Thursday

The smoke and smell from the Jackson fire really got to us yesterday.  It's still here, but maybe not as strong.  Come on snow!

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Kasey is home sick today.  New school, new kids, new germs.  She is watching cartoons on the couch with her mom.

 

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It was a good day for eBay shopping today.  Several persons in my art group are wanting a set of Intense pencils (water soluble pencils).  They are $34 in the art supply catalog.  I got three sets for $20 each today on eBay.  Not bad bargain hunting!

Here  is something I don't see very often - a squeaky clean palette.  It had a bath and thorough scrubbinb yesterday.

And now I'm setting up the tubes of paint to put on the palette.  These are the Daniel Smith watercolors I like so much.

Wednesday

Another sky painting I did in art group this morning.  I got a little carried away with some of the darks.  I'm going to watch the inspirational demonstrations on painting skies again today.  It puts me in the mood.

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Had a nice bunch at art group this morning.  Judi is gone, but Vicky is back from her cruise to Alaska, and I forgot to mention last week that Pam is back. 

 

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Kasey is excited to start her dance lessons again.  She started yesterday after school.  Can't wait to see the costumes they'll wear for the recital this year.

 

 

An old student of mine who lives in Alaska now posted this humorous picture.

 



Tuesday

Remembering 9-11 and the shock of what happened.

 

 

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A funky sky!  Finished this yesterday.  When I went through my files of reference photos, I pulled out of few more pictures of skies, so will be trying some more.

 

 

Monday

Partly cloudy and a little windy today.  There might be rain.

I hope Jackson area gets a good soaking to help put out the fire.  Pretty scary to have a fire so close that they are preparing to evacuate the east side of town.

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I got the pile of paper off the floor into a large garbage bag.  Was proud of myself.  I only saved 4 photos out and put them back in the reference files.  That's will power

 

 

I don't have any new pictures, so looked through my files on my computer to see if there was anything of interest. I took this osprey photo at Fremont Lake a couple of years ago. 

 

 

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Love this picture!

 





Saturday

Looks like our flowers have some time left to live before they freeze.  Perfect weather!

I'm supposed to be painting a sky, but instead, I got into my reference files and started pitching things out.  At one time I had a foolish notion that I was going to paint roses.  Didn't happen, and not going to happen.  And I found I had duplicates of many things.  Out with them!  I'm getting so I really enjoy throwing things away!

I love this photo of my nephew, Ryan, and his new bride Amanda. (Great nephew, actually.)  They live in Bentonville, Arkansas.  Amanda's feet must have hurt, as Ryan is carrying her shoes.

Thursday

I have been shopping for a long time this morning, and finally found what I think I want.  I just ordered an oil filled radiator heater.  I have given up getting my gas log stove upstairs fixed.  All Tech was here three times last winter to fix it, and it was never fixed.  Due to personal reasons, I won't call Bridger Mechanical.  But the last time I did call them, they had a message on their answering machine that they were taking no new work orders for three months.

Maybe I'll get it fixed sometime in the future, but for now, I ordered this heater.  Barrie uses one similar to this in their bedroom.

 

Just got a new propane delivery yesterday, and there was a $7.34 fuel recovery fee, and a $9.59 haz mat fee.  Good Grief!!  If only we could depend on our power, electric heat is looking better and better.

 

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The longer I work on trying to clean out closets and dresser drawers, the more hopeless it seems.  Who the heck put all that junk in there?



Wednesday

When Kasey got home yesterday afternoon, I asked her where she'd been all day. She declared "Kindergarten!" with a big smile. "I bet you hated that," I said. She looked at me like I was nuts and said, "Grandma, that's not funny!" Oooohkay.

My friend Judi knows how much I enjoy Calvin cartoons.  She brought me this book from the Food Basket.  Thanks, Judi!

 

 

I've hardly touched my watercolors in weeks, and today I wanted to paint a moody sky.  This is what I came up with.  Not quite what I wanted, and my alizarin crimson paint seems to have little granuals in it that leaves ugly marks on the paper.   I always have an excuse, don't I?

 

 

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Yesterday I shared a useless piece of information on the number of voters in New Jersey with tattoos.  Today I found a new study being done in Britain.

"Purple is the most amorous color, according to a new study which found that people who decorate their bedrooms in the color have the most active sex lives.

The survey of 2,000 British adults by a retailer found that those with purple bedding or furniture had 3.49 "intimate encounters" per week. lThe least active color scheme in the survey was grey."

So, what color are your sheets?

 

Tuesday

I just got home from Rendezvous Pointe, where we hung the artwork for the silent auction, which starts tomorrow (in conjunction with the Blood Draw). We don't have as many participating artists as in the past, but we ended up with a nice display.  I have twelve pieces up.

Kasey started her first day of Kindergarten today.  I got downstairs about 2 minutes after she had gone to the pickup, so didn't take her picture.  Barrie took some, though.  Of course, she wore her favorite rodeo shirt and her cowboy boots.  That backpack is loaded!

 

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Another earth shaking poll!:

 

"Nearly 20 percent of New Jersey's registered voters have at least one tattoo, a new poll conducted by Rutgers University ahead of the final season of MTV's "Jersey Shore" finds."

Boy, am I glad to hear that!



Sunday

After sitting in their camper two days because of rain, Paul and Tracy decided to head back to Colorado today.  The rain isn't what really drove them off, but it gave them too much time to think about all the things they  had to do when they got home.

When she called this morning, I told her to just leave my tent and our chairs there.  Barrie and Kasey might decide to go up and use the site.

Even though Paul didn't catch any fish, they enjoyed themselves.  They always love spending time at Fremont.

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Kasey just yelled upstairs to me that it's two more days until Kindergarten.  She said it used to be three, and now it's two.  Somehow, I don't think she's going to be one of those kids to clings to Mom's legs the first day of school.

 



Saturday

I didn't go to to the lake yesterday.  It was so nice in the morning, then it started to rain. 

Paul and Tracy planned on getting the boat out Sunday, and they have changed their mind and are taking it out of the lake today.  Barrie and Kasey just left with my pickup.  They want to use my truck to pull it out, because the water almost flooded their camper when they put it in - came up to within an inch of the camper door before the boat would float off the trailer.

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Has anyone told the wolves yet that they better hightail it back to Yellowstone as soon as they can?  I actually feel badly for the wolves.  They are just doing what is natural for them.  Man should never have interfered and brought them back to a  time and place where they couldn't fit in any more.

 

The chokecherry bush is finally starting to look a little bare, but there are still lots of berries left, and lots of birds.