I can tell I’m getting cabin fever already — it’s not even the end of January and I’m already restless and occasionally worthless. I don’t feel like writing, I don’t feel like crafting, reading puts me to sleep. 

It’s this late sunrise/early sunset that throws what circadian rhythm I have left off into a whirling dervish. 

So to fulfill my antsy pantsiness, here are a few totally useless facts that will make you smile. 

• The King of Hearts is the only king in a deck of cards without a mustache. (I wonder if he feels left out.)

• “Dreamt” is the only word in the English language that ends with “mt.” (MmmHmm…mt)

• Pogonophobia is the fear of beards. (maybe that’s what the King of Hearts has!)

• If you open your eyes in a pitch-black room, the color you’ll see is called “eigengrau.” (I thought it was just called black.)

•  “Tesseradecades,” “aftercataracts,” and “sweaterdresses” are the longest words you can type using only your left hand. (I see you all trying a bunch of words holding your right arm behind your back.)

• It’s impossible for you to lick your own elbow. (I see you trying this, too!)

• A “jiffy” is about one trillionth of a second. (Sometime during the late 18th or early 19th centuries, scientist Gilbert Newton Lewis defined a jiffy as the amount of time it takes light to travel one centimeter in a vacuum, which is about 33.4 picoseconds or one trillionth of a second.)

• It’s possible to lead a cow upstairs… but not downstairs. (I can’t say I’ve ever tried this.)

• The little dot above a lowercase “i” and “j” has a name. (What is it???)

• Your stomach produces a new layer of mucus every two weeks so that it doesn’t digest itself. (How lovely.)

• The little dot is called a “tittle”.( it’s likely a combination of the words “tiny” and “little” since it is an itty-bitty dot.)

• A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out. (I never noticed.)

• You can’t hunt camels in Arizona. (I never checked that out in Wisconsin.)

• Most car horns are in the key of F. (and still obnoxious.)

• Napoleon’s penis was sold to an American Urologist for $40,000.

Ahem…. and with that …

Thank you Best Life and Thought Catalog for spicing up my boring day.

Every day is a great day to give love, spread joy, and SPARKLE!
~ Sheri Fink

Another holiday season  is over. Trees and lights packed away, parts of toys already missing, boxes opened and tossed along with instructions — all part of the Christmas Aftermath.

I myself have been having a riot finding new artists for my Gallery. I have put out feelers and followed leads and opened an art site only to be led down several different paths until I’ve gotten lost and had to send up a balloon for someone to find me.

I often wish there was a way to broadcast my Gallery so that others could find it and wander through gallery after gallery of unique art. Truly unique art.

But this is a personal venture for me, not commercial. I don’t have money to advertise nor connections to those in power to share on bigger and broader blogs and medias. It’s a little guy’s idea in a little guy’s side of the world, which in itself is unique.

I know I’ve said this a dozen times before, but these talents I’ve highlighted are so diversified and so unique they make you step back and say “WOW” and really mean it.

I suppose this Monday blog is turning into a plug for the Sunday Evening Art Gallery. Why not? Friends are the best telegraph systems in the world.

Have your friends go to the sight and pick a gallery and look at all the magic within. We have photographers, glass blowers, calligraphists, painters, collagists, woodworkers, miniaturists, installation artists, surrealists, impressionists, precious stones, acts of Mother Nature, clock makers, shoe designers, ceramicists, furniture designers, and florists.

What more art could a person want?

Come browse around one evening if you’re bored. Tell your friends. Request your favorite artists.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and there’s so many unique directions to wander!

If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.

~Marc Chagall (1887-1985)

No matter where you are this holiday season, here are some artists to make your days Merry and Bright!

LOVE  YOU  ALL!!

I swear that being sick as a senior citizen is just as bad as being sick as a toddler.

Only with more perked up ears.

Used to be you had a bad cold or the flu you took cold medicine and went to work. Or school. You can afford to miss one or two days, but for the ones that hold on for almost a week — you just can’t afford missing more days.

When I was 40 I would get hit with a bad flu/cold once a year. Chicken soup and bedrest and NyQuil was the answer.

But now that I’m older I have to perk up those ears. Pay more attention. Is it Covid-19? The beginning of pneumonia? Statistics say that, after heart disease and cancer, Covid-19 and Chronic lower respiratory diseases are the major causes of death in older people.

