Life gets in the way!

Have you ever had so much to do or so much you want to do that you can't get started because you can't get focused, well thats me. I have so many things that I really want to do I am finding it harder and harder to settle in on one and do something. I was asked to design a T-shirt for the Outdoor Adventures group at Casa Colina where Jennifer has her rehab. I have posted pictures from our week long adventure in Long Beach, well this year my design might be their T-shirt. Here is what I have done so far, it is only one design and I a few others I need to get drawn up to present to them. For some reason I could not upload the picture with the text so here is only the artwork. I love this program and how it empowers the participants. Everyone leaves feeling as though they can do anything, for a week they finally feel like a normal person. I am so deeply touched every year by this great effort by everyone involved to enrich a group of disabled people.

New Baby for the New Year

As you can tell from all of my posts lately, I have been a frustrated artist. With all the commotion and with the holidays I didn't find much time to draw or paint. I have had a few days before I have to start the craziness of undecorating. I hate undecorating although I do love the feel of the house back to normal and a bit less cluttery. I received tons of Christmas cards this year, due to the fact that I sent so many out! I am a true believer that if you don't send them you don't get them. I received lots of picture cards and some of new babies that were born close to Christmas. I took the opportunity to do another exercise but I think this one is not as loose as it should be. I still think the baby turned out ok although doesn't look exactly like him, don't all babies look alike? I was supposed to do a wet on wet letting all the colors mix on the paper, I cheated and fell back into controlling everything. I will try again with some of the other pictures I received this year. I think I will stick this in a frame and send it to the new mom as a welcome to baby Dylan.

WC tutorial

Hi all, I found a wonderful tutorial on portraits that I was just dying to try. It was a looser style than I am used too and within the tutorial there are several assignments to try. I choose one that was one color and one brush. You had to study your picture and then simplify and then simplify again, until you got the essence of the person with minimal brush strokes. Then you had to select one brush to do the entire picture in, it was great. It was a challenge and a great study. I loved it, I chose a picture of my grandson who is such a cutie anyway. The picture turned out good I think, I will do the other assignments soon. It is a great tutorial and I hope to continue to improve my watercolor skills and become a bit looser in my painting style. I really perfer a looser look verses the picture perfect look. I think for me, I appreciate leaving a bit to the imagination instead of painting every detail for them. Just my thoughts which is not to discredit realism at all.

Happy New Year!

I just got back from Las Vegas, we went for a few days inbetween the holidays. It was very busy which surprised us since it usually is a bit quiet before the New Years celebration. We had a great time but I am glad to be home. I took a WC challenge to work on in the room, here it is. I am anxious to start some new projects that I have been thinking about. Tonight I think we will spend it writing some goals for the new year, as a couple, personally, for the businesses, and helping Jennifer document some of her goals in her recovery. Then I want to sit in a nice hot bath and just soak in the New Year. I am looking forward to the quiet time. I hope all of you have the New Year your heart desires.

Merry Christmas!!!

I have been busy, as we all have with Christmas just around the corner. Jennifer was in for 8 hours of tests and it was grueling. I am so glad that is over, now we just have to wait for the results. Then yesterday my grandson slipped into a diabetic coma due to having the flu and not holding down food so his blood sugar was elevated to dangerous levels. Wow, it has been an "e" ticket ride this Christmas. He is doing better now but is still in ICU. Hopefully he will be home for Christmas morning and all the presents. Before all the fun started I managed to get out my Christmas Cards and I sent out this Christmas postcard for one exchange, then my quilt guild had a block exchange and I made a gingerbread block to exchange. I wanted to offer it to all my quilting friends out there, if you would like me to email you the pattern for the gingerbread block just send me your email and I will send it too you as my gift. I will ask the girl who got it to send me a photo, I forgot to take a picture before giving it away. It is a very simple design but turned out cute, I sewed rick-rack around the edges and did big giant buttons for his eyes. Enjoy

My brothers dogs

I did this watercolor of my brothers dogs, I am so unhappy with it, it lacks something and I can't seem to put my finger on it, I might do it over again and see if I can't do a better job. I think it might be my colors or my technique or the background, but there is something that is off. I love when I hit and I hate when I miss so I always try and turn it into a learning process, my continual state of learning. The pug's name is Charlie and the French bulldog's name is Winston. Winston is only a year and he was full of energy the few days they stayed with us over Thanksgiving. Jennifer loves dogs so much and she loved the time she got to spend with them. Her and my brother went on a few walks together with all the dogs. Although Pee Wee is so small she played fine with the "boys" and let them know when she was done! It always takes a women to get those men in line.

