Brielle and I

Brielle came home from college Sunday night and stayed until this afternoon. It was a very short visit, but I'll take any time I can with my sweet lamby. Right before she left we were looking at photo's on Facebook and I noticed I don't have any of me and her together, so we shot off a few to try and get ONE good one.

(not this one, too blurry)...
Goofy girl. Definitely not this one...
Smaaaaack! I couldn't resist. We were having fun, but not this one either....

We used a little photo editing on this one...
maybe a little too much! Help we're fading......................So, not this one....

Happy Valentine's Day! (see on the window behind us?) Appropriate for the season, but still not this one...

Viola! This was the one- finally. Just us girls, looking like... well, us girls, plain and simple.

We had a little snow the other day so I took my camera out and what caught my eye were; my hammock and the branches on the trees. The twigs and branches really stood out with the snow on them, making all kinds of interesting patterns and designs.

This little aceo painting was inspired by them.
http://stores.ebay.com/Cape-Cod-Artist

Hey, I just found this photo of my sweet lamby on Facebook! She looks so pretty in the apron I bought her for her 20th birthday a few weeks ago. (and doing the dishes at that!) wow! She really is grown up.

Here's one more from Facebook. Me and my mumma. Boy my hair looks dark compared to hers!
This was from Thanksgiving this past year.

Gratitude

Today I am grateful for my health and happiness.

Today I am grateful for all my loved ones, and their health and happiness, and for being a part of their lives.

Today I am grateful for today because this is the best day of my life. (living in the now!) My today is filled with love and light.

When I think of some of the islands I recently visited and about how a lot of them live; in tiny run down shacks, in total poverty, it really makes me thankful for what I have; even the tiniest things like a pair of shoes on my feet, heat in my house, and a warm soft bed to sleep in at night. We all have something to be thankful for. What are you grateful for today?

Well here it is the end of January and once again I am driving around with a big "R" (for rejection) sticker on my windshield. I told you I was having a bad week. But I am trying to look at the positives in all the 'stuff' that has happened lately and yes, I have found some gems. I believe that the Universe is always trying to communicate with us, we just have to figure out what it's saying. Time for reflection.

Anyway....it was in the single digits yesterday but today the temps climbed back up into the 30's. My shower drain- which was still frozen- got unfrozen when someone suggested I pour salt down it! (See? that was a positive) It snowed almost all day today- just light flurries- the kind that I love to watch fall down. There's just something so mesmerizing about it.

Simba is laying on my right arm now making it very hard to type (without bothering him)! It's kind of his special place where my other cat can't bother him and he gets ALL of my attention. How can I deny him of that? My baby boy.

More pics from my trip.

This was the one beach we went to- just to lounge around and soak up the sun. It was beautiful as you can see but the sun kept flickering on and off as the clouds rolled by, occasionally letting loose a down pour or two. A few minutes later and it would pop back out again, so 'No Problem Mon'!

Here I am early in the morning getting ready to disembark on this island....I can't even remember which one it was! There wasn't much down time on this vacation- it was go, go, go all the time, but I was loving all the new experiences.

I do remember which island this was on- it was St. Kitts. We visited this fort high atop a mountain over looking the Caribbean Sea. In fact, we took a taxi tour around the island which was a great thing to do.

Here I am standing next to a cliff at a roadside vista, trying to hold my hair down in the high winds- never mind my skirt! I bought some shelled coconut there and it was soooo good. There was this beautiful brindled dog wandering around (there are so many of them just wandering around on these islands) but this one really spoke to me. It reminded me of my childhood dog, Brindle, a sweet and loving soul, whom my daughter was named after.
If you look really closely on this photo, there is a rainbow above my head. It was one of the several rainbows that I saw on this trip.
So neat!
Here's the cruise ship in comparison to one of the islands, again, I'm not sure which one this was! Yikes. I have to admit though, I have a terrible memory.

And here I am, worn out and tired from the day's events. I think this was the day we climbed down to the base of a huge waterfall. Quite the workout- it must have been Grenada.
Here's the waterfall. Yes, that was Grenada. There, I bought some really, REALLY good, crispy, banana chips. I've tried so hard to make them at home but just can't figure out how they did it. :(

The last island we visited was Tobago. There we took a glass bottom boat out to the coral reef and then over to this little sandbar. There were several other tour/glass bottom boats doing the same thing as you can see. It feels weird to be a tourist. Kind of like a fish out of water.

