The Final Push

December offers feasts, festivities, and the final push to get everything done in time. The first looming deadline was finals for school. I had a huge presentation for my Materials Methods and Finishes class. Despite getting drenched with freezing rain earlier that day and a bunch of other little hiccups, the presentation went well. Here is the board; it's hard to see but the floorplan on the left board is hovering on a piece of plexiglas.

I also finished the last two paintings for Color Theory then assembled a portfolio. This is the final great room in a split comp:

And the bar/lounge/restaurant:
The best part about finals at the Corcoran is that you kick your ass working to get it all done, and then show up on final day with your final project and a bottle of wine. Excellent way to end the semester.

Then it was time to finish up work. It's been a crazy last few months at work, coming to a head this past week rather than dwindling down. But there's always time to stop and have fun, as Barbara here made some holiday treats for the kids.

Next thing to finish up was helping Jon with the holiday orders. He's been a slave to the Holiday Market, then nightime is devoted to catching up on all of the online orders. A Wursday and Thriday and everyone was hooked up for Christmas (no thanks to UPS who never showed up, forcing us to re-label all of the orders and set them up for USPS instead). Saturday was Jon's last Holiday Market day...
and his booth was still popular as ever - even with the abridged set-up.

Friday was rainy and cold, but still offered a beautiful walk home from work. It'd been such an abnormal few weeks, I hadn't stopped to notice Union Station all dressed up for the holidays.

From the bell in front of Union -

And looking up at the wreaths from under the neath.

And lastly it's time to finish up all of the homemade Christmas gifts. I still need to photograph a lot of them, but in the meantime here is a picture of the Jon scarf - it's cinnamon, mustard, and olive in a 4 x 4 basketweave stitch of merino.
Despite all of the work, there have been a few moments of play. Friday night Emily and I met Fistacuffs John out at a pub in Glenmont called the Stained Glass Pub. Being from Chicago, when John raved about their pizza I had to trust that it was good stuff. Indeed it was! We were only going to stay for food and a few drinks, but it was a nice spot to kick back, laugh a lot, and play a mean game of pizza box pictionary.

Happy and safe holiday season to all!

Posting from the sun and breeze of Pine Island - cheers.