what a year

i realize blogs are mainly personal that may or may not be read by others....on the other hand it is also a great way to journal stuff, so here goes:
this year has been crazy! I'll be 44 in a few weeks and I can say I have a nice truck, own a nice house, have been across large bodies of water, once to Cozumel ( what a wonderful time, drank enough tequila to shut the bar down - haha! ) the other to Italy. Actually just got back from Italy and am still amazed by the history and art that rages on there...Incredible! to say the least...anyway, I know I picked up a lifetime of inspiration and look forward to seeing more of this blue planet ---- hope all is well out there in blogland...ciao!

Mid June Already???

In the midst of finishing my second official gig I am very content. I am very satisfied with this mural. Even thought it has been a little brutal to work in the sun, I have acclimated to surviving in the hot weather while swinging around on the scaffold. The painting is one of a tall tree and rows of plants along it's base -- all produced on the side of a 2 story garage building. It has been fun and right on schedule. This week I will put in the finishing touches to the tree and paint in a couple of doves sitting on the lower branch.
Well, gotta run, go get ready to own the day! Cheers!
(p.s. I FINALLY got my frickin' passport!)

Scene # 346

Scene from the Emmy winning Soap Opera: "As the Paint Samples Dry"

we find or character filling time between sample drying on a ladder weilding huge trimmers:

(ACTOR 1) CAROLYN: "ahhhhhhhhhhh...trimming my driveway tree on a ladder AND BEING ATTACKED BY ALIENS>>>aka stinkbugs...trying not to step or hit them for fear of being "stinked"..HAHAHAHAAHAAA !!!!"
(ACTOR 2) SELF: "oh,stop your complaining! at least cows don't fly!! Silly Girl!!"

so, hello people. today is another day to wait for my passport. even though I decided to travel the Expedite Highway, there seems to be no end to this Waiting Room Angst. My patience has calmed down, much like the ocean does at night as it coaxes the beach to sleep...and where I'll soon be sticking my big toe into blue waters off the Mexican coast IF I EVER GET MY PASSPORT....ah well, another day to wait and dream about such lovely places I may go IF I EVER GET MY PASSPORT!!! HAHAHAhahah....hmmphtt! SO, if your drinking, have a margarita or my choice of straight clear tranquil tequila on the rocks and sip it courtesy of the longing and daydreams of actually taking a vacation...Cheers! or SALUD!

MORNING !

as I stare at this screen
wanting to write something down..
it occurs to my brain,
have lots of coffee, it's good for the crown.

blip blip blip blip . . . . . . . . . ... .. ... ... .. ...

jo

one thing: being self employed is discouraging only in the fact that when I am raring to go, like this morning, I have to wait for a decent hour to go a-knockin' ---- guess I'll have another cup o jo. Why IS it called "jo"?

why is why is why?

Been buzzing about like a hyped up bumble bee without the bumble. Ah, such sweetness can be found in the words "Yes! We like the sample....let's get started" HA!
Not to mention my little Cardinal pair are making quite a home for themselves in my tiny tree out back! So much fun to watch them in such close proximity....I'm delighted, to put it mildly.

artist license

when doing samples for folks, I find myself spending most of the time in "the space between time". The time space continuim that exists between application of chosen medium and the drying part. I mean I just painted some glazed out oil stain on a board that I first painted with latex to match "their" desired colors and I have to wait an additional 4-6 hours before waxing it...POOEY!

ALLERGIES SUCK!

Pollen gets under my skin----literally. Makes me tired and ...... tired.

7-oh, Day-oh,of March-oh.....

Whew ! What a whirlwind! I am mentally challenged and physically tired but adrenaline is an amazing thing....I am truly blessed and am thankful for all the work I have coming at me at 1,000,000,000 mph....I even squeezed in a visit to the dentist at 8:15 this am. Feeling very efficient these days with the overtaking of the the biz. I am re-working it into a well-oiled machine.....not that it wasn't before ---- it had just lost it's steam. So far so good...in 3 weeks time, my calendar has stayed full....oops! grinding my teeth again....pause.....pause. Think I'll go for some red wine..later!!

oven fried

make as much of the following as you want depending on the amount of chicken to be consumed:
1/4 c buttermilk, 4 t dijon mustard, 1T honey,1/4t salt, 1/4t pepper, 1/4 t dried rosemary.
soak for as little as half n hour....then dredge through 1/4 c breadcrumbs,1.5 T fresh parmesan cheese. Put in fridge while your oven heats to 425. Place on olive oiled cookie sheet and cook for 24 ish minutes flipping over 1/2 way through time....it's crunchy. Think I'll use some kind of cereal next time for extra crunch. Experimenting with other oven fry rcipes...i'll let you know the outcome. Bon Appetite.

ode to joy - end of february! already?

