So….life. It’s big. And small. So much of life is the little things, but get too many little things going on at the same time and life gets big. That’s what’s happened to me lately — lots of little things adding up to a grand schedule crunch, which has, by and large, prevented me from any significant work in the studio. That should change after this weekend. It HAS to change because I have projects and deadlines coming up. But this weekend, the Amazing Reese and I have the glorious privilege of witnessing our daughter wed a wonderful young man and participate in all of the pre-wedding hoopla that goes with such a happy occasion. The bride is ready. The mother of the bride (that’s me) still hasn’t decided what she is going to wear, except for the shoes. Three days ago, I finally found the perfect pair of shoes for a mother of the bride to wear to an outdoor wedding. Shopping for shoes was no small feat for these not small feet.

I feel compelled to put up a disclaimer to people who might be adversely affected by looking at a photo of my feet. Sorry. It was a slow news day.

Sometimes, when it has been a while since painting, I’ll just do something, anything to warm up the creative juices. These three paintings were some of those. When they are more realistic, I call them sketches. I don’t really know what to call these — warm-ups?

Even though it’s hard to tell from this photo, these are all the same size, 12″ x 16″ and all are oil on paper, which was a new medium to paint on for me. Instead of putting them on the easel, I put them on the glass top of my studio desk, and painted them flat. It was quite difficult to paint to the edges. I started by using palette knives and then as much as I tried to avoid it, it turned into a finger painting project, which of course, took me back to my childhood and the magic age of five. What was more fun in kindergarten than finger painting day? I had to use my fingers to keep the paintings from slipping all around the desk. I was a mess at the end — paint everywhere — face, ears, hair, arms, and hands.

The ones on the far left and in the middle will probably get cut in
smaller pieces for note cards or something. I don’t know yet about the
one on the right. It reminds me of something – not sure what – seems
like it has a story…..maybe your story. What story would you tell to go with the painting on the right?

The last four nights of my life, I’ve literally been dreaming about our daughter’s forthcoming wedding. The best I can figure is that it’s got to be because I still haven’t absolutely decided which dress and shoes I’m going to wear as mother of the bride…..or what to do with my hair. The dreams also include friends and family who are coming to town. That’s a happy part of the dream. Maybe tonight I’ll actually focus on what I’m wearing in the dream and let my dream decide for me what I will wear. Ah, first world problems.

We’ve had an unlimited supply of guests stay with us in the last month with our listings on airbnb. It’s work, work, work, but having people in the house all the time revives me, in spite of the extra house work. That reminds me, I’ve got some sheets to wash and a bed to make.

In the porch bedroom, Reese and I have been working together to turn
this former bookcase into a usable space to hang clothes, aka, a pseudo
closet.

The guy at Sherwin Williams matched the paint EXACTLY so there is a true seamlessness to the whole bookcase/closet. I love the little cubbies on the right.

Here is is all finished — cute little space to hang a few clothes, cute basket for fresh towels. That’s an old wooden spool on the end of a makeshift closet dowel rod to keep the clothes from falling off the end, also freakishly cute. And, of course, those cubbies couldn’t be any cuter.

And yes, I realize that most people don’t get excited about closets,  and probably most people don’t think of closets as being cute, but hey, I realized that I’m not like most people a long time ago. And anyway, little pleasures in life make for big happiness.

On top of everything, I’ve painted a little bit, too, but will post about that tomorrow or the next day.

Here’s how it started: 
Hilary is on an epic bicycle journey from Texas to Alaska to raise money for cancer research and support for families affected by cancer through Texas 4000. Delightfully, we have loved ones who live all along the west coast, and Hilary has been able to connect with aunts, uncles, and cousins we don’t often see. One of the loved ones is Reese’s brother who lives in Vancouver, a stop along Hilary’s bike route, which also included a rest day. Claude, Reese’s brother, invited us to come see Hilary while she was in Vancouver on her rest day. This was only feasible for us because Claude used his airline miles to buy the plane tickets, and Reese’s sister Sarah agreed to monitor Reese’s business while he was away.

