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I live near a neighborhood called "Candy Cane Lane" that decorates their houses with lots of Christmas lights. Maybe Grand Ma got run over by a reindeer (a cheesy song) because Santa was driving a truck with Mrs. Claus.

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Yes, I know it is almost Christmas (or Kwanzaa, or whatever you may celebrate), but I was putting together some family pictures and thought I would share.

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I'm finally done finishing up my BA at UMass Boston.
It's finally starting to sink in.
I will not get my diploma until February, and I want to perma plaque it, which takes (another) 8-10 weeks.
When it gets here, I'll make a nice color copy of it and put it in a frame while I'm waiting for the perma plaque to get back.
But that means I still don't have anything for now.
Hmm.
So this is what I did. I went out and bought a mat for a frame that I already have.
Then I printed a B+W laser copy of a photo a classmate sent me when she finished in August. I've kept the photo on my desk top as a reminder and motivation when I was pulling my hair out writing a paper. (I swear I had a lot more hair 16 months ago when I started school again to finish at UMass.) I cut out the diploma portion of the photo, and scotch taped it to the mat.
Totally silly, I know.

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On Thanksgiving my family gathered at my cousin's house. My cousin Asley, 9, (with the pony tail) is a gymnast. Jumping around with her are my nephew, Ian, and my niece, Michaela. I don't mean Ashley takes a gymnastics class. I mean she is a gymnast. She trains 6 days a week and is home schooled by her mom, Michelle. Ashley declared to her pediatrician at age 5 that she was going to be a gymnast. Really. I couldn't make that up. What's even more astonishing is that she is completely self motivated--this is NOT coming from her parents. Her drive at such a young age is remarkable. She called up her dad (cousin Arnie) at work one day (unusual by itself) and asked if he would get her a trampoline for their backyard so she could train more. Wow. With the high cost of education, we're all hoping she lands a college scholarship, too :-)

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I discovered art glass many years ago, but at the time it never occurred to me that I could learn to do it myself. So about 3 years ago I took a glass blowing class at Santa Monica College, one of the very few public institutions left that still offer it. I have not blown much in the past year as I have been to busy shooting or working on my classes at UMass to devote the time and energy to it that is really necessary to get good at it.
It's incredibly demanding, and also very expensive and time consuming--kind of like photography, but more dangerous :-). The glass is over 2,000 degrees, and when you work with it, sometimes the only thing between you and a large glob of molten glass is some wet newspaper. Cuts, nicks, dehydration, and of course burns, are quite common. Glass can also explode (literally) if it cools too fast, so when you are in a hot shop, frequently one can hear cracks and pops above the roar of the furnace. I've been cut by flying glass on at least two occasions that I can remember.
I made one pic as a self portrait--look carefully and you will see my reflection. The deep red is because thats just what this glass looks like when it gets "thin" at the bottom of a piece.
The other pic is of the same glass bowl with no added light or photoshop tricks. The patterns and colors are from the metals (gold in this case) in some of the glass I used. It is a process called reduction. It is called reducing because you bring out the metals to the surface by reducing the amount of oxygen in the gas/oxygen mix when you re-heat the glass.
Anyway..... so, um, Dude, what's the wedding connection, huh? I'm so glad you asked! At Rob and Amy's wedding, they gave away succulents as wedding favors. My mom hauled some of them home. The TSA cops at the airport looked at her funny, but let her through with them. I just transplanted them in a larger terra cotta pot, and I put some colored bits of purple/blue and yellow glass shards in the pot also. I think it looks really cool! Do you do any crafty kinds of things, dangerous or otherwise?