Christmas in Sept Photo shoot

I have been working on my other life, working for our music business, getting house back together, etc......hmm.

But I know it is my art that brings me so much joy! As wonderful as my life is and traveling and everything else when you an artist you must do your art to feel alive and balanced!

I am thankful for the Gift by God of my talent as an artist. I need to honor it as a part of me that I must do. Even in the midst of all the other to do lists that are very real.

So in the moment of assessing my long list of things I have to do I sat back and thought which of these are full of Art???... and can they give me those moments of Joy I am missing........

I realized that the poster for our Victorian Christmas with John Doan needed to be redone. It has been more years than I can count.



I decided to use my imagination...another gift of God.... so while laying on the couch I sat and dreamed...and prayed about it.

The old poster and PR photo was so strong and wonderful. I didn't think I could top it for design.
We used the Thomas Nast Night before Christmas image as my starting point. I had fun designing the costume..gathering the items needed to dress John etc. I was proud of it...then...
But how could I ever top that????

and then as I mused...it came to me...!!!! I needed to find a top hat..going for the Dickens look...
I was so happy and full of excitement. The next day I went to the University where my husband teaches. I was happy to walk around Willamette University and visit the theater dept. I had a wonderful time talking with the costume designer. The joy was coming..seeing their new shows costumes coming to life...gathering props.....weee..eeee.eeee!

A silk top hat, a little Holly, and a silk ribbon..what magic...


Next came the decorating the mantel....I invited my neighbor girl friend over to help me...
She added more JOY!!!
Dancing around and singing the carols...
Finally our dear friend Neil Haugen came along side with all his lights and camera's and took the most amazing photo's! I will post some when we get them back...but let me tell you they from what I saw in in camera they are so amazing...if you need some great pics of your family and live in Oregon give him a call!! click here.

And finally I had to dress up so I could be in a couple of the shots for our Christmas card picture...It was so so fun.

By the way I am going to be using facebook more as my new Mac uploads pics quickly to facebook and I like the mini bloggy life there..but I really love my real blog more...
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