Plan B

I had big plans last night.  It took me an entire day to recover from Thanksgiving (which was a lovely, lively dinner with Eletra, Wayne, Derek, Mandi, Greg, Corina, Dylan, Denis, Helen, Anne, Jon and Suzi) but by the time the work day was over I felt I could think about food again.  Poodle and I drove to the grocery store on icy roads, then went home and immediately turned on the portable heater.  I call it the fire - I turned on the fire.  It was cold!  Really, it was C.O.L.D.  I was going to cook some dinner and eat it while reading the magazine I just bought, then pack a couple of boxes and cook some chicken for lunches and start some paintings.  I have been commissioned to paint five (FIVE!) tree paintings like this one as Christmas gifts:

Woo hoo!  I figured with the fire on, and the oven on, it might be warm enough to not worry about the paint cracking while it dried.  I was all set to experiment with drying the paintings in my toaster oven if need be; wicked low heat - it could work.  So here I am with bulk Italian sausage cooking on the stove and while I am mid-chop with the cabbage, ... wait for it ... the power went out.  Let me say that again.  THE POWER WENT OUT.  It was about 6:15 or so.  sigh.  I rounded up all my candles (five of them) and put fresh batteries in my tiny little flashlight.  Poodle and I huddled under a comforter on the couch, reading my new magazine by flashlight, with ten frozen fingers and one frozen nose.  The power came back on at 10:30.  Needless to say I had a really late dinner, no chicken was cooked, and I packed my stuff and brought it to work today so I can paint here after we close.

Note to self:  get more candles and a bigger flashlight.

A little here, a little there....

There have been crazy things happening around here, leaving me no time to update my blog.

Actually, that's totally not true.  There have been crazy things happening, yes, but I still have time to go home at night and become one with my couch.  But I haven't been writing anything here.  I think I'm so overwhelmed with the good, the bad and the ugly -- I don't know where to start.  So let's skip it all and just talk about paint.  Yes, I HAVE painted a few things lately.  First there is a butterfly.  I named it Jewel Tones:

It's not half bad.  The colors in the first photo are more accurate - the background is more of a purpley blue.  Next I painted a donation for the Museum's annual Festival of Trees fundraiser.  This one is called Lightly Falling Snow:

And since we were painting trees, here is a single for the gallery.  I named it Evergreen.  Hope I haven't already used that name.

Let's see, what else.  Oh - I found an older piece leaning against my refrigerator.  I hadn't varnished it because it is in the questionable pile, but now I like it.  It is called First Snow, Harvest Moon.  The panel is 18" wide x 14" high so it is on the big side for me.  It is nothing special, but I like the moon.

That's it for now, except for two things.  Thing one is a sunset in my jeep:

And thing two is a sleepy poodle:

That's my girl.
The end.