the things I can find to do.....

I should be painting. It's amazing the things I can find to do to avoid that activity. And it's not that I don't enjoy painting, it's something else.

So, today, what did I do?

1. Went to Serrano's for hot chocolate and a newspaper, which I came home and read completely.

2. Chopped firewood. Actually I used my chain saw to cut up 4 logs, and trim off the slash.

3. Cleaned up more of the dog yard.

4. Mowed the side yard and the back yard.....again.

5. Swept the patio and rearranged the tables and chairs.

6. Swept the walkway thru the garage into the house.

7. And then, I cleaned all the kids' stuff in the living room, built the $15 bookcase I got from Target for the closet, and rearranged all the stuff from one bookcase to two. I sorted crayons, pencils, paints, paper, brushes, scissors and glue also. Got them a lot more organized.

So.....this is what the kid's korner now looks like:




And here's one of all the games organized on the bookshelf in the closet. Of course, you know that this meant I had to clean out the closet too.



But doesn't this all look so nice and neat? And then I made lasagna for dinner, and now this is the second blog post in two days. Like I said, the things I'll do to avoid painting!

new paintings at dream pastries

It's county fair and rodeo week in Castle Rock. So, I have three new paintings hanging at Dream Pastries in honor of the week.


ODD COW OUT This painting I have done before in colored pencil as part of a collage of cowboy pictures. Changed a few things, and tried to keep the background simple so that the cowboy and the cows would show up.


JANIE JILL - This is from a photograph that I took at a clinic several years ago. After the photo was taken so I could frame the painting, I changed the hat to a darker brown, and made the shirt red so they would pop against the sky better. I was in a hurry so I didn't take a whole lot of time for critical thinking.



THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY - This is also from the colored pencil drawing of the cowboy scenes. I've used this cow three times now. One in colored pencil, with the horse turning it, one in watercolor with a tessellated background (not one of my better paintings), and this one of the cow by itself.

So, which one do you like the best?