Wednesday

Rendezvous Pointe had a delicious lunch today - barbequed chicken, potato salad, and cole slaw.  I think I'm ready for a nap now.  I can remember  my grandfather stetching out on the hard floor and having a short nap after every meal. 

 

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There were a lot of people in costume today - I was boring, just went as myself.

 



KC as Barbie.  As far as I know, she doesn't even have a Barbie.  She had one once that was left in the pickup, and she still thinks Newton Marshall took it back to Alaska when Lance Mackey borrowed Barrie's truck a couple years ago.  When she saw Newton at the starting line of the Iditarod, she thought he probably had her Barbie with him!

Tuesday

What happened?  I thought I was going through photo albums and scanning picures.  Today I am printing more pictures!

Some 4" x 6' photo paper came into the Food Basket, and Judi brought it to me.  Who can figure, but I just happen to have a little 4" x 6" photo printer stashed away in the bottom of the printer stand downstairs.  So now instead of turning old photos into digital form, I am printing digital photos on paper.

 

I knew it would need a new ink cartridge, but just happened have one in a desk drawer.
The only problem is, it won't accept my SD memory cards, but it will accept the Compact Disk card.

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I found a very cheap Chinese Brush Painting gift set on eBay.  It was brand new, and I don't think it was cheap in its former life.  So I now have better brushes and paper.  One of the things included was a little thing called  "Slate Practice Paper".  It's a wonderful invention.  You practice your strokes on it with clear water, and within a few minutes, the strokes disappear and you can keep practicing.

 

 

 

I don't know why this should suprise me.  I used to do the same thing with kindergartners.  I bought some of those small foam paint brushes, gave them water, and let them practice letters, numbers, and stuff on the chalkboard.





Monday

Same old, same old.  Barrie's at work, Kasey's in school, and I'm reading, drawing, painting, and watching a movie. 

I will NEVER get all the photos from the albums scanned, and I'm not sure I want to.  But I am picking out some to scan.

The only camera I had when Tracy was little was a Kodak Instamatic, and when Barrie was growing up, I had a good 35MM SLR.  So it seems I have more pictures of Barrie.

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 Kasey loves her dance classes so much.  Barrie took dance when she was little, too, and loved it. Here she is being attentive and doing the right thing at the right time.

And then . . . . .

 

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This is a photo of Barrie's kindergarten class.  Barrie is bottom row, far left, in the red shirt.  Next is Shara, my friend Judi's daughter.  I did write most of the names of these kids on the back, but waited too many years to do it, so I don't remember them all.

Sunday

 

Been there, done that!

 

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Just reading today.  I am going to take a break pretty soon and start a new watercolor and also a new buffalo drawing, this time in graphite pencil.

 



Saturday

I dug through my art bag this morning and found my drivers license.  That bag is not a good place to lose small items.

 

I finished this colored pencil drawing of a buffalo this morning.  Wrong choice of paper color.  The paper is too dark. I need to darken the horn,  The paper has taken about as many layers of colored pencil as it's going to.

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The cat is on a tear this morning.  She is running - just back and forth as fast as she can go.  She gave a jump up her cat tree to climb it, and fell off.

 

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Is this bamboo?  Come on now, use your imagination.  I may have to give in and buy some different paper.  I've had this pad of paper about 25 years, I think.  It's supposed to be for Sumi painting, but I don't like it.

 





Thursday

It got down to about 12 degrees last night.  I am enjoying the sweaters I dug out of the downstairs closet.  Not sure my electric heater is going to keep me very warm this winter.  Sure wish my gas stove worked.

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Cashed some checks yesterday.  I had taken my drivers license out of my billfold, and when I got home, I had money, but no billfold or drivers license.  Kasey brought me up my billfold last night, it was in the back seat of the truck.  Now if Barrie can just find my drivers license!

 

 

Someone posted this drawing on Facebook.  How many faces can you find?  The person who posted it said she found three.  I can find nine.

 

 

I tried something different with my little scanner.  I scanned the case of the movie I watched last night.  I didn't know if it would scan something that wasn't flat on the table.  Worked great!

 

 





Wednesday

I took my little "wand" scanner to art group this moring.

