Two little monkeys jumping on the bed!

I had loads of fun with Audrey and Hazel last night. Mom and Dad went out to eat, which they don't get a chance to do very often. Meanwhile, the girls got to play with Grandma's toys, which makes them seem "new"! (Wish I had taken more pictures, but they kind of stop playing when they know they're being recorded for posterity!)

One of the first activities was jumping on Grandma's bed. If my bed was up on a frame, I probably wouldn't let them do this. But it's close to the ground. I sat by the window most of the time so nobody would bump their noggin on the window sill. (Safety conscious at all times.)

 

Hazel was fascinated by all the embroidered birds on my quilt. She kept asking what kind they were. A few of them are obvious, others the embroiderer (not me) took some liberty with thread color, and so they are open to interpretation.

The girls were also interested in the sports "buttons" I have displayed on my bookshelves. Most of them are pictures of their mom from when she was in sports. They kept asking for more of them.

 

I usually keep the door to this room closed when they visit because there's so much to get into on the bookshelves, but I thought it was about time to let them explore.

They had a hard time believing that this was their mommy, and their Uncle Josh and Jordan!

 And that this was Grandma and her little brother!

Later some painting and splashing about was enjoyed.

Do you see how Audrey is painting with an old toothbrush? After a while I noticed her fiddling with it and then she asked, "How do you turn it on?" Ha, ha! Silly low-tech toothbrush!

The evening went off without a hitch. As I was visiting with their mom and dad later there was a "thunk" and a scream. After an injury-free evening, Hazel had bumped her mouth on the edge of the coffee table and was bleeding all over. Well, upon closer inspection, the injury seemed to be fairly superficial. After some time in Mama's lap she was ready to play again. Kiddos. They are very resilient!

Here is my latest ATC for the "Build Your Own Bizarre ATC" swap.

I'm looking forward to a fantastic and restful weekend off. In fact, I'm about ready for a nap now! (It's 9 a.m., but I've been up since 6, and probably should have slept longer. But, at my age, I don't really have much control over sleep. Know what I mean?)

 

This just in...mail call!

 

Faye, over at Faye's Adventures in Art , sent me an envelope full of ATC's! It was one of her recent giveaways. Isn't it just like Christmas to get this stuff in the mail!

Four pages full of miniature art from around the world!!!

 Faye's butterfly card is beautiful!

 These are my other two favorites!

Fun, fun, fun! Thanks so much, Faye! :)

 

You all have a great weekend!

Shalom!

What? Four days since I last posted?!?

Well, maybe it's because I haven't done anything spectacular? No, wait, that would apply most days! :)

 

Feeling a little sad about Robin Williams. He seemed to be a nice man. I just re-watched "Dead Poets Society" which made me more sad! I should have done like daughter Micah and her family. They're going to have a Robin William film festival, but they're watching the funny movies. She mentioned Jumanji and I suggested RV.

 

It's a beautiful day off and I've been taking it easy as I try to do every day off. It doesn't do a whole lot of good, so I may break down and make an appointment with a nearby chiropractor who seems to be very knowledgeable about many things. I need to find out what all the fatigue, sore muscles and joints is all about. My insane job would probably do this to anybody, but maybe there's more to it. I just hate to give up time off to go!

 

Meanwhile, my current ATC swap is entitled "Bizarre ATC's" and is hosted by Noodlerabbit88 (Katie) who lives in London. The idea is to choose objects from three different lists and then mix them together to come up with a picture. Very fun idea! I chose pirate, igloo, coffee cup, flag and moon for this one.

 

 Then I chose giraffe, owl, giant tree, mushroom, fashion accessory and forest for my number two card.

 I got the idea for my forest from this sketch I made years back. It's something I copied from "Each Peach Pear Plum" by Janet Ahlberg. When I saw the word "forest" on the list this leapt to mind!

 Do you see the dark spots in the middle of this picture? (A very bad shot indeed.) That is a mother turkey and 8 or 9 baby turkeys. They just marched across my meadow and it was fun to watch them. The mother is probably 3 feet tall when she stretches her neck to its full extent. The young teenage turkeys were flapping around, jousting with each other. In other words, playing!

