DONE now...I think...

...and yes, a VERY long way from Zen-like simplicity!

But...I do tend to value comfort at my great age, and I need my art supplies, books, cooking area, mugs, pottery, basket, cubbies, skulls, bits of wood, weeds, rocks, oddities, candles, bird seed, heaters...and my goofy chair, which rocks and swivels and lets me see out the windows at a moment's notice, whether out the front or the back...
 
So one day last week when I was working at the computer over at the house, J. had a bit of shed time himself. He'd been saying he didn't NEED a comfy chair.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight...

We found this one at Olde Towne Mall here in town, the same place we got my chair.  We choose them for comfort, not looks, obviously!

Is this a happy face, or WHAT??  He even took a nap!

But yeah.  I think that's about it, if we're planning to be able to move...

Here's the Shed's Award!

As we announced in THIS POST, we were honored to receive the MGM Studio award from Katherine Tyrrell's marvelous Making a Mark blog.  In case you haven't found it before, Katherine offers a prodigious amount of wonderful information for artists, on everything from sketching on the spot to major shows and awards around the world, from book reviews to tutorials. 

This morning she sent the plaque to go with the award, which I'm pleased to add to our sidebar!  Thank you, Katherine, the shed IS working wonderfully for me...

Another cold morning...

This was the view from the front yard, just before sunrise the other morning...really looks like it's in the woods, doesn't it?  I bought this lot because it backs up to a wooded hill that's kept encroaching in our direction!  At one time, the lot across the alley was a garden...it grew up in small trees.  When the house next door burned down, I bought this lot, and this was where MY garden was.  But the trees grew up here too, so now the shed feels wonderfully isolated.

As long as you don't look south, which is all houses and the small state highway!

And for those who have asked about keeping warm...so far, this is working.  And polar fleece leggings, and a robe...

Mostly.  With a tower heater left on low all night... :-)

Snow days

The sky was a beautiful warm peach this morning, and the sun hadn't yet cleared the East hill beyond the shed...the snow still looked blue and cold.  And well it might, it was 10 degrees when I went out to take photos, and had been colder still.

Enough warmth escapes through the roof to soften the snow and make it slide down the smooth metal.  The icicles curved oddly, and I had to get a photo!

We got about 8" of snow; I wanted to get out to the alley and get a shot of the shed before it got too tracked up.  Those are mostly my footprints and the neighborhood cats, along with a few hungry squirrels digging beneath the snow for their buried provisions.

And sure enough, the bowl of water on the floor inside had a rime of ice on it...

The Shed's a great observation blind

He came cautiously down the tree, then peered around the vine, then stood at attention near the platform feeder until he was SURE the coast was clear.

Normally when I reach for my pencil the squirrels scatter, but not this time. I got to do a LOT of quick sketches in various mediums...soft graphite, ink, a mechanical pencil...even got a few photos through the big French doors...

I've been told that gray squirrels and fox squirrels won't inhabit the same territory, but no one's told the squirrels!