Category Archives: Family

Sister-Time!

Good evening!

I got to spend the past few days with my sisters and I got to spend a little more time with my sister, Alice, than I normally do, which was a very nice change!  Alice is my third sister (3 of 5 sisters). She made us my favorite dinner at her place, pork chops with mashed potatoes and corn – just like mom used to make!! YUM!! 😉

The sisters, me (in red glasses), Jennifer (below me), Trina (to Jennifer’s right), and Alice (above Trina)!

We also all are big craft/art supply junkies, and not only did we go do some serious shopping at Michael’s Craft store, but we did it two days in a row!! WHOO! HOO!! 😉

Here is Alice with her hubby, Paul.

Alice also took some time out of one of the afternoons to show me how to crochet a granny square, again!! She made sure to point out that this was the third time that she has shown me!! Maybe this time it will stick!! 😉

My granny square, I love this variegated green!

We also spent a good portion of one of the mornings antique shopping, searching for hidden treasures! The place we ended up at was HUGE, and we had fun running around it trying to see who can find the BEST stuff!!

Side note: when us sisters are out with each other, we are big fans of Marco/Polo to locate each other!! One of us hollars “MARCO!”, and if the other sisters can here they hollar back “POLO!!”. LOL! (Ok, yes I realize that kind of makes us “holla-back girls”! Hee! Hee!) We use this marco/polo technique to find each other so much that we even have our young nephews playing along when they want to find one of their aunties!!! TOO CUTE! 😉

Here is Alice’s sons, Aaron and Gavin intently watching Bob the Builder!! They love to sing his theme song, and they just seem so enthralled with everything that they are learning!! That is where Aaron seems to come up with all of his interesting and strange facts – he is a little like the kid from Jerry McGuire! I just LOVE these little guys!! 😉

Here is Gavin, Auntie Jennifer, Uncle Jay-Jay, and Auntie Trina!

As exhausting as visiting all of the girls are – we run around almost non-stop and stay up til all hours of the evening, it is one of my FAVORITE things to do!! I had so much fun hanging out with my sisters the past few days, I was a little sad to go home today! But, I take heart knowing that I will see two of them in just a couple of weeks when we get together again to go up to Portland for Women of Faith!! WHOO! HOO!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Spending a Day with the Animals!

Good evening!

This evening I am going to share a bunch of pics of a super fun day we spent over at Wild Life Safari! It was quite a lovely day, and seeing that it was in the middle of the week, we pretty much had the run of the whole park!! 🙂

So without further ado, here you go!! 😉

Wild Life Safari is located in BEAUTIFUL Winston, Oregon.

Left to right: Austin, Jennifer, Gavin, Trina, and Jason, getting ready to go in.

We were very fascinated by the pink flamingos. It was my goal to get some of their interesting and unique feathers for collaging, which we did finally manage to do!! Whoo! Hoo!

We all had fun feeding the little goats. Gavin kept saying he was getting goat kisses whenever they licked his hand. LOL!! It helped that he kept refilling his hand with goat food! 😉

Jason had SO MUCH FUN with this little monkey. It was like they were long lost cousins.

It was so much fun to watch them mimic each other. This little monkey was so entranced by a weak light that Jason had in his pocket! 😉 But NOW, he wants a small monkey as a pet – I THINK I HAVE CREATED A MONSTER!!! 😉

Here is Gavin mimicking his Auntie Jennifer, she is just off camera!! 😉

We all took some time out to play on the children’s playground equipment. 😉

and after a few false starts, Gavin finally made it all the way to the top!! What a BIG boy!! 😉

Larger monkeys in another area of the park.

Koi the size of small sharks!! 😉

Then we took some time to feed some ducks, and geese.

Don’t they look like they are having fun?

I am not sure if this was a crocodile, or an alligator, but I would still hate to have found this guy on my street.

Here are the “boys” playing!

I really do love this man of mine.

Jason and our youngest sister, Trina! I LOVE this pic! 😉

And here is one of us near the end of our outing! Jennifer, Jason, Gavin, and Trina. We were all really tired, but really happy!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Dinner with Family!

