Beauty Still Remains

With chaos continuing to be the background noise of our lives, there is beauty that still remains. Pull it toward you and let it be your focus.

This is on a small piece of repurposed wood. It was a nature's art, a tree, then cut to be part of a woodworking project, then trimmed off as it was unused, then saved in a pile with other trimmings, then given to me, then used as a paint palette, and finally becoming the art you see here.

Perfect on a tiny shelf.

Acrylic

Original available for $20.

5.5"x3.5" on wood

Prints available on request.

(Printed image may be slightly cropped for printing purposes.)

My original paintings are available in my online gallery.

Let me know if you're interested in prints of my paintings.

  I welcome commissions.

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The Wonder of Color

I've decided to start creating art on items that are on their way to the dump but will now, instead, be art. This painting is on a 9"x12" piece of cardboard that was not in the recycling bin as it should have been. I snagged it and a few other pieces as well. There's something lovely about bringing life to something that has been discarded.

"The Wonder of Color"

9"x12" 

Prints available on request.

(Printed image will be slightly cropped for printing purposes.) 

All works are copyrighted and all rights are reserved by the artist.

My original paintings are available in my online gallery.

Prints of many of my paintings are available in my Etsy shop. 

Let me know if you're interested in prints of my paintings.

  I welcome commissions.

Please click the links below to share my blog.

I'd love to hear from you...feel free to leave me a comment.

Outfitted

It's a funny thing what happens to art when it's framed. When one of my pieces is bought or if I buy someone else's work, and the piece happens to be framed, well, it's like it just got a huge promotion. Like they went from being a high school graduate to completing their master's thesis. It never fails to amaze me what a difference an "outfit" makes for art.

Now do I generalize this fabulous information to my own life and my own outfits? Nope...or at least hardly ever. I like to think of my style as being always ready for a workout or for getting dirty.


This piece was an exercise for a class I'm taking. We're focusing on the artist Marie Laurencin. Loving her style and I cannot wait till we get to her watercolors!

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

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The Fall

It's funny what we remember.

I have such clear memories of an event that happened when I was in elementary school. I was eating my tray lunch in the cafeteria. I wanted to drink some of my milk, so I picked it up and gave the container a shake, as was my routine. Only thing is, I had already shaken it and opened it, so milk went everywhere. Particularly on the little girl sitting next to me. I was mortified. She was mortified. Gosh, I've never, ever forgotten it and have actually felt bad for that little girl from time to time.

So when I was sitting in the cafeteria at the school where I work and one of my students picked up their milk, gave it a little shake, and chocolate milk splattered all over me, I was startled and then so, so happy. My student looked at me wide-eyed waiting for my reaction.


Me: "Would you mind getting me a napkin?" I said as I smiled.


He did. And I wiped my hair and my shirt and the table and said, "I know that was an accident." And he returned my smile.


My milk karma is officially clean. I feel so much better!

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Fall Leaves

I spent quite a while out in the chicken yard this morning. I was raking all of the fall leaves. Yes, fall. As in those leaves have been there for several months. Anyway, all the leaves were making it so grass couldn't grow, and our chickens love grass, so they had to go.

And I tell you what, raking around chickens is pretty much a comedy show. I'd rake a beautiful pile and move on to another part of the yard where I'd rake another beautiful pile. The thing is, while I'd be raking the second pile, the chickens were quietly being quite busy turning my first pile into about eight small piles.

Adorable...I love my girls!

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

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Fliptastic

Yup, that's my little guy. What with doing karate and being on the high school wrestling team, that kid is freakishly fliptastic. Now, mind you, by "fliptastic" I don't mean that he's doing flips all about the house. Nope, the kid finds every opportunity to attempt to flip anyone smaller than he is in the house...which leaves only me. I, however, am not fliptastic. And by "not fliptastic" I mean that when he tries to flip me I pull his leg hairs, I tell him that I'll never make him sandwiches again, I scream and shout.

And while I'm quite sure that the flipping attempts will continue to occur, I'm also quite sure that I'll continue to foil said attempts.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Summertime!

OK, I'm feeling the life of luxury coming over me.  I just wrote my summer "to do" list and there are only six things on it!  Now, I didn't put anything on there that I'd normally do anyway, no, just the things that are out of the ordinary that I must take care of.  You know, things like my annual physical (sorry, TMI), getting my car inspected, and getting the kid a passport.  So my plan is to get all six things done by early July so I can settle in to my unscheduled life of hanging out at the pool, laundry, hikes, dishes, playing with friends, and housecleaning. 

