People Come and Go Speaking of Michelangelo...Thursday, February 20, 2014

Have you ever thought about the people who come in and out of your life?  Have you ever thought about how many people that is?  

I’m glad SOME of the people who have left my life are gone…

My poor Mother probably sweated bullets during my relationship with this guy...whew...it was rough...He transferred to Bethel and I remember sitting around the table eating lunch when he came in with his two black eyes because he had recently won a tough man contest...My friends were swooning...I looked at him and said "eh...not that impressed"...BUT a few months later, we could NOT be separated!!

I wish SOME of the people who have left my life that are still on earth would come back into my life…

oh, JULIE!!  LOL...Friends at my 16th Surprise Birthday Party, October 30, 1978

I MISS those I LOVE who are no longer earth bound….

This was breakfast at my house, probably spring of 1980...Mother, Fannie and Jose Fejardo...Fannie and Jose were from Cali, South America...He interpreted for Billy Graham at one of his meetings in South America...Mother and Fannie are with the Lord today, BUT Jose is 100 years old!  When they stayed at our house, our guest room is the front room that was the original DEN in our home...it's a BIG room with 9 foot ceilings and has the high bed my great uncle was born on...Jose came into the kitchen after they had put up their luggage and said "how do you think I can get into THAT bed..." Daddy went and got a foot stool and put it by the bed before they retired for the evening...the stool remains there to this day...ALL we could hear was laughter throughout the house...Jose said that he LOVED America...every event he went to, people would stand and sing: JOSE, CAN you SEE? 

Isn’t it fun to talk about the good ole days?  Don’t you WISH that each of us REALLY was as pretty, as good, as talented, as funny, as smart, as popular, as WONDERFUL as we seem to REMEMBER that we were?

 This was May 23, 1980, the morning of my High School graduation...we had just practiced our graduation ceremony at the center and Kim and I had dropped LuAnn off at Kroger!

This was at the 4H awards banquet...probably my Junior Year...so MAYBE the Spring of 1979...This was our congressman at the time.. 

I was talking with one of my best friends from High School one day after a LONG absence from my life, and I made a comment about having been in the National Honor Society…Kim looked at me and said, “I DON’T remember you being smart!”  sigh…but REALLY, what would I EXPECT from someone who was ONLY in the Beta Club~~SLACKER!

 

Does this LOOK like a person that should question MY intelligence!

                        This is Kim at my SURPRISE 16th Birthday party in 1978!

And Kim...that is NOT how to drive a car...boy, Daddy really should have taken the T-bird away!

I’ve NOT been a perfect friend, but I’ve tried to be a good friend.  I do my best to be as honest as I can be WITHOUT being brutal.  I do my BEST to support my friends and NOT to bash them and put them down in front of others, making them to feel small and unimportant…I WISH former friends could have done the same for me…

Laurie at my 16th Birthday part...we carved pumpkin...Mother was SO clever!!

I had a friend in High School who was a pretty good friend.  We had fun and shared secrets and laughed…BUT when we would be somewhere, IF someone was in our surroundings who was deemed MORE POPULAR, she would leave me mid-sentence to hurry over to the popular ones…TALK about feeling like an idiot…sigh…and MAYBE after 30 years, I SHOULD forget about it…BUT I learned from her that when I was in a circle of people, I was to do my best to make ALL feel welcomed.  A painful lesson to learn, but a needed lesson!

This is me, Debbie Spaddy, and Freda at the airport in Nashville, TN...do you REMEMBER when you could visit the gates and see your friends off?  This was in July of 1979...we were saying goodbye to our friend, Debby, who had visited us on a 4H exchange trip from Alberta, Canada...I did not go on the exchange the next summer because I had a boyfriend and a job...SILLY me!

The last big outing with my Mother was a trip to Memphis for the wedding of a close friend.  At the ceremony, there were few tables available.  Two couples joined us at the table and never ONCE after asking if they could sit with us, did they offer ONE word to us…I smiled at them ONLY to be scoffed at as they spoke LOUDLY to each other and BRAGGED of their lives…I quickly left and drove back home the four hours so I could be at church the next morning to play the piano…I LEARNED that people from Germantown, Tennessee MIGHT be as rude and as snobby as I had often heard they are…That is ANOTHER reason I have absolutely NO DESIRE to EVER belong to a Country Club!

