Thanks Barb!

I had lunch yesterday with a friend from a former job, Barbara Reeder.  She's actually the person who got me started in watercolor oh so many years ago!  We worked in two different real estate offices that were adjacent to each other and visited back and forth.   We kind of lost touch over the years but earlier this year we ran into each other on the street in Princeton and discovered that we are again working just about next door to each other, not quite as close as before.  We keep in touch thru facebook although I'm not a great facebooker (is that a word?) and we have lunch once in a while.  I told her about my blog and she shared it with her facebook friends.  Thanks Barb! 

My first watercolor class was with Lucy Graves McVicker, a friend of Barbara's.  This is the first painting I was happy with.   It's called "Lucy's Tree".  Lucy walked me thru several portions of this so it felt like it was as much hers as mine.  Barb and I had alot of fun in Lucy's studio with many other talented artists, learning about watercolor.  The lessons we learned are ones I will always remember.   Lucy always found the best part of everything we painted - no matter what it looked like!  Lucy's husband Chuck played the piano alot during our lessons.  We always enjoyed our time with Lucy.

Barb IS a great facebooker - she has the BEST posts.  Today this is what she posted and I had to share it!

When I woke up this morning, I asked myself, "What is life about?" I found the answer in my room...the fan said, "Be cool." The roof said, "Aim high." The window said, "See the world!" The clock said, "Every minute is precious." The mirror said, "Reflect before you act." The calendar said, "Be up to date." The door said, "Push hard for your goals." The floor said, "Kneel down and pray"...~

Evening on the River

I thought I'd share this picture with you.  I've had meetings the last few nights at church.  I took this tonight before my meeting.  Our church is right on the river - it's a very beautiful place. 

Evening cruise on the Delaware River at Titusville/Washington Crossing

Last night was the first of many meetings to plan for the church's 175th anniversary in 2013. It's very exciting to work towards this.  Not exactly sure where we are heading but it will be fun planning and quite a journey.  I'm also on the Church Life and Fellowship committee and we met to plan our fall calender and, yes we talked about when we would go christmas caroling.  I, of course, had to ask if we really had to talk about Christmas in early August because I'm a brat!  However, the bulk of the meeting was devoted to planning for Duck Duck Pig which is a cookout (the pig part) in the fall that the community is invited to.  Everyone gets a yellow rubber duck to race in the canal (the duck, duck part).  It's a hoot, or should it be a quack.  Oh, that was bad.  Sorry!

about 100 ducks "racing" down the canal

How much is in your glass?

I subscribed to The Painters Keys. It's a bi-weekly email from a very prolific writer and painter. He always has great stories and advice and I always find both inspirational. What gives his emails extra depth are the reader comments he invites. He calls that section "Current Clickback".  Those opinions/stories are always interesting and they are filled with inspirational paintings.  I have subscribed to the email for quite awhile but typically do not get a chance to read them as they come in.  So I often take a block of time to go through the last few month of emails.  The "Clickback" from a few months ago started out with "Our attitudes determine our accomplishments". The person talked about people having either a "glass is half-empty" or a "glass is half-full" attitude.  The writer thought perhaps that the half-empty folks were destined to have emptier and emptier glasses, while the half-full folks were bound to have fuller and fuller ones?  I've always been a glass in half-full kind of person, thankful and happy for the blessings I have been given.   I do on occasion dwell on the half-empty glass and it is in these times that I need to remind myself that the glass really IS half-full.  How about you?

Good night,
Colleen

Winnie Viedt used to say . . .

the older you get the faster time goes.  She was in her late 50s and I was probably 7 or 8 when she shared her wisdom with me.  Little did I know then that these words would come to me almost every day as I got older.    But now that times seems to fly by at a crazy pace, I remember those words and my grandmother, Winnie Viedt.  I never called her grandmother or grandmom.  Actually I guess I must have once and it was then that she told me that she was too young to be a grandmother and that I should call her by her name.  So I asked her what her was.  And the rest is history as they say.   She was known in the family for other words of wisdom, but they do not warrant repeating.  She had a rather sharp tongue!  But she was very good to me and made THE BEST peanut butter fudge.  I can still taste it and can close my eyes and imagine myself in the kitchen.

