Hey! It’s a mini-me! Just wanted to say good morning, will update more later today! 😀

I’m back! Today was productive. YAY! I’m back on the treadmill, walked 1.5 mi. so far today, and I’ll get back on in a little while.

Did some grocery shopping and stopped to pick up dinner for the kidlets, now we’re home and I’m just going to hang out for a bit and wonder what on earth I’m going to do with our finances for the next couple of weeks while I wait for the mortgage company to do their thing, and then I’ve got to shop for a new car too so we can have something more reliable to tool around in this summer.

The coolest part of course is that I got to chat with Mark again this morning for a bit, it is so nice to “see” him online! I think this is really going to help make the time pass in a much more positive way. Since he is so motivating for me, I’ll be making sure I keep my blog updated every day and “stuff” (more art!) so when he stops by (hi honey!) he can see I’m not sitting around moping like I’m known to do when he’s not around. 😉

I downloaded the COOLEST CD from Walmart.com this morning! The group is Maroon 5. If you like upbeat tunes, you have got to check out their music. Jay and I bopped around the house for a while today listening to it. I usually hear just one song (that’s the one that’s got us boppin’) and go looking for the CD to see if I like anything else they’ve got – and by george the whole CD is awesome! It’s great music for summer drives with the windows down, walking, whatever. GREAT great great stuff!!

I also got a call from Aunt T. lastnight, she browsed the site for a while with my cousin and saw all of my new stuff. I love hearing from people who browse through everything! She reminded me that I’m not done with my own site yet, my figurative/portrait gallery still doesn’t have the enlargement windows. I gotta get that done!

Good evening everyone. 🙂

Believe it or not, this is a purple tulip growing in MY front yard! I did a little magic in PSP with it and thought it turned out very easter-y so here you go. A purple tulip to wish you all a blessed Easter with your families and loved ones. Did you know purple is my favorite color? And tulips are my favorite flower.

My husband sent me over 50 tulips for my birthday last year. They were fresh cut, and I had to split them into 5 different vases and had them all over the house. What a man.

Tomorrow we will celebrate with the standard morning egg hunt, the girls will follow purple bunny prints around the house to their baskets and treats. I tried to incorporate as much of Mark as I could. We will have dinner with his family Sunday night at Mark’s favorite restaurant.

I am working on three paintings this week. First, another portrait of my hubby in oils. Second, a very bold and beautiful fuschia gerber daisy. Third, I believe I will paint this lovely purple tulip, maybe take another close-up shot of my beautiful tulips in the front yard while they’re open.

I am also very excited to announce that my peonies are growing! I have been trying to grow them for years. FINALLY. ::taking a bow:: I look forward to dark pink, white and light pink peonies covered in ants and smelling up my yard in the most beautiful bumble-bee kind of way. 🙂

Have a wonderful, wonderful Easter everyone.

xoxoxo

All over. From missing my hubby, to feeling like someone beat me with a big stick!

Spent most of the day yesterday outdoors on a sunny yet chilly spring day. When the studio construction was completed, they were supposed to clean up the yard and put the patio back as a “courtesy”, but since it wasn’t “in the contract” that courtesy was not extended in any form other than a verbal “let’s close the deal” pitch. Ah well, more work for me, lesson learned. My father in law, bless his poor achey back, brought his rototiller and helped break up the ground and concrete blobs left behind. We got about half of the patio done before we were both too sore to continue. Today, ow. Walked half a mile on the treadmill, if that. I walked and moved with extreme caution today!

I also miss my man. I’ve not heard from him since Tuesday, and with all the goings-on, I really would like to hear his voice. I know it’s ok that he hasn’t called, no calls are better than calls from the “other” kind of military people, so I reassure myself saying it’ll either be him, or nothing. And that’s ok, but still I miss him. Today was a rough day being so sore, the first day of spring break, girls at eachother from 7 a.m. until dusk. FUN!

The picture there is a very intricately beaded piece done by a client of mine. Isn’t it beautiful? She had been working on it for quite some time and when I painted for her and got to know her she decided that this was meant for us. I am such a gush, I wept when I opened it. It is truly beautiful. I meant to post it when I got it but kept forgetting to get a picture of it. I finally did, because I wrote to Mark about it and included this pic in his letter so he could see it. Anyhoo I wanted to share it because I have been thinking a lot lately about my clients who have become such wonderful friends that are so dear to me, and it means a lot to me that this sweet special bond is all created by a love for art and beautiful animals. 🙂

Have a good night & great Sunday, don’t forget to change your clocks! (Spring ahead!)

xoxoxo

“May we indeed inculculate in the lives of others that like the rose, that like the baby breath, like every flower that blooms. For it does its best with what has been given it by man, to glorify its Maker with all its beauty, its color, with all of its love for the appreciation of spring, of the rain, the sunshine, the shadows. And so the man in like manner, with the worries, the troubles, heartaches, the disappointments, may draw closer and closer to God, knowing that this may be done as in the Son. He gave Himself that man might know that appreciation, that love, and how that in meting it to others we come to learn, to know the meaning of disappointments, of little hates, little jealousies, and of how they may grow by entertaining them; but more importantly how the joys may grow also just by entertaining them, as do the beautiful flowers that God hath given, that man might see His face in them.”

More later. Just had to share this from a mail I received from my bestest buddy this morning. Absolutely inspiring isn’t it?