Good evening!

I am having such a WONDERFUL time hanging out with my family down here in Roseburg, so much so that it makes long to have us all living in the same city!!!

As soon as Jason and I got into town we went and picked up my second to youngest sister, Jennifer, from work, and next our youngest sister, Trina. As soon as we had all gotten together and said our hellos, we met up with our dad, and his wife Trudi for dinner over at Red Robin! 😉

I have FINALLY gotten pictures of all of us, and I am very happy to be able to share these with you! 🙂

Here is myself and my dad! Do you know how hard it is to get a normal picture of my dad. He is ever the big kid who automatically plays whenever a camera is pointed at him – it really is just too funny!! 😉

Here are my troublemakers!! Trina, my youngest sister, Jennifer, my second youngest sister, and Jason my love and sweetie! 😉

See what I mean about my dad and a normal picture – I took 5 pictures of my dad, and his wife, Trudi, and this was the best one of them all!! I am glad that these two make each other so happy – that makes me really happy too! 😉

Ok, so back to my girls!! You see our mom died when I (being the oldest of 5 girls) was 24, and my youngest sister was only 8. Even before our mother passed away, I really did my best at mothering these two since we were 10 and 15 years apart. So, I have really grown to call these two “My Girls”! and since Jason and I do not have kids of our, it has kind of become true!!

I have always referred to Trina and Jennifer to my friends who do not know them by two labels. Trina is lovingly known as the “Know it all” – because she has always seemed to know weird facts about all sorts of EVERYTHING! 😉 and Jennifer has always been the “Comedian” because ever since I can remember she always has a quick retort to anything that is going on, and you are GUARANTEED to end your conversation with her in tears from laughing sooooo much!! 😉

I am just so glad that I was able to get these candid and very real pictures of how it is to be around these two! When these two were younger, they really NEVER got along!! Matter of fact they always claimed that they would NEVER love each other, NO MATTER WHAT!! I knew that would change as soon as the older of the two moved out of the house; and sure enough it did!Matter of fact, now, as adults, they live together now, with Jennifer’s husband, Austin, and they are closer than ever. Their joy with each other is infectious, and I just LOVE the energy that all of us have when we are together!!!

What a GREAT evening we had together!! I will make sure to share more pictures of some of our adventures tomorrow!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain!

Good afternoon!

The house is clean, the laundry is done, camping stuff is FINALLY finished being put away, and we are ready to go visit family down in Roseburg for a couple of days. We have a couple of get togethers planned with various family members, and will be staying with two of my younger sisters and one of our brother-in-laws. I can not wait to get there!! I am so excited!! Other than a couple of dinners, we really don’t have much planned, seeing that we usually play it by ear while we are there, that should be fun! I am hoping to have a ton of pictures to share with you! Especially of our two nephews, Aaron and Gavin, who I am sure are growing like weeds!! 😉

Our two four-legged girls, Fay and Sophie are going to be staying home this trip. Our friend Don is going to be coming over and keeping them company – I hope they don’t bark at him too much. For some reason he is fine as long as he is sitting down, but as soon as he stands up, Sophie starts barking at him like CRAZY!!! It is kind of funny!! 😉

Anyway, as you can tell this is going to be a short post! I have got to get on the road if we are going to get there on time!!! WHOO! HOO!

I will talk to you again tomorrow!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Home Sweet Home!

Good evening!

My sweetie and I are finally home from the coast! I am thankful for the relaxing week we have had together, but I am really also very thankful to get back to our cozy little place in this world. OH, and when I think about sleeping in our OWN BED!!!

Oh Em Gee!

That is gonna be AWESOME!!!

Ok, so it really is the little things in life that are really the B-I-G thing!! 😉

I wanted to share with you a couple of more backgrounds that I have been playing with:

These are both 12″ x 12″ acrylic on wood.

These were created because I have been playing with mixing my acrylics to come up with new and interesting colors, and I have just started using an acrylic float medium to give the paints a lot more playing time before the colors actually dry! They remind me of flower petals, you know – he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me…etc. Plus the act of making these is very relaxing, fluid, and fun.

