Show time!

Well, have been framing, finishing, photographing, refining, and signing some pastels for a group show at the Eugene Library that goes up next week. Also have been framing photos for my solo show at our local gallery starting in July. Still dreaming that I can create, finish & frame one more painting before that show (don't tell me July is less than a week away please...!) but am not stressing yet! In the meantime, here's one painting---going to Eugene probably (still haven't 100% made up my mind which paintings I'm submitting...)---plein air Poppies from Schreiner's Gardens:

COLLEGE WORLD SERIES CHAMPS AGAIN!

They did it again! 2nd year in a row---one of 5 to ever pull off two world series wins in a row---YAY BEAVERS!! What a terrific group of kids and an amazing coach! They return today with a parade thru town and ceremony on campus---guess where we're going this afternoon?! Such excitement!!

Stop! Slow Down! Help!

This month has just been whirling by---so much going on! I'm not sure it's going to slow much yet---but I'm about ready for a totally empty day to just sleep, relax, do nothing, sleep, read, clean house, sleep... Can you tell what I'm missing most?!

We had a nice party on Father's Day to celebrate my brother's graduation from OSU, + his birthday the next day along with the actual holiday festivities equaling good eats & companionship. Right after though, I was home packing to go with my painting group to Menucha ( http://www.menucha.org/ ) the next morning. Menucha is a lovely retreat "resort" on 128 acres above the Columbia River. Most of the painting group stayed 2 nights, but I was just going up for Monday night since we had another party to attend Tuesday evening. Spent a lot of time hiking around the property, worked on 2 1/2 pastels---one of Crown Point, the other of a gold fish pond, the 1/2 just a quick sketch, ate great meals, slept lousy (my two elderly roommates snored 1/2 the night!) and had a great time chatting with the other painters.

Started & finished up 2 more pastel paintings yesterday---small 5x7" pieces---one as a gift for friends moving away to remind them of their home here, the second to frame and sell eventually.

Next on the old agenda is framing photos for my upcoming show in July---along with popping out another painting to go with the acrylic I just need to sign. Time to frame a couple of paintings for a show at the Eugene library that goes thru the summer---to be delivered for hanging next week. I think after the first part of July I might get to catch up on that missing sleep....

Here are some pics from Menucha:



Painting by the pool & the almost finished painting below:


This shows the pond I painted with Wright Hall behind---where we had our meals.


My version of the pond:


Lastly, here's one of the little 5x7 pastel paintings I created yesterday morning:


Time for a nap... ;)

Our baby has graduated!

Dumm da da da dummm dummm,---come on sing with me! Graduation has come and gone once more---Monday was the big night---high school graduation then some family photo time ending with an all night party with both local high schools participating. Brad and I headed over at 12:30 am to put in our parent volunteer time---we dealt blackjack in the "casino" for two hours! Such fun at 1:00-3:00 am... I'm still recovering from the lack of sleep that night---yesterday was a bit of a blur as I tried to just get thru the day, barely able to make it 'til time to crawl back into bed!

Here she is---Graduation 2007!

She did it!

This past year my oldest daughter has lived with two other roommates in a duplex after living at home for 22 years. She has had a great year, learning to live on her own, but has come to the conclusion once their lease was up she wanted to live without roommates next. Part of the issue was that the other two girls had lived together previously (tho not at this place) so they had living arrangements worked out between them. Mariah was invited to live with them and she happily moved in last year. Because most of the furniture was theirs, she never felt 100% like it was also her home---she spent a lot of her time in her bedroom except when they went away on weekends.

The past couple of months we've been keeping our eyes open, looking for rental signs as the college school year comes to an end and have found several possibilities for her to look into. Last Friday she was out scouting after work, looking at an apt. complex she's always admired when a fella walked by saying the place he lived in had an apt. opening up---just across the street in the same block. She was able to see the studio apartment in this real cool fourplex and made a partial commitment that day! Yesterday (Monday) she met up with the landlady who lives across the street and invited me to join her, hoping to get another tour of the place. Unfortunately the landlady wasn't able to contact the tenant so after visiting with her a while & discovering she knew my aunt and uncle (small town) we asked permission to go see the back yard. We were also allowed to go inside to see the layout of the home & while upstairs the tenant appeared & let us inside to see her apt. again! Funky, but very livable---maybe a bit hot in the summer, but Mariah might be able to work with that---if anything she could always invest in a small a/c unit. We're so excited for her---it's just a block away from the library, close to downtown, 7 blocks from work, and in a nice little neighborhood!

Her apartment is in the back quarter of the upstairs---no windows visible from this photo, but isn't this the cutest house/4plex??? Yay Mariah!!

Illustration Friday---Your Paradise

When I thought about this topic initially I was leaning towards something tropical---but then I began to think about what is paradise, where do I feel like MY paradise is, and I realized it's where I live---in the banana belt of Oregon!

This was painted outside of town, en plein air---"a French expression which means "in the open air", and is particularly used to describe the act of painting in the outside environment rather than indoors (such as in a studio)."---wikipedia


The Convergence
pastel
21x28
$380