My Opus

I'm Diggin' Those Shoes

Beth, you look fan-tas-tic girlfriend.  I am really diggin those shoes.  Hope you had a fun night out.  You looked so good I just had to share your video with everyone.  I know - my bad.

Ding-Dong! It's the UPS Man!

 

Here I was with the boys sitting in my art studio (today is Art Day for our homeschooling schedule) and Adolf went nuts barking at the front window.  "What's ya barking at boy?"  I said as I got up from my chair.  I looked out the front window and saw the UPS truck backing into our driveway.  "Bob!  The UPS man is here, can you see what he has for us?" 

 

So Big Bear came downstairs and went outside.  At that point, Adolf went bananas.  He always gets upset if we're outside without him and a strange person is talking to us.   This is what he wants to do - take off an arm, or a leg, or a head.  He's such a good guard dog.  But inside - aw, he's a lush for a tummy rub.

 

The next thing I know I see 2 big boxes and for the life of me could not figure out what it could be.  Then I saw the tag "Lisa Davis" and immediately knew what the surprise was.  

You see, I have this great friend in Maryland, Lisa, who used to be our neighbor.  Her daughter, Alison, is Sarah's best friend, who visited her this past summer for almost 2 weeks.  They try to get together every summer.  It's a "best friend" kinda thing.  Lisa tries to visit too so that we can scoot on over and spend the day together at the spa. 

Yep, Lisa's a great friend, and she is always thinking of us and surprising us with little things - and big things too.  Last Christmas she sent a big box with a bunch of goodies for the kids and for us.  The summer before that, she sent a bunch of clothes for the boys that her son had outgrown.  This past summer she sent a big box of goodies and clothes for Sarah that Alison had outgrown.  Nearly everyday, Sarah is wearing something that are from her friend, Alison. 

Here we go again - a box of goodies!  The boys went nuts.

They looked at every article of clothing and some still had the tags on them!

They were so excited they threw the clothes in the air and jumped around the front hall full of happy-kid excitement.

I just shot picture after picture of my boys expressing their thrill over getting 2 big boxes of clothes, hats, socks, jeans, slacks, shirts, flannel shirts, sweat pants, pullovers, jackets, and pajamas.

Thank you Lisa.  Thank you for bringing a smile to my little boys' faces.  Thank you for thinking of us as you always do.  It is friend's like you that make the world a better place.

I can't wait to see you again girlfriend.  Hopefully, we'll have time to spend a day at the spa.

I think the pictures speak for themselves.

This is almost better than jumping in a pile of leaves!

It's raining jeans!
 

They smell so clean.

Wow, I really like these Spiderman boxers.

Time to clean up and put them away.

Thank you Lisa.  We Luv ya bunches,

 

Could My Life Get More Complicated?

 

Well, I'm sure it could get a lot more complicated, but I'm not going to think about that right now.  For anyone who thinks I don't do much by being a stay-at-home mom - think again.  This week alone I have been so busy I have completely neglected my laundry and now it looks like Mount Rushmore at the entrance to my laundry room.  Not good.  I know what I am going to be doing this weekend.  I bet you can't guess.

The good news is that "Red Easel" is done.  Well, most of it anyway.  The design is now in stone.  I've put Photoshop through the ringer.  Have I told you how I would be completely useless without Photoshop?  It's true.  It seems like everything in my life revolves in some way around Photoshop - from web design to reference images for my paintings to photographing my artwork to creating business cards - Photoshop's the "bomb" man.  Even my brother sends me photos of himself to Photoshop - like removing pimples and whitening his teeth.  Too funny.  I really should charge for this service don't you think?

Anyway, Red Easel is my site for visual artists.  I launched it in 2007, then took a hiatus called "Raisin Toast" then got a lot of slack from my Big Bear for putting Red Easel on the back burner and finally took the time to redesign the site and relaunch it.  I did that this week and I am proud of the result. 

I still have some work to do on the site, but overall, it's lookin' really nice, thanks to Photoshop and TypePad that is.

I've also been working on those "Red Easel Master Palettes" all week too.  The sanding, staining, sanding, staining, sanding, lacquering, sanding, and lacquering has given my right arm a workout.  The rest of me is falling apart, but my right arm seems to be in ripe good shape.

The weather has been magnificent.  Sunny, cool, breezy, ... what's the name of that ad on television? Now I'm going to be thinking about that all day instead of doing what I'm supposed to be doing, and although laundry should be on my "to do" list - it isn't.  Naturally, I'll think of that "sunny, breezy, sleezy" ad at 3am.

I've got a lot to do today, not laundry (just trying to get the message across to my Big Bear) ... so I'm going to sign off for now - before my life gets more complicated.