Ten on Tuesday

1. I had to be in a [due-process] hearing for three days this week - it finally ended at 10:30 Wednesday night...
2. One of our cats passed on this week - we'll miss our little cafe' au lait and the way she licked out toes... she was such a sweet kitty -
3. On Friday we helped Mom move into Morningside [assisted living.] And let me just say that even though it was her idea and we all agree that it is the best decision - it still drained me emotionally...
4. So I came home and painted... and I was so weary that I put my pens in my brush water more than once... [I can say FOR SURE that the caps are water tight-]
5. I believe we have to seek out little bits of happiness all around us so I have to share that I found the cutest lunchbox [tiffen] ever! Plenty of room for pasta, salad, and fruit - yum.
   
6. I'm pretty sure we'll be dog owners before this time next week - lol.
   
7. We spent two hours working in the 'back woods' - it needed a good clean-out and looks so much better; now if I can get the rose of sharon to spread around a bit!
8. Hey, it's not everyday that you see a penguin shopping for swimsuits in Target -
9. Craig spent some time on the water Sunday afternoon to give me time to relax and paint and get caught up on life... [he's just sweet like that] and
   
10. Mom when back to the hospital yesterday...

Summer of Color: Pink

I know some of you are joining in The Summer of Color fun for the next few weeks
where the focus will be on a different color each week.
This week the color is PINK - a not so favorite color of mine.
I'm not adverse to pink [I have some pink clothing...]
but it's not a go -to color for me. [Still, it's not my least favorite...]

For instance, THIS started out as my 'pink project':


but you can see that it quickly morphed into lavender and yellow -
[Thanks for the sunflowers, Bernice!]
When I finished her up on Sunday I quickly thought -
"Oh, I think I love her,"
but I say that almost every time I finish up one of my girls...
and David Cassidy's song goes through my mind -
and I was NEVER a David Cassidy fan...
so I think that's weird.

I was determined to have a project for PINK
so I started again [and again - lol.]
And this is the end result:


Again, you can see that I added a little other color
[how on earth did I come up with pink and yellow? ]
I was really striving for a monochromatic scheme...
[thanks for the flower Dawn!]

Don't let the background distract you -
those are the screens I painted for the Arts Stroll -
and I'm all about USING my stuff
so they're on my desk
[propped against the wall]
holding projects nearly / recently completed...

Favorite Photo Friday

Here's a little photo I found a few a years ago
- taken at a family reunion in the early 80's I'm thinking... maybe late 70's
-either way I was living out of town at the time and wasn't in attendance.


Love - LOVE that this shows
my Mom as someone who could take on life's challenges!
Love that she looks FEARLESS hanging from the rafters.

Ten on Tuesday

1. I traveled a couple of days for work this week - and had some productive work meetings. Even went to the mall for a manicure and spinach calzone - yippee.
2. Matt had a house guest but because of my crazy schedule I feel like I hardly saw them - still it was nice to have a little time to get know each other.
3. We enjoyed Craig's delicious fish one evening - YUM. He [[always]] does a great job preparing this meal for us! [Love having all my boys together!]
4. And I enjoyed spending time with Mom for her birthday - got her a few boxes of her favorite petit fours to share.
5. So I'll admit - we're looking at dogs... I'm not READY to be a dog-owner again, but I am entertaining the idea...
6. We've had a couple of little thunderstorms with BIG BURSTS of wind & almost lost the [two week old] patio cover one night this week - NOT FUN.
7. Something, who knows what?! took the cat's bowl and food bin [weighing at least 8 pounds!] ALL THE WAY to the woods behind our house - IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY. We've had critters [mostly raccoons] drag their food a few feet during the night - but NEVER during THE DAY and never this far...
8. We went to the buffet at Guntersville Lodge [such devastation surrounding it from the April storms...] and I had a slice of [the BEST!] chocolate pie in memory of my dad..
9. I received notification that a couple of my layouts [two of my all-time favorites!] are in the upcoming 'Stamping-Stationary-and- Scrapbooking' magazine from Hobby Lobby. Yippee! It should be on sale July 1st.
10. And lastly - I'm almost ready to call myself an artist [thanks for the encouragement from many of you!] My friend Pippa said her accountant said you are an artist when a stranger buys art you have created -- and that happened Thursday night - whoohooo!
    