 This is me and Mother in Cali, Columbia (South America) in July of 1982.  This lady and her son are from Cali.  Mother met this lady on her previous visit there...This lady loved mother so much ALL because Mother took the time to LOVE her...it was a very special relationship.

I have had friends who have taken me under their wings and graciously introduced me to their friends…

LuAnn (National Honor Society) and Kim (Beta Club...BWAH)...Baccalaureate Service, May 1980 

I have been loved, cherished and nurtured by friends and family…

Back: Penny, Rhonda (roommate), Front: ME and Dawn...May of 1983...college friends

I have had MANY opportunities to go to places and to meet people and to see things that are so beautiful…

I’m THANKFUL for the people who have come in and out of my life…I am Blessed!  I HOPE that YOU TOO have been richly blessed and that YOU are a blessing to Others…Have a WONDERFUL day and remember to SPREAD SUNSHINE on these dark, gloomy days of WINTER…Blessings to YOU…~charlotte

ALL Because Two People Fell in Love...Friday, February 14, 2014

It was 63 years ago today that Daddy gave Mother her diamond ring...I shared in my Facebook post that I'm NOT sure what the truth is, BUT Mother MIGHT have asked herself to marry my Daddy....

Mother's story WAS that she and daddy were having a milkshake, and mother, who ALWAYS was telling me about a dream she had, told Daddy that she DREAMED that they got married.  Daddy said, WELL, why don't we...AND that is ALL I know...

I LOVE this picture of Daddy...HE had hair!!  HOW funny is THAT...Daddy was NOT a romantic, but he SUPPOSEDLY dated several women during his life.  He was 28 and Mother was 19 when they got married...AGAIN, according to Mother, Daddy told her ONCE that he loved her and that he would let her KNOW IF he changed his mind...I can neither PROVE or DISPROVE this fact either...LOL...

My parents were NOT mushy lovie-dovie people and it makes me smile when I see a picture like this...This was made in 1959 when they had been married for 8 years...

This is how I remember my parents...They were happy people...THEY were LOVED and THEY LOVED...They were respected and RESPECTED...THEY LOVED us with EVERY ounce of their being and they WORKED on being married and on keeping my family safe and secure...

They married on July 18, 1951...

Below is the Valentine's Day Card that my Daddy sent to Mother in 1951...It was the only card in this bag of pictures that I have been going through...I don't think that was a coincidence...I thought you would get a snicker out of seeing it...CARDS have CERTAINLY changed since 1951...

Daddy sent Mother a MUSHY card one year, and Mother laughed...It really did hurt my Daddy's feelings and he said he would NEVER send her another card...WELL, he did, BUT NEVER was it a MUSHY card...

I've said SO MANY times, that I don't know WHY I was chosen to be placed in such a loving family...I have been blessed BEYOND words...ALL of my life is BECAUSE Two people fell in love...Blessings to YOU...~charlotte♥

IF LIFE gives you a Potato and Water...MAKE SOUP! Thursday, February 13, 2014

 I was so blessed when I worked to be able to come home to a home cooked meal each night.  I worked a full FULL time job.  Hardly a week went by without having to work overtime AND I traveled to work AT LEAST an hour to and from work, SO I always had at least an 11 hour work day.

I would come home from work, go upstairs and change clothes, come downstairs and set the table, eat and have conversations with my wonderful parents, go outside to my Craft House and paint until 10:30pm, come inside and do what needed to be done and do my best to get into bed at midnight. 

When I would get up the next morning, Mother would often lie in bed and time me as I would go into the bathroom, take a shower and wash my hair, go upstairs to dry my hair, put on makeup and get dressed, come back downstairs and head out the door…SHE LOVED to tell people that it took me 25 minutes to get ready in the mornings…LOL…

WHEW…that makes me exhausted to remember that!  I survived on 5 – 6 hours of sleep for so long, that I THINK I am STILL trying to catch up.

