Rockin the Luck!

I belong to a local rock painting Facebook club.  They have a painting challenge every month then draw names from the participants who win an exceptional rock. In addition, sometimes members may do a special challenge. Last week one of the artists asked members to share a favorite secret spot to hide rocks.  There would then be a drawing with three incredible autumn Santa rocks as prizes. 

I've won three of the monthly drawings then tonight my name was drawn first for a Santa rock, which meant I had first choice. Yippee! I selected the incredible Santa above.

Thanks and Friends Giving

Thanksgiving long weekend has come and gone but it was definitely memorable!

Celebrated the holiday with Jordan, Candy, and Sam on Thursday. So much laughter! Had not gotten together with all of them in a long time. It lifts my spirits to watch the boys verbally sparring and trying to top each other with their comebacks and wit. Felt like I had done 100 sit ups my stomach hurt so from the hilarity. 

Sunday was invited to attend a Friendsgiving at Jimmy's and Lexi's. Tons of food and many of their friends, including Sam along with Christian and Tyler whom I've known since they were wee lads. Shared many "remember when" stories of their childhood antics. I'm referred to as Mom by all of them so it's fun to catch up with my "kids."

Picked up an application for an apartment in Sam's complex. Have my fingers crossed that it will work out. The available unit is being remodeled with new flooring. I'm sooo looking forward to having a place of my own.

Also crafted this last week using Dollar Tree items. Wreath for Stan and Susan, one for Sam, and one for Jimmy. Jordan's is in the works.

Have been trying to accomplish a Dutch pour painting, which requires pushing air against the paint. Blow-dry hasn't accomplished this so picked up The World's Smallest Blower from Amazon. Will see if this accomplishes the task!

Happy Thanksgiving!

First off, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Tired of painting my roots, had an appointment with Abbie my hair goddess to add some lowlights and trim my hair. So much better!!

Beauty is hard work!

Hair done, decided to begin Christmas shopping. Swung by Walgreens to pick up my photo cards and, believe it or not, they are all addressed and ready to be mailed.  Wandered around Target, Walmart, Goodwill, and downtown Longview to find perfect and unusual gifts. Even found a little bed for the Stubbikins, which he loves!

Part of me wants to visit Vancouver Mall but the other part just does not enjoy the crowds, pushy people, aisle vendors, and commercialism.  I may venture to Joann's on Black Friday as they have some killer deals plus they are local.

Finished my 4 Seasons painting and attached it to the Goodwill window frame I snagged for $1.99 and painted. Turned out cute!

Prepared a few mini-canvas pour paintings along with a couple craft projects for gifts. Framed the canvas in cupboard boards picked up at a local thrift store.  Pondering to list these, along with other paintings, for sale on Facebook Marketplace.

Spending Thanksgiving with Jordan, Sam, and Candy. Just love hanging out with my boys because they are interesting conversationalists with a quick sense of humor. 

Enjoy your holiday! ❤

  

 

The Beach Restoreth My Soul

Couple of weeks ago started an art project for Sam. I knew he wanted a painting with black, gray, and red. Pondered what to do then ended up sculpting a bat symbol on the three part canvas with joint compound. Once dry, did a pour paint on it. Turned out awesome. Dropped it off to his place last week and he loved it. Looks perfect on the wall behind his TV.

Joint compound step

Finished product!

Last week went through a few sleepy days. Felt fine in the morning then became so drowsy while trying to work. After three days of this discovered it was due to a new allergy medicine I started taking in the morning - Zyrtec. Now saving that drug to go with my Benydryl to use one at night as needed!

Went to Cannon Beach this past weekend to attend a baby shower. Rode and stayed with sis Julie and met up with sis Erin. So much fun! Definitely schizophrenic weather - sunny, then sprinkles, on to heavy rain and hail, then back to sunny. At least we were able to visit the beach a few times.

Julie and I stayed at the Tolovana Inn. I'd never stayed there before but it was perfect. Right near the beach, fireplace in the room, and across the street from a grocery store. Ideal hotel for a longer stay.

We took a quick stroll on the beach Saturday night, mainly so I could gather up painting rocks. Rainy so I pulled up my hood and Julie, who forgot her hat,, rolled her turtleneck over her head like a babushka!!  

Early Sunday morning met up with Erin and took a longer hike - with no rain! Of course I was in treasure hunting mode and was in luck. Up by the rocks away from the surf I found an old porthole window along with a barnacle shell. Score!!

My porthole find!