Summer of Color - Green

I know some of you are joining in The Summer of Color fun for the next few weeks and the focus will be on a different color each week This week the color is GREEN - my absolute favorite color of all time!! I started to just do a collage of all the green in my life - and I may before the week is out...
For now let me share a layout that's been on my mind since the Arts Stroll... The buildings across the bottom are from their logo and show all the older buildings around the square. And I work on West Side Square in one of the newer buildings [big and yellow in the larger photo.] I love our little city - we've been here over 20 years now and it's still just right for us!EDITED: Okay, so I'll just share one quick project of all things GREEN in my crafty area [dare I call it a studio? HA] This little pedestal is made from an old candle stick [thrift store] painted green [of course!] and new plate - glued together for a fun place to catch my bits and pieces...

Once a Month [Old Stuff] GiveAway

Thanks so much for all of your comments throughout the month!
I love reading them and think it's so fun to share together! I love hearing your thoughts on some of things I put out there and am planning a post to connect with each one!
I appreciate each of you taking the time to stop by and visit!

It's time for the

'Once a Month [old stuff] Giveaway!

Each month I randomly draw a name from the comments throughout the month and send that person a little bag of [old stuff] goodies that hopefully they can use [new to them and all, you know...] It's a flat rate box so I can pack it FULL each month!

The Winner for June is:

Viji Siddharth

a friend of mine from Fiskateers and frequent commenter here on my blog.
- send your mailing address to me: Judy@faithbasedpages.com
and I'll get a little box of goodies out to you soon!

The Arts Stroll

Was so fun! An acquaintance said to me - I didn't know you were an artist!

And I'm like, I didn't know it either - lol!


The other artists there said I was selling too cheap,

but I SOLD [$$] and only brought home about 1/4 of what I took.

I never want this to be a job - but it was nice to have an outlet for these girls I enjoy painting so much -

and I'm thinking I may do the one in August as well...


Photos:
Victoria and Chasdity - friends from work and my 1st customers!

Matt and friends [I want to shop this one so that the sign looks like it's announcing ME - lol]

Other artists

Me @ booth - camera was set wrong so it's a little blurry -

Matt, Heather and Stephanie with brooms,



Our booth -

Again - it was a lot of fun, I only regret not being able to get around to see the work of others'.
Most of these photos were taken by the newspaper photography that took my photo for the 'Go' Magazine a few years back.
And of course, a couple taken by Matt's friend, Miriam
- love that she usually has her camera with her!

Cooking Light [on-line] Supper Club

As mentioned earlier, I'm adding a new 'feature' [lol] to my blog. Every few weeks I'll be choosing a [usually] quick 7 easy menu from Cooking Light to share with the hopes that you, too, will have a cooking light night and let me know what your family thinks of the meal as well.

Tonight's menu is Roasted Broccoli & Shrimp and corn on the cob with garlic basil butter from Cooking Light [next time I'll have a link to the recipe -

Roasted Shrimp and Broccoli

· YIELD: 4 servings (serving size: 1 cup broccoli and about 9 shrimp)

· TOTAL: 15 MINUTES

· COURSE: Main Dishes

Time: 30 minutes

Time-Saver: Purchase fresh, trimmed corn on the cob that has been cleaned of silks.

Serve with Garlic-Basil Corn: Combine 2 tablespoons softened butter, 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil, and 1 minced garlic clove in a small bowl. Place 4 ears shucked corn into a large saucepan of boiling water; cook 4 minutes. Drain. Spoon 1 teaspoon butter mixture over each ear of corn. Yield: 4 servings. CALORIES 130; FAT 6.8g (sat 3.8g); SODIUM 55mg

Ingredients

5 cups broccoli florets- 1 tablespoon grated lemon rind - 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice - 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided and 1 1/2 pounds peeled and deveined large shrimp

Cooking spray - 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil -1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 425°.

2. Cook broccoli in boiling water 1 minute. Drain and plunge into ice water; drain.

3. Combine 1 1/2 teaspoons rind, juice, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper in a medium bowl. Add shrimp; toss to combine. Arrange broccoli and shrimp in a single layer on a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 425° for 8 minutes or until shrimp are done.

4. Combine oil, remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons rind, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, remaining 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, and crushed red pepper in a large bowl. Add broccoli; toss to combine.

