Saturday, February 27, 2016

Wallflowers and Wine

2016 is the year of inclusion.  Meaning Roger and I are working to include our selves in more activities, ergo  being a part of the greater community.  We always go to Winter Folk Festival (yeah I know they took folk out of the title… those fools).  We go to the Florence Home and Garden Show… mainly because the station produces it and I do a live remote during the weekend.  We always go to the Classic Car Show n Shine (though not together – because, I am working it) and KCST’s Classic Car Cruise during Rhody.  The Reedsport Chainsaw Carving Championships (a personal fav). 

There are other things we could be doing: The Power of Florence  (a day the community gives back) Roger is usually working up on my mother’s property at that point.  But me, not as much.  So where am I going with this? My friend Susan this kewl wine and painting thing and thought, “Wow, I’d do that!”  So I did.

Last night, Leigh (my best friend next to Roger) and I went to Wallflowers and Wine... I guess the name of the post kind of gave that away.  My friend Jennifer helped put it together for the Friends of the Florence Events Center (yes the same group sponsoring Dancing with Sea Lions.)  Wallflowers and Wine was led by Florence artist John Leasure, a man with a greater sense of humor than I realized. 

Step by step he lead twenty of us (nineteen diverse women - at least two were professional painters - and one man) through the creation of Sunflowers.  Now  while I have a linage that boast a few good artists, I was terrified I’d shame my grandfather, great grandmother and Joshua Reynolds.  Darn, look at me, I name dropped.  But the reality is I am really happy with my creation and not quite the embarrassment I expected.

We began with working the background – enter the first glass of red wine (Cabernet) – then  it was red (paint) from right top corner to just past mid canvas.  Then it was blue blending with the red in the middle and then downward blending into black at the lower left corner.  As we worked he kept telling us this was the hardest part.  Now I beg to differ.  As I painted on the blue, sweeping into the red I was totally loving the way the blue brush stokes were sweeping onto the red.  I loved it.

He kept saying we needed to “muddy” up the middle.  NO NO NO.  I was loving my bush strokes.  And bloppp his brush was in the middle of my canvas mudding my beautiful sweeps of blue… Into yes a truly muddy mess.  Leigh’s brush was deteriorating and leaving hairs on her canvas. Mine was not as bad, but still there is more texture than I thought there would be, but not necessarily the texture I was going for.  All the while he “muddy” into my red, the beautiful blue sweeping brush strokes that were dyyyyying like the Wicked Witch of the North.  

And then the “hard part” was done.

Why he kept insisting it was the hard part was beyond me.  We painted on our flower centers and then our stems.  In hindsight I wish I would have painted my stems and then our centers, but still it was good.

Then the hard part started… the leaves and the petals.  Now I wasn’t happy with my leaves.  He made us create a wide vee off the stem, then cap each with an upside down vee, followed with a line pained through them.  At the bottom of the first vee we were instructed to take our brush and “start wiggling back and forth”, was followed by my jiggling, and hell why not a little piggling our brushes back and forth in a small manner coloring in the bottom side of the leaf. Then again but on the topside of the leaf.  This was interesting and REALLY FUCKING HARD TO DO.  Can I please go back to sweeping strokes on my background?  Please? 

Leaves done… oh no never never... mine are unsatisfactory at best. 

After we finished our leaves we painted the petals, now this was fun, but I didn’t follow instructions… because have you ever known me to do things by the rules?  Not.  Well okay I did half by the instructions and half not. While we were suppose to sweep up towards the stem when I got to the top part of each flower, the rules flew out the window.  Adding more color and highlights to the petals was the really fun part.  Painting this picture was fun, and really hard in some respects, but it was also very rewarding. 

And voila the picture was done…

Nope, I was still trying to fix my leaves.

And do you know how hard it is to sign your name?
 
I can’t wait until the next Wallflowers and Wine.

