Flowers for the weekend

Let's start the weekend off with some flowers...


These steps lead to my sisters' home in San Diego. Whenever we're there we have lots of coffee and gaze out the windows while we decide what to do that day. Don't these colorful plants just send you?

This painting started out as a color study. Only problem is, I didn't stop soon enough and get out my good sanded paper. This was done on a piece of smooth watercolor paper. When it wouldn't accept any more pastel in an area, I dabbed on liquid matte medium with a smallish paintbrush, let it dry and then added another layer. This worked quite well. There's a name for this technique, but I can't remember it. In any event, I got the look I was going for. Now if I can just remember to start out on the good paper, I'll be headed in the right direction.

Well, that's it for now. Enjoy your weekend and remember to stop and smell the ________.

(can you identify the flowers in this picture?)

Humpty Hump Day

Yes, it's Wednesday. Hump Day. Middle of the week. What ever you want to call it, Wednesday seems to be here before you know it. Wednesdays make me think...hmmm, what have I done this week? Did I talk to my sister? Have I been to get groceries? Are all my chores done? Where can the week be going? What do I have to show for it? Do you do this? Think that every moment has to be accounted for, has to have been worth something, has to mean something? I try to get past that nagging little voice in my head (or that little character on my shoulder, like in cartoons) and enjoy life. My family, my life (with what talents I have) are gifts from God and I plan on enjoying them to the fullest. With that in mind, may I now present my latest works of art.

This first piece is done on an 8 x 10 watercolor canvas. The reference photo that I used is comprised from two Kodak Instamatic snapshots taped together.



My brother-in-law was stationed in Colorado in 1980 and took these shots and graciously gave them to me years ago. Using my imagination for the missing areas and eliminating the hood of the car, I came up with this...

Not all of my painting are "successes" by any means, but I can always pick out portions of each one that I really like. The following still life is one of those. Keeping up with a family tradition of asking "what can I draw?", I turned to my mentor (it's so nice to have an artist in the family) and one of the things suggested was a still life with fruit coming out of a cornucopia type basket. Well, I always have lots of fruit and I have a Longaberger basket, given to me by our Realtor when we became homeowners.

After several attempts I came up with a still life and photographed it and did my pastel from the photo. Right now I'm working better from photos than the actual item, but that's another story. Anyway here is the result...

Perhaps all this fabric draping was too much of an undertaking for a novice painter, but I persevered and got it to this point. As I said earlier, sometimes I don't consider the entire painting a success, but I love certain parts of it. On this one, I'm really pleased with the basket. I tend to want to draw in details and I have to remind myself that this is not a real basket of fruit, it's just the illusion of one. Looking at it, I don't really need to see each detail, to realize that it is a recognizable representation of a basket of fruit, a napkin and a candle. How romantic, imagine gathering up these items and stepping out on your deck at dusk and having a snack with that special someone. Right... then slapping mosquitoes and knocking over the tea and dropping the napkin...well, you get the picture.

Well, that's it for me today. I'll be back soon with more art, insight and laughter.

Hey there...

Just a quick post to say hello. I made a web cam video and with the aid of my hubby, I got it loaded and thought you might like to see it. It's me in my purple kitchen saying hi.
Hope you enjoy it.




That's it for today. Take care and have a good weekend.

The Process

Sorry, but I forgot to take a shot of just the sky. I love doing clouds with pastels, it is so easy and they almost form themselves. I started with a blue sky with fluffy clouds and blocked in a big tree shape and foreground in bright yellow and painted them with odorless thinner. Then I added a curvy trunk and applied thinner to it with a rigger or liner brush...



Next I added some background trees and I started adding various squiggly marks in bright colors to resemble leaves and added to the trunk a bit...

Next I refined the leaves some more, trying to achieve a bit of depth with different shades of orange and red...

Initially I had planned to make the ground appear to be blanketed with fallen leaves, hence the yellow underpainting, but this tree wasn't ready to let go yet...

No siree, this tree said, "these leaves are mine, and I'm hanging on to them".

The shadow just started to emerge on it's own, so I went with it. A bit more defining of the trunk and the foliage, the tree is finished.

