The trade show

Well, I have been scrambling to get things all wrapped up for my first trade show. I am frantically trying to get all the last minute details finished up along with all the sewing, writing, quilting etc. I had my business cards and post cards arrive today and they turned out great. I ordered them online from a company I had never heard about before so there was so apprehension. I was so pleasantly surprised to see how good they did come out. I even ordered some more today. We leave on the 15th so time is running out. I am also still working out Jennifer's care with our other kids. Now with the pool everyone is happy to stay over!

I have missed visiting everyones blog, please forgive me, its been so long since I have had time to just visit. I am typing this at 2 am in an effort to just post something. I miss France with Ronnel, Arizona with Teri, SC with Lyn, Thailand with Ai, Art class with Marta. I hope I got all that right, my brain is starting to fog just a bit. I will be back in a few weeks with lots to share! I am looking forward to flying to Oregon, even to work, its wonderful to just get away for a few days. I love the thought of traveling anywhere! I did get a wonderful card from Ai, thank you so much, you are too sweet.

I have been working on new patterns and quilts, this is one of them. Its called "Just Ducky"

Its a sewing marathon

I am busy sewing new quilt patterns that I am designing for a trade show we are doing in May. I feel like a production sewer! It will be nice to get back to my art quilts and painting. I have done a few postcards for my postcard exchange. These two are the ones for the fruit series. Not overly exciting but I am glad that I am seeing the light at the end of this tunnel. I have taken a ton of pictures of the grandkids at the park and in the pool that I want to paint. I bought these two giant frames, 8'x4' I am trying to think about what to paint for the picture inside. I thought a giant family portrait might be nice although pretty tough. Still thinking about it, I want it to hang in the office so it need to be the right kind of painting.

Mikes Mural as a slide show!

I have added some captions under each picture, just drag your mouse over the picture to read the caption. The photos have some glare from the reflections as I photographed them but I think they turned out pretty good. I am very happy with this mural. The one thing about painting on Travertine is that due to the cost of the material you don't want to make mistakes!

Modified sketch for mural

Made some final changes on the drawing, I will now enlarge to the proper size and make sure I still like everything before I begin to paint. I added a pear to help balance the left side since it seemed so heavily weighted to the right. I also corrected the perspective on the large pot. Took out the sticks, added a spoon. I think its better now. But you never know, I like having the option to change as I go.

Old world mural

My son and his wife are in the middle of a major remodel on there home. They are adding rooms, redoing their kitchen all new flooring etc. It is a major mess right now. I promised them that I would paint them a mural on the travertine tiles they are using for their backsplash. I have done a sketch that I am happy with and they also like. I will be painting directly onto the tiles in washes so that the beauty of the travertine shows through. I do not want it to have a heavy painted look or resemble a decal stuck onto tile. My goal is for the look to be soft and old looking, almost like it has weathered with age and now is only a hint of a painting. I am happy with mine and I hope they are happy with theirs, the tile layers are waiting for me to paint it so I need to get it done today. I will post it as a WIP or a slide show so you can all see the progression, I will hopefully photograph it up too so we can see the end product all finished. Here is the prelim drawing that was approved. I might make some changes as to spoon placement etc but the composition is there. I am not going to add the "text" on the pot, I was just playing with some ideas. I would love to hide some personal thing in there somewhere, like there name or something special just for them but I don't want it to be too obvious or the next owners will not appreciate it.

Spa Night

I had a spa night, I invited Marta and Rudy and Dawn and Mike over for martini's and tapas. Randy makes a wonderful, summery martini called summer breeze which he made for us and then everyone brought munchies! We had tons of food and lots of fun sitting in the spa and talking about art and art classes and the museum. Great friends, food and fun, what more could we ask for. We did have some uninvited guests this weekend, a swarm of bees have decided they also like the new additions to the backyard and have started a hive in one of the walls of the outdoor barbaque area. The bees are swarming pretty good as of this afternoon, more and more seem to arrive daily. Tuesday we have someone coming to handle the issue, I wonder if I will get any honey out of the deal?

