Happy Friday!

I suppose somewhere down the line, I made some sort of silly rule that I could only post updates on the remodel.  Duh...what was I thinking?  My sissy tells me, how she always checks my blog for new info and there never is any.  It's not that I'm lazy, (I'm really not), or that I no longer have anything creative to blog about (we KNOW that's not it), it's just that I am so content with this life that I have carved out that I tend to sit around the house/porch/deck and bask in the beauty that surrounds me.

So enough basking.  I wish I could promise you some busking, but alas, my talents net me little profit, therefore I resolve to spinning a yarn, at no charge to you, the reader.

How I Spent My Spring and Summer:

Some of you may remember that my sister came for a visit in April...

While she was here we laughed like the goofy sisters that we are.  We laugh over the silliest things, like her trying to fix the mini blind in the kitchen, that had me stymied...

We had fun and visited with friends, but another reason she came in was to get everything going on the remodel.  As you may remember if you do still read this blog, that led to a trip with the contractor (and good friend) and his daughter Chelsea back out to Cali in May...

It was more of a pleasure trip for us gals, with Dad along to do business.  He humored us though and we did fun things like the Wild Animal Park where we got up close and personal with lots of animals.

Chelsea will not soon forget the encounter...

with what her dad dubbed "that big blue chicken" which wanted to peck her brightly painted toes.  The polish was the same color as the birdie's kibble, so we understood, although Chelsea was more skittish than the bird.

We then went on a guided tour through the Safari Park and saw animals you just don't see everyday.  We fed the giraffes...

and observed lots of other animals.

It was a warm day with a pretty blue sky,

It was an interesting day and we had fun, you may be able to tell from this next shot that it was hot as Hades, and even with the benefit of the canvas roof on the truck, we were starting to wilt.

So, it's off to do something else while out on the left coast.

Sister's home is so nice and we took advantage of pool several times...

We went out to eat and went to LA, Beverly Hills and other fun stuff.  As we all know, fun stuff finally comes to an end and we get settled on the plane and come back East.

It was a rough flight back and they chose to try to sleep their way through it.  Not me, I'm rocking this first class experience all the way home...

I'm not above having a beer whilst in the air...Lord knows we needed it.  What a bumpy flight.

Well we got back home safely and it was time for me to have some more remodeling done at my house.  I had them add a deck and sliding glass door to my kitchen, to complete my outdoor living space.

It takes a brave soul, to voluntarily have the windows taken out of the kitchen (remember that picture of Peri and the mini blinds) and replaced with glass doors...

But it was exactly what I wanted and I'm so glad I did it.

So the rest of the summer has consisted of sitting either on the deck, or slipping through the screen door onto the porch that I had screened in last year.  It's been wonderful.  So that was June.

In July, I was ready to get back in the art studio.  I hadn't done anything artsy since the palm tree painting that you saw here, and I wanted to do something different, so I decided on paper mache.

I started out using a disposal turkey roaster as a form, and proceeded with the usual technique of pasting strips of newspaper to the form, I finally ended up with this...

Had a lot of fun doing it, even though it's a sample or prototype for the larger piece I really want to do. It will be much bigger and will hold lights.  In other news...

I saw ring tailed hawks on my fence and

I made some i-phone speakers out of Styrofoam cups...

I think I'm getting in the mood for fall.  I'm already thinking about Autumn decorations and waiting for it to snow.  Life has been good for me and I'm not taking it for granted.  I love my sisters and my friends and I know how important it is to surround yourself with good people and (guess what else?) I've learned to say no.

So how's that for an update?  Pretty good, if I do say so myself.  We'll talk again soon. Till then...