Let the Good Times Roll!

 

It's Mardi Gras season here in the south, so after I finished up with the heart rocks for Valentine's Day, I shifted into purple, green and gold designs for the current celebration. Last night was the first parade in town, but I didn't go because it was way too cold to stand outside.

I painted 35 rocks total and plan to give this assortment out to the ladies in my Thursday Mardi Gras class at the senior center. 

Here is a special crab I did. 

And a couple more with lots of glitter.

Next up will be some Easter rocks. 

I'm keeping very busy these days with rock painting, working on puzzles, volunteering at the senior center and subbing in the school cafeteria. The Beautification Committee I'm on also visited an assisted living home and we gave out bags of candy and socks for Valentine's Day to the residents and staff. Soon we'll be doing more outside work like weeding and planting at The Wetlands area that they take care of all spring and summer. 

We are in another cold snap right now, but warmer temperatures are on the horizon!

Stay safe and warm everyone and thanks for visiting my blog. 

The Ides of March are Behind Us.

 

All three pets in one room. A rare occurrence! 

I'm always always aware of The Ides of March for some strange reason. Not sure if it's my Italian roots, or what, but I've always been superstitious of things like that and full moon fever type stuff. Regardless, the ides have passed and all is well, so feeling very thankful! 

A lot of events were happening over the weekend in these parts, but the sudden cold weather put a bit of a damper on them, at least for us. The famous Arts and Crafts Festival in Fairhope started on Friday, but had to close early that day because of storms passing through. We didn't end up going on Saturday or Sunday because it was just too cold and windy. Last year it was blazing hot. The semi annual yard sale in my neighborhood complex also took place over the weekend with about 40 homes participating. Hubby and I got out early and hit probably 95% of them, but we didn't buy anything except this oil painting of a pelican.

24" x 36" oil painting. $5.00 at yard sale!

Sunday was the day of the year I look forward to the most. It was Festa Italiana at the catholic church in town. Every year (except during Covid year) they have it as a fundraiser. There are trash to treasure tables, spaghetti dinners for sale and tons of Italian pastries including homemade cannolis,

We had a feast yesterday of all things I'm not supposed to eat but since I planned my blood test ahead of time, I was going to enjoy this day to the fullest! Everything was delicious!!!

The only treasure I found was a sterling silver ring. It was really tarnished, but I polished it up with some toothpaste and got it nice and clean. It was only one dollar!!

In the rock painting department, I worked all last week and over the weekend on Easter eggs. These will be sent to my great nieces/nephews and given to my sweet coworkers that have young children.
Any spots you see on them is glitter that doesn't photograph well. 

Have a great week! 

Finally Got A Day Off!

Yikes! It's been almost a month since I posted last! So much has been happening. I subbed 4 days last week, then yesterday and again tomorrow. I've got a lot of hours in already and March is only half over.

About three weeks ago, we decided to paint the laundry room and get that out of the way since it was our most dreaded project. We pulled everything away from the walls, including the washer and dryer and cleaned underneath and all around before getting started. We painted the walls the same color as the kitchen, which was chosen to match the 80s cabinets. We thought of either buying new cabinets for the laundry room or painting them, but we decided to keep the continuity with the kitchen and leave them as they were.  I wanted to put something on the big blank wall that would be useful and we went back and forth with multiple ideas until we decided on a wall shelf that we found on Am@zon.    

It's actually pretty huge and it was a challenge to hang, but we did it. It has a bar across the bottom for hanging things like coffee cups as it was advertised as a coffee center.

Here is the room from both angles all finished. 

 I know there is a lot going on in there, but in person, it looks really great and we're happy with how it came out. 

In other news, you know I've been on a low carb diet since Sept 1st trying to reduce my triglyceride levels. My doctor gave me 6 months to work on it and then she wanted me to go in for a blood test in the spring. I cut out sugar (as much as possible), white flour, potatoes, etc., and lost 10 pounds. Last week I decided it was time to go in, mostly because Festa Italiana is this weekend and I wanted to be able to eat home made cannolis without it affecting my blood test results. Haha!!

Well, the results came in last Friday and were mostly good. My main goal was getting those triglycerides down and I succeeded. They went from 292 down to 117. Yay! My cholesterol dropped a little and my HDL (good cholesterol) went up, which is also good. The only bad part was that my LDL (bad cholesterol) is 3 points out of the normal range. Dang! I looked that up and it says I need to reduce saturated fats like dairy. Well, I only eat chicken and I take the skin off, I don't drink milk or eat yogurt, nor do I use butter,  but I do love me some block cheese. Welp, I guess that's the culprit! 

I painted some rocks for St Patrick's Day. 

I used lots of glitter on these. They came out really nice. I made some wee little shamrocks

 to hide on the woodsy trail.

Now I have to start working on some Easter egg painted rocks. I did not commit to sub today as I needed a day to myself, so I think I will get started on those after another cup of coffee. 

Finally, we got our fortification certification for our roof and we have an appointment to see our insurance agent on Friday. We're supposed to get a significant discount on our wind insurance, plus we need to discuss why our auto insurance went up on our oldest vehicle. We need to cut our monthly expenses, so we hope to make some changes to reduce our insurance payments. 

Here is a photo of our house with our beautiful azaleas in full bloom.

Have a great week and beware the Ides of March are upon us tomorrow!

