Oh Belle,

SNOW??? Do you live in Alaska?, Montana?, some frozen tundra? Don't say that word to me, I am not ready. We nornally and yes, I know the weather has been anything but normal, but usually in East Central Illinois, we do not get any snow that counts before Christmas. It sure gets cold before then though.

Glad you have been painting... much better than housework and like you said cleaning the house doesn't last. A painting does.

My niece and her daughter were here over the weekend. They never painted anything, so we painted resin ornies and had a ball doing them. I am painting furniture, need more chairs for turkey day, so in spite of grand plans have not accomplished much in the "real" painting just one of the four totes I am doing for my daughters and will show them when finished.

Well off to fix dinner, will paint more tomorrow...all day I hope.

Joan

Belle, I'm here hanging around too. I saw all those books you listed on the Exchange side. Hope you won't end up wishing you had kept them! I have such a hard time parting with any of mine--even if there is only one or two patterns I "might" want to do someday. I really need to do some of those projects and then move them on to someone else. I saw your scarecrows and they turned out really nice--you are just being too hard on yourself. I seldom use the exact colors listed, I just substitute some I already have on hand that are close in color to the original design. Snow, huh? Don't get any here in the valley where I live, but I can see it when it snows on the mountains north of us--sure looks pretty on the days when the sky is blue and the sun is shining and making the snow sparkle. Takes us about 45 minutes to drive up there.

Joan, you are so right, housework never stays "done"--that's why I find it so frustrating and tend to put it off until it just has to be done. LOL

I've got some patterns selected and hope to get busy painting soon. I just can't seem to get myself in gear yet. We celebrated our youngest dogs birthday today for our little GD. We picked her up from school so she could blow the candles out on the "steak" we cooked for our two dogs, then she helped feed the pieces to them and then gave them the big bones we bought as presents. She thought it was fun, and the dogs loved every bite! LOL Tomorrow is DH's birthday, so we'll probably do whatever he would like to do. DS and family will be over Saturday for cake and ice cream since he has to work tomorrow. Not sure when I'll get started painting--maybe if I stayed off this computer, I'd get more done!

Luvs

Hi...Happy Friday the 13th! It's almost 4am...I've been up since 2am with leg cramps. Think I'm dehydrated so came in here to drink some gatorade and water. My computer has been in the shop. Somehow my firewall got turned off and I got a bunch of viruses on my computer. It's working a lot better now.

Plan on painting some today. Been busy working on packaging necklaces this week. Did 792 total. A little side business of DH's. Nothing hard, just time consuming. Anyway, done with that and have a little housework to do to catch up, but I'm gonna try not to waste my painting day. Just need to figure out what to paint. ha

Belle~ it's supposed to rain here today and I hope it doesn't turn to snow. Fingers crossed for the game!!

Luvs! hi...we used to do b-day parties for our dog too. I'd make white cake for him. ha He loved opening his presents. I'd wrap them up for him. ha He always got so excited over his Christmas stocking too. I will miss him this year. Happy b-day to R from us! Hope ya'll get to do something fun!

Joan...I'm trying to get ready for the holidays here too. Too much stuff always gets in the way of our fun painting. ha Will look forward to seeing any of your projects. =)

I'm gonna head over to the gallery and see if ya'll have been doing anything fun. Later..~Anj

Hi Anj, nice to hear from you. We enjoyed the projects you posted. DH gets to spend today however he wants, then we will go to dinner this evening. He has pool tonight, so I'm sure they will all be wishing him a happy BD too. Tomorrow our DS and family will come over for cake and ice cream and presents--he's working today, so we will get together tomorrow.

I don't know what's wrong with me, I've got a few patterns selected that I want to paint--but just can't seem to get started! Maybe I NEED the pressure of a deadline! LOL I always want to start early on getting things ready for Christmas gift items--but it's not happening yet! LOL

I'm loving all the projects all of you are posting--I'd better get my act together and join in, huh?

We had a nice shower early this morning, now the sun is out and the air smells so nice and fresh. All my roses are in bloom again, and my Angel's Trumpet is loaded with yellow blooms, and there are even four Iris blooming again. The Cala lilies are back up but it will be a few more weeks before they bloom--the whole yard seems to be enjoying our cooler days just as much as I am! ;o) I love this time of the year.

Okay, let's get off here and see what I can get done. I'll chat with all of you later.

Luvs

Belle...snowed all day here yesterday. White as far as the eye can see. =P Gross.
I didn't get any painting done Friday or Sat. Can't seem to decide on my next project. Have a bunch of books out and still going thru them, but nothing is striking me yet. So I'm trying to get more done on my fall cleaning so I'll have time next week if I can decide on something. Need to go out in the garage and go thru my wood pieces...maybe get some inspiration that way. Now that I think about it I may have a turkey out there that I need to paint and put together. =) Still haven't found my Thanksgiving box of decorations. Was thinking of going ahead and put up my Christmas tree early this year and just skip the Thanksgiving stuff since it's so late. Only 11 days until Thanksgiving! Can you believe it? So looking forward to it though. mmmmm

Well, just thought I'd drop in here for a sec. Luvs...looking out my window it's sure hard to imagine anything blooming right now. You are so lucky in your weather!
Oh, I'm pretty sure I have found a family to do the 12 days of Christmas for so I really need to be thinking up some ideas for them. The mom has a fatal disease and they are having a really hard time with all the medical bills and things on top of knowing that she is dying. Thought it might bring a little fun to the kids to have some fun gifts dropped off on the days before Christmas...kinda take their minds off of their problems for a little while anyway. So sad. I need to get painting! I will for sure add in fruit and candy and cookie makings.
Ok, I'd better get going. Ya'll have a good one. ~Anj

Good Morning,

Anj, I'm so sad for this family and also happy they have you to help during this trying time. Your gifts sound wonderful and we know they will help. We have Toys For Tots here and they take names of families who could use something. Do you have anything like this in your area?

