Anj, we have been having weather in the 70's this week - you know I hate winter so I am quite happy. The birds are tweeting all over the place. But I have not had time to do much since we are working on my neice's wedding for this Saturday. I am doing her programs so I will be busy tomorrow. I have a sister visiting from up north (for three weeks) and right after she leaves I will be hosting Jill MacFarland at my home for the weekend. At least I will be painting then - can hardly wait!! I really should clean up my paint room though, it is pitiful!! What I really should do is PURGE - I have too much stuff. It scares my kids when they come over - when they make me mad I tell them I am putting them in the will to inherit all my "stuff" - let me tell you, they straighten up fast. I just can't imagine anyone not wanting all my treasures.

Enough blabbering, can't wait to see what you have painted.
B

Hey, sorry, I didn't get a chance to post my pic today. A friend called me and asked if I'd pick up her kid from preschool and watch her for a while this afternoon so I didn't ever get around to it.
Remember how I exercised this morning.....first time in a looooong time. Yeah, it HURTS!! To move, to breath....EVERYWHERE! So I took some tylenol pm and I've got a stack of paint books and I'm going to bed.

Have to go do our taxes in the morning as soon as I drop the kids at school, then I got to go do a little food shopping and errands. Picking up some paint at Lowe's to paint the bathroom ceiling. Putting in a new fan light and it's not the same size as the other one so you can see the markings where the other one was. I'm painting it. Anyway, I'll try to find a few minutes tomorrow to post my project. It's not one I'm real excited to show off or anything so it can wait a little longer. ha Hope you all get to check in. Good to hear from you Bebe! Enjoy having your family and I know you'll have a good time with Jill. We'll look forward to seeing what you paint. TaTa ~Anj

Hi Everyone, thought I'd check in here before I head off to bed.

We've been sorta cool here, but they say we will be up in the high 70's maybe 80's for a couple days this week before more clouds move in. That's okay, we really need to get lots more rain before summer comes, so we won't have water rationing to deal with this summer. I've been going outside with my morning cup of coffee to enjoy the sunshine--but I'm bundled up in my long chenile robe when I do! LOl

Bebe, I'm sure you will all enjoy your neice's wedding, and you and Jill will have lots of fun talking about painting and working on projects.

Anj, I know you won't believe this, but I actually painted a project today! Actually I based the wood in the afternoon, then painted this evening. Just finished it a few minutes ago. I'll seal it and take pictures to post in the morning. Told DH I needed to get busy and paint something as our forum has been a little slow. He said I should "get busy" since I have nothing else to do! LOL

I'm off to check Holidays then head to bed. I'll chat with you all tomorrow.

Luvs

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Again, it sounds like you all are so busy-you make me tired just ready about your exploits!

Hope everything goes well with the wedding Bebe...and looking at your art work I am sure it will!

How I envy you all your good weather...we have snow again over the weekend and it is in the forecast for Thursday, but with the warming (50 degree) temperature and rain it doesn't stick around long. My daffy's are the only thing showing life and for whatever reason I have lost my Morning Doves. They have not been back since Friday. Such beautiful birds!

I have been working on several Valentine project I didn't get done and doing some Easter crafts. But it seems like every time I get started something come up and I'm off doing something else. And now we have found something new....while at my DIL birthday celebration they showed us how to bowl on their Wii....we were hooked! Was going to use our stash of coins, we save our change for special things we want to buy, but the darn kids bought one for us. DH and I exercised this morning! What fun! Not sore yet Anj... and I laughed so hard while playing tennis I couldn't hit the ball at all! I had to give up bowling several years ago and this Wii game is almost as much fun and a lot less painful!

Now I have to do some ironing and wash the living room windows....yuck!

Ya' All Take Care!

Belle

Hey, Belle, I bought a WII for us for Christmas too after playing with my neighbor's. Then DH broke his wrist so we haven't used it much yet. It is fun and I couldn't believe how winded I could get playing it--especially that darn boxing one! LOL

Can't wait to see some of your projects. Don't wait until next Valentine's to post them when you finish. We'd love to see them no matter what the season. I still have Christmas and Halloween projects I'd love to get finished. In my case, it's good if I don't wait until closer to the holiday--then they never get done!

Sorry to hear you are still getting snow. Just remember that in a few months we will all be complaining about the heat. I know last summer we sure had some really hot days, just zaps my energy! I love Spring and Fall when the temps are mild--don't enjoy heat or cold.

