Ten Years Old

Today is GBN1's birthday. It is difficult to believe that she is now ten years old. She loves to point out that she is almost as tall as me, which I tell her not saying much.  But the truth is that she is growing - growing into a beautiful young lady.  I love all my grand-babies, but GBN1 has a special place in my heart. This a painting I did of her several years ago. I call it Lady Bug.

Paris Violinist

While in Paris last year I took a photo of this street violinist or busker in the Montmartre area. Off and on, I've been working on a pastel of him. The light was good that morning in Paris. The man was happy - especially when I dropped money into his cup. Years ago when we were in Rome, I took a photo of a violinist just outside the Vatican.  He, too, was very happy to pose for a bit of money in his cup. This is painting I did of the Rome Violinist years ago. It was one of those paintings that I whipped out, enjoying every minute of it. I posted this painting to my Fine Art America site and had to do some finagling to post it here . I really need to update that site or something. The Paris Violinist has been a bit more of a problem for me; it has not come together so easily. I wanted to post it, because it seems that I can see more of what needs to be done when I post my paintings.

It has been cold and windy here in OK until today. Finally we get a nice day.  Hopefully tomorrow will be nice too, because I think Sunday we are in for another round of winter weather. Bleah!

Back Roads to Taos

This is a little painting that I have been working on this week. Using a couple of photos that I took years ago in Taos, NM, I put this together. When we lived in NM, we did our grocery shopping in Taos every week. The main drag through town could be very congested during tourist season. So, I often took the back roads around Taos to avoid the traffic around the plaza. This is some little church with a huge willow tree.

One time years ago, my mom was in the hospital in Taos for some tests. I took the back roads as usual to get to the hospital (before it was out on the south side of Taos).  All along the way, I picked wild flowers growing on the side of the road. I had quite the beautiful bouquet by the time I got to the hospital. Then my hands swelled up and turned red and itchy. I guess I was allergic to something. My mom loved the flowers. I always loved the back roads. 

It is amazing that when I take a photo of my art work and post it, I see all sorts of things I need to work on. 

Thankful Weekend

The weather turned warmer. I am so thankful. The wind has been howling, but I can handle that as long as the temps are not freezing. Friday evening we drove over to WF to take Toby's mom out for Valentine's Day. She had been to a party at her senior living center and was dressed and looking beautiful. Considering it was the first time since last August that she has been out to do something with us, we were all pretty thankful. Toby's sister and Jesse were there making it a fun party.

On Saturday we cleaned house. Then the GGs and Mr. T came over to make pizza with us. Toby had made up a batch of pizza dough - enough for four small pizzas - and let the girls put on the toppings. They really got into it. Mr. T was helpful too. Since the weather was good, they also spent a lots of time outside helping Crewcraw cut and load firewood (incase of another cold spell) and of course, they rode the four-wheeler. Later they painted some masterpieces. Mr. T painted for the first time. He got very excited about painting. I think everyone had a good time.

Sunday, of course, was church. After church was the usual big dog nap. Now I need to get ready for the next week with some more cleaning and laundry. I think Toby wants to bottle beer too. I am so thankful for the warmer weather.

Curling Up in the Warmth

Up until a few years ago when we moved my mother into her present house, she had a hairdryer much like the one pictured above. For some crazy reason, we sold it in a garage sale. She had had that dryer as long as I can remember, and it still worked like a charm. So many times my mother would curl my hair up in clippies and then set me under that dryer. I can remember vividly her pulling the top down even with my eyebrows and turning it on.  I would look up into the inside of the dryer and let the air blow on my face. It blew warm. It was like being in a space capsule. Mom would come by and push my pin-curls up into the dryer admonishing me to do the same in order to get the ends of my hair dry. When I was in high school, I would dippity-do my bangs and then tape them straight across my forehead and then get under the dryer. It was the only way to get my bangs to dry straight when straight hair was the rage and my hair was curly.  Sometimes Mom would put her pantyhose up in the dryer (it kind of sucked them up to the top) to dry them. Best of all, under that dryer was a great place to sit on a cold morning. Sometime we kids would curl up in a chair under that dryer even when our hair was not wet. This morning I was drying my hair with a blow dryer. I don't really like drying my hair, because I have lots of hair and it is still curly. It takes forever.The blow dryer makes my hair frizz and poof up. And although the blow-dryer is warm, which is good on these cold mornings, it is not nearly as great as Mom's hair dryer. Why didn't we keep that thang?

Another warm place: The Green Mountain Lodge in Red River had a huge lobby area with stairs going to the second floor where the guest rooms were. As kids, my brothers and I would sit on the stairs where the staircase met the lobby ceiling. It was warm from the air rising to the ceiling. We would start down the stairs in the morning, but just stop and sit for a while in the warmth.

70 Years

This weekend we went to my Uncle Homer and Aunt Doris' 70th wedding anniversary. Both of them are still quite beautiful. Aunt Doris told me how she and Homer were going to wait to get married until he came home from WWII. He was about to ship out when they decided to just go ahead and get married. So they drove to Chillicothe, TX, and got married at the Presbyterian Church - although she was raised Methodist and he was raised Baptist. She said that it was just the preacher and his wife with them. Then Aunt Doris said, "I guess it stuck" meaning their marriage. She was just pretty cute telling the story. 

Not only did Uncle Homer serve in WWII, he was an amazing athlete playing all sports. He played professional baseball before an injury benched him. Later he was a Baptist preacher. Aunt Doris was a hairdresser. They raised three kids together. Both were always pleasant with great senses of humor. Congrats to them!