Had to add a torch as Erin's posed screamed out for it!

Fiddled around, stopped at Warrenton Goodwill, then arrived home around noon. Such a good time!

Happy birthday to my bestie Lynn along with the older set of twins Jay and Julie. Hard to believe we are inching up on the middle of November!!!

Enjoy the rest of your week! ❤

Bangs, Bags, and Bluster

Spent Friday night staying up until 2am browsing Pinterest and YouTube for makeup tips, painting, crafts, and tips to trim my bangs.  Decided to try curtain bangs.  Should have known better as always get styler's remorse after chopping my hair. Turned out fine but there's always the temptation to go a little bit shorter, just a wee bit. Thankfully ignored that and still have lengthy bangs rather than stubble shooting out from my forehead!

Watched a few eyeshadow and under eye concealer videos. Saturday morning tried the spoon on my eyelid trick to get a better lined crease. Surprisingly it actually worked!  

Have seen outrageous mascara videos on Facebook and YouTube and decided to order it with hopes it will work up to its claims. Will report back after it's been received and given the test drive.

My recent painting project is a commission for one of Sam's friends Christian. He wants a painting with blue/white for Dodgers and purple/yellow for Lakers. Last weekend I tried and failed. Scrapped those and tried again. Ended up with a couple okay pictures and they've been on the back porch trying to dry. This morning after yesterday's windy storm found newspaper under one had flipped up and melded into the damp paint. Arrrgggg! 

I moved the remaining picture to my room to dry, tossed the newspaper mess, and set out to make two more paintings with the scraped canvas. First one I did for Christian; had leftover paint so added in some fuschia and made another one for myself.  And they both turned out great! Finally. They are currently setting then they will be moved inside to dry.

One of first attempts

Acceptable

One for me

Stopped by Jordan and Candy's to visit. Jordan wanted me to make a D&D dice bag out of some Mario and Luigi material.  Came home and whipped up a bag using some red material for the lining.  Turned out excellent. He was so excited he had to stop by this afternoon to pick it up.

The other night made dinner for Stan and Susan - Linguine with Clam Sauce.  Bought a bottle of inexpensive ($2.98 and with a cork!) wine for the sauce. Cooked up a sauce of butter, olive oil, salt, pepper, minced clams (store was out of chopped dangit), clam juice, and fresh parsley. Added in the noodles then served it with parmesan, parsley, and lemon wedges. Say down to eat and realized I had forgotten to add the wine!  Was still pretty tasty!

Tomorrow is Monday once e again. Have been so busy at work I've been underwater trying to catch up. Definitely do not like that feeling.  On a positive note we just hired a new assistant so once she is trained it will lighten my load.

Rain is on the forecast for the immediate future but let's look past that and have a memorable week! ❤

Cloudy Day

Was driving the other day and took my life in my hands to snap a few pics of the glorious clouds.  Gorgeous!

79 Days Til Christmas! 😉

Days seem to get away with me and there's never enough time to document my fairly uneventful life!

Fall is here and the rain has spoiled my sunny days of fishing.  One of my co-workers took a job elsewhere, which has resulted in my work expounding exponentially! Lots of overtime on the weekend and when you reach the point you think you are caught up, twelve projects and 100 emails prove you otherwise. 

The last two weeks I've been rising early to give Sammy a ride to work as his truck is giving him fits. My taxi service continues when I pick him up after work. Fun time bonding but there have been some early mornings!

Saturday night Sam rang me up to see if I wanted to get together at Jimmy's girlfriend Lexxi's parents house. The parents (who gave me access to their property on the Cowlitz River for fishing) are actually pretty darn funny so I figured why not.

It was a blast!  Music, singing, laughing, goofiness, story-telling, dancing to Thriller, and good old fashioned fun!

On a lark submitted one of my photos to a Beautiful Washington calendar contest.  And it was selected to be in the 2022 calendar!  Whoop whoop!

Lake Sacajawea

Painted a few rocks and even brought Sam into the mix by having him paint three anime rocks for my Facebook club's September theme. Actually won an anime prize rock for his efforts, which we gifted to Lexxi.

Sam's DragonBall Z Art

Diva's Halloween Art

Prize Rock

I picked up a couple items from the dollar store and whipped up this fall wreath. 

Finally had my regular mammogram today which I had lazily been delaying.  Monday scheduled my annual eye exam. Getting med shit done!!

Yesterday morning the deer were out in full force so couldn't resist filming their actions.

And tomorrow is Friday!!  Enjoy your weekend!