I made Judi let me scan her little colorful moose even before she had it finished.

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Then I scanned two pages from the catalog for the 2010 Buffalo Bill Museam art sale.  The buffalo is a beautiful painting.  And the bucking horse appeals to me.  I wonder if something like this would bee a good subject for one of the coffee background drawings.  I might try it.

 



The parking lots at Rendezvouse Point were SO icy this morning.  I hung onto the door handles and mirror of my truck to get to the sidewalk.  I heard three different people say they slipped and fell this morning.  Not good for a senior center!!

We're sad that Pam is leaving us again to go back to Pennsylvania.  She was cleaning out her art supplies and brought a lot of things to leave.

Tuesday

Barrie received the modified visitation schedule from the court today.  Judge Tyler certainly came through for Barrie and Kasey.  Happy Day!

I watched the movie "Runaway Jury" last night.  I'm sure I have seen the movie before, and I've also read Grishom's book.  I thought the book was about a tobacco company, but the movie was about a firearms manufacturer.  Confused!  I thought maybe I had read a different Grishom book.  I Googled it afterward, and found the book really was about a lawsuit against a tobacco company.  I guess they thought it would make a better movie to substitute firearms for tobacco, and maybe they were right.  It is a good movie with excellent actors. 

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For all my artist friends!

Monday

This morning I decided to try out the "stitching" feature of the new little scanner.  I set it to stitch mode and made two passes on a page of my big Rand McNally Road Atlas.  Then opened the images in "Page Manager", a program I installed yesterday.  Couldn't have been simpler.  Here is what I got with two images of the Texas map merged.

 

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 This guy was busy with my fence this morning.  I don't know what kind of woodpecker he his.  He moved constantly, so it was hard to get a good picture of him.  I'm not fast enough, and neither is my camera.

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Tried painting some bamboo again this morning.  I suppose I could practice bamboo all winter.  I really don't like the paper I'm trying to use.  Somewhere I read to use old newspaper for practice.

 



Sunday

Rain!  Nice.

Last night I was ready to box up and return the little scanner. It seemed to be scanning, but when I hooked it up to the USB cable, the computer didn't recognize it.  I guess maybe the computer, scanner, or both, needed a good night's sleep, because this  morning it worked perfectly again! So I got out the box of old photos and scanned a few more.

Ain't he sweet?  Boomer was a cute puppy.

I can still remember this day!  It was the first time the older kids let me play Monopoly with them.   My cousin Donna, my brother Doug.  I have the sewing machine in this picture.  It's my Grandma's old Singer treadle machine.

New Toy

Everyone should have one of these!  It is a little hand held scanner.  I had a hand held scanner years ago, it was clunky and awkward to use, and didn't produce very good scans.  I have only scanned one picture with this, and it worked great. 

 

This is the photo I scanned - yes, another picture of Boomer, with his favorite kitten. It was from an black and white 8" x 10" print.

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Friday

I watched the movie "Ocean's Eleven" last night.  Not the remake, but the old one with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin.  So much smoking!!  Everyone had a cigarette at all times, it seemed like.  I read later that Sammy Davis Jr. died of throat cancer at age 64.  And Dean Martin had lung cancer.

Vegas looked like it did the first time I was there.  I think we stayed at the Sands.  We went to the Dean Martin show, and it was great.  He held the door for me when we left, and he was shorter than I thought he was.

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The Chinese brush painting I experimented with yesterday was a flop.  Besides the fact I don't know what I'm doing, I think the paper I have is too cheap and of poor quality.  Or maybe it's just me.

 

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And if you're wanting something different for desert tonight, here is an article on "How to Make Fried Ice Cream."

 

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Fried-Ice-Cream

Thursday

 

I thought I would try to upload this video of Kasey on my iPad again.  I left it to upload, did some laundry, cut up stuff for shishkabobs, and painted two skies in watercolor.  It was at least two hours later that I noticed it was here.

Anyway, how would you like to go on a trip with a kid in the back seat with one of these?

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I watched the movie Connagher last night.  I wonder if Sam Elliot's wonderful voice is totally natural, or if he works at it.  Love this quote:  "If you take a man's money, you ride for the brand."

