Doorways: We enter to learn . . . we learn to enter

I'm thinking a little about doorways tonight

First day with kiddos walking through the doors at school

So many faces of happy anticipation

New backpacks

fresh markers

shiny hair

certainty about which class is theirs

And some terror

Or at least fiercely spiked anxiety about leaving mom

What a hard thing it must be

to believe the tall people who say it will be OK

It doesn't feel OK to them

Perhaps in prior new settings

the little one could divert change by offering ear piecing wails 

Persuasive

Heart-strumming

Often effective

But now

it must be confusing

to find mom and dad

support the

new dastardly plot

and cannot be swayed by pleading or tears

The new door must be entered

the child finds he is expected to stay

til that soft speaking teacher at the front says its over

Surely

enough sobbing will convince the tall people that their idea is folly. . .yes?

or

maybe just refusing every request will change their minds

Yes . . . . ?

No.....?

What would you tell the little people?

Shall we gather by the table?

Has it really been 6 years since we've seen Abbey?

Not sure

but we were SO glad she got to come

and share some chat time

Some close ups around the table

Me, Megan and Abbey

Martha and Rachel

Martha started it all by coming out from Ohio

So good to be with you

Rachel and Todd were amazing hosts

THANK YOU

Megan

Abbey

She told us she had an arrangement with her roommate

If our gathering got AWKWARD

she could call for a rescue  :o)

Smart girl to be prepared for every option

She stuck it out til 4 am with the rest of us

Jocile

Jana

Alisha

Again brought talking prompts

Loads of fun to share stories

Weekend Chicks

 Utah trip....Chick chat

Family portrait

Alisha and I are taking pictures

Pretty much filled the frame

Good job, LD

Then I decided to do my first experiment with the timer on my new camera

OK

Timer works

but I'm not in it

 Try that again

Press the button

Leap across the room

Woohoo

All 10 of us this time

I wasn't able to manage time delay and zoom

in the same learning curve

Sorry

A little goof ball scene

as the finale

or maybe this is what we look like

when we finished talking at 4 am!

Pita Pizza

Rachel layed out ingredients

and we each built our own pizza on a circle of pita bread

(10 minutes at 375 degrees)

We had tomatos picked from their backyard vines

And what was that green leave we ate from their garden?

Good pizza

Alisha brought ingredients for

and made a yummy rice and chicken salad

The ingredients

 reminded us of Chinese sundaes

A wonderful side dish with our delicious pizzas

It was fun to design my own masterpiece

I chose half tomato sauce, half alfredo sauce

Mine's the one on the farthest right of the tray

Finished, it had a just-right slight crunch to the crust

and perfectly melted cheese on top

Good idea, Rachel

Yum

Especially for Emma

Utah Visit

While searching the mall for a skirt for church, Martha got distracted

Look what she found for you, Emma...

the best 'staches of the evening

No sign of the guys who left them behind, sad to say

And, no we didn't actually buy them, double sad to say!

By the way, Emma . . . . should you ever get tired of the 'stache look

you'd better let us know

so we don't inundate you with bygone passions

We thought of you
and the other not-present girls in the family

Missed you guys

And toasted you with plenty of chocolate, of course

Skirt the issue

Utah trip 

Late Saturday night rush on the mall

Martha left her Sunday skirt at her mom's

so we HAD to go shopping

How many girls does that take?

As many as could fit in the van, of course

 Is this the one?

Nope

Not if she wants to match the shirt

Keep shopping, she says

When we discovered Forever XXI

it slowed down the skirt shopping

Mucho trying on of shiny things

I like substantial jewelry

Alisha found SUBSTANTIAL, all right

 I have never seen so many bracelets

in one panorama

My oh my

Rachel and Martha

checked them out

Jana and Arielle, too

After loosing one another a few times

we eventually congregated where Martha was trying on skirts

Yes, she found one she liked before they turned off the lights

And she was able to make a purchase decision in spite of a van load of opinions!

Salsa dancin'

You know tha delicious salsa that Costco sells?

That expensive little  bucket with mango in the salsa?

You like it, right?

Me, too

But I don't like paying their price

And I don't get to Costco very often either

I've tried the "mango" salsa at Winco

Not as good

Check the label

they add peaches

A while back

it occurred to me

I could add my own mango

Oh yeah, Elementary, my dear Watson!

Open your favorite salsa . . . Pace Mild for me

Pick a tender ripe mango

Peel, slice, chop, stir

I leave it in the 'fridge overnight so the flavors get a chance to blend

Today I used some as the "dressing" on my lunch time green salad
M-m-m-m-m, just the right amount of zing and sweet

Re-purpose that

Understatement:
I own a lot of earrings

Most of them are the hook kind

In the past

I stored them in a tray

It got deep and messy

A while back

I gave my brain the assignment

of pondering a way

to hang my earrings

When I discovered this CD rack in a 2nd hand store

it gave my brain the shout out:

Pick me!  Pick me!

