Steph's birthday & sibling night.

**UPDATE: I FORGOT THE MOST EXCITING NEWS...

STEPHIE GOT A JOB AND STARTS AT THE CREDIT UNION ON FRIDAY, 12/12!

THANK YOU, LORD, FOR THIS ANSWERED PRAYER!**

My Stephie turned 24 years old on the 13th of November! Where has the time gone? Stephanie Dawn With all of our crazy schedules we couldn't seem to all get together at one time so she celebrated with each of us at a different time. Here are a couple of my favorite pictures that I have scanned in. The first one was taken after I caught her playing in the powder for the hundredth or so time. She saw me and said, "I not playin' in the powder, Mommy!"

This is one of the few pictures I have of my stepdad, Joe. Stephie was pretending to blow dry his hair and he was being a very good sport.

It's hard to believe he's been gone 12 years in February.

Ashley and Rob took her to the Olive Garden on Wednesday before Thanksgiving for a belated b-day celebration. Here are some pictures from that night.

Rob & Steph

Ashley & Steph Rob & Ashley

Steph took this great shot of Rob

Steph was struck by the "blue-dot-pool-cue bandit!"

I guess Ashley won this game!

It was just the 5 of us for Thanksgiving. I can't tell you the last time it was just the 5 of us. I love to have LOTS of people for holidays but it just didn't work out this year. Steph and I are going to do a show on the 6th of November (less than a week!) so we've been painting a lot. I will probably post on my new blog soon. If I don't get a chance to work on it I may post a few here.

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Our friends from Tennessee, Paul, Tracy & Katie, visited her Mom during Thanksgiving. Since mine and Paul's birthday are about 7 weeks apart, we got to hang out a bit on Friday night to celebrate Paul & I turning 50 since we weren't able to get together before now.

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Wayne and Rob attended their last "home" game in Tallahassee on Saturday. When they left it was raining...they traveled in the rain...it rained the whole game...they traveled back in the rain...and it was still raining when they got home! On top of that, FSU lost also, but they pretty much expected as much so it wasn't too disappointing. ~

We lost a dear friend this month, Henry Burroughs. He and his wife, Alice, were like parents to me and grandparents to our children. "Mrs. Alice" was our children's babysitter from the time Stephanie was 9 months old. Mr. Henry was a sport and one of the happiest people I ever met. He will be missed so much. His funeral was followed by 2 more within a week. They were both fathers of friends. One was very unexpected and is still a shock.

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Rob got a new dog, Zoe. She is part boxer and as sweet as she can be. They believe she is 1-2 years old and was found and rescued in downtown Macon. She has an ulcer on her right eye and though it has improved with the vet and Rob's care, she may be blind in that eye.

She and Rob adore each other as you can see.

I'm sure there is more that I forgot to add, but this will have to do for now.

Hugs ~ Kim

Prayer Request revisited, "Sandy" & Painting...

If you haven't read my other post from today about my prayer request, please read that first. If you don't mind, please leave me a comment on that post so I can let Wayne know how many of you are praying for him. He's really frightened. Thank you all so much!

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The kitty is a girl (according to the vet) so her name is "SANDY"! Donna (Dewberry) didn't sound right for a cat and I think Sandy is THE BEST, so "Sandy" it is! Thanks for the idea, Stepher, but don't think that I hadn't already thought of that and was hoping that is what you would suggest. Great minds think alike! "Sandy" sounded much better than "Yellow Ocre" or "Burnt Umber" or "Chisel" or "Rake" or "More Paint" or ""Blend, shade & highlight"! Although, "Sunflower" and "Midnight" and "Scruffy" were all candidates. All of my One Stroke painting buddies will know EXACTLY what I'm talking about! And to think, just 1 year ago all of these were just words and had no meaning except according the "Webster" and not "Donna". Okay, we all know I'm obsessed and I guess this proves it! Hey, it's MY kitty so her name has to mean something to me!

