Wednesday, August 24, 2011

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?



Sunday, August 21, 2011

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

Saturday, August 20, 2011

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!

Friday, August 19, 2011

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

Friday, August 12, 2011

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!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

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

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

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?

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

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!

Thursday, August 4, 2011

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!

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

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!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

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