Grandmother, Winifred, standing, Great Aunt Miriam on Pony, 1923

Grandfather and Grandmother, on left, 1935

As July has flown by, as my Grandmother told me it would, I realize you may be wondering how Darla is since her surgery in early July.  She is doing well.  For about 2 weeks after the surgery she was using only 3 legs and she was doing quite well at that.  After about 2 weeks she started to use the leg again but the vet has said she should be on a leash at all times.  She does have freedom in the house when we are home, usually unless she starts running around too much and then she goes in her crate.  I feel like a mean mom but I don't want her to hurt her leg. She does well if she is just walking but as soon as she gets excited and runs or jumps a little while later the leg is up and she will not put weight on it.  So, it's tough love!   When we are not home she is in her crate for safe keeping!   I have no idea what goes on while we are not home.  Best that I don't know! We go for a walk every morning.  The vet (we love Dr. Smith, thank you!) said we need to build up the muscles in the leg.   Early September she can be off the leash and run in the yard.   That will be 8 weeks on the leash.  She will need lots of walks to get her leg strong so she does not hurt herself when she goes tearing around the yard when she finally has her freedom!

While Darla has been on leash and being a good girl, Buddy has been outside, unsupervised, which is what we usually do.  But alone, he gets in to trouble.  We discovered last week that he's eating the green and red cherry tomatoes off the plants on  the deck.  And I was puzzled why there were none getting ripe!    Oh that boy!

I am loving these summer days.   Hope you are too.  We have not gone on vacation yet, coming up on a month or so.   I refuse to wish away days until vacation.  I'm enjoying every one!

Take Care,
Colleen

Happy 4th of July!

I have listened to lots of fireworks the last few evenings but I have not seen any.  They were very loud and rhythmic so they must have been very gorgeous - the ooh and ah kind.

It's been quite a while since I last posted.  I took a break form my computer.   It lasted a bit longer than I expected [big grin!].  I wish I could say I accomplished something earth-shattering, but I did not.   I painted a bit . . .  and now have a few more things that need to be finished . . . seems to be my pattern for the last little while.  I did finish 2 knitting projects I had started.  Yeah!   I am now an accomplished knitter . . . I can watch TV or a movie and knit at the same time.  I have not learned how to knit in the dark though, not that that would be a useful skill but I recently met someone that can knit in the dark.  It would be quite entertaining to see what I could produce in the dark.  Although I think it best if I keep painting and knitting with the lights on!


Darla, our 5 year old black lab, is having CCL surgery on Tuesday to fix a torn ligament in her back right leg. CCL in a dog is like the ACL in a human. She has been on a leash for a week and a half.  It started as a severe limp so we were resting the leg.  It got better quickly, but I read about pulled muscles and learned that it could me more so we kept her on the leash and took her to the vet.  And the diagnosis was torn CCL.  So she had to remain on leash walks and will remain on leash walks for 8 weeks after the surgery.  She loves to run in her yard and is not too happy about being on a leash.  She is so sweet and patient about this process so far.   When she is finally  off leash she will probably jump out of her fur with excitement!   I'm a bit worried that she will re injure her leg or hurt her other one.  I have a plan though.  Buddy will have to go on patrol in the yard for the first few weeks before Darla can go out so he can chase away any as many birds, squirrel, deer or anything else that runs.  We have to get to that point though!   If you knew Buddy you would know how completely crazy that plan is.  Most times when I left him out he just stands and look at me.   Either I'm suppose to go out with him or he's afraid he is going to miss something.  So it will really be Buddy and I outside ridding the yard of things that Darla can chase.

I have an IPad on loan for 4 months   No idea what I will do when the loan is up.  The loan is part of a research project at Princeton University, where I work.  If you are interested, here is the link.  The TUBE project is how I got an IPad to use for 4 months . . . And use it I am!  I can type a post any time any where.  PRETTY COOL!   So what was it I was saying in the beginning about taking break from the computer.

