“The waves of the sea help me get back to me.” --Jill Davis

Last weekend, with the help of my sweet respite worker and my even sweeter husband, I was able to take off for three days. It was a collection of AMAZING women in San Diego!! One of the girls put it as a "beautiful disaster." My eldest sister and her partner, one of my best friends and her two daughters, my eldest were all there- who could ask for more?

We ALL needed the weekend. The girls had just about had it with school, my sister is so over work, Miss Marilyn is always up for a trip, the mommies (Robin and myself), well. Need I say more?

We shopped up and down Ocean Beach, better known as "OB."

They have great antique stores, funky clothing stores and tattoo parlors galore. I almost got my nose pierced. Why? Who knows. (Maybe because I know it will horrify my 80 year old mother. Is it pathetic at 48 that it sounds like fun to do this to her?) I have wanted to since I went to India, but the people there told me to get it done in the States (it was cleaner), and then I never did. I think about doing it every time I'm down here.

We found out we had Delta Gamma sisters together. (Rachel and Marilyn). Who would not, not, not show us their secret handshake. But they would do the "DG" pose.

Lauren and Erin just made fun of DG's.

I love Rachel and Erin like they were my own. My eldest and my Robin's youngest (on the right) have been friends since I met their mom when the girls were just babies. We have all shared so much life together, we truly are extended family to each other.

These girls and their mom? A force to be reckoned with!!

Not to mention this trio!! This is my eldest sister, Carol, myself (I am the baby of the family-love that!) and my sweet Lauren.

There is something so fun and freeing to share time with my daughter and our friends. Especially when all the dorm-mates join us. I have so darn much fun with these girls. There is a sense of watching them come into being their own, and it is a beautiful sight. They are fully responsible, make their own choices, get through classes and relationships and living together, and then to be able to hear their opinions and what they are going through is beyond wonderful. I don't think my words do the experience justice. I never went through this experience, so I find it so fun/fascinating to watch them all together talking, laughing, telling us stories about teachers, projects, classes....what they want to do with their lives, how they want to travel, summer plans, next year's roommates...maybe it is the amazing potential I see. The fullness of life that exudes from these girls. How their futures are wide open for them.

I think we just about over-dosed on Starbucks this weekend.

Mmmmmm. What a way to go!!

Even better was the dessert we had that night from Extraordinary Desserts. This place is UNbelieveable. To give you an example of their choices:

Chocolate Bundt cake. And, yes, fresh flowers on everything and even gold leafing!

Lemon bars.

Coffee cake.

Are you drooling yet? I'm about ready to go raid my pantry right now.

Four berry "pies."

My daughter and I ended up sharing -get this- white chocolate macadamia nut cheescake with a macadamia nut shortbread crust paired with salted caramel ice cream.  Did I get a picture of it? No. I was too busy snarfing eating!!!

I'll post more tomorrow. I don't want to wear you out on this one, 'cause there are several adventures to still fill you in on!

Much love,

This and That

Morning, All!!

I'm sitting in Starbucks, waiting for my trailer hitch to be fixed over at the U-Haul place. Not too bad of a waiting room!!

This week has been so crazy busy. But I managed to get the main things accomplished!! I finished the art project with the kids in Brenna's class. Now that was FUN!! It was a great project to do with them. Very simple, straight forward, they learned about a brayer, color, and gluing things down is always fun!!

I'm sorry I don't have pictures of the kids working together, I realized I didn't have their parent's permission to plaster their faces all over the internet, so I didn't think it would be a good idea!

They would each glue down two rows, then cover with freezer paper and roll the brayer over it to get all the bubbles out and make it stick a little more.

Aren't they fun and cheerful? I hope they do well at the auction.

The kids had fun guessing which food each square represented, and picking their favorites!

 I finished them off with two coats of clear gloss spray.

The frames were made by the teacher's husband. Did I mention there was an extra? That I got to keep? That I'm going to do a collage on???

This week, I also finished those crazy domino necklaces. Remember? They began like this:

And ended up like this:

I made them for a friend who chaired a Bonne Merres ("good mother" in french) luncheon. The necklaces went to her team that helped her put on the luncheon. Bonne Merres supports the kids in our regional Foster care system. Each year they hold a "Birthday Luncheon" to raise gifts for EACH of the kids in the system, so that they are remembered and celebrated, even if their life circumstances say otherwise.

This year, they brought in 3,419 gifts. Can you even imagine????

It's a heck of a large region.  I was pretty humbled to pay for a lunch ticket and bring in one gift. These women went to Target and Mattel and other local businesses to get donations in the form of toys and money to buy gifts. I love supporting something like this!

I was pleased at how the necklaces turned out. My friend found little glass cupcake beads that were hung on the end of the domino. A great finishing touch!

Well, no word yet from my friendly local U-haul.

 Like I believed them that they would be finished at the time they quoted me. 

Hope you are all having a great day!

Give Away RESULTS

Homework done. Check.

Dinner made. Check.

