SAturday August 30th~waiting for treasury to open

I decided to write a little bit while I wait for the treasury to open. I have been trying to do more creative things for myself instead of just working all the time. tonight I made the best dinner and wanted to share the recipe, I should have taken a photo but that will not happen as dinner is over.
I made slow cooked pork roast, small one in orange juice and cilantro and about 6 large tomatillos cut up. Cook for 4-5 hours and after 3 hours on low-medium heat break up the meat and do it again until it is completely torn apart. Keep the lid on the whole time until the last 1/2 hour.
Par cook an ear of white corn off the cob and add it to the following:
1/2 jalapeno chili raw minced
1/4 chopped red onion
1/2tomato chopped
lime juice from 1/2 of fresh lime
avocado perfect cut into cubes...too soft is not good
stir around and this is the salsa

Tortillas or corn tortillas warmed with some melted cheese and pinto or black beans. add the meat in chunks with some of the green sauce , throw the salsa over the top and if you are bold add a dash of sour cream and some shredded cabbage or lettuce. This is the best meal!
Here is the image above made into a gouache painting last night. (revamped original in previous post).I posted it on facebook as well.
I already have an idea for another I will attempt tonight. Now I really want to do some serious writing but when the time? If only a good Dictaphone were available for the MACs.

A Young Couple BAck in Time~ Friday already!

I admit I have neglected my dear ole blog. But then again so much is going on. I am working on both etsy and ebay full force. The dog is always begging for me to throw the ball and the phone is ringing alot with friends, family and today I had to do some photo washing in the sink, the photos are almost always stuck to the album with paste or glue and I don't like to sell them with scrapbook on back unless I have to. I just took a delicious tuna casserole out of the oven that I made with greek yogurt and breadcrumbs and parmesan on the top. I think I forgot the peas. Oh there will be no forgiveness for that one! But maybe the sweet yellow beets with vinegar and feta will help to heal that mistake.
I was going to put up a photo of Ted Kennedy but figured everyone had seen so many already.
I watched a special last night on the Kennedy family and really I was crying before it was over. I especially felt bad for Rose and Ethel Kennedy, the mother and wife of Bobby. Did you know Ethel was pregnant with their ninth child when Bobby was gunned down. Did you know also how hard it was on TEd with all the responsibility of the brother's wives and children under him. I feel that with the last Kennedy man dead of that generation that we have lost a good man and a good politician. I think he always stood up for those he believed in. Yes he made mistakes but heh what politician has not made some bad ones.
And considering the situation Ted was in, I think he pulled through very well.
So the end to a family that will often in history on into the future define a whole generation.
I recommend the film it was called"the ninth child" maybe because Ted was the 9th. Only his 81 yr old sister suvives. A farewell flag will fly for Ted Kennedy.

Hazel from Dallas The Fruit Shed ~Sunday!

Introducing Hazel Smith from Dallas. I finished this last night while watching a superb historical movie called The Lost Prince about a royal child w epilepsy who was innocent and brilliant but forced to live apart from his family and created a beautiful garden and learned to play the trumpet. Please rent this. IT is excellent film although my copy from Netflix was damaged so try to get it from a video store if possible or even view online for free. The scenery, costumes and acting really were the best.
Hazel is this woman's true name and I did the painting from a gem miniature photo. I am fascinated by those gems and have found incredible sources from them for paintings. the detail is always good and they were usually printed from strips of glass plate negatives. I know this because I have a huge collection of them that I have not even so much as printed one as yet. Oh were does the time go. I really wish I had an assistant as I could so use one. Couldn't we all?
I guess that is a good thing to have so much to do and not enough time. The worse case would be so much time and nothing to do. Being my mother's daughter I do not forsee that day.
I want to congratulate my father as he won 2nd prize at the Port Angeles County Fair this weekend for a wonderful painting he did of an antique shed with wooden work table covered w vegetables and ball jars with light coming in the window. I do believe it should have won a first place but what do the judges know of truly fine art at the local fair.