OK…so all of that sets the stage for what happened next.

This is a little complicated….let me see if I can explain it well.  Claude called us a week or so after he booked the tickets. He figured that since we were going to be in Vancouver, he was going to use the occasion of us being in town to get married to his Love, a wonderful woman named Severine, and would Reese please be his best man? The kicker was that Claude hadn’t asked his Love, yet, and he wanted everything to remain a surprise. At this point, we were sworn to secrecy. 

The morning after we arrived in Vancouver, Claude, Severine (the Love), Reese, and I all drove up to Queen Elizabeth Park to have brunch at the restaurant at the top of the hill. The plan was for us all to admire the view after which Reese and I would run into the restaurant while Claude and Severine stayed behind so that Claude could propose. Claude did propose. A week or two beforehand, Severine, as a new business owner, had been in a seminar about goal setting. The speaker talked about three types of goals – achievable gaols, inspirational goals, and outrageous goals. When Severine said “yes” to Claude’s marriage proposal, Claude reminded Severine of the lecture and said that he had been pretty sure that her agreeing to marry him was an achievable goal. Then Claude talked about inspirational goals and how it would be an inspirational goal to go ahead and set a date right then right there for the wedding. Then he said that, if you think about it, a really outrageous goal would be if they got married the next day at 2 O’clock. At this point, Severine’s head was spinning a bit….and Claude saw that he needed to kick it up a notch to seal the deal, so he gently told her that if it would help her decision of agreeing to a surprise wedding any easier, her best friend Stephanie from Montreal was inside the restaurant at that very minute ready to be her maid of honor. That took Severine’s breath away.

Severine was of course in a state of shock and awe. During brunch, as all of it was beginning to sink in, she asked me to be a bridesmaid….or is it bridesmatron? Whatever the proper term is, I happily agreed.

Here’s something else Claude had planned. One of their most fun and special dates a year-ish ago was going to Diner en Blanc, a flash mob type impromptu outdoor picnic where all of the participants dine together in a public space and wear all white. Claude had asked all of the wedding guests to wear white, which brings me to another point. How to invite everyone to a wedding and still have it be a surprise for the bride? Some of these details might be a little fizzy but the gist of it was that Claude and Severine planned a “housewarming” party. It’s just that after the invitations went out, Claude re-contacted everyone and told them it was going to be a surprise wedding and reception instead and please don’t say anything because Severine doesn’t know and would everyone please wear white to the wedding? So Reese and I were more or less prepared with white attire. Reese had some classy white linen pants, white linen shirt, and a white Havana hat. He looked fly.

A surprise wedding for the bride still takes a lot of planning from the groom. Claude scheduled a mid afternoon appointment with Severine’s favorite designer in Vancouver, Malene Grotrian to be outfitted with wedding attire. It was so much fun watching Severine try on outfit after outfit! After Severine picked her ensemble, we girls made our way to the nail salon for mani/pedis, compliments of the groom. This was followed by a rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, and by then it was quite late, so Reese and I went to bed.

The next morning, Claude had scheduled hair and make-up for the bride to be, and hair appointments for Stephanie and me. In the meantime, it occurs to me that the white clothes I brought to wear to the en blanc wedding might not be appropriate to wear as a bridesmaid/bridesmatron. The other two bridesmaids both had simple white knee length dresses. I didn’t. The were both young and beautiful. Me? Let’s just say I had a few years and the curves that go with age on the svelte, lovely ladies. Severine just so happened to have a simple white knee length dress in her closet from Diner en Blanc the year before and suggested that I try it on. Her dress was an extra small. I’m a medium on a good day and it wasn’t a good day. Severine and Stephanie were pulling the dress together and zipping me up with great strength and determination. Thank goodness the dress was made of stretch fabric, but even still, I was squeezed in so tight it was like being dressed as kielbasa sausage.

