Taking Chances

Found lottery tickets torn up into bits in the trash. Goin' out on a limb here, but I'm guessin' this means we didn't win.

The Friday Five

It was a very busy week with all the graduation hoopla. Five things that have come to an end:

1. The Young One is edumucated with highest honors. She also was awarded a scholarship which was a lovely surprise to all of us during the graduation assembly.

2. No more driving up the kidney buster, washboard of a street to the second highest hill in the city! If I ever win a lottery, I shall have the road paved properly. 

3. No more fund raisers! No more magazines or candy to buy. Though I will miss the candy as it came from the Hebert Candy Mansion and is a most excellent chocolate.

4. The Young One can wear any color shoes she wants to, not just black.

5. No more laundering uniforms and trying to remove graphite from the cuffs of the white Senior cardigan. Black should be the new white for the Senior sweater.

Has a chapter ended for you?

More Time

I have an incredibly busy week coming up. This is Graduation Week for The Young One. Rehearsals at the church for the Baccalaureate Mass Tues. evening. A final graduation rehearsal. The Senior breakfast and graduation assembly with the entire school. The assembly is where school scholarships are awarded. Graduation  is Thurs. evening at the convention center. In between I have to get some pictures of The Young One in her white cap and gown with her gold National Honor Society hood and gold tassel. (Shameless bragging!) and I have to prepare for my class on Wed. night. My dragon piece should be ready to be picked up from the framer. And then there are the routine household chores like doing the laundry, cooking, and cleaning.

So what did I do? I wished I had more time. And then I thought, does anyone wish they had less time? Duh! I also found myself with my journal doing a page because procrastinating is way more fun than housework. The background was done using a white plastic eraser and a Colorbox rainbow stamp pad. This idea came from the Alphabeas Calligraphy Guild March meeting. From the guild photos, it looked like erasers were painted and then stamped on paper for a colorful background. Too lazy to get out my watercolors, I decided to use the stamp pad and then I could rubber stamp the illustrations. The hand used is based on Palm's Graffiti used to write on the Palm PDA. I always thought this would be fun to do with a pointed pen and ink.

What's on your to do list this week and how do you procrastinate?

The Friday Five

This week the end of an era has started as The Young One participates in the hoopla countdown toward her high school graduation. Five things I have done for the last time this week:

1. Applauded the band and chorus at the Spring concert.

2. Bought a rose and raffle tickets to support the high school music program. I didn't win the Bose Wave Music System.

3. Baked for a school school function.

4. Up at 4:30am to see The Young One off to the Great East Music Festival competition and band/chorus end of year trip. Her high school is always the first to perform. The kids have to be at the high school at 5:30 am and the bus leaves at 6am.

5. Saturday night, we'll pick The Young One up from the trip. (This year, they are going to New York to see The Lion King performed on stage. ) Hopefully, the bus will arrive on time at 11 pm and we won't have to wait in the school parking lot an hour and a half as we have done the past couple of years.

I'm going back to bed. What have you done for the last time this week?

Wed Letter Day

In honor of Himself's favorite team, the "B" from the Boston Red Sox. (Even though they're killing him lately.)

Do you have a favorite team monogram?

Window Meme

Saw the view from Bev's window and thought I'd play along. Here's the view from my living room window. The snowball bushes below the window are starting to bloom. I haven't killed the pansies, yet. The clematis is blooming and The Brother and SIL gave me a geranium for Mother's Day. Haven't killed that yet, either. Looks like the lawn needs to be mowed, again.

If you want to play along, what's the view from your window?

The Friday Five

I've been tagged by Julie. The rules are easy answer the five questions with five answers each.

1. Where you five years ago?

a. Sitting in the same chair in front of an older model computer
b. Shuttling the girls
c. Driving a one year old Ford Taurus wagon
d. Received an honorable mention in The Graceful Envelope Contest
e. Attended Legacies 2005, the international calligraphy conference. Met Nutterone who showed me around Dallas and celebrated my 50th birthday with Coldstone ice cream at the Grapevine Mall.

2. Where would you like to be in five years?

a. Sitting in the same chair in front of a brand new, wicked fast computer
b. Still working at my art
c. In a clean studio
d. Where we don't have to fight the water from heavy rains
e. Still enjoying the sun room

3. What's on your to-do list today?

a. Hoping the side effects from the D-TAP vaccine are over and I feel better. Next time, I'll just take the chance of not contracting lockjaw and skip the tetanus vaccine
b. Planning a family gathering to celebrate The Young One's graduation from high school
c. Working on invitations for the above event.
d. schedule appointments
e. Sleeping late and/or taking a nap

4. What snacks do you enjoy?

a. Chocolate, especially Hershey Kisses and M&Ms
b. cookies
c. cake
d. fresh, baked bread
e. pretzels

5. Five things you would do if you were a billionaire?

a. Go back to school to study medicine
b. Start a company that would come up with renewable, clean, cheap energy so we can get away from relying on foreign sources.
c. Deed my property to the Commonwealth with the stipulation it must be maintained as a deciduous forest. I'm sure The Leaf Lady would want it that way.
d. Get the Weebles a car with a chauffeur so they can go where they want when they want. Also a maid and a cook.
e. Take Himself, my girls (and their families) to Disney World where I would ride the teacups and not get vertigo as I did on my honeymoon.