Amount per serving:

Calories: 268- Fat: 10g - Saturated fat: 1.5g - Monounsaturated fat: 5.4g - Polyunsaturated fat: 2g - Protein: 37.3g - Carbohydrate: 7g - Fiber: 2.9g - Cholesterol: 259mg - Iron: 5mg - Sodium: 571mg - Calcium: 135mg

My take: Fresh corn with the garlic basil butter was very good. We use Smart Balance for our butter substitute so I picked some fresh basil, did a quick chop and placed it in my small food processor with some dried garlic slivers and the smart balance - it was so good I used it on the shrimp [corn isn't a favorite of mine.] Instead of broccoli I used mixed veggies [normandy, in the freezer] - a favorite of ours roasted in the oven with a little olive oil and herbs... and I added [basmatti] rice. Our boys and a friend joined us for dinner and most said that the shrimp and veggies would be a 'repeat.' - Meaning that they would ask for it again. The shrimp was delicious! And so easy to prepare in the oven in less than ten minutes... although some said they thought it would be better if I'd used smaller pepper flakes so there would be some on each shrimp [and I agree.] It will definitely be repeated here at our house.

If you join in with my supper club I'd love to hear what you thought of this meal - just leave a comment here and we can 'talk' about the pros and cons... I look forward to hearing what you think -

Ten on Tuesday

1. Remember our patio cover’s demise in the snow earlier in the year? Well, after much debate about replacing with another temporary one versus waiting until we can invest in a more permanent one – the temporary won [with a vow to push the snow off if we should have another winter like last year’s.] And I love it – it’s so nice to sit outside without the sun blazing down on me. [Of course there’s not much room to sit in this photo – bc of all the art stroll stuff being sheltered underneath it.]
2. We bought goggles to use in the great bathroom tear-out – so we’re [ever so] slowly making progress – lol. It’ll get done…
3. And I’m looking forward to it – I [really] love working together on a project with Craig – it’s just so much fun to share ideas and come together with something that works ‘just right’ for us.
4. Speaking of which – we finally took the time this week to get things straightened up around the house & yard. While we’ve done a little ‘band-aid’ maintenance here and there, for the most part, this is the first time since January that we’ve given things the attention it needs. And it was fun to work together toward the common goal…
5. Oldest came over one evening and cooked dinner for us – lemon pepper steak with mashed cauliflower [something I’ve always wanted to try, and it was pretty good, actually.] He’s still limiting carbs and has lost almost 40 pounds.
6. And yes, he’s bought a motorcycle – something that neither of us is very happy about… but he’s a [half] grown man and can make his own decisions [my newest mantra – ha.]
7. I also took a few hours this weekend to give the garden some much-needed lovin’ [and I’ll admit that I’m a bit sore from all the work.] It’s slowly coming along – hope to have some tomatoes and okra in a few weeks!
8. We also had the opportunity to catch up with some friends while meeting them for dinner on two different evenings; once at Piccadilly’s and then at Macaroni Grill. Different as they might be – we enjoy eating at both places – and of course, visiting and catching up with friends – IRL is always good.
9. Youngest has moved home for the summer – has a short-term job at a new company working in his major field [computer engineering.] Yippee!
10. And lastly, a girl in my office brought us all these fun sunflower cupcakes one day – YUM! Happy Summer everyone!

Summer of Color - Blue [part two]

I know some of my SR sisters are joining in
The Summer of Color
fun for the next few weeks,
why don't you work along with us?
The focus will be on a
different color each week
This week the color [really] is blue -
a secondary favorite of mine - lol.
My sweetie loves to shop
[deep] discount stores
and he brought this little napsack
home to me this week [50c]. I knew I wanted
to put one of my soul sisters on it -
but what to do? It's fabric -
Well, I cut some stencils and painted her on -
stamps are with permanent ink...
Quote is stamped and then painted over
[and shadowed with marker]
I think I love her -
but I say that about every girl I paint...

A few more photos I've been meaning to share --

shopped up with picnik, of course ---

Favorite Photo Friday

Maybe this should be called
- Fun Photo Friday -
Just enjoying a little chocolate
while painting my girl
in New Orleans...

He Speaks to Me

Let’s be bluntly honest here, how many of you have a
designated quiet time with God?
And how much time do you actually spend with Him?

And more questions – where do you feel closest to Him? Have you ever spent 45 minutes to an hour [or more] alone – just you and God? What was it like? Do you have memories of special devotional times at church camp – just sitting out in nature communing with our Lord?