Love and Mardi Gras.

 So many fun holidays are upon us. Valentine's Day is great because hearts are my most favorite thing to paint. Whenever I can't think of anything to put on a rock, a heart always fits the bill. 

This past weekend, I worked on some Mardi Gras rocks. I was in the Dollar Tree and saw they had glitter glue and the bottles all looked so pretty, I bought one in every color. Sometimes I use glitter nail polish to embellish my rocks, but I tried the glitter glue and it works much better without the terrible fumes. I went crazy with it and put it on all the Mardi Gras rocks. They are so shimmery now! These will be left in town along the Mardi Gras parade route.

After Mardi Gras, it will be time to do some Easter rocks. I don't think I did any last year, but I have some nice rocks that are the perfect shape, so I will get busy on those soon.

In other news, today is roof day! I'm sure it will be a very noisy day and I worry about the pets, but I'm sure they will get used to it after the first hour. Let's hope.  

Megan has been enduring a terrible time in Austin, TX. The city suffered and continues to suffer from a terrible ice storm. She hasn't had internet for 4 or 5 days, so she is unable to work.

The ice has melted, but before it did, she said all she could hear was the sounds of branches breaking and falling off trees. Every single tree. Now she says all she hears is chainsaws. It's really sad.

The weather here was beautiful yesterday and a good day is expected today. We are thankful for any sunshine we can get lately. Have a good week!

Catching Up!

 Greetings all! I am back! 

I hope everyone is doing well. 

Here are some painted rocks I did for fall.

The fall leaves and these mini "books" below were added
to a rock garden during our local annual Jubilee Festival for folks to take.

Hoards of people were out during the festival. 

Arts and crafts vendors probably made tons of money that weekend.

 I attended wearing my mask, but many did not. I zipped through pretty quick and visited two artists that I knew I wanted to purchase from. I bought this folk art piece from Alabama's own Scott McQueen. After being friends on Facebook for over a year through a mutual acquaintance, we finally got to meet in person and he and his wife were so nice! I gave them the heart rock in the first photo above.

This is the piece I purchased from him...

I had to get it because it clearly was made for Manny.

Here here is posing with it, obviously not impressed at all, lol.

The other piece I bought for my hubby as an addition to his wooden fish art collection. It's a bonefish, made by a lady that used to be the librarian at the school where I work. She retired a couple of years ago and now she and her hubby make lots of beautiful things out of wood. I gave her the patchwork pumpkin rock (first photo) and she put it on one of her handmade wooden trays in the booth. She texted me later that day to tell me that someone actually asked if they could buy it. 

So that was a fun day. I went by myself because hubby was away. He went on a road trip to Texas to visit our daughter. The last time we saw her in person was in early March, just as the pandemic was starting.  He thought about renting a vehicle to go out there, but decided instead to take his van. He got it all checked out and even got new tires because the last time he drove out, he had a blowout. Well, he almost made it all the way out this time, but about an hour outside Austin, he broke down. Something to do with the thermostat and radiator cap melting from overheating. He had to get towed and our daughter set out to rescue him. The tow and repairs ended up costing what a rental would have cost. Lesson learned. 

He spent about 4 days out there helping get some things done around her apartment and also outside around the patio/backyard little area. They went to Lowe's and got some landscaping stone, some solar lights, a garden hose and a few other things. He helped get her car washed for the first time in a year. There aren't many car washes around where she lives apparently. Austin is on very strict Covid restrictions so all the parks have been closed since March, but they found a place where they could walk on a trail and get some fresh air. It was a good visit and a lot was accomplished, but we are all hoping this pandemic is over soon so that she can fly over to visit us in Alabama. 

When she does come here, I'm planning for us to both go and get our hair cut as neither of us has had ours done since before the pandemic started. I've made friends on Facebook with a hairstylist who is a Progressive and I have yet to meet him, so I think it will be fun for the two of us to meet him together. Something to look forward to.

What are you looking forward to doing when the pandemic is over?

I'm Painting Rocks Again!

Yes! I have started painting rocks again! I returned to the reason I started way back in June of 2017....sharing joy! 

A lady from a local rock group started a kindness rock garden in a small section of downtown Fairhope called The French Quarter. The "garden" is a little rectangular patch where people can take or leave a rock that speaks to them. She posted on the Facebook page that no less than 25 rocks were being taken each day and she needed help replenishing them. A friend tagged me in the post and said I would try to help. Well, I got started and off I went! I made the above rocks and delivered them at 6am Saturday morning. 

By the end of the day, they were all gone, but were replenished with rocks from other painters. Most of theirs have words on them. I'm not really good with words, so I just paint what I want. I don't think anyone will mind. 

Here is another batch I made yesterday for Memorial Day. They will be placed in the rock garden early this morning.

I also had fun making these figural ones....

Shark!

 Gator!

And a book

With a garden on the back.

I am enjoying myself. I play music and paint without worrying about being perfect, (like I would with a commission). It's much more enjoyable and while I paint, I imagine the delight of someone taking one of my rocks home in memory of their trip to the area, or to give to someone special or to add to a collection, or maybe to re-hide somewhere else.

Here are some early morning photos of Fairhope all decked out for Memorial Day.

I hope all my readers are staying safe and enjoying their weekend.
Thinking of all of you.