First thing most of us senior citizens do is check the internet every hour in case there’s statistical updates and/or signs to look out for. But eventually:

Hear that wheezing? Call the doctor.

Have a fever? Call the doctor.

Can’t get out of bed? Call the doctor.

It sounds like I’m poking fun at getting sick, and half of me is. I never had such knee-jerk reactions to a wheeze or a light headed episode before.

But when I was 40 we didn’t have Covid-19 around, either.

Like toddlers, we often don’t know what’s wrong with us. Boogey nose, tired, cranky — that’s our lives most every day! Allergies? Have never really been tested for them. Sinus problems? Nasal passage is clear — who knows what causes all that post nasal drip?

It used to be that chicken soup and aspirin and Vicks VapoRub would cure anything.

I wish it were that easy these days. 

Don’t ignore your signs. Hey — that means you, too, youngsters around 40 or 50 years old! There’s weird stuff in the air that can strike any of us at any time. Don’t get paranoid, don’t panic — just listen to that voice in your head that says ‘check me out.’ You’ll know it when you hear it.

P.S. I did go to the doctor and my lungs are clear and I have no fever, so suck it up, buttercup….

P.P.S. Where’s my chicken soup?

Michael Peuster is a stone carver from Idar-Oberstein, Germany.Based in western Germany, the artist is a graduate of Idar-Oberstein Technical School for Gemstone Jewelry Design.Brilliant stone cutter, jeweler and engraver, Peuster has created a stunningly gallery of exquisite works that are real masterpieces.The striking realism of carved of gemstone sculptures is the result of many years of work, practice, and talent of the jeweler.Trained as a goldsmith and gem cutter, Peuster works with many different types of gems – agate, opal, amethyst, beryl, quartz, crystal, and others.Most of the work by the German master is dedicated to rendering faces in a host of forms: Cameos, low relief carvings, which project only slightly from the surface on which they are carved; and reverse intaglios, carvings etched into the backs of polished gems then painted with oils to produce lifelike images with a 3-D effect. “A carving will be around longer than any photo. Think about the images we have from antiquity. They are carvings,” Peuster said.“These gemstones will have the same beauty in a thousand years.”More of Michael Peuster‘s exquisite carvings can be found at https://nasvete.com/german-stone-carver-michael-peuster and https://gemstone-engraving.com/.

I dig through the catacombs
For something to write
Who am I?
What am I?

Guidelines send me awhirl
Down the vortex and up again
The choice of words
Cutting edge?
Metered Rhyme?

Or should I keep familiar
Witty quips
Fantasy escapes
What words fit?
Which one’s work?

Something white bread soft
A choice once so easy
Now so complex
Who am I?
What am I?

I can keep it safe
Metaphors and clichés
Bedtime stories and morality plays
Who is the narrator?
What is the theme?

I can try abstract
Obscure, Obtuse
Should it make sense?
Rhyme and Shine?
Do I need to always explain?

Or I can go over the top
Madness and mayhem
Fusion and futility
Who am I?
What am I?

I need to start again
Dig deeper into the vault
Turn the box inside out
Should fire now be ice?
Should down now be up?

But in the end
I come to the surface
There never was an answer
What was the point?
What does it matter?

Mozart’s delight has turned
Sour with the morning light
It seems I will never know
Who am I?
What am I?

c2007

Carol Emarthle-Douglas considers herself a traditional and contemporary basket weaver.

Emarthle-Douglas’ training and experience came from the Basket Weaving School in Seattle along with native elders from the Northwest Native Basketweavers Association at their yearly gathering.

The artist’s inspiration is taken from her Northern Arapaho and Seminole heritage.

She bases her designs on the Plains style beadwork, ledger art, and parfleche designs from her mother’s tribe and the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma on her father’s side.“It is very important to me to pour a lot of love, respect, and careful attention to details in my work,” the artist explains.“I aim to produce strong baskets and other artwork that are able to stand the test of time.”

More of Carol Emarthle-Douglas‘ amazing hand-crafted baskets can be found at https://www.cemarthleart.com/.