Sorry, I entered enough of them to know this. It is a wonderful time of year with the county fairs going on and the expensive greasy food. Still its something of a tradition in America and hopefully it will always be. Enjoy your Sunday! Don't forget to take the trash and recycling out tonight(that is a message to myself)

Friday already~New Watercolor/gouache

This is a gouache/watercolor of two young women who have stopped on the side of a creek somewhere to pick herbs or wildflowers. One holds her apron or skirt for the other to put the flowers in. This is a gauche painting from a photo that really spoke to me. The tenderness of the act. The simplicity of the two walking along and maybe one man who was their friend snapped the photo. This was not a clear image but rather a dark one and I had little detail to work with. I am not unhappy with the results as it really does look like the image. I love the process of translating photos to a softer medium such as watercolor or gouache. The later is rather unforgiving and so I am a novice with the medium and hope to find its true nature soon.
I hope the weekend ahead will bring a wonderful sense of a new beginning as it is the new moon and I have put up a new treasury with that title on Etsy Treasury West.
For all you mom's who are readying your kids to start back to school soon, take them somewhere fun this weekend to celebrate the end of their summer.. and the beginning of your time without them, either sadly, or with a mixed sense.
I met one mother through Ebay who is sending her boy to kindergarten this next week for the first time. Her story was so poignant about how he was her only, late in life baby and how hard it will be to be away from him. I wrote and told her that it really doesn't get better because even though my daughter is 17 she is now driving and doing things that make me worry and miss her still. Sounds funny but its true. Everything in life has its moments of separation and for that mom as she said"there are not enough Kleenex's in the world to help on his first day away from me." I love that LOVE and just had to share it!
have a good one!!

Penny w Horn Rim glasses~ Monday

As many of you know, I am a seller of vintage photos on EBay. Hundreds upon hundreds of photos pass by my eyes and through my hands. I pick the ones I believe will have interest to my long and loyal customers and then list them with whatever information I have to go with them. This young girl was found in an album of high school chums with 30 or so "gem miniatures" on one page. I have named her Penny. She was a black and white photo and now I tinted it slightly to give it some charm. There is something so wonderful about this image. I cannot say what it is but I am certain she was a gal with lots of style and charm. I share it with you.

I have decided, along with my hand painted photos and vintage glass negative prints on Etsy, to start selling vintage photos in my store as well. If ever an interest comes along to need or want to collect a few, I am offering as many as I can each day.

So here comes Monday and for us in Sedona Arizona the skies are filled with smoke. Last night on the news they announced there are 9 fires right now. Just letting the dog out I could not breathe and he came in sneezing. He has bad allergies like myself. Funny how I got a dog like that. But thinking of Rita in cross country this afternoon running in 100 degree heat with fires burning is pretty bad. I am sure her coach will have the sense not to run them and to work out in the weight room instead.

My grandaughter is in Barcelona and this morning started day one of an intensive Spanish course. She was raised in Mexico in private schools and her high school years in Oregon so she is more than fluent in Spanish. I am so proud and thrilled for her. I hope she enjoys the next 3 weeks she will be there. Thank goodness for facebook.

I also wanted to say that I heard yesterday the fires in Bonny Doon, Santa Cruz, Calif are out of control so bad. The smoke in the area is also just horrible so if you can avoid that area do so. My sister who lives there, picked the perfect time to take a vacation to San Diego and I hope she and her family enjoy it there and that there are no fires.

Enjoy Monday and have a great fresh start to the week.

End of Summer Storm~Finally

After a long day of work, and heat, I decided to take an evening walk with the dog around the block. The sky gathering grey clouds from the north, winds were blowing the willow tree leaves around me in gusts. No one was out because although it was the first time in the day that the heat wasn't oppresive, the night was slowly creeping up and with it the bats and other creatures that keep many of us desert dwellers indoors. But feeling like I would burst if I didn't get some exercise I walked Blue around the block a few times and then when we returned I sat in the driveway on the curb and just watched as this beautiful cloud rolled in. There was lightening shooting out from it and lots of thunder. I got a few nice images and believe it or not this is untouched in photoshop. Minutes later the sky turned dark and blue purple and then we had our short lived rain. I am so longing to have cooler weather and today got up to grey skies and 67 degrees. I walked with a light sprinkle for almost an hour and relished every cool minute of it. I happened upon several people I knew both who were so glad it had cooled. One old woman said to me"I don't even care if it rains, no umbrella, what do I care" I agreed and went on my way.
Funny how much you can appreciate what someone else takes for granted or even loathes, the rain and grey skies. It could be the opposite for my mom and sister who live in the very far northwest where warm and sunny are something they experience about 2 weeks of the year.
Although there was a heat wave for a week this summer up there.
I for one will not complain when the fall is truly here. I so look forward to it.
School has started and the seasons are changing..I hope!