Bliss....

I love summer....

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In the Nose of the Beholder

About six months ago Dave sent a postcard in to the city in response to a "free trees" offer.  Awesome!  Fabulous!  Amazing!

The city dropped the trees off about a month later and Dave put them in the ground.  He watered them faithfully and they've absolutely thrived under his care.  Which is good, because if I'd been in charge they'd be goners.

Anyway, as spring has come both trees have begun flowering.  I absolutely love flowering trees!!  With the exception of one kind, that is.  You see, there's this tree at the school where I've worked for the past ten years.  It's incredibly fragrant.  And it's an odd thing.  The smeller either perceives the scent as pure heaven or as stanky as the bat guano under the Congress Avenue Bridge here in town.  I, unfortunately, am the latter.

And you guessed it, one of those delightful trees that now reside in my front yard is one such tree.  Beautiful, but stanky.  I'm determined to love this foul tree...even if I have to wear a clothespin on my nose to do it.

Click here to purchase this painting.

Does it Count if it was an Accident?

Last night I had a bite, only one bite, of the most amazing pecan pie I've ever had.  The flavors rolled around in my mouth and took me to the edge of dizzy bliss.  Oh, my gosh, it was good.  "What could be so different about this pecan pie that makes it so amazing?" I thought to myself.

And then I realized what it was.

It was not your run of the mill pecan pie.  Nope.  It was a chocolate pecan pie.  Gasp!


The thing is, I've been caffeine free for over a year now.  No coffee.  No tea (herbal is fine, of course).  And no...absolutely no...chocolate.


My thinking is that it definitely didn't count as breaking my commitment as it was totally accidental.  It's not like the pie was marked on the potluck table.  I mean, would you say an alcoholic fell off the wagon if they accidentally consumed a bite of rum cake?

I figure I'm good.  But, dang, I officially miss chocolate!

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I've Found a Silver Lining to the Common Cold

I've managed to find the silver lining to having this delightful cold of mine.  As I walk about the house, already in my P.J.s at 5:30 PM, borrowed large ugly terrycloth bathrobe almost touching the floor, and the area between my upper lip and nose glistening with coconut oil as I try to stave off the under-nose, flaky skin dandruff that always seems to show up after a million nose blows...I'm apparently exempt from all requests to prepare food for others.  One look at me and, well, aside from obviously not wanting to catch my cooties, they've pretty much lost their appetites.

Well, to them I indignantly say, "I'm pretty!"

No one is buying what I'm selling.

Click here to purchase this painting.

Toilet Lid Up or Down?

Our kitten loves the toilet.  By "love" I mean that he grooves on it as a source of water, he plays with it with his paws, and he occasionally slips all the way in and takes a very brief bath.  Very.  He's seriously convinced that it was placed there just for him.  It's disgusting.

Now we humans in the house have a new rule as a result of all this.  Always flush the toilet.  Always put the lid down.  These rules, as the only female human in the house, make me very, very happy.

While we've proven ourselves to be fairly abiding of the flush rule, there's definitely some failures on the lid down rule.

So this scene happens...a lot...and not just to me.


• Go in to the bathroom.
• Sit on toilet.
• Do business.
• Stand up.
• And only then realize that the seat was wet.


What is it about standing that activates our moisture sensor while sitting does not?

continued...
• We remember to put the seat down.

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Classically Conditioned Kid

My little guy told me the other day that I was beautiful.  Unprompted!  Not that I prompt him to do so...OK, I have...but not this time.  I chalk it up to a Pavlovian thing.  Here's the deal.  For many years now I've required my kids to say something nice about me if they want me to make them a non-meal-time meal.  I mean they're asking me to stop what I'm doing to basically do something they could totally do for themselves.  So I'm perfectly reasonable, right?

Well, yesterday when my kid asked me to make a sandwich, he blurted out, "You're beautiful!"  I think it actually popped out before he'd even had a chance to consider the words he was about to utter.


Me:  "Why, thank you.  Same sandwich as always?"

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I Done Got Hip Checked

I got hip checked today.


Little guy:  "Hey mom, have you heard this song before?"

Me:  "No.  I like it."

Little guy:  "Here, I'll play you some more of their songs."

Me:  "You're the reason I'm so hip.  You keep me current."