Can you tell that I do? But the busyness of life often gets in the way, doesn’t it? I so admire those who have the discipline to set aside time like this. One of my friends in Bible Study once talked about a women’s retreat where they set aside an hour of alone time with God – just you and God. And it wasn’t until I attended this retreat that I really ‘got’ what she was talking about. A designated TIME to just be with God; to read through scriptures, sing praise songs in my head, [or out loud – depending on how close other people might be,] and talk with God. Just, finally, being STILL to sit in the presence of our Lord… It’s an awesome thing, for sure.

[An all-time favorite song of mine by Larnell Harris]

But honestly, I don’t take the time for this often enough… I do start each day with a devotional time [usually ~ on-line ~ from Proverbs 31 Woman or Girlfriends in God,] but I long for those times, uninterrupted, to worship our Lord. And while I worship deeply during the praise time at church, I find that I often want to take the time to just sit [be still] in nature and commune with God. [Some favorite places? Up under our tree in the backyard, sitting by our fire-pit, at the beach, in the mountains…]

But guess what I’ve noticed recently? I’ve found that when I’m painting and creating my girls [they’ve now got a name: Soul Sisters] I’m talking with God throughout the entire process – not about where to put what on the canvas, but instead about needs in my friends’ lives, and, in my own. About desires I have for Him to continue to lead my family, even as our boys are establishing their lives as independent adults. About the guidance that I continually need from Him as I go through life’s journey… about His goodness.

And somehow, in my art, He’s speaking to me. Or, perhaps more accurately, I’m slowing down enough to hear his voice… I encourage you to take the time to be still as well… in whatever way fits best for your life right now…

Ten on Tuesday

1. Weeeeellll, hellooooo summer…I’ve got to say that a part of me is actually enjoying the heat – I was just so very tired of winter, and loved our long spring…so summer feels good; and right. [Remind me I said this in August…]
2. Had my monthly scrapbooking crop this week – I’m just so happy to have a great group of gals to meet with, and share together while we work on a common hobby – I think I completed 5 or 6 pages…
3. Missing the youngest who has decided to stay at school for the summer… or not. Now he’s talking with someone about a programming job up this way…
4. I’ve been painting for fun [and it’s a great stress-reliever for me] and also getting ready for the upcoming Art Stroll on the Square here in town. While I’ve had booths at scrapbook conventions [back in the day of the monthly kit company] I’ve never just put my ‘stuff’ out there for others to critique and purchase… We’ll see how it goes…
5. I’m seeing so many more lightening bugs this year than last – they really are one of the most magical things about summer, don’t you think? Take a look HERE to read about how there’s been less in the past few years.
6. Had a great lunch on top of my parking garage – I do this occasionally so I can listen to this favorite radio program [on xm radio – can’t get a signal down in my ‘regular’ parking spot.]
7. I’ve cooked more this week than I have in ages – I’ve just been SO TIRED of eating out – we’ve had meatloaf, grilled chicken, sausage and polenta, and chicken tacos – yum…tonight it’s bacon and tomato sandwiches, a summer staple.
8. Speaking of cooking, I’m starting a new blog ‘feature’ and would love to have you join me in my [on-line] Cooking Light Supper Club. Here’s how it will work: every few weeks I will post a link of a menu [from Cooking Light] that I’ve prepared here at home. I’ll tell you how I tweaked it and how we liked it – I may even share a photo or two. And then I’d love to hear if you prepared it for your family and how they liked it. Want to join in? Check back next week!
9. I visited with my mom this weekend and she’s doing well – working hard in her physical therapy. It’s good to see improvements!
10. And finally! I have zucchini [remember, the plants grew like crazy last year but produced nary a fruit] – I’m thinking my little fake snake may be working to keep the critters away…

Summer of Color - Blue

I know some of my SR sisters are joining in

The Summer of Color
fun for the next few weeks,
why don't you work along with us?
The focus will be on a different color each week
and I'll probably use the it on
whatever project I'm working on at the time -
This week the color is blue -
a secondary favorite of mine - lol.
I've been meaning to cover my basic planner
since before January -
but life has been happening y'all
so I'm just getting to it
- started on it earlier in the week
- and I chose BLUE.
Since I finished it up tonight it will be my
project for this week.
Love my girls - click here to see more of them.

Our time here is magic!
It's the only space you have to realize
whatever it is that is beautiful,
whatever is true,
whatever is great,
whatever is potential,
whatever is rare,
whatever is unique.
- Ben Okri


- Look for the magic in life!