The truth finally came out today about why my little Chickeymonkey never finishes her sandwiches at school.

Every day, I doodle a little something on the girls’ sandwich bags. It’s always different, always just a cute little surprise to remind them I’m around in the middle of the day.

Today, I doodled this little girl. I thought she turned out so sweet and cute, I knew she’d be appreciated.

Sure enough, when I picked up the girls from school, I asked my daily question – “did you finish your lunch today?” and got my standard answer, “Nope”. I asked “why do I keep making you sandwiches if you never eat them?” and her reply just tickled me and brought a tear to my eye.

“I didn’t wanna finish my sandwich mommy because I didn’t wanna throw my bag away because the girl is too cute!”

Awwwww…..Then the guilt hit me. My kid isn’t eating her lunch because she doesn’t want to throw away the bag.

No wonder she comes home and eats me out of house & home – I’m starving my Chickeymonkey! Maybe next week I’ll doodle full bellied little girls throwing away bags with doodles on them.

I just completed #2 in the Eye Ate It™ Series, a Goldfish (the crackers, not the critters!). 4-inches square (all of them in the series will be this size), a perfect sized oil painting for bite sized goodness. This is my second this week, so I’ll shoot for one more Eye Ate It™ painting this week, just because I’m an overachiever.

Yes, Eye Ate It™. Just in case you were wondering. It was tasty.

I cut these roses from my garden this morning, the twins are called Double Delights, this is their second year and I’ve had about 7 long stemmed roses from this plant so far, and it looks like there are a couple more buds, too. The peach rose is an old fashioned rose that was here when we moved in 10 years ago. Talk about long stemmed, I did not have to bend to smell this rose, it met my forehead (I’m 5’6″) and I had to bend the stem forward to smell it.

I just had to cut them and bring them inside, now I’ll get to “stop and smell the roses” throughout the day while I’m painting.

I’ve been planning this series for quite a while and finally got started on them today. Here’s #1 in the Eye Ate It™ Series, a Walnut. It’s just 4-inches square, a perfect sized oil painting for bite sized goodness. I’m planning on completing at least two Eye Ate It™ paintings a week.

Fall has altered the colors in my hydrangea, as well. The pale pink flowers are now deep raspberry, and the leaves are changing in a reptilian sort of way. Purdy.

Clear skies this morning really made the fallen leaves stand out against the grass. I had to get out there with my camera, of course. I love the leathery sunlit glow of the leaf against the green, it makes the photo seem warmer than the air outside right now.

I added this photograph to my prints collection, you can view the details here. This photo would really turn heads in a nice mat & frame, I think. I’ll be testing one in my own family room, of course.

For Laura, and anyone else yearning for a bit of fall foliage.

I’ve just added my latest blog design to my gallery, Harvey Family History. This is a different kind of blog – in fact it’s more of a website design. I laid it out in a way that displays the contents of the blog as a family history/genealogy site, and added a nice photo album for family photos and heirloom images. This is all new to Sue, blogging in WordPress, but she’s excited and catching on quick!

I’m excited to see that photo album fill up, she’s got so many really fabulous and antique family photos that are so interesting to look at!

I’ve been trying to grow vines for 5 years. Morning glories. Clematis (several times). Nothing. Finally – this year, I have Clematis. It has successfully played me all summer, though – made me think it was a spring bloomer and then going nuts now that the weather has cooled.

What the heck does a girl have to do to get a flowering vine to grow on a trellis? Try, and try again. (And again, and again, and again.)

It’s about dang time.