latest painting

This is just a section. It is called Star cactus.....I still need to tweak it a bit.....

...what happened here? ..... someone stole the chocolate presents...whooo would do that?

Merry little Christmas

We had a cozy little Christmas with soup, puzzel and baby watching....

Here is our Maddie at her first Christmas....

Suan gave us this great gingerbread house! Baby and family loved it.

the best present ever

Here is our darlin' Madison Marie!

It's getting pretty close to Christmas

We are having a very simple holiday....but I am still looking forward to it. Of course we will miss our families in Seattle and Cortez, CO. Jill and family will come over for eating, puzzle-putting-together and movie and baby watching. Hope you will all be with loved ones. I am not doing cards this year but I sure have gotten some nice ones. Thanks everyone.

Thanks everyone for all the kind words, thoughts and prayers. Earl is doing well. He is anxious to be done with the treatments but so far he has more good days than bad. We are very optimistic.

here are my favorite elves....

click here.

Christmas at Penny's

Stopped by Penny's to have lunch and see her decorations. Everywhere you look is a delight for the eyes.... ....Here's Penny's kids...

Here is a project ...part done...that I am having fun with...

look ...I'm famous

Portland collector...
Thanks Helen!

Look what I got...

Thank you Tara...and for the kind words....

early Xmas

I got these beautiful cards from Sukey with this adorable handmade resin ornament. I think they might be my Xmas cards....there are 3... that is about right...if they are lucky...

Note to Earleen...It's seaweed..I don't think they allow it to go that far from California...hehehe

Thanks everyone for the kind words and thoughts. We are feeling it...
I got this cool rubber stamp from Gail at Art FiberFest...What do you think she is thinking?

Bring you up to date....

I have been behind on my blogging partly because we are having some health issues here. Earl got an endoscopy Oct. 29 at which time they found a tumor. After more tests it has been determined that he has cancer of the esophagus. There are lots of things in our favor so we are staying very optimistic. His doctors are too. It is contained and in an operative location. He starts his radiation treatments Mon. and Chemo Tues. He will have surgery in Feb. or March. He feels fine. He just can't always get food down. For Thanksgiving we whipped up some Magic Mineral Broth. He likes it and it works as a base for other soups. Soups, Ensure, yogurt and his fave: Velveeta are his staples. The part he does like is he has lost quite a bit of weight...which was needed. Now he works to maintain his current weight. He is doing pretty good on that.

Anyway I know some of you have known about this and have been checking in. Thank you! I will post updates. We feel we are on the correct path to get this taken care of.

Here is the Rebecca Katz recipe that was recommended by his nutritionist:

Our early Thanksgiving

We spent the day on the Rincon at a beach house with most of my family. It was an amazing day with huge glassy waves and porpoise to watch. Maddie and Gregory got to bond again....sooo cute. Are those the cutest cheeks you have ever seen?

This is the first time my small family have been all together...that was so exciting for me. The only bummer was my brother Steve was not here. He is now in nursing home. So glad Jon and LE flew down to visit with us!

Had a great weekend...

I only had one obligation.....that was a class I taught to first thru 5th graders about abstract collage...I have done this with adults but not kids. They did great and understood the concepts really well.

It was Earl's 3 days off week and so he and Maddie had time to play on the grass and we saw 2 movies: 007 and The Secret Lives of Bees...Enjoyed them both. We took Maddie and Jill to breakfast this morning and then I went to visit my brother Steve in the hospital in Oxnard. I thought he looked good for someone who had the vein in his neck reamed out Thurs. Love you Steve....

Here is Madison going over the menu with her sidekick, Gerry....She is getting to be one busy girl!

This is sooo cute!

Wish I could work something like this

I was awarded this honor by my blog buddy Shelly http://shellypaints.blogspot.com/

Answer the following questions with single word responses, and pass the award on to 7 other bloggers:

1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2. Where is your significant other? LA
3. Your hair color? gray
4. Your mother? fun
5. Your father? character
6. Your favorite thing? grand daughter
7. Your dream last night? chasing
8. Your dream/goal? live-it-up
9. The room you're in? living room
10. Your hobby? travel
11. Your fear? loss
12. Where do you want to be in six years? here
13. Where were you last night? home
14. What you're not? serious
15. One of your wish list items? camera
16. Where you grew up? Santa Paula
17. The last thing you did? shop
18. What are you wearing? warm clothes
19. Your T.V.? off
20. Your pets? messy
21. Your computer? Mac
22. Your mood? tired
23. Missing someone? family
24. Your car? Element
25. Something you're not wearing? shoes
26. Favorite store? art supply
27. Your Summer? fast
28. Love someone? YES
29. Your favorite color? all
30. When is the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? yesterday

Passing some love to:
Carol http://www.faceaday.blogspot.com
Mary http://marystanley.blogspot.com/
Sukey http://www.sukey2studio.typepad.com
Tara http://tararossstudios.blogspot.com/
Shari http://www.sharibeaubien.typepad.com/
Catherine http://www.happydayart.typepad.com
Gail http://runmoremiles.blogspot.com

Queen of Arts was a success!