Here’s more! I just finished the design and shading on the bowl. You might be able to guess by now where the baby possum is going to be sitting in the bowl. I am very excited for these layers to dry so I can rock & roll on the little critter! His tail is going to wrap around the side of the canvas a bit.

Still, no progress on the weight loss today. It’s frustrating! But I am not giving up! If I am not gaining, and not losing, then I am still on the right track. This will be a year of constantly battling my body to do what I need it to do! Walked over 2 miles on the treadmill yesterday, and so far today have just over a mile in. It is getting easier to walk a mile at a quick pace and get it done in under 20 minutes, so we’ve been keeping it at 30 minutes and ending wherever we end.

No other news to report today, woke up, cleaned up, treadmilled, painted. Nice relaxed life I lead, huh? Not sure what I’m going to futz with this afternoon, maybe some website changes, maybe try to sketch out a blueprint for the changes I’d like to make to the playroom. (Turning it back into a family room!)

Aaah decisions, decisions. 😉

Have a great afternoon!
xoxoxo

Ssssh, Jay is sleeping. Don’t you love how she set up her bear-bears beside her on her hugs pillow (I won that from a vending machine at Denny’s!), and then wrapped herself up in her bear-bear blankie for her nappie? And see her pink nikkernaiws? She twirls her haircut as she falls asleep. Well, she twirls it all the time, but I think it’s precious that she does it as she falls asleep, and even while she’s sleeping if you watch close. (p.s. nikkernaiws = fingernails, and haircut = ponytail)

Caitlin’s nappie and bedtime habit includes pulling the tickles off of her fleece fuzzy blankie that she stole from me as a toddler. She either makes a wish and blows them into the air, or tickles her nose with them as she falls asleep. I remember one time she had a sinus infection, she was blowing blue tickles out of her nose. LOL (p.s. tickles = the fuzzy stuff on fleece blankies)

I hope you are all having a good day! I’ve prepared my next painting and will start it in a little while. One of my wonderful clients/friends has sent me at least a dozen beautiful photos of her kitties (she has 25 –last I knew!!), one of them is curled up napping on a cookbook. It is precious, and that’s what I’m working on next. 🙂

Here are a few photos I had developed this morning from our trip.

::sniffles::

A street sign on Ft. Polk in my maiden name (misspelled)
A nice pic of Mark in uniform. What a man.
A huggy emotional pic of the two of us. (Puffy from bawling the night before & that morning)
Our tattoos together
A nice profile pic of Mark, tattoo freshly finished
Outline work in progress pic of my tat
A closeup of my tat work in progress (filling in the heart)

Ok those are all I have to share at the moment, I just wanted to get a few of those scanned in right away.

I’m back. Mark departed early AM for Kuwait, with stops along the way. He already called from the first stop.

The trip was wonderful, I arrived to find him waiting at the airport – we went to find our hotel and WEE that was fun! Have you ever driven a “roundabout”? Crazy I tell ya. Can’t you just make a left? No, you have to go down 2 miles and then follow this big circle and come back. LOL Once we figured out how a roundabout worked, we were good. 😉 Got checked in, and went to dinner at a Cajun restaurant next to the hotel. I tried so many new things, I’m proud of myself! That evening we started with stuffed mushrooms (yum) which were stuffed with a chopped crawfish breading. I had Stuffed Snapper (also stuffed with crawfish and topped with a creamy seafood sauce). Mark had Blackened snapper, and we both had seafood etoufee. (and wine, and beer!)

He wanted to get his fill of fast food before we left as well. So there was Taco Bell, McDonald’s and Applebee’s on that last evening for steaks, Long Island Iced Tea and Raspberry Kiwi Margaritas. 😉

Things are closed on Monday’s down there, so we didn’t get to go to the art museums in Alexandria as we’d hoped. I did get some neat pics that I’ll scan later on. We ended up spending Monday driving to Marksville and stopping at the Paragon Casino & Hotel Resort. BOOOOO we didn’t win anything! We lost. 🙁 It was fun though, we paired up side by side on some nickel video poker machines and lasted a good hour before we depleted the rest of our casino fun money. When we got back we had enough time (I think it was Monday?!) to hop over to the local zoo, where I got some more very cool reference pics to paint from.

Tuesday we did it! We got our TATTOOS! That’s just the pic of mine. Mark’s is on his left shoulder, and I did get more pics on my regular camera that I have to have developed. I took progress pics of JD doing mine, I hope they turn out well! Our Tattoo artist was amazing, and funny that we ended up selecting him, because he’s originally from Iowa.

I had picked up the book “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Tracy Chevalier and read it on the way down. Well the natives were restless, so I also did this in gel pens in my little notebook I brought along. I’ve been wanting to paint that piece for a lonnng time, and now that I’ve worked that little sketch I think I’m feeling brave enough!

On the way back, I had stowed some of my zoo pics in my purse to work from, and we had also stopped at Hobby Lobby and I picked up a smaller purse sized sketchpad and more india ink brush pens. On the flight from Alexandria to Memphis, I doodled this macaw and then from Memphis to Minneapolis I doodled this squirrel. I met a really nice man in the seat across the aisle who watched as I doodled and it was neat to see his interest in art!

Ok I’m done for now, more later!!

Missed you all!
xoxoxxoo