Blessings,
Colleen

Look What I Won!

You may remember earlier this year I participated in One World One Heart.  OWOH is an event for bloggers and a chance to meet and make new friends all around the world.  It lasts about 2 weeks. And in that 2 week period there are a lot of people to visit.  You can enter a drawing for a giveaway item on each blog you visit.  The item is usually a piece of artwork.  There were almost 1,000 bloggers participating this year.  There are lots of kind, generous and talented people out there and lots of inspiration.  I visited lots of blogs and  made many new blog friends, found some neat ideas and was inspired!  I really needed to take a few days off from work to visit all the blogs I wanted to visit and soak up all the art I wanted to.  As a result of all my blog visits, I am now the proud owner of these two beautiful pieces.

The Angle of the Seas from Debbie at CrafyMoose.  The Angel is hanging safely in my bedroom, protected during the day from Buddy.  Debbie has many beautiful things, I love her beaded flowers!

And from Naked Heart Studio, this cute Jester.   She is in the den on my painting table, watching me, providing inspiration. She too is safe from Buddy during the day.  Visit Robin at Naked Heart Studio to view or participate in the 2011 Project 365, a quest to create 365 pieces of art, one a day for 365.  

This was the fifth and final year of One World One Heart.  Next year Lisa from Whimsical Bohemian, who works VERY hard at organizing and running OWOH is starting Our World Our Art.  As this was my first year participating in OWOH, I'm really looking forward to Our World Our Art.

Take Care,
Colleen

Japan Quake Appeal

An Etsy acquaintance, Rita from Surfing Silver, is participating in a wonderful raffle going on right now.  To enter to win one of Rita's beautiful pieces of jewelry, pictured above, you must make a donation to an organization helping to give relief to the devastation caused by the Japan earthquake and tsunami. 

  

To learn which organizations to donate to and how to enter, please go to this blog post jojoebi.blogspot.com/2011/03/mothers-day-love.html.   The deadline is April 4th. 

The woman running the raffle is a Etsy artist from Japan.  While on jojoebi.blogspot, be sure to also click on the Japan Quake Appeal button.

Will you plant a garden?

We usually have a garden, but not this year.   Besides time flying by at lightening speed, the garden needs a serious boost of fertilizer.  We were going to plant a cover crop last fall, but that did not happen.  We are looking at putting in a spring cover crop, but need to move quickly on that too!.   So this year we will be visiting the local farmers markets to buy produce.  There are quite a few in our area so it should be fun.

The painting below was inspired by a photo in a seed catalog.  It took me much longer than I would have liked, but I finished it, something I seem to have trouble with these days.   It's not listed in my Etsy shop yet, but it will be soon.  

 

Seeing this bowl reminds me that Buddy, our yellow lab, ate a fair amount of our tomato harvest a few years ago.   We had left tomatoes on a tray on the breakfast counter one Monday after picking quite a few on a Sunday, NEVER thinking he would eat them.   We had so many we were both taking them to work to share with co-workers.   When my husband came home Monday night to find the tray empty he was a little put-out at me, thinking that I had taken ALL of the tomatoes to work.   When I came home and saw the tomatoes were gone, I asked where they were.  He made some comment about me taking them to work.  When I told him that I had not done that, we looked at each other and then at Buddy, lying on the floor sleeping.  And we had the same thought and both headed for Buddy's bed.  Sure enough, there were lots of tomato seeds dried on his bed.  We went back to the counter and there was no sign of any "disturbance".  A further inspection of the living room rug (oriental) revealed a few tomato seeds.  So this is what I imagine took place that day . . . he smelled them (? although I thought he liked chocolate much more) and put his front feet up on the counter to check it out, grabbed a tomato got down and ate the tomato on the living room rug.  Since that was so good, he went back for more but not wanting Darla to bother him, he starting taking them into the other room where his bed is.  He had about 15 tomatoes, but he didn't get sick.   Now NOTHING in the way of food or anything every having had food in it is left on the counter.

Blessings,

Colleen