Wednesday Odds and Ends. The Holy ____! Edition.

Holy Mary.

There is a grotto on the church grounds where hubby works where a lovely statue of Mary sits. A nice lady who lives nearby has volunteered her time and money to beautify the grotto. She's been working on it for a year and she has trained all those vines to grow up around the columns. We went to visit it on Father's Day and it really is pretty. Hubby has to make sure all the plants get watered daily.  We haven't had rain for a while, so it's been a challenge keeping this all looking so beautiful.

Here's a before and after of what it used to look like compared to what it looks like now.

And a long shot.

This is a great spot to sit and have a nice quiet moment.

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Holy Crepe!

Guess who made homemade crepes for Father's Day? No, not me. It was Megan! Yup! It was something she wanted to try and she did a great job. She even shopped for all the ingredients. We had a variety of choices for fillings like peaches, blueberries, bananas, peanut butter and chocolate sauce. They were really delicious. She is getting really good at cooking breakfast foods. 

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Holy Hairball!

A few nights ago I awoke to the sound of Mister making a low howling sound. I jumped up out of bed to find him, but before I could I stepped into a giant puddle of pee on the hall floor and it was surrounded  by poop nuggets. Uh oh! Something was terribly wrong! I could hear him throwing up.

He brought up a hairball. But what on earth was the other mess he made in the hall? The only thing we could think of was that the force of heaving made him lose his bodily functions. Either that or he didn't know what was happening and he got scared. The same thing happens when I take him to the vet. He messes his crate something awful. Such a tender soul. He's been fine ever since. Eating, drinking and using the litter box like normal. Nothing out of the ordinary. I've been checking. I bought some special treats for him that have Laxatone in them to help with hairballs. I hope they work! We'll be away for a couple of days and we hired a pet sitter. I just hope nothing like that happens while we're away.

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Holy Crap!

In preparation for her big move, I asked Megan to go through her boxes of stuff in the attic. There was WAY more up there than we thought. Hubby brought down a few boxes at a time. She went through each, made piles to keep and piles to get rid of. A lot went back up in the attic, but a good amount was donated and some was listed for sale. I put a few items on Facebook Marketplace and (GASP!), I even listed some things on ebay. Yup! After three years, I dipped my toe back into ebay. She had some textbooks from school that she decided she didn't want and a couple of them are worth a good bit of money. With a new school year on the horizon, now is a good time to list them. So fingers crossed that they sell. 

We took 4 boxes of crap (well, good crap) to St Paul's thrift store, one bag of books to my friend who has a Little Free Library on her property, and we took 3 giant bags of stuffy toys and beanie babies to the children's librarian at the library. It was really hard to part with those plushies because they each held a memory from Megan's childhood. They were her friends. She thanked each and every one of them and said goodbye. She kept one and I took a couple small ones. Some toys I listed on Facebook like her Barbie airplane, a Littllest Pet Shop set and some Bratz and Barbie dolls. No takers yet, but I did sell her entire collection of cat figurines that I had personally bought her over the years. Although she loved them, she realized that owning them was a burden and decided to let them go. I got $50 for the entire set yesterday from a lady who loves cats.

So back up in the attic went some toys she was not willing to part with just yet, including a Lego pirate ship set. I'm sure that's worth a few bucks, but it won't lose its value. Overall, she did really good and I was proud of her for letting go of so many things. 

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Holy Boulder!

Last weekend Hubby and I were coming back from the park with Zoey and the same house that had put rocks out on the curb for trash pickup a few weeks ago had once again put rocks out, except these were bigger! We slammed on the brakes and hubby, threw those puppies in the back of the van like they were, well, puppies.

He hosed them off in the driveway and lined them up along our walkway until we can figure out what to do with them. We are planning a rock garden on both sides which will add some curb appeal. We just need some fill to build it up and of course some plants. It's going to be awesome, so stay tuned!

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Holy Honda!

For Father's Day, Megan did an ink drawing of her dad's new addition. It's a Honda Shadow.

Here it is next to the one she did last year of his Kawasaki.

She has mad skills. I could never do that!

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Holy Angel.

This sweet little Yorkie died unexpectedly recently. She belonged to a friend of mine and I made this portrait for her as a gift. 

