Relaxing for Christmas

Playing with a wood burning tool and ink

Well I finished up the photoshop class right before Thanksgiving and since then have only worked on a few projects- a gift for an ailing friend and just some creative play. It's been that busy. You might as well not attempt anything from Halloween to New Year's. I however have taken the week off after Xmas and am hoping to have some quality creative time to play with whatever Santa brings me. Hopefully the progeny will leave me alone and feed themselves and maybe even take pity on their poor mother and feed me. Now that would be a true Christmas miracle.....

practicing on the stack of wood pieces supplied by the husband

So far this angel hasn't been doing her job

Romance on the Hudson...

Not really but I thought it sounded more exciting than "West Point Weekend" or "I Went to My Husband's 35th Reunion and Got Nothing but a Stomachache"...So the husband and I journeyed south to his alma mater this past Thursday and arrived in the evening to attend the welcome reception in some nameless hotel in northern NJ. I immediately scoped the attendees for trophy wives and saw none or at least I saw none that could hold a candle to yours truly...so on the first day-I win! And yep, that's all I was concerned about. Checked that block. Day two, the husband and I attended a memorial service. Thank God for protestants, it was only about 20 minutes. Next we blew off all regularly scheduled activities to view the outdoor sculptures at the Storm King Art Center and to visit a microbrewery that the husband said was a must see. Disclaimer:  this wasn't my idea it was the husband's, I was just being supportive.

Next we headed back to West Point to attend a dinner at the Thayer Hotel hosted by one of the Husband's company mates for about 13 of us. Very Nice.

Next day there was a parade, an ungodly meal in the cadet mess, and four hours of my life that needs to be returned to me after I attended the USMA/Northwestern game. God help them, they actually won for once.

Afterwards we got driven to another unsanctioned event in his classmate's Maserati-I knew it was a nice car....Ate some barbecue, drank some beer, had some whiskey and tried to intervene as the husband tried to shop our daughters out to the W.P.hostess in order to find them lovely cadet husbands. Next day we eschewed the organized brunch in order to save our stomachs and headed back north to NH.

How to Get Rid of Your Children Without Even Trying...

One mother working late from 1 to 8:30 plus one father going directly from the train station after work to the gym results in notes like the above specimen from daughter #2.

Goodbye # 4...

Binx needs packing

We gotta situation...

Goodbye...

Well daughter #4 is on her way out the door tomorrow. Yep she is off to college. She has had many in depth discussions with friends and assorted sisters about how much of her wardrobe she should bring to school. It is somewhere between "all of it!"(daughter #2) and just bring the basics and seasonal (daughter #3). And I know daughter #1 is thinking, "What?!! She's old enough for college?" Meanwhile she has bought out the surrounding stores in expectation of severe shopping deprivation. She has bought the perfect jacket for her "walking through college streets with her latte" ensemble. (I'm not kidding-that's how she described it...) Acquired rain boots, wheat thins, razor blades, water bottle, individual coffee thingamabobbies, moccasins, flashlight, shinguards-I could go on, but I'm sounding like those Target back to school commercials. What I'm saying is that she is ready. Go get 'em # 4!

Catching up...I Think.

Well I apologize, the summer has been busy. Lots of work, lots of art, not so much gardening. I can't keep up. I am hoping after getting daughters 3 and 4 off to college, things will settle down and I'll have time to do a mass cleaning of the house, garden, and blog. Need to fix the intro. Only have 3 cats now, no rabbit, no koi, and the beta had a burial at sea this past week. Not to mention, Walter the neighbor cat, who passed  away near the house and spent the night in the garage while I located his owner. I 'm thinking we've been having bad pet luck lately. Animals steer clear! So here are the last few things I worked on for the online class. I've been looking at some digital art classes lately. Who knows? Maybe I'll play around with that for a while.

Slogging along....

Ahhh well, I had to paint something for that silly class and I hated this week's assignment. We were supposed to pick a favorite painting and use some part of it-palette, imagery, or brush strokes for inspiration. I nearly had a stroke trying to recall a painting that really wowwed me. I finally gave up and started painting a tree and went on from there. I t looks nothing like what I pictured in my head but when does it ever. I figure I still have a good forty years to perfect my skills. The suck factor is still high. AND I've just realized I have black paint all over my keyboard....

Garden Pix for those Burning up In the South....

Ok, Here goes the tour... My clematis

Purple roses and mock orange at edge of vegetable garden

chickenless chicken coop in the background

Foxglove

More purple roses

Penstemon and roses

Peonies and garden heliotrope/valerian

Peony and bronze fennel

Fourth of July rose

Wormwood,yarrow, and gazing ball

catmint

Madame Hardy rose

Leftover irises

Olivia's work

More Mme Hardy

Close-up of Mme Hardy

Ditto

More peonies

Left vicinity in a hurry cause I spotted a fox in my compost bin...

running...

Hiding in garage

safe on deck

Fox is now in neighbor's yard

Nice little bee

Goldflame spirea and penstemon

Barfing cat fountain...

Ta da! The end. Now don't you wish you were in New Hampshire?