EDM #95 and update

I finished my NaNoWriMo challenge and made the 50,000 word goal. Yippee for me, I was really surprised how easy it was to find the words when I made the time to write. I mentally kept track of how far behind I was getting if I hadn't written in a few days and then attacked the computer with a writing marathon. I was often writing the words through tears but thats ok. I feel like it was a kind of purging for my soul. I am not finished yet either, I have a bit to go so I am looking forward to setting aside the time for that. Its funny with me, I really work best with goals and drop dead deadline dates. It forces my procrastinating soul to do it!

I have also been working on my Christmas Card for both the exchange and just for our personal card this year. I have settled on this painting, for the card I softened the edges and then printed them. I used some glitter for the snowy areas and put gold around the edge of the card, I like the results. With the exchange I am sending and recieving from Thailand and Sweden along with many people throughout our country so it should be a lot of fun.

Thanksgiving was full of family and food as usual. I was a little sick so cooking and just all the activity kept me tired and a bit grumpy but all is well and we had a great time visiting with my mom and brother who also brought his dogs, a pug named Charlie and a new french bulldog named Winston. Cute, cute they added alot of activity to the dinner.

Fabric Postcards

Have any of you tried these fabric postcards? They are a hoot and so fast. I belong to an online group and we send to people all over the world, its fun and allows me to play and finish fast. For those days when I am dying to play with fabric but don't have time to start a big project. Here is my latest one, we had to use things supplied by someone else and create the card. I hand painted the face and cut it in half and made two "indian princess's".

My book

Hi everyone, I am doing pretty well on keeping up with my word count. I find that as I become engulfed in the whole process of story telling I start to recall things that have long been buried. The concept is to get as much information down and then go back and edit, edit, edit later. So its so very rough but at least I am getting it out. I am at around 22,000 words now, almost half way and I am only in week 2, I know that it will start to move quicker now but I still have so much to get down. I am putting in the link to the site and my book, if you click on "read an excerpt" it will take you to the book and you can read it. My nano name is Imararefind so dont be concerned if you don't see my real name anywhere. Let me know if you do read any of it! NaNoWriMo

Another Christmas card to choose from

Ok, I got another one painted to add to the choices for this years cards. I love the feel of old Christmas scenes, the whole Charles Dickens thing. I might do a few and then choose one still working on it. I am doing ok on the novel too, it is hard to stay focused for me. I have so many projects going all the time that I find I have to force myself to sit and write for hours. I am still doing ok on my word count which shows up on the bottom right side of my blog on the Nanowrimo icon. I got a bit behind since I didn't feel like writing for a few days. My goal now is to get ahead in anticipation of the holidays that are quickly approaching.

Our sycamore tree

I love the fall colors although we get a limited and abreviated version of the spectacular display they have back east we do have a few trees that put on a show for us in the fall. I planted many coloring trees in our yard so I could enjoy the season too. But... usually sycamores don't really color, they just start looking old and dry and then they loose their leaves. This year a few of mine decided to give me a treat and they got a beautiful color of yellows and oranges and then within a week they just dumped their leaves. My poor husband had been out with the leave vacumn everynight after work in an effort to keep our neighbors from declaring war. The neighbors pulled out every tree that even looked like it would shed a leaf and planted palms, stupid queen palms. They are ok, I have 4 but, my goodness, they have tons of them, the guy across the street planted probably 50 of them, it looks like a palm farm. Can we talk about making some landscaping choices. Any way, don't get me started, so I ended up collecting all the rejected trees that were being ripped out and discarded as though they had no value because they were not in the palm family! We were given some beautiful trees as street trees and I made sure I looked them up if I wasn't familiar with them. The builder changed the trees on every street, so my street tree is different from the guy behind me. It was so beautiful in the beginning. But as the landscapers came in they ripped out most of them and put in palms. I know that trees that go deciduous are more work but their contribution to the yard is so worth it. One of my rescued trees is called a Chinese fringe tree, they are just covered in blooms during the spring, it is a blast of white and they color up a bit in the fall, the others are Pistache and liquid amber which put on a wonderful fall display. I moved mine but kept all of them and brought in more so... the leaves are an issue. Anyway, off of my soap box, I painted the tree and photographed it too. The color was great. Here to enjoying variety in all things!

