Tenenbaum Pets

This afternoon my husband took off with his brother to attend some B-Movie at the independent movie theatre in the big city. Left with Saturday hours to my self I decided to finish the Tenenbaum Pet Portraits I have been working on for the next post card swap---due this coming Tuesday. I painted Buckley the beagle first and then I was in the zone. I painted for close to six hours straight. When the husband came home with pizza I looked a wreck...paint everywhere, hair a la Einstein, and my eyes could hardly stay open to finish the last one...the turtle. On Monday they will be made into post cards and then off they go....

Mordecai the Falcon
Buckley the Beagle
The Turtle

Dalmatian Mouse

Cheddar Chili Fries

Mmmmmm. So simple. So good. Greasy, gooey, calorie filled goodness. Friday night I met my beautiful friend C at The Hot Dog Shop back home. It was kind of half way for both of us (though I believe she drove a bit further than me....what a good friend). We had a chance to catch up on life, work and stuff--well, actually she patiently listens and laughs as I complain a lot about my life. I am such a great dinner date. (Note: two cheddar chili dogs, two cheddar chili fries and two sodas came to nine dollars and some change....most excellent). You have to love small town food. As much as I loved the food and the company...the trip did have a down side. The Hot Dog Shop is in the city next door to the town I was raised. Back in the day it was the pretty city with a real downtown and everything...like parking meters, multiple red lights, department stores, a working fountain, a YMCA and a movie theatre. Now the downtown is a ghost town---it feels abandoned and neglected. Everyone migrated to the shopping plazas on the outskirts of town. I took some photos and will be adding them to the husband's or my flickr site...because it is important somehow for me to share this city on the river...for me to be reminded of where I came from and how it is always a part of me where ever I travel or how far I move away...

Boo!

October has yet to arrive and already the monsters are out about and arriving in my mailbox---of all places. Actually the post card is for some cell phone company and how ATT contributed to the GOP for the last two elections. That aside, it creeped me out when I found it in the post this morning. I was afraid that somehow my name and address found its way on a Republican mailing list....scary indeed. (Note: if you would like to read a very well written article on one's opinion about the presidential race go here to the little hands big world blog...scroll to the September 15th entry...good reading for both sides of the party).

Boondoggle

Boondoggle: term for a scheme that waste time and money. What a great word! It so happens to apply to what is happening in my company. A year ago they changed the company's dress code---making it more casual and modern. Just last month I donated all the old button down three quarter shirts and dress pants to Goodwill (there were close to 30-40 dress shirts in a rainbow of colors---I miss them). The old updated dress code was pretty basic (polo shirts and khakis for everyone! I actually felt and looked pretty good when I went in to work----though I could still spike my look with my whimsical socks and various Chuck Taylor's.) I came back from vacation with a memo on my desk....new dress code---this time for management only. Now I must wear a buttoned collared blouse, black or brown dress pants/skirts, brown or black dress shoes---and if I were a dude my hair must be above the collar and my van dyke would have to go (meaning what most people refer to as a goatee with a mustache). So very 1962. I made the comment that soon they be asking that I shave my legs...Two loop holes in the dress code: it fails to mention restrictions on accessories and says that a woman can wear a dress of any color as long as it is professional. I have purchased two dresses thus far...and I am looking forward to stocking up on my overtheknee socks to wear with my skorts when I come back to the day shift in March. (Note: socks pictures above are most adored and below are the two new dresses from b & lu)

Scrub-a-dub-dub

Oh my. This past week at work was pretty rough. There was even a work bathroom crying moment when my toleration of my associates had reached its limit. When I was ten years old I wanted to be something so much different then this when I grew up in the world. I came home and took a very, very long steamy shower. While washing away my troubles I reached for a fresh bar of Biggs and Featherbelle soap...and for a moment or two things felt much improved. These hip bars of all natural soap are just wonderful ( and addictive). The little company is ran by two sisters who left their day jobs to start their own soap cottage industry. My sister and I met them at the craft fair in Chicago. They were friendly and chatty---we discovered that their mom is an investor and free labor. A few minutes with them and you start to get ideas----about getting out of the machine yourself for your own little business with your sister and family. So if you like to smell nice, your skin to be squeaky clean, and things to be natural----get like a few bucks and buy a bar. It can change your morning. (Note: when I was ten years old I wanted to be an artist and a marine biologist....what did you want to be?)

Tenenbaum Mice

It is that time of the month again. Time for another post card swap! The swap I am participating in this month has a little guideline....every post card sent must contain a favorite quote. For the set I am focusing on lines I cherish from Wes Anderson movies: The Royal Tenebaums, Rushmore, The Life Aquatic, and the Darjeeling Limited. The challenge is to create little fan paintings to accompany each quote. Above are the dalmatian mice from the Royal Tenenbaums. Instead of traps I would set out complimentary cheese snacks for these two dashing mice...And again, anyone that post a comment this week (and a bit beyond) will receive a quote postcard in the mail at the end of the month.