Dishes done. Check.

Dogs fed. Check.

Time to get out the cowboy hat, Brenna!!

We get real serious around here for Give Away day.

Ahem. Well, at least it's a family affair!

Drum roll, please.....

Who is it??? Gosh, we are so easily excited around here.

TA-DAAAAH!!!!!!

Yes. The one. The only. Deb ChristeNSEN. (my apologies for the misspelling on the paper) 

Yes. That's correct.

Deb Christensen 

Of 

dyingtobeyours!!!!!

Deb has a wonderful blog,very beautiful art, and she hails from Kodiak, Alaska.

Thank you all, once again, for participating, putting notices on your blogs, and for some of you, becoming my new friends. What a wonderful adventure we are on!

Much love,

Art Project

Morning, All!!!

How's everyone today??

Did I mention how much I love hearing from all of you and then talking back and forth? LOVE IT!!! I should do more give aways!!! (Don't forget to leave a comment here to enter!)

This week I am working on getting an art project ready to do with Miss Brenna's class. Each year, her school has their annual fund raising fair and has a silent auction and then a live auction. Each grade puts in an art project (done with the art teacher) in the live auction. The submissions are lovely works, such as every child from say, the third grade, drawing flowers and then those flowers get decoupaged onto a table. It's quite a feat to get it done. Anywho, I get to work with the Special Ed class! It is a great time to work with these kids. All boundaries are tossed aside. Lots of conversation ensues. We are doing "Recycled Mosaic Kitchen Art." It is a project I found at Lilblueboo's website. I spent most of Friday cutting various cardboard boxes:

I invested in a rotary cutter and mat. How come no one told me about these things??? They are amazing tools!

Box cutters are good, too, but wow. 

So, all in all it took maybe three hours to cut enough squares for the kids to fit them onto three frames.

Did I mention the frames? Well...Brenna's teacher is married to a very talented man who happens to be a carpenter. Instead of having to order cradled gesso board, he made us three of these beautiful frames in a 10x30 size and I coated them with gesso.

Can you say, "Yahoo!"?

It will be fun to see how the kids place all the squares.

Miss Ashley from lilblueboo suggest coating it with Krylon Triple Thick Glaze. Has anyone seen this? Used it? I will have to start looking for it...And then tape off the frame so I don't get spray on it. Any other suggestions for finishing it off other than a spray?

My neck and back have recovered nicely from cutting...

Have a great day!!

A Lesson In Patience

Hi Friends!!
I sure hope this day is finding you well and enjoying what you are doing. It is actually rainy and chilly here in So. Cal. Not something we are used to in April!! But it sure makes for beautiful flowers this year. 

Let's talk dominoes today.

I promised 13 completed domino necklaces to a dear friend as gifts. She asked if they could be drilled from top to bottom. "Oh, of course!" was my naive answer. I just have to ask my neighbor if he has a drill press.

Which he did.

And now I really want one.

Now let's talk about DRILLING dominoes. When I usually drill, I just take my dremmel and make a hole in the top, just through the width of the said domino. It gets very hots and lets off a nasty "tuna fish" smell. Lots of domino dust goes everywhere as well. When I asked my sweet, unsuspecting neighbor if he could drill through the dominoes, his reply was, "Sure! No problem! Come on over!" I thought we would drill away and be done in about 1/2 hour.

HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!

It took two hours to drill six of these babies.

Yes. I did type TWO HOURS.

They aren't your run-of-the-mill Target brand dominoes. They are older, and are much thinner. I was ready to throw in the towel after the first three broke, but my neighbor wasn't going to hear of it.

After that and two broken drill bits, we decided to try drilling the Target brand dominoes. Hoo boy, we were on a roll!! Drilling right through like domino pros.

Not.

More broken drill bits. Slower drilling. Letting the domino cool before more drilling. We would think we were right there and then we would hear, "crrack!" It's like playing a mind game or something. Holding your breath, waiting, drilling, waiting...SNAP! 

Sometimes not. Sometimes we would get one all the way through. We were sure surprised every time we did!!

After a grand total of 3 hours and 45 minutes, I had 13 dominoes drilled through lengthwise.

3 hours.

45 minutes.

I offered to finish sweeping his lawn clippings during this time. He had stopped doing his yard to do dominoes for me!! The least I could do was sweep. "Nah. Don't worry about it." Did I mention we broke all his drill bits? I offered to go buy more. "No you don't" was the reply. Let me help clean up the garage? Nope. I offered to make him coffee during this time, but he can't drink it. Tea? "No thanks!" So, I would run across the street, throw in a load of laundry and come back to see the progress. And then offer to sweep his yard again.

I informed him that he sure has more patience than I do. I would have figured out a different route ten minutes into the project. My neighbor is a man who tells me he prays for patience. I think his prayers were answered. 

Instead of getting to sweep his sidewalk, I made him banana blueberry bread.

I'm hoping it made up for the mess in the garage!!!

Have a great day~

And don't forget to enter the give away!!