He’s done! Boy do I love these little critters. In fact I just put out a bunch of popcorn for them out back!

Yesterday went by so fast, I was a little bummed I didn’t get him finished. But now he’s done. YAY! We’re leaving in a few minutes for an eye exam appointment for me, I’m going to get contacts! 😀

Not much else going on today, just catching up on housework. I just want to know how 3 people can produce 4-5 bags of trash a week? At least I know I’m not a packrat. LOL

I’ll be testing prints of this one later today or tomorrow, depending on how long the appointment goes. I have some webdesign projects that need attention tonight, so we’ll see!

Hey, now that I’m thinking about it, those of you who voted for “other animal”, I’d love for you to reply here (even if it’s anonymous!) and let me know what animal! I know one of the 4 is a skunk… anyone else wanna let me know?

Happy Wednesday, everyone!!
xoxoxo

Good evening! Well, actually, it’s morning in Iraq, so Good morning (honey!) I hope you all had a good day/night. 😉 The pic is another one courtesy of Mark’s unit. Nice view, huh? It’s got to be strange for him to look at this view and think that sun is just starting to rise over here.

Today was so humid! Pithooey! My feet were sticking to the linoleum so of course I’m mopping, and Jay is slipping and falling on the wet floor, and then there’s crying, and popcorn, and nappy time (yep, I joined her!), then there’s dinner, playtime, bandaging up owie’s for the day, and bedtime. They were so good tonight it made my life peaceful for a moment.

Got some things done here, I changed out the rotating image on the front page, added 3 new oils to the oil gallery, two new inks to the india ink gallery, and trimmed the figurative & other art page – it just looked pretty cluttered up to me. So now I’m good for the time being! I’m putting my florals in with the wildlife now and grouping them more by medium, but they do grow wild, and they are plant life, so it’s all good anyway! 😉

Tomorrow will be busy, I need to get a USB extension cable, mail out some things, and get ready to go to the bank for the closing on the house refinance. I’m so nervous about that!

Oh hey, did I tell you I’m down 35 lbs now? I had a comforter bag full of clothes from ..umm…. 4 years ago? And for giggles I got a pair of shorts out of there and tada! They fit! I only have a few more to go to reach my goal. 😀

::yawn::
nitey-nite friends!
xoxoxo

These photos are phenomenal. Mark sent them over this morning, after a day of humanitarian duty playing soccer and handing out the last of his goodies to the kids there. Aren’t they precious?! They are so happy to have us, it is so nice to see something POSITIVE about our being there. These will definitely lift your spirits!!

This first one, just a few of 50-60 Iraqi children Mark interacted with today. I could just sqwish that little girl!! He said she was adorable, has the biggest puppy dog eyes and is expert at asking for more goodies. 🙂

Here’s Mark (3rd one over from the left) with some children (family?) – you can see they really are enjoying the supplies we provide, and they all spent a good portion of the afternoon playing soccer. The kids won! I asked if I could send a bunch of flip-flops or something for him to hand out, but he said that they are used to barefooting it unless they go to school. Asphalt – 160 degrees, bare feet! Definitely something we all would have to be born and raised in to be accustomed to.

This is the best. Mark with two of the kids, that little one looks to be about 6, yea? Being goofy for the camera! LOL And the older one, looks about 12’ish, wearing Mark’s helmet. That is such a great keepsake for Mark, I know that he’s wanted to rescue these poor folks since the first time he was there. Very very cool pictures, so nice to see them STILL happy to hang out with our guys!

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!!!!
xoxoxo

This is one of the beautiful irises I have growing in my front yard. They just decided to bloom yesterday so I spent a good half hour out there setting up the tripod and getting shots of them. I will probably be painting this one within the next week.

It was a beautiful morning, topped off with yet another fabulous chat with my hubby. He’s got an awful heat rash (prickly heat?) on his back – anyone have any ideas on how to relieve it with limited supplies? I suggested baby powder with corn starch, but I don’t think they had any over there. My poor guy, it’s like 110 over there every day, which just makes it worse having to wear the uniform and gear.

I did get to mail out my fuschia daisy painting to its new owner yesterday, sent a couple more care packages off too, and just kept busy doing this & that all day. I feel like I’m still not caught up, or that there’s more to do and I just don’t know what it is?! It’s raining this afternoon so that shoots my plans to do yardwork. My father in law was here this morning while it was still nice, and he cut the grass for us. Now every time I go outside there’s more and more I need to get taken care of!

I burned a new CD too, if you haven’t been to walmart.com music downloads – it’s very cool! You pay online, pick whatever songs you want or full albums, and download them right to your puter! So I mixed this great selection and it just rocks. Music really is a huge motivator for me, especially when I’m painting & treadmilling.

Oh yea! The weight loss progress! Ok I’ve lost track of the days. I started this whole thing on Jan. 31st. As of today, I’ve lost 34 lbs., and I’m down 2 sizes!! I just ordered a few new trendy things from Old Navy (dot com) in the next size down, so by the time they arrive I should be good to go! WEE! I crave my morning workouts now, don’t feel right without them. This is really moving along so much faster than I had anticipated, and I am so excited about it!