wait a minute! isn't that the title of a famous symphony? Alas! I am feeling joy anyhow! I had suh a gggg-good day yesterday and by 3 p.m. I was ready to have a nip of tequila BUT ALL YOU FELLOW TEQUILA TASTERS WERE AT WORK!!!!IN AN OFFICE!! Nothing quite compares to the feeling of joy and having your cohorts all working suit jobs or cubicle jobs or jobs that have a parking garage. Well you may not wear a suit but maybe your shirts are pressed or something...Anyway, I have a hard time harnessing all this joy, until my peeps are out of the various offices they work in.
BALDERDASH!! I say!!
Well I am off to another day, and I am sure that by such 'n such hour I'll be feeling that tequila bug and once again I'll be pining for some companionship in my journey through a glass or 2 ---Hope you all have a joy filled day and I promose not to rub it in---BA Ha HA aaaahhhaaa!!

ode to the agave:

who DOESN'T like tequila? it's nice to sip on as it slowly dilutes itself over ice. never had a hangover. And while it's easy to sip on, I ceratainly would never turn down a hard shot with a beer-back! TGIF people!!

Thursday....ah what a time I am having! I'm having such fun! Going on client calls. arranging schedules, making samples, organizing EVERYTHING, seeing Mitch have so much fun and looking forward to each day at his new job, witnessing Cindy love her ,as of now, permanent job (no more temping!--Go Girl!)....!!
Mitch and I worked together for so long and change could be weird but I have really embraced the whole idea of being the tangible material artist while he is persevering the role of literal/print material artist...
Well...
I see the sun peeping out, time to attack the garage and sort it out! By the way the porch is looking fabulous and throughout all this process I have definitely learned the art of patience which has certainly enlarged my life.

Today is BEAUTIFUL!! isn't it? Sunny. Clear. Cool, but not too cold. Ah!!!!

IS IT COLD ENOUGH? HAVEN'T WE HAD ENOUGH BONE CHILLIN' SOUL FREEZING WEATHER? I actually love the cooler weather and YES! THE SKY IS BEAUTIFUL AND EVERYTHING, BUT. . . I HAVE NO HEAT in my loverly truck I travel to work in AND "AY-YI-YI-YI !" I'm tired of wearing the same crap....a black turtleneck...and although I do love my boots and jeans, and I like to wear black, it just doesn't seem fitting when there is NO CHOICE and it's my only CHOICE on account of I NEED to stay WARM in this weather...............Ah! Balderdash!! ENOUGH BLATHERING! I AM GOING TO FINISH MY COFFEE MAYBE TAKE A SHOWER, EXCEPT THAT MEANS GETTING NAKED AND SOAKED AND IT IS BRRRRR! COLD IN THIS HOUSE....OY!

awe, shucks..

don't know what to write....listening to violin music. It's kinda hypnotizing in my dazed state.

I was up by 5;45, showered by 6, coffee'd up by 6:15 and off and running by 6:33 !! Had to do the "cupid dash" and then I hit a job site. I was home by 9:45, just in time to see Mitch travel out the the door to his job! By the way a "cupid dash" is an exercise in which one delivers flowers and cards before the receivees go to their jobs----mission accomplished! Love it! Cheerio! eh?!! :)

just like magic...

Well....
The floor is done...the walls are done....beginning to set it up! Yeah!
Cindy came over and helped make big headway in getting the porch up to standards, thank you gorgeous!------And we did the proper thing (of course) and christened the place with a single sippin' shot of tequila.... :)
So, at this point it is a nice quiet place for morning coffee -"ahh, a luxury"- if I do say so myself!
A place to account for what will/may take place as the day moves forward.....

You know, nothing is as quite as rewarding or satisfying as accomplishing a goal. One that is self imposed is especially grand because if you cannot do for you, how can you do for others!! Cheers!


p.s. I went on my first "faux" painting appointment sans Mitch and alone for the first time (ever) this morning. It was different without him but I had fun!
I look forward to many more down the road. . .

keeping the faith...

When dreams are persued, there will always be challenges and stumbling blocks. I have to say how proud I am of Mitch. He has persued his passion of headlining artists and their creations and by doing so discovered his own love for media and marketing which in turn has led to - j o b - in the field. Go Mitch! This also means his departure from the painting biz and I am ready to take over and in fact looking forward to discovering what it is that drives me.

So, in this present moment we are changing, and all for the better. It will strengthen our relationship as we become separate and individual again in our work, as we were when we first met. Truth be told, we have worked and lived side by side for 13 years and sometimes a change is necessary. And this a good change. He's only been hired for 2 days and a difference is already apparent. We have lived and breathed decorative painting for 13 years and sometimes it amazes the both of us to have survived that long and on such a roller coaster of prosperity vs "onions for dinner" but we have.....and we are blessed. Thanks to all the friends and family who have had faith in us and reminded us along the way, that every breath counts!