So that's the art for today. I hope everyone had a good week and has lots of fun planned for the weekend. DH has friends that are playing in the Blue Ridge Blues and Barbecue Festival this Saturday. We will all be having dinner together tomorrow night and then he will meet them for the festival on Saturday. Me? I'm making sure I have some yummy healthy treats on hand for the NCIS marathon on USA network. It starts at 1:00 and I'm going to watch them all until DH comes home. I don't care how many of them I've seen, I really dig that show. A bit gory for some, but it's all special effects and make up and doesn't bother me in the least.

Do you have wonderful plans for the weekend? Hope so. Whatever you do, stay safe and happy.

Can it be Tuesday already?

I find the days seem to buzz past me in a blur. I've recovered from my little bug, with the exception of some lingering body aches, that might be actually attributed to trying watch tv while on the treadmill. Well, like Roseanne Roseannadanna would say, "it's always something".

It's nice to have a little studio space in which to be creative, and I know you are bustin' a gut to see my latest painting, so here she is.

This is copied from a demo in my pastel instruction book. Some folks don't believe in copying another artist's work, but I think that if it is from a tutorial and it gives you a materials list, it is meant to be copied. It's not like I'm going to try to pass it off as anything, or even claiming that I took the photo, but if you look in Painting with Pastels by Maggie Price, you will recognize it from the section dealing with bright underpaintings. That won't keep me from being proud of it, or framing it for my home.

Before starting my journey with pastels, I didn't know that you could collect the dust from your pastel painting and make your own neutral colored pastel. Yep, you can and that's what I did here. The colors usually result in some sort of gray depending on, obviously, the colors you used. This is what resulted from this painting.

It's a very nice greenish gray that will be great for shadow areas and such. The method I have been using is to place paper beneath my table top easel and capture the dust that way. After putting it in a container, I added water, five drops at a time and stirred with my gloved finger of my right hand. After slowly dripping water and mixing about 20 drops of water I got a good stiff consistency and proceeded to form the dust into a cylinder. Pretty cool, huh?

And last but not least, I'm really trying to get serious about my weight and health. I'm 40 pounds over my mid-range desired weight. In April my sister and I challenged each other to lose 20 pounds, and I haven't dropped an ounce. Any hoo, I decided to take before pictures to be a bit of a motivator. I decided to take the pictures myself, and I'm not showing the actual pictures, but I did think that this was pretty funny. I have a ten second timer on my camera and a two second one. You guessed it, I accidentally pressed the short timer and had to run to my spot.....resulting in this image.

It looks like I'm doing some kind of clogging, doesn't it? I always wanted to learn to clog. You know that kind were they wear taps on their shoes? Wouldn't that be fun? If you live locally and find a clogging class, let me know and we'll partner up.

Well, with this picture burned into your retinas, I'll say ta, ta and go work on a new painting. I'm working from a reference photo that is gorgeous. It's a wonderful image of a Japanese maple, that was in a fall edition of House Beautiful. You just never know where inspiration might be lurking, huh?

So that's it until later. Take care and be creative and kind.

Hello There, Ya'll

Well, it's been a fun summer so far. The hubby and I spent the past several weeks working on creating artistic birthday presents for a very, very special friend. She loves and appreciates handmade gifts , so each year we try to come up with something new we know she will like. This year, DH made her a polymer clay bear, not only as a gift, but as a reminder of how much we love her. I couldn't post it before, but she has it now and loves it.

You may remember that we did dragons for her last year, so I carried through with that theme and did a drawing with watercolor markers and gel pens. It turned out really cute, and I had it framed so all she has to do is hang it.

We had a blast working on these projects and knowing that someone really likes the gifts that you made means a lot. Happy Birthday Peg-Peg!

We went to several Independence Day events and even though we took lots of pictures, I haven't posted them yet. Everyone (meaning me) was so hot and gooey, that I don't know that I will, but as they say here in the South, "a good time was had by all".

