I've been getting my upstairs office more stocked and organized over the winter. File cabinets, desks and equipment to make life more simple for me as I work. Soon I will get more shelving..I can never get enough of it. The furniture store owner laughs as my parents and I all buy lots of bookshelves. Between an addiction for books and need for storage of office stuff, I put the ones I have to good use (they are beginning to bulge, though). There is a lot left to accomplish, so I can get my business expanded. It takes a lot of time and planning. So far, so good.
Recently, I bought a lovely round table in need of refinishing (veneer on the sides was flaked off but the rest is ok). I took it home, cleaned it up and found out that is is a mahogany Duncan Phyfe drum table, a very good brand of furniture. Not bad for twenty bucks. It will look beautiful when I'm done. For now it's still in the "before" phase. If I wasn't a professional artist, I would've loved to be an antique dealer, like my grandparents. They were successful at it and had such beautiful furniture/ taste in things when they were alive. Mom is good at refinishing furniture, learned from them..and I learned from her. I'm not as good as she and dad are, but I've refinished quite a few things throughout my life, each one looking better than the one before. It gets tricky with veneers but in researching supplies, I found sheets of flexible mahogany veneer that I can be to replace the (totally trashed) veneer on the side of the table.
The cats are happy and enjoying life. Farrah has so much fun sleeping in my hair at night, playing with all her toys, birdwatching and spending time with Matisse, her best buddy. A far cry from a rural death row shelter in South Carolina, where she came from. She was going to be killed and I stepped in, they brought her to me and the rest is history. She's deaf (but that doesn't hinder her in any way), pure white and very loving. Cats make the best co-workers..they don't talk back, are quiet (well, until it's time to be fed) and are entertaining, which helps when my brain is fried from working on things..cat petting does wonders for the frazzled soul.
For Spring I'm busy designing a variety of products. I've won awards for some of my designs over the winter, and just keep working on new things. People are responding well to my latest products, which is fuel to work even harder. It takes all my brainpower to think up what to draw and paint. Painting them is the easy part. It's thinking up what to do which is hardest for me. When a new idea comes up suddenly, I have to run and write it down so I don't forget it. If I get overloaded with too many thoughts, it all cancels out in my brain (I go on "auto pilot", so to speak), so it's important to write as much as possible down to not lose the thoughts.
Mom and dad are doing well, thank goodness. Health is ok and we're all keeping ourselves busy with our projects over the winter. We went to a local pancake breakfast recently, which was fun. The breakfasts are usually the first sign of Spring here, as we live in maple syrup making country. When driving it's easy to see maple trees all with buckets or bags attached to them for collecting their sap. Every year my parents and I pig out on pancakes at at least one pancake breakfast. A tradition from before I was born.
I hooked mom on a catalog I ordered flowers from (Michigan Bulb). I ordered some butterfly bushes, honeysuckle, trumpet vines, red and blue cardinalflowers and other great plants over the winter (it's half $ off if you do this) and they will deliver it to me when it's safe to plant..something to look forward to! Mom's getting some flowers too, that catalog is full of so many great kinds of plants that it takes a strong person to avoid the temptation of buying what it sells! Now, if only the weather will improve so we can start gardening. Not too much longer now. I'm thinking positive on this. Come on, Spring! :)
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The Fine Artwork of Carolyn McFann