 

I dug around in the basement and found my old pad of rice paper, and want to play around a little bit with Chinese brush painting.  My friend Charm does beautiful work, but I'll be happy if I can just produce some bamboo shoots with black ink.

 

 

 



Wednesday

Nice group for art at Rendezvous Pointe today.  And Vicky brought both a pie and cookies.  Then I stayed for lunch of turkey pasta salad.  I shouldn't have to eat again for two days!

 

This is all I did this morning, practiced with the large 2 1/2 inch Hake brush using just one color.  Along with eating, drinking coffee and visiting.

 

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Well, I just spent an hour trying up upload a video.  Kasey hung out with me yesterday while Barrie went to the parent teacher conference, and she played with my iPad.  The kids' programs would drive a person nuts . . . so noisy.  Anyway, I filmed her using the iPad.  Not very interesting, and a very short video, but Blogger is not in the mood for videos today.

 

Tuesday

It rained last night and is still drizzling.  Maybe i t will turn into snow, I hope.  The forecast says the wind is going to blow hard.

Kat caught another mouse the other day.  She left it on the bathroom floor for me.  What a nice "good morning" greeting!  She was playing with something this morning, and when I looked to see what it was, she had a huge black spider.  I took another look, and it is plastic.  Kat likes to look through Kasey's things and bring small items up here to play with.

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Someone had this token listed on EBay not too long ago.  I wonder how old it is. I never heard of Mort Williams, and I don't even know when the Derby was built and if it used to be something other than a bar/supper club.  It's just a burned out shell now.

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Barrie has a parent teacher conference.  First time kindergarten parent at her first conference.  I've seen so many of these in my time.  She knows Kasey is doing great in school, but she's bound to be just a little apprehensive.

 



Sunday

Another sunny day.  Forecast says the wind will blow.

 

Here are some samples of Zentangles.  No, I did not do these and probably never will.  But they are sure interesting.  This must be how they design tattoos.

 

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I'm actually watching a little TV today.  I'm working on a colored pencil buffalo drawing, and watching the cooking show on QVC. 

 

I finished one of the slippers I am knitting.  I need to finish sewing the seam, then will start on another one.

 

 





I see a nice sized pumpkin is in the basement, so Barrie and Kasey are ready to carve a jack-o-lantern.  Kasey doesn't know yet what she will be for Halloween.

Saturday

 

I just finished reading this book, by Katie Neely Meadows.  It's about growing up in Pinedale, and it was a great book.  I taught Katie in kindergarten.  Wonder if I had any thing to do with this?

I think my favorite thing in the whole book was her telling about when she got old enough to ride her bike to the park by herself.  She wrote ----

"Watch out for moose", Mom and Dad cautioned.  Not "Don't talk to strangers."

What a wonderful memory of Pinedale - the days when we worried more about our kids meeting up with an angry moose than being lured into a car by a stranger.

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I Googled "Zentangle" today after our discussion about it.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered I have "tangled" for years.   It was just something I did in the margins of a notebook while sitting through boring inservice meetings, faculty meetings, and committee meetings.  I thought I was just doodling.  Now I guess it's considered an art form.  I should have saved those old notebooks.

 

Friday

Yesterday was a great day.  Barrie went to court and Kasey's visitation schedule has been changed.  No more middle of the week visitations.  It will be so much better for Kasey, especially now that she is in school, to come home every night.  (Not to mention better for Barrie)  Kasey will still be with her Dad every other weekend, but at least her school week will be a lot less chaotic.

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Kasey and I made taco salad last night.  I got some little fluted baking pans to make tortilla bowls.

Kasey chose an ice cream scoop to get the tomatoes in the bowl.  I made her look through the myriad of mixes I have to find one that said "Taco Seasoning".  She sorted through all the little envelopes until she found one, then stirred it into the hamburger.

Yum!  She ate all her salad and ate most of her bowl.  (So did Barrie and I)  Kasey thought it was pretty neat to eat the bowl.

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I got curious about the "zentangle" we were discussing in art group the other day.  I'd love to try one.

