~~~ Just a quick note to say that there are some projects sitting on my little work table out in the studio. ~~ They haven't got a real home yet. but they do have their very own file folder so they have a nice place to stay till their home gets built. Or, being applied to a canvas board, whichever pops into my head.

The reason the projects are still in the Workin' On It mode, is because the studio doesn't have air conditioning, and with the summer gettin' going, the weather has made it just a touch too uncomfortable to stay out there for too long. Thursday I checked the thermometer and it was 90 Degrees (This before Noon) and the humidity was over 80% -- Not the best working conditions for concentrating on Art. So, I brought in as many things as I could fit on the dining room table, and made some small collage pieces. These are now joining the others from last week, and once it all gets organized to where it makes some kind of visiual sense, then they'll get onto a canvas board. I've got a good idea of what I want to do, but right now it just isn't jelling for me. It's the Heat. Yeah, that's what it is. Sounds like a good excuse for now...

The garden got a good soaking the other afternoon. Somewhere between 1 1/2 " fell in a couple hours so the Corn really took off. I'm gettin' the camera ready to take some shots of the vege bed. The 2 extra plantings of green beans have finally sprouted, so we should be in good shape for those. And for some reason, the spray that I got from the hardware store has withstood the big storm we had at 3 a.m. yesterday morning. None of the little aphids or whatever they were, are still around the plants. Maybe they drowned. Really got no clue...just as long as they're gone who cares where they went?

Lady of The Tulips -- who discovered why The Dog likes laying under her favorite bush in the backyard..it's nice and damp mud, and never gets any sun on it AT ALL...when she stood up and I petted her side, it was as cool as can be. No wonder she looked at me like I was the dolt in the yard...

Have these little guys sitting on my work table out in the studio, and am having a time just deciding if there is something more that needs to be added to either one. I'm sure that when my back is turned Something will pop into my head and say "HEY!!" and let me know.

Does it look like some more pieces of whatever need to be added? I haven't decided whether or not to take off little odds and ends on each piece...Decisions ~~ Decisions...

Lady of The Tulips ~~ who walked out into the studio where the current temp is 92 with over 70 % Humidity...I think I just melted but don't quote me on that...

One of a few w.i.p. that are waiting for me to do something with them -- What needs to be done with them? Let me know -- Lady of The Tulips

~~ OK ~~ First things first ~~ If any of you read my post yesterday, and looked at the photo of the lil' mermaid an' thot that you were having a deja vu moment..well, you weren't -- Actually it was the same picture I'd posted a few months ago, and of course, since I'm getting more and more drifty these dayz, I didn't check any of my earlier posts to Actualy SEE if I'd put that particular shot on here before. AND to top it off..the earlier photo was much better -- go figure!! So -- here and now I will say I am terribly sorry for any anger you felt during those moments when you thot there was something amiss. My brain jus' isn't functioning the way it should these days, and I'll be the first to appoligize for any inconvience my dolt-ness may have caused you...

Now -- on to other things....there are some pieces of paper that I splurged and bought last week that are calling my name this morning. But they'll have to wait for a bit, because The Dog is having one of her early mornings that are just like having a 3-year old. The Dog has this uncanny sense when I'm working on a project, or even if The Husband and I are sitting on the couch having a discussion...she will absolutely get her face right up close to me, and either hit me with her front paw, or jump up and down like she just HAS to let me know there is someting she;s thinking about. And, in the mornings, she will do a similiar thing..stand in front of the french doors that lead to the studio, which in turn goes out to the side yard. She makes these little squeaking noises to let me know that RIGHT NOW is when I have to get my self together AND PAY ATTENTION TO HER!! Or like just a bit ago, bounce around in the dining room, run around the dining room table, make a bunch of rattling-bumping-into-chairs-kind-of-noise, just to make sure that I realize she has to go outside and literally smell the flowers. I've given up on the idea of coloring my hair, because between The Dog, The Husband and other assorted things, my hair would fall out at the rate I'd need to color all the grey hairs that pop up on my poor head every day. Sorry all you corporate people who sell hair color, or whatever it is you do...my spending on your products has come to an abrubt (is tht even close on how to spell that word?) end and I'm so sorry if I've let your company down.

In just a minute I'm also going to make another post to let all of you see what I finished in the bathroom the other week. Now my eyes are on the Black-painted bedroom of my middle son. I still have some Kilz on the storage shelf, and I'll probably need to get another gallon -- maybe 2 to cover those walls. I found a similar color as in the bathroom to paint my son's room. He recently DID CALL ME (!!!) to say he's now working STEADALEEE and is actually sharing a new place with a couple of his friends. I'm optimistic that this will last... But back to the topic...The new color will make the room much more mellow, and with maybe a little curtain (he took the old one down) it should make a great deal of difference!! Those black walls...my word...now way can I say how they look...well, I mean, naturally they look BLACK...but oh my, how depressing they are!! Onward and upward to new color!!