Have you seen that new outdoor window washing kit? Guess you just hook it onto your hose. I'm considering it--I usually take off the screens and do it the old fashioned way. Mine really need it now too, but holding off until the rains are over.

We went to our favorite little diner for lunch. I had a corned beef sandwich to celebrate St. Pat's. Hope all of you wear some green and a big smile and enjoy it too! Even if you're not Irish, you can be an honorary one on St. Pat's. ;o)

Luvs

Happy St Paddy's Day to All of You! I thought I posted to this last night but apparently I did something wrong cuz I sure don't see it. I had a client tonight that I just finished up with so thought I'd jump on and see what's new and had a wonderful surprise with to new projects posted.

Thanks Anj and Luvs for sharing your new projects and doing some inspiring. Bebe, I can hardly wait to see some pictures from the wedding so don't forget to let us in on what's going on and what your making.

We finished moving the kids out on Sunday evening and the new home isn't quite finished so I have extras here and that's just fine with me. Like I need more excitement in my life.

I have an early appointment on Thursday morning in Msla so will have to head out at 6-6:30, then plan to pick up our taxes after that. Have a hair appointment back up here at 1:30. Will be helping the kids do some moving into the house every night now after work. It is going to be pretty lonely here when we get them all moved back in but then I should have time to paint.

I played WII for the first time last week end and it was a blast. I didn't get to bowl or play golf yet but I'm wanting to see what the exercises are. How funny that all of you have the WII too. My son always has the latest and greatest when it comes to anything electronic.

We had a bad snow storm this morning and it took a life. Their predicting 4-8 inches by Thurs. but with it being warmer now most days it shouldn't last to long. I am totally ready for Spring except I don't have time in my life for yard work so I guess the weather is waiting on me!!!

Still so thankful for the business staying busy but someday my life will have to slow down or I will have to retire earlier than planned. I had so many waiting in line today and my multi tasking was pretty amusing to some of the clients. Have you ever been on 3 lines and two computers and still have other customers at the same time? Well I have to tell you that I just flunked the multi tasking today because I messed up the conversation with a couple of my customers. I was trying to sell this lady a leather case and she wanted a cigarette lighter adapter for her car and by the end of this conversation the whole place was rolling with laughter as I told her I knew that's what she wanted but since I was so busy why couldn't she just work with me this once. LOL

Maybe I will have to just buy the WII and get to exercising and it will make me feel younger huh? It's almost midnight so gotta hit the hay. Oh whatta week!

Punk

Hi all...I have been going thru my books looking for the perfect project and I found one that struck me up side the head. ha Got my pattern all prepped and ready to start on Friday. More my style. While I enjoy the cutesy bunnies and so do the kids, I really like things a little more prim and this one involves a crow! ha Hope it turns out like I want it to.

Punk~ laughing at your work antics. Hopefully you have some nice customers who will laugh along with you. Hope you have some better spring weather on the way. It's nice here this week, but turning cold and rainy Sun. again.

Glad ya'll are having lots of fun with your wii's. We tried to decide between it and our xbox3 and ended up with the xbox cause our family is all into Halo and I wanted to get Rock Band later. We play wii at our friends house sometimes.

Ya'll have a good night. ~Anj

Well, on top of spring fever I have an actual fever unfortunately. Had my 11 yr old home today sick and now I've apparently got it. Grrr. Feeling bad.

Had to take something over to DH's work today so stopped briefly in the TS. Found a cool picture "painted" on a board. Can't tell if it's painted or printed actually, but I like it except it needs some work. The lines were a little too messy for me so I'm just painting over it, straightening things up and changing the colors a little, doing a little shading here and there, plus it was pretty badly scratched up so fixing all that in the process. So I guess you'd call that a re-paint job. ha I know some of you have posted where you found things at the $1 store and brought them home to repaint. Kinda the same thing. I'll end up painting the whole thing over, I'll just have a very good pattern to follow. ha Anyway, I'm excited to get it done to hang on my wall. Very prim and Americana. I'm only on the border right now so it's gonna take me a while to get thru it, but I'll post a pic when I'm done.
I'm excited to get started on my new project as well. So I have a few in the works. Hope you all can find some time to get a few projects going. This is the time of year that our little group starts to diminish for some reason. ha Not enough holidays to keep people painting and then spring plantings and outside fun begins, but I really hope you'll all stick around with us this year. I'd hate to lose any of you!
I'm gonna make a little bowl of soup and head off to bed. Hope I feel better tomorrow and nobody else gets it. ~Anj

Oh gosh, Anj, sorry you're not feeling good. Kids get exposed to so much at school and unfortunately bring much of it home.