I'm not sure whether it was from something I ate or a mean old bug, but twice this week I have felt poorly. Tuesday, I just felt yucky enough to go back to bed. Wednesday I felt good, so the Sweetest Hubby in the World took me to the mall. After leaving our keys one place and having to go back to get them and then leaving my shopping bag at the mall and having to go back again and finding it, we finally made our way home. Then, after a quick trip to the grocery store, I settled in and finished another painting. Lo and behold, this morning I woke again with what we call "the tricky gut". You probably know what this means and how it makes you feel. Now, I feel fine, so I just don't know what was causing it. Sheesh.

My sister, Peri (you may have noticed her in my comment section) helps me with my pastel work via long telephone conversations. She suggested that I paint something I know, something I see everyday, like my woods. We have lots of trees around us and I really need to practice on trees. My first step started with a quick drawing on a sketch pad. Hard to imagine a scribbled drawing like this will ever end up being recognizable.


Then I took reference photos, one in black and white, to show values and one in color to help jog my memory.



I used an 18" x 24" sheet of watercolor paper for the finished picture and after a while this is what I came up with.

Every painting I do teaches me something new. On this one I learned a very important lesson, don't forget to touch up your light area before you spray your final fixative. I'm quite happy with it though.

Another thing I have learned by reading various artist magazines is a neat way to store pastel painting until you have them framed. Check this out...

If you use wooden pants hangers, they grip your art securely and leave enough room between each piece to keep them from touching. This little tip could be applied to lots of things, like hanging up fabric and other things.

Well, that's it for today. I hope all of you are feeling well and not suffering from the heat. We hit 100 yesterday and that's reason enough to stay in and keep cool.

We'll talk soon, enjoy your weekend!

It's a different picture, really...click in

Well, kiddies, another week has passed and I was able to spend some more time in the studio. Here is what I worked on this week. When it comes to art, I was usually a pen and ink, or a pencil artist. In other words, I draw. As you know I am trying to branch out with the pastels and learn to paint. For some reason, I just naturally started out small. I suppose I got in the habit of drawing on pads that were small enough to hold in my lap while watching the television. The pastel work that I have done recently has all been done on sheets smaller than 8 x 10, so at the suggestion of my sister, who has been painting with pastel throughout her career, I went much larger. She wanted me to do a large version of the picture with the mountains and the path, so here we go.

If you could not visualize it before, you can easily see that 18" x 24" is much larger than the 6" x 6" from last post, but it shows you how versatile pastels are.

Still working somewhat large, I used my 10 x 14 sketch pad for a study in color. Since I wanted something else colorful, I went looking around the studio for something with a lot of color. Sitting atop my sewing machine stash was a plastic bag that holds my thread, so I just plopped the bag of spools next to my table top easel and began to block in the colors using the side of the pastel. After blocking in the size and shapes, I went on to add in the tops and bottoms of the spools, using circular movements. A few dark strokes were added to show depth and then some loose curved squiggles for detail and I ended up with this.



Well, that's what I've been working on. I hope everyone has had a good summer so far and are planning all kinds of fun things for our Independence Day holiday. DH and I will be attending our
local celebration. Everyone will setting aside differences, if any and celebrating as one, while listening to speakers and celebrating our freedoms. Freedoms that have been fought for so diligently over the years. If you live near by, please join us at An American Celebration here in Roanoke, Virginia.

Well, that's it for now. Enjoy your week and celebrate this weekend safely and securely.

A beautiful day...

It's a beautiful day here in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. I finally got my cable fixed and the bedroom furniture delivery is finally complete. Had a few bumps along that road, but all's well that ends well.

Got new pastels last week and have been spending time getting to know them. So far I have come up with these little gems...

I painted this one using my instruction book as a guide.

This one was also an exercise from one of my books.



This one was painted from a picture that I took many years ago at the Peaks of Otter. It's a lovely little area about an hour away from us. Our Mom worked there, and it was where I had summer jobs during my high school years. Haven't been there for years, but it used to be really nice. Rustic, but nice and quiet.



I'm learning as I go with the pastels. I had this last one just the way I wanted, when I decided to reach over and add binoculars to the man crossing the bridge. Got them just so and looked down and realized that my right hand had completely obliterated the fence and most of the bank next to the bridge. I know how to avoid this, I just need to remember. Since pastel is a forgiving medium, I was able go back in and make the necessary touch ups.

