Happy Campers

We are just walking in the door after a great camping trip into the deep redwoods. Annie took her whittling to a new level, and lived in the river for three days.

I took a ton of photos that I need to comb thru, and I'll post some as soon as I do.

Baby Hogging

Annie and I sped down to Central California to meet the newest baby in the family, Bryn! Oh, new life is intoxication and so fleeting, so we didn't want to miss a moment. She was ten days old and very alert, when she wasn't fast asleep. My sister-in-law let me really hog the baby, which is so generous of her.
To top it all off LaLa Pat and her two grandchildren, Lucy and Hollis, sped up California to spend the day with us swimming, playing and getting in a little baby hogging too. Here are some photos to document the day.

Oh yes! The new shoe painting was a big hit!

I Liked This Very Much

I love to see movies, and since Annie arrived on the scene over nine years ago, I just haven't seen many. Enter Netflix to the rescue. I admit, I am still helplessly out of the loop as to what is in theaters, especially Independent and Foreign releases, so I've been snooping around Netflix and streaming movies onto my TV, and voila!, so many films.

Be warned that my tastes run far from mainstream when I say I loved Seraphine. I loved it. A quiet, based-on-true-life period piece, that moves slowly and ends without everything tied up in a smart little bow. Oh yes, it's about an artist.

I love the actress who played the lead role and all the supporting characters, none of whom I've seen before.

If you see it, let me know what you think!

Shoe Re-Do, Done

My Sister-in-Law Sara and her new husband Brad just celebrated their first wedding anniversary a few weeks ago and just Thursday night welcomed a new baby daughter, Bryn Nicole Roberts, to their family!

This happy event nudged me to stop stalling and finish the wedding shoe painting for my MIL and I'm just now completing it today. Some of you may remember I posted about it way back, and I will say that yes, I did decide to paint over the original canvas. Mostly because if I had one more obstacle to scale (like driving to the art store and buying a new canvas) I might never have finished it.

So all I have left to do is to sign and date it. Unless of course any of you have any feedback that might make me moisten my brushes again.


Bryn Nicole Roberts

After the Faire

LaLa came for a long weekend, and it was the best weekend ever!

I'm still recovering.
Saturday was one of those spontaneous magical days that one simply cannot plan for. That happens a lot when Pat and I get together.
Sunday was the Alameda Point Antique Faire which takes super-human powers to see thoroughly. And we did see it thoroughly. The picture above is me when we got home. Pat must have taken it from where (I thought) she was dozing in the rocker across from me.
Thanks for coming Pat!
That lump I get in my throat when you leave, is still with me...

Hey! That's not me snoring. It's Harpo!

Showing Off

Who here doesn't love a before-and-after photo series?
It seems like voila, instant improvement.

But in this series, it really isn't fair, because my "before" pictures were taken not with the intention of doing a before-and-after series, but taken for my own planning purposes, hence they are really bad, making my "after" shots look soooo much better than the original.

I am really pleased with my kitchen face lift! It's now two years this month that we bought this house, and I've always hated the kitchen. It was ugly and dysfunctional.

I suffered long enough.

So, with a budget of $600 I bought five new cabinets, a butcher block top (lucky score at $99), four cans of paint, a thrift store shelving unit, and a ton of sandpaper.
(I sanded for almost two days continuously.)

Working with the concept of 'use what you've got', I reconfigured, reorganized, and refreshed my kitchen.

I am happy.

And sore.

Hello Friends!

Can you believe I'm blogging!?
LaLa Pat has urged me to post this photo since she is curious about how my kitchen "facelift" looks. (Actually she's nagged me to death!)I will try and post some before and-after shots of the kitchen update this weekend.
I started collecting wall pockets 13 years ago after I found one at a thrift store for $1.99. Since then I've gotten them as gifts from Bill, Annie's Birthmother and Birthgrandmother, and friends that know I collect.
I've always pictured hanging them in a grouping like this!
Now that my kitchen is done, I can sit at the kitchen island and look out and enjoy.