It was the last dog on my list to paint and just when I thought I was done, I got more requests. Wouldn't you know it? My next rock is a mermaid for a very special little girl. I only have the background done because I haven't figured out just how to approach the rest of it yet. Maybe I'll work on it today.

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Holy Crown.

I got my crown put in last week. It went well. I was in the chair about 3 hours from start to finish. My dentist's office makes the crowns onsite. It truly is a miracle of technology. I didn't have any pain or discomfort other than having my mouth open for so long. 

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And so ends this holy edition of Wednesday Odds and Ends.

As they say in the south, have a blessed day! lol

More Painted Rocks!

I've been so busy painting rocks. I try and get one to two dog portraits done each week and I'm crossing them off my request list as I go. To keep myself from getting bored or going insane, I have to paint a rock or two for myself, just for fun. I painted this slice of pizza and it came out looking tasty. I didn't realize how realistic it looked until I took this photo. I think I may actually keep this one.

Every once in a while, I will come across a rock that's just right for making an M&M. If I look for them on purpose, I never find them. lol

You may recall I made three of these for the boys next door when they moved in last July. They are fun and so easy to make.

Last week a dear friend of mine called with a special emergency request. Her granddaughter's pet fish died. It was a special fish in that it was from her school classroom and the teacher had given it to her to take care of over the summer. Well, the poor thing went belly up and the little girl was just devastated. I was asked to paint a memorial rock for "Pepper," the Betta fish, and I was given this photo to work from.

Well, I looked up similar colored Betta fishes online and did my best. Here's what I ended up with. I used metallic paint which you can't see in the photo but it shimmers in the light which is cool.

The rock was very round and roly poly and in my effort to think of a way to display it, I came up with this brilliant idea and ran to the Dollar store.

I delivered it the other day and the little girl was delighted. Her mom really loved it too.

R.I.P  Pepper.

Next on the list was Sasha, a Wheaton dog. Sasha passed away over the winter. I had painted her once before in my first year of rock painting.

As you can see, she is a whitish dog, but not really white, sort of well, wheatish.

 I was sent the following photo of Sasha to paint.

Fluffy or curly-haired, light colored dogs are very difficult to paint. In this photo, all I saw was a blonde dog and I knew it wasn't the correct coloring. Must have been the lighting and it got me off to a rocky start.

So I went back and forth with the owner via email and color corrected the photo to this....

And yesterday I finished the portrait. He still thought it was a bit too light, but he and his wife were really happy with it. Thank goodness!

This will get mailed off to NY today and tomorrow I will start another dog, a Yorkie that died recently. I don't know how my rock painting hobby ended up turning into a pet memorial factory, but here I am, doing them. 

Today I'm getting a crown on a tooth, so no painting today.

Painted Rocks Slideshow 2018.

I made this little video featuring all the rocks I painted this past year. 

I hope you enjoy it!

Happy holidays!

Books on Rocks.

Back when I first moved to Alabama, long time readers may recall that I was part of a blogging group. We met once a month, usually at an interesting place, we'd have some kind of informational meeting followed by lunch at a local eatery. Alan Samry was part of that group and you may notice that his blog is on my sidebar, Stump The Librarian. Well, Alan has been working on this book for a while. I know because he enlisted Megan as a test reader. She also designed his logo which is right there on the cover. Cool!

Here is the back cover which tells you a little bit about Alan. What it doesn't tell you is what a wonderful, kind, smart and thoughtful person he is and how he adored by so many people.

When Alan announced on Facebook that his book had been published and that there was going to be a launch party for it at the end of October, well it got the wheels in my head spinning right away. I wanted to put his book cover on a rock as a commemorative gift of the occasion. I found the perfect rock and got to working on it right away. It took me three weekends to get it finished because of all the details.

All those tiny books! Thank goodness for my lighted magnifier!

The last part was the lettering. I really didn't want to screw it up at this point, so I carefully covered the top part of the rock so as not to accidentally get any paint on it while I worked on the lettering.

Finally the day arrived for the book launch. It was held at the Fairhope Library, where he works and there was quite a crowd. 

Take a closer look at those cookies.

Alan gave a presentation followed by a Q & A. Guests were then invited to purchase a book and wait in line for him to sign it. Megan and I had already purchased our books on Amazon, so we were near the front of the line. Here is Megan and me with Alan holding up my rock. He was very surprised.

