RTT & Spin Cycle - the countdown is on

Our vacation starts Friday at 5pm or as we like to call it:

4 days, 10 hours, 50 minutes and 54 seconds away

OR

384,654 seconds

OR

6410 minutes (rounded down)

OR

106 hours (rounded down)


We are driving to here:

 Where we will ride the rides until our heads spin. Sit by the pool at our resort and drink fru fru drinks (defined as drinks that contain one or more of the following items: fruit, veggies, olives, straws, or umbrellas), and I'll watercolour paint.




We are going to eat and drink our way through here:

I will post all about my vegetarian trip through Disney. I'm sure it will be thrilling.






We are going to visit:


Casey and Jen and Sprite


And, I am so excited that I can hardly contain myself. Let's call it a dream date!






I have fears about being leaving. They are (in no particular order):

My plants and their continued greeness without me for 12 days.
My dogs and their continued breathing without JR and I for 12 days.
The housemates that aren't going with us and their continued eating.
My house and its bust bunny accumulation.
My car and its ability to make the trip (though my mechanic says we are all good).
Whether I should bring my laptop.
Whether I will forget my camera.
Whether I will lose those last 5 pounds.
How much my bank account will suffer.
What clothes should I take and will it all fit in the car. 


I know all of these things will not be a problem but I can't help myself. I worry.




We plan to make a big loop: our travels will take us from Orlando to Savannah, GA, where we plan to look at old houses that we couldn't possibly afford and dip our toes into the Atlantic. 

From there we will make our way to Chattanooga, TN along as many back roads of Georgia that we can find. We are back roads kind of people. Freeways are boring. We may get lost. That is not a bad thing because that is where we find all the coolest places. I will probably find enough places to post at least one, "We could afford this" house post. If you haven't read on of these posts you'll find few here and here. 


From Chattanooga we will take a couple of days to drive home through Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Once again, taking as many back roads as time will afford. I think of it as more opportunities to visit the local talent. We may have to hot foot it through Louisiana but since we've seen a great deal of it I'm okay with that. 


All in all, my butt will be sore from sitting in the car, my feet will be sore from walking through as many museums, battlefields, old houses, nature trails, amusement parks, junk shops and old bookstores as I can squeeze in, I'll have gained weight and our bank account will be empty but my blog will be full of pictures and stories.


Want to come with us?


Love,
M


PS: visit Stacy for others participating in RTT. You'll be glad you did. Also, check out some of the Spins this week at Jen's place. It's all about dream dates.

Waitin' on a Spin

It seems that I spend a lot of time waitin' 

Just this morning I woke up 30 minutes before the alarm went off. I waited until it did to get up.

Just this morning I waited for the coffee to brew or would that be steep in my house since we drink french press coffee every morning. And, a lot of it. And it was worth waitin' for.

I finished a paintin' last night. I'm waitin' for it to dry before sending it out. I'd show it to you but I promised I wait. 

 

I'm waitin' until my Nessa dog learns to pick up her babies (toys). I'm pretty sure I'll be waitin' a long time. At the present time there are baby arms, legs, and guts strewn around the house. We now have a paraplegic monkey. The new babies were bought on Tuesday as a reward for being good at the vet and groomers. I use the term "being good" loosely. I'm a sucker; she would have got them anyway. 

I'm waitin' for my trip to Ottawa. I've never been before. I also get to use that nice shiny new passport. 

I'm waitin', rather impatiently it seems, to go to Florida this October. (Jen and Casey, we'll be rolling into Orlando on Sunday night.) We are makin' plans, weighin' our travel options and saving our money. 

I'm waitin' to move. We found a large townhouse with a small fenced yard in town. My studio will almost double in size. While the kitchen is small, I'll get over it since the living space is big. Like, 700 square feet bigger big. I'll get 3 walk-in closets. Okay, JR will get 1. Still, leavin' me with 2. You know, he doesn't really need a whole walk-in closet. I think I'll put my shoes in his.

I'm waitin' until we move in to paint pictures for the covered porch. The light is kind of dim so I'm wantin' to brighten it up with something like this but since I want to take up most of one wall I'll need to wait to see how big the canvases need to be.

 That's all the waitin' I've got to do. People at work are waitin' for me to get there. I really wish I could find that job that didn't actually require my attendance. Now, click on the Spin Cycle button at top to visit other Spinners.

Love,
M

PS: sure I could and should credit the pictures above that I stole off the internet but since I didn't keep track of them we'll just let them speak for themselves. 

HiHo HiHo it's off to paint I go

Definition: A commission is an original piece of artwork completed by an artist as requested by a client.*

By this definition I am a commissioned artist. I KNOW! That sounds all big time and such. 

So, here is how the story goes (in a sort of exaggerated or I can't remember all the details form. Jen: if I'm wrong just work with me okay?):

Jen from Sprite's Keeper left a comment on the blog asking if I did portraits. Or people? I'm not really sure what. I could go look it up but yeah, not going to happen. Way too lazy. 

I said that the only recognizable person I had done was a watercolour of Bill Evan's from one of his album covers for The Boy. 

 

Or something to that effect. I still love this painting though it is sitting on the floor of my studio getting flecks of paint on it. I think I'll take it to the office. Or maybe I'll hang it in my bedroom though I'm pretty sure it will freak me out. Anyway,

Jen didn't say anything at that point but her husband John inadvertently spurred on my thoughts about the matter by posting this picture on Facebook.

I emailed Jen that if she didn't let me paint that picture than I was just going to do it anyway and keep it for myself. Okay, I didn't say I'd keep it but I probably would have or at least taunted her with the possibility of me keeping it. Which totally did not happen because;

She said that was the exact one that she wanted me to paint and asked how much would it cost. 

I told her I had no clue. The only thing I've ever done was barter with Keely for my Super Librarian logo. Which I love by the way. Best trade ever! I think we settled on a couple of tickets to DisneyWorld (I'm totally hoping for park hopper passes, btw). Which would make it another awesome trade. JR and I love DisneyWorld and Epcot Center.

Then I told her I would keep her updated with the progress and would try to have it done by Christmas. Which won't happen because of the stupid conference thing last week and the fact that white paint takes a ton of time to dry. Curse you zinc white! Anyway;

She was all "THAT would be great". Whenever you get it done. I'm pretty sure that all her emails start with "I'm so excited". Sometimes all in caps. Those of us with fragile egos need to see all caps.

Knowing the way I work I needed a deadline so as close to Christmas as humanly possible is the goal. I decided to keep it on the QT because I didn't want her husband to get a look at it by chance but yesterday she gave me the okay to show all of you.

So without further ado but a disclaimer; it's only about half done:

Jen: I took out John's photoshopping. I hope you don't mind? Oh and I thought that I would make the castle a little out of focus so that Sprite was the most distinct object. Let's call it creative license.

I'm actually a little, okay a lot, in love with this painting. A picture on the computer just doesn't do it justice. You can't really see the brush strokes. Or the little dots on her dress or her beautiful long eyelashes. 

So Jen: Are you okay with it? If not, I'm putting it up at my house. Or I'll call your parents. Think they'll spring for Disney tickets for it? BTW, I'm thinking March for a visit. Does that work for you? JR and I thought we could spend our 28th anniversary there. One more thing, is black okay for a frame? 

Love,

M

PS: It's Meatless Monday today. Let's all try to pick one day this week to go meatless. Roasted Red Pepper soup recipe coming soon. Painting first, cooking after.

Love this quote:

Jeffrey Bernard: I have been commissioned to write an autobiography and I would be grateful to any of your readers who could tell me what I was doing between 1960 and 1974.


* Creative Glossary