Saturday, February 28, 2015

Disco Fever

Continuing my Phyllis, the wonder chicken, theme...

Each evening after sunset we close the chickens in their coop for the night. They always appear to tuck themselves into their nesting boxes and prepare to snuggle into sleepyland. But the more I think about it, I'm starting to suspect that my girl, Phyllis, has quite the night life. I'm thinking that girl of mine waits till she hears us close the back door, sneaks out of the coop, and dances under the stars.

Girl's got disco fever!

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Friday, February 27, 2015

Live Long and Prosper

Phyllis was a fan....


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Thursday, February 26, 2015

Butterfly Kisses

Continuing my Phyllis, the wonder chicken, theme...

I imagine while I'm not home that butterflies by the gazillions stop by for the privilege and bliss of hanging out on my girl's head plume and giving her some love. It's fabulous up there. Soft, comfy, gets ya where you're going...but Phyllis, while quite kind to her peeps (get it?) and us, has her share of barbaric traits as well. It's simply part of being a chicken. If you're little and wander by you're fair game for good eatin'. So while these lovely butterflies think they're completing Phyllis' fabulous look, my girl is likely licking her chops in sweet anticipation.

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Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Out on the Town

Continuing my Phyllis, the wonder chicken, theme...

Certainly Phyllis does not stay in the chicken yard all day long. No way. She's way too sophisticated for such things. No, I'm quite sure that my wonder girl puts a bow in her hair, grabs her purse, and heads out to do some shopping. Now Phyllis is a practical girl, of course, so that amazing chicken of mine is surely hitting all the best thrift stores South Austin has to offer.

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Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Secret Admirer

Continuing my Phyllis, the wonder chicken, theme...

I often see pigeons and small doves in the chicken yard. Now while they're likely there to take advantage of the plentiful feed, I have a suspicion that my girl, Phyllis, has a number of secret admirers. I mean, what's not to love? The girl is awesome!

I get it, wee little birds, I get it.

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Monday, February 23, 2015

My Phyllis

I hang out with my best girl, Phyllis, a lot. She's a fabulous Polish chicken for those of you who don't know. And while I hang out with her I can't help but imaging all of the adventures she has while I'm not at home. So...I decided to spend some time coming up with little things she might be up to and how she goofily spends her day.

And just to be difficult, I'm starting with a non-example. What I'm I quite sure that she's not doing while I'm at work?

Well, I'm quite sure she's not just sitting around watching flowers grow. Nope, that girl of mine is busy, busy, busy, of that there is no doubt.

Tune in for more!

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Sunday, February 22, 2015

One of the Flock

I love feathers. For years I've picked them up and saved ones I've found laying about. I especially love the ones that are "messed up" because that tells a story of adventure. And, lucky for me, my chickens are super patient and let me endlessly pet them. I think I have a serious case of feather envy.

Now don't get me wrong. I have no urge to fly or have way-too-close encounters with neighborhood cats. But since I won't be sprouting a feather here and there, I took it upon myself to fix that problem.

My first non-floral henna...a tad shaky as the henna had thickened and I had to squeeze the cone a little harder, but it'll do. I'm one of the flock now.

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Saturday, February 21, 2015

The Look of Compassion

So the little guy is a slob. His floor is covered with all kinds of everything. Dishes linger in his room for days on end. And it never, ever occurs to him to empty his overflowing trash can.


Me: "You oughta clean your room, kiddo."

Little guy: "What? It's fine."

Me: "Well at least bring your dishes to the kitchen."


He stood up right away to do it because he is an awesome kid, took one step, and landed SPLAT on the ground...because he tripped over one of the gazillion things on his floor.

Me, being the kind supportive mom that I am, looked at him with sweet tender love and compassion.


Little guy: "I know you're laughing on the inside, mom. Let it out or you'll explode."


So I did. Such a great kid to take care of his mom like that.


P.S. No, it's not a self portrait. I wouldn't dare attempt such a thing.

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Friday, February 20, 2015

Staring Down

It wasn't my intention. It really wasn't. But...

The first thing I painted on my hallway graffiti wall was this creature...and it happens to be right outside my oldest son's door. Now I rather like this creature, but I'm thinking that in the middle of the night when my kid gets up to go to the bathroom and sleepily heads back to his room, that this thing staring at him might just be a tad startling as it stares him down.

Sorry, kiddo, I'll make the next thing a tad more welcoming.

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Thursday, February 19, 2015

Backyard Bliss

I was out in the backyard. The sun was shining. There was a slight breeze. I'd just hung laundry to dry. Phyllis, my wonder chicken, was being adorable. The universe was clearly sending me a message.

What was that message? Well, to chill out, put on a podcast, and paint, of course!

Backyard bliss....

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Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Shedding a Little Light on Things

I've been the guinea pig for a lot of my husband's photography lately. He's really quite amazing and carries about a million kazillion facts around in his head. He also has the habit of talking to himself while he's working on something which makes it so I'm privy to said facts.

Today the facts were all about photographic lighting, f-stops, and other such things.

The thing is, I have absolutely positively no idea what he's talking about. And as he goes on and on spewing out brilliance all I'm hearing is the teacher voice from "Peanuts", so I burst out laughing.