Our Anniversary

It was our 26th wedding anniversary this weekend, we went down to Laguna Beach to stay the night and had dinner. It was really wonderful, and the weather was perfect. We went to a great resturant called "Hush" it was in LB overlooking the Pacific Coast highway, we sat outside infront of the fireplace and had a great dinner, pumpkin bisque, garlic ribeye, and a unique cinnamon ice cream with bread pudding. It was really quite nice and Randy was so romantic, and he is so good to me. After all these years he is still the nicest person I know. Anyway we stayed at the Marriott in Fashion Island and it overlooked a golf course and you could see the ocean. We spent the next day walking on the beach and through all the shops and art galleries, it was a great way to celebrate our life together. We appreciate those few special moments so much more now, we try not to take our time together for granted at all. Each moment is precious. I just love the picture of our shadows in the sand, Randy wrote 26 years. He's just so handsome too, whats not to love!

Update

Hi everyone, I wanted to update you on my writing so far. I have been really good about my writing, but remember I am a good starter and a not so good finisher. Keep me going, I am depending on you. If you are interested in reading a exerpt you can by going to the authors and looking me up. I go by imararefind, I have about 7500 words now, so I am above the required number for the three days. The website is www.nanowrimo.org .

I have also been working on an invitation for the gingerbread party I do every year, I supply the house and everyone bring 2 bags of different candies or cookies to share and we all decorate our house. Its tons of fun and is a great mom and kids holiday adventure that they can do together.

Nanowrimo is starting

For those of you who don't know, Nanowrimo is a novel writing challenge that takes place every November for people like me that don't have enough happening in their lives already! The idea behind this site is to just write, they give you 30 days to write 50,000 words. As they say its all about the quantity not the quality, its about just getting that book you swore you would write one of these days down onto paper. This will be my first year and I am both nervous and anxious about the amount of time that will be required to keep up with the 1600 words a day quota. The fact that I am a caregiver and I work out of my home will also add to this challenge. I have decided to write about my personal experience and journey with Jennifer's crash. Although they want us to write fiction I am going to write more of a memoir. I will be posting excerpts if you are interested in reading it and seeing how things are progressing. I would appreciate any support you might be able to offer since most of my family and friends think I am crazy!! www.nanowrimo.org

Christmas Card project

On Wet Canvas we are working on an exchange of Christmas cards. The way it will work is that we will do several different pieces of art and then choose either our favorite or several favorites. We will then make them into cards and send them out. I am very excited and have enjoyed the process so far. There is a thread in the learning center under watercolors that we all meet to show our latest work and get ideas and suggestions. I have wanted to make my own Christmas cards so many years now and never do it, this year I will.

EDM # 87 draw your lunch

I happened to take a picture of my lunch the other day and this was a perfect chance to immortalize it! I was hungry just painting it. It was a curried turkey sandwich on whole grain bread with lettuce and tomatoe. They bake all of their bread daily and is it good and fresh! I think for the bread challenge I will visit again and just draw all of the loafs sticking out of crocks in the shop. Its very quaint and homey, the menu is hand written on a huge black board above the sandwich station. The also bake and sell homemade pies, cookies, cakes that are to die for. I don't know how any one could work there and stay thin!

EDM #76 Draw some flowers

Well this is a flower so it qualified to me. These matilla poppies are so fragrant and beautiful. They, like the other poppies look like crepe paper as they blow in the wind.

LIMES

We just had a WinCo open up in our area, it was so fun to shop in a new store. They have a great selection of everything, I was very impressed. Anyway I stocked up on all sorts of produce. I happened to buy these limes, they looked so good! I must be a visual shopper! In my mind I am also thinking, these would make a great painting!

EDM challenge #59 draw a sign of spring or fall

I was outside today, working in the yard, trimming trees etc. My husband was trimming back some of the roses and when I turned around, in the middle of our lawn was the biggest leaf off of our sycamore trees. It was part green, part brown and yellow. Although Sycamores don't really do the color change thing, it does mean that fall is coming and they are getting ready to shed their tired, dried leaves. I grabbed it and ran into the house to do another quick watercolor, I just love leaves. I can't wait for the liquid ambers and pistache trees to do their thing, even here in Southern California.

More quick watercolors from Simple Simons

I took some pictures of people sitting near by me the day I had lunch at Simple Simons. I decided to do some quick watercolors of them today for practice with painting people. I have a hard time painting people in person because they often feel uncomfortable with me staring at them for extended periods of time. I have to get better at painting from a glance.