I think that’s all the news I have for now! I wanted to put up a poll too, so I may add that here in a bit. 😀 Update: just added the poll over there to the right, under the giveaway linkie/icon! Have a vote!

I hope you are all doing awesome!!
Love you!!
xoxox

I’ve canceled the tulip listing on eBay. It is still available (so far), but I have been a little frustrated with their new layout and how un-art-browser friendly it is so I am going to have to find an alternative method to offer my artwork to the masses.

I am also letting everyone know that I am taking a little break. I’ve got some things going on that need my full attention, so I’ll be on a mini “blog vacation”. 😉

Take care all, see ya soon!
xoxoxo

Meet Muffin, my in-laws baby girl. We’ve been watching her this weekend. Isn’t she a sweetie pie? 🙂

Oh yes! I have to show you a couple of crazy pics I took of Jayden the other day. Caitlin had a “Lights On” program at school, evening activites and the like, and Jayden was being a little pistol. Here she is running: Jay Runnin’, and here’s another freaky deaky pic of my little chickiemonkey, Jay Runnin’ Freaky!

We’ve been doing some spring cleaning this weekend. Friday night we went through all of the girls clothes and loaded up a ton of stuff that either doesn’t fit or Caitlin doesn’t like anymore, and this morning I went through my stuff! Of course there’s a ton of stuff that I have to get rid of anyway, cause it just doesn’t fit anymore! 😀 Now I’m debating whether I should list it on ebay, or garage sale it, or give it to Salvation Army. Hm. I could use the cash to get things that FIT, but maaannnn listing everything is a lotta work!

Need to get a few more things done before we can play today. We’ll be making a few batches of brownies, packing up a bunch of boxes to ship out tomorrow to Mark, and then I’m hoping to get some painting in today.

Off I go! Have a great day!
xoxo

Yep, this is my guy. What a man. Wow. Makes me all tingly and patriotic and proud – the list goes on. Add your own adjectives, verbs, whatever you’d like, he’ll be stoppin’ in I’m sure.

::beaming with pride::
xoxoxo

BOING! Good afternoon! How ’bout this for a afternoon wake-up call? I just finished and listed it on ebay, you can click the painting to go see it there. You may want to go grab your sunglasses. 🙂

It’s a great day, chilly and windy – where am I, Chicago!? Sheesh! But it’s sunny and bright and beautiful. I’ve been walking and painting today. I also ordered this very cool vacuum sealer thingie so I can send Mark more brownies and not have to use so much tape (and suck the air out of the bags myself) next time. haha!

We did get to chat this morning too, which of course is very cool. Funny thing happened (don’t you love sentences that start like that?) we were chatting away and about 10 til 8 this morning I hollered for Caitlin to finish getting ready since she leaves at 8’ish for school. Right then Mark says he’ll let me go so I can get Caitlin off to school. Hm. I am far too predictable! LOL

I am loving the new equipment – the scan of this painting went insanely fast for the resolution I used, and the colors were right on, didn’t have to modify them at all. Go Epson!!!

Ok off to play around s’more. Have a great afternoon!
xoxo

Hey there! I painted yesterday, layer upon layer on this daisy to make it FUSCHIA. I love fuschia. It’s my all time favorite color; my senior prom dress was even solid fuschia. 🙂

So it’s turning out pretty cool I think, I love the stem, I painted the sides lastnight and just continued that dark midnight-cobalty blue around to the sides of it (it’s a 12×12 – 1 1/2″ thick gallery wrap). The only thing left to do is add the pollen! And of course that involves waiting for the layers to dry in the center so the pollen pops when I add it. I’m going to start this one on auction for a BUCK. Yep a dollar. It’s spring, and I have mucho faith in my fellow fuschia and flower lovers. It’ll probably be finished up later today and I may be able to get it listed tonight. How bout that!

I took these fab pics the other day for Mark, and he hasn’t even been able to get online. Fooey. I changed my AOL IM so that when folks log on my puter says “Cock-a-doodle-doo!”, and I cranked up the volume lastnight and slept on the couch hoping to sleep light, which I did. (So yea Erikie, I heard ya! Stumbling back here all sleepy eyed and stuff..LOL) I am so anxious to talk to him now, ‘specially since I have stuff to show him! C’monnnnnnnn honey, log on! (you know, like rolling dice…hm, what can I roll….)

I also re-invested my earnings lastnight on that cool new printer I mentioned, it’s an Epson Stylus CX5400 and sports a scanner, copier, AND waterproof and 70-year archival inkage! Woowee! That will arrive tomorrow and I will be hooked up to generate some wickedly cool and valuable prints like the Lolo and Care have going on. 🙂

Walked 2.1 miles total yesterday (down .4 from Monday & Tuesday), but the coolest thing is that I got to walk with TWO of my buddies long distance! We coordinated Mountain Time with Central and Eastern and did a three-way-call-walk-a-mile-and-a-quarter! (only one of us is speedy gonzales and walked 2 miles. lol) So very cool to walk with friends. The weight is still melting away too, but I’m not gonna say my progress just yet! Thanks girls!!

Time for me to scoot, I hope you guys have a fabulously fuschia daisy day!
xoxo