You know what happened next?


Dave: "OK, now I need to tell you about it all over again."


And he did!

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Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Henna

The other day I drew some lovely henna flowers on myself and my son's girlfriend. It was all fine and wonderful until the next day when I realized that both of our henna flowers had faded into nothingness. Apparently my henna had expired.

I figured, hey, that must've just been a practice session.

So to fill my henna void I took out my watercolors and created some henna flowers that would stick around for a while.

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Monday, February 16, 2015

Graffiti This!

I finally got around to doing something that I've been threatening to do for a while. I created a space in my house for a living, breathing wall of art. A space where whenever I get the urge, I (or anyone else for that matter) can pull out some paint and just do whatever strikes my fancy. And if it no longer strikes my fancy I can just paint right over it. Or not. Or expand upon it. Or give it a hat. Or whatever!

It's kind of like my own Graffiti Park at Castle Hill or Lamar Boulevard Graffiti Wall. I am super excited to see what shows up!

The wall is in our hallway just between my boys' rooms.


Me: "I painted a wall just for you."

Big guy: "Oh, thanks, mom."


I can tell by his precious smile that having a graffiti wall just outside of his bedroom isn't his idea of awesome, but he supports his mom's idea of awesome...and likely hopes that I'll keep the flowery princess themed characters to a minimum.


Here is the colorful canvas...ready to receive.

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(though not this one as it's attached to my house).
 
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Sunday, February 15, 2015

All Flowery and Fabulous

I finally finished a project I started back in December. Lucky for me, my family is completely groovy about me taking over our hallway as my own personal canvas. Here, after a two month delay due to I don't know how many distractions and a small dose of laziness, is our air conditioner closet door!!

Stop by and check it out!

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale 
(though not this one as it's attached to my house).
 
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Saturday, February 14, 2015

Looking the Other Way

My old cat, Pug, loves me. He really, really does. But since he's a cat with all the groovy cat characteristics, him sitting on the edge of the deck looking away from me while I sit at our umbrella table...well, I call that awesome together bonding time.

I'm absolutely positive that he feels the exact same way.

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Friday, February 13, 2015

Same as it Ever Was

I was at the store the other day.


Cutie checker lady: "I love your hair!"

Me: "Oh, thanks. I just roll out of bed and settle for whatever it decides to do that day."

Adorable bagger dude: "I've had the same haircut since I was a kid."


And I absolutely believe him! He had the cutest little boy haircut on a man EVER!

Same as it ever was awesomeness....

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Thursday, February 12, 2015

Pink and Orange

I ran a few errands over the weekend. I like to do it early to avoid people. Don't get me wrong. I love people. I just prefer them in fewer numbers.

When I got home I told Dave about how golly gosh darn productive I'd been.


Dave: "Oh, great. Did you wear that?"

Me: "Um, yes."


I went to the mirror to see just what he may have been referring to. Hot pink shirt...check! Bright orange hoodie...check!


Me: "Well, come to think of it I had an oddly large number of store employees checking on me to see if I was OK."


So perhaps they were worried about the crazy brightly colored outfit lady, perhaps they were bored, perhaps they were just super nice...and, well, perhaps they all just wanted to talk to someone with as much color sense as I clearly have!

I stand by my wardrobe decision. Pink and orange are fabulous!

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Wednesday, February 11, 2015

A Backyard Whodunnit

We've had four eggs laid by our chicken(s). And it is fabulous! But the mystery of which chicken is laying them has been driving us a bit nuts. We knew that it couldn't have been Red. Her eggs are expected to be brown and the eggs we've been finding have been white. So that left Phyllis and Fuzzy as possible layers. Hmmmmmm....

But this afternoon the most amazing and wonderful thing EVER happened. I was outside in our chickens' yard giving them cottage cheese and grass. They were super duper happy, munching, munching, munching. All of a sudden one of them ran behind the air conditioner, faced the corner where two walls meet, and started doing very strange movements. Now I've seen my chickens do a lot of strange movements, but nothing like this, so of course I got myself in a good spot to watch.

And lo and behold, a couple of minutes later an egg popped out. A beautiful, perfect, and amazingly oval egg!


Me: "Phyllis! You are awesome! Thank you!"

Phyllis: "Whatever, I'm going back to eat some more."


And that amazing girl of mine scampered back to the food and I retrieved my prize.


Woo hoo! Mystery solved!

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Tuesday, February 10, 2015

I'm a Dumbbell

Sometimes I question my sanity.


Little guy: "Hey, mom, I want to see if I can bench press you."

Me: "OK."


And a few minutes later and a whirling dervish of flailing arms and legs I declared myself non-bench pressable.

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Monday, February 9, 2015

Picking and Drawing and So Much Fun

You know that saying...the one that goes, "You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose." Well, for some reason that keeps going through my mind in a totally irrelevant way.

Kind of like this. "You can pick an arm and you can draw on an arm, and you can pick your son, but you can't pick your son's girlfriend, but you can draw on your son's girlfriend's arm."


Yeah, see? Irrelevant. Weird. Nonsensical.


