4 DAY HOLIDAY WEEKEND.

TURKEY THURSDAY - SO OVER.

This image is from this really fancy French food blog (unlike yours truly).

Merle and I spent Thanksgiving Day afternoon at my mother's house along with a couple of other guests she invited. It was quite sedate compared to the typical Thanksgiving celebration at her house. A typical Thanksgiving Day at my mothers' would include a multitude of overactive children and teenagers. Various wild and crazy sisters accompanied by their standard husbands of a less volatile nature and one or two dogs. Fattening Foods would be stacked in heaps on the long kitchen counter and everyone would be talking at once. However, this past year has seen an upheaval in family relations, so we wait and see what the future holds for family gatherings.

FRIDAY

The day after we took a trip to Boulder looking for one of those revolving colored lights for our old silver Christmas tree. Here is our tree - we LOVE it!

We went to our favorite store - McGuckin. I've mentioned it before. It's a wonderful hardware store and much more. We usually spend at least an hour browsing around and never leave without spending more than we planned to spend. Here's a picture looking down one of the main aisles (there are several main aisles). This is a picture of one end aisle display showing some of the unusual Christmas lights they carry. McGuckin's has things you just don't find in other stores.And we got a laugh out of this one. All of those fancy sleds and then of course, the original inner tube sled. Our favorite. You just have to be very careful of that stem on the inside rim - it's a butt buster. Alas, they actually did not have any of the revolving lights we wanted, so we bought a bunch of other consolation gifts for ourselves, headed home and ordered one on eBay. You put it beside the tree so that it shines on it and as it rotates, the tree turns different colors That evening our daughter and her husband arrived here in Colorado from Arkansas with all of their worldly possessions in a Penske rental truck, driven by Jonathan, towing one car and Audrey driving the other. Each human was accompanied by a dog. After a late meal, the exhausted couple retired.

SATURDAY - MOVING DAY.

The whole day Saturday we helped them put everything in storage except for those things they will need in their temporary home. We then moved them into their temporary home in my mother's basement. A very nice basement including large bedroom, large family room with huge big screen TV, a fireplace, a pool table and a very nice large bathroom. They will be residents of this fine abode until they "get on their feet". Jobs, saving money and then moving to affordable digs with the dogs.

SUNDAY

Today, Merle and I have enjoyed being home, taking a brisk bike ride in the foothills, sitting in the sun on the deck eating cranberry salsa and chips and then each doing our projects. We'll watch a movie later on. Here's my project- it's called Christmas Branches. Branches and pine cones from the yard, fake snow lightly sprayed on branches, chartreuse lights.

RESUMES AND OTHER HAPPENINS'.

I haven't written much about what has been happening around here lately. That's because the things that are happening don't seem worthy of a posting. However, in order to keep this blog from being too superficial, I shall recount some recent events.

We had a one year vow renewal ceremony for our expectant daughter and her husband. That was two weeks ago. A week from today they will be moved into their temporary quarters here in Colorado until they get jobs and their own place of abode. The baby is due in early June.

I helped my son-in-law with his resume earlier this week. If I say so myself, it looks pretty darn good. In my past capacity as a manager for several years, I had the occasion to review many resumes. I've also written those for myself and my husband. Based upon those experiences, I have what I consider to be a very nice looking and professional standard resume format. One of the features of this resume is to include a picture of the applicant. With digital photography, it is very easy to insert one in a Word resume. As a prior employer, I would have liked to have a preview of my potential employee. Yes, I know, we should not base our judgements on physical appearances, but nevertheless, it does not hurt to be very open about yourself - to a point. I stress "to a point" as providing too much personal information is detrimental. Keep it professional, but also employer friendly. Click this link to see a sample of this resume. Note: In order to get a link to this document I had to upload it into Google Docs. In the translation, the resume header turned out differently and not quite as striking, but at least you get the idea. Also, be sure to put your own picture on it - not Mona Lisa's - I'm sure I didn't have to mention that, though.