Claude had even arranged for Severine’s dad, who lives in Paris, to be on Skype to follow the ceremony, so that he could be a part of the grand celebration. Awww. Add a photographer, videographer, flowers, catering, cake, great friends, white clothes, and Reese and me playing and singing a duet on guitar and ukulele at the reception, and the Surprise Wedding basically went off without a hitch. (What am I forgetting?)

Oh and did I mention? I love Severine. She is my wonderful new belle soeur.

Then there’s the story about how Reese and I met up with Hilary in Vancouver later that night after peeling myself out of the kielbasa dress — another story for another day….

Below is the description I wrote for my profile on airbnb. Regular readers have heard it all before. But did you catch that —  I listed three of our bedrooms on airbnb? Less than 24 hours after listing one of the rooms we had a guest stay with us. It’s been non stop since then. It’s kind of hard to believe. I’m grateful…and amazed.

I am artist who writes…..or maybe a writer who paints.

One of my absolute favorite things in the world to do is showing hospitality.

There’s not an option for Spanglish in languages section of this profile thingy or I would have checked that box.

I love volunteering — but my absolute favorite volunteering of all
time is taking Tilly the Wonder dog to Methodist Hospital for pet
therapy with the patients.

One of the biggest blessings in my life was getting whooping cough,
also known as the 100 day cough, because it allowed me undistracted time
and opportunity to learn how to play the ukulele.

I’ve gone busking with said ukulele and earned enough money to buy a few really good craft beers plus tip.

I’m married to the Amazing Reese and we have four grown daughters who are all beautiful, kind, and smart.

Did I mention Tilly the Wonder dog? She’s a stunning black standard
poodle that we found at the Humane Society. She’s the absolute best dog
we’ve ever had.

I drink a large bowl of cappulatte every morning. (I’m pretty sure I
invented the term cappulatte.) It’s got the milk of a latte with the
added foam of a cappuccino. It’s quite good, hence the large bowl for
drinking it…..mmmm, coffee.

Last thing — I enjoy re-arranging furniture and honestly think that
the furniture enjoys it, too. If, during your visit, you notice that
your room isn’t represented exactly like it was in the airbnb
photographs, it’s because the furniture and I decided a change was in
order.

This is a sweet precious little girl full of delight and giggles. It’s a portrait I’ve been working on for her grandmother. It’s 16″ x 20″ oil on linen.

This newly finished house portrait commission was more complicated to paint than it might look like it would have been because all of those lines and angles were hard to get just right….and acute, and obtuse. And, because it’s a 12″x 16″, only the tiniest of brushes could capture all of that detail. As per my usual, it’s oil on linen.

This is a portrait of a sweet little three year old girl. It’s a commission I’ve been working on for her grandmother. It’s 16″ x 20″ oil on linen.

It’s been quite a while since this project began…..a year and a half plus some. That’s a while, right? After not much success with glass cutters, and over thinking the design, I decided on free form table top. This is the basic idea of what it will be. Looking at this photo, I see that a few colors need to be moved around, but for the most part, this is it….or at least the general idea of it.

Now to find the adhesive and/or grout I bought a while ago to keep all of these tiles in place. And then decide whether or not to use a ruler to get the lines straight or let it stay a bit organic like it is now. Honestly, I could go either way.

I don’t remember where I saw this on the internet and therefore am not in a position to give credit where credit is due, but as you can see from the before/after photos, it works.  The basic recipe for this furniture polish is a simple salad dressing – two parts oil/ one part vinegar. I used canola oil and apple cider vinegar.

Before

After

The very observant observer will notice that these are two different chair legs on account of me forgetting to take a before photo before working on the first leg. However, the effect is the same. Before – both legs looked crappy. After – both legs looked good.

Tilly the wonder dog was extremely interested in “helping” with this project by sneaking licks of the chair legs when I wasn’t looking. I mean, who can blame her? It was salad dressing! The only thing that would have made this project more fun for Tilly would have been if I had used butter in place of the oil and vinegar. Has anyone ever tried butter for furniture polish? It might work…..?

As good as the chair legs look now, on the down side, multiple washings and hours later, my hands still smell like vinegar. At least Tilly likes the way I smell.