I did craft shows during this time as a way to give money to my parents to make ends meet.  I did my best to make sure that they had EVERYTHING they needed.  It was the least I could after all they did for me and my brothers.

When we would go to Church on Sundays, Mother would stay and talk UNTIL everyone left…I just wanted to come home since it was often the ONLY day that I had just a few hours for ME…I looked forward to doing what I WANTED to do or take a nap!  I would take my own car to church so I could leave as soon as church was over.  Since I was the first one home, I would go ahead and make lunch…

I would be looking for something quick and easy, so I started by opening the fridge to SEE what was in there—usually NOT much…BUT I would often find enough scraps to throw in a pot and add some liquid and make SOUP!  It became a joke that I could make SOUP out of ANYTHING!!

I was raised with the story of Mrs. Hunter who cooked for the local elementary school who would often say that IF she had a potato and water, THEN she had SOUP!  IF you hear something long enough, one tends to start BELIEVING it…

Last night was one of those moments when I didn’t KNOW what I would have for my meal.  I had seen a black bean soup made on our local midday news, and I thought I would give it a shot at something similar…

I found a can of black beans, cannellini beans, Mild Ro-tel, corn and a half of bag of frozen chopped spinach…I threw them into a pot and added the water from each can that I used to rinse them out with…added chili powder, paprika, cumin and about 6 beef bouillon cubes and let it come to a boil.  I left it on medium to boil for thirty minutes and then dished it out and YUMMY!!

It was delicious!  I guess the lesson I learned tonight was:  IF life gives you a potato and water, THEN make SOUP!  OR…if it gives you BEANS, Corn, Spinach and Ro-tel!!  ;)

Is that Barney trying to get him a bowl of soup!!  teeheeeheeeeee

I am thankful for each bowl of potato soup that my mother made for me…WE just made it from cutting potatoes, an onion, water, salt and pepper…Cover the pot and bring to a boil.  Once it boils, turn to low and let it cook for 10 minutes.  Serve with cornbread hoe cakes and as Mother would say, it was a meal GOOD enough for Queen Elizabeth!

BE thankful for the simple things that you have in life…BE thankful that you have food…Blessings to YOU…~charlotte♥

Katie Cow...Monday, February 10, 2014

I thought I would share another pattern with you...AND maybe you would like to see how I developed this design

First I decided on what surface I would use.  I then drew the surface on my piece of paper and I sketched my design.  The surface I used was 3.75 x 6.25 inches.

I used Americana Paints...USE what you have...adjust it to fit YOUR color palette AND if you do NOT have the color I used, Use what you HAVE because...OK...EVERYBODY with me NOW (Karalee...) IT IS JUST PAINT!!




I started by Painting my background with French Vanilla.  I sanded it and added another coat of the French Vanilla.
The heart is Antique Mauve
The sleeves and tennis shoes are Green Tea
The skirt is Hauser Light Green
The face, hands and legs are Flesh Tone
The socks are white.
 It will take at least two coats of paint.

I shaded all of the Flesh tone with Raw Sienna...AND also used this to shade around the girl and the surface.  I shaded the white socks with Raw Sienna.

The Greens were all shaded with Light Avocado.  I added stripes to the sleeves with this also. Add lines and a bow to the tennis shoes.

Next the heart was shaded with Tuscan Red, with some stripes of this being added to the sleeve.

I added cheeks with Antique Mauve.  The heart was dry brushed with Petal Pink and then white.  The skirt was dry brushed with Green Tea.  The shoes were lightly dry brushed with Light Avocado.

I finished with the details of the mouth, nose and eyes with thinned black.  The hair was done with a liner and thinned Raw Sienna...I LOVE to make wispy hair!  Add some Raw Umber and some French Vanilla to get some texture for the hair.  Add white dots to the top of each cheek and the eyes.  The flowers on the heart are red circles of Tuscan Red.  When this dries, add a swirl with French Vanilla.  YOU is painted with white... XO was painted using Antique Mauve and Petal Pink...THAT IS IT...

I think I will call her Katie Cow...

