This is a Mandevilla bloom, isn’t it beautiful? You can click for a larger view of it. I love the sunburst look down in the center, it is so pretty! I have about 15 buds on the trellis now and I am so excited! Last year I planted clematis there that did not do well. 🙁

More flowers! I took a few photos this morning and decided that I’m going to invest in a better digital camera with macro mode. (Thank you Erikie for pointing out that it exists!) Then I will be able to have MUCH larger and sharper closeups of pretties for you!

Ok here are s’more for ya. (and if anyone wants to paint them, be my guest!) An Orange Gerber Daisy, Peach Rose (just opened this morning!)and this Yellow rosebud (will probably open in the next day or two.

That’s it for now! We’re heading down to Wallyworld for some stuff, pool filter, chemicals, pistachios for Mark..yadda yadda…

Have a great Saturday!!

p.s. if you aren’t grossed out easily, here are a few of my bruises. I told you I look like I’ve been in a wreck! Will heat packs work to get the bruising to go away faster? These are awful!

Sorry guys, I didn’t hear back about it today so I can’t tell you yet!

I spent the day outdoors shoveling, my legs look like I’ve been in a car wreck. Daggone shovel. Bruises from my thigh all the way down to my ankle now! But the good news is, the pool is filling as I type. YAY for summer swim fun!

Mark gets to see Ted Nugent and Toby Keith tonight (Saturday his time). Have fun at the concert & meet/greet! Take your camera!

Wishing you all a great weekend…

Welcome to my mudpile. LOL!

I spent all day yesterday cleaning gutters, and getting this huge pile of dirt broken down enough to move easily into a landscaped type mound that will follow the corner fenceline and be covered in hostas and nice partial shade plantings. Of course we got the torrential downpour as scheduled this morning, and now I won’t be able to get back to it until it dries out a bit. So far so good though, I think it will look nice when it’s finished! Not that you can tell much from this photo, but the dirt was taller than I am, about 6 foot tall I’d say, and now I’ve got it down to about 4 feet.

Ok on to business!!! For those of you who are interested in a print of Squirrely III, he’s been added to my print gallery, and my print gallery has changed a bit! It is super cool, so even if you don’t plan to purchase anything right now, have a look anyway! I spent quite a few hours figuring out the coding for this, in preparation for an overhaul on another one of my client’s sites, so I tested it out on my site first! 😀 Click here to go directly to the new prints page!

I plan on beginning the backgrounds for my two cat portraits (in oils) later today.

Also, the pet portrait giveaway contest ends tomorrow! Have you entered? Ya gotta play if you wanna win! 😉

Have a wonderful Sunday and Happy Memorial Day everyone!!!

xoxoxoxo

Happy Graduation Day, Caitlin!

Yes, my little weed is growing so fast. She’ll be in 3rd grade this fall! She received a “Positive Attitude Award” this morning, and her final report card was super, putting her 2 levels ahead of her grade in reading, and at a 5-6 grade writing level. 😀

I had to run to the doc this morning for some wierd thing I was just curious about that he ended up wanting to see me about. So it turns out I’ve got an infection brewing, and my goofy thing that I was curious about is the beginning stage where your immune system is trying to fight it off. He said if I hadn’t gone in, by Monday I’d have been feeling pretty crappy. So I guess it was a good thing that I got in there! Now I have to go get antibiotics though. Foo. :P~

It’s kinda nice out, the prelude to a rainy blechy weekend, I hate it when the weather teases me like this. LOL Now I am going to try to get outside this afternoon and start working on the landscaping, and then paint this weekend while it rains.

Happy Friday everyone!!!
xoxoxo

Ok so it’s not a barn owl. That fella kinda looked like this Northern Spotted Owl, didn’t he???

Northern Spotted Owl pic on eNature.com

He’s on the endangered list?!?!

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

You know, it really does a heart good to know that my clients can see a work in progress and already feel confident that the finished piece will be worth investing in. {{{{{Hugs for you, P}}}}} So Squirrely the Third is not quite finished yet (will be later today), and already has a new home. ::sniffles:: Thank you!!

That other thunderstorm hit lastnight, and by this morning the concrete was dry, but the darn yard is mush again. My family is supposed to be coming down this weekend, but now we’re watching the forecast to see if we’ll even be able to be outside for a few days in a row. Having 4 kids trapped in a house with 4 maybe 5 adults while it’s raining just doesn’t sound like a lot of fun! Even though 2 each of the kids are the same ages and they play well together, they also FIGHT well together! LOL So here’s hoping for a change in the forecast for Memorial Day Weekend!!!

The past week or so has been amazing with being able to chat with Mark on webcam! Sunday we spent a good 7 hours chatting, I broke to treadmill and Caitlin chatted with him, then Jay climbed up on my lap and chatted (pressed the buttons!), it was sweet, spending Sunday’s together is something that Mark and I feel is really important and special. 🙂

So today I finish up on the Squirrely, treadmill, have to get some bloodwork done, finish packing up another care package for Mark and getting it off in the mail, and hopefully starting the next painting. 😀

I hope you have great weather in your forecast!!!
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