...and with the economy where it is right now we should all be proud .... all our hard work paid off. Some of you know I had a little extra on my plate and I was especially thankful for all the help and support. Esther and Kimberly are at the very top of my list....could not have done it without you guys. Kristen, Jill and Colleen were also right up there. Thanks for stepping in when needed. I did not get many picture at the event. I know Jan did and I think she is sending them my way at some time. But everything did look so wonderful.
Here is a pic I got of the crew in my spot...I think they all found new homes but Nelson, looking clueless in the middle, who I think I am keeping.

One of the high points for my family was the meeting of Gregory and Madison...They were born on the same day and are cousins...a couple times removed.... but they were so tickled to see each other it was really something. They will be reunited again in a couple weeks...can hardly wait.

And of course I want to show you another pic of Madison. On Halloween she was a bat like her mom and she is holding the mother and baby bat LE made for Jill last year when baby was on the way.
...and here is Earl starting the pumpkin carving ritual with Maddie.

WE made it...

Got back Monday from our Art FiberFest trip. Here is how it went: First there was panic that it wouldn't all fit ....I had to leave out my extra sewing machine, one of the back seats and a fold up dolly....Then we are off. First stop is Pleasanton for a wonderful lunch and quick look at a couple shops. We had mochas in Dunsmuir at the Brown Trout and dinner in Red Bluff and then we were too tired to go any further than Redding...the next town. We got to Ashland about noon and did our usual damage at Prize, Websters, the fabric store and the bakery. Love that town. The trees were all bright oranges and yellows. Then we got to Joley's in Portland about 10. She had our cozy beds all ready. Her new home is so perfect for her and she was the best hostess. We had a hard time dragging ourselves away ....so we stayed another night. She knows the place pretty good for someone who just moved there. We explored Mississippi St area. My faves were Cool Cotton, Flutter and Porch Light. We spent a fair amount of time at Cargo. Had some mochas and tea at Plates across the street. Then for dinner we went to the Kennedy School. What a cool place with rooms to rent, art in the halls, a theater and a couple cool bars. This was a real treat. So from there we zoomed up to WA with a quick stop at Teesha and Tracy's cool home/studio. Teesha gave us a tour and I could have stayed there for days just taking it all in. So from there we headed to LE's. We checked out Maxine's and then met Tara Ross at Snappy Dragon. After our great dinner we went to see Tara's cool home/studio. Really fun to see her work and her collection of great art in her fun house. Again hard to drag ourselves away.....But we have not even started our trek to our main reason for coming yet. So the next AM we load enough stuff in LE's car so we can get Barbara at the airport into the car rather than lashing her to the roof. We all fit and off we go to catch the ferry. It was a beautiful day and we did a little shopping and collected some sea glass on the beach ln Port Townsend before we headed to the fort. OH yes the food at the fort has improved...We were excited to meet up with old friends and do our fun swaps after dinner.
I had fantastic students Thurs. (Thank you Wanda, Dawn, Barbara, Sarah, Gail and Debbie) and Sat. ( Thank you Janice, Karen and Teesha) LE and I had fun taking a great class with Janice Speck making felt jewelry on Fri. Then Mary and I said our good byes and flew down the road. No dilly dalling...We did really good and made it to Weed, CA the first night. Found a great diner with blackberry pie and blackberry cake. Mon. we stopped in Woodman at Paco's Tacos for great Mexican food. and we were home about 8:30. Check out Mary's blog and my Flickr site for more photos etc.

...more Birdman...

This is some of the new ones and an abstract house with bird.

And of course Madison. The shirt says" My grandparents don't spoil me they are just very accommodating"

new Jesse Reno video...

I am so crazy for his art! I love the way he works and thinks about his work. Jesse

Breaking news!

Have you heard about the new candidate? Check it out here

I made a new batch

Here are my latest scissor maidens.

Here are my current sock dolls....

Here a small painting I just finished

...and of course a current Madison photo...She is so grown up now that she eat cereal in a hi chair....