I have to tell you about my new treasures! Well, I've actually had them since December 2002, but they've been in boxes ever since my Dad brought them to me. These 2 paintings were done, in oils, by my grandmother who passed away many years ago. She was a very talented artist who did lots of oil canvases as well as china painting. I may change out the '70s frames but they are in perfect shape!!

I can remember going to her house and having so much fun staying up half the night working her latest arts and crafts project. Since I've gotten back into painting these mean so much more to me than they did when I received them and I am so grateful that they have been passed to me. They are truly treasures!

Coneflowers and Black-eyed Susans that we painted in class tonight. I enlarged this one to show more detail, though it is a bit distorted as this lower resolution. We had great fun with 6 in class and I was so excited to take the class with 3 other ladies from work. I think we got them "hooked" on painting with Sandy too! Isn't my butterfly cute?

I set the canvas on two different frames that already have paintings in them to see which I liked better. The brown frame really brings out the wooden fence...

...but the white frame really makes the flowers pop! What do you think????

I also wanted to start decorating a bit for fall and painted this 4" tall THICK glass jar that I purchased at Wally-world with some leaves and fall trees. The trees are gorgeous. I painted them with my "fan" brush. Two ladies at work kept taking it and putting it on their desks! Oh, I filled it with Pumpkin Spice Potpourri which is orange, brown and white. It's REALLY pretty! The pictures really don't do it justice.

Side 1

Side 2

Side 3

Side 4

Please rememeber to think of us on Wednesday when Wayne has his heart cath. Thank you for all of your prayers! Hugs ~ Kim

Painting, Miles and Passion...

I thought I'd post of few things I painted this weekend and so you the start of something else I started working on. First of all Steph had an order from work for a welcome sign with sunflowers but has been so busy she hasn't been able to get to my house to paint it. She called me desperately requesting that I paint it for her. She does a beautiful job on her sunflowers so I hoped I could do one that was as good as hers. I even signed her initials before spraying it with acrylic because I wasn't sure if her friend expected her to paint it or not. She told me later that it would have been ok for me to put mine. Oh well, I had fun painting it.

Without flash...

...with flash.

I painted this apron to wear to my painting class on Saturday. I have gotten just a little bit of paint on nearly everything I own so I decided that I needed something to paint on consistently. I wanted it big and bold so when I got paint on it, it would show too much. Well, I certainly got big and bold. It's a nice apron with 3 pockets. Here is the Calla Lily picture frame I painted in class. I struggled with it at first but was diligent and pretty happy with the outcome. I decided to put a picture of me at 1 year old with my beloved great-grandmother whom I lovingly called "Memomer Partridge". She babysat me a LOT when I was a baby and a young child. She passed away when I was 16 years old so I knew her very well and have so many wonderful memories of times spent with her. She would always make me my favorite, "Chicky and noodles". I also remember taking a baths at her house in her vintage claw-foot tub. She'd also play with me hours on end making tents and reading books in them. She had the most gorgeous hair and she'd let me brush it for her. She was a special woman in my life and I miss her dearly.

One of my coworkers asked me to make a sign for her Mom to put on her door at her nursing home. So, I painted this tonight. I love the colors and the yellow is beautiful against the green. This is without the flash...

...this is with the flash.

Here is my latest project. This is going to be a birdbath...hopefully!

As you can see, they are tera cotta pots and a saucer.

I painted all three pieces with Wicker White Outdoor paint.

The same lady that wanted the Sunflower Welcome Sign wants a birdbath with Sunflowers also. I believe Steph said they are wedding gifts. I'm excited to see how these come out! Check back to see the work in progress. I hope to be able to work on it some this week but I'll have to see how my week progresses.

I feel compelled to mention the loss of a wonderful young man, Miles Alpern Levin. He was diagnosed with a rare form of pediatric cancer just over 2 years ago and the Lord called him home early this morning. He was only 18 years old but in those few short years and especially in the last 2 years of his life since his cancer diagnosis, he made a huge impact on thousands of lives. Those who had the joy of meeting Miles in person received a special gift but even those, like me, who just knew of Miles through his Care Page, his CNN interviews and other public appearances, were touched. He showed great courage, strength, insight and decided no matter how long he had left on earth he wanted to make a difference in the lives of others and he did!