Today the kids wanted to swim so bad, so even though the water was in the 60's as was the outside air they jumped in and swam for hours. I showed them the bees and told them to ignore them and they would ignore us, as they did. I bundled up in a blanket to keep the cold wind off of me as I sat and sketched some of the features in the yard as the kids swam. I bought this giant buddah head, she has a wonderful green and rust looking patina and I loved it as an art piece for the yard. My kids now think I have gone pagan and given up my Christian faith! Wow, amazing that a piece of cement can cause such discussions and distress! So to clear up any doubt, I am not a buddist but I do love this head as an art piece for my yard. My faith remains intact. I have drawn it here as it sits on one of the columns next to the pool.

WDE March 28th on Wet Canvas

I decided to look at the photos put up for this weeks drawing event. The host posts 16 pictures and then you choose which ever ones you like to draw or paint. You have 30 minutes to choose and only 2 hours to do your drawing/painting. I did this one last night as I sat in bed until 2am. I just love this photo, it is of her dad shortly before his death. They own a ranch in Montana and they live and work the ranch during the summer and they leave for the winters. She had asked her dad to put on his cowboy hat and shirt and pose for the picture. He grumbled and didn't want to but finally agreed. What a great shot she got, the sun, the shadows, its great. Anyway, here is my version in graphite of her dads photo, I will paint him too! It was a great study in values and shadows.

Everyday things we take for granted.

Another hard day yesterday, the post op check was not good news and the fact that Jennifer may have to have more surgery or a permenant trachea left me in tears all the way home, almost 3 hours. My eyes were so swollen that they burned when I tried to read something. It made me feel so helpless and frustrated it seems enough to have gotten this far, can't we get a break. When the doctor spoke the words of more surgery, and a possible trachea again I could feel my eyes burn as I fought the tears back. Jennifer doesn't really see the bigger picture or think through all the issues. I think its a brain injury thing, which probably is a blessing. She is just resigned to the fact that it is what it is and she will have to deal with it. I find it amazing that she tried to comfort me on our drive home, assuring me she wasn't going to die. Then thanking me for caring about her. That almost made it harder, to think about how brave she is, what she has had to endure and how she just can't seem to move forward. Anyway, it made me think about those everyday things that we do that we all take for granted. The simpliest of things that don't require any real thought like breathing, rolling over, going to the bathroom, grabbing something to eat, scratching an itch, or brushing our hair. All things we do all day long, without being too appreciative of them. Yet, once you can't do them, once those simple things become monumental feats you realize just how complex they really are. How lucky we are to be able to do them. Its like the saying, you don't realize how good it feels to feel good until you are sick. I find a sad irony in the fact that the thing that once kept her alive is now threating her life!

Although yesterday my spirit was crushed and bruised , I am always thankful for the dawn of a new day. When my energy is renewed and my body is willing to fight again for her quality of life. I don't mean to sound special, or like I am handling something harder than many of you are dealing with, because I am not. I find that so often most people are dealing with a lot of sadness that they never share. So I pray that I will try and be extra nice to people I meet today just incase they are struggling to get through the day and fighting back the tears too!

The Water is finally in!!!

As some of you know that follow my crazy life on my blog, we have been working on our backyard and a pool. We designed everything and have been working on getting it all done, doing some of the work ourselves for about a year now. I am so excited to announce that there is water in the pool and we had all the kids over at Easter to swim. The weather couldn't have been nicer at a warm 90 degrees and we barbecued ribs and I also made a roast. My mom was still down and she made her famous Macaroni and cheese. We added a salad and fruit and that was our Easter dinner. I told Randy that I was living out a dream I have had for so long. Enjoying all the kids together, playing in the pool, laughing we had such a great time. I made sangria with all the fresh oranges and lemons I had. It went over very well, my adult kids had never had it before. We aren't really big drinkers, I never had any alcohol in the house at all while the kids were growing up. Now I will have a glass of wine or sangria, usually with Marta! I guess we have never needed it to have a good time and I am glad about that, especially now, in light of Jennifers crash. What a wonderful day we had, although Jennifer was not up to the pool she loved watching all the kids playing, dyeing eggs and then hunting them. We bought Nathan a swimsuit that has floaty things sewn right in so we didnt' worry about him drowning, although he was under close watch at all times. He would just step off the steps and he traveled all over that pool by petalling his little legs like he was riding his bike, it was so funny!!! So much to be thankful for, we are blessed to have such a close family! Pictures of our new pool, yard and Easter!!