I'm in the midst of several art projects. I never did complete a painting on the canvas I posted many posts ago and I now have a very large canvas on the easel. I have painted a nice yellow background at which point my brain has gone into the "stumped artist" mode. However, I am determined to do something on top of all of that yellow sometime this week. I've also been illustrating a children's book I wrote and illustrated long ago. I am not happy with the old illustrations, so I'm doing them over. Someday I'll get a few copies made to give to friends and relatives with children. It's going to take some time. Here is one of the illustrations I've completed.

I am also collaborating with a girl friend on another one or two children's books. She is a good writer in my opinion and we are discussing how to proceed. The danger in my illustrating her stories is that many publishers who might accept her manuscript, might not accept my artwork. They would not accept my artwork and not her story. It just wouldn't work that way since my illustrations are custom made for her story. So, it's another one of those risky art business things that are par for the course.

I am also planning to complete a Christmas card in time to be mailed and then I am waiting to hear if any of the designs I submitted for a large fiberglass heart project here in our town will be accepted. I submitted three and I suppose I could possibly end up painting three - but who knows. I may have an extremely busy winter and that would be fine with me.

Winter is not my favorite time of year - except when the snow is very beautiful as it gently tumbles down outside of our big windows and I'm laying on the couch reading while covered with a very soft and fleecy blanket. Yeah, that part is nice............

Well, I ended up writing too much again. Here I was thinking there was nothing to write and suddenly I couldn't stop myself.

Toodle - doo.

ROCK HOUSES. HOME ART GALLERY

HOUSES OF ROCKSeveral years ago I was hiking and found a rock that was shaped somewhat like a house. I took it home and painted it. Since then my collection has grown considerably. I've given some houses as gifts and many others are displayed in my home such as those shown.

Lin Welford is a rock painter who has written several books. I contacted her by email, sent her a couple of pictures and gave her my permission to use the pictures in her classes. Since then I see she has written a book exclusively devoted to the painting of rock houses. Here are more of my own original designs.I make the foliage out of rocks, the fence out of sticks from bushes outside my house and other objects (snowman, gravestone, etc.) using Sculpey. Snow is made by building up several layers of white paint, allowing each layer to dry thoroughly before applying the next. Smooth, rounder river rocks are used to make gnome houses with thatched roofs. The thatched roof is also made by applying several layers of paint. Liquitex makes acrylic gel mediums that can also be used to build up the surfaces which can then painted.

Occasionally, I find a rock that is shaped like something other than a house and paint it accordingly. I did this once with a rock shaped like a shoe. I painted it like a hiking boot and gave it to a hiker acquaintance. Alas, I did not ever get a photograph of it and I no longer see said acquaintance.


DISPLAYING PICTURES - GALLERY STYLE
When we moved from our early 1900's home several years ago we had lots of older pictures that I had purchased at various antique stores and flea markets. I did not want to get rid of them after we changed our decor to a more modern style. Instead, I looked for an appropriate spot where I could display them all together. That turned out to be the diningroom. At the end of the video you will see one of my tiner rock houses. Rock houses of various sizes are great for decorating planters or putting in your outside garden.

Catch ya' later, Decorator.

Browsing and Finding Stuff.....

I got caught up in browsing this evening and had to share some of this with you.

DESK VACUUM Here's where you can order one of these little desk vacuum cleaners. I want one for $19.99!!! Darn, looks like they're sold out......

PHOTO CUFFS AND STUFFS

These photo cuff bracelets are cuuuuute at SMOY.net. There are some other styles plus a belt and an iPod case.

REFLECTIVE AND WILD BIKE TIRES

Why hasn't someone come up with this idea before - reflective/colored bike tires. Go here to see more.....

CRAZY CAT STAPLER
Cat Stapler along with other pewter desk accessories here. I can't say I'd actually want one of these, but they did strike me as rather unique.

Most of the links for this stuff was found at TheCoolHunter. It's a great award winning weblog jam packed with incredibly designed products.