1:58 in the p.m.

Oh My Goodness! I had no idea all this labor would be so necessary! I have heated and scraped glue til my hands fell off, soaked the excess glue off with paint thinner and had to scrub and wipe til the wood floor looked clean, and then I used 'simple green' to mop and give it that 'oh-so fresh' aroma!
(Had to 'catch and release' Rubble, as he escaped out of an open window...argh!)

Last thing yesterday was to prime the walls and then kilz the floor....looked like a sanitorium, which I sometimes relate to as a comfortable spot in my head...haha just kidding!? Who's crazy? not I, of course.........mmm!:)

I just now finished the the trim and then did a first coat of floor paint which will eventually be checkered out only b/c I have some weird adoration for squares. Must be the tidiness or lines or something....ANYWAY, I am going to paint the walls too but haven't been able to find a suitable color as of yet in our mega-ly overloaded garage. There's gotta be something to strike my fancy ---gotta keep looking....keep on looking!

ANYHOW that's my update and I'm sticking to it...literally via my glued, paint thinnered, simple greened, oil painted, floor painted, and primered hands......Yee haaaaaaa.......

Glue Be GONE!!!now for the stinky part:a Paint Thinner wash...ICK!

Things I didn't know, I didn't know.

You know sometimes ideas don't click until stated in a way that your thought pattern can suddenly accept as a an epiphany....last night while helping our friends Lara and Sunjay paint their beautiful home, Lara did just that. She used the words "drop-cloth" and in doing so I realized I'd never quite thought of it in the terms she spoke of....all these years I have always used a drop-cloth to "drop" at the base of a wall I might be painting NOT as a vessel in which to catch "drops" of escaping paint drips that find themselves airbourne and falling to their demise on the cloth provided by 'said' painter to protect furniture and floors...so, Thank you, Lara!

On that note I'm off into the day-----what a nice sunny day...surely I'll be able to finish my porch glue removal to begin setting up the studio...my shoulder/neck is a little sore, but since I can see the light at the end of this tunnel, I am determined to override the aches and fly to finish line in due time. By the way, Cindy gave me a tip for instant muscle relief: put rice in a tube sock and microwave for about 90 seconds and place on sore muscle. This is especially helpful for necks because you can stay mobile while the little rice pellets (a warm, moist heat b/c of water retention in the rice) do their magic...Nice!

Alright 2 pieces of instant knowledge I didn't know, I didn't know!! HA!

Monday....PostStooperBowl.

Michael-Ann posed the following:
give 5 reasons why you blog:

1) acknowleging my thought process to others validates that I ain't tooooo crazy....
2) I like to see my thoughts on paper where they are free to roam the web versus staying in my head and living in mediocrity
3) I amuse myself and like to share
4) what a great thing to do first thing in the morning while sipping a hot cup of coffee...kinda like starting an old car(my brain)on a cold morning and letting it run to warm up before charging full steam ahead into the day .
5) writing is fun!and I like exposing myself,literally...

Have a great Monday! I stayed up very late stoking a fire ands watching tv outside --- it was nice, but a boring Superbowl as far as football goes and the commercials were nothing to-write--home-about. ..though I did experiment with an oven-fried chicken recipe I found....hm,hm good!

My brain is off and running, I gotta catch up with it...cheers! thanks for the 5 item challenge Mikie!

thought # 753

having an inner urge and knowledge that there is a possibility to act on or proceed with the ideas of furthering one's own agenda can be quite satisfactory once the forward steps to reach the goal are put into motion.
YA JUST WISH ONE'S BODY WOULD WORK AS QUICKLY AS THE THOUGHT PROCESS IS URGING IT ON TO.......sometimes my thoughts of action seem to surpass my actions on the track of intentions.
WHOA! after all that verbage, which probrably makes zero sense to anyone ---I'm heading back to the heat gun, scraper, and paint thinner. ( the paint thinner is odorless but quite capable of overtaking my brain )

TGIF

Hooray for Friday! I understand it will be sunny thru Monday -- hip hip hooray!! Last night I turned in my studio keys and I feel good about it! now the work begins to decide what in the world am I to keep and what will go.....I love books and need to figure out where to put them all....all art related andI think I'll be building a bookshelf or 2... but where? where? Egads...and I didn't realize I had so many unfinished art pieces...just makes me more anxious to get brush to canvas so I can finish up some of them----so watch out world I'm almost on board and will be more active as an artist...FINALLY!! YEAH! Happy Friday ! After all the paint thinner I'll be using today to wipe glue resin away, I envision a huge and very cold adult beverge at day's end...fumes and stuff do that, ya know?

