Hello 2014

Another new year! I confess I'm always glad when the calendar flips over to a clean slate, and "the holidays" are in the rear view mirror. Don't get me wrong - I love all the over-eating and baking and decorating and presents and good cheer and all, but I'm also relieved when everything goes back to normal! 

So, a little something old to share first. Remember when I was doing these muffin cups? There are four of them, all a little 'off' (meaning, not the traditional "standing straight up with a perfect muffin inside" take on this subject).

I did the muffin cups, then put them aside and moved on to something else (that happens a lot), and am now getting back to finishing up the blueberry muffins themselves. Good thing I took good reference, because the 'live models' are long gone! And they were delicious.

I haven't signed this yet because I'll wait until I have all four done, then do some tweaking to make sure they're all on the same level of finish. 

And now an all new piece. These are Mochi Balls, which are a Japanese/Hawaiian peanut candy treat. They come in the funnest colors, and are a traditional Japanese new year's thing. Well, sort of. Actually, Mochi cakes are the traditional Japanese new year's treat, and are a very different thing than these little peanut candies. But they're not as much fun to draw. Mochi cakes are basically a soft, rice cake kind of thing (forgive me, my dear Japanese friends for not explaining this well). These Mochi Balls are peanuts, coated in some combination of sugar + seaweed, sesame, coconut oil, and soy sauce. Some of them (which I haven't started to color yet) remind me of dinosaur eggs! You'll see, as I get into this more.

2014 is going to be busy, I can feel it. There are already 'real' projects on the board, as well as big plans for some self-generated projects I've had on a back burner for way too long. I can't wait to get started on them all!

We are officially having a drought here this year. They say 2013 was the driest year in recorded history! We've seen no rain for weeks, which is nice for the kitties, who love to lay in a sunny window or out on the back porch. My next door neighbor and I are planning a "new fence" project to be done in the next few weeks, which normally would have to wait until Spring. Of course we'll be paying for this at some point with water rationing, and whatever other ecological bad things have occurred because of the dry winter. But for now I'm selfishly enjoying the cool, dry sunny days.

I hope this new year is a good one for all of you!