New Furniture!

Dave spoils me so! We went shopping this past Saturday and finally bought the king-size bed that goes with the rest of the bedroom furniture - at last! It feels so grown up to have matching furniture (at our age, I guess it's about time!). And we are getting rid of the man-eating couch (which neither I nor our shorter friends can get off of without help) - but Rob is taking it off of our hands (with Val's permission) so at least he and Xander will have a couch they can actually lay on (some people just got all of the height...) - so to replace the couch and the loveseat

we're getting a new love seat

and two of those extra-wide chairs that are so popular now - and I think I can work with the new taupe color better than the printed rust color - it may be that we can paint the tall wall in the living room dark red to match the star and the other walls a lighter taupe...we'll see...this pretty much finishes our furniture needs and we just need to start saving for the floors...new carpet and wood floors do not come cheaply and we have a few trips to make this year - hmmmm....travel or new floors?....sorry - travel wins.

Also have some small art pieces finished up - will try to take pictures tonight and get them posted.
Hugs -
Jo

Wedding and Spring Cleaning

Okay - Dave had a great time and really enjoyed visiting with most of the family but at least he brought back pictures - one of my favorites, of course, is one of Richard and Sondra while exchanging their vows - so sweet!! Looks like I missed a lovely wedding and a great time. One of the other pictures he took that I really liked was one of Matthew (one of our grandsons) - how All Boy he is - he somehow found a measuring tape and went to check out the DJ's electronics - too cute.So while all of this was going on, I was home here in Texas, Spring cleaning the guest room. The pictures don't really do it justice - before the bookcases were on each end of the couch and you couldn't get to most of the shelves and because the couch is a futon, you couldn't really put anything in front of it (which is essentially the other half of the room. And (how embarrassing...) we seemed to have used the chair for a catch-all. Now we can use the futon, all of the electronics are accessable and I can sit in front of the window while I type! And the bookcases look much better side by side. And I'm sure we'll come up with a better and prettier arrangement for the electronics, but in the meantime...at least the room is clean! I took a trunkload of items to the Salvation Army.

Now - to tackle the studio. Wish me luck!

What a Good Day!

Today was beautiful as well as productive...while Dave is off doing the family thing at Richard and Sondra's wedding, I've kept myself busy doing some Spring cleaning. Emptied out the guest room and rearranged it - put some of my art on the walls and on the shelves - put my laptop in here instead of hidden around a corner in the studio and now I can face the window while I type! Not much good at night, but a delight during the day since I now look out over the trees in the front. The room won't make Home & Garden, but it's far more functional now. Will post before (which I took before Dave left) and after pictures when Dave gets back home with the camera. Tomorrow's goal: move my sewing machine around in the studio and finish the piece for the "green challenge" by Quilting Arts since it's due to them by May 1st! Hugs to all - Jo

Mon-Keis and Art

Everyone remembers Sen-Sei Mon-Kei...the wise being that sits on my desk at work and reminds me to "zen out and let go" and has most of the answers for everything...

Well - meet his brother, Drun-Ken Mon-Kei....
Drun-Ken Mon-Kei ("Skip" for short...) has a fondness for margaritas, never remembers the rules of anything, and his motto is "Let Go and Par-tayyy!". 'Skip' sits on my desk in the studio and reminds me to loosen up and go outside once in a while, especially if the sun is shining....probably good for my art and my attitude.

I was able to finish up some art this past weekend - Elephant (who is 8"x11") is based on one of my photographs of a paper-mache' mask I saw in an antique store (the picture was better than paying $80 to own it!) - it was fun and it was done all by hand (i.e. no machine work). I'm looking forward to more pieces based on my photographs - heaven knows I only have thousands of imagaes to choose from!

Hugs to all - Jo

Happy Birthday to Me!!

We celebrated yesterday - Dave took me to Best Buy (where I bought some computer timewasters), Half-Price Books (where I bought books with plots...I have a lot of non-fiction sitting on my reading shelf) - and then we went out to lunch at Joe's Crab Shack (where we ate so much we hardly made it home in time to take power naps!) - later in the day two of my grandchildren (Ceithlinn and Matthew) called and sang Happy Birthday to me (they were so cute!). Dave gave me the entire Red Dwarf series and a talking Star Trek card (when Kirk asks Spock for an analysis of what would happen if all of my birthday candles were lit at once, Spock replies with "Annihilation. Complete and total annihilation." Too too funny.


I was also able to spend some time in our backyard, where I was able to get a really good shot of our Chinese Maple because the day was so beautiful.

And Mr. Squirrel was being really really still, thinking I didn't know he was there!

Dave took the shot of me this morning so we'd all know what I looked like at this age...but, like I've always said, "I love birthdays, 'cause the alternative is not acceptable!" Hugs to all. Jo

Photo-of-the Day

My helicopter shot made it to a Photo-of-the-Day!!!

Check out the site: http://www.photo-of-the-day.com/

Jo

Small Art

Sometimes I think I'm not very productive at all, but then I'll have several pieces all finished at once! I do like working in the small format - I can try things out and if I like it, I can always do more, but if it's something I'm not thrilled with, I'm not stuck with some large unfinished object. The green piece is made from a small textile sample that I was given by my friend Connie - it wasn't green to start with - it was completely beige until I put it in a baggie with yellow and blue dye, which (of course) made it turn green. It's only about 4"x6" and it's all handwork. I call it "The Egg" because the only design I could think of was an Easter egg (I started it the day before Easter). The other three pieces are part of the Serenity Series (#s 6, 7, and 8) and are all approximately 8.5"x11". Now I have to decide how many more are going to be in the series - heaven knows I have a ton of black & white strips left! Too bad I have to go to a 9to5 job - I have enough ideas and projects to keep me busy for a really long time! - Jo

Springtime!

Looks like Spring is here to stay for a few days - even Roxie likes being outside and sniffing the air...I have a few small things finished on the art front so I'll try to take pictures today and post them up -lately I've been cruising the blogs of other artists and I'm amazed at 1) how many there are and 2) how often they find time to post. I'm lucky if I have something to post every couple of weeks!