Lady of The Tulips -- who has to decide now what type of color to paint the kitchen...the old wallpaper from the 80's is REALLY getting to me...Pink and Blue...how have I not had indigestion immediately when I walk in that room??

Sorry for the nahhsty glare of the camera on this shot.guess it may be time to find someone who knows how to take a picture for REAL and then download it for me -- This is one of my "girls" and I did have fun with her...

And I've been away for a spell, now, haven't I? There has been so much going on that it almost makes me feel dizzy -- lots and lots of things around the house, lots and lots of things around the yard, the garden, the various odds and ends of day to day living. Most of it was just too much at the time and so I got totally swallowed by it all. And now today I'm gathering my strength and getting back online and hoping that the rest of the summer will go much smoother. Maybe it was all because the start of Summer came along, and sometimes just the event of the Summer Solstice is enuf to throw many many things into a State...sometimes good, and for some people it throws them into a tizzy -- I know of a Few people who went into said Tizzy, and I'm not too sure yet if their just right now or not. Only the next few dayz will tell. I'm just glad that I've gotten out of the line of fire from their deal, and am here to tell. Hopefully They will get better.

Lots of things are in the Works in the Art space...there are a batch of Wormwood stems drying out on the floor, and so The Dog has had a field day trampeling (boy oh boy is that a bad spelling...) all the leaves into the carpet. But the good thing is, that as good as the herb smells, every time that ol' dog smooshes more of it on the floor, the better the room smells. OH!! And speaking of The Dog -- This is a No Lie, This Really Happened Thang...

A couple weeks ago, while I was getting a batch of green beans up and running, I was happily standing in part of the vege bed, minding my own business, watering the beans, and generally having a very nice day, thank you very much...Then, while the neighbors daughter was having her graduation from High School Party, one of the local little neighborhood BRATS who likes to drive 40 mph in a 25 mph zone, took it upon himself to just up and FLOOR HIS CAR THRU THE NEIGHBORHOOD...couldn't tell if it was 45 or so, but suffice to say it was Way over the posted 25. So, if that wasn't enuf...while I'm in my garden having my Good Moment, here once again comes The Neighborhood Monster, backing up out of the neighborhood park across the street from our house...flooring the car as fast as it could go in reverse..got to the middle of the street, turned the car down the side street, and floored the car once again down the street. Me, being me, totally lost it (after making sure there were no people in the way to get run over by The Idiot) and screamed at the kid and who ever was in his car "SLOW DOWN!!!" Some dame in the passenger seat said, "ok..." like it was all a joke.

Now, what this has to do with the Dog, your asking? Well, last time I got Pis*** off at the kid, he threw raw eggs all over the side and front of my car, all over the back door to my house, and all over the wall of the house. And, if THAT wasn't enuf, 4 dayz later, he and his pals threw 5 or 6 40 oz. beer bottles all over in my yard. Yes, this person has EARNED the nickname Monster. So -- after I yelled at the kid, I immediately realized I'd be in for IT...I knew he'd do something else again...SO --- long about 4 days later, I took my youngest to the herbal store to get something for his never ending cold and sore throat. (That's another story but keep with me here...) We got back to the house, checked on the Dog to make sure she was ok under her little favorite tree in the backyard, which she was....and went over to another herbal store so I could get some of my vitamins. We came back to the house, and while the youngest went to check on The Dog, I made a quick call to The Husband jus' to let him know what was going on.

While on the phone, I see my youngest take off tearing down the street on his bicycle...and I start looking for The Dog in the backyard, and am suddenly realizing she's not in there...I mean NOWHERE...I start to think, well, I am just about half blind, but now, just wait a minute...And about the same time as I'm thinking this, here comes the youngest tearing into the yard saying GET YOUR KEYS!! THEY'VE TAKEN THE DOG!!!

My knees immediately turned to jelly, and more or less my remote control, I grabbed said keys, got in the car and drove off down the street, asking 3,305 questions of my son ~~ Both the backyard gate and side yard gate were shut, but for the first time EVAH the backyard gate hadn't been LOCKED...and by the looks of things, somebody came in thru the gate, grabbed the Dog, drug her out threw the side gate, and let her run off without her collar (we still haven't found the collar..) ~~ We found the poor thing down a couple houses on another block, tired, hot and panting in somebodys yard. The youngest had a TIME getting her to get in the car..tying her leash around her neck to lead her to the car. She was a MESS and I was nearly beside myself.