I'm pooped now - gotta make like Rip Van Winkle and go to sleep. The time change from yesterday is messing with me.

Cow Parade. Lyric Cinema Cafe.

MOO.
I forgot to tell you about my Denver Cow Parade experience. This all took place in 2006. Here are some pictures.

My cow is a "grazing cow" as opposed to two other styles that I could have chosen to decorate, one with it's head up and the other laying down. My cow is thinking (little round things coming out of the brain area) and each side of the cow depicts two different cow yearnings. One side was entitled, "Cowsmonaut" showing a cow wearing a space suit in a space ship. There was a milky way of stars in the sky that were outlined to be cartons and jugs of milk. Other constellations depicted a bull and various animals.

The other side was "Beach Bovine" with a cow on a beach towel by the sea in a two piece swimsuit. This cow also had a bottle of "Hide Tanning" lotion and next to it, a friendly crab smiles out at us.

The bottom left picture (above) shows me painting this large animal in our dining room. It took about 2 weeks and I didn't calculate how many hours during those two weeks, but it was quite lengthy. The bottom right picture (above) shows me with my cow at the Tabor Center in downtown Denver

It was great fun. Merle was extremely helpful throughout the whole experience, helping me haul the cow home, take it back, move it around and finally to spray it with the necessary weather proof coats of paint that were required.

The only part that was not fun was the auction in Denver where all of the cows were auctioned off for various charities after they had been displayed throughout the Denver area for a few months. The cows auctioned for prices ranging from $3000 - $17,000. Although I know my cow was a very good one, it only auctioned for $3500. I did feel that the auctioneer didn't try to get more like he did with some of the cows, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. It was just another one of those semi-humiliating art experiences that I've come to sort of get used to and it left a little bit of a bad feeling. Overall, though, I'd certainly do it again if I had the chance.

LYRIC CINEMA CAFE

Last evening we went to this cinema cafe. It was new to us although they've been in business for a few months. It's a small independent cinema and the experience was what I would describe as "Colorado bohemian". Like Merle said afterwards, "this is a place you would expect to find in Boulder". It was. It was crowded, the clientele were not all slicked up, if you know what I mean - hair in place, designer clothes, etc.. In other words, it was a funky crowd ranging in age from probably early 20's to 80. (Yes, we met a gentlemen and his wife that were almost 80.)

The movie we went to see was "Lars and the Real Girl", starring Ryan Gosling who has become one of our favorite actors. (Check out my man Ebert's 3-1/2 stars review here.) It was a very unusual tale involving Lars (Ryan), his brother and sister-in-law, various co-workers, lots of his small town neighbors and last, but not least, the large sex doll he ends up purchasing to be his girlfriend. Lest you think I'm headed in a skanky direction, don't worry. The doll was only his platonic girlfriend. He was that kind of guy including the fact that he was in a temporary state of mental imbalance. This movie should come with a label stating "Suspend all belief before viewing". We did and it was very enjoyable with lots of laugh moments.

We sat on a big couch at the front of the theatre with a coffee table in front of us. Sitting in the front of any theatre is not usually something we do, but the couch looked and was very comfortable. I ended up slouching down so that my head rested on the back of the sofa with my Croc clad feet on the edge of the coffee table. This kept me from getting a kink in my neck like Merle ended up having later from holding his head back so he could see the screen. We had a couple of beers, a cheese platter and some dolmas (Greek grape leaf wrapped turd shaped finger foods). The food situation was the one drawback. The staff couldn't keep up and so, even though we paid for a "frank" (we assumed it was a hot dog) for $4.00 - we never got it after several attempts by both of us to find out where it was. Finally, I was told that they weren't making any of them (really, that was what they said) and was kindly offered a refund. I told them to just give us some popcorn instead. Based upon this experience, we decided to probably eat somewhere else first next time and then enjoy a beer and popcorn for the cinema. We'll definitely go there again, though.

On the way home, I mused about what it must be like to be an inspector in the dolly factory. Are there engineering drawings? What happens to the ones that are nonconforming? I wonder...............................