I painted a bit today too. Working on one of the metal cake plates I found at the TS. Doing this first one with a Christmas design. I had found a pattern with the cutest gingerbread and candy pattern, but when I shrunk it to fit the area, it was so small it would not have shown up well. So I found another pattern that is holly and peppermint candies. That part is going well, but I was trying to add some color on some of the sections of the cake cover and am having a problem with getting the edges to all look neat. Plus I'm using red, and red doesn't always give good coverage. Think I will try outlining the area with a gold paint pen--will see how that works.

I have so many patterns that I want to paint now--I get excited just thinking about it. Sure wish I were a faster painter and even more than that--I wish I could make up my mind about what to use for the surface to paint on faster! LOL I lose so much time on those types of decisions. ;o(

Punk, your work story was so funny. Good that you can keep your sense of humor and not let it all stress you out. Glad your kids are getting things moved into their new home. I know you will enjoy having them with you, but imagine it will feel good to get back to your normal rountine soon too.

Like Anj, I hope you and Belle and any others will continue to try to post here during the busy Spring/Summer months. Nice to share these few moments together, and so cool that we are all from different parts of the country, yet we have a common bond in our love of painting. ;o)

Had the motor home smog checked today and the oil changed, so have to get up early to go get it and take it back to the storage area--so I don't want to stay on here too late tonight.

Hope you all have a great day tomorrow.

Luvs

Good Morning!

Anj...hope by now you are better...being sick is yucky!

OUCH! That is what I say every time I move....we played far to many game on our Wii...took the fitness test and I am 79 and DH is 72 - please don't tell our kids..they will take our car keys away! lol

DH had his heart cath and everything is OK...they found that he is having vascular spasms in his left arm and just needs to take his nitro .. So all is well!

Haven't picked up a paint brush in quite a while...just haven't been motivated! Gotta get with the program! Have an outing tonight (yippy...) and then am driving north to help a very good friend with her with her mom's estate sale. DH and I are 1/7 of a group of couples that do benefit dinners together and have a blast doing them. They are all theme dinners that have been auctioned off. We call ourselves Friends 14 and have been doing this for about 15 years. We pay for all of the costs and the auction money goes to the charity. We usually do about 3 dinners per year. All of the couple live in different areas of the state, I think that is why we have remained such great friends....hehe Anyway this gal is one of the group-so we are doing food as well, will post how many pounds I gained this weekend.......well maybe not!

Luvs...I had to giggle when I read about the smog check, I remember those from when we live in Santa Clara. We don't have them here.

Punk...sounds like you live in a "get 'er done NOW" world....glad it's you and not me, I can talk and walk at the same time anymore!

Well...gotta find somethings to make for tomorrow so I'd better get busy.

Ya'All have a great weekend!

Belle

PS....requested a "trade" area, noticed the "exchange" line next to the gallery and conv. but nothing happens when I click on it.....

Belle, go back over to Exchanges. Tamara (forum administrator) did a test post, and I've responded to it, so it is working. This was a good idea, I'll have to start looking through my stash of stuff and see if I have things to share.

Anj, do you feel better today? Sure hope so. I'm looking forward to seeing your next project. Isn't it funny how we can look through our books and suddenly see something that we really wanted to do but forgot about? That happens to me all the time if I don't keep the book out and open to the page.

I didn't even touch my cake plate cover today. Just needed some time away from it I think. Hate it when things don't come out the way I want them to! I'll get back in there in a few minutes and work at it some more. If I still don't like it, I can always give it away or donate it back to the TS, right? LOL

Punk, hope today wasn't quite so crazy for you. Those days are okay once in awhile, but too much stress on you if you get too many in a row!

You all take care, I'll be back tomorrow.

Luvs

Hi everyone. Whatever I had it was short-lived so I'm thankful for that. Felt fine yesterday. Did some yard work.