EDM challenge #86 Draw a traffic or street sign

Well, I know that this might seem like a stretch but I found this sign on my walk today, it was on the street and I felt it qualified. It is really a "sign of the times" as all the surrounding mountains, that we rode our horses across, are now filling up with huge homes. Its a bitter sweet thing, sad to see the natural landscape go from wild trees and bushes to a sea of homes but it does help send our house prices up and up. Since Jennifers accident I had to get rid of the horses so I don't feel the loss as much as I might have if we still owned them.

EDM challenge # 47 draw one of the past challenges

I thought I would paint one of the flamingos we saw on one of the sketchcrawls to the zoo. I sketched them there but also took tons of pictures, they are so vividly colored that they don't look real. They look as though someone got ahold of a can of orange spray paint. It reminds me of a picture in an old time-life book where these two men are holding a huge bird and they are painting it bright pink so it will stand out in the group of white birds. They would never do that today! The thought being is that these flamingos look like that painted bird from my past. I might like to do some large paintings of these interesting birds whose knees bend backwards and they drink and eat with their heads upside down!! That is talent.

EDM challenge # 61 draw a group of two or more

I had started this sketch back at the week long camp we took Jennifer to in Long Beach. All of that weeks activities are centered around water sports. As I waited for her to get back from a sailing adventure I noticed these life jackets all lined up. Almost like a patriotic red and blue army of men waiting for the assignments. They looked so pretty all lined up, hoping to be choosen to go out.

Another spot in Riverside

Ok, well I am off and running, I had a free day so I thought I would go and start my painting of Riverside. I decided to go have lunch at one of my favorite spots in a historic area of Riverside. It is in a open air shopping area right off of the Mission Inn. It is so beautiful, and there are tons of painting opportunities. I had a wonderful lunch and the wind was just softly blowing as I sat and painted the front of the resturant which is located in a retrofitted building made of old brick. Here is a picture of my wonderful lunch, the people sitting around me probably thought I was crazy taking a picture of my sandwich before I ate it. Also, Riverside had local artists paint giant oranges which were placed all over the downtown area for viewing. It was wonderful to see them and I was hoping to photograph them but I might be too late. Here is the one by the Mission Inn. They were all different and very clever. I hope they do it again.

EDM Challenge # 84 draw a store in your town

I think this is the right challenge number, if not I have to change it. I am so glad Karen choose this as our weekly challenge, it made me want to jump back into sketching and painting. I love the opportunity to get to really see my city and paint it. I am going to take this as my challenge this year, to really get out and journal about and paint the area. Thanks Karen, for getting me excited. I always wish that in California we had more history like they do back east. We do have history here, I just need to go find it. This is my first painting of the area, the local fresh produce store. Gless Ranch has been growing and shipping oranges from Riverside since 1907. Although many of the orange groves have made way for urban sprawl there are a few patches left, we even have a historic citrus belt where the groves still produce. The packing houses and the train stations have mostly been converted to upscale resturants now but they still stand. Here is the website for all interested Gless Ranch

Another mural for a little girls room

I had a job due today that was a Raggity Anne and Andy, it snuck up on me and I had to overnight it to the job site. That usually doesn't happen to me since I watch my schedule closer than that but there you have it. I got this one done and a train done too which needed to be on the same job site. After I paint them they are cut out and are ready to be shipped.I about had a heartattack when they called me and asked where the murals were, ahhh. I thought the job had been pushed back to the 25th but ...no. I scrambled so that I could get them done in time to ship since they have to arrive tommorrow. I hate that feeling in my stomach when the odds are stacked against me, but ohhh that feeling when I get it done. Wow. Today I am so thankful for my husband who helped me complete my mission !

Doodling

I have this habit of drawing horse heads on every scrap of paper within my reach if I have a writing utensil and there is a blank spot. Everyone who knows me laughs at the fact that I leave a trail wherever I go. My old boss used to request I stopped delivering his phone messages with horses all over them. LOL I find that if I have a minute where my mind is allowed to wander or I am bored or the phone rings, I start to doodle these horses, some heads, sometimes full bodied. Most often prancing proudly with long flowing manes. At our house, my husbands desk is full of these signature horses. I have done this as long as I can remember, I think I should just add them to my signature, because they practically are. It almost like the old saying "Leroy was here" remember that? Anyway, at wetcanvas they were having a carousel horse challenge, so I printed the photo with intentions of drawing it in colored pencil. The next day I was sitting at my desk and I was talking on the phone and I started to doodle, of course the horse head was first then I started to draw the carousel horse. Well since it was just mindless drawing I didn't have room to do more plus I was using a really bad pencil that just happened to be on the desk. I ended up with this partial head, and the other one I always draw. I was wondering, what do you doodle when your on the phone or still for a minute? Do you have a something you draw over and over. The other thing I draw is a flower, over and over. Let me see your doodles too! I must make a correction to this post, although my carousel horse was just started as a doodle, I understand it did get a bit fussy with the shading, although it started as a doodle. I like to shade my doodles sometimes, but often they are just line drawings. So whatever or however you doodle, I would love to see them. The little horse head is my signature doodle.