Sith,

Cele

Monday, February 15, 2016

100 Things About Me... 2016 - With Pictures

100 Things About Me… 2016 – With Pictures

It’s been a few years since I last celebrated the anniversary of my birth with 100 random thoughts…so I went back and realized some things never change….

1) Snakes, it had to be snakes?
2) And while I don’t think I am a reincarnate of Ragnor Lothbrook, who died after being thrown in to a pit of adders… those English. It is true Cleopatra died after being bit by an asp. To which Indiana Jones said, “Asp. Very dangerous, you go first.”
3) I went back and read my last 100 things about me, wow that was five years ago.  But
   many of those 100 random thoughts still hold true.
4) Some have changed, I have a new favorite vacation spot… Bisbee, Arizona. 
5) Roger and I went there a year and a half ago, stayed at the awesome Copper Queen.   
6) Because who doesn’t want to stay in a haunted hotel? During Monsoon Season?  Oh yeah, my sister in law.
7) We’re going back this Halloween, Rocky is going with… I am still working on getting her to stay at the Copper Queen. Cross your fingers.


8) Ducky made me a lemon cake for my birthday… I am eating it… diet and all.
9) Yes, still dieting, because isn’t that what women were made for? 
10) So far so good, hypnosis was worth every penny
11) I may go back for a booster shot / session.
12) I have reconnected with a dear friend, it’s like we’ve never been apart. 
13) Friends like that are the siblings of our hearts. 
14) Don is like that.
15) Cathy is like that. Even without the nachos.
16) Hmmm, I’ve been reading a lot.  Nothing you’ve probably heard of demons and witches and the likes. They’re entertaining
17) TV not so much.
18) Although my favorites remain pretty much the same as they were five years ago.  Big Bang Theory, NCIS, I haven’t watched much Castle in the past two seasons. Eureka has long since been canceled.
19) I do have some new favorites….FACE OFF, I’ve been addicted since season one
20) Naked and Afraid.
21) Except for the snakes… can’t they do an episode in Ireland?
22) Does Alaska have snakes?
22 – revisited) okay really, it all revolves around snakes.  So what I am saying is, screw the snakes I love Naked and Afraid... but really, would one season without snakes hurt?
23) I have changed my thoughts about Lady Gaga.
24) No, I do not own a single one of her albums… But, I still think the same of  Justin Bieber.. what a waste of space
25) Crosby, Stills, Nash and sometimes Young will forever remain my eternal favorite group… forever eternal, I just wanted to drive that home
26) Meghan Trainor’s Title was my Christmas CD from Ducky, very good
27) Yesterday, out of boredom I took an IQ test.
28) The toilet over flowed in the middle of it
29) I got a 119
30) So I found another one online and got at 132
31) I felt much better.  But Mensa will not be knocking on my door anytime soon
32) Last autumn I bought over 100 tulips, at least 90 made it into the ground
33) For two years in a row not all of the tulips, iris, and lilies got planted in time
34) And with that in mind, more and more I am looking forward to retirement
35) That and the days when I won’t be wasting bulbs and good money
36) I already gave my boss my six year’s notice
37) Okay it was really seven when I told him