Joana Vasconcelos is a French-Portuguese sculptor and multimedia artist known for her large-scale installations that demonstrate a feminist perspective and comment on cultural tradition and consumerism.Vasconcelos studied at the Centro de Arte & Comunicação Visual in Lisbon.The artist plucks basic items from reality and repeats them on an unprecedented scale to form the bones of something utterly different.She sees our belongings — everything from pots and pans to wheel rims and  fabrics to pianos and laptops  —as personal, ready-made building blocks for publicly-attuned art.Best known for her outsized, tongue-in-cheek sculptural installations, Vasconcelos often humorously takes on issues ranging from gender identity to consumerism. Her artwork assaults the senses with luxurious gigantism and operatic overtones, but they also resonate with something deeper than contemporary culture.Asked for advice for young artists, Vasconcelos says, “Never give up. Every time someone tells you to give up, just carry on.”More of Joana Vasconcelos‘ incredible installations can be found at www.joanavasconcelos.com

Watching it snow outside my front window, readjusting my snuggly grey blankie on my lap, I’m wondering where this blog entry should go.

I really DO want to write something, but it’s bleak and depressing outside, leaving very little room for ambition or creativity.

Bring in the Kitties and Puppies.

These two staples never fail to bring a smile to grumpy faces, including mine. There are plenty of other days to be creative, artistic, and cosmic — today is more of a reflective, movie, good book, pet-your-pet kinda day.

I hope you have one of these days soon. They really do recenter you.

Don’t go there.

That can be said of many things. Standing water during a flood. Desolate houses in the dark woods. Do not cross yellow warning tape.

I also use that phrase for memories that like to hang around in my head too long.

It’s not that I have not acknowledged these experiences — as a matter of fact, I think I’ve over-felt and over-thought many things in my life.

But I find that, on a day to day basis, I am better off closing those doors more often than not. 

If you have a wandering mind like I do, it’s easy to start with one thought, one emotion, then, instead of acknowledging and letting it go, you let it sit and simmer and steam and overcook in your psyche until you are sick to your stomach.

I think that’s what anxiety attacks are all about.

Thinking and over-thinking doesn’t work at all. We all know that. Past events are just that. In the past. You can’t change one damn thing.

But still, it’s like opening that big oak door just a little. Not much — just a crack. Just so you can get a little peek, hold onto just a little memory.

Some of us handle that little peek just fine. But for others, all you need to do is open the door a crack and, like a raging flood, everything comes pushing through at one time, and before you know it you’re dealing with pain and angst and confusion you already thought you’d handled.

So for me, the smart thing to do is to say Don’t Go There.

I say it in a nice way. Not a nasty, told-you-so way, but in an easy, best-friend-and-protector kind of way. I find a way to distract my thoughts and funnel them into more of a “today” moment or a “tomorrow” moment. 

The forces that be understand that. They have no problem with acceptance and distraction. They know I’ve learned. I’ve grown. I’ve survived. I don’t need a constant reminder.

My age is a constant reminder of the long path I’ve left behind.

Stones are mute teachers; they silence the observer, and the most valuable lesson we learn from them we cannot communicate.

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Into the morning, I am melting
wildflower honey spread across a canvas, warming
a mind massaged by his magical toes, now rested……..

To those of you who pop in now and then, I thank you. For those of you who take moments to talk to me in comments, I double thank you.

What I wanted to do on this rainy day, though, is introduce those of you who love art (and have never visited online galleries much) to come on over and check out my sister site:  SUNDAY EVENING ART GALLERY.

If you love art — especially unique art — this is the place to wander.

The front page is one long front array of boxes filled with pictures from individual artists. Click on the picture and it takes you to at least a dozen more from the artist.

The gallery covers all sorts of artists: painters, photographers,  graphic designers, ceramics artists, jewelers, quilters, glass artists, designers — any artist that creates something different.

Something that makes you say — WOW.

The art could be centuries old (Michelangelo) to general Earthly wonders (Cloud Formations) to modern sculptures (Wenqin Chen).

Its all amazing and all free.

I’m not promoting my blog just because it’s my blog — I’m promoting my blog because there’s soooo much great art! Share the pure beauty of such incredible imaginations.

It will make you happy and your friend happy! 

The chill in the air can’t keep creativity away!   Here are some photographs I’ve taken through the years of the beautiful world I am lucky enough to call home. Have a beautiful week.