Well, that's it for now. Got lots of things to do here on the home front. Birthday presents to make, chores to do and such. Now that my cable is working, I'll be checking on all my bloggy friends more regularly. Hope everyone is having a great summer and staying happy and being creative. I'll be back soon with more artsy stuff. Till then, take care and enjoy life.

Cox bundle

Just a quick post, while I have internet to let you know that my cable and therefore high speed internet and telephone keep going out randomly. They are supposed to be here to check it out Wednesday, so if something happens and I don't respond in my usual speedy fashion, you'll know "her cable's out again".

Other that the constant frustration of being without cable and thinking, well maybe it's this, and maybe it's that...anything to keep from having to call the service guys..other than that, our lives are good. Now that I see this in print, it seems a bit trifling to be worried about the internet, but it's really the phone that is important. I have one of those old timey "pay as you go" cell phones that I use periodically, so I at least have something. What did we do before this age of technology?

My question to you is this. What would you miss most, in the way of technology, if it were to suddenly disappear? Inquiring minds want to know. Could you live like a pioneer? I'm just wondering.

OK, let us hear!

More Pastel

I'm having fun learning to use pastels. I'm still taking advantage of art instruction videos and being reminded of lots of things I had forgotten. About the color wheel, values and such. This painting of water is a combination of two videos that I viewed recently.

I am using watercolor paper, not only because it's what I have, but because you can use water with pastel. Watercolor paper also serves as a great support if you want to make an under painting using water based media.

This next piece is based on a pen and watercolor that I did this past fall. It is looking at my woods from the deck and transferred quite nicely to pastel.

I didn't realize what a nice painterly effect you can get with pastels. I thought I would hate the dust on my fingers, as I'm funny about my hands getting dirty. Really hasn't bothered me in the least. If it does bother you though, medical examination gloves are an easy fix for that and are easily found. I'm still learning a lot about shadows and in this piece I realize that my colors are probably too bright on the shaded sides of the trees. It is a "remembering" process as well as a learning process. Another great thing about pastels is the ability to go back in and change things. They are very forgiving.

This last piece is a still life that I did yesterday. I used a cardboard box and lamp light to get the shadows. The back drop that I used as a drape really was too light, so I changed the color some.

I'm still in the learning stage, so I really haven't grasped the fact that I am going for an impressionist look, instead of photo realism. I tend to want to draw and become detail oriented. I am getting there, though.

So that's what I've been doing lately. I'm having fun and that's what art is all about. I hope everyone out there in Bloggerville is making time for fun this summer. Remember that summer fun is more than gardening and swimming and barbecuing. It's also about working a little bit of art into that fun. So how about spreading a long sheet of butcher paper across that picnic table and let everyone draw and paint. You too, Dad! Put those tongs down and paint with the kids. Have them make pictures of the food you are fixing and then everyone will have a lovely memory of that cookout with Cousin Drucilla.

Well, that's it for today. Have a great week and enjoy life.

Let's do art!

Since it was so hot, muggy and sometimes raining this weekend, the hubby and I didn't venture out much. I used the time to catch up on viewing art demonstrations online. You can subscribe and watch them on sites like Artist Network TV, or if you're not ready to commit to purchasing one yet, you can watch some free instruction on How to Draw and Paint, or you can watch shorter videos on Youtube and other sites.

In any event, I have such respect for portrait artists and am always trying to improve my skills in that area. Using a cosmetics ad from a magazine as my model, I came up with this...

I used the grid method to transfer her features to my paper and I drew my grid wonky and all her features are a bit off. It's drawn with a 2B pencil and blended with a tortillion. It's only practice, so I won't be too hard on myself, but it does go to show that you really need to have your feature placement dead on, to get a realistic drawing. I think that's why every portrait I draw has a "cartoony" look to it. Well, practice makes perfect.

Another thing that intimidates me is painting. I can never loosen up enough to get a painting that doesn't look stilted. I think that I perhaps I over analyze the process, so for this one I just grabbed a small watercolor pad and using acrylic paints and an old plastic plate for a palette, followed along with the tutorial for this little scene...

