Inside will be my work, including my new felted wool and cashmere hats, scarves, note cards (including my new Open Door series), and books, and SPECIAL DEALS ON ALL POSTERS! Posters which sell on my Etsy store and retail shops for $20 will be reduced $10 or less. Tell me you saw it here and I'll give you $10 off on any hat or headband.

Many of you have faithfully supported me for years, and I want to make this worth your while. For more information, such as an address if you don't know it, please contact me.

Or better yet, click the top right corner of my home page to sign up for my brand-new-this-month, short but comic emailed Mostly Monthly Newsletter. The November Issue (the first) will be out early next week (I hope).

I've been itching to do a comic strip for a couple of years now. I've indulged that yearning with my November newsletter. Please click on the opt-in link in the upper right corner of my home page—I'm not allowed to just send my newsletter to everyone on my email list. So please ask for it. I hope you will find it amusing.

Find information about my upcoming annual open house, along with my many shows around Michigan, in my newsletter. And I'll probably pop in a discount coupon here now and then.

Click on the image to enlarge it.

I'm basing this workshop on a book I have loved for years of a similar title: Love, Loss, and What I Wore, a little hardcover book by Ilene Beckerman. It would be a worthwhile purchase as a textbook, although not necessary. You can buy this very cheaply on half.com or you can read the whole book for free on Google.

And here's the good part: you don't have to do the whole workshop series. You can come to one, any or all the classes. Although we will build a memoir from class to class, you can get started at any of them. My new studio can handle quite a few of us comfortably, but if classes go over ten people, I may add an afternoon class as well. While you could do this alone, you will find motivation, inspiration and fun in company.

Times: Wednesday evenings from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. January 6, 13, 20, and 27.
Cost: $20 per class. To assure your place for the entire workshop, please pay me in advance ($80 for 4 classes); otherwise, just pay me for one class ($20) when you arrive (RSVP me first, though). You bring your favorite pen and pad, and I will supply everything else, from watercolors to paper to brushes, and even light refreshments.

Contact me for more information or to sign up. I'll have a sign-up list at my Open House if there is space left.

Click on the image to enlarge it.

All cards, posters, scarves, and original art listed on my Etsy site will be on sale at reduced prices at my Open House on Sunday November 21 and until Christmas by appointment.

Do come and join the fun. Please contact me for more information.

Click on the image to enlarge it.

You can still call me or email me with for information or with special requests, or if there's any problem with the Etsy store.

And here's early info: My 2010 Open House—my 10th Anniversary celebration and my first Open House in my new studio—will be held Sunday, November 21st, from 1 to 8 p.m. Please come and bring friends...I don't advertise this show publicly, but if you'd like to be on my list or you'd like the address, please contact me.

Of course, there is still the option to call or email me to order in person.

Hen of the Woods, also known as a Maitake, is highly prized as a generous edible and medicinal mushroom, especially in Japan, where it can grow to 50 pounds. It is sold online and not cheap. My mushroom was very young and difficult to clean and weighed only 3 pounds, but it was still a whole lot of mushroom.

Mushroom hunting this year hasn't been too successful for me, as my usual territory has been discovered by someone who takes everything and doesn't even leave enough for spores. My habit has always been to take only what I need and leave plenty for next time. Sigh. I haven't found a new place yet that can accommodate my bicycle, as my feet won't walk miles any more. This is especially sad as I am working on my mushroom book this year. But I've kept logs for fifteen years now, so there is no dearth of material.

This especially cool photo was taken by my adventurous son Dylan Kuhn, also known as CyberHobo, who is visiting with his equally adventurous wife, Ann. Click on it to enlarge it.

Ten years ago, when I moved to Bay City, Michigan, from Beaver Island, I was in terrible shape, having suffered two rotator cuff injuries, a frozen shoulder, acute tendonitis in both wrists, a bad back, etc etc. When I moved to Bay City, I couldn't lift a half-gallon of milk. But last year I finally joined a health club and started working on various of those complicated-looking machines and by gum, I started to get stronger. I went very slowly, but after a year of treadmill and throwing and pulling and biking, I must have done something good, because I was able to move boxes like I was twenty. Or so it felt.

Of course, five years ago I was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer and went through the usual treatment of 34 doses of radiation. (I think today there are some new techniques that are much quicker and safer.) I did not require chemo and did not take Tamoxafin after a disastrous six months of Arimidex, which I quit.

So now, five years out, I seem healthier than ever. I say "seem," because with cancer you never know. You can feel on top of the world and be carrying around a tumor. But every minute of this respite is a gift to me and I continue to feel extraordinarily grateful.

I decided that there's nothing magical about 12 months and decided this time to wait 18 months for my next mammogram, which I plan to have somewhere besides where I had it last year. I am not waiting weeks for results this time and I'll drive wherever I have to to get a same-day reading. Medicare pays for everything as of January 1, 2011—checkups, lab work, mammograms, so my checkup isn't until January 3rd.

My health club now is my house and garden and driveway, as well as a bicycle which I bought when my feet started to give out after walking a couple of miles. Biking is much more fun, I've discovered—I can see so much more, go farther, and I even go mushroom hunting by bike. As for my diet, I quit the vegan thing because my plumbing couldn't handle all that fiber and I missed protein. I just eat lots of colors and try to follow Michael Pollan's advice: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

That's it for now. With any luck, I won't have anything more to report until 2011.