Opening Night of Racing

Friday night was opening night of racing at Buffalo Raceway, and the 7th race went very well for Mike and Sumi. You can see her blow by the doll at the head of the stretch by clicking on the 7 here to watch the race. Check out the look on Mike's father's face in the winner's circle. Sumaturo is his horse, and it's her first race of the year. He looks like the proud papa, doesn't he? And here at home, Hailey and I were jumping up and down watching the race on the computer... yay DADDY!!!!!

http://66.209.93.91/racereplays/search.php?customerid=4816436e4cb6f06908d901f3742981d3

Ok, as of right now, I can't get this link to work. Mind you, I am no computer genious. However, I can still balance a chemical equation, though I have as yet had ZERO need to do this since my regents chem exam. I aced it, by the way. Anyhow... you'll have to copy and paste the web address, and then go to the 15th of February, and then to the 7th race to see the stupid horse win. But she did win.

Drawing

Well, after quite a long respite, I decided to pick up and start drawing again. I did some aceos, but those can't really be considered in the same catagory. Admittedly, the little cards I did are quick and meant to be inexpensive, so I didn't put a lot of time in on them. My drawing, on the other hand, took a little longer. I'm less than thrilled with the results. I was hoping I could have something worth putting up for sale, and I feel like I've fallen far short. Ah well, practice makes perfect. In any case, I am posting my drawing for the eyes of the world to critique. You don't have to be gentle, because after all, you can't say anything worse than what I've already said...

Yay ME!

I'm in a treasury on Etsy! I'm so darn excited that I had to tell you all! Thanks very much to ByHisStripes for selecting one of my photos, and here's the treasury link so that you call can see:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=28922

What a great day!

My Shop

I guess I've finally figured out how to add items from my shop at Etsy to this page. I hope they show up in the right place, after all, I'm new to this whole blog situation. <crossing fingers>

Soup

I'm making soup today. Again. I made soup on Monday. I was thinking as I was chopping (because Hailey finally realized that if she didn't take a nap today and give mom some quiet time she was really gonna LOSE it) about the merits of soup. Soup is like going home, which is why we like it. But have you ever noticed that no matter how many times you make soup "just like gram" or "just like mom" used to make, it's not really just like mom's at all? It's always different. I can sign my mother's name ( I learned that well in high school) and I can imitate her voice. I can mimic her mannerisms, and I know what she's going to say before she says it. But I can't make her soup. Soup comes from a different place than say, a batch of cookies. I know, because I've made about fifty thousand batches of cookies. It's creative in a totally different way. It's all the things you like put together and steeped on a slow and rainy day. Sometimes when I make soup, it's because there's too many leftovers in the frige and it's time to use them up. Those are the best soups, because they're not planned. I like that free and easy kinda thing, ya know. Hippie soup, that's what it is when you do it that way... soul soup. Very deep indeed. I find raising two kids is very similar to making a good soup. You can't measure every little thing, can't fret over the have this, don't have that little bumps in the road. You have to know when you need to hover, stir, watch carefully... and when you need to just walk away and let that pot simmer. You can put the basics in, but at some point, they're going to come together on their own, and be what they were meant to be. Kids or soup, that is, either one. My Dylan... he's a chicken noodle for sure. He's smart, creative, funny and sensitive. He's warm and caring, and just like chicken noodle when I'm sick, Dylan always makes me feel good. And Hailey... well... she's a pot of five-alarm chili lookin' for a place to happen. She keeps things interesting, and she keeps me forever on my toes, but as they say, variety is the spice of life. Anyway, I better wrap this rambling up, because I hear something boiling in the kitchen, and it's time to go peek in the pot, and give life a little stir.

ACEOs

I'm brand new to the world of ACEOs, and as a matter of fact I never heard of them before I opened up my Etsy shop, but I'm finding now that it's kind of cool to create little mini artworks. People tell me that they're very popular, though I don't know just yet because none of mine are sold. So if you're a collector of the ACEO, please let me hear from you! What do you like to see? What subject matter, what media? I'd love to know... and besides that I could use a few ideas. I'm walking in the dark here folks!

What Next?

As you know, I have been working on my photos for my Etsy shop, and hoping to do a show in the near future. My biggest problem right now is figuring out how the heck to choose which pictures I should be listing in my shop. I have lots that I like, some that I love, and a whole stack that my mother hates. One of her least favorite of my photos is the one that everyone else seems to like:

This was quite an unexpected picture when I took it. I wasn't really thinking in great detail about how it would look later on in black and white, or even the composition or any of that technical mumbo jumbo. I loved this tree when I saw it, and I took the picture. That's pretty much how my best pictures happen. Yeah, by accident. You see... I don't walk around with light meters and bags of equipment or anything, just me and my camera, and a tripod when it's convenient. I get what I get, and I work from there. I know I'm not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to photography, there are plenty more people who better know all of the specifics, but sometimes... well, sometimes you just get lucky.