This was actually a study on how to use masking fluid and a sea sponge for texture. My masking fluid (years old) was dried solid in the bottle, so I used rubber cement. My sea sponge has long since migrated to warmer waters, so I used a regular sponge that I picked little pieces out of. You get the picture??? Once again it is only practice and while I cringe and see everything that is wrong, I'm still not going to beat myself up. I had fun doing them both and plan on doing more soon.

That's it for now. Hope everyone had a great weekend and is ready for whatever this week brings. Just remember, if you're bored or looking for something to do, check out some art videos and you just might surprise yourself.

Memorial Day

The real price of freedom.




One of many, James Reagan gave his life for us. You can read about him here. Join me today in prayer. Pray for the families of these brave men and women and remember them with pride.

Happy Memorial Day.

It's me again...

So you won't have to keep looking at those burned beads, I'll show you what I did with them.

I antiqued them with black paint and then with gold paint, glossed them up with Mop and Glo floor wax and made links using 14k gold filled wire. Considering everything, they turned out just fine.

I also put together a similar style necklace using beads from Peri's and my early attempts at polymer clay beads...

You are probably seeing a pattern here. Although I have silver hair and am a "True Winter" and not supposed to wear gold, I love warm coppery colors, combined with black and gold. I have lots of necklaces that are very similar to this.

I tossed together several donut necklaces and have a tutorial in the works if anyone is interested in how these super easy necklaces can be made. (Along with a very funny story about them)


I love wire work and have been wrapping beads on eye pins recently just for fun. I decided to combine some of them in a pair of dangly, but casual earrings...

Shucks, I even had time to do some seed bead work...

I was trying to learn to make a beaded bezel for this ring, but it wouldn't hold the stone, so I converted it into a beaded bead and went with that.

And just for fun, I'll leave you with a picture of me. I have always had super straight hair, that back in the day, had to be glopped with Dippity Doo and then spend the night sleeping under a hairdryer to achieve a bit of curl. Imagine my delight now that my hair is coming in wavy.

I know some of you gals might laugh at me for thinking this is curly, but believe me, I'm Shirley Temple compared to what I used to have.

So that's it for today. Hope everyone is having a good week. Take care and treat yourself tonight!

Fry-day

Well, there certainly wasn't supposed to be another segment of the Ugly Bead Project so soon. But alas, many things went wrong .

I forgot to take the beads off of the cardboard that I used to carry them to the oven...

I forgot to check the temperature...

I forgot that after spending an hour conditioning the dang stuff, that I had mixed Cernit with Sculpey III...

I shrugged it off when my hubby seemed concerned because he thought something was on fire and couldn't find it...

I still didn't think anything about it when he had me look at the haze ("don't you think that's smoke?") that had wafted thorough the basement...

I was actually surprised when I went downstairs with him to check on our crystal growing coal project and just casually checked on my beads that were cooling in the oven...

TO FIND THIS!!!

Sorry Hun, it seems you did smell smoke and yes, something was burning. Sometimes things really go awry don't they?. These faux coral beads are going to be antiqued, but I think some of them are too far gone. As Britney would say, "oops I did it again".

Well, not to worry, it's just a reminder that things can still go wrong. Even after fifteen years of working with polymer clay. So I'm off to see how this little project ends up.

How are things going with you? Think I'm the only one having bad luck? Nope, check out my friend, Shelly at Blue Ridge Lady and see how your day measures up.

Whatever you are doing this weekend, don't try for perfection. You just might be disappointed.

Enjoy!

Ugly Beads vs Lonely beads

OK, perhaps I was too harsh when I referred to the bubble gum colored beads as ugly. No, actually I wasn't, but as my sister pointed out, the way I presented them and the angle at which I took the shot made them seem much less hideous than they really are. That actually reflects the way I look at life. Sometimes things in life can get really ugly, but often when we change the way we look at them, they somehow get a bit better. I have always been an optimist and I'm sure I always will be. All this being said, I will continue to post some beads that, while possibly not the ugliest in my stash, have certainly been lonely.