We have been lucky so far that our snow hasn't come to stay. Thurs. morning I had a little scare on the way to work, it was freezing rain. I was lucky and kept it on the road but I could of peed myself if it had been any worse.LOL

Hope you have time to paint and I'm going to try after Thanksgiving if I get caught up on things.

Punk

Good Morning and Thank Goodness its raining again!

The game was like sitting in the middle of the Artic - 28 degrees with a slight wind and 1 snow flurry that lasted all of about 5 minutes. Did we win you ask? 68 to 0, everyone was rooting for the other team by the end of the game. And the coach had his 2nd string in from the 2nd quart on. The cheerleaders were doing jumping jacks for each touchdown by jumping the number on the score board. 61 times was a tough one but then after the next play they had to do 68. By the time they were done they were no longer together and a couple were laughing so hard they couldn't jump at all. Our DGS stayed over and just went home to get ready for church. We watched movies last night, had pop corn and root beer floats. Hard to believe he is almost 18...

Joan...I live in S. W. WA., and this is really early for snow here! The ski resorts don't usually open until after T'day..rarely before, they are now up and running. We live at about the 700' level and are just high enough to be hotter in the summer and colder in the winter.

Luvs...My DS and his wife gave me lots of books last year for Christmas. They hit every TS between here and Tacoma to find them, but, and I won't let them know, most are not my style or nothing caught my attention or well you know! And as I don't have a lot of storage space, something moves in something else moves out and I have forgotten the "out" part. Ah! Birthdays for pets...I remember my DD baking mud cakes for our dogs...used twigs for candles and pebbles for M&M's. It was fun reading about your DGD! Such precious times!

Anj.....your kindness shows through all the time but after reading your post....you are super! Too many times when people know that someone is dying they "back away," afraid of I don't know what or just not knowing what to say. When my DMIL was in her last weeks, she told us that she was tired of everyone "walking on egg" whenever the subject of her dying had to be addressed. She helped me understand that being forthright was much easier and helped her cope much better. The closeness we shared during her last weeks is something I will never loose and I now think of her fondly which wasn't always the case for as she said "She was the Mother-In-Law from Hell" And yes we to have Gift Tree's, stores and malls won't use the word Christmas... and our fraternal order always gathers food and toys each year. And this year the need is greater than ever. The unemployment rate in our area is at about 15% and rising.

Punk....glad you are safe! My DH is so worried about the tires on the van. He calls them city tread so I know that by Friday he will make a trip to town and get some Country Tread. Ah! Well! Better safe than sorry!

Today is pretty free so I just might do a canvas type painting of Halloween. Been putting if off because it will be a real challenge but right about know I think I am up to it and can't find anything else I want to paint, sounds like we all have the painting blues! Must be the light deprivations thing!

So I'm off to make a cup of mint tea, light my Apple Cinnamon candle and paint!

Happy Painting!

Belle

Punk, so glad you kept the car on the road! I worry about all of you driving on those slick roads. We don't get snow and ice here--but our freeways get pretty slick when we finally get some rain and the drivers out here don't have enough sense to know they should slow down under those conditions!

Anj, I'm sure your gifts would give so much pleasure to that family. And I so admire you for doing it when you are always so busy yourself. They will love some homemade cookies or candy since she is too sick to be able to make things like that now. And of course, a nice sign or cute ornaments will bring some fun to the season as well. Can't wait to see what projects you select. You are a sweetie. ;o)

Punk, we do have Toys for Tots here too. Our local firestations usually do it. We used to have collection boxes in our lobby at the bank for them. Have to tell you a bad story--one year a guy took advantage of the TforT program and was collecting the toys and then selling them at our local swap meet! To me, that was just evil, to take advantage of people's generosity to make money for himself.

I actually picked up my paintbrushes and started working on a couple projects last night. Should have one of them finished later today, the other one will take a little longer since it is only basecoated. I'm hoping I can get back on a roll and get several things painted up to have on hand for gifts. I like having extras around for when someone stops by or if I meet up with an old friend that I don't usually exchange gifts with.

Little GD is not coming over today, she was coughing allot yesterday, so her Dad called this morning saying they are going to keep her in and "doctor" her up hoping to get rid of it. He said if she whines too much about not getting to come to Gramma's, he may call and ask me to come over to "shut her up". LOL We went to dinner and had cake and ice cream yesterday for DH's birthday. Little GD stated that "it's not as much fun at Gramma's with "them" here" meaning her Mom & Dad! We all got a big laugh out of that. She obviously is used to being the center of attention and pretty much having the run of the place--Mom and Dad cramp her style a bit! ;o)

Hope you all have a good day. I'll catch you later.

Luvs