3 new pieces and 1 from earlier this year at the Calvert Artists’ Guild’s annual May awards show.  From left top, clockwise:  Woman with Red Bird, Cybele (see here for more info on torsos and masks) Before the Storm, Yardbird.  All one of a kind, hand made by Tammy Vitale.

Loaded into the Calvert Artists’ Guild show at AnnMarie Garden yesterday morning, ran home and finished packaging torsos and mask for Sarah Jessica Fine Arts in Provincetown, MA and sent them out UPS.  They are wrapped and packaged with double outside boxing (one box over the other) and the piece in a separate inside box.  That makes 3 boxes.  Let’s see if UPS can manage to get these there with no problems.  It galls me that UPS measures the outside of the box, requiring 2 boxes in order to reimburse for damage…so they get you in weight and size because they are incompetant!  And yet I use them again because I have a UPS close to me that I can go mail from.  $136.00 for 2 torsos and a mask.  Oof.  Which reminds me – has anyone read that the Post Office is now adjusting its rates yearly in May?  I just read that.  I guess with fuel rising every 10 seconds that necessary. 

The I went and did 6 miles on the elipsis machine to my newly ordered songs on my IPOD.  And I’m only minimally sore this morning!  I’m getting better at it and while I’m doing it I don’t feel a thing – just me grooving to the music!

Then shower and off to First Friday in Leonardtown where the traffic is definitely picking up!  Many of the surrounding stores have joined the art galleries and restaurants so there was a wine tasting (and I bought a bottle under $10 at P.S. It’s All Good (what a name for a shop!)! along with a container of 4 sections with herbs to add to olive oil for dipping bread – yum.  I was told they could be mixed with cream cheese for dip, but the dipping oil is all I want).

We planted these two rhododenruns as babies 15 years ago when we moved in our house.  Last year they had 1 bloom between them for the first time ever.  This year – well, just lookie!  That helps make up for none of my azaleas blooming.  But it has been a good year for daffodils, tulips and the now-waning lilies of the valley that surround the pond, which are finally naturalizing (here when we moved in).  I love lilies of the valley – the smell always takes me back to my childhood because we had a corner of them in our yard.   Better than honeysuckle for sweet fragrance!

Today is gallery sitting…I owe two hours but will probably wander up early and hang out.  Some of my favorite folks are there.  Tomorrow I’ve worked it out so that I can take a class in fusing silver wire into necklaces with Tricia of the Bead Boutique and still make it down to the show in time for load out.  Looking forward to a fun weekend!

thought for the day:   It doesn’t take any longer to build a business that fits just-right than to cobble together one that pinches and pulls at you.  both take a tremendous amount of time and energy.  That’s the way it is.  The only question is whether you’ll spend that energy trying to turn yourself into something you aren’t or figuring out how to use your strengths to do what needs to be done.  Molly Gordon, The Way of the Accidental Entrepreneur:  The practical path to building a business that fits "just right"