3 Birthdays in May

 This past weekend we had a big 3 person birthday party at my sisters Grethe's house. (Odin, Ron and Leon all have birthdays in May). It was nice seeing my sister Odin and her 5 boys. Her kids are getting older and 2 are out of the nest already so having them altogether was pretty good.



Sienna, Me, Odin, Brielle



 Here is a photo of my 19 year old nephew Lukas (a marine mechanic), with my girls. Doesn't he look like the singer in Lady Antelbellum?! He was actually sitting on Sienna's lap. Now- Lukas is about 6'5" and Sienna is just a tiny thing so it was pretty funny to see.

Here are most of the kids. They all enjoyed being together. Leon was opening his birthday gift.

Here's Ron (brother in law) with the cake. Since it was a Hawaiian theme the cupcakes had flowers and bugs(!) on them.

 Here is my cousin with her 2 girls, Katelin (who is graduation high school in a couple of weeks) and Lauren who is going into high school next year.


Qena and Quince



My mom brought her bubble machine. The little ones loved it! Quince kept trying to catch them with his mouth. (ewww)

Here we are with my mom. I know she loved having her (almost) whole family together.  

Turkey at my window

Yesterday I woke up to the sound of a Turkey gobbling outside my window! I looked outside and here was this big guy fluffing up his tail feathers, trying to attract a mate but the only other animal around was my cat who was on top of his cat perch in the window just staring at him. I think the Turkey was actually courting Simby because he was looking right at him as he gobbled away. I guess I'm not the only one who needs glasses!

What a beautiful bird though. So big with all his feathers fluffed! Finally I had to interrupt him to take Sienna to the bus stop. But it didn't totally scare him away because he was back this morning!

Martha's Vineyard Map

Here's a map I just made. It is for Heather and Paul's wedding this Sat. in Martha's Vineyard. It's a gift from a friend, so if you know them don't tell. I think the map came out great but it wasn't without great pains. First of all- I had it all finished ( hand colored) then noticed that I spelled Vineyard wrong (Vinyard). Nice huh? I need a spell check implanted in my head! Then I put the heart (where they are getting married) in the wrong place. So much for Google maps! So, anyway,  it's finished and in the mail now. It was fun to make though and I think I'm going to add some things to it and possibly sell it. It's small and fits into a 8x10 frame, so it's an easy size.

Now my Simby is laying on my right wrist as I'm typing this. He's purring away even though his head is going up and down with every keystroke. It's kind of funny to watch. I don't want to stop typing because then I'll have to move his head and he's so happy. Oh he moved... by for now!

Cape Cod Earthquakes

Busy today working on coloring this antique city view of New Orleans. It's really very large- about 40" long by 20" high. It should take me a while but it's going to look great when it's done!

On another note, Cape Cod had 2 earthquakes last night! One was a magnitude of around 2. something and one was 1. something. So basically I didn't feel them.

Pocket Angel Rocks

I have been very busy painting more angel rocks, or "Pocket Angels" as I've dubbed them. I thought I'd share with you my process:

 First of all I have to walk miles and miles of Cape Cod beaches to collect them.  

Going for a walk in the sunshine, on a beautiful beach, with the sound of seagulls and waves rolling in is a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it! You'll notice the beaches are bare- no tourist yet....(it's only 50 degrees out, it's no wonder!) 

Then I hand select each rock, picked only when it's the ripest. Ok, well maybe not the ripest, but the flattest and best shaped. Bending over to pick them up  a million times is certainly good for ... hmmm?? I don't know- all I know is I have sore muscles the day after.

Then the (other) fun part of painting begins. I hand paint each little rock then coat them with a shiny gold gloss coat. They kind of remind me of coins with the gold on both sides. I love coins, especially from other countries. (I have a little collection of them.)

I don't know if photos do these angel rocks justice- you really have to HOLD the rock in your hand to appreciate it I think. It's just a little piece of Earth with angelic energy in it. How neat!

I think that I will carry one with me where ever I go. My new motto is "What can I give today?" and the other day I overheard someone talking about an upcoming surgery and I sooo wanted to slip her a Pocket Angel for comfort, but I didn't have one on me. I'll know better next time, but really- what a great little thing to give to someone- even a perfect stranger.

Today's Quote

"Each person you come into contact with expands your Universe."

Think of this when you are confronted with people that you just want to run away from. They are all here to expand our Universe, to co-create with us in one form or another, to help us grow. I think you could add to the quote and say each situation helps us expand too. I say that because I'm still looking for the positives in my address book being hijacked. I did find another good thing- I'm getting emails from people I haven't heard from in ages and it's been really fun reconnecting!