You may copy and paste this pattern and use these directions to PAINT...BUT please, show RESPECT for me and my design by NOT claiming it as YOUR OWN!  I am more than happy to share this with you...PLEASE don't show me I was wrong to trust you...If you do paint this, SHARE it with me so I can see it!

Have a GREAT good week...Happy Painting and Blessings to YOU...~charlotte♥

Click  HERE  to find WHERE you can order the surface that I used to paint this design.

JUST PAINT...Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Sometimes in life, we worry about THINGS that don’t need to be worried about!  AND the reverse is also true—we DON’T worry about the THINGS we SHOULD worry about…crazy, huh!

When I did the tutorial the other day of THAT KISS, I told you a couple of times NOT to worry about a mistake BECAUSE it was JUST PAINT…That is WHAT I believe…

I paint because I enjoy it…NO, I LOVE to paint!  Painting has given me so much joy and I know, many of my paintings have also brought Joy to others…THAT is what I try to do…

Painting relaxes me…it allows my mind to go places that my body can’t go…it fills my life with COLOR and more than that…it reminds me EVERY time that I pick up my brush that I am blessed…

God gave me some talent…He did NOT make me a great artist, but he gave me some skills that I could develop.  I have chosen to develop those skills.  I paint so much better than I used to and I hope one day to make that statement about WHERE I am today…I WANT to improve…

I paint WHAT I like.  YES, I can paint more difficult things and I enjoy a challenge sometimes, BUT the bottom line is that I want to ENJOY what I do…I want to help OTHERS enjoy this art that I love.

With that said…it STILL is JUST PAINT…If I make a mistake, all I have to do is start over…IF I make a mistake, no lives will be changed~~WELL, IF I’m doing a special order and mess up and send it messed up, MAYBE it will change a life…sigh…

FOR whatever reason, and I’m just about to the point of not asking WHY anymore, I was given the task of caring for my elderly parents.  They struggled.  They had to endure moments of declining health that were HORRIBLE…I did the best I could and neither I nor they wanted things to get as bad as they got at times, BUT you know, we made it.  They are now in their new HEAVENLY Mansion and having a BLAST with those they love dearly and one day I WILL join them and the circle will be complete, BUT for NOW, I am here to SERVE my fellow man and to hopefully be used as God’s hands and heart to help people…

PAINT is JUST PAINT…IF you are spending time fretting if you signature is perfect, or you don’t have the exact color that is called for in a pattern, or what color a smile should be, or on and on…THEN I THINK you have lost ALL perspective and you MIGHT need to get a new hobby or living, BECAUSE in the grand scheme of LIFE…it is JUST paint…PUT IT INTO PERSPECTIVE…

I have three examples of WHY I say that a mistake is not a big deal….

As always, I use Americana DecoArt Paint...I think it is the BEST available, AND it is made in the USA!

I painted this owl on a canvas and I think his "ears" are well, HILARIOUS…

I added some of the background color and covered part of them and MAYBE it looks a little better…I will look again to see if I wish to do something else…BUT I’m not going to lose any sleep over it!  As a matter of fact, I THINK I just decided what I will do...It should be very easy to do what I want....

I made this sign in honor of how Mother and I laughed so many times about this saying, I did NOT like how the shading of the head showed through the hair…

I added some flesh tone to the top of the head to cover the shading, and added more hair and it is fine now…EASY PEASY…took me less than five minutes and I’m happy with it.

This magnet was cut out and painted during the night for today’s post…

WHEN I photographed it, I didn’t like the white on the beak, so I covered it…I saw a whanky dot above the right eye, so I covered that…AND I thought I needed to add a float under the bristles of the brush, so I added a dark float of color under it…DONE…I’m happy again…BUT you know, I wasn’t miserable BEFORE…=)

Life is so fragile…THINGS are THINGS…YES, I LIKE my things…YES, I heard my mother tell me DOZENS of times, “Anything worth doing, is worth doing WELL.”…I understand WANTING to do a good job of painting and I try to turn out a product that I am proud to offer, BUT at the end of the day…It is JUST PAINT…Blessings to YOU…~charlotte♥