Remember what I said about The Monster doing things when provoked? Well...even tho most people would have called the Police and made a notice (Or whatever it's called) I realized that I couldn't ~~ Why? ~~ because said Neighborhood Monster has a father AND mother, who work for the City Police Dept. ~~ And, yup, if somebody makes a report about their Beloved Person, there is never anything done about it...Or, better yet, (As happened to my youngest one time) the father comes to the house, and proceeds to yell, curse, scream and threaten the person who he thinks would bring some sort of "Pain" to his Monster ~~ In other words, I was Sc***** ~~ and without so much as a kiss...

So -- now the back yard gate is Firmly Locked when we leave the house...and the only way we could figure out how the monster knew we were gone, was when I realized that over at the park I mentioned earlier, were a carload of his friends, sitting and watching our house...Without even knowing it, we were sitting ducks....Sigh...Such a warm fuzzy feeling I'm getting just remembering the whole thing...

And now I'm getting thru the start of the week -- got the veges fed with a good dose of Compost Tea -- soaked them all really good, because this week is supposed to get HOT ~~ weather people say 95 or so in 2 days..then I went to The Big Box Chain Hardware store an got some organic spray for the bugs in the garden..I've used one particular brand for Years and tho I could not find a concentrate to blend with water, I still found a spray to use, so I'm happy. All the plants got a good spray, and there were lots of small white flies and some other Things I could't tell..but they flew away and hopefully For Good...

But for now I must go and tend to some other things...and get some water to drink, and see what kind of mail is waiting for me...

Lady of The Tulips ~~ who has realized that there has not been one inch of carpet vacuumed in her sones room for probably far longer than she honestly wants to consider...and I''m sitting in said son's room....hmmmm...

I wanted to show some of the detail on a frame I made up not too long ago. This was one of the unfinished pieces I bought at the craft store. I was a little afraid of just what to do with it, but once I got into the whole texture thang, it started to take on a life of it's own. Once I got to painting it, I had the idea of driving over to the ocean front and layin' out for the afternoon. However, good sense took front and center stage...in other words, I don't think the locals were ready to see a beached whale on the sand quite this early in the season.

I've also got some new paints that haven't been put to use on any projects, so they may get some thing to work with. I had this whole Tropical Island thang goin' after painting the frame above. And REALLY wanted to go on vacation somewhere ELSE...just not maybe down the road. I've always wanted to see some of the islands south of Florida. But, now that the summer is creeping closer and the heat & humidity is creeping upwards too, well, I think a Tropical Vacation may wait till next fall. I'll stick to the Feeling of the Tropics with the paint colors I've got floating around in the studio. The Husband said that when he went down to the islands south of Florida in the USN, that the color of the water was the one thing that stood out in his memory the most. Just an incredible color of turquioise he'd ever seen. And the clarity of the sea water was beyond words. He said that there were so many of the men on board who'd never been in the southern part of the U.S., who were amazed at how HOT it was the further south they got. I can't really go into too many details of just where they went, but suffice to say that it was wonderful once they got done with all their military things, and got the chance to go and play in the water. I've got a big shell that The Husband brought home for me after one cruise. It's not been broken after nearly 20 years, so I don't know if that tells me how strong the shell is, or how scary it looked to all of my kids when they were growing up....

I'm taking a break from the work in the bathroom. All I have to do is a little finishing up on one wall. I'm glad the big stuff in the bathroom is finished. I was very nervous once I got the paint on the walls. Oh, I mean, the color is very soothing and mellow, butI wasn't sure that the youngest would like the color once it was finished. Yahhooo and yippiee, he walked into the hallway and took a look at the walls and actually said, "Nice!" How one little word can make a day is really somethin'. I was thinking he'd mumble like he did the first time I textured and painted the walls. But this time I completely changed the whole thang, and it is a vast difference from what I did before. And The Husband was glad the color was somethin' he had in mind when I told him what I'd envisioned for the walls. Sort of like the old adobe walls in houses of friends I grew up with in Southern California. And some of the places I'd seen and been in out in the desert - Palm Desert WAY back in the day...like early 60's late 50's -- most of those old old buildings have been torn down by now, I'm sure. But they were so cool and wonderful to me when I'd walk into them. Old walls and wood porches that rattled with every step across them. Lots of old pottery jugs across the front of the buildings with flowers planted in them. Oh, I just loved them. And once I started on this house, I knew that what I wanted in here was the look of those old places. I've got a collection of old 1900's photos that were made into calendars some years ago -- some of those I've framed, and some others I'm getting ready to find frames for. I've also got some mandelas and sponged painted walls that mimic the old walls of those adobe buildings. So, naturally the bathroom was the next place to get similar work done. The kitchen is next...GONE will be the very 80's wallpaper...and somewhere along the line I'm going to check out those weekend workshops at the large hardware stores, and see about taking a class on laying out tiles. Don't know if I'll do as large a space as my kitchen floor, butI'll start out with something!!