 



Thursday

 

Here is the drawing of Grandpa Hardy that I gave Barbara Boyce.  Judi photographed it and sent me the picture.  Thanks Judi!  As this one was still in my sketchbook, I know there is another one out there somewhere that I gave to the family.  Don't know who ended up with it.

 

 

 



Another photo Judi sent me.  These are two of the Majhanovich boys and the wolves they shot while elk hunting near here.  Wow, look at the size of  those things!

If it weren't for Judi, my blog would be a blank page today!

Wednesday

Both Hugh and Nancy are leaving for the winter.  They  promise to return in the spring. 

And Pam has to go back to Pennsylvania for her husband's job.  He has already found an apartment for them and is buying furniture.  I don't know when Rollie and Judi plan to go south for the winter.  They probably haven't decided yet.

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I took two new palettes, some Inktense pencils, some erasers, and a watercolor paper pad for our supply cabinet this morning.  The pencils and the pad are already gone.  More shopping to do!

 

I got a VHS tape and a DVD on EBay on watercolor techniques by Ron Ranson.  The DVD is great, but it hangs up about 3/4 of the way through.  I tried cleaning it once, but it didn't change things.  And the VCR tape turned out to be a BETA.  I e-mailed the guy who sent the tape, and he apologized and has already refunded my money.  He hadn't realized what he was selling me, and told me to just throw it away.   

 

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A while back, I took an old sketch book to art group.  (a really old one).  There was a picture in it that I had drawn of Grandpa Hardy.  Judi found Barbara Boyce out in the big room and sent her in to see me.  I tore the drawing out of the book and gave it to her.  Today she came in to show me she had it framed and is going to hang it at her house.  Nice!

 

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Four Years Ago

 

 



This is how Kat started out.  This was taken several days after Barrie found her abandoned in our front yard, and dashed to the clinic to get a kitten bottle and formula.  She was NEVER a happy cat, I guess.  Well, she seems contented now, but never will be very friendly.

 

 



Tuesday

 

This is part of the vine that grows up the south side of my house. I got seeds from my Mom years ago.  I think she called it "woodbine."  There is also some growing on the cinderblock retaining wall in our front yard.  It is different from hops, which dies back every year.  This vine leafs out all tlhe way up, although there are some dead parts in it.  Birds like to nest in it.

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In my ongoing efforts to clean and declutter this house, I pulled sixteen sweaters out of mydownstairs bedroom closet.  At least half of them are hand knit.  I better wash them all - I'm sure they smell of cigarette smoke.

 

I'd like to get my hands on that person who stuffed all that stuff in that closet!

 



Yesterday my horoscope said I was the smartest person in the room.  Well, as I was home alone and Kat was the only one in the room with me, I guess that makes my horoscope accurate.

The movie "Annie" is now thirty years old, and I read an article about it the other day.  Ailleen Quinn played the part of Annie, and I was disappointed to read that she wore a wig.  Well, I should have known that, but it kind of burst my bubble.  There were 8,000 little girls who auditioned for the part of an orphan in the movie.  She acted mostly in the theater for a while, then went back to college to get her degree.  She still acts, both in films and on Broadway, and  is the lead singer of an L.A. based Rockabilly band, “The Leapin' Lizards”.

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Just Do It!

I am really tired of  looking at this oil painting.  This morning seemed like a good day to work on it (and the other two unfinished ones.)  I'm still not happy with her face, but made some progress. 

 

 

How the heck do you sign an oil painting?  I think I better work on that.

 

 

 



Saturday

Brr!  I'm sure many of you remember Dr. Renow.  That was their license plate number - BRR, for Burt and Ruth Renow. 

I might leave my heater on all night tonight, set on low.  I'm a pansy.  64 degrees felt just a little chilly to me this morning.

 

Just learned that Sweetness was voted Tie Down Roping Horse of the year for the third time.  Sweetness belongs to a woman who grew up at Shoshoni, close neighbor of my brother.  In this photo, he is being ridden by Clint Cooper, who has made it to the National Finals for several years, roping off Sweetness.  Congratulations to Karen, Clint, and Sweetness! 