I'm almost done with one project. Having a little problem with shading the wings on my birds, I've redone them several times. Grrrr. Supposed to be using comma strokes with a certain brush, but I'm just not getting it right. Have a whole sheet of practice ones I've done with different brushes, but not satisfied. And getting the paint to the consistancy I need is frustrating me too. I have one bird done and 4 to go. May take me all afternoon. ha First time using chalk to transfer the details marks onto my project and I'm loving it!! I'll definitely be using it again. So easy to brush off or paint over as I've had to do multiple times. I'll try to finish up to post today. Will work on my repaint today too I think.

Hope you all have a very special Sunday. ~Anj

Good Morning,

We worked all day yesterday on the house. It was a long and tiring one so don't know if we're going back today. I need to do some cleaning and DD has the flu today so we are enjoying little GD.

Anj, hope your feeling better. What brought on your fever, honey? Doesn't sound like just the flu. Hope you get over that and back to painting. You do great on remakes so looking forward to your picture you found.

Belle, your themed dinners that you and your friends put on sound like such a wonderful thing. How do you decide who and where to travel and put on together for? Hope your friend is doing better and hers turns out well.

What did you have in mind with the exchange? Sounds like a fun thing. I have a few duplicates on my books so is this something I could put on there to trade? Let me know what you had in mind.

Luvs, I hope your cake pan starts turning out the way you want it to. I'm sure it's beautiful, your just being tooooo picky. haha

I want to paint and just don't have time in my life right now. I've been painting on a project here and there so maybe soon I'll have something to share. I have several projects I want to paint so maybe one of these weekends I'll be able to paint up a storm. LOL I sure enjoy having all of your projects to come and look at.

It was in the 50's here yesterday so it won't be long before we'll be out in the yard and won't have much painting time inside.

Thanks everyone for keeping this going and I'll try to do my part posting a picture soon.

Punk

Good Morning!

Luvs and Anj....isn't painting fun! Ya' Right! Often times when I am stuck getting something just right I go back a step or two and redo from there, most of the time I created my problem back there and it just caught up with me. Anj isn't chalk fun! I use white and colored all the time and have found that after chalking the back of a pattern I wipe off the excess and get a much cleaner line.

Luvs...thanks for the headup on the Exchange page, I tried it out and as you suggested posted some suggestions. Now I need to bring out some of those books I don't use and take pictures!

Punk, the Estate Sale was awful but in a good way. Hundreds of people. The house is located on the road to the ferry run to Seattle and the ferry runs every hour so we caught them coming and going. I did manage to snag a vintage Singer sewing machine case and a fantastic old pole lamp with a marble and gold base. Need to be rewired but that's no biggy! Also added several beautiful serving dishes. The dear lady lived in her home for 63 years and as her DD said.."I don't think Mom every threw away anything" I don't think so either!

We all had a laughing good time when two gals around 30ish came in and were thrilled to find some of the old swag lamps from the 60's. They stock piled so much stuff they had to come back twice to get it all home. The one gal is redoing her home in real 60's style furnishings and our sale was a gold mine. So funny!

Well I have missed a couple of days worth of house work and am so tired even before I begin. Hubby actually offered to give me a hot oil back rub and silly me turned him down. I just knew I would go to sleep and good guy that he is he would let me sleep forever!

Have a Good one!

Belle

Good to hear from all three of you. Having a nice rain this morning and now the sun is peeking out. My roses that I cut back all have new leaves and are looking so fresh and healthy. Just love this time of the year.

Anj, so glad your fever passed quickly. Can't wait to see your little birds. I think they are so cute, right up at the top of my list along with cute bunnies! ;o)

Belle, isn't Tamara great? She has always been so helpful to us. Will have to see if I have anything to post, I've already been exchanging books and such with a friend, but might have some duplicates or other crafting supplies I need to clear out.

Punk, you are such a busy lady lately--don't know how you are going to add yard work to your list! Guess we make time when we have to, don't we.

Belle, I'm glad the sale went so well. Hope to see some pics on the holiday forum of your new serving pieces. That sure was a lucky find for the gal needing items from the 60's wasn't it?

I did a little touch up on my cake cover yesterday and will get it sealed today so I can take pics. It's not as perfect as I might like, but think it will do. Will have to remember that red requires lots of coats before it really covers well! I really wish I could have used the gingerbread pattern, but this one is okay. You'll have to forgive me for being off season, but since this one was the lightest weight, I'd thought it would be good to use during the holidays. The heavier one will have some roses on it I think.

Well, little GD will be over today, so I'd better get a few things done. When she is here, she gets our undivided attention pretty much! ;o)

Have a great day.

Luvs