Omigod! 2 posts in the same day? In the same week? In the same month? Yes! I am getting ready for el dia de los muertos, celebrated in Mexico, on November 2nd. El dia de los muertos is 1 of my favorite days of the year. Besides working in my book and on my soul cards, I worked on this paper mache skull (calavera). I spent a lot of time decorating the calavera. Now, the only thing it still needs is a sealer. Once I seal the artwork, it will be off to a new home; 1 of my closest friends will be the recipient of this gift.

Speaking of el dia de los muertos, here are some places worthy of checking out because they offer classes and so much more regarding this important day:

1. The Folk Tree in Pasadena

2. Olvera Street in the downtown Los Angeles area

3. Self-Help Graphics in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles

Check my blog for links to all 3. There, you will find schedules of the events these 3 offer, as well as their hours of operation.

Boy, have I been swamped the last couple of weeks! We just finished week 3 of the new school year. I will soon be leaving Wilson again. I have been promoted to a Director's position and will be working @ our local district office. In my new role, I will be opening 5 new schools on 1 campus and re-structuring another school into small schools. Target date: September 2010. Since I am still @ my old job, I have been really doing 2 jobs @ the same time. Although challenging and never boring, to do both places justice, I need to move on to the new job. But I also still need to make time for art-making. As Jack Nicholson famously said in The Shining, "All work makes Jack a dull boy." Yesterday, I spent a good chunk of the day creating new art. I worked on my soul cards and added 2 more to my deck.

And I worked on 2 new pages in my book. I like the way these 2 pages flowed together and as an afterthought, I added the soul card to the center of these pages. This is the 1st work I have created in over 2 weeks. And my blog can attest to that...

A couple of new pages from the current book I have been working in for most of the summer. Today was the first "official" day of the new school year. It was absolutely exhausting... I am looking forward to the weekend because I will be teaching the "Soul Cards" class this Saturday. Besides teaching the class, I will be working side-by-side with my students, and continuing to expand on my soul cards deck.

The end of summer... wow, where did the time go? Here are some more shots of our recent trip to Sonoma. The 1st shot, my husband and I took in the lobby of the hotel we stayed @. On our last night, we hung out in the lobby after dinner, for a couple of hours. The 2 of us spent time near the fire, reading and enjoying each other's company. We feel very blessed to have such a wonderful life
together-30 years this February.

A shot of the garden, directly across the street from "The French Laundry". I wonder if Thomas Keller ever uses anything in this garden for the meals he prepares...

The Yountville landscape - breath-taking.

On our last day in Sonoma, we stopped @ the Oakville Market, in Yountville. We bought sandwiches, chips, olives, drinks, and sweets for an impromptu picnic. I took these photos while we were inside the market, trying to decide on what to eat. Look at these olives inviting you to dig in with that spoon.

Every type of cheese you could imagine.

More cheeses, local products and beautiful packaging.

One last shot of the cheese bar. Tonight, as a swan song to summer, we enjoyed a barbeque, just the 2 of us, and hung out in our backyard. Lately, I have been spending a lot of time in my garden and it is really starting to take off! Everything seems to be blooming! It is hard to imagine that we have been in this place for a year. Hard to imagine that it will soon be the 1 year anniversary of Mom's passing. Hard to imagine that tomorrow I start year 25 with LAUSD. Where has all that time gone? Wasn't it just yesterday that I couldn't sleep all night, anticipating my 1st day as an English teacher?! Well, as crazy as this may sound, I still have the same excitement and restless night before the new school starts. When I no longer feel that way, it is time to do something else.

Some new art (finally!). Tonight, I completed my dozen soul cards that are my sample set for a class I will teaching next weekend.

These 4 cards are the last of the sample cards I made for my upcoming class. I started working on these when we were up in Sonoma almost 2 weeks ago. It is really hard for me to carve out some time to work on my various art projects, but these soul cards are like working on ATC's because of their size and they are so portable, that you can really work on them just about anywhere. I still have some more pictures I want to post regarding our Sonoma trip, but they will have to wait for my next post.