I do believe I will

I like its curvy dancing look

and

I like that it takes up very little

dresser top space

I can even lasso the top corners with a few bracelets

Welcome home, handy addition!

Set the hook

Last time I visited an IKEA store

I was on the hunt for

a way to hang my necklaces

These 5-hook swinging doo dahs seemed a likely solution

I got lucky

As a birthday present

Tim offered to come over and work on projects that would be helpful for me

thank you thank you

Yahoo!   A wonderful gift!

He figured out how to attach a support board

and I painted it to match the rest of the closet

He attached three sets of the swinging hooks

Br-r-riiiiing! (add a magical sound)

Choices at my fingertips

Love it

Crayons, anyone?

Another look at the water color crayons

Experimented with laying down some color

then using water in a brush to pull color from dark to lighter

Check it out

Look at this light and airy splash of color . . .isn't it yummy!

I replicated this

from a project in Nanette's lettering art book

I didn't know that

Maybe everybody knew this but me

I recently read

one way to get your pot water colors ready for play . . .

spray water across all the colors

helps to soften them

making them easier to use

(And I love squirting the water!

No it's not really foot spray)

Flip to some pages I drew in black and white a long time ago

(using a cartoon book as a guide)

Dip some color

Brush on

That's fun

I'm liking how her red hair turned out  :o)

What kind of mouth do you think she needs?

Art with Nanette

Fun evening

Nanette and her friend took me to dinner

thank you very much!

Delish . . .  uh huh

We laughed and caught up on the news

Nanette and I ended up in my project room

We did show and tell with our own art journals

Then we spread out the play tools

 and experimented

Nanette has a new art book she let me skim

I saw a project in there I used as inspiration for this piece

Thanks for coming over, Nanette!

Za-Za-Za Zentangle

OO-eee!

Look at my newest Zentangle----or maybe you could call it a "Zendala"

I love the way it turned out

(kind of wishing my camera like close up work)

Took the opportunity last week to attend

Art Alley

Lisa Williams, a local therapist, runs art evenings in her Art Alley twice a month

One is for general public

One is for therapists

She gives an art prompt idea

provides supplies

and for a small fee attendees meander into creative fun

In the therapist art evening, she talks about applications of the art method in therapy

This is the second time I have chosen to go

Lisa said she was obsessed with the art method she chose for the night: 

ZENTANGLES!

Small world....we must be on the same wave length. . . .

Just what I've been playing with this summer

in some of my drawing experimenting

It was her idea to set a circle  (a mandala) as the outer boundary

I chose to draw more circles inside mine, plus some curvy lines to make more art segments

before I started making my "zen" designs

Hu-u-u-u-u--u-ummmmmmmmmm. . . . .

Pretty cool, eh!

The picture of Audacity

If audacity has a mascot

I think it would look like this

SO pushy and forward

Audacity, as defined in the dictionary:

Fearless daring

Aggressive boldness

Insolent

Heedless of restraint

Presumptuousness

Shamelessness

Cheek

Nerve

Gall

Yeah.....all of that

And annoying, too

Pull up in your car
Who hops on your hood?
A cheeky seagull
entitled
brazen
expectant

Off with you, spoiled child
before I begin a lecture on self reliance!

A Date with Daisylyn

It started here

This happy boy had a happy birthday

Just so cute

My task for the evening was to

transport

watch

herd

gate

supervise

enjoy

this happy girl

Our sweet Daisylyn

She has a lot of busy life to live

playing

talking

touching

reaching

running

disappearing

exploring

darting

laughing
jumping
scooting

It was soon clear to me

I had to stay on my feet in order to keep her in my sight

So I kept myself between her and the street

and let her run with her cousins

They were sweet to include her 

 A joy and delight to watch

Pretty sure I got my exercise in for the day

Birthday fun

The occasion was Treyson's 10th birthday

Here's a young man who has grown A LOT lately

Not only is he taller . . . . much taller

he told me other ways he has grown

He says he is a better reader

and that he can now get his jobs done with less delay

Way to go, Bud

Treyson has a kind heart

I like hearing the stories about his day

and seeing the things he likes to draw

His mom made some amazing birthday desserts

I had some fun with a few pictures scenes

This little boy is pretty excited about the prospect of a giant hamburger



In fact, he's all over it.......or it's all over him!

Or if that wasn't enough to fill his tummy-----he could try the family size burger  .  . . .Oh my