There is a comment on his page that links to a beautiful powerpoint presentation, What WILL Matter. If you have a few minutes, please take the time to watch. It is at the very least thought-provoking.

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Steph, Brian and I taking a "Network" class on Spiritual Gifts at Lifepoint in the spring. Due to some conflicts with the facilitator and other extenuating circumstances we finally had our follow-up meeting today after church. I'm going to try to meet with Brother Joe this week about starting a ministry that allows me to focus on my spiritual gifts of Mercy, Helps, Encouragement & Craftsmanship along with my passion for the elderly. Our church is so young (4 years) and has a fairly young congregation so that is an area of ministry that hasn't been looked at a whole lot. There are a lot of areas we discussed today where we can serve God and serve others and I am so excited about this opportunity. My passion for the elderly stems from knowing all of my grandparents and 3 of my great-grandparents. The elderly are so wise and so often neglected. Our world has become so fast-paced and busy that we forget what is important. I'm hoping to help change that in our community. Take care and stay tuned for updates on this ministry as well as more painting and family updates. Hugs ~ Kim

Painting

I had a request to show more of my art so I'm going to try to get caught up on that. We've had a lot of family activities this summer so it's been fun sharing pics from our celebrations and vacations.

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Before I get a bunch of comments on my Weight Watchers weigh-in, I didn't go tonight because came home from work and fell asleep for 2.5 hours. I'm going to try to go on Saturday morning but if not, I'll get get there next Thursday. I'm not trying to duck out so don't worry, but I'll get back on my regular Thursday weigh-in next week.

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I framed all three of my paintings from Saturday, July 28th and wanted to share them with you. Unfortunately this is on a white background so it doesn't show up very well, but it's very pretty.

Same with this one. However this topiary looks beautiful. I think I'm going to paint another one with slightly different leaves to hang on the other side of the room.

Remember back at the craft show on June 30th I received an order for a Ladybug sign? Well, I think it's finally ready to deliver. This is the original design . . .

. . . but she had me add some more things including the wording and here is the finished piece. It's a little busy for my taste but it is still cute.

Tonight I painted this for my friend (and boss) Tracy. I thought it came out pretty cute. She has a whole group of friends that come over every Sunday to watch the race and swim in their pool. I had already sprayed it with acrylic sealer so when I took the pic with a flash there was too much of a reflection. I'm sad about that because it really showed the beautiful cloros of the background.

I'm still going to post my Tennessee pictures and tell you all about our great weekend but it'll have to wait unti this weekend. Hugs ~ Kim

The last 2 weeks...

I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since I've posted. I spent all of last week preparing for the craft show in Macon and helping Wayne since he broke his left hand on Tuesday evening, 6/26. They were able to put him in a removable splint that he'll wear for 4-6 weeks. He goes back to the Orthopedic doctor on 7/20.

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I know many of you check out Sandy's blog and have probably seen the photos she posted of us at the craft fair. ;o) Though they were "less than flattering" pics (her photography was GREAT but she didn't have much to work with) several of our friends and family let me know that they were thrilled to see the pics of us at the show. We was honored that she took the time to come to Macon to support us especially since she was leaving for vacation the next day. She also spoiled us, as usual, by bringing us some Beauty Control products for our hands. She's such a doll! Here are some pics of the things we painted before the sale.

We sold several personalized Welcome Signs, a few vases and MY BIRDHOUSE!!!!! It was hard to let my birdhouse go since I spent so many hours on it but it was a friend of Stephanie's that "adopted" it. We also got a few orders for custom Welcome Signs. We didn't get a picture of everything we personalized but here are 2 things we sold and personalized there.

I painted these two signs while we were at the craft show.