Micah came over with Audrey and Hazel yesterday after work and they played in the yard. Then we came inside and the girls did some painting and played with toys a bit, but they had to leave fairly quickly. On Friday evening I'll babysit them while Mom and Dad have a date. Then they can really  play with whatever they like, pound on the piano and paint up a storm. Looking forward to that, followed by...my weekend off!! :D

I'm off to do some more reading and maybe some eating.  That sounds like a good idea!

Blessings and shalom to all.

Life's Extras...

This little book arrived in the mail today. It looks like a pleasant read. :) In other reading news, I've decided not to continue with Rembrandt. I just don't need to know everything negative about his life, sheesh!

 Well, these aren't the most exciting ATC's ever, but I'm doggedly keeping a photo log of all of them, so I may as well include these. This was the Postage Stamp ATC's swap and each ATC had to include a stamp. These were all from South Africa, so I made the backgrounds with that in mind.

 This is the super dooper burger I made for dinner last night! I had planned to call and order one from a little restaurant in downtown Nevis, where I live, (pop. 300) but instead I went to the little grocery and bought hamburger and fixin's and made it myself. It was huge! I expected the patty to shrink down to nothing...but it didn't. I could hardly get my mouth around it. I was so hungry for a burger. I mostly eat chicken or fish, so this was a treat.

 I also had squash from my garden and tea, of course.

 Can you see the water hydrant in the middle of the picture? In the weeds? Ha, ha. I noticed that the little water dishes sitting next to it were empty even though I filled them yesterday. I wondered how four cats could drink that much water, but then it dawned on me that it was probably deer! So I placed a green 5 gallon bucket next to the water bowls and filled it for the deer. There's a lake right down the hill from me, but I like to encourage the deer to hang around. I have a regular doe and buck who come every morning and evening, and this morning there was a doe with two older fawns!

 And now I'm snacking on hummus and iced tea, of course, again. (I drink a lot of tea in the summer!)

Oh, and a warning for all of you moms and grandmas out there. My little grand girl, Hazel, had a scare at the lake yesterday. She and Audrey had on their lifejackets and were playing in fairly shallow water with Mom standing nearby.  Hazel tipped over somehow and the life jacket seemed to force her to float on her belly, but also kept her from being able to lift her face out of the water! Mama Micah grabbed her quickly and she coughed and spluttered a bit, but she's fine. But I think she's a little leery of water now. So, life jackets don't always behave as we think they're going to. Keep those little ones safe out there, okay?

Well, that's all for now. Everyone have a swell weekend!

Shalom!

Babysitting accomplished! Whew!

Friday after work I ran home, changed, grabbed some things and hurried to my dear daughter's house to babysit while she and her hubby drove 50 miles to a wedding rehearsal/dinner. My daughter stayed overnight to help with preparations and early beauty treatments on Saturday. S-I-l, Adam, came home at about 9:30. Saturday I returned to their house at 8:45 a.m. so Adam could head back to be in the wedding, and stayed until about 10:40 p.m. A long day with a 3 year old and an almost 2 year old! They were delightful, but it's just the constant vigilance required to keep everyone intact, lol!

There was nothing fancy planned. Just the usual countrified pursuits of two toddlers.
Trying on fancy hair do-dads. (Note the chosen footwear. PJ's were the uniform of the day.)

Exclaiming over and playing with the squash that Grandma brought for lunch. (They decided they didn't like squash, but Grandma enjoyed it.)

We had to take the horsey calendar down from the wall so they could look at the pictures.

The highlight of any Grandma visit is "playing in the water". They don't get to do this except when I come over, so they love it. Pretty simple. Fill things. Dump them out. Repeat with various implements. (Prepare for mucho pictures.)

 Yes, water gets spilled. Grandma is on life guard duty, wiping up spills on the chairs so nobody slips. I usually stand to the left of Hazel to be sure she doesn't step off into space. She's pretty good about being careful.

 Love that pinky action.

 Need more stuff!

 At this point shirts are saturated, so time to strip down. Hazel has worked up a thirst.

 Finally, time for a blueberry break. Getting warm in the house, hence the lack of clothing. Grandma will turn on the A/C. (This is a mobile home, so it heats up easily.)

 I gave Audrey a little braid and clothing is restored as the A/C does its job.

 View out the window.

 Audrey asked to see my books. You know, the ones I carry in my purse to read. So here she's looking through The Big House. I stay close when they look through my books, but I'm not too concerned. Books are replaceable; their curiosity about them is priceless!