Life drawing

I managed to get out last week with Marta and Dawn for the museum's life drawing class. When we arrived there was a note on the door saying that it had been canceled. We were all so disappointed and as we walked down there stairs to leave the model came up to us and said "I am here but they told me that it was too late, they canceled". We convinced them to let us go in and have class and so we all got to draw. This model was new to us, and I think he was new to modeling since he asked us how he should pose and how long etc. It was really weird because he didn't really know how to pose, trying to hold his arms above his head for 20 minutes, I think he needed the money. It went ok and others soon joined us. It was great to draw but meeting before hand for sangria and tapas and just visiting with each other was the best.

Just needed to vent

Its 3:30am, another restless night as I lay in bed, in the dark praying for wisdom. The tears seem to run down my cheeks and wet my pillow once again. I thought after all these years I had cried out all the tears and I was just working on moving forward. Seems as though moving forward is harder and harder. I don't wake my tired, overworked husband who was in his own pain tonight as he fell into bed. I feel as though I am left to make these major decisions on my own, often wrestling with the options and God night after night looking for the answers. I wonder how many others are out there doing the same thing, I know I can't be alone, not really.

Jennifer, my daughter, had her surgery and is struggling to recover. Tomorrow, or really today, I need to get her into see someone since she sounds like her lungs are becoming more and more congested . She has such a hard time recovering from surgery, even these short 1 hour procedures. We have tried to avoid all unnecessary surgery for this reason. I am now forced into making another decision about more surgery, when will it stop! She has just been through so much and the thought of more pain and long recovery times just makes me crazy. The tears just don't stop as I am forced to weight the risks, consequence's and options. And who am I?! I am not a doctor, or a specialist nor do I have any special degrees in the way our bodies and brains work. Yet it will be me who eventually decides what to do with her leg. Oh, don't get me wrong, I will have consulted all the top doctors in the field, as I already have. I will talk it over with Randy and Jennifer, but it will fall again onto me to finally make the decision. Sometimes, that responsibility weighs so heavy I don't know how long I can bear it. Its one thing to make my own medical decisions but its entirely different choosing for my children, no matter what age. The "what if's" are so frightening and the thought of having something really bad happen because of a bad decision I might make would be unforgivable. I find that the doctors offer little help these days. They just really don't know, she is so complicated and they are so over specialized. They can't see the forest for the trees as they say. The surgeons want to do surgery, the prothetists want to make braces, others want to add more drugs, all in attempt to compensate for this misfiring brain which is causing her one remaining foot to be almost unusable. The last surgery she had on the foot was for tendon lengthening so that she could hopefully stand and walk. The surgeon put on a full leg cast and what was supposed to be a 5 day hospital stay turned into a 22 day nightmare. More surgery, infections, a nursing home because they felt I wasn't qualified to care for her injuries! It was a day and night vidual until I had to break her out of the hospitals so I could take her home to let her recover. In the hospital she developed a wound on her heel which took me 27 months of wound care to get cleared up and almost 3 years to finally get a shoe onto and they all wonder why I don't want more surgery! This burden is so heavy some days, what do I do!? I try so hard to stay positive and keep that flicker of hope burning but the more time that passes the harder it gets. Jennifer is so trusting and so full of hope. Every time someone offers her their ideas for a "fix" and tells her this will work she is all for it, thinking this time it will really solve the problem. I think, because of her brain injury she has some long term reasoning issues which is very common in brain injuries. So she doesn't really concider the ramifications of things not going well only that it is going to "fix" the problem. I spend alot of time trying to walk her through the long term issues of decision making with me but again, the decision will fall on my shoulders.
We continue to react to her conditions in an attempt to give her a better quality of life....... but is it? All this and more because someone decided to drink and drive!
I guess I sound like I am just having a huge pity party, I don't know, maybe I am. Sometimes it helps to just get it out.

