Long time no blog!

Gosh I haven't blogged in so long where to begin?? Ok, well last I blogged was just before Thanksgiving. Ours was nice. My brother Tim and nephew Thaddeus and my daughter Lindsey's girlfriend Kelsi all joined us. So there were 7 for dinner. The turkey this year came out juicy and delicious and I had a big bird, 18 pounds. So we had left over's for quite a while!


I had that week off from work, so we got a lot done. There were still boxes and bags of stuff we didn't know what to do with in our dinning room left from moving Lindsey downstairs, our office to Lindsey's old bedroom, and creating my art studio in our old office. How do we collect so much junk anyway?? Oh yea, we are collectors of stuff that is for sure! But the time off gave me the opportunity to go through those boxes and bags left and I got rid of a butt load of junk. Also, we organized and filed things that needed to be put away. My hubby Joe was amazing. He cleaned and scrubbed the kitchen and help organize. By the time Thanksgiving arrived we were very clean and organized! Wonderful!!!


I did some painting too, I had to have my 2 pieces for the Swell Sister's Gather the Women Second Saturday show done by last Saturday for hanging. So I had work to do! But I have to say they turned out really great! I painted on repurposed tile board that we had left from the downstairs bathroom redo. And I purchased old frames from a thrift store. The painting flowed into the frames, making the piece one large piece of art, not a framed painting. I think it is very folk artsy! I am going to do more of them! I took some photos, but am hoping to get better photos now that they are hanging. I used a gloss varnish on them, and when I took the photos it was not very light, so I had to use a flash. The gloss finish really picked up the flash, so I am hoping I can take some photos without a flash now that they are hanging. Once I have better photos I'll post!


Lets see what else happened, oh I went to a rehearsal with the Jahari Sai Trio. That was fun! My hubby Joe and I have 2 songs worked out to play at the Swell Sister show. So, at their rehearsal I showed up with my ukulele and plugged in! First time I ever plugged in my Uke. It sounded pretty good amplified! I am a little nervous about my debut, in public, playing music. What what??? Ok ok, deep breath, I'll be fine, Joe will be right there and that helps a lot! And, the room will be full of my swell sisters, family and friends so it all helps!


My son Nick had a birthday. He turned 27 on the 23rd. Yikes! He's getting old, what does that say about me??? We all went out for dinner, well Joe had to work, but Lindsey, Kelsi, Tim, Thaddeus, my niece Heather and of course Nick went. Then we played Phase 10 at our house and Nick was the victorious winner!!! We also played donkey, I, as usual, was the first to be a donkey! I am just too slow now days to play that game! Seems like I can't get a penny for anything!!! Nick was the winner for that too! It was a fun night and I think he enjoyed his birthday. Here is a photo of me, Nick and Lindsey what seems like just a year ago... Not! Ok, it was 18 years ago!


I created a book over the weekend. The Swell Sisters have a writing/poetry group, and we had quite a bit of haiku's and poems that had been written. We have been trying to encourage sisters to read some poetry on the breaks at the show, so I thought what better way to encourage them but to have their writings in a book. So, I took it all and put it in a book! I created it on http://www.lulu.com/ it is a self publishing site. Really cool. I order just a couple of books to be sure they print as well as they looked. Then I'll share the link and people can order it!


Well I guess that is it for now. I am getting so excited about the big Swell Sister Second Saturday show this next Saturday!!! It is almost here!!!!! Wahoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Be well.



Until next time... Tj.