Koi Pond

here is a digitally altered image of Koi that I photographed in Hawaii and now have listed in my shop on Etsy. I had so much fun with this photo and am pretty happy with the results. I wanted to make the fish jump off the page with the color so I worked and reworked the tones.
Well it has finally come, tomorrow is the first day of school for Rita, a senior and I am very proud of her. She really has accomplished alot in her 4 years in academics and sports and honestly I could not have imagined it any other way for her.
Now last night she started her essay for the colleges and it will be a small task to accomplish the next phase of the year and that is finishing up all that needs to be done to graduate and move on to college.
Our weather has really cooled down alot, mornings are now in the high 70s and very nice for walking the dog. I am going further now that the heat has let up a bit although it still gets 99 in afternoons here but I will not complain as there is rain in many areas.
I guess summer is starting to wind down everywhere and that brings on Indian summer which the colors in the Koi pond remind me of. I miss terribly the leaves changing and look forward some day to returning to a place to see nature's painterly schemes in the fall.
I am reading a wonderful book that is called Shantaram by Gregory Roberts, a huge novel based on his life as an escaped convict who fleas New Zealand and ends up in Bombay. I am only 2 chapters in but every word is wonderful and I recommend it highly!

Back to School 1924 style

I wanted to try a little something different today. After looking at Rita's blog which she has spent a great deal of time creating animalgamalia, I decided to try a different approach to the layout. Not sure I will like it but will see how it looks when I am done with it. The boy who is all dapper in his wool suit and bow tie above with his school books in hand was a young man named Bobby Freeman from Pasadena, CA, 1924. He was the oldest of 5 children and also the only one to cause his mother any worry. He was driving their car at 14 and eventually sent off to a Toronto boarding school which was taught in the British fashion. I love this photo of him because from what I have learned of Bobby he was a bit of a rebel and also a very charasmatic young man. He traveled on a ship at a young age with his father to Alaska to a religious camp to minister to the native people there. His father was a minister of the largest church in Pasadena at the time. ALl the children were schooled in Montessori style schools to teach the children independence and it paid off for all of their children I am sure.

For myself growing up, August in Michigan meant a month left to have freedom and fun and not worry about school until after labor day. For my own daughter now she is reading her AP biology book in preparation of what will be a class that will require 3 hours of reading for only one class and as an incoming senior she will be having alot on her plate. There is the senior project, applications to colleges, letters of recommendation to the colleges, cross country running for which she has already started to train by running 4 miles a day, student council and her 4 other classes. This seems like alot to do but then preparing for college is not like any other preparation that a young teen will face for that is the big leap, one which will set their course. I want to start a mother's group for those who have seniors. Let us compare notes to see how we do, how our children manage and what little and big things we all face. I have mixed feelings but really they are all filled with hope. I hope our economy picks up. I hope that our country can get back on its feet. I hope they find a cure for cancer. I hope the sky will stay blue and the stars continue to shine down on us all. Fall approaches and although its 100 degrees in the desert I am really one who looks forward to cooler weather and hope it comes soon~

DEMOCRACY!

I found this today while looking through one of my photo albums and made it into a greeting card. The year is 1920 and even back then teachers, you can see her in the middle with a star on her hat and standing above the girls in back, were encouraging children to be a participant in their country's holidays and politics. This is so cute.. I had to make it into a card. There are more letters than needed to spell this and some of the letters go the wrong way, making it even sweeter!
If you click on the link in the title you will be taken to my etsy store where it is listed. I added it as another Etsyprojectembrace so that people who buy it will be donating a portion to the Cancer Society in Laura Slocum's name.

Sunday is a wonderful day to do what you want.
Rita and I took an outing to the local Walgreens and Goodwill. Neither were exciting but then again there isn't much to do in 100 degree heat!