Easter Card Exchanges

I am in the middle of doing a few Easter Cards for some exchanges on WC and Watercolor Haven. I need to paint something this weekend to swap with someone that signed up late so that everyone gets a card. I have done two, limited color palette and experimented with masking fluid. I am thinking of printing one of them for my cards although I already did the one with the baby ducks and eggs. I love all the spring colors!

We are getting ready to go to UCLA again for surgery. Jenn's breathing is getting very labored so we are going to do it again. I posted our trip last time and you can view it here. I hope that its better this time and lasts longer!

The Cantor Museum

I so appreciate all the wonderful support I have gotten from all my blogging friends. You all are so special to take the time to leave comments. It really means alot to me! While I was at my sisters we managed to go to the Art Museum at Stanford University. She lives in Los Altos which is really close to the University and we were looking for distractions. The museum was filled with so many wonderful pieces. I took some pictures I wanted to share, and one of my sister standing on the front steps.

The horse is a bronze sculpture made to look as though they put it together out of driftwood. It was amazing and one of my favorite pieces. This guy was upstairs in the contemporary area, he had his back to us as we entered the room. A nice example of the male physique!

My trip

Our family got the sad and shocking news that my sister had breast cancer during the holidays. She has been going through tests and biopsies to try and better understand the whole breast cancer word! At first we were all so scared and upset but the more we talk to the doctors and other survivors there is a hope that takes root and starts to grow. In an effort to continue the hope my family has tried to be there as a support for her during this hard time. My mom has been with her mostly, then my youngest brother who lives the closest to her. Last week I went up to go to the doctors with her and just to spend some much over due time together as sister's. We had such a wonderful visit, and although I didn't sketch or paint much my days were filled with the colors of our relationship. I really loved every minute. Today my other brother flew up to go to yet another doctors appointment with her.

One late afternoon as I was sipping my tea and sitting outside I decided I would sketch the tree in her backyard. Its not anything special but I noticed it was sitting dormant, waiting for the spring warmth and the sun to allow it to burst forth in bloom. I am hoping the same for my sister, that this will only be a short season in her life and that she will be able to burst forth out of this time of fear and saddness. The other drawing is of a man in the airport waiting for my plane home. The only two things I had time to do yet I filled every minute!

Your award

Margaret presented me with this award and had some very nice things to say about me and my blog, I think everyone should go read them! In turn I am supposed to present this award to 5 people that inspire me and who's blogs I love to go and read so here goes.....

Marta- As most of you know, Marta and I are great friends and have lots of fun together. Although we live close we don't get to see each other too often since we are both pretty busy. I love to just jump over to her blog and check up on her and see what she is up too. You never know what you will find on her blog, pictures of a trip, sketches, recipes. Its a wonderful feast for the eyes and heart as she sometimes shares very touching insights she has from working with kids who have cancer.

Wendee- I have know Wendee for a few years now, we met on a sketchcrawl in LA. She is also a quilter and we have many things in common. I love her blog and her sense of humor. In her blog she often shares her witty sense of humor on just everyday life. You will often learn something about a new place to visit or she will inspire you to sketch. Her sketches are lovely as are her photos.

Andrea- I have just recently found Andrea's blog. I can just get lost in her drawings! The details are amazing and she can take a boring, everyday object that we see all the time and turn it into a piece of art! I love the way she stacks things and draws them. My eyes love to go over and over her drawings, the buttons, the tapes, the notes on a bulletin board. Just go and see if you can look at just one!

Ronell- Her blog is full of wonderful pieces of artwork and lots of food references. Living in france she has wonderful places to paint and eat, I would love to go and meet her! One of the things I love the most is her wonderful sense of humor and her inspirational stories. I can read, and read her blog and never get bored. Between the words and the paintings it is a full course meal!

