Exuberance

This is my idea of exuberance. It is being auctioned off on Ebay this Sunday.

Just a tad brighter than my usual work, huh? Every now and then I get into one of those crazy moods. I am NOT in one of those moods today. Not exuberant. Not even close. It has been quite a while since I have seen more than a brief ray of sunshine. Central PA is like that this time of year. I have yet to get used to it. There have been many flurries and even a dusting of snow the other day. Yes, I have read other blogs and know others' snow stories. It hasn't been so bad hear yet. I just want to see some sunshine, though. The hubby is away on business. That could be part of my non-exuberance. It is Monday. Although I usually love Mondays. I'm a rarity, aren't I. I love to think about a whole week laid out in front of me. Lots of studio time. Long periods of thinking time. I need that sort of time.

On Saturday, my daughter spent a couple of hours with me in my studio. I don't usually get much studio time on the weekend, but this time I was "lucky." The hubby had some work to do to prepare for his trip, and my daughter was sent to the studio to be entertained. When she came into my studio, I warned her she was not going to be entertained & she couldn't do a lot of talking (VERY difficult for her). She asked if she could do some stamp carving. She did it with great exuberance.

If any of my readers are from Social Services, they should go elsewhere. I encourage my daughter to use dangerous tools. I taught her 8-10 months ago stamp carving techniques and she has been begging me to let her do some REAL stuff ever since. So what the heck. I explained once again the safety tips and let her go at it. Then I explained to her how expensive carving blocks are. She was impressed to know that it would take her 5 allowances to buy a 7"x10" carving block. Then I cut her a couple of squares and explained how she should plan ahead by drawing her shape onto tracing paper in the size of the block. Then she needed to turn the tracing paper over and transfer the design onto the block. She thought that was pretty magical. Then she went to town with the carving tools. Her first idea was a snowflake. I think it turned out quite well.
She is now thinking of making her own Christmas cards. I am pretty impressed.

Now I am off to do some Etsy surfing. Does anyone know what 17-year-old girls like? I'm baffled.