Finally!!!!

Every year this white rhododendron is the first one to bloom. There are about 20 blooms on it today that have opened up. Beautiful to see!

Look what Victoria made!

This is so awesome! Victoria did a great job of drawing Fireball on a piece of scratch board. The ground in the photograph she was looking at was snow, and the goat she was looking at was very fluffy! The teacher commented about it and Victoria says, "yeah, he always gets real fluffy in the winter." Then her teacher realised that it is actually her goat, and got quite a kick out of it. It is quite the concept. Big fluffy smile.

Switcheroo

This is a website that the kids and I have had a lot of fun with. I keep going back to it for potential art lesson ideas. Creating a new animal....what fun! Your kids (and maybe you yourself) will enjoy this. Try it!

http://switchzoo.com/zoo.html

Our Big Weekend is over..

Gentry and I had to work this past weekend. We had our Remodeled Kitchen and Bath tour both days from 10-5:00. We came home pumped and exhausted at the same time. It was wonderful fun to hear all the nice things people had to say about the work, and to hear all about what they want to have done. I am in very good company as it turns out-there are a slew of people who have a list of projects they need doing. Smile. We had 96 people through on Saturday and they came pretty steady right from the start, and slowed down so we all got to have lunch. We had a volunteer each day from local colleges so they were a big help. They were both really great. We had to sign in blood that we would feed them lunch and give them breaks. That was doable on Saturday but not even happening on Sunday. Sunday it started slow and we were both wondering why we had to miss meeting for this, then it picked up around 10:30 and we were slammed all day long. People stayed longer and talked extensivly with Gentry so that was rewarding and tiring. We had 126 people come through although I may have missed some since I was trying to watch the door and show the upstairs bathroom at the same time after our volunteer left early. (Could it be he was starving?) One hour we had 40 of those folks- it was a bit overwhelming.

The kids did great- let people in for meeting (we even missed the workers being in our meeting...sadness) and Gerry and Linda took them out for lunch with Reid too. Then they went to Beth's and they jumped on the trampoline and went to gospel meeting and when we got home we took Beth and the kids out to pizza. Pizza has never tasted so good. This place serves little rolls with butter and fresh garlic....we were snarfing them down. It was actually really good for me to know what hunger is but I thought Gentry might pass out.

One really sweet thing was a past customer who is elderly but still works cooking for the hospital came and brought Gentry cookies. What a doll! 3 other previous customers also came to check it out. Very nice of them to support our business like that.

Crazy Good!!

I found this recipe for Smore Brownies at a favorite cooking blog (http://countrykitchenrecipes.blogspot.com/2008/02/smore-brownies-i-could-not-resist.html) and thought I would see how my DeMarle would deal with the marshmallows.
Wrena's suggestion about turning the oven off after preheating it to broil worked great for this pan which cannot handle those temperatures. I only preheated it to 450 and it still worked. Awesome!
And, yep, melted marshmallows stick to DeMarle molds, however, it did come out of the pan once we got past the marshmallow part (turned the pan inside out...is that cool or what? No other cooking pan can do THAT!) I learned: I will put some parchment paper on the edges just where the marshmallows are next time.

"Mom, this is good, and fun to eat" exclaimed Miss Victoria.
"Yeah, Craaaazy Good!" agreed Sir Grantius.

And from Gentry? "This would make a good company desert." Which I think means, yummy, unique, and pretty when plated. So, come on over and have a piece!

A journey to Etsy

Don't you love how the artist/illustrator not only staked his trees in this drawing but complemented the idea by taping different pieces of paper together to get the same type of thought across subliminally. I really like this artists simple drawings and have been inspired by her to do more drawing myself. It is so fresh. http://www.laurennassef.com/category/drawing-a-day/

I really have enjoyed a little art blog hopping that has started somehow, with the above address, then led to http://www.also-online.com/ which is the site of an animated illistrator - totally fun webpage and the example of his works which led to http://www.etsy.com/ a cool place to buy funky hand made stuff. Try them out, you won't be disappointed.