I'm supposed to tag five others, but I'll let you decide if you want to play.

Wed Letter Day

Inspired by paintings of palm trees at The Young One's school art fair. And today is a grey gloomy day so dreaming of warm tropical places.

Are you wishing you were some place else?

Garden

I'm not much of a gardener. Truth be told, I don't really like digging in the dirt and getting my hands dirty. (Though I don't mind if my hands are dirty with paint, ink, or some other art media. Go figure!) I enjoy flowers but don 't like spending all the time planting, mulching, weeding, watering. I want to have landscaped. But, I did buy some pansies, and I managed to get them in the planters before the flowers died. And the miraculous part, the pansies have survived in spite of me! I just love the happy little pansy faces peeking out from the planters.

Are you a gardener? What flowers are you partial to?

Vacuums

A friend is in the market for a new vacuum. She was asking for opinions on best brand, cost, bag or bagless. Searching for a good vacuum is like looking for the Holy Grail, in my opinion. You know it's out there, but no matter where you look, how much you spend, you never find the perfect vac. The perfect vac has enough suction to pick up cat/pet hair and not clog, has on-board tools that are easy to reach and attach, can go from hard wood floors to tile to carpet without having to change a setting, is maneuverable and not heavy or clumsy when doing stairs. And I think all vacuum cleaners should have bags. You go through all the trouble of vaccing up dander, dirt, dust mites, and then when you empty the cup, all that dirt and dust gets sent back into the air. Bags are so much cleaner. Your hands don't touch the dirt and you don't have to wash out the cup. It should have a cord that can reach across the entire room and an onboard extension hose that can reach to the ceiling. The perfect vacuum shouldn't cost an arm and a leg either

Not long ago, I bought a Hoover Elite Auto Rewind. (Hoover U5507-900) The model is probably a low to mid range priced vacuum. It's not too heavy, not too big to clean the dollhouse (storage is a problem so appliances can't be sized for McMansions) But it just doesn't seem to have enough oomph. I'm also not happy that bag models are hard to find. I really don't like the bagless models though this model has a large cup and a lever so your hands don't have to touch the dirt. It also has a plastic filter (as well as a HEPA filter) though the plastic one seems to clog a lot. The filter as well as the dirt cup are easy to get to. It also has a nice auto cord winder. The on-board tools are easy to attach. There's a mini vac attachment for pet hair, but that didn't last long. I have a feeling a belt broke.

I was thinking of getting a Dyson ball vacuum. Though I got sticker shock when I saw the price! Lambie had a Dyson which she absolutely loved. When I called to ask her about the model, she said she would never by another Dyson. The hose broke after only 18 months.

So do any of you have a vacuum you're really happy with?

The Friday Five

Baseball season is in full swing. Wally the Green Monster and Old Heath have set top box seats to enjoy the game. Sometimes, Wally is called upon to start a rally when the team needs extra encouragement. Wally will stand on his head. Himself is the real fan though I get more amusement from listening to the sounds from the sun room. Five things I hear while Himself is watching the game:

1. "Hi, I'm Don Orsillo. Welcome to Red Sox baseball."  (announcer for Red Sox home games)

2. Argh (Himself when his team makes an error)

3. "Tide gets your....dog his...money and save..." (tv as Himself flips through channels while the game is in commercial)

4. Ugh (grunted by Himself when the team makes a stupid play or is losing. Himself sounds a lot like  Lurch, the butler from the old tv show, The Addams Family

5. Nbr. 4 above is usually closely followed by Himself saying, "They're killin' me!"

Are you a sports fan? Do you yell at the tv to help your team along?

Iris

A very long time ago, my teacher showed the class how to paint brush florals. I was not "old enough" at the time to understand. Pawing through some notes looking for something fun to do, I came across an iris she had done during class and gave to me. A little older now, I found a flat brush, paints and had some fun in the sun room.

Have you done something just for fun lately?

Wed Letter Day

Back to that minimalist thing. "D" was cut from a scrap of purple paste paper I made.

Looks like an elephant got stuck in an orange. What do you see?

Work in Progress

Painting is done and details added with a Pigma pen.  A wash of Gold and Super Sparkle Powder (from Twinrocker) with a drop of gum arabic gives the dragon scales some glitz. Now comes the hard part, taking it to a framer and choosing the mat and frame. So many choices. 

The Young One said the dragon scales reminded her of The Rainbow Fish.   LOL It does, but it was purely unintentional.

How's  your work in progress coming along?