Top O the Day to Ya

Good Morning!
I see myself running a bit behind today....and "No, I do not have rectal glaucoma!" HA! Isn't that a gnarly statement to begin the day!! :)
Had my coffee and am now contemplating breakfast, a shower, more coffee, a workout, and with all that I have some cerebral thinking to do to decide in which order to accomplish all these things. Before the end of the day I will have finished moving out of my studio--Yeah!--and will proceede with glue removal from the porch floor AND I plan to be sipping a cold beverage with Cindy by the time the cuckcoo clock strikes 5:30 ish...Mitch will probrably be puting on his finishing touches in regards to his monthly market......btw, I Can't Believe It's February 1 !!! And it's a Full Moon....BA HaHAHa!! Ciao! (I really hope it will clear up a bit, so we can all see the moon in all of it's huge glory...)

Mornings...

I begin each day early, 5:30 or so. I think mornings are such nice part and probrably my favorite time in the day. I have my faithful radio and hot cup of coffee and I sit quietly. I take in all the sounds of morning: birds, the train, I appreciate the earth and life around me. I think about those most precious to me. And I exhale because I know that pretty soon the phone will start to ring and the daylight will erase the dawn --- pooh!
Ah! it's 7 so I am off and running...first stop will be a stroll to Fiesta for some eggs, yogurt, and cranberry juice. And Carolyn don't forget the green onions and sourcream to 'dollop' on your turkey chili later when lunchtime hits. In a few hours Ron will send his guys over to rrrrrrrr-rip up the porch carpet......can't wait...! Ba HA HA HA Oh! the plans I have will finally manifest and I will have created the perfect porch ( Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein--like exclaimations, on that last statement!) I think this blog will nave me realizing how much I enjoy waxing literal verbage.....does that make sense? I hope all of you have an amazing day! Cheers!

Pfffft!!!

I just have to say, I sure appreciated Sunday's weather and great SUNshine!! The key word being:SUN! SO WHERE IS IT NOW! ARGH!!! I like rain. We all need rain. Plants need rain. Animals need rain. BUT For crying outloud: I'm about to step back in time to hire Noah at this point....our front lawn is so saturated, much like my brain is soggy. Resistance is Futile!! I will not bend to mood of gray and wet and wet and grey (how does one spell gre/ay anyway?) I will resist the straightjacket and rubber room in spite of being cooped up....most importantly, this weather is detrimental to our working outdoors on that restaurant mural...vent vent vent!
La la la la la! Guess I'm off to the studio to remove the rest of my stuff...like George Carlin says, 'it's just Stuff!' BUT it's MY stuff, my own personal stuff. The kind of 'stuff' that defines one's own being. 'Stuff" that validates a connection to an inner need for 'stuff'' that says something about me...stuff,stuff,stuff. Ah, who needs it?!! I do Ido Ido....I do have some irrelevant 'stuff' as well..."Hello Dumpster, Take THAT stuff!!"I gotta go! I'm definitely rambling at this point..so long blog people, thanks for visiting!

Having a studio

While I enjoyed the 'idea' about a studio with all my goods in it and having a 'place' to go, in the end I recognized that I just wasn't inspired by the space. I am much more inspired here at the house to be creative. Here,I can open windows--there, I could not. Here, I can control the temp---there I only had central ac....the heat part of that never worked. When I did have the ac blasting cold air in the warm months I was also gifted with the stink of dead things in the attic or vents....never could find the source. I am planning to do alot of painting esp on the front porch....my gracious neighbor Ron has a machine that will allow me to remove the carpet easily so I am very excited! On another importany note, one can't function in a studio without ice cold tequila.....aha! the icebox here at mi casa will do just fine!! Ah the Luxury....windows, trees, cardinals, my "kids", the occasional hawk, cold beer and tequila....Uh-OH!! I feel creativity starting to blossom already....!

salty dawg

I am digging into a can of chicken and dumplings!! OOOOOOOOO-Wee! There's enough salt in here to puff up the smallest garden snake...I just looked over at Rubble and he's snuggled up in my red coat and I think he is mistaking the black fake furry stuff on the collar for his own furry extremity....what ever blows yer dress up -- I guess.

monday monday monday...oy!

haha! Me thinks you are correct!! At the moment words are few and far between where medical professionals might refer to as my brain, otherwise known as noggin . For today it seems heavy and very much like gray matter. Hows that ? :) Anyway I started the move from studio to house and so far, so good! As soon as I'm done moving a booze session most certainly WILL be in order! M: I hope you are feeling better and S: all the kitties say "Meowdie"... and speaking of critters, this a.m. Houston Services came over with noose and cage in hand to remove a confused racoon form next door. Poor Poofy Critter! Hope they release those guys in leiu of destroying them. Hate that!

WOW! my very own BLOG!!

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