I actually liked the way these turned out so much that I am thinking about making a few of these to display in a grid on the wall in my office.  If I do that I will make sure to take pictures and share that with you too! 🙂

Anyway, I am off to spend some more quality time with my sweetie – our vacation is still officially on for another week! WHOO! HOO! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

I Made Something!

Good evening!

I am happy to report that I am still hotelling at the coast. It is our last night here and we are LIVING IT UP!! Well, as living it up as two old married people can do with two skittish long-haired chihuahuas!! Ok, so we aren’t actually “living it up”, we are having fun watching the tele, listening to the ocean, reading, and I am very happy to announce that I have finally finished another piece!!! YEAH!!!

Creative block is officially over!!!

Who knew I would have to stay at an inexpensive hotel at the coast to get my groove back!!!

Anyway, this piece is 7″ x 7″ acrylic on wood, and I am calling it “Irreplaceable Coco!”

I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this in the comments section! I am have a couple of other pieces in the works, so I am hoping to be able to share some more completed pieces soon!

Anyway, we are on our way home tomorrow, but just long enough to get all of our laundry done and our camping stuff put away, then we are heading down to Roseburg to spend a couple of days visiting with my family!!! That should be fun!! I know it will be nice sleeping in our bed tomorrow evening!! SWEET BLISS!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

It’s a Girl’s Perogative!

Good evening!

A lot has changed in the past 24 hours! Well, my sweetie and I were camping at the Oregon Coast and were actually planning on being there until Saturday. Well, a girl can only take so much, and Jason knew that I was getting more and more miserable, so we had decided to go home.

On the way home, I decided at the last minute that I didn’t want to leave the coast just yet, and my sweetie found us this sweet little hotel that we could stay at. So here we are: hot shower, ocean front view with sound proof windows!!! AAH!!! Bliss!! and to top it off I have been absolutely blocked art-wise! I don’t know what my problem has been, but I have found this GREAT collage book that has re-inspired me, and I am ready to create, create, create!!!

So, we will see what happens in the next day or so!

Anyway, Jason and I will be here for about 2 or 3 days (I am just LOVING this vacation!!), and then we will eventually mozy on home!! Until then I am planning on arting it up, enjoying this view and spend as much time bundled up in the great outdoors as I can handle!! I will make sure to have some pics to share tomorrow! 🙂

Have a  FABULOUS evening! 😉

Wowza!!

Good afternoon!

I wanted to share quickly with you that my sweetie has caught himself a fish!! He is so dang proud of himself, seeing that he hasn’t been fishing in something like 10 years. I know this fish may not look very big, but my hubby is about 6’8″ so it really is bigger than it looks!! LOL! Jason named this fish George, and he did end up cleaning him, and wrapped him up putting him on ice, I am still wondering if he will be able to eat “George” though!! Gosh this man really makes me laugh!! But, look at that happy face!! I am just so glad that if it were even for a brief moment this trip has given him THAT MUCH JOY!!! 😉

Anyway, I have officially started my one-woman-artist-retreat last night. I started things out by playing some nice music and writing in my journal for an hour or so – I am not really sure because we have made all time irrelevant while we are out camping, which has been fun. I did some more writing this morning, went for a walk, took a nap – I think I am fighting a little bit of a chest cold – Jason thinks it might just be a residual of my normal life stress that I am working through, and he is probably right! Anyway, I wanted to share some pics with you of some backgrounds I have been working on. These are all just random backgrounds that I am learning about it a book that I am reading, Collage Discovery Workshop.

So, with this first board, I just want to show you what I am starting with. This is just really inexpensive plywood that has been cut to the size that I am wanting to practice on, which for this week’s purposes is 7″ x 7″.

Next comes a liberal coating of white Gesso.

Then each board is ready for whatever background I have chosen to give it. This one is called a colorwash, I have used two different colors to get this effect.

This was is a torn paper background, made using brown paper bags, and then I paint with two different colors of acrylic paint.

This background was a little trickier, but I may like it the best. I have used a thick coat of Gesso to “draw”  textures into and then once that has fully dried I have used two colors of acrylic paint to give the piece some depth.

