Happy New Year!

Happy New Year all!  Not soon enough to get rid of 2020!!

I will be spending New Year's Eve at my favorite place of all - the beach!  Just have to get out of town to ring in 2021 and there is no better place than the Oregon coast!!

Where Art Goeth I Shall Follow

Art Project #1

Ran across the monthly newspaper The Columbia Reader and saw they were holding the annual HaikuFest poetry contest. Only had a few days left until the deadline so not much time to ponder and count syllables on my fingers. The theme this year was to focus on glimmers of light during the Covid quarantine.  Here's my best effort that I submitted today.

1.

Rhinestone, leopard, plaid,
Camo, cartoon, basic black
Masks now high fashion

2.
Among the heartache
They still sang from balconies
Italian courage

3.
Winter hummingbird
Lovely visitor provides
Surprise distraction

4.
Cooking shows are my
Guilty indulgence during
Covid quarantine

5.
The secret is out
Angels not just in heaven
They work in healthcare

Art Project #2

Saw an art contest on Facebook that called to me, perhaps due to the $1,000 honorarium prize.  It is to design a cover for, of all things, a utility box.  The focus needed to be on "A Healthy Future For All of Us" along with diversity. Well, that could be interpreted pretty broadly.  

I went through my acrylic pour painting files and selected one.  Had to fit the jpg file onto a template to determine what it would look like when wrapped.  Submitted the template along with a short essay behind the meaning of the art. I described it as all sorts of diverse colors flowing together to create a piece of art which is representative of the community.  Or something to that effect.  Let's cross our fingers to see if my submittal is chosen as one of the winners!

Here's the painting:

And here's the wrap:

Reface Me!

Sis Erin shared with me a cool app called Reface. You can plug in your face or someone else's face to create a GIF, image, or video. So funny!!

I couldn't get the GIFs to upload so here are a few creations - me as Harley Quinn and a couple channeling Sophia Loren.

Christmas has come and gone and now looking forward to the new year.  One of the best memories from the holiday was having our first ever family Zoom call!  It was awesome and so great to see everyone!  I still missed the hugs but in this quarantine way of life it was the best option out there.  Just may start scheduling these calls on a regular basis as it was so much fun.

Happy New Year!!

2020 Has Been Hard On All of Us!

 

Holiday Lunch with the Best!

Friday met up with most of the work team for a holiday lunch. Original plan was to meet at Twig in Vancouver; unfortunately, this restaurant was closed due to Covid restrictions.  We ended up meeting at Guadalajara in Longview, which has a heated tent outside.

Food was terrific, including their chunky guacamole, which I love. Anthony and I arrived early so we had plenty of time to gorge on the chips, salsa, bean dip, and guacamole before M.J. and Pam arrived. Danielle and Deb unable to attend and they were missed.

Delivered to a gal at one of the nearby tables was a huge bowl of soup. Looked so tasty and light I ordered it to make up for the avalanche of chips I had inhaled. Hit the spot!

Received a bottle of German Christmas wine, Glühwein, from M.J.  Think I'll test it out on Christmas Eve.

We also played the white elephant game. So much fun! I ended up with a basket stuffed with all sorts of fun, such as wine spritzers, coloring book, pens, notepads, and chocolate! The gift I brought appeared to be the big hit. Containing an ice cream maker, scoop, bowls, chocolate syrup and maraschino cherries, it was stolen again and again.

The best part was being able to gift my co-workers the paintings I had created for each one. 

Loved the chicken pic so much had to paint myself a similar rock!

Gifting Art - It's A Good Thing

Haven't seen my regular hairdresser since January. Covid hit then when salons opened up she had broken her wrist so was sidelined. Have an appointment with her tomorrow so decided to make her a Christmas gift.

Grabbed an acrylic pour painting I previously did in the summer.  Decided to top it with a hairdresser in her style - funky, colored hair, tattoo, piercings.  Finished it tonight and it turned out great if I do say so myself!  I'm going to start digging out my stack of pour paintings to add some similar oomph to them!

I currently belong to a rock painting group on Facebook.  I posted a few of my recent projects and one lady contacted me as she wanted to buy the Santa rock!  It gives me more pleasure to make someone happy than to charge so I told her to consider it a Christmas gift.  I told Sam about this and he said "Mother..if someone offers to buy something always accept."  Words of wisdom from a fellow artist who sells his work!

Rock Art

Been a long time since I've painted rocks but it called me so I had to go.  Took Stubbs to the Toutle River below the Mickey Mouse Bridge to obtain a supply of rocks.  Those river banks have the best pebbles for painting!

And here you go!  There's just something undeniably calming about painting, be it on canvas or rocks.  I also discovered a new painting tool - the tooth flosser.  It's got a thin tip that comes in handy for those tiny jobs, like painting the white reflection on eyeballs.

They need to be varnished then they will be hidden in the community for someone to find.  Well, maybe not the chicken as it's my favorite! 

Holiday Time Wasters

Oh that Elf on the Shelf cracks me up, especially when he is up to no good.  Ended up going down a rabbit hole on Pinterest, finding all of these hilarious elves.

Ashamed to say I was sucked into watching not one but two Hallmark-type holiday movies.  Ran across Princess Switch with Vanessa Hudgens on Netflix.  Watched it over the weekend then watched Princess Switch 2 tonight!  Going to have to watch It's A Wonderful Life about six times to make up for that drivel.

Ended up watching a Great British Bake Off special starring castmates of The Derry Girls.  The show is about a group of Catholic high school girfriends as they grow up in a world of armed police and British checkpoints in the 1990's in Northern Ireland. Decided to check it out and it is hilarious! 

 

June Taylor and Me

Sometimes it's hard to fall asleep. Sometimes it's hard to stay asleep. And sometimes sleep contains really bizarre dreams!

The other night my dream involved walking amongst many people. Perhaps it was in the city, in a mall, or perhaps a large function. Whereever it was, there were a ton of people. As I meandered through the crowd, people starting grabbing me saying "OMG you look just like June Taylor!"  "Has anyone said you look like June Taylor?"  Uh, nope no one has ever said that and by the way, who is June Taylor?

When I awoke from this very realistic nighttime vision of oddity, I immediately had to Google my doppelganger June Taylor. Who is she and do we look alike.

June Taylor was a dancer and choreographer who performed in France, a Chicago club, and formed her own dance troupe which performed on The Jackie Gleason Show in the 1940's.  

Are we twins? Not on your life!  Well perhaps our big smiles are similar but that's where the likeness ends. And why was June Taylor on my mind that she would peek out from the crooks and crannies of my subconscious to make an appearance in my dream?  Such are the mysteries of sleep.