Look! Another Award

Thanks to Judy for the award! She has given me two, and I am pleased to have both. Of course, I must tag Alissa at Life's Little Adventures and Susie at Susie's Space, both of whom publish regularly and are fascinating to read. Both of them take great pictures, too! I will also tag my sister, Peggy at Count It all Joy. She has an interesting blog, too, but she doesn't write so often.

Nothing else is going on right now, but we are all eagerly looking forward to Peg's weenie roast tomorrow night. It's her eighth annual event, and the weather is supposed to be just about perfect for it. More on that later...Meanwhile, life is good........

More Detail...

When I took my paintings (and Alissa's photos) to be juried last week, they were judged to be "acceptable" by Bullitt County Arts Council standards. While this beats "below BCAS standards," it's not as good as "excellent," which is, by the way, how Alissa's photos were judged (Hooray for her!!:) While the jurist said that I have potential and should keep painting, (s)he said that my paintings lacked detail and that the frames took away from the look of the paintings. I don't know, but I do know that watercolors do need frames. For the record, I took my last sunset, my thistle, and my Hawaiian beach acrylics, and my flamingo and a sunset silhouette in watercolors. I think they've all been posted at one time or another on the blog. The last won first place in two local contests. The jurist suggested that I take a painting class or two. I couldn't argue with the critique or the recommendation to take some classes, but I probably won't add much detail or take classes because I am happy with the style of my painting, which I consider to be impressionist. I have noticed that my painting has gradually improved since I have been doing it on a more regular basis. I pick up techniques from other painters and some programs on television. At any rate, the evaluation said that it was "possible" that my paintings were good enough to sell in the local gallery. The jurist would definitely accept Alissa's photos, though. We are supposed to get letters, so we'll see the formal results then.

Okay, on to the painting. You can see it is from one of Alissa's photos, and I thought it would be an easy one to add detail to my work. As you can tell, it's okay, but it isn't one of my strongest works, in my opinion. From a distance, it looks great, but close up you can see that I don't have a really steady hand for details. I think I am best at sunsets and silhouettes, so I probably should just stick to what I know. However, I can't get better if I don't try. They are organizing a "guild" of local two-dimension artists, and we are going to meet monthly and try different things. The object is to have a project to paint and then bring it in for critiquing by the rest of the group. I think it will be interesting to see how the same object looks different when painted by different people since everyone has his/her own style. There will also be guest artists who can give us pointers. I am excited about this "guild" and am looking forward to the first meeting in late October. Meanwhile, I'll keep on keeping on at what I'm doing. I'm having fun at it, and life is good!

Move Over, Drew and Nick!

Talk about your battle scars! This is the grandpa of battle scars. Drew and Nick have nothing on their grandpa. Apparently not wanting to be outdone, Grandpa stepped into a hole on Sunday and scraped his leg up big time. He and Chip were out looking at some dumpsters when he stepped off what appeared to be a curb and actually was a step into a big hole, and down he went. Of course, one might worry about damage he could have done to his new hip, but that was unhurt, thank goodness. This is bad enough and has attracted attention wherever he goes. It is really just a series of bad scrapes, but it looks bad enough that the doctor we saw today for a routine checkup insisted on giving him an antibiotic to prevent infection.
You can see that while the large sore stings and pulls, he is managing okay. He doesn't seem to be suffering any lingering stiffness in his joints, which is good. All I can say is that he is definitely not growing old gracefully. He's doing that sliding in feet first stuff. I know not to talk, though, because I am naturally even less graceful than this, and it's only a matter of time before I embarrass myself in this manner. Meanwhile, I will commiserate with him and remind him that life is good!

Another Addition

It's been awhile since I have had a chance to post or anything to write about, in spite of the continuing busyness of our life. However, as you can see, we finally have finished our little patio that we added outside the sunroom. It is tiny, as you can see, but since I am usually the only one who uses it, it's plenty big. Terry sits out there occasionally, but I will sit out there for hours on a nice day. It's a perfect place to settle with a good book. Lately, the days have been pretty hot and humid, but the evenings have been nice, so it's getting plenty of use. Next to the patio, Terry mulched the area, and we put our potted lilac that we brought from the farm. It blocks the view of the air conditioner. If you look at the front of the house, you can see our potted crape myrtle. It was sold as a patio plant, and it has a lovely ivy sharing and hiding its pot. We have just about finished our landscaping, but I still want to add a few trees. I think a nice Japanese maple in the side yard that I can see from the patio would be nice, and in the front yard, I'd like a flowering tree. I love a weeping cherry, but I would also take a redbud or a dogwood. We'll see. We are just getting to the time of year to plant trees, so I'm hoping we get them in within the month.

It seems as if we always have a breeze at this house. During the day, it is often blowing across the front of the house, but as evening comes, it seems to change direction and come around the back. That makes a great breeze in my face when I am on the patio. We may not like the wind come winter, but right now it's quite welcome.

Each day we are in the new house, I am finding more to like about it. It is so easy to keep clean, it's beautiful, and there's plenty of room for the two of us. I know Terry misses his farm, but I don't miss it like I thought I might. I love it here and am very grateful to have this brand-new and already up-to-date house. Life is good!