Will this month never end?

Seriously, I'm ready for the July 4th weekend... a 3 day weekend for us

Just wrapping up this month with a couple of items. Found these awesome little salt and pepper shakers at the church bizarre. They are so Floridiana... is that a word? Wait, let me check... yes! It is. 

Jerry has been busy in the garden. He planted this little bed in the front yard to try to cover up the ugly fence our creepy neighbors put up before they moved away. They were also good enough to leave us a mosquito farm in their yard provided by a "pond" that has no working pump. How nice of them... not.

This morning I saw a rustling in the oak tree out back and thought it was my Maine coon, Levon. No, but close. Coon minus the Maine. Can you spot her?

In the studio.... this started out as one of my little paper doll people. I cut him out and put him in my pocket and took him to paint for fun night at Larry Joe Miller Studio. I started the painting at the event and finished him at home. I'm thinking of adding some more to this...hmmmm.....

Yummy avocados!

June happnins

Well, yet another child is moving away. Is it me? Do I offend? Actually I am very happy for them... the newlyweds. Chris got a job with BMW in Jacksonville and Bridget is going to go to U of N Florida for nutrition. Che, who is up there already, got a job in Palatka today, so it is all working out to plan. A plan I guess God has going that he hasn't actually clued me in on yet, but who am I to question. I am just happy for all of them. No, no... don't feel bad about leaving your poor old mother behind. I'll manage somehow...

I'm just not as good at the old Irish Catholic mother guilt as my mom is... hmmm....

Jerry thought that since the parsonage is surrounded by lakes on both sides , it would make sense to get a boat. Just a little fun 14' skiff. He's naming her after one of my favorite literary characters, The Orry Baxter. Awesome name!

Another message is emerging from the swamp... g...

Turtle fini

Finished the sea turtle painting. Turn off the Lights 24x12 acrylic on wood

I see someone has been weaving a lot more than me lately....

The garden is looking pretty good these days. The drought conditions of summer haven't taken hold yet. The rose bush is producing with a vengence!

Piecing some colors to Mr. Gator. Hmmmm.... not sure I'm liking this at all. Will need to play around with it some more.

Turn the lights off 

Headed towards June

May has been a very hectic month and I'm glad it's almost over. Lots of good stuff, but still stressful.

I have arrived at my new work home at the Main library, downtown Ft. Lauderdale. There are supposed to be some interesting things coming in the future... a move to a bigger space, butterfly gardens, partnerships with MOA, Ft. Laud.  Should prove to be interesting. Here's a picture of my little space

Upon reading an article about how urban area beach lighting affects sea turtles, I was inspired to do this new piece. I'm using a 2x4 that I found in the garage. I like the idea and the feel of painting on wood. I don't like frames... I really don't. For some reason frames feel like a barrier, and I feel like there are enough of those in my life.

Ascending sea turtles...

...bringing a message

Mr. Gator is coming along too. I will be adding more to the quilt top and have added some lights and "little pink houses for you and me". This one will be called Zero Lot-Line Bayou

Miss Puddy is giving me the eye. She is reminding me that I have not done any work on the big loom. Yes, the rug has been neglected during this hectic month of May but now since things seem to be slowing down, I will work on it a bit every day.

Closing Time

We returned from closing on the parsonage in Crescent City last night and I still feel like I'm coming out of a dream. It was a strange and emotional 4 days.

When we got to C. City, the weather had turned bad and there were tornado warnings. That's a good sign, right?

Storm clouds over Lake Stella

We got to the house to do the walk through and the owner and Realtor  were there. They showed us around the yard first and then the house, giving much detail on both. This was super helpful as there seemed to be a lot to know.  The owner had suffered a tragedy four years ago which I won't go into for the sake of privacy. I think that her selling the house with everything in it is a way for her to try to move on which she seems to be having a very hard time doing.

After the closing I was exhausted, physically and mentally. We went back to the parsonage and I had a good cry. Then Jerry took me to Musselwhite's in Palatka and I had a gorgeous steak dinner! Feeling much better.

Day 2 we went to the insurance place and Kmart in Palatka for some odds and ends. I was still exhausted from the day before and my balance was lousy. We took a little walk at Dunne's Creek park, stopped at Winn Dixie and got a rack of spare ribs that the C. City soccer team had going in the smoker out front to raise money for the kids... yum... We had dinner on the front porch and watched the sun set over Lake Stella.

Day 3 the girls came up with Minnie. I really needed them too. Up to this point I felt like I was in someone else's house and essentially I was. The owner left everything... like down to shampoo and silverware. And being as I felt like I was in a B&B, I was doing nothing to change this. I was still in the, "OMG she left her grandmothers handsewn quilt behind!" stage. So the girls started getting things together and got us moving. My sister and her husband came up too and stayed a few hours. We headed back up to Winn Dixie for more of those smoked BBQ ribs for everyone. After my sister went back down to Cocoa Beach, we all took Minnie for a walk to see the bald eagle nest down the street... yeah, right down the street. It was dusk and from over head came a big hoot... a big old barred owl right over head just like this one! He was eyeing Minnie I think.

And in the field across the street from our house, fireflies. I haven't seen fireflies since I was a little girl and used to collect them in a jar.

Jerry and Minnie by Lake Stella

Day 4 the girls went exploring as this will be Che's home in a couple of weeks. We got to babysit Minnie. Took her for a long walk to the park to wear her out. Fat chance. She's a fun girl though but a handful. She is a Plott hound mix and at 10 months already weighs 57 lbs. Minnie is a pound rescue and we all love her already.

We all hung around till about 4:30 and headed back to Hollywood. This has been just a wonderful 4 days and I feel so incredibly blessed. The next couple of weeks will be rough. Waiting for the doctors to review my case and see what is to be done with the brain booger. But the memory of fireflies will sustain me.

Staycay over

We took a week off and just hung out around here. We were waiting to be called to go to closing on the Crescent City house, and hoping it would happen during the week off, but of course that would have been too easy. Anyway, we close on the 15th of May, so we'll just need to take a couple more days off gosh darnit!

While hanging around the house like a couple of slugs, we did manage to go to Big Cypress Loop Road and do some site seeing (but mostly me running away from blow flys and giant hornets). There were quite a few of these guys about

We also went to one of my favorite places in S FL, Fairchild Tropical Gardens. It is a gorgeous place and they now have a wonderful butterfly and hummingbird house

Not sure if you can see his sweet little tiny-ness. Little miracles with wings

And look at this handsome fellow! We've never seen a multicolored lizard like this guy... he looks like a little dinosaur

I am still working on the Jacaranda quilt. But I've also been playing with the new Derwent Inktense pencils and I love them! This is acrylic with some pencil work.

If you wet the fabric beforehand, the pencil glides on ... just like butta!