Laura- full of beautiful artwork and always traveling. It is like taking a trip with her all the time. I love her work to the point of wanting to buy some of her sketches. I still love this dress she painted in a shop window! Its not often we remember art sketches in a blog from some time ago. Hers are very memorable, and her use of color just captures your interests and keeps you wanting to see more.

I have so many others that I love, I am sorry I can't mention them all, next time I will share more blogs I love.
I hope you all know how much I enjoy your blogs and the inspiration you give to me everytime I visit. Here's the award for you.

The participation rules are simple:
1. If you get tagged (and want to play along) write a post with links to blogs that you love, too.
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme, created by Emilia.

Its been over a week!

I can't believe I haven't posted in over a week. So many things going on and I just didn't know what to post. I have gone to the Getty Villa and saw some incredible artwork, had an awesome Valentines Spa celebration with my handsome hubby, and I had a wonderful few days with my youngest grandson, Nathan.

At the Getty Villa they have on display wonderful antiquities, many of which are now caught up in a scandal of how they were acquired and if they will be returned. Some of which have already been returned. Its really quite the story of secret deals and acquisitions, kidnappings and infidelity. The Hollywood writers couldn't come up with a more elaborate story. On the three + hour drive home I looked up and read many articles about it to Randy and Jennifer from my wi-fi on my iphone! It is so cool. I took some awesome pictures and would love anyone who is interested in painting them to feel free and grab them. Just share your paintings with me, I would love to see.

Friday night Randy and I spent the night together at the spa. We had a wonderful couples massage and then went and had dinner in the courtyard of the Mission Inn restaurant, it was very romantic and we toasted many times! NO Pictures! LOL

My daughter needed to be with her husbands family for a family matter. They felt it was just too hard with Nathan, so I got the honor of watching him for two days. He is so cute and he is just loaded with personality. (I am his Nana!) At night he gave me lots of kisses and said Nana, I just want you to hold me! OHHHHH I am added a picture of him in our spa tub taking a huge bubblebath. We giggled through the whole bath.

Tonight Marta and I went to figure drawing at the museum, yes its that time again. That 3rd Thursday event. I wish they could get some new models, this guy we have done several times and he doesn't stand still, so the lighting along with the pose continues to change while you draw. It makes it even more challenging. We did have tortilla soup and chips with salsa and margaritas before making our way to he museum. The rain was just starting as we were leaving our night of drawing so the timing was perfect all day! I might post some of my sketches tomorrow, if I can find any I like well enough

Now you can concider yourself caught up on my week, what exciting things have been happening to everyone else this week??

OUCH!!! EDM #10

EDM draw your hand, well its my finger.

We worked outside all weekend, I love being out in the yard with Randy. We planted roses and cleaned up some of the neglected areas. We decided to call in the tile layers to finish our pool tile. We just can't seem to make time right now and I would love to use the pool this summer. The last thing Sunday we moved the tile to the pool area for the tile layers. One of the big boxes of tile crushed my finger against one of the stairs in the pool. OUCH!!! Oh my, that finger turned blue then purple within minutes. I thought the nail was going to shoot off right then. The throbbing didn't stop till the next day and now the nail just feel loose. Yuck, but I where it proudly, my first black finger nail, I sure held out, not many 50 year old women with those kinds of nails! My journal entry was a painting of the actual nail then a painting of how the nail actually feels. They say, oh suck it up its far from your heart. But I beg to differ, you see my heart has now moved into my little finger. My husband keeps apologizing since he thinks he did it when he pushed the tile towards me, I think I will get a good run with this one!

Easter cards

I am hosting an Easter card exchange on Wet Canvas and Watercolor Haven. I have set it up so we only have to send one card out, so it makes it doable. I needed a picture to post for the exchange and painted this easter scene. I coincidentally happened to pick up some plastic ducks for 84 cents a piece and the nursery a few weeks prior. I thought my grandson would love to float them in his bath or in the fountain for Easter. I picked up about 6 of them. They were perfect for my models for this painting, I don't think they look plastic!