38) For years I have forgone joining committees
39) Last year I joined Dancing With Sea Lions
40) While it’s been enjoyable, it has reminded me of why I don’t join committees
41) I did gain a new friend out of the process, Jennifer
42) We go out to dinner about once a month
43) On Wednesday night’s Leigh (still my best friend next to Ducky) and I go out for dinner
44) Mom and I do every other Monday night… tonight’s dinner is at Chen’s
45) Double Mushroom Chicken here I come
46) Roger is stuck in the Valley  (ha ha he left me with the cake)
47) The thought that Donald Trump is a serious contender for the Republican nomination scares the SHIT out of me.
48) I wish everyone (including my Mom and Donald Trump) would read the Constitution, and let me be clear in what I mean, “The Constitution of the United States of America”
49) Hey didn’t Lady Gaga rock the Star Spangle Banner at the Superbowl?
50) Note: I didn’t call it the National Anthem because we all know that our National Anthem should really be, America The Beautiful!
50) I bet Gaga has read the Constitution of the United States
51) My Christmas tree, sans ornaments, is still up…
52) It’s not important… but I didn’t put hearts on it for Valentine’s Day
53) Ducky got me three bags of Valentine Cherry Tootsie Roll Pops and a bouquet of Pepperoni Sticks
54) God I finally married a keeper - that man rocks my heart… and other sensitive places
55) Dudes, my taste buds, what gutter minds.. but yeah he rocks that too!
56) My favorite song is still 100 Years by Five For Fighting, 
57) Something new for me, I now have two live airshifts a day
58) With Harley Youngblood from 7 to 10am on KCFM 104.1am
59) And still mid days from 10am to 2pm on KCST 106.9fm
60) Nope, never tired of playing music
61) Dr Seuss is my favorite quote, one by which I try live, Why try to fit in when you were made to stand out.
62) Dude, words to live and die by 
63) I miss my father everyday, and talk with him often
64) When every I find a penny I think of my Grandfather
65) When I find a dime I think of Ducky
66) He has a hole in the right hand front pocket of his “weekend warriors” (a pair of 501 Levi’s that should have been retired two years ago).
67) Books I’ve read in the past year, Beautiful Creatures (the whole series, plus), The Iron Druid Series, The Wing Slayer Series (oh she’s wicked), The Girl In The Box and Out of the Box Series 
68) Movies I’ve seen… Mad Max which left me wondering how a man riding at the front of a warship across the expanse of the great Simpson Desert not get dirty?  Just asking.
69) Spy with Melissa McCarthy totally funny
69) The Intern, gotta love Robert DeNiro
70) and the Revenant, it changed my mind about Leonardo DiCaprio
71) Hmmm, I know there were more, but just four alone is an improvement for us
72) We go out to breakfast every other Sunday morning,.
73)  I won a bet… well okay I picked the most winners in the family college football bowl pool
74) two years in a row
75) I lost this year, by three games, but I still get breakfast out
76) That includes two slices of extra crispy bacon
77)  Since we last went over the 100 random I have put in a new bathroom floor
78) added tile to the new vanity surround
79) refused to tile the new kitchen, because once was enough… but now I know about
Schluter (I may not be able to spell it, but it gives you nice edges)
80) So I may finish my shower surround… two years later..make that three
81) I am a work-a-holic.
82) I don’t like being one, it’s just a fact of my existence
83) It started when I was 13 and began volunteering at an area nursing home
84) It’s not stopped, but it tears me apart
85) I resent people who have that “I’m Adequate” disposition, especially when they’re not.
86) Who aspires to be adequate? I aspire to be the best I can be
87) To give all that I can
88) Fun Fact:  I try to do at least one good deed a day.. especially on weekends
89) It freaks people out at first, I’m not trying to freak them out
90) I guess that’s a side benefit, but the side benefit I want is for them to pay it forward
91) I want people to be better than they are
92) Which reminds me of want in one hand
93) Yes, I believe in homey adages
94) My matra is, Everyday in Every way my life is getting better and better.  I should write that in a flowery inspirational font... maybe....
Everyday in Every way my life is getting better and better
   (It would have been better but Blogger doesn't offer inspirational fonts.)
95)  Well that’s just part of it, the rest is about losing 2 to 3 pounds a week.
96) Which I’m not, but I am happy with the pounds I am dropping.
97) I am a reverent follower of Fact Check  http://www.factcheck.org/2015/12/the-king-of-whoppers-donald-trump/
98) And I love that they called Donald Trump the King of Whoppers (personally I thought he should have been called the "Liar King")
99) It took me all day to write this, usually it’s taken just a few minutes.
100) I’m not sure what that means.
101) But I will throw in an extra… Here’s to a great 60th year, I think it's going to be awesome, and that is to what I am aspiring in 2016. Thank you for joining me.

Sith,
Cele