SweetApple Farm pics

Last Sunday was our church's trip to sweetapple farm. It a pumpkin farm -though, there was no pumpkin patch. A little disappointing. There was a petting zoo - sortof. There was a corn maze - I swore I wouldn't go into because it would be scarey. I did it, there were plenty of people in there already, so it was completely safe. :) The weather was great. There were no apples. We got a couple of cute pictures anyways!

Where I've been

I'm not going to lie. Everyday day I think "Hmm. I should probably blog something. I'm as bad as Becca. (Ha!) Maybe tomorrow." I just haven't really had a moment to blog. I haven't had a moment to be crafty either.
I have a craft show to prepare for on November 8 (at the Grand Point conference center, if you wanted to know). Haven't I mention before that I HATE craft shows? Yes, I do. And to be honest, I don't know why I am doing this one. I guess that I am hoping that I can make some money, though I have my doubts. I make really cool stuff, but people around here want the same ol' crap. I won't go on....
I've been working the past couple of weeks at my church as a fill in for some secretarial stuff. I have really enjoyed it! I've been really busy - they do so much! I mean, I always knew that they did a lot of stuff, but I guess I didn't realize just how busy they are. So if anyone wants to know what the pastors do all day - let me tell ya! I've only been chewed out twice on the phone, by the same person actually - they wanted a hand out from the church, but we don't have the funds for it and instead of letting me offer places to her that I can help her with she yells at me and slams the phone. Maybe if she didn't have such a crappy attitude she'd get somewhere. Did I say that?
So I've been busy and have had no time to work on my craft stuff. I've skipped class for 2 weeks. I still don't have my sewing machine back. I just emailed them to find out what the hold up is - I hope to hear back very soon.
So that's what's up.


PS- I guess my lasted paintings aren't that great...I only got two comments. I'll try to not take it personally.

Trees in Belleville woods

This is the latest one that I just finished. The assignment was kindof hard for me to figure out. She wanted us to paint a landscape. But instead of trying to make it realistic and 3 dimentional, she wanted us to paint it on planes. Which meant to try to make it look 2 dimentional, to focus more on the forms that I could pull out of the photo instead of trying to make it look like what it actually was. The best way I could wrap my mind around it was to think of it as a quilt or paint by number...to simplify.
Anyhow, I don't think I actually did the assignment the way that she intended, but she said I succeeded. I'm good with that.
The photo that I painted from was from the trip that I blogged about not long ago that Elli and I took through the woods with Lois. It was a nice time, and now I have a painted memory.

Driftwood

Our first assignment in painting class is always a still life. Our teacher sets up a table full of junk and we have to pick something and paint it. Since I missed the first day of class, I got stuck with the driftwood. There was an old spoon hanging on it. Lovely. I tried to make the most of it.
Roots of an old tree can be kindof exciting, I'll admit. When Mike and I went to the Sequoia Ntnl Forest in CA, there were some pretty awesome roots!
So I painted it. Here's my end result. I didn't want to paint the cloth or teapot that sat behind it in the classroom, so I substituted a branch-y plant. I like it much better this way. I have enough paintings of fabric and stuff from previous classes. And I'm a little frustrated at my photo because of the glare from the sun in the upper left corner. It's distracting to me. I suppose I can try again later.
What do you think of my interpretation of driftwood?

Fun times!

So I've been laughing REALLY hard this evening!
I came across this website....go ahead...you know you want to do it too. It's awesome!
Here's my 1976 yearbook photo...

How many of me? Lucky you!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 12 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Autumn

So I guess it has been a little while since I've posted, eh? I have been really busy and haven't made the effort to get down here in the basement and blog anything.
The weather has cooled down significantly here, at home. On this particular day I HAD to put on Elli's new tights with her little dress and vest. I think she looks like a little Punky Brewster! I can't help dressing her this way. She'll either look back and say "Geez, mom." or "Look how cute I was! " Probably the first.
She loves to find "poppies" out in my flowerbed. They are little seed pods that grow in the impatients. They swell up real big and then pop! when you touch them. She's holding some here in the picture. My flowers are so massive that I have some poppies for the record books. And I think that we've popped so many, that they have spread all over my flowerbed. I swear, I didn't plant them everywhere that they are coming up now. It's a nice little surprise...glad I was lazy and didn't pull up my weeds :)

On another note, Singer Co. is going to replace my sewing machine for me. I, hopefully, just bought a dud of a machine and this next one will work. A very good friend of mine is going to let me borrow hers until I get my new one...however long that's going to take. Why is it that whenever I really get into the mood to make something, it never works easily for me?