Avocados 4 for $1

Another fruit in the series for a Wet Canvas exchange. I like the way these turned out, the colors, shadow just worked on this one. I love avocados, we had huge trees of them where I used to live, they produced lots of avocados each year. They all seemed to be ready to pick at the same time which was late Nov. to Dec. It was great extra money as people would stop and get 4 for a dollar. We often couldn't reach the ones at the top of the tree so when the wind blew it sounded like bombs hitting the house. They would hit the roof and then roll all the way down till, pluck, right onto the cement. The dogs looked at this event with much anticipation, since to them it was manna from the Gods!

EDM #1 My shoe

I have this pair of tennis shoes that have never really played tennis, so does that disqualify them? My kids ordered them through Nike.com. You can pick the style, the color, size, then they will add your name and custom make them. From the minute I first put them on they fit perfectly. I have worn them to death and this last year from my birthday my kids ordered me a new pair. They no longer made the ones I had so they ordered me a new design. Ouch. I am trying to wear them but they aren't the same. Now to make matters worse, the older pair are all worn in and even more comfortable. Kinda reminds me of having to start over in a new relationship, trying so hard to make it work! Yuck. It just takes so long to break them in and I love it when they are worn in and so comfortable!

Super Tuesday!!

Ok, its Super Tuesday, the day when we all vote for our candidates for President. I did a contour drawing of each, I don't feel like I really know any of them well enough to cast a vote. As in drawing contour,I felt like I just placed my pen on the ballet and started marking, not really having any insight to what I was doing. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate my right to vote, I just wish I felt like their was someone worth voting for. Lets look at them.....
Democrates:
Obama-people thought he was muslim (he's not) for along time, very clean cut, almost looks like he scrubs with brillo every morning. No ones skin should be that perfect especially a mans! What about experience?
Clinton-I think a lot of people admired her for dealing with Bill's little indiscretions so bravely or was it maybe passively. The thought keeps crossing my mind though, if she were elected who would really be running the country? I don't know if I liked the whole crying thing during her campaign, I mean we never saw her cry when her husband was sleeping around!
Edwards- Nice guy, cute and devoted to his wife. But I guess he's out so I don't need to go on.
Republicans:
Romney- Nice looking guy for 60, even for 50! Millionaire, businessman from Utah. Conservative Mormon that is really giving the conservative born again Christians a voting dilemma. Does he represent the conservative christian's beliefs better than McCain? I think he has only one wife though.
McCain- I have really hated the way he has been campaigning against Romney, all that silly fighting . The polls say the people think he looks old, because he is old! Why does he always look like he is storing nuts in his cheeks for the winter? He might be telling us something about the economy here!
Huckabee-I don't know how I feel about a baptist preacher for a president. It seems to me that the whole meaning of "president" goes against his biblical beliefs. I think most of our past presidents have been womanizing fence walkers, unable to keep a promise to the people or their families. They seem to be easily swayed by lobbists, money and oil. Huckabee, save yourself, pull out now!

Yesterday the phone must have rang off the hook, as it did this morning. All the calls from my parties two front runners, calling to hopefully sway my vote to their side. It ended up just irritating me so much I was going to jump the the other party completely. Oh man, am I becoming a realist or just cynical!?

EDM 91 and my another in my fruit series

I think this is number 6 in the series. I first painted a red delicious apple that I have peeled half way down. I hated the results, it browned so fast I had to keep adding color to the exposed part of the apple. The peel didn't hang right either, if that is possible. I then tried a granny smith and a gala cut in half. The colors were much softer and I worked on loosing some edges. I am happier with this one. The latest news out on apples is that they reduce your risk of some cancers, so an apple a day may keep the doctor away.

I ended up going to the local open air market Saturday. I thought it might get me out of my funk and Jennifer was sick of being cooped up in the house too. Randy had to work so we set out early so we could beat the approaching storm. When we arrived they had closed the streets down and they were having a Charles Dickens Feastival! Everyone there was dressed in period costumes and everyone spoke with a bad english accent! I am so glad I brought my camera because I took tons of wonderful pictures that I can't wait to paint. I will post a few, you are welcome to paint them also!

