Sophie's first birthday! Happy birthday, little one! (with thoughts from last year here and here)

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Henson sells Muppets to Disney Disney will acquire the Muppet and Bear characters for an estimated $40-60 million. JHC and the Creature Shop will continue to exist without the Muppets. [Excuse me, WHAT?!] The courtship began 15 years ago in 1989. (link from Muppet Central) It has been my dream for almost half my life to be a Muppeteer. I wanted to work for Jim Henson, I did my senior presentation in English class in high school about the Muppets, I took puppetry classes in college. I even auditioned for and got accepted for a pilot for a children's show as a puppeteer (it never got off the ground, but I was hopeful). I put The Dream on hold for a while, thinking that someday, somehow, I would still be able to be a part of it. But not anymore. I have a thing about Disney; I think they're trying to take over the world. They just scare me. I like some of the stuff they do, but in general, they're the Evil Empire to me. I was depressed with news earlier this year that Henson Associates was selling off the NY offices (where I always dreamed I'd commute to someday), but this is like the final nail in the coffin to me. I'm sure I can look forward to greater distribution of older Muppet stuff; I have nothing against commercialization of the Muppets (hey, there are no fewer than 3 stuffed Kermits in our house right now), but it just won't be the same. I guess I have to face the fact that ever since Jim died, it never really was going to ever be the same for me again. I know that I can always do some kind of puppetry in time, and maybe even try to do it for a living someday. But it's really sad to know that the dream job I've had in my head for half of my life will never be because the world went and changed before I was ready to act on it.

ps ~ lots more good stuff here and here.

Bigger than ever... I swear on a stack of french toast that I feel like this today. (Complete with "Foo!") Roll me around like Violet the blueberry girl from Willie Wonka, for heaven's sake. ps ~ I had another Art Night last night. I may not be able to see my feet, but darnit, I'm being creative.

Valentines + Art Night = Perfect Together This weekend, Paul decided it was time for me to start having Art Night again once a week. The scary thing was that I had completely and utterly forgotten about Art Night. That used to be my favorite night of the week! So after dinner on Sunday, Paul shooed me upstairs to my studio, although all I wanted to do was sleep... I promised I would give it a try. And I wound up doing this year's Valentine! It's the first to have Sophie on it (naturally, since this will be her first Valentine's Day) and it was truly fun to draw. The only problem was that my stomach kept getting in the way of my sketchpad... I'll be posting it with the rest of the Valentines on the site very soon!