Christmas and the new year have certainly been busy! Poor blog needs an update.

Let’s start with something simple–I finished a new painting over the weekend.

This is something I was slowly working on since I visited the Georgia Aquarium in August. What an awesome place!! This piece was inspired by the sea dragon and coral there.

On Friday night my boyfriend and I went to see Rufus Wainwright.

He had not been to Florida in many years and I’m so glad he returned. Last time he was here he came to the House of Blues with a full band, including Teddy Thompson, and Martha Wainwright opening. It was amazing! Of course, I imagine every show he’s done has been amazing.

This was very different from that, more relaxed and just beautiful!! He played solo, at a seated venue- a nice performing arts center in Melbourne. We had great seats in the fourth row. I was smiling through the whole thing, and the hour long drive home, and in going to sleep, and the next morning… he’s wonderful! I hope he doesn’t wait another five years before returning to Florida.

Rufus congratulated Florida for becoming a blue state, and in ‘Going To a Town’ sang “I’m NOT so tired of America”. But he did sing that he was tired of California, and Florida… I’m tired of Florida too, even though Florida may be blue, a dreadful thing passed that is against gays, and which affects all domestic partnerships. meh.

I’ve been working on a few bird nest paintings, in the spirit of fall and winter. A couple of cardinals, and a quail in progress…

We have a cat hanging around here. He showed up last week digging in our trash so we gave him real food and have been feeding him since. He is so very friendly, he comes running up, and he’ll jump on your lap and lay down and purr. We’re calling him Augustus. He was definitely someone’s cat because he is fixed, but he doesn’t have a collar- I don’t know if he is lost or abandoned. Tell you what, he won’t sit still for a photo…

The Obama rally yesterday in downtown Orlando was great!

We worked so hard to get out of work early to make it there in time!

See photo below… Obama and Hillary Clinton circled in red… we were faaaar away. But I don’t mind, because it was nice to see so many people (60,000!) there supporting him. Awesome!!

I took my younger sister to see City of Ember yesterday afternoon. I enjoyed the book so I wanted to see it. I thought it was very good, and that it did stay true to the book. The City of Ember is an underground world that hasn’t had anything new come into it in 200+ years. Everything is patched and mended, but can’t be patched and mended much more. It’s a neat concept and the set and costumes were really cool to look at. Well done! There were a few silly bits they could have done without, but overall we both liked it.

The movie is going pretty much unnoticed though. I wasn’t even sure it was out yet due to lack of advertising. That’s a shame, I don’t suppose they’ll make a People of Sparks!

Anyway, here are a couple of thrift finds from Friday. An old school Sesame Street jar, and two matching Anchor Hocking bowls.

This morning I went to the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge to go down their birding trail (Black Point Drive- one of my favorite places) but it was closed due to flooding! I should have known, things haven’t quite recovered from Tropical Storm Fay.

Since the trail was closed, I went to the beach instead. I couldn’t waste driving an hour to the coast, and I don’t regret it- the beach was beautiful and it was really refreshing to be out by the sea. I still saw a lot of birds, too!

New art. Very serious business.

BATMAN! They’re from Pictochat on the Nintendo DS last night while we were sitting in the theater waiting for The Dark Knight to begin. Photographed by Alina, who also drew the lovely sailboat scene and such.

The Dark Knight was marvelous!!

One of my new roomies has seven cats. We were rather nervous about there being so many, but they are all very sweet and also energetic and fun to play with. Then when they get tired from playing they sleep together so lovingly!! I love them!

Glimpses of my new backyard…

Unfortunately at this time it’s too hot, sticky, and buggy to properly explore. But I can tell it’s going to be fun in the fall!

Today marks one week in my new home. I’m renting, with my boyfriend and two of our friends. I moved in last Friday, and took the week off work to fix the house up. It was a week of painting, cleaning, organizing, shopping for important house things, and building furniture from IKEA. It was pretty stressful, but now the house is ready to relax in! (And time to get back to artwork!)

It’s pretty cool, just around the corner from where I lived before with my parents. Like my old home, it’s on 5 acres and we’ve had deer with fawns in the backyard daily. I also spotted a tortoise yesterday. I love spending time outside and being in nature so I’m very thankful to have found this place!