EDM 125 and my weekend challenge at Wet Canvas

We are given 16 photos on Friday and we have 30 min to choose and then two hours to paint or draw. This week there are several I would like to both paint or draw. Here is the first, done in mechanical pencil as I watched the 11:00 news last night. I think I might like to finish this one or do a watercolor of it and add the last bird then call it "The Watercooler".

EDM #24 and #124 more in my fruit series

I am still painting fruit. I am really starting to enjoy it, gives me an excuse to eat while I paint! Did I need an excuse, well, just in case. I did the lemons that Marta brought me and the blood oranges. I haven't used the lemons yet, too cold for lemonaid and I haven't been in the mood to bake sooo, they sit, waiting. The sun has been out and warming everything up again but now I see clouds coming in and the wind is starting to blow. I was having such a good time too, painting outside!

The Beauty Salon

In our quest to look beautiful and my quest to fend off the grey, Jennifer and I went to get our hair done. It is the one place that everyone publically admits that they are not satisfied with what they have! Our salon now has a plastic surgeon who is doing botox injections in the back room where they also do massages. The call it a day spa now. It a one stop beauty shop. Jenn and I are both fighting our roots, hers are brown and mine are grey, but either way we want them gone. It amazes me as I look around, the lengths we will go to stay beautiful! They have girls doing nails, hair, permanents, curlers, waxing eyebrows, bikini lines, upper lips, the botox, restilane for plumping your lips, massages to help the stress we must feel about having to do all this to look good. Last year, or was it the year before, Jennifer cut off all of her long blonde hair and donated it to locks of love, this year she hasn't decided to part with it yet.

So thankful for......

I am also doing an ATC exchange. It is called "So thankful for......". I did an oil pastel (my first) of my coffee cup. Thankful for my husbands loving hands that bring me coffee in bed every morning. The cup is pink and was given to me by a friend. It is a Longenberger cup signifying breast cancer awareness. I have painted it before because I have a friend going through radiation after her lumpectomy. I pray for her when I see my cup in the morning. This holiday season my sister told me that they found a lump. She is now going in for a biopsy on Feb. 7th, we are waiting to see. I pray for her now too, all the time. I am now thankful for the huge survival rate when detected early. Lets take better care of ourselves and have our mammograms!

Dinner with Friends

I invited Marta and Rudy over for dinner last night. The weather was getting quite blustery and waited to hear if Marta had to work or not. They arrived about 6ish and she brought me a beautiful colander from the cooking store, filled with lemons and blood oranges from her tree. We had a wonderful dinner. Randy braved the elements to barbecue our steaks and I made rice pilaf and a salad. We sat and talked about their trip to Europe over some wine and dinner. It was such a wonderful relaxing evening, dreaming about all those exotic places that they got to see. Cheers! I am so excited to get two more pieces of fruit for my fruit series! Thanks Marta and Rudy! Here is the sketch of my gift with fruit, done in my handmade watercolor sketch book!

Second in my fruit series

Today the sun is shining and it is a beautiful day! It is the calm before the storm according to the weather casters. Another big storm is expected tonight through Sunday. I love that we are getting this rain, it cleans everything and makes it seem new and fresh. We put in drain lines throughout our backyard so we are not getting any flooding, that also helps me to relax and enjoy the bad weather! I love a day or two of gloomy but I am sorry for those who live with months of grey skies, pouring rain that never stops and extreme cold. They say it leads to depression when you don't get enough sun, I know it would for me. I love that its cold enough that I can light the fire and have a cup of hot chocolate at night. Then the next day the sun is usually out and warming the air. We live in an irrigated desert! Ok, enough about the weather, don't you talk about the weather when you have nothing else to say?

This is my second piece of fruit in my series, the banana. The banana is often called a tree but in fact it is not. It produces a psuedostem which grows quite high and then produces bunches of either green, yellow or red bananas. After producing its bananas the stem dies and then it send up another psuedostem and the cycle repeats. Grown mostly in the subtropics and tropics since they cannot tolerate freezing temperatures. The yellow banana is often called the dessert banana while the plantain is considered the cooking banana. And thats our lesson on bananas! Did anyone noticed that I ate the banana first then painted it? Sometimes its just too tempting.