Georgia O'Keefe style cards

Because I know you will want to try this, it is easy and fun, I will show you the steps. This started out as a kids art project for second graders, and they did a great job, and I have become addicted to the process after making 50 of them for thank you cards for our volunteers. Today I thought I would try my new paper. I love the olive green color. It turns out that it was probably a mistake to try something new but....being willing to take chances is what art is all about. As you can see in the picture, you will need some oil pastels- grin. With kids I have them draw a big circle somewhere in the middle, but for myself I like a more uneven outline. Starts with a scribble basically.
Then you can add a contrasting dark color for the area between the petals. With the students we used cool and warm colors, they would pick one or the other and have three colors to choose from. If they pick warm colors for example, they would could choose a red, an orange and a yellow. If they choose cool colors they may have a dark blue, a green and a light blue. The darkest color is the background color that goes between the petals. The middle one goes on the area closest to the middle, and lightest on the tips of the petals. Of course the petals go off the edge of the paper. (A new concept for a lot of kids.)

I always instruct the kids to start at the edge of their circle and work outwards with the strokes they make with thier pastels, pressing hard and getting lots of color on. Then we blend in the same way with our finger, from the center out. On my example, this would have worked better if I had put more pastel on the paper.
An option for adults, or for kids at home is to use mineral spirits and a brush to blend the colors. This is fun for all sorts of oil pastel painting!
Then it is time to define the center, sometimes I make them very large, sometimes very little, it is fun to experiment to see what you like best.

These colors are not my favorite combo, so I had to wipe it off with a little mineral spirits on a rag, and redo the leaves with a base of white (because of the dark background it makes the yellow look green-yuck) and then the yellow over the white. Much better.
The end result on this one is what I will have to send to my sister. She gets all my rejects, and most of my nicer ones too. :) Hope you try it. Let me know if you like making them as much as I do. Great mothers day gift!

Update on Gentry Homes Blog

I posted a few pictures of the attic room that Gentry made for 3 little girls study room. It is so cool, every inch is used, and one of my favorite parts is that the door going up to the attic room is inside the closet of their room, and then there is a ladder going up to another large room that they use for sleepovers and as a media room. It is fantastic! A secret hideaway!

Ride em' cowboy! The rest of the story....

My mom and dad came out for a visit soon after Gentry and I bought our first little house. Mom and dad were supposed to sleep in our bed. The bed seemed a little damp when they got in. That is not a good sign. Hmm. Leaking for sure. Problem was, we couldn't find the leak. Gentry got the bright idea of draining the water out of it and filling up the bladder with air. I suppose he expected it to squeal like a balloon let loose in a quiet room. When that didn't happen he figured getting more pressure on it was the answer. First time he hopped on he fell right back off. It was hilarious because every time he'd sort of get the thing balanced, he'd start laughing and it would dump him off again. There were jokes flying around the room, some about riding bucking broncos, stuffed pigs and so on. Dad couldn't quite figure out what Gentry's problem was so he (thinking it had to be a piece of cake) took it for a ride then. Pretty soon he was wallowing around on the floor with a bemused look on his face. It had happened so fast! It was definitely getting the best of them. That determined look on Gentry's face is pretty indicative of how hard it was to stay put. Mom and I were laughing so hard tears were running down our cheeks. I wish I could remember some more of the commentary between Gentry and dad, they were on a roll with one-liners! They must have been feeling pretty foolish and they looked like complete goofs! It's a funny memory that I would have completely forgotten without these dumb pictures.

And I laughed my socks off.....

Any ideas about what is happening in these two pictures of Gentry? My dad was also in on this escapade, and mom and I about busted from laughing at those two. Pictures are from early 90's I think. And now I am laughing at my attempts at "home decorating". Yikes! To my amazement, I still have that same plant. Good for me...now there is a story of survival.

Should this be my new art medium?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=j3pz2VgIM7E

Special Recipe Box

In this day and age of accessing any on-line recipe with any ingredient at our fingertips, I am feeling quite melancholy for days of yore when we passed down hand written recipes. The recipe above is one of my Grandmother Lucille Frohbieter's. Apparently there was some dispute between my mom and dad about how to say it. One thought it was Anadama bread and one thought it was Amadana! Cute. I love to think of Grandma making it in their cabin on the Sweetwater River, back when Jeffrey City was just called,"Home on the Range." Dad says she made it all the time. It is quick and easy and we all enjoy it!
Speaking of treasured recipes....Victoria made this sweet little recipe box in her woodshop class. We were cleaning up around the computer today getting ready for our fiber cable install (Yipee!) and found the old cardboard box of recipe's (my mom's) that Dad and Elaine brought me. They have been sitting here waiting for me to go through them and type them up. Apparently that is not going to happen anytime soon so Victoria said, "Mom, why don't you put them in the box I made you." It is a nice marriage of recipe and box and is special treasure to me.