Little guy:  "You're not hip. And don't say 'hip'."


..and I suppose his honesty would hurt if it were the slightest bit true.  Good thing it's so totally not!

Click here to purchase this painting.

Length and Age...Oddly enough they're related.

I was driving my kid to school super early the other morning for some athletic team practice thingie.  We passed a man running.


Little guy:  "Why does that guy have on such short shorts?"

Me:  "I thought all guys ran in shorts like that."

Little guy:  "No, mom.  Mostly close to the knee."

Me:  "Really?"

Little guy:  "Think about my track shorts."

Me:  "Oh.  Well, let's see what other guy runners are wearing."


And we passed about ten or so runners on our path.  And it was very interesting.  If the runner was young, he wore longer shorts.  If he had gray hair, he wore those short shorts my kid finds appalling.


Me:  "I guess they wear those short shorts because that's what we wore in the seventies and they probably started running about then."

Little guy:  "But you don't wear short shorts."

Me:  "No, but that's just as a courtesy to others, darlin'."

Little guy:  "They should be more like you, mom."


P.S.  The painting below was another one of my left-handed challenges.  Good times!

Click here to purchase this painting.

A Round of Applause

Sometimes it's hard to tell if someone is simply annoying or brimming with pure confidence.

Case in point...my kid.  We had to do a little early winter wear shopping yesterday because he's going somewhere that's below freezing.  The little guy needed gloves.  We found the section, talked about the pros and cons of the different styles and models, and he picked out his favorite pair.


Little guy:  "I'm just going to wear one of them so I don't have to carry them."

Me:  "Wow, that's a whole new kind of lazy, dude."


So we left the glove section and headed off to find the Duck Dynasty section.  Yes, I ended up contributing to the bank account of those bearded men.

Anyway, as we walked around searching, my little guy followed me waving his gloved hand...up, down, up, down, super fast.  Now as you know, pairs of gloves are pretty much always attached when they're at the store.  So this kid had those gloves clap, clap, clapping, and clap, clap, clapping, and clap, clap, clapping.  All over the store.

OK, so you tell me.  Is my wonderful little guy simply annoying or brimming with pure confidence...or perhaps some delicious combo platter of the two?

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The Man with the Can Plan

There's this fella I've been seeing lately.  He's delightfully bald, in his 60s or early 70s, very tan, has a most beautiful storytelling face, and is in great shape.  He's always shirtless when I encounter him, that's how I know.  I see him running and he's consistently carrying bags...and the number of bags increases when I pass him for the second time in a day.  It's not that I'm fast and lap him or anything, it's that I turn around and double back when I'm out riding my bike.

Anyway, one day one of his bags was kind of transparent and I could finally see what was in there.  Lots and lots of aluminum cans.  And then I got to wondering.  Is he doing it just to clean up?  Is he collecting them so he can make a littel money?  Does he give the cans to a homeless person so they can get a little money?

I think I need to stop and introduce myself to this interesting fella...I want to hear his story.

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Good Pickin's

The little guy and I were driving home this afternoon after dropping one of his friends off.  We were sitting at a red light just yammering on to each other, when...


Little guy:  "Hey, that's dad!"

Me:  "Oh, yeah."


Yup, Dave was at the intersection, too, ninety degrees away from us.


Little guy:  "I think he just picked his nose."


Now, I'm not saying he did or he didn't...but that's definitely a HUGE difference between my husband and myself.  Me?  I would never, ever, ever, EVER pick my nose whilst waiting at a red light.  In fast traffic with no cars beside me, yes, but where someone could get a good long gander at my picking activity, no way.  Dave?  Yup, he absolutely would (again, not saying that he did).

Honestly, I think I could use a bit of swaying toward Dave's way of thinking.


P.S.  Breaking information (post  areading of my blog late at night)...Dave was not picking his nose.  I repeat, Dave was not picking his nose.

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Racing Stripes

I was driving down the highway today and saw a sporty version of a car like mine.  You know, a Prius with racing stripes.


Me:  "My Prius should totally have racing stripes!"

Little guy:  "Your car doesn't deserve racing stripes, mom."

Me:  "But I want them!"


And with a pout on my face I drove us home.


Me:  "Let's look at it and imagine it with racing stripes."

Little guy:  "Look, mom, you have cat prints all over the hood of your car.  That's more you."

...pretty sure my kid just kind of called me a crazy cat lady.

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