It was a nice evening and it was great to see all the support in the room for Alan. If you would like a copy of his book, it's available HERE.

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In other rock painting news, I took a trip to my favorite rock store to get more rocks for painting bibles, as I have had many requests for them. I foraged through tons of rocks to find just the right sizes and shapes. It took me probably over an hour. This is the lot I came home with.

While I was there, I met with Fran, the owner of the store and I presented her with one of my forest moon rocks. She loved it so much, she asked me for 6 painted rocks for her friends back in Dallas TX. She said she wanted them all different. One of her friends, she said, was an author, so I asked more about her and she mentioned the title of a book her friend recently published. I looked it up on Amazon and was intrigued.

I thought I might try and focus on the hand holding the globe and I worked on it all last weekend. It was quite challenging painting something round on a curved surface as well as something made of glass. Also, I wasn't really sure what was inside the globe. Was it angel wings or a butterfly? I didn't know, but I just went with it, lol.

I added some glitter paint to the center and the snow on the bottom, so it sparkles in the light. I sent her a photo and she liked it. I hope her friend likes it too.

Today I have to get to work on finishing a stack of bibles. The open book is the big question.

What to write inside? Hmmm.

Have a great weekend everyone!

On The Rocks Again.

Although I don't advertise or take commissions, I have the occasional person that approaches with a special request of me and I can't say no. This particular person is a neighbor who told me she is Jewish and she wanted a special rock to put on her grandfather's headstone. It is a Jewish custom to place a stone or a pebble on a headstone to indicate that you have visited the grave and to show respect for the deceased. This woman's grandfather used to say that he was coming back as a hawk, so she asked me if I could paint a hawk on a rock. Well, I couldn't wait to get started. I chose a photo image on Google to paint and it came out so great. It's an immature Cooper's Hawk. Hubby gave it extra clear coats so it will withstand the elements.

In lieu of a commission, I kindly requested that she make a donation to an animal shelter or rescue.

Another person requested a bible rock. I just happened to have the right stone for it.

A basic first coat.

A little bit of aging.

Here it is finished.

Some requests are very challenging, like this one. I was given this photograph of a sunset on a pond. I accepted the request, but was soon sorry I did.

I worked all day on it and ran into trouble, so I washed it off and started again. This is as far as I got yesterday. I got the sky and the pond done.

I was anxious to get this piece completed, so I started first thing in the morning. I used my new clamp on, lighted magnifier to do the details.

Here is the finished piece. Whew! Glad that's over!

I started a separate Facebook page just for my painted rocks and it got over 180 likes in just a week. Yikes! I didn't expect that. It's exciting but also terrifying as I am putting myself out there as an artist to be judged by others, but so far the response has been great. 

Work has been very tiring. I'm not able to paint after work because there are just too many things to get done at home, not to mention I'm usually exhausted. I go to bed at 7:00 so my body can get the rest it needs to function the next day. Lunch lady work is very physically demanding.

Here is a meme I made up from the mac n' cheese that was on the menu Tuesday. Our new lady on staff made it and it came out great on her first try. I have to make it the next time it comes around again on the menu. It's one of the more difficult dishes to prepare because there's a risk of burning the cheese in the tilt skillet.

Things at home are good. It's been terribly hot here in Alabama the past couple of weeks. Everyone is ready for fall and cooler temperatures. The heat is really starting to drain people, I think. Hubby has to pace himself and drink lots of water while he's on the job working outside all day. 

Yesterday we  went to the home stores shopping for flooring for Megan's room. She's going to be away for a week next month and we want to pull up her carpet and replace it with a laminate floor. I like the vinyl plank floor in my office, but don't love it the sound it makes, so we decided to go with a wood product for her room and eventually, our bedroom as well. This is very similar to the flooring in our living room and we like it. It has a wavy, hand scraped look giving it a more realistic feel.

Our pets are doing well, especially Mister. I won't lie. He's our favorite. We call him our house lion.

Oh, and finally, hubby and I celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary a couple of weeks ago. 

If you are reading this from any of the areas affected by floods, my thoughts are with you and
I hope you are safe and doing okay. Have a good Sunday.