Greetings and Happy Paint Party Friday!!!

Hello good people!! It's been awhile. ..Life happens, stuff happens and some of it can feel pretty crappy sometimes as we all know. ..... Since I last posted........... I had a birthday. I know that some of you know that I have a twin son and daughter who are now 24 yrs old, but some may not know that I also have a twin brother. Yes, I know........... I thought it was supposed to skip a generation, too! ha ha ha ha. Somebody!! Help!! Let us out of here!!! John and I, I think, have this game every year to see who is going to be the first one to send birthday greetings on this day, be it text, email or phone call. I think I usually beat him because I start my day earlier than him. Happy Birthday, womb mate we say. My daughter, Liza, treated me to lunch on that day and I had the day off from work so it was rather nice as I'd never had my birthday off in my adult life. I continued to paint and create and got up each day and went to work and dragged myself home. My 11 year old sweet dog, Buddy, blind, deaf, diabetic, with Cushing's Disease, really had gone down hill. Fast. It was very sad. And it was one of the hardest decisions I've had to make.......... to let him go. He was a much loved and cared for dog. But he had become very sick. The first picture was taken two days before I let him go and was a rare moment when he was able to stand up. I think the love we have for our animals is a love like no other. They are, for many people, our family. They love us unconditionally. While I'd always had cats in the house as a child and my adult life, I'd never had a dog until Buddy when I adopted him from some not so nice people. I have to mention here without drawing this out too much that letting your pet go peacefully at home makes so much sense. I found the most caring, tender woman vet who talked me through every step of what was going happen before it happened. Not only did she care about me, she cared about Buddy. My dear brother Jim, was with me, supported me, as we said good bye. The vet proceeded to take out a ball of clay and make a print of Buddy's paw, which I thought was kind of special. ............ Yes, it's hard to say goodbye. Hard to let go of those we love..... hard to change schedules and routines which had revolved around our pets, and hard to see empty corners........... But life does go on.... ....... despite the sad state of affairs our world is in................. We will continue to love, love our animals, and create through it all. Thank goodness for ART. I miss the good people at Paint Party Friday so I am headed there I wish you a peaceful, creative weekend. Thanks for visiting here.

Teddy Lives!!!

I hadn't realized it's nearly three weeks since I last posted. Between work full time, planning for Saturday workshops, helping my Mom with garage and house cleaning, and running my own household, I haven't had much energy. And now that it is dark and cold all I want to do is come home from work and do nearly nothing. So, my mother is getting ready to put her house up for sale. My mother is ummm, can be a pack rat. She is moving to a smaller living space so deciding" what must go", to" would like to go, but your brother would probably kill me" are the questions at hand. I tackled the inside and outside windows of three rooms in my mother's house this last Sunday. Yes, they are the kind of windows which fold inward but you have to use your imagination when you are not a 6 foot tall man. I am only 5'3 but I became pretty adept at balancing the upper and lower windows on my knee while standing on a step stool and then grunting as I hoisted the upper window to raise it to it's upper position. That sounds like nonsense but I'm sure you get what I mean. I knew my back and arms would feel this in a few hours but waking the next morning I felt like I'd been run over. Must be because I had a birthday somewhere around that time. I came home from work and daughter Liza had surprised me with wonderful birthday treats. Pretty scarf, and some jewelry. And some lovely flowers!! She made my day! I'm skipping around here. ..... In the process of helping my mother in her cleaning and sorting, I have become the recipient of some treasured items. I showed you one box of dolls already. But wait. There's another box I have yet to show you when I can lay them out and photograph them. I have inherited some very old, vintage dolls that belonged to my mother, her mother and her mother, along with the doll clothes which were hand made. I'll have to share more with you as I set up a doll hospital and begin to work on trying to repair and mend these little rag muffins. Other items like a few childhood books and things we made came home with me. But this was my favorite. Tell me this bear was not well loved.I have a thing for bears, but not just any bear. You know there are bears that have personalities and a certain warmth and character as soon as you see them. As I am writing this post I have taken a picture of him and sent it to my mother, who says she thought she had thrown him out because she thought he was in worse shape than he was. She instead put him in the box with the dolls. So it WAS her bear. Teddy lives! Give him a hug from me, she says. I will take good care of him, I say. Teddy sits for now on the hutch with the trivet I made in art class somewhere in my childhood. And because Teddy deserves the best I am putting his picture up the right way!! lol......... Thanks for visiting.

The Balcony Scene

Today is my birthday. I won't tell you which birthday it is. I share my birthday with my "womb mate" twin brother, John. Last year you may recall seeing the birthday card I made him. My twin brother decided in his 50th yr he wanted to become a police officer. And I'm not sure but I think we both hated the bologna sandwiches in our lunches growing up which is where the idea for that card came from. This year I made an envelope out of a copy of one of my art papers. I enclosed a print of another piece of my work. I mailed it on Saturday and he still has not received it. I told him that was not cool and it was my feeling that perhaps someone really liked the envelope and wanted to keep it for themselves and that he should perhaps arrest them......... hopefully it will arrive tomorrow.....Here we are performing the balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet.................. Thanks for visiting............Jo