My first series!!

I decided to do a series for the postcard exchange that I am doing. I don't usually do series because I easily get bored. I decided I needed to work on discipline so I will do 25 pieces of fruit, there has to be that many, right? I also am looking them up and learning more about them, and sending the information I find. It is an effort to learn something new everyday, my brain is turning to oatmeal these days. I don't have enough (intellectual) stimulation, a common problems of young, stay at home moms that are dealing with little kids. I am determined to try and make myself exercise my brain too! My challenge will be to see if I can retain any of the information as I add it to my blog! Here is my first postcard, tangerine. Citrus riticulata, good source of vitamin C. Main growers are China, the US isn't even on the top ten list. Clementines,mandarins are also in the same class, just different varieties. They are ripe now, during our winter and I love that they bring a ray of sunshine into the kitchen when its dreary outside.

The Purse

I bought myself a new purse at Christmas, I then wrapped it up and allowed my husband to give it to me as a gift. This way I wouldn't feel bad that I was shopping for myself when I was supposed to be shopping for everyone else. I have to confess that this was truly an impulse buy. I know I don't like two strap because one is always fighting to fall off my shoulder yet I bought it anyway. I knew that I liked to have some pockets on the side to hold my cell phone, but I bought it anyway. It was cute, and soft and had leather from Italy! So I bought it, against that small voice that was screaming at me "NO". I was good though and wrapped it up and put it under the tree for Christmas morning. I couldn't wait to get rid of my old purse and move over to the new one! Two days after Christmas I cleaned out my old purse, choosing only the best lipsticks and items to make the transfer. I went through the tons of receipts that manage to make their way into my wallet and purse. I placed everything inside carefully, using the cute side pouch for my lipstick and pen. One side was for my wallet, the other for my checkbook, sketchbook and phone. Officially, I have been using my new purse for almost a month and I HATE it!!! Everything gets lost in the sack part and there are only a few pocket which open too wide and things just fall out. The cute magnetic closure doesnt stay shut so it looks like a gapping hole, the black hole. Thats what I am calling it, the black hole. I have to pull everything out of it to find my keys, a pen, my glasses. Maybe if I use it long enough the bottom will fill with receipts and bring everything up higher where I can get to it. As I sat for an hour yesterday at the doctors with Jennifer I drew the black hole which took up the seat next to me. Its so soft it doesn't have any shape, it just lays there! Its hard to make out since I didn't finish it but I hope you get the idea of the blob purse I now will own for some time! Maybe I will do a purse series, one a week, it seems to be a love/hate relationship for most of us. Has anyone found the perfect purse??? Let me know.

My mom arrived home safely the other day and she called to tell me so. Then she said I can't wait to throw this purse away and get something else, I just hate it!! SEE....

So Thankful for.....

I am doing a ATC exchange at Wet Canvas. I love to do these cuz they are fast and fun and I enjoy getting surprises in the mail! Marta and I have our own exchange, its an TATC, which is travel ATC. We paint something from places we have been and send to each other. We started last year and to be honest, Marta has owed me one for sometime and she goes to all the good places!!!!! I received this beautiful ATC from her a few days ago. It is just beautiful and she wrote a little story of when she was in Paris with Rudy and how its her favorite city. We artists have this wonderful gift where we can freeze a moment in time and then share with others. I love sharing her travel adventures with her, I hope that this year we will have lots more to share. This is Notre Dame Cathedral. It also came in a great little envelope that she had done at Moo.com. On one side she wrote me a note and the other side was one of her tomatoe paintings. It was almost like two gifts.

Sinuses AHHH

My body is still trying to conquer this yucky thing. I got some antibiotics finally but they are just now starting to kick in. I am one of those people that hate to take medications. I hate to even take asprin,I don't know why. But I had to cry uncle and ask the doctor for help. I think today I may have rounded the corner on my way to recovery. I am so sick of trying to carry on a conversation with people while my nose is running amuck. There is one thing about being sick, it reminds me how good it feels to be well!

Check out my Slide Show!