Suspicious Links

Bad news... my email address book has been compromised and someone is sending out suspicious links to everyone in it. (So don't open any links from me via email!!!) How frustrating! I really hope they aren't x rated links. So far I've heard about one being a yoga studio, and one for Viagra. What else? Why must people do this? I'm not sure what to do except alert all my contacts. (People I haven't talked to in years...  I guess this is one way to stay in touch!) Just trying to look at the bright side, but.... I may even have to change my email address that I've had for years. I hope not.

I guess this is just one of those little glitches on the road of life.

In honor of the upcoming Memorial Day I've posted this little painting on Ebay. It's hard to believe that May is here already. Winter seemed to fly by even though we had a lot of snow.

Happy Sailing!

Mother's Day 2011

I had the best Mother's Day! It started out with my daughter Brielle going to the dump with me. Yes, that made my day because #1) she actually came with me and #2) she sat in the car patiently while I poked around  at the swap shop.

 

Here's my sweet lamby and her little cousin Qena. My guy took us all out to lunch at a gluten free restaurant (so I could eat anything on the menu!) And that was pretty special.

Then we ended up at the mall where Sienna and Brielle were actually getting along! (the Whole day too!!) Now- that in itself -is a wonderful Mother's day present. They were goofing around holding hands for a minute or two. They gave me a gift card for Barnes and Noble so I bought two spiritual books. I'm so excited to read them!! I eat up those kind of books.

Then we came home, crashed on the couch and watched the shows that I like- HGTV. (not their shows!) The best present was that they spent the whole day with me! No friends, no boys, just a day hanging out with their Mom. I couldn't have asked for anything more.

After dinner we all went over to my sisters house to honor our mom and have dessert. Brielle made these cupcakes!

Auntie Grethe always enjoys my girls and visa-versa. She's pretty much their second mom, as well as being a mom to her own 2 cute little rugrats.

And here's my Mumma holding one of them, Qena. We all had a nice time but we couldn't stay too long because Desperate Housewives was on! I know, that's pathetic.

Knee Boarding/ Wakeskating

In case you are wondering if I took up a new sport, I didn't.

But I had to show you thse photo's that my daughter Sienna took of her friends from school. These boys made a special winch in shop class that can actually pull them along so they can Knee Board or Wakeskate (one word?) without a boat! 

They set it up along the shoreline of a curved pond then run back with the tow line as far as they can. Here they have set up a picnic table jump in about 2-3 feet of water. Now, I have to mention that these photo's were actually take in Feb or March when it was freeeezing out! You'll notice they have wetsuits on, but even still...

The other thing they do is take the winch to an old grown in cranberry bog (which has water channels) and set it up there.Ther first time Sienna took photos of them, they spent about 2 hours chipping the ice off the channel so they could skate. It was pretty neat watching them Wakeskate through the wooded area with snow and ice on the ground. I have that video too but I'm not sure where I put it. whoops. Anyway,  I really like the sparkles on the water and just the sillowhette of the Knee boarder. I can see a painting in here somewhere.

Blessing of the Bikes, Dennis Ma.

Yesterday was the annual Blessing of the Bikes at West Dennis Beach, in Dennis. The girls and I always like to go and luckily it wasn't raining! It was still quite cold especially when riding, so we had to dress warm. Brielle rode on the back of my bike and Sienna came a little later with her dad on his bike.

As you can see it is a well attended event. Bikers from near and far, and from every age group, came to have their motorcycles blessed.

Even my little niece Qena came! The wind was so cold that I gave her my scarf to wear around her head.

 

We really like to go to this event because the energy is so high. People are really excited to be on their bikes after a cold snowy winter. It's fun to look at everyones motorcycles too- you'll see every imaginable kind there. It's a little like window shopping.  

Even though my sis doesn't ride (she has rheumatoid arthritis so she can't even if she wanted to..) she and her family like to go and watch the fun. Quince (her son, 6 ) played in the sand the whole entire time. He was having a ball- in fact, he was finding rocks for me for my "Pocket Angels"!

Here comes the Deacon (I guess that's what he was), riding high on a fire truck with his big brush dipped in holy water- drenching some, missing others. I didn't get one drop on my bike :( so I had to wipe some off of my boyfriends bike.) He didn't mind sharing. Then I blessed my own bike.

All blessed and ready to go! What a fun day.