Lady of The Tulips ~~ who now has realized that it's after noon, and there is still no work done on a sheet of drawing paper that was going to be started on 2 hours ago....too many distractions...

** I can not believe it's been nearly 2 weeks since I last got onto my lil' computer and wrote on this blog...there has been so much work done on projects around the house...now I'm tired and sore, but all the work is DONE!! The major painting/texturing in the front bathroom is finished and now the fun part will be getting the fabric for the curtain, deciding which shade for the wall color and getting some new odds and ends for storage. Some of the old glass jars with metal lids had to get thrown away. I was suprised to discover that the rims of the lids had developed rust and were not looking too good. Major sadness. But, being resourcefull, my youngest looked at me and said, "Well, just go get some new ones.." ~~ You better believe that was the best thing to hear..I mean, being given the green light to go and SHOP ~~ It's something I very rarely do, so having someone say GO AND PURCHASE didn't take too long to sink in. Now I have to make sure NOT to go overboard in Big Lots or where ever I find treasures.

The youngest and I have the garden pretty well finished. A couple plants still have to get set out, but the majority is growing nicely. We transplanted tomatoes, green beans, and I built up 3 beds for corn. Got the potatoes planted earlier and they are growing like crazy in their part of the garden. I made sure to apply LOTS of compost to the bed for them, and my youngest made the discovery of a rotted tree trunk right next to the garden beds. So, while he digs up the leftover wood from the tree -- we apply that on top of the vege beds, and it has helped a LOT on keeping the beds nice and damp. It's been up over 85 already, and right under the mulch of wood and other stuff from an old compost pile, the soil is wonderfully damp and cool. I try and make some compost tea at least once a week, and a good dollop of that on the plants has gone really well. I gave a drink to the perennials last week, and some old yarrow plants have taken off in the front flower beds. I'd just about given up on them, but after 3 drinks of compost tea, I have 5 new plants taking off, and 3 have some new flowers on them. Very pale shades of pink and one with yellow. The lavender is smelling wonderful, and the whole plant has blossoms on it, along with some flowers on the pansies...still!! Our corn in the vege bed near the white picket fence is coming up better than I'd thot it would. The bed didn't get really mulched and dug up till just before planting, so I wasn't too sure if the corn would come in decent. Ha -- goes to show what I know. 15 - 20 plants so far, and I made up a new bed and planted 10 or 15 more last weekend. Some basil was set out yesterday just before I made up some homemade salsa for dinner, and wouldn't ya know it...when I went to check the plants this morning, something had chewed a couple of leaves off one of the plants..but left the leaves on the ground. HA!! stuiped lil' critter..thot they'd get something Tasty...Suprised them! Hope they get sick..

Anyway -- haven't had a chance to do any Art these last couple weeks ~~ all my energy has gone into the garden and the house. I'm kinda payin' for all the physical work ~~ my left hand is pretty swollen, and my left foot is too. But the work and effort is so worth it. The bathroom walls came out just the way I wanted them to (Picture will come later) and even The Husband noticed A) That something was different and B) That there was a new color on the walls. (Even tho it's just the white primer...) "Did you do that work?" The Husband sez...My Mercy!! My last good nerve is just about to snap...Why is it that Just Sometimes I feel like running away and never ever coming back?? Hmmm....

There are several projects that have been getting some development on the little work table, but nothing more than little piles of papers, stamps, paint bottles moved here and there and some watercolor tablets moved from one side of the studio to the other..I know there will be something to show for all of it shortly, but just not yet. The Husband said I should take a break and play with my paints, but I told him I'm too tired right now to do much thinking about color harmonies and paint choices. Next week after I get the storage things and the curtain made for the bathroom, THEN I'll get the projects put into gear. Right now I'm enjoying just Sitting in My Own House!!

Lady of The Tulips ~~ who has some very nice little baby oregano plants that need transplanting...and wouldn't ya know it...the extra large flower pots I was GOING to plant them in, already have something ELSE planted in them....sigh...