREN'T PREPARED

FOR A LITTLE  LOT OF WHINING.....

Things have been....shall we say....a wee bit stressful around Casa Jody lately!

I'll begin with my job...I have worked for the Sheriffs' Office here in my county

 for thirteen years. We elect a new Sheriff every four years. At the end of each

four year term we automatically don't have a job....even if the same Sheriff keeps

the office. We have to reapply just as if we've never worked there. Well...we have

a new Sheriff taking office this January so I may or may not have a job next year.

Needless to say that put a crimp on Christmas.

Next....my oldest daughter moved into my already small home with her two children...

my thirteen yr old grandson and ten yr old granddaughter...until she can get her tax return

(something that's NOT looking promising here in the States any time soon!) and

find a place of her own. Talk about a MAJOR change for me....I feel I've been

displaced in my own home.

And....in the middle of all this my MacBook Pro died....leaving me without Photoshop CS5

and all the other software I use in my art!!!! It's the logic board....the mother board in a PC.

And no....of course...I don't have anything backed up and no reinstall CDs for the CS5.

I do keep all my art and images on a jump drive so I've got that.

So now I need to decide if I should invest $500 to fix a six yr old laptop or put that

towards a new one and HOPE I can salvage my software and data from the hard drive.

Not a decision I'm prepared to make without knowing I have a job January 1st.

In the meantime I've pulled out this thirteen yr old PC with all its' quirks just to

be able to do anything.

Soooooooo....I found myself at home alone...WONDERFUL....WONDERFUL...

and decided to make a little art to soothe my soul. I grabbed a ClayBord and began

layering plaster...gesso...and paint. After an hour or so as I started a new layer

the whole shebang slid off the board leaving me with this:

Note to self... stick to the wood panels for this kind of art....another lesson learned! 

 Oh well....I can start over now with the layers since the clay is gone.

 And working in my studio.......

 it really was good for my soul!