Stephanie has gotten several orders for canvases, welcome signs, & a birdbath (it'll be our first). We were surprised that several people asked us if we did wall murals. That is something that we haven't done yet but are interested in doing when we get a little more confident. I'd also like to thank Ashley, Brandon and Jessica for coming to see us and Rob and Heather coming and helping us pack everything up. We were so exhausted when we were finished I'm not sure Steph and I could have done it without Rob & Heather! We appreciate you!

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Weight Watchers update...

Week 1 - 10.4 lost

(They made me weigh twice because they couldn't believe it!)

Week 2 - 3.4 lost

Total after 2 weeks - 13.8 lost!

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I got 4 inches cut off my hair last week.

I'll leave the update on the trees for the next post.

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July.

I need to add here that we lost a dear friend on Friday. Our facilities manager @ work and good friend, Clay Kirk, passed away suddenly of an apparent heart attack. It just won't be the same without him. His sweet wife, Tammy, and son, Clint, are in our prayers.

29 years of marriage!

Sunday was our 29th wedding anniversary. I thought it might be fun to share a picture from our wedding. Wayne was 20 and I was 19! My baby is 19 and can't imagine her getting married! The little boy and girl on either side of us are my cousins who are now in their mid thirties! We don't usually do much in the way of exchanging gifts for our anniversary but this year he wanted tickets for us to attend the Freedom Concert in Atlanta next month. Wayne is a huge fan of the Sean Hannity radio show and the proceeds benefit the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund . After we told Bryant about it he wanted to go. So, of course, we purchased an additional ticket for him. He'll LOVE it! I got a $50 Hobby Lobby gift certificate. He really doesn't like to give gift certificates because he thinks they are impersonal but I LOVE them...especially HL! I was THRILLED!!!

I had my first (of 2 in June) class on Saturday and we painted a birdhouse on canvas. This is what it looked like when I left. (No, I didn't cut my hair...it was over 100 degrees here this weekend so it's just pulled back!) I didn't have time to put a butterfly or bird on it so when I got home I started messing with it adding some red flowers, 2 hummingbirds and a butterfly. I made it WAY too busy but I had fun doing it. Here is what it looked like when I was finished.

I KNOW...HUGE Butterfly. I was trying a new type of butterfly that I saw in a book and got carried away! Here's my big FAT hummingbird! Isn't this the cutest little hummingbird? He is so tiny and perfect! I couldn't really get a good shot of this one because the metallic paint reflected so much. It is wisteria and a hummingbird. It is really pretty. Here are some welcome signs we painted and are ready for personalization at our show this weekend. We have a lot more painting to do before the show but it's more for fun than anything else. Steph painted the background of this sign with pink passion and the outer ridge with berry wine. She couldn't decide what to paint on it and was busy painting her lighthouse canvas so I painted the butterfly bushes and butterfly. I put some lighter colors on the outer ridge to tone it down a bit. Not crazy about this one. The hibiscus on the right came out okay but I struggled with the other one. Oh well. That's the way it goes sometimes.

Steph painted the remaining 3 signs. She did a great job!

Steph's sunflower - It's beautiful!

I think this is my favorite! It looks so fresh and bright!

Remember the vase my friend and coworker purchased for her Mom from a previous post? Here it is with the flowers she gave to her Mom. She said her Mom loved it! I'm so glad!

As I came in from the pool with my camera I decided to take a shot of General Lee. When I get him out of the cage and put him on top he likes to walk over and give me a kiss. I think he was more intrigued with my camera than giving me a kiss...see the next picture!

Be sure to check out Stephanie's blog to see her seascape.

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Went back to Weight Watchers on Thursday. I've done really well and feel better. My BP was up last week so after going on another med I've gotten more motivation! I'm a lifetime member but the first time I joined, after child # 2 was born, I only had 13 lbs to lose and thought I was a cow. Oh well, sometimes we have to go through the struggle to really appreciate what is on the other side.

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Keep checking back for updates on our painting. I'll be posting the progression of our 9 trees being removed when (if) they ever get finished. It's been pretty amazing! Hope you have a great week and I'll post more later...stay tuned! Hugs ~ Kim