So, the hard part will come next, deciding what is going to go on top of each of these backgrounds, but I have decided that I am just going to have to take them one at a time, and just make it happen!! So, hopefully I will have some pictures of that to share with you tomorrow!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

Help Me Lady Gaga I’m A Pork Chop!

LOL!! Good evening!

Now, before you think I have totally gone and lost my mind, there is a story behind today’s post title! When I woke up this morning, at the camp site at the coast, I was awoken to some little kid yelling this at the top of his lungs:

“HELP ME LADY GAGA, I’M A PORK CHOP!!!

I am not sure what caused him to choose this particular war cry anthem, or if he somehow he has come to believe that Lady Gaga has recently been sainted as the Patron Saint of Pork, but man – it was just TOO funny!! It was really nice to wake up laughing!! and this has since become my anthem for the day, seeing that if it was good enough for that little kid, it was definitely good enough for me!!

Today has been a pretty good day! My sweetie made us breakfast, we have taken the girls on a couple of walks, I took the world’s L-O-N-G-E-S-T nap with our girls, while my sweetie went fishing, I spent a long time organizing my comp site “art studio”, which was fun! My husband assured me that having an “art studio” was sheer insanity, but that was alright because I am an artist – isn’t that sweet??? Uhmmm…I think! 😉

Anyways, tonight, we are going to go forage for food – probably eat at a local restaurant, go back to the campsite, and I am sure to at least try and kick my husband’s booty at some game, or at least not try to pout when he kicks mine!! HAHAHA!!

Oh, and I hope you enjoy today’s pictures! This is how we “rough it” while camping!! HUGE tent, two queen sized air mattresses covered in oodles, and oodles of sumptuous blankets, a thick red carpet underfoot, and the tent’s mudroom turned “art studio”!! Mama can’t help that she is spoiled!! LOL! 😉 I’m worth it!! 😉

Anyway, I should have pics of lots of art pieces in progress tomorrow – this camping trip really is all about having a mini artist retreat to just practice some of my mad-skills!! and yes, I do mean crazy! LOL! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!!

And We’re Off!

Good afternoon!!

After a somewhat bumpy start this morning, Jason and I FINALLY have the minivan packed to the gills with waaaay too much camping stuff, waaaay to much art stuff, and waaaaay too many books!!

WHOO! HOO!!

MAN I LOVE CAMPING, er…I mean GLAMPING!!!

I will take tons of pics of our campsite this afternoon and evening and make sure to share them all with you tomorrow!!! The weather is supposed to be ABSOLUTELY PERFECT this week in Newport, so that makes me a VERY happy girl!! Faye and Sophie know that something is going on, and they are spazzing out because even though they don’t yet realize we are going camping yet, which they LOVE, they can tell that they get to go for a ride in the car because I just came back from putting their fuzzy blanket in the car, and THEY ARE EXCITED!!

Right now we are waiting for our friend, Don to get here – Don has very graciously agreed to house sit for us while we are gone, and I am sure that he will enjoy the air conditioning, and peace and quiet!!! 😉

Ok, back to the whole art supply thing!! OH MY GOODNESS!!! Do you know how hard it was to decide what to limit my art supplies down to??? Well, let’s just say, I didn’t do a terribly good job, but I will take pics of what I brought and show you tomorrow, I am sure it will at least make you smile, because in all honesty, I am thinking I can’t be the ONLY girl with this problem!!! HEE! HEE!! 😉

What else? Oh yes, I have a bag full of books – I never can tell what I will be in the mood to read, so I wanted to make sure that I had options, and we also have a whole armload of games to play together, which should be a TON of fun!! 😉

My goal this week is to relax and recoup my energy, nap often, take lots of walks with my sweetie and the girls, play at arting A LOT, and make sure to blog at least once every day, which means a trip into town every day, which we do anyway, Papa loves him some Starbuck’s – so I think I can be accommodating!! 😉

I think that just about covers anything, and this point if I have forgotten anything I am either going to have to without, or I am gonna have to go buy it at the coast!!

YEAH!! It’s time to go!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!!