Help! I lost Saturday. I woke up and was certain it was Saturday, and not 5 minutes later it was midnight. Dangit I hate it when that happens!!

Well, one thing happened yesterday that I really needed to have happen. The Catfish was carried out of my studio and drove away carefully tucked into a sleeping bag. With the fishy smell lingering in my studio, and the temps down to the low 40’s, you can imagine how motivating it is to open the windows and paint like I’ve been craving! Now that he’s gone I’ve sighed my huge sigh of relief and can officially wash my hands with some really strong deoderizing soap. ha!

My schedule has me shipping this Lion tomorrow (absolutely no later than Tuesday) so guess what? With my underpainting dry and ready for it’s final coat, the studio clear of large obstructive fiberglass creatures, I am going to paint with the stereo up very loud for an insanely long time today. So there! I’ll update the cam status when I turn the cam on.

Eye candy today, our pretty Cardinal. I took this pic the other day (he was eating with the Blue Jay).

This pic (full size) turned out so very cool that Mark wants me to paint it. I think I will! (When I’m done with everything else, that is!)

The weather here is crappy. And I mean crappy. We went from a week of YAHOO sunshine and nice warm temps to blech. Rain. Cold. I wanna go back to Florida!! Whiiinnnnneeeeeee can I please can I can I can I?? Someone buy us a house and send me the keys ok? Thanks!

Mark and I will be having our heads examined today. Why? Because we live in Illinois and it’s an annual requirement if you live here. Or at least it should be. Seriously, we’re having vision checks. My left eye is getting weaker (can’t have that), and his vision is messed up now probably from 18 months worth of night vision goggles among other things that tortured his eyesight while he was gone. I’m a sqwisher. My vision gets blurry, I squish my eyes like they’re going to get better if I just do that 100+ times a day. Then, after a year or so, I figure that’s not working so I better get new prescription lenses! I’m as bright as the light bulb that just blew out here in my office. Heh!

I am also itching to have a new skin for the blogaroonie. Whatchya think? I’ll leave this one, and the lovey one, just add a new one. I need suggestions though. I want some “oompf”. Gimme some of your “oompfy” ideas okie doke?

I cannot tell you how difficult it was to get a pic of this Blue Jay! They’re pretty fast birds, and I suppose they’d have to be since most of the time they’re stealing other birdie eggs (the meanies). I love their markings though!

So how you guys doin’? I hope you’re enjoying watching me get back in my painting groove. Me, I am still getting used to a bunch of stuff here around the house. For 18 months I was doin’ it all, and talking to myself all day, and talking to you guys when I felt like I was borderline “really wierd” for talking to myself so much! 😆

Ok, I’m really wierd anyway. I admit it.

I did manage to get boxes put together yesterday for all of the gifties I’ll be sending out. We did a lotta shopping at Disney! I’ll ship everything together when I finish up this Lion painting.

So today I have to go to the grocery store (again, I just went last week, yet another thing to get used to!), finish the underpainting on the Lion and finish up the Catfish. I’m doing a great deal of pacing, wanting everything to turn out perfectly for everyone, and I know I’m being a lil wishy-washy on any kind of set schedule. Bad for you guys, but better for the end result of these paintings. I hope you forgive me and know that it’s all going to come back together soon!

G’mornin everybody! I hope you all love oranges and reds, cause that seems to be the prominent color in my florals this summer. Today is “Mark’s choice”, he thought this shot was so cool he had to put his flip-flops on to go see the plant and make sure that’s what it looks like all up close and in-your-face. I have 4 gerber daisy plants, two are flowering (they say they’re gerbers, anyway). This bloom is about a week old now so it’s a little tattered but still gives great close-ups!

Today I am thrilled to announce that I will begin my next piece! I’m working on a 16×20 LION. ROOOARRRR baby, this guy is beautiful! I’ve been painting him in my head for a couple of weeks now. Yes, I paint in my head. It’s really nifty actually, lets me know which one I need to paint first in a craving sorta way. I spent the evening lastnight getting my studio cleaned up and ready for a new piece, finished cleaning my brushes this morning and I have a feeling I’ll be out there very soon! I’ll flip the cam on when I get going (check the webcam status in the left menu to see if it’s on yet), stop in if you can!

This was our sunset lastnight. Pretty, huh?

If any of you are planning a trip to Disney any time soon, I have a 3 year old who is certain that it only takes 10 minutes to get to the pink hotel from here and that a quarter is enough money to stay there. She’s well behaved in the car and needs Lilo’s autograph, so if you have extra room take her with you! I don’t know how many times we can explain that we’re not going to go again til next year! 😆

Good morning! Thought I’d give you some pretty eye candies today since yesterday’s kinda grossed everybody out. Hehe! Well, the good news is that God creates all things. The bad news is that sometimes, I think we all wonder “what was He thinkin’ when He made that critter?”

Well here are some prettier things for you!

Every morning (during the warmer months) I grab my coffee & camera and head outside. I am really enjoying our new plantings up front, as you can see I have quite a nice gaggle of tulips growing strong here!

I have to tell you though, because this is really strange to me, that the red tulips you see here were planted very late last year. I had purchased about 50 bulbs and neglected to get them in the ground before the first frost, and they were starting to grow, in the bag. One weekend it warmed up above freezing so I grabbed them and got them in the ground, hoping for the best! Now here’s the wierd part, I am getting 5-6 blooms off of each bulb!? Is that strange to you? I’ve only planted one other batch of tulip bulbs and to this day still get just one bloom on each bulb, although they are starting to spread a little bit. Any green thumbers care to tell me if this is a normal thing?

The sad news in my garden is that my Clematis (the one thing I want very much to take hold) doesn’t look too good right now. There were two vines on it when I planted it, and I directed them both up onto the trellis. One of them looks okay, the other is floppy. 🙁 Waaaahhhhh will something please grow on my daggone trellis!!?

I’m heading back outside to give my squirrelies and birdies more chow. I’ll be painting again today on the Catfish so I’ll be back when I get started!

I am such a dreamer. Every time I go outside at night I search for Mr. Moon, and find myself relaxing immediately on a clear night when I can see the stars and moon shining brightly. Tonight is one of those nights. I thought I’d try my hand at a shot of Mr. Moon. He’s got a beautiful glow around him and my camera picked up a reflection of the moon that I thought was really neat, so I left it uncropped.

You know, if bugs didn’t exist, I would live outdoors. Man those dang bugs spoil everything, don’t they?!

Nitey-nite all – love you to the moon… and back!

BTW.. I’m late in updating (we road tripped again today), I’ll be painting on cam tomorrow after I get the catfish all sketched!

Here’s a lil boingy-boing for your eyeballs today!

I hope you guys have a fun Friday, we’re going to be busy again today! I finished priming the Catfish early this morning and will start adding COLOR either tonight or tomorrow morning. I’ll turn the webcam on and update when I get started, so check back later today (like 7-8’ish) and I’ll let you know when I plan on getting started!