Karen: They must have heard your wise council. The Happy Ending.

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"The Swirly Girly Pitcher" by Victoria

Victoria made this glorious picture of a pitcher with fruit, and it looks great in my new sitting room so I went and bought a frame for it. The frames were limited so I opted for the no mat look, and a frame with swirls to match the details of the painting. She used a technique that is new to me, and I really want to try it out sometime. It is chalk dipped in gesso, and has a lovely texture to it. I love it!

This is the sweetest, funniest story I have read in a long while.

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Spring Break

I am so bummed that I forgot my camera, but I want to try to "paint" a picture of our sledding trip, it was pretty special. We left home in the afternoon to head for the hills, packed up our sleds, ze ole' snowmobile, food and fuel for two nights in the mountains.

Picture this: A snowmobile with 2 adults, in full regalia, ropes behind to two sleds, one with Victoria decked out in her ski mask, goggles, and helmet, Grant behind her in the same. But that's not all folks....behind Grant was a red plastic sled with a tub full of our food and extra clothes, and a case of bottled water, and behind that another red sled with a propane tank and battery for the camper. It was hilarious! Luckily no one was on the trail on a Thursday afternoon.

Off we go and let me tell you the poor snow mo bubble had its work cut out for it. The road up there is real steep right off the bat so at least I did not have to worry about Gentry going too fast! It was a pretty warm sunny afternoon so after the worst hill I decided to walk the rest of the way. I could tell that Gentry would not need me on the back looking at the procession the whole way, it was quite safe. I think I got a good three mile walk going in.

We all got there in good time and I made soup, unpacked and got us all ready for reading, games and bed. We woke up to snow, had pancakes with bacon this time and I even had chanced packing eggs...they made it! The kids went with Gent up to a trail that leads to some spectacular views and while they were gone I scrubbed the camper down, top to bottom. In the afternoon the kids went sledding. These new sleds have runners and steering so Grant took the steep drop off the hill of the campsite, and went on down through the trees, Victoria tried it and hit a tree once( she was not hurt) so she decided to stay on the road from then on. They would sled down to Gerry's and then Gentry would haul them up behind the snowmobile. They were both pretty sick with colds so it was wonderful to see them enjoying themselves. It snowed off and on throughout the day and late in the day Gentry and I took a walk up through the trees. The snow makes walking through some of those real steep overgrown areas much easier. We made it to our favorite look-out and it was gorgeous!

Saturday morning we had biscuits and gravy, and came home before the weekend revelers showed up. And we were glad we left when we did. I can't tell you how many huge trailers we met driving out full of snowmobiles. There were so many in some of the groups that it was a roar, I really don't see how that could be that much fun. I walked out about 1/2 way and then Gentry and the kids picked me up and I watched to make sure everyone was OK behind. They had more trouble going down hill with the sleds since the ones behind had a tendency to try to pass. So, for added decoration to the wagon train, Gentry tied on a bunch of branches (high tech solution) and that seemed to do the trick. It was a pretty funny sight, but it was a ton of fun! I smile everytime I think about it!

Signs of Spring: Maaaa

This is the painting I did this morning with my crayons and hot tray. Not too impressive I know but I found it so challenging to get it to look like anything that I am quite happy that it actually resembles a cow and her calf. This is not a media that lends itself to fine details, which is good for me. The best part is with chopping and redoing etc. it only took me about an hour. That is encouraging. Bad part is that was my hour for excersize. I may start looking like my subject.

"Blueberry Rhubarb" by Darren Maurer

I have completely spoiled myself. I have wanted to have one of Darren's paintings ever since I found his blog. When I knew the house had sold I was looking for a way to reward all my hard work on it and then I saw this painting on his blog and I could see my name written all over it. (No, my name is not Ball! But some might call me wide mouth... Ha. Beat you to it!) It became perfectly clear that this is what I needed to give myself as a pat on the back, so to speak. I am enjoying it so much. My advice: Reward yourself with fine art!!

http://miniaturemasterpieces.blogspot.com/

Guess what we are celebrating! (Besides April Fools Day)