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My enthusiasm for drawing with colored pencils have already diminished.  I am trying to do the head of a buffalo bull, and am not getting the texture of the hair right.  Hope I get it figured out.

 

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I watched NBC Dateline last night.  It was the story of a woman in Silverthorne, CO, who was murdered.  Tracy was the media liaison for the trial of her husband, who was found guilty.

 

Thursday

It got pretty cold last night, down in the teens, I think.  I left my new radiator heater set on low all night.  I woke up about 6:00 and it was 73 degrees up here.  That's too hot for sleeping.  Last winter, I turned my heat off when I went to bed.  I think the downstairs thermostat was set to around 66.  It was chilly  upstairs when I got up, but more comfortable for sleeping.

The silent auction at Rendezous Pointe is over, and I sold eleven pieces.  Made me pretty happy.  The piece that seemed to get the most bids (and the highest price) was a colored pencil drawing of a cottontail rabbit.  I did it several years ago, and I guess it improved with age!  So, of course, that got me enthused about colored pencils again and I have started a new one of a buffalo. 

Judi took a picture of the crocheted tablecloth that I took to PJ yesterday.  She will be the third person to work on it, and It's so close to being finished, I'm sure she will do it.  And she has a round table for it.

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It took me a minute to get this one.

 





Wednesday

Had a nice sized bunch at art group today.  I took an old sketch book and drew a little bit. 

I took an old crocheted tablecloth in to PJ.  It was one my aunt had started years ago.  She gave it to me to finish and I got it to the very last stages before I quit.  It's a round tablecloth, and I don't even have a round table.  I thought the fabric guild might like it, but I think PJ has grabbed it.  She has a round table.  She was excited about finishing it.  Yea! 

When we left art group, Conley had the big mat cutter down getting ready to practice cutting some mats.

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I will definitely be listening to my iPod tonight, NOT the presidential debate.  It will be bad enough reading about it tomorrow.

 

 

Tuesday

I sure like the little oil filled electric radiator I got for my upstairs room.  It is starting to be a little chilly in the mornings, so I have been turning it on for a while.  Of course the sun does a large part of heating my studio room.  The heater has a clock/timer system.  I can set it to turn on at a certain time every morning.  But if the power blinks, you lose your settings, so why bother?

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I got my "upstairs yarn" bagged up for the Food Basket.  Now I have to sort through the yarn I've got downstairs. 

 

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I finished the pencil drawing of Boomer, our famous St Bernard today. Well, I'm not sure he was famous, but he was notorious.  He scared people to death, but as far as I know, he never really bit anybody, just left tooth marks on their shoes and small holes in the sleeves of their coats.

One day I left the house, and was driving out of town to the west when Jim Reynolds chased me down and told me Boomer was running down Main Street after my pickup.  I went back and saw a red pickup pull out on Main Street with Boomer in the back.  Chris Meiring pulled up behind me and gave the the license plate number of the truck.  She had seen Boomer jump in.  I didn't see the truck around town, so I went to the courthouse and got the name of the owner.  Meanwhile, poor Louie Collar had tried to stop his truck and get Boomer out.  Boomer snarled and barked and wouldn't let Louie near his own truck, so Louie went in the old Delgado Oil office and some of the girls came out.

Boomer liked women better than he did men, and one of the women was able to read his license number.  So while I was calling Louie's house, he was calling mine.  Tracy was home, and came down to Delgado's to get him.

And now I will bore you with a couple of Boomer photographs:

Boomer and his favorite kitten.  I call this picture "The Bodyguard."

 

Boomer never did figure out that he wasn't a lap dog.

 

Boomer and Barrie ready for breakfast.  Yes, we fed him at the table.  It was very entertaining, and he had good manners.  He had a plastic margarine container that he would hold in his mouth, waiting for a bite.  It we didn't put anything in it, he would fling it up on the table and push it towards us

Monday

Wow!  The Broncos really did some whopping yesterday.  Looks like Peyton Manning is doing great!

 

Tracy and Paul were at the game yesterday at Mile High. Tracy called while they were on the road.  When they got there, Paul took a picture of her in the stadium.

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Another warm, sunny day.  Is the weather ever going to change?