There are several large baggies of polymer clay beads that I have made over the years and thought they were horribly disfigured, or just misfits. Either way, they were relegated to a life in a plastic box, under a table for a long, long time.

Here are a few, remember those awful pink things on the left, from ugly bead project #1.

On to ugly bead project #2. This next piece was created from these lonely (read u.g.l.y.) beads at the left of this photo. They were the result of my attempt to step outside the round bead box that I sometimes get hemmed into.

Well, they didn't turn out like I had planned, so I tried highlighting them with some silver paint and when that didn't go well, I tried dipping several of them in melted UTEE. UTEE stands for ultra-thick embossing enamel and is one of my all time favorite things to work with. I can usually rescue anything with UTEE. When this still didn't get the effect I was looking for, I banished them to that "I'm not happy with you box" under the table.

Fast forward to my current Ugly Bead Project. After dumping all these beads out onto my table and really studying them, I decided that the main thing the flat ones needed was continuity. So I painted all the edges black and then dotted red and yellow paint on top of that. Then I glued black square beads on the tops of the beads and then glued orange beads on top of them.

So take the continuity of the embellishments, along with some coordinating dangles and a bit of chain, and I have created a really fun piece that I like a lot.

Seems we've come full circle here. If life is giving you ugly beads, search for the continuity that is needed and then present those little beads in such a fashion that they are no longer the least bit ugly. Then pat yourself on the back and give yourself an "atta girl"!

Ugly Bead Project

Ugly Bead #1

What in the world was I thinking? This looks like something encased in pink bubble gum. Apparently pretty glass beads and sparkly pink paint didn't help at all.

More to come....

I hope it will be worth the wait...

Just popping in to say hi. I have been making jewelry lately and some of it has been quite less than satisfactory. That got me to thinking, how about an "ugly bead project" so that's what I'm working on.

I'm not an athlete, or a "mathlete" for that much, and I don't like being put on the spot of having to compete with a group, BUT (and isn't that a big but?) I do love to compete with myself. So tomorrow in addition to showing some jewelry that I actually planned out, I will be showing you the first installment of the ugly bead project. I have lots of beads that sort of went in their own direction and I'm going to see if I can corral them back into my world.

Wish me luck and let me know if this is a phenomenon which exists only in my own personal galaxy, or if you have "ugly beads" also.

Greetings

Hello there, for some reason I don't really have any pictures to post today. So if you are just a blog "picture only" person, you'll be bored. No wait, I do have a picture, hang on while I load it....


Yep, my goodies came in from our recent session of retail therapy. This is from a store in San Diego called Great News. It's a fabulous store that sells all things related to cooking. They even sell online, for those of us who can't just jump in the car and visit on a whim. We bought cook ware and all kinds of other goodies. One of the fun things I got is a peculator. (Oops, that should be percolator, thanks Sis, I was relying on the spell check and clicked the wrong one) Anyway, how long has it been since I had perked coffee?? Heavenly, I am telling you.

At the risk of sounding like a shopping fanatic, or a mall rat, I have another quick story that I thought was funny. DH (that's Darling Hubby when he's being good) had errands to run and I know that sometimes he gets sidetracked and doesn't get everything done, so I went with him to help. We had several things to get that required going to said mall, and I had him almost running from store to store, especially looking for the elusive oval shaped table cloth. Everyone has oblong, but no oval. Why didn't I remember this at the shop in CA? Sorry, I digress, just had a shiny moment. You know how birds and other animals are distracted by shiny objects, that's a shiny moment according to my sister... Shoot, I did it again.... anyway, after sprinting from one store to another, he finally stopped and said quite emphatically, "my toe hurts!" and without breaking stride, I told him "my toe has hurt for three years, keep shopping".

I finally let him stop and take a break and even "let" him stop at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. I told him I didn't want anything since I'm dieting, but I did mention to him that he might want to try a chocolate covered pretzel and that he might like that coffee flavored cream and that he might like... Well, anyway he got a bit of a break and we decided to find the table cloth online and call it a day.

I tried to get him to do this,



but he wasn't going for it.

