"Le Mer" -- Copyright 2006 Spring Bay Studio

This is one of the pieces I got finished just before the crush of the holidays last year...I'd been looking at some pictures of mermaids that some artists had done way back in 1918 or so. I was amazed by some of the oils and watercolors that I saw in a book that my middle son was given a few years ago...this isn't anywhere close to how wonderful the paintings are in the book, but I felt the freedom that the mermaids looked like they had in those paintings.

I'm trying to get a picture of the frame I just finished painting the other day, and have this piece set very carefully in said frame...but I keep having problems either with the camera, getting the frame to behave itself with some hot glue I used to attach the glass...or else some little teeny bit of paint gets chipped, and it's back to the fine liner brush to spot paint the chips. My nerves are getting the stretched-thin-treatment and it looks like I'm either going to go scream at The Dog innocently laying down in the grass next to the backyard fence, or I'm gonna take it out on some poor soul who calls the house trying to sell me some type of magazine subscription...never mind that I'm on the Federal Do Not Call list...

It's a Holiday today, for some people who have "regular" jobs with a salary and parking space set aside especially for them. However, in this house The Husband doesn't have a salary, but an hourly wage, in a job that doesn't care 2 cents about holidays . There's freight to be moved, never mind that the highways are getting PACKED with people going somewhere to relax an' have a good time. What it'd be like to go on vacation is something I've been pondering for a few years...and The Husband is sitting in traffic trying to move 75,000 pounds of "Freight All Kinds" no more than 4 miles down the Interstate. I'd love to know what the people sitting in traffic are thinking while their on their way to Relax and Have A Good Time...probably cussing the truck drivers who can't get out of their OWN way, let alone get up enuf speed to get out of the way of a speeding car. But -- for those of you with Vacation time...WOW!! I'd love to be out relaxing an' layin' around some place...Definetly would be something literally out of the ordinary!! So -- have a good time...take lots of pictures of where ever it is that you've picked to relax at/in. Don't get too sunburnt (for those going to warmer climates!) and don't come back with stories that you can't really explain all the details about...cause those WILL come back an' haunt ya!!

The Dog is absolutely amazed -- in her own way -- I cleaned out the Studio/Sunroom the last 2 days. I'd been dancing around some big storage boxes that my youngest had set near the french doors. He kept insisting "I'll get them up in the Attic..." but there they sat..taking up space and making it clever for me to hop around. It got pretty dicey when The Dog wanted to go outside, cause I'd have to sorta hop/jump around the boxes, make sure The Dog didn't knock anything off the top of said boxes (stacks of seed catalogs, books with no home to go to...that kind of thing) and then get to the back/side door an open it FAST when The Dog had to go out NOW...

I got 4 or 5 large trash bags full of old childrens books..some old college text books I haven't had the heart to throw away yet, and some old cow figurienes (butchered that spelling, didn't I...no pun intended after cow, by the way...) that I'd had for over 15 years...got em all packed up and now are sitting at the end of the hallway in the house, where The Huband sez he'll get set up in the attic. This remains to be seen, as he's also said he'll "Get to " some other things around the house that I've been waiting on for, oh, le's see...6 years...So -- this will be interesting to see. The large storage boxes that held some old books that just wouldn't fit on the bookshelf in the studio are so HEAVY that I thot I'd literally fall over when I tried to get them up into the dining room, drag them down the hall, and set at the end of said hall, right against the interior wall. I started to push/shove one of the boxes and realized the reason the thing wasn't moving was because it'd gotten hung-up on some carpet in the dining room that has never been attached to it's backing correctly...so there's always been this little "bump" between the front room and dining room. I'd always ignored it, thinking it'd just be THERE an' wouldn't bother me. UNTIL one of those days when I knew I'd have something to move across it. And wouldn't ya know it -- THAT DAY HIT YESTERDAY!!

I could feel the blood veins in my forehead starting to pop out, and it felt like my legs were gonna start shaking, I was tryin' so hard to move this stuiped box. Then I got stood up straight, took a look at the problem, an' said out loud, "WELL What The *** is THIS??!" Made The Dog look up from where she was lying down in the front room. Naturally I had to appoligize to her for that bit of rudeness...But -- all the boxes are now sitting at the end of the hall..all lined up like their waiting for a bus to take them somewhere. My back suprisingly isn't sore, an' when I thot my legs were gonna be REALLY in pain this morning, I was pleasantly suprised to find they were just fine. YAHHOOO and YIPPIEEE....Guess all the daily workouts have come in handy; haven't got the OH-OH I Did too Much thing goin' on.

So -- when the camera decides to get it's #"@ together, I'll take a couple shots of the wall of books an' all the other lil' goodies that are sitting on the bookshelf. it's starting to look less like the inside of a 3rd grade classroom, an' more like a Studio than it ever has. Sigh. Now for some pictures on those walls, an' I'll be in Business!!

Lady of The Tulips -- who just now realized she's got the front door open, an' even tho the storm door is closed, there's enuf gap in the doorframe that lets in the chilly afternoon air...an' now the heater/furnace is running to beat the band. Are those little dollar bills I see drifting down the hallway, or is it my imagination??