My New Beginning

Welcome all! I have finally decided to start my blog. It's been a long time coming, but I find that when I get to looking around on the internet, I get so distracted by reading what everyone else has written, that I forget I ever intended to write my own blog. This blog comes at a time of transition in my life, and while I won't bore you with the mundane details of how I live, I should explain that I just closed down one business and started another. You see, years ago my father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. For those of you who aren't familiar with the disease, you can read all about it at Alz.org. For now I will keep the details simple, and just say that I got involved with racing horses so that I would have the flexibility to help my mom when the time came. I quit a bank job after meeting Mike (more about him later) and went to work with him. While racing horses is super-cool, especially when you're a girl who spent her whole life asking for a horse for Christmas, it's a sport, and accidents happen. Our best horse (and my best friend in the barn) Flawless, busted up his leg. My other best horse, Slim... well, she kind of did the same thing. So, in order to help pay the bills, my mom and I got together and started a business. We wanted to focus on wedding cakes, but since those were (at first) few and far between, we got into cookies and birthday cakes and brownies and all kinds of things. Business was good, and the wedding cakes starting coming, and after a few years we had a pretty decent thing going(see some photos here: MySpace.com - Sweet Traditions - 31 - Female - ELMA, New York - www.myspace.com/167897916 ). Now, we weren't getting rich, because you never do in a business like that. It's time consuming, and although I could have been the Buffalo area's "ace of cakes" it turns out that fate had other plans for me. About a year and a half ago, I started having pains in my right hand. Now, being the main decorator for the business, this presented certain problems. It got to the point that I couldn't get through putting the border on a cake without having to stop and rest my hand. This was not productive. Along with all this, my dad's cognitive health had really started to decline, and since we were working out of my mom's house, eventually we decided to shut the business down entirely. So, there I was, slightly displaced. Now don't you all go getting sad and sorry feeling for me, because I just kept plugging along. Shortly thereafter, a friend of mine sent me a link for this thing called Etsy. I hadn't heard of it before, but she thought I might be interested, since she knew that I was into quilting and whatnot. Well, I didn't think that I could part with a quilt, and I'm kind of slow, so I thought it wasn't good to have to work for ten weeks on something to sell it for $200. Instead, I thought up some clown dolls that my mom used to make when I was a kid... I was banking on the nostalgia of my generation. So, I listed them on Etsy (at my old shop, which is here: Etsy :: Sweet Traditions ) and waited. And waited. And... well, I sold one. And that was that. My mom made some of the most amazing polymer clay ornaments. People looked, and people marked them as favorites, but no one bought them. My mom got discouraged, and I got frustrated. I decided that this was not the avenue for me. I liked making the first doll, but after ten, they got monotonous, and by the end I was kind of sick of looking at the darn things. They're packed in a box in my workroom, waiting. Then around Christmas I struck a deal with my sister who makes jewelry. Mike's daughters live out of state, and I wanted to send them something nice, but I didn't have a huge budget. So I offered my sister a trade. I made a tablerunner for her mother in law, quilted with fabric that I fell in love with and have been saving for probably six years. I made another runner and set of placemats for her sister in law. They were striking, if I do say so myself. In return, she made a necklace and bracelet for each of the two girls, so we had nice gifts to give, and didn't have to spend a fortune. She suggested that I start making runners and placemats and putting them on Etsy. I thought about it... and thought about it. In the end, all I did was think about it. Apparently I wasn't all that inspired. I enjoy quilting, and I don't want it to become a job. So that was the death of my first Etsy shop. Oh the items are still there, but eventually the listings will expire and they'll fade away. I'm hoping that a cousin of mine decides to do a craft show soon and will need stuff to fill out her table, and I can send the little devils along. I didn't know so many of my family members were afraid of clowns. At any rate, that brings me to the here and now. I have always loved taking pictures, and I have driven Mike up a wall because every track we go to, everyplace we've been, I'm constantly snapping pictures. It was just a hobby, until now. I have a new Etsy shop, and I feel better about this one than I ever did about the first one. I am keeping my fingers crossed, but I got my first shipment of prints in that I ordered, and I'm off and running. (check out my prints here: Etsy :: Stacy M. Smith ) So from here on out, I will keep you posted as to the things that I am taking pictures of, my horses (which I am still involved with to a certain degree, since I'm home with our two year old daughter Hailey most of the time) and various other things going on around me. I hope that you'll check back from time to time, and see what's new. Until we meet again...