WC colored pencil challenge

The in the WC colored pencil forum started posting monthly challenges. I think this will be great since we now have so many challenges going on it has become a challenge to do them at all, so by giving me a whole month is great. The picture was nice but my scan really turned out loosy, I mean the picture might not be perfect but the colors are much better in person. HONEST!

Vacation sketches

I did do some sketching while I was on vacation but I found that we ran so much of the time and I didn't have time to sketch too much. I also felt like it took time away from Randy and I, it was our first vacation alone so I didn't want it to take away from our time together. I did draw during a very romantic dinner(see above) at an Italian Resturant and it took so much time, so I decided to put it away. We had such a fabulous time, we did everything we could find to do in Nashville Tennessee. It was beautiful and everything worked out perfectly. Here are a few sketches of our trip. The first one is of people at the airport,then a sketch of people getting on the plane and the one next to it is of the steak house resturant which we saw from the balcony in our room. We stayed at the Gaylord Opry Resort and it was really beautiful.
They were also having the National Championship Tennessee Walking Horse Show while we were there so we thought it would be fun to drive to Shelbyville (every city has a ville at the end) and watch the show. When we finally got to the show they had just finished the morning section and wouldn't have another event until 7pm, well we were so dissappointed but decided to wait until the night show. We bought our tickets and got to see two classes when they made an announcement that the judges and the trainers were having some trouble coming to an aggreement on something so they were putting a hold on the show and if we would wait patiently it would start in a few minutes. I ended up drawing the heads of the people in front of me. Well 45 minutes later they were still fighting and they ended up canceling the show for that night, I was really mad. I thought about how sad it was for all those kids that were there trying to show. It has to do with animal protection laws and what some of these trainers and owners do to the horses to win. I guess that some of the winner were disqualified and it started a big fight. I can understand them trying to stop this practice of soring the horses front legs to make them walk like they do, its kind of like the whole steroid thing, it became the unwritten law that to win you had to take steriods and the ones that were doing it the right way weren't winning. The same thing with these horses I think, they just arent as showy unless they are in pain, sad, so sad what we distort in the name of beauty!

New Mural for the New Church

I am painting murals for the new church in the kids rooms. I am not doing them all but a good portion of them. I started with the kindergarden room, the first room on the left that has windows for light since there is no electricity yet. I decided to do a jungle room with lots of bugs, frogs, dragonflies, birds and monkeys and I think the scripture will be "God created all things" I have to look it up. I am so sick of seeing Noah's Ark at every church so I want to do some different things. The church is very open and as long as I am not painting scenes from Hell I guess it all good. LOL I told my husband, dont think I didn't think about it, just a good threat for misbehaving kids. Just kidding. Anyway, it is not finished but I have a pretty good start. I got a bit to realistic so I am adding some fun wild colored bushes and stuff to liven it up a bit, after all this is Kindergarten!!! I wanted the whole background to just fade into the distance and all the fun animals to pop off of it. Here is my WIP (work in progress) more to come after I return from Tennessee! It is hard to see but this is a fairly good size wall, maybe 20'x9'. I have 11 hours into it so far.

The Vacation

Ok, tommorrow is the big day. For 6 years, my husband and I have not had a vacation alone of more than an overnight thing. Since Jennifer got hurt we haven't been able to find anyone to stay with her for any length of time. We tried her siblings and that just didn't work out, they are unable to grasp the fact that she can't do the things she used to do and she would call me at midnight and say " I am so tired and they still haven't put me to bed". Well it ended up just causing fights among all of us so we don't ask anymore. But my quest to find good care so that I could spend some time with my husband was still in the works. It ends up that the hospital where she has therapy is going to take her and work on some issues we have been having with her prothstetic leg and braces. I was so excited because its a perfect fit, its like her second home, she knows everyone. But even the best hospitals have their flaws and it still makes me a bit nervous not being there with her. The wonderful thing about this hospital visit is that it will allow us to go on vacation and I am going to the Nashville show to see my quilt that is a semifinalist. I have been so excited planning the travel arrangements etc and then last night I couldn't sleep. I think I am just worried about leaving her, its hard to understand if you're not a caregiver or maybe a mom with an infant. I was never the overprotective mother that couldn't stand the thought of her kids leaving. I looked forward to them starting their own lives. They were all gone except one, full time college student. But now, when I do everything for her and we spend everyday together, its so hard. My husband said, "We don't have to go, we can just stay home" but we can't. Inside I know that, I have to do this, she will be fine, and once I am there I probably will be too. We have all these things planned for Nashville and I have to go. I want to sketch too while I am there. So I will be gone for a week starting Tuesday. I hope to return, refreshed, renewed and with lots of fabric, and sketches.