But the thing is this.

- I like to draw with henna on my arm.
- My son picked an amazing lovely young woman as his girlfriend.
- Tonight she let me draw on her arm.


She and I went out on our back deck where it was quiet and gorgeous outside. Then the dogs came out and got all happy and rambunctious. I started drawing but the table was shaking. I put the dogs in. Then the cat jumped on the table and headbutted my hand. I encouraged him to find another spot to hang out. My two sons came out on the deck and immediately started playing hacky sack. The table shook like crazy again and we delicately requested that they go to the carport. And then I finished drawing. (Yes, all of that is my disclaimer as this is the first time I've ever tried to do henna on someone besides myself...and I think it's only maybe my 5th or 6th time ever to do it at all.)

So, the moral of the story is that no matter how shaky things get with your son's girlfriend, something lovely will come out of it.


Here's the henna on her arm and two shots (front and back) of the one I did on my arm tonight.

My Big Guy's Girlfriend's Arm

My Arm

Wrapping around my Wrist

And, just a reminder, my forearm is decidedly not for sale, I find I need it
(same goes for my son's girlfriend's arm),
but if you'd like to check out some of my purchasable art...

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.
 
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Sunday, February 8, 2015

The Quiet Door

Several years ago Dave and I got a new microwave. It was pretty. It was just the right size. It cooked food just fine. And we hated it.

For some reason this microwave was not designed with teenagers in mind. Yes, teenagers. You see, teenagers tend to want to eat at all times of the night on the weekends and of course this involves microwaving. Well, our microwave was impossible to close quietly. No matter what you did, there was always a very loud "CLUNK!" when it closed. And this woke us up. Every. Time.

So when this loud closing microwave expired in the middle of the night this weekend, in a very stinky/smoky way I might add, my only requirement for our next microwave was that it close quietly.


And the very next day Dave came home with a brand spankin' new microwave. It is pretty. It cooks food just fine. It closes quietly. And we love it.

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Saturday, February 7, 2015

Cat Nap Love

Our cats love to take naps...no surprise, they are cats!

While they typically nap within a few feet of one another, I caught those two having the most love-filled nap ever. Yup, those two tabby cats were loving their nap so much, loving each other so much, and loving snuggling so much that they actually formed a heart.

Love my boys!

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Friday, February 6, 2015

Making the Super Bowl even Better

Thinking back on the Super Bowl...it was on in my house but it didn't capture my interest in the least. I'll admit to walking over a couple of times to see a few of the commercials and of course the half time show. But what would have captured my interest in the actual game just a tad?

I've decided flowers. Yup, flowers. Seriously, wouldn't that have been a nice touch?


Here's a little lefty floral football for your viewing pleasure.

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Thursday, February 5, 2015

That Chicken Look

I walked out to our chickens' yard holding a bowl of goodies. They eagerly ran up to me clearly expecting cottage cheese or at least some yummy seeds. So when I put the bowl of fresh organic green beans down for them they gave me the same look that my kids used to when I'd give them green beans.


Chickens: "Um, really? This is what we ran over here for?"


But being chickens they went ahead and ate it...unlike my kids.



I was looking at Juliet Crane's work on Pinterest and found myself inspired to take a left-handed stab at painting my chickens.

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Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Thrift Store Dress

I went thrifting over the weekend and found the most adorable little spring/summer dress. It is fabulous and will go great with my cowboy boots!

But....

Due to my laziness I was unwilling to shave (as I thought I oughta) so the perfect weather Sunday went on its merry way leaving only cold and raininess in its wake.

So I wait. And I reconsider the concept of laziness as I gear up for a lovely and sunny spring weekend ahead.


Another lefty challenge painting!

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Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Eggcellent!

It happened! One of our chickens finally laid an egg!!!!!

It's not a huge egg, but it's a perfectly fabulous egg. And tonight we shall dine on this mid-size oval eggstraordinaire.


Hard boiled? Nope.

Over easy? No way.

Poached? Not a chance.


No, this special egg will be scrambled and divided into four equal servings.


I just know it'll be eggcellent!


P.S. Painting an egg with your left hand when you're right handed is much harder than you'd think! Loving my lefty challenge!

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Monday, February 2, 2015

The Other Side

My right wrist has been hurting for a while so I figured I'd make lemons out of lemonade and take on a personal challenge. I decided to do a series of paintings with my left hand. I've done it before, though not for this reason. This is one of my prior lefty pieces and here is another. Interesting to me how sweet and childlike those pieces are...and how this one is so not.

I wonder what opposite hand creations reveal about us over time.


Look for more lefty pieces this week.

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Sunday, February 1, 2015

Trio

I took a lovely nap this afternoon. I love a weekend nap!

When I got into bed our kitten, Tommy, was there. I pulled him under the covers, lay his head on my shoulder, and he and I blissfully slept. I stirred at some point, opened my eyes and saw our big dog, Hazel, beside us and I drifted back to sleep. My little guy came in the room and got on my bed to snuggle with Hazel and I saw that at some point our old cat, Pug, had joined the napping party.

I love my fuzzy sleep Trio!

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