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  • Piano Tuning

    December
    13
    2004

    About 5 years ago, I worked with a gal who was getting ready to move. Her husband had told her that he was planning on dragging the piano out the back door, break it up and turn it into firewood. Can you imagine? I told her I couldn’t let that happen, and hired a moving company to go get it and bring it to me.

    Now every family event I have at my house brings my mom (hi mom!) who plays rather well. It’s really cool to have mom over and sit in the family room and listen to her play. We had both pianos and an organ when I was growing up, so I fiddle with the ivories from time to time. 😉

    Now my little 8 year old is playing it by ear. She’s got the genes! I was talking with Aunt T lastnight about getting Miss Caitlin piano lessons for Christmas. This morning I contacted a tuner, who will be out next Monday to tune it and fix a couple of sticky keys, and he will bring a list of piano teachers that will come here to give her lessons.

    Neat gift for an 8 year old, eh? She’ll be outplaying me in no time!

    I am dead tired today. I am going to prep my next commission at some point today, and taking a nap is also on my list of things to do! ::YAWN::

    My Grandma :)

    December
    12
    2004

    Well here’s what I painted this afternoon. This is my Grandma, you might remember her from a couple of days ago. This is my Mom’s Christmas Present. Yea, I’m a spoiler, but I think she enjoyed watching me paint her mama.

    Merry Christmas Mom. I love you!!

    Once upon a time…

    December
    12
    2004

    …at 5:30 in the morning, the Princess was awakened by a small furry white creature. This beast obviously has no sense of timing, or perhaps just a very poor sense of timing, to dare squeak ever so softly but at such a high pitch at this time of day.

    The Princess began to stir, and refused to accept that this white fuzzball was going to dominate the day. At the prompting of a gentle yet forceful reminder of the “jingle bell” collar, she realized that if she did not obey, the castle’s new floors would be destroyed. “Yes, ma’am,” she murmured. The Princess threw the covers back into a careless heap, sleepily made her way to the entrance and began to unbolt the castle doors.

    The creature must have wanted to punish the Princess for her lack of expediency, as a gust of freezing air swept into her face and jolted her completely awake as she opened the doors. With what appeared to be a half grin on its face, this little white beast haughtily pranced out the door.

    More alert now, the Princess made her way into the dining hall to search for a maid that could pour a warm morning brew for her and perhaps help her return to her slumber. Upon arrival into the main hall, she soon realized that the maid was off for the weekend and she was left to her own defenses. She stumbled over a plastic gadget that the Castle Munchkins had planted on the floor beside the brewmaster, nearly causing her to sail into the cabinets. When she regained her balance, she began the painful process of MMR, morning memory recovery.

    The Castle Munchkins are still asleep. The brew requires a special combination of ingredients, could she remember so early in the day? Or should she begin to rummage through the maid’s things to try to find instructions?

    Just then, the beast began to pelt the door with giant boulders, creating a wretched pounding noise loud enough to wake the neighboring Castles. The Princess was terrified! Would she ever be able to appease the beast enough that she would not be continually tortured? She hurried to the doors to beg forgiveness for her ignorance, jolted further awake by another slap in the face by the brisk breeze as she fell to one knee in front of the beast.

    This brazen little fuzzball completely ignored her attempt at friendship and forgiveness, flitting quickly past her back into the Castle.

    The Princess closed the doors, mumbled something to herself about the time of day, and returned to the dining hall for her morning brew. The creature, seemingly very pleased with its morning torture routine, found a quiet place to began plotting its next session.

    The boy!

    December
    11
    2004

    Everybody, meet my Godson Cole. Cole, meet everybody! He’s really not blue in real life. hehe! I painted him monochromatic (teal) in his mom’s favorite color. 🙂

    Merry Christmas to my bestest bud ever, Paige!!!
    xoxoxoxxoxo

    Barney & Bailey Final Scan

    December
    11
    2004

    Well here they are, the sweestest Bernese in town! Barney & Bailey were varnished and carefully packed this morning, along with the other Bailey, and they are now on their way to their homes!

    I do have something up my sleeve today, but it’s Christmassy so I’m not tellin’. 😉 I also have the best blogskinner on the WWW, who is going to fix me up here with new digs by Christmas! You’re gonna love the transformation!

    Now what are you doing here? Go shopping!!

    PSST….I’m turning my webcam on to paint something very special if you want to watch!!

    5 Reasons…

    December
    10
    2004

    5 Annoying reasons that I consider every time I sponsor/partake in giveaway/contest thingamajoobies.

    By the way, if you entered the Gift Basket Giveaway you’ve received your announcement this evening from me with your entrant discounty stuff.

    Now let me get on to my reasoning and get this outta my system. FYI, I do this every time I have a contest. The annoyance factor is very low, but exists. So I’m coming here to rant about it. It’s late. I’m tired, and I haven’t ranted about anything in a long time. heh. 😛

    1. Thousands of people who will never visit your site again enter to win something without even reading the rules.

    2. A handful of the people who don’t read the rules will spend 10 minutes locating an e-mail address to write you and ask you what the rules are.

    3. Thousands of people enter the contest, many of them use invalid e-mail addresses, even when you remind them that they can’t win if you can’t contact them. Bouncity-bounce-bounce-bounce.

    4. For some reason, receiving one winner notification mail at the end of the contest equates spam, and those who entered immediately “opt-out” of a list that has a one-time mailing.

    5. Reporting the announcement as “spam” to the ISP. Someone entered the contest. They subscribed to receive the notification. They entered their e-mail address, twice. It’s not spam. Ding-a-ling.

    Ok there. All better. I will run another giveaway sometime in 2005! Next time I’ll just announce it here though, not list it with the Sweeps sites. I’d like someone who is around more often to win. 😀

    I’m from another planet! LOL

    December
    10
    2004


    You Are From Jupiter

    You are exuberantly curious – and you love to explore newness.
    Enthusiastic and optimistic, you get a kick out of stimulating intellectual discussions.
    Foreign cultures and languages fascinate you. You love the outdoors, animals, and freedom.
    Chances are you tend to exaggerate, so try to keep a lid on that.
    If you do, you’ll continue to be known for your confidence, generosity, and sense of justice.

    What Planet Are You From?

    Lineage

    December
    10
    2004

    I met a blogger, Cao, who is very cool and politically inclined. I figured I could have my political blog vicariously through her, we seem to have parallel views on the matter!

    So anyhoo, in reading her blog I’m finding out we have much in common, particularly an interest in art, and more importantly, an interest in our family history! I thought I’d share this precious photo of my Grandma & Grandpa with you. I just love it, it speaks volumes doesn’t it? Enjoy. Maybe mom will stop in and comment on this one. 😉

    Barney & Bailey Finished

    December
    9
    2004

    In the proofing stage now, here’s where it’s at! ;D

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