Dare I say 'resolution'?

I don't know if it's smart to utter the words 'New Year's Resolution' in the same sentence as 'post more frequent blogs', but there... I've said it! Actually, I'm not going to be quite that specific. I just intend to get rid of the chaos in my life (translation: 'house') and strive for organization, space-saving solutions, and timely schedules. That should help me stay on track and keep up with my housework, my projects, AND my blog.

I've been saying I'm in the process of remodelling the house for quite some time. But when you tear out a wall, or rip off some old sheet rock, but don't go any farther with the project, it's not really remodelling at all. It's 'DE-modelling'! Now, on the brink of actually RE-placing said sheet rock and new walls, I am invigorated and hopeful that this will all lead to much needed improvement in our home.

But on a lighter note, (if you consider zombies light), I can now post about my latest art project. My stepdaughter, Krista, and I made a batch of wine for my husband for Christmas. With the help of the fine folks at 'Water 2 Wine' in Austin, we put together a vat of 'Italian Amarone Especiale'.

Here we are, weeks earlier, mixing up the brew.

Then the Saturday before Christmas, we were able to bottle up our concoction,

put in the corks,

seal the top with foil- sort of a shrink wrap method,

and apply our label. THAT was the fun part.

My husband is one of the biggest zombie fans EVER, so I came up with a theme that he went nuts over. I wanted to draw a portrait of him as a zombie for the wine label and I was worried about getting an appropriate photo of him without giving anything away. Then on Halloween night, as he was watching 'all things zombie' on tv, he looked up and made several zombie poses while I snapped the camera (I just happened to have it handy!) I was able to render the face using watercolors, graphite pencils, and Prismacolor sticks. Again, with the help of Krista, we added type, special effects, borders, and backgrounds and came up with this label:

Hand-cutting around the two drips at the bottom of the label was the worst part, but after an hour or so, we had all thirty labels cut and applied to the bottles, and felt it was well worth the effort. During the label design process, we had to work separate from each other, so it was necessary to communicate through instant messaging, texting and emails. It was a slow process to work out the kinks, but we finally got there. Thank you Krista for such a huge effort and the upbeat willingness to be tortured and nit picked! And as a result of this wine's overwhelmingly positive reception, we may be producing future themed wines. (Scab-salve, 'They're coming to get you Barbera', Cadavernet...) Ahhh, ideas for future batches are brewing... So let me pour an 'undead red', raise my glass, and toast to a very happy and fruitful year ahead!