At the sandbar we all got out and swam or walked around. It was only about 3 feet deep and the sand was made out of coral remains so it was a little bit gritty, but still nice.
Me -happy- loving the sunshine.

On the way back we passed this little spot that looked so tropically perfect.
The cruise had 2 formal nights, which were kind of fun. Once in a while I like to get dressed up; I mean, I spend most of my days in grubby clothes for painting.

And that was my wonderful vacation. I feel so fortunate to have been able to go. I always enjoy seeing new places and experiencing new things. They keep my creative juices flowing.

New Angels Jan 2011

2.5"x3.5" http://stores.ebay.com/Cape-Cod-Artist

It's been a tough week for me. Lots of things going on- car problems, money issues, ex husbands, people dying, fun stuff like that. I have to say though, that when I was feeling the pull of all that negativity, I brought my focus back to my angels; the actual paintings that I've done, and immediately I started to feel better. Just focusing on their energy can be uplifting. I'm kind of lucky in that respect, I have a bunch of angels all over my house- so it makes it easy. I have a huge one in my hall and every time I walk by it, I inhale her energy.
Ok, so I'm weird. It's all good though. :)
By the way, here are 3 new angels that I just finished yesterday. They'll be on Ebay probably tonight.

This one amazed me when it came out in just a stroke or two. Then I went to put some color on it, and I felt directed to just leave it alone. So perfect. So pure. I love it!

Brielle's 20th Birthday

Jan. 7th was Brielle's 20th birthday!! It's hard to believe that just yesterday (it seems) she was a baby and now she's a lovely, responsible, young woman. I'd like to take all the credit for that, but really, she is her own unique and beautiful person. I can only take credit for giving birth to her then pointing her in the right direction. Luckily, she made the choice to go that way. (but I'd still love her no matter what)
Since Brielle has decided to take up cooking as of late, Grandmom gave her a cupcake cookbook for her birthday, so she, G-mom and Auntie Grethe made Flamingo cupcakes for her party.

All her loved ones came to celebrate the big occasion.
And Quince (her 6 yr old cousin) even gave her one of his quartz rocks from his prized rock collection. He was so proud to bestow this treasure upon her. It was received with the same love that it was given in. Now he is hoping she'll take good care of it. But I know she will.

Brielle's flock of flamingos. Aren't they cute?!

One more thing about Brielle. When I was on vacation, she had the house all to herself. Now, even though she was told NOT to have any wild parties while I was gone, she did it anyway. Here are photo's.

Oh, did I mention it was a DINNER PARTY? She invited her two friends over and they made cupcakes from her new book. (I think it was just a front- all the boys must have been hiding)
And wait...what's that on the table? Alcohol?

No....it's only sparkling cider.
Aww how can I be mad when they made such cute cupcakes?!
Seriously, it cracked me up because while I was away, I told someone that - if my 20yr. old daughter had a party while I was gone, she and her friends would probably clean up before leaving and the house would be in better shape than it was before the party! Sure enough! That's my Brielleee.

I love you hunny! You are such a wonderful daughter. Thanks for picking me to be your mom.

Angels and Rainbows

When I was flying I was feeling a little anxious so I asked the angels to show themselves in the clouds below me and Voila! Look what I saw!! There was several of them, not just one as I expected to see.

Here's a close up. This was after trying to rummage through my bag and get my camera out, so the clouds had dissipated a bit, but even still...pretty cool!

Then, I woke up to this beautiful rainbow one day. It's reflection seemed to lead right to my balcony. I felt like it was there just for me.

This was the other side. I think it was in Grenada.?
The next morning I saw another rainbow off of Tobago. I have a thing about rainbows- they have special meaning to me, so I was very excited to see them all. I think they were the highlight of my trip!

Last week....

Last week I did a little of this......

to get on that.....

to go to here...and then here....
to do some of this...

and look at some of that....

and to smell some of this...


So yes, I went on a cruise to the Caribbean last week and had a wonderful time. I may post more photos soon. I took so many it may take me days to sort them all out. But to sum it all up, I am relaxed, refreshed and ready to get back to work!