Wednesday

Happy Birthday Tirzah!

So close and yet so far on your birthday!

Enjoy!

Still driving on...

 

and on...

 

Can you tell I'm fond of this particular style of postcard?

 

Tomorrow we'll be in Hillsdale!

Tuesday

Driving on through Montana.

 

 

Montana is where Phil was born (Billings)

 

and into South Dakota...

 

Wide open spaces and sunshine (I hope).

We're all a little Irish, aren't we?

My corned beef is in the crock-pot. 

We'll be eating it within the hour.

I'll let you know if I'll ever do it again.*

 

I am looking more forward to making corned beef hash for

 breakfast/brunch tomorrow!

 All that delicious fried stuff, rather than boiled!

 

Today we went for a walk.

Down to the beach.

 

It was very windy and somewhat rainy.

 

still, it was invigorating to get out.

 

I spotted this patch of skunk cabbage and had to have it!

(in my camera).

It is so bright and cheery!

 

I hope you have some green mashed potatoes.

Think of your Irish heritage.

We're all a little Irish aren't we?

 

* OK, it was good!

very easy too.

New tradition!

 

 

"The Charm of the Morn to You"

The Quiet Man.  We watched this Sunday night.  Its a classic. We've seen it before.  My man really enjoys a good John Wayne movie, and he doesn't even have to be a cowboy.  We enjoyed the countryside, the funny characters, the Irish culture.  A great St. Patrick's Day movie.

 

Earlier in the weekend, Tori and I spent some serious time with watercolors.

I saw a new technique on someone's blog that works like this:

1.  Get a nice rubber stamp (not too much detail).

2. Color the rubber with watercolor crayons. You can use multiple colors.

3.  Spray the rubber stamp with a water mister, and stamp it onto paper.

or, spray the paper and stamp the colored stamp onto that.

We got crazy and stamped onto baby wipes, dampened kleenex, our hands...

 

It makes for a nice watercolor-y look.

 

Even our wipe cloths came out beautiful.

 

 

meanwhile...I took a mini-class from Julie Fei Fan Balzer:

Getting Started with Gesso

There are many kinds of gesso.

You can color your gesso with things like watercolors, acrylics, spray inks.

The point is to make a pretty surface that you can still draw or write on.

 

For this one (above), I laid down a layer of gesso, then made an impression with a fancy tool I have (discarded scotch tape reel) while the gesso is wet.  When it dries, paint with watercolors, and see the texture? This would be a good background on an art journal page.

 

On pinterest I saw a picture like this tree above, drawn onto a vintage book page, then painted the background with gesso and gauche. I allowed some fun words to show through. This just took me a minute to do.  I can't wait to experiment some more.

I've NEVER cooked a corned beef brisket. 

Do you think I should try one for St. Patrick's Day this year?

Do you just plunk it in the crock-pot?

Maybe I better do some research. What makes it corned anyway?

 

 

A little green

 

 

 

I'm starting to plan an Irish meal for the 17th.

Do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day?

Spring Cleaning Mania

 

 

 

This postcard is in honor of my granddaughter Tirzah,

who loves St. Patrick's Day and

all things Irish, and

I bet all things green as well...

 

I have more postcards so I need to start early!

 

This morning we both got up ambitious and energetic.

Spring cleaning Mania!

 

Phil painted the hallway, and lots of baseboards throughout the house.

He wondered if we should paint over the penciled lines, showing how Walker has grown over the years.

We came to a compromise.  I took a photo before he painted over it. 

See that top mark, a couple of inches over Phil's head,

that was Walker two years ago.

 The next one down is Phil.

 I'm in there somewhere too.

 

That means we haven't painted the hallway for 20 some years?

I guess it was time.

 

I cleaned out my refrigerator while this was going on.

oh my, it looks so bright and clean now.

No, no before and after photos of that.

 

As a reward, we went to IRON RABBIT and spent the last of our gift certificates there.

I had Thai Benedict. (curry sauce over poached eggs and rice).

It was delicious!

 

Walker went to 13 job interviews this week!  Even if no job comes of them, he has had a serious experience in interviewing.  He talked to schools he liked in Michigan, Arizona, Colorado, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Virginia, Texas!

 

 

Hippopotamus Teeth

George Washington's Birthday

I heard on the news this morning that he didn't really have wooden teeth - they were made from hippo bones. hmmm. They must have just looked like wood.

I think I've posted this postcard in years past, but I can't resist.  This year I looked at the other side of the postcard too.  It was written in 1912; sent from Olympia; to "my friend Leila".

This year I am also looking at the lovely leaves and cherries - I wonder if I can paint them.

I went to my favorite thrift store this week and bought two aeropostal t-shirts.

 

I confess I bought them because of the images on the front.

 

Especially the feathers - I am going to make some rubber stamps, using those as inspiration.

I'll also wear the t-shirts, likely under layers of sweaters and raincoats!

 

My valentine roses have held up beautifully.

This is what they looked like one week later.

 

The top one is our desktop wallpaper for now.

 

Inspiration everywhere

To my Valentine