The tree is up!!!

The weekend after Thanksgiving I felt the need to put up my Christmas Tree. Now this tree has been sitting in it's box for over three years waiting to be taken out and put to use. I purchased this tree at CVS for a mere $3.50. It was on clearance after the holidays and even though at the time I had no room to put it up I couldn't pass up the good deal. I now have a house and a room that it will fit in, so here it is! It currently doesn't have a topper but that will be taken care of soon hopefully. My tree needed some ornaments so we went to Target and got some small red and gold balls and some tiny snowmen and other winter and christmas characters. They are just enough to add a little something without being overwhelming.

I hope that you enjoy the pictures. You Library Ladies I know will like the pictures. It really makes me feel good to know that you guys still keep tabs on me and enjoy my work. I love you guys! See you all at Christmas!

Happy Turkey Day!!!!!

I woke up at my usual time, just after 6:30 and I got ready to start cooking. We had a 21 pound turkey, even though it was to just be the two of us. We wanted lots of leftovers and also to be able to fit all the stuffing in the bird. Stuffing, of course, is the most important part! He we in the oven by 8:30 and we were off and waiting!

After waiting for five hours and getting all the fixings ready, the bird was finally done cooking and ready to eat. Oh, he smelled so wonderful. This was the first time that we had not been home with our family for Thanksgiving so we were not sure how all the food was to turn out. When we finally did sink our teeth into it all, it was all worth it! Everything tasted wonderfully. We couldn't have made it any better if we tried.

Beanie wanted to know if there was a place at the table for her. She doesn't understand that she's allergic to poultry so we reserved a nice juicey beef bone for her to eat for her Thanksgiving dinner.
Finally at the end of the day, bellies full and brains tired, it was time to put all the food away. We have enough leftovers to feed us for quite a while. It was all so tastey though that we won't mind eating it.

Thanksgiving this year was different for me. This was my first time away from home for the holiday, but it went better than I had expected. I spent the day in contact with my mother and family over the phone and we sent pictures back and forth through e-mail. I was as close to them as I could be. Christmas is just around the corner and I'll be home for that one!

Some more paintings!

This is a 5x7 watercolor painting I did of early morning fog over our local golf course. This painting will be given to my Grandparents at Thanksgiving dinner by my mother since I will not be able to attend this year. I think that they will enjoy it.
This is a 4x6 watercolor of a bay in Oregon. I was captivated by this particular area because of the great sense of peace and quiet that it gave off. I could have sat there for hours just soaking it all in.
This is a 5x7 watercolor of early morning fog also. The fence against the colors of the morning is what caught my eye here. The lighting was so dramatic that I just had to paint it.

I hope that you like these paintings. I haven't finished anymore new ones. I have been working on other things, but as soon as I get something new I'll be sure to share with you all.

Sunset Watercolor

Here is a watercolor painting that I did while mom was here visiting. The original is only 4x6. This is the view standing on a bridge over the Truckee River looking East to Lake Tahoe at sunset. The colors at night are so captivating that you have to paint it or it would feel like such a waste. I have another little painting that is almost finished from Oregon. It's done in close to the same colors. I'll post it when it's finished.
Enjoy!

A Glimpse of Oregon

This was the view from our hotel balcony. Since we didn't check in till after midnight, our first impression of Portland was in the dark. It was nice to feel the humidity in the air. I had gotten used to the dry air here in Nevada and had forgotten how nice it was for my nose to breath moist air again.







This was my first impression on the Pacific Coast. The water was so clean and blue and not a piece of trash anywhere to be seen. The rocks out in the water were so huge! In this area was were they filmed the movie the goonies, for those of you who have seen it.








The woods are so lush and green. Water drips off of the trees and moss grows everywhere! Even in the city moss grows on the sidewalks! It's hard to take it all in just how green everything is. I don't know how you could walk around in the woods with every inch covered with layer after layer of plant life.













Brian and I explored the coast to dicover that starfish where everywhere! We had such a wonderful time climbing all over the rocks and looking in every little crack to see what we could find.








Here are just two of the hundreds of starfish that we saw. They ranged in color from yellow, to orange, to purple. I picked on up that looked like someone had set it up on a very tall rock all by itself. I took it and put it next to some others. They feel alot harder than they look. They are stiff and pokey!
What a wonderful time we had. Oh, I can't wait to go back.
More pictures to come later!

Wonderful Visit!

Words cannot describe the wonderful time that I had while my mother and Barb were here. Since they were here for a full week we really had time to see wonderful sights and also had time to just sit around and paint postcards to send back home. Moving all the way out here from family, sometime I forget what it feels like to just be able to sit with other creative people and do the things we love to do.
Some of just the many things we saw included spawning salmon up at Lake Tahoe. There is a river that they have made a viewing area where you walk down into the ground and view the salmon through glass and watch them swim on by. None of us thought that we would ever get to see that. Brian and I had only discovered this place through his coworker a week before Mom and Barb came out. What timing!
Here is proof that we did relax and just take time to reflect on the day's adventures. Here is the table that we sat at with mom and Barb working hard at creating paintings to send back home to family. Yes I painted as well, somone had to take the picture!
Mom and Barb trying to take it all in. I was able to drive them along route 89, south of where I live and show them all the sights. It's a really nice drive because every time you round another corner or crest another hill the scenery changes and you see completely new things. It's hard to express just how far you can see. I hope this picture conveys even the slightest scense of how it looks.
On their first full day here we drove all the way around Lake Tahoe. This picture was taken while standing on a bridge over the Truckee River looking East towards Lake Tahoe at sunset.
This was our last pull off of the day as the light was almost gone. We all got out of the car to take it all in. It was rather cold at this point so we didn't stay as long as we might have liked. This is Lake Tahoe on a cloudy cool evening, looking Southwest.
I have so many pictures that I just chose a few to post for now. I will post more in the next couple days.
For those of you that heard Brian and I went to Oregon the othere week I will be posting photos from that trip. Oregon is where I need to live. It's so beautiful there that just a vacation will not due.