Bluebird Day

I got home from work today and it was all sunshine and lollipops around here.

Well, it was sunshine.

Poodle and I got in the car to drive around and marvel at the blue sky.  First I put the jeep in a ditch because, you know, I forgot there is actually a ditch on the side of the road under that snowbank.  Oops.

That cute little hill is Elmore Mountain.  It bottoms out in my back yard.

And that last picture is Lake Elmore, which is on the other side of Elmore Mountain.  Foolish people will be jumping in a hole somewhere on this lake on Saturday.  Gotta say, a polar plunge is NOT on my bucket list.

Did you notice that portrait of the jeep?

I wonder what the heck this was, and where the rest of it went.

A marshmallow field with Stowe in the background.  Every time I stopped to take a picture (and I usually stopped in the middle of the road because, you know, ditches) the UPS truck would suddenly appear behind me.  Poor UPS guy.

And we conclude our photo essay with my birdhouse that fell out of its tree about a month ago.  And when I say it fell out of its trees I mean the hanger that has probably been nailed into the tree for a thousand years fell out, too.  I don't know how that happened but I suspect there was a squirrel involved.  They're crafty.  Now the birdhouse is frozen to the ground.

So here is an oddity from long, long ago that I found in my sketchbook:

Yeah, ... what?  Crazy nonsense.

Moving on.

I painted another template tree piece and, in my optimistic fashion, I took pictures along the way.  The first coat of paint is for color and texture, although most of the texture is lost once I varnish the painting.  It looks pretty cool at this stage:

Then I threw on some white enamel paint, just because I could:

Next I made my tree stencil.  It would be infinitely more clever of me to cut this stencil out of something heavier than 60 lb paper, but I like to live on the edge.  When the first bits of paint were dry, I lined up my stencil and hoped for the best:

I peeled it off and ... :

Voila!  Cool beans.

All that happened yesterday.  Today I added the finishing bits:

If you are paying attention you will notice that the finished product is upside down from the way it started.  This is because Christine made a strategic error and didn't notice until after the varnish was on.  Oops.

That's my second oops of the day.

Roxie had an exhausting afternoon riding in the jeep and then playing with her toys.  So she napped.

That's my girl.