They also had a riding/driving simulator that bounces you around inside, while trying to make you think you are sailing over sand dunes, but he didn't want that either. You got to remember that this is the same guy that convinced me to go on the Skyfari at the Zoo...

and I was terrified, while he loved it. All this leads me to reason, that his toe really does hurt. Needless to say, after finally having to take his shoe off and massage his toe because it was cramping like crazy, we decided to donate those shoes.

As you can see, I'm hopping all over the place today. First I say no pictures, then I end up with three, and I can't seem to stay on topic. Have you ever been typing and think there is a bug on your foot and go crazy and then realize that it's the cord to your mouse??? Sorry, another shiny moment.

Well, I'm driving my own self crazy, so I better go get focused on something. I have made two pieces of jewelry this week that didn't work at all, so that is a bit frustrating. I think I'll find a nice easy pattern and make something that I know will work.

Take care, enjoy the rest of your weekend and if you're a mom, Happy Mothers Day.

Spring time fun

As you know, I'm back from my trip and we're settling back in to everyday life. When the hubby picked me up at the airport, he asked me if I wanted to take a quick overnight trip to his college to hear one of his friends play music. I opted out of this trip and sent him on a little retreat of his own. He only stayed one night, but had fun seeing them play and then meeting up with the members of his old garage band and belting out some 70's favorites. He had a blast.

Ok, so now we're back to settling in to everyday life and having fun together. We always go to the Strawberry festival that is held to raise money for one of the local schools, so we headed out to check out this years event.

Here's DH getting the tickets (we figured this out after a brief wait in the serving line and having to change lines, man, is every thing is so complex these days?)


We did enjoy the sundae and shortcake and even got a friendly passerby to snap a shot of us.

Shucks, I even found a heart shaped bite...


After partaking of all the strawberry yumminess, we headed out to see a movie. DH and I have been waiting patiently for the release of The Runaways, and it didn't disappoint. There is a bit of sex and drug use, but considering the time and subject of the movie, it was completely necessary. The actors did such a great job of portraying these legendary female rockers, that I completely forgot that one of these rowdy little gals is being played by Dakota Fanning. They grow up so quickly, don't they?

Not much art to post, as I have been beading lately. I have finished this...

Loomed Bracelet

Bead embroidery butterfly

and I'm almost finished with this little number...

Free form bead bracelet with custom blended polymer clay cabochons.

So other than making room for my shipment of goodies from our retail therapy, I'm taking it easy. I got three magazines to amuse myself with while DH was gone, Bead Unique, Cottage Style Design and Taste of Home Chicken cookbook. Great choices for me, as I can read these mags over and over again. What better way to spend your weekend? Planning jewelry, planning bedroom redecorating and smacking my lips over chicken recipes. I'm happier than a baby pig slipping around in the mud.

How about you, you having a good weekend? I hope so. Take care and enjoy each day. It's been given to you for a reason. Live it and love it.

That's it from me for a few days, see you next week. Have a blast until then!

She's Baaaaaack!

Just a quick note to let you know that I'm back. Remember that I said that I called my sister to let her know a package was coming for her birthday and she said she wanted me there as well??? I got there right after her package did. What did I send her, you may ask? She just discovered Hannah Montana and has had a blast engaging in marathon viewings of Hannah and all her antics. What would be a better present than a box full of Hannah gear. Yep, that's right, I sent my silver haired sister a long blonde wig and a microphone and a very usable shoulder tote. If you hang in there with me through out all these pictures, you just might see Sister in the wig. Don't worry, I asked her first. That's it, so enjoy...

She was happy to see me!

We had fun playing drums...

We belted out a few old favorites (the playing is so totally staged, but I did wail out the tunes)

I made new friends...

and laughed until I needed Depends...

I had my first fondue experience...

I even got to see some surprise snow...

We did lots of retail therapy, so as the packages start to arrive, I may share with you some of my various birthday booty. I had a lovely time and am very thankful to have such wonderful sisters. They know that I love them, but I wanted to say it again. I had fun and while there's no place like home, California if a great place to visit...if you have a sister there.