pictures

One of the most amazing parts of the program, to me, is all of the trained volunteers that are needed to allow one quadriplegic person to water ski. I watch the total trust that this paralyzed person has to have in the team around them. They get strapped into a cage like apparatus that is mounted onto a single water ski. There are two people in the boat, one to drive and one to hold the flag, two sea doos with two people each that follow along side and one person the is on the back of the ski as it gets up and they make sure the person is stable and then fall off and swim back to the dock. All those people, to bring a smile and make a paralyzed person feel like a million bucks for 10 minutes. Its so incredible, such a great group of positive people.

More picts of Land meets Sea

I am posting some pictures of our week of activities. I want to share some of the amazing stories of some amazing people. As most of you know, if you read my blog, my daughter, Jennifer was hit by a drunk driver and almost did not survive. She was in the hospital for 8 months, in a coma for 4 1/2 months, she lost her vision, her leg, her voice and the use of her right side. Since then, 2000, she has improved, her voice is soft but we can understand her, her vision is better although she is still legally blind. She is smart and happy and dealing with her new life. Some of the other people we meet this year included a 17 year old girl that was shot by gang members in LA, another 18 year old was paralyzed by her father who was driving drunk when he crashed the motorcycle which she was an 8 year old passenger. Some are born with the handicap, others are hurt as a result of some sort of accident or crash. This program is so wonderful, I can't say it enough. It gives these people an opportunity to be normal for a week. To enjoy some of the things that the rest of us can do if we choose to that they could not do otherwise. The volunteers are all trained and the equipment is all adapted for the different handicaps. The moto is "you can" they never give up trying to make it work for everyone. It is a huge undertaking and I am so grateful. Jennifer thought she would never be able to enjoy some of the activities she participates in during this week. Also Long Beach, shuts down the Marina for us so that we don't have to compete with the able bodied boaters etc. Here are some pictures, I hope you enjoy and if you want to donate to a worthy cause please think about this organization, you will change a persons whole attitude towards their disability. To donate: Casa Colina Centers for Rehab, Outdoor Adventures program. 909/596-7733.

 

Land Meets Sea

Well we just returned from our week long adventure in Long Beach with Casa Colina the Rehab hospital that Jennifer goes to for therapy. They have this program called Outdoor Adventures which allow handicapped people the opportunity to enjoy activities that would otherwise be unavailable to them. It is such an awesome program and it lets Jennifer feel a little bit normal for a week. I will post pictures and share some of the things we experienced. Our first night we arrived on Monday and the activities didn't start until the following morning so we got to relax and unpack. The hotel where we stayed was wonderful, it looked like an Italian Villa. Out on in the courtyard by the pool was a wonderful sitting area and at 5:30 they served wine and hors d'oeuvres. We sat outside and enjoyed the warm breeze and talked about the week ahead. It was a great start for our week.

Life is like a bowl of cherries.....

why is mine always full of pits. I think Erma Bombeck wrote that book. Well I must admit, although I do have those types of days, normally my life is a bowl of cherries. I think this has to be one of the most beautiful fruits, they are so shiny they almost don't look real. I am sure they are spraying them with something like a wax covering which I shouldn't be eating but I don't want to know really. I love them just the same. I can remember my mom telling me about a time when her and her girlfriend decided to go and pick them for themselves. It was an actual cherry farm where you could pick so many for a set price. Well my mom said that there was nothing as wonderful as picking those beautiful cherries right off the tree and eating them almost as fast. She said that they tasted so much better right off the tree. Well about an hour later, she thought she was going to die. She had to go to the bathroom so bad she doubted if they would make it home in time. She said she couldn't even think of leaving the safety of the throne for quite awhile. She has not gone cherry picking since and the lesson, everything is good in moderation, was given new meaning!