 Hazel gets her turn at The Big House, but is mostly fascinated with the strip of fabric I use as a bookmark.

 Audrey kept asking about the photo and newspaper clipping my mom clipped into the front of Letters of C.S. Lewis. The photo is of The Eagle and Child pub where Lewis and several of his writing friends met each week.

 

Why didn't we go outside and play? No fenced in yard. Hazel is at the age where she'll just take off running right into the horse pasture, under the horses bellies, etc. This gal can't keep up! Anyway, one day inside didn't hurt them. They managed to have fun. I was having trouble with my energy level by the time I got them to bed, but I made it.

 Today I'm mowing my front lawn. Taking a break right now and then I'll finish that. I'm also refilling these two paint boxes for Audrey and Hazel, so we can have more messy fun next time I go there.

So, I have plans to just do whatever little things come to mind throughout this day. Other than mowing, I'll take it easy.

Have a great Sunday, everyone!

Shalom!

A lazy day off...

Despite my boastings to a co-worker yesterday that I was going to mow my lawn today...it didn't happen! :) I figured it wasn't worth pushing myself when I'm already tired. The lawn will still be here this weekend.

Instead, I puttered around the house organizing art materials and doing a couple of small art projects. My various sketchbooks, pads of watercolor/Bristol/sketching paper, brushes, paints, ad nauseum, were scattered between two bedrooms and the living/dining room areas. The living and dining areas are still strewn with things I'm actually using, but I finally got the things I'm not using situated in one area. This is a nice desk that my step-dad built years ago. Thanks, Glenn!

 Besides pads of paper and some art utensils I also have all of my sketchbooks and my son's sketchbooks from their homeschooling years. It's nice to have everything in one place.

This is a vintage piece of luggage I inherited from my son when he moved. It's so cool! I've stored my acrylics, some brushes and a can of fixative in it. I rarely use acrylics, but I'm thinking it's about time I did!

My dear son, Josh, has a birthday on Saturday. He'll be 30!

He's seen here modeling the supper his little wife made. (She is taking photos of what she is thankful for, for 365 days!)

 

So, I made him a handmade card. I decided I wanted to paint by my big living room window, so I set up my little painting spot here. The computer is so I can look at a photo I took.

 The remote controller is holding my Windsor & Newton paintbox in place. It likes to tip, which is very inconvenient.

 Here is the painting. The view may be familiar to those of you who look at my photos often. This is in the pasture to the north of my house. I thought Josh would recognize it and it's one of my favorite scenes.

 Here's the finished card. I considered using some pen, but I kind of liked the misty look. I enjoyed composing a note inside telling him what a delight he is! This has been sealed and posted. I made the card this weird shape so it would fit in a regular business envelope.

 I may have shown this ATC that I'm working on. I bought a little pile of old frames at a flea market a while back and this picture was in one of the frames! So, I decided to use her on an ATC. I guess I'd feel kind of odd if I knew some stranger used my daughter's photo in a collage 80 years from now. But it's such a wonderful picture, I didn't want it to just sit in a box. The finished ATC is shown below.

 I also finally got around to putting my ATC's in a larger notebook. I've actually outgrown my first album!

Besides all of this artsy goodness I've been reading "Rembrandt" by Gladys Schmitt. I'm only on page 47 of 657 (Hey, I've got three books going at once!) but I'm really loving the author's insights into human nature. You can feel the character's feelings. I know it's just her interpretation of what Rembrandt might have been thinking, saying and feeling (it's a novel) but I'm hoping there are some good insights on what made him tick. Good book, so far.

I also watched a movie today (I've been busy sitting!) called "Jakob the Liar" starring Robin Williams. It was good, if you enjoy WWII movies based on stories of the Jewish ghettos of Poland. Well, enjoy wouldn't be the correct term. Anyway, the ending is very unexpected...bizarre. Almost makes you feel like everything turned out okay. But, of course, there was much tragedy. Anyway, a good movie in my estimation.

So, as the call of the loon is heard over my house, I think I should prepare for bed. Up at 5 a.m. tomorrow. I've been fighting taking a nap all day. It feels so nice at the time, but then I can't sleep later!

God bless all who stop by and may the shalom of the Lord rest in your hearts. :)