My Adventures in Painting Roses and Other Fluff!

I am one who can poke fun at myself and not worry. I have a pretty good sense of self-worth so I can do this. I rarely care much what other people think of me. In other words, I’m pretty confident of my abilities. No, I’m not prideful, just confident. I know what I can do and what I cannot do. And there is much I cannot do. Trust me!

Anyway, today I’m going to tell you my adventures in trying to paint, in particular—roses. Please don’t laugh; it’s not funny that I am a total flop at painting.

I saw this image on the internet and it brought back memories of my pathetic attempt at trying to learn rose painting. While this painting doesn’t show frustration, which I felt, it shows the beginning of a beautiful painting. Mine never did. Sigh.

This is about as good as I ever got. You’d think I’d be embarrassed to show it, but nope, I’m proud of how far I had come before I decided I’d never be a rose painter.

Then I thought about painting bird nests. I wasn’t much better at that. However, these two paintings hang on my front porch. They may not be sellable but I sure as heck tried and I’m proud that I did.

Okay, here’s the story on this one.

I bought two folding wooden chairs for our patio out back and painted these roses on the back. One of the chairs broke and I wasn’t about to let my “art” go to waste as these roses were rather pretty. So I took the back piece off the chair to salvage the roses and they now hang in my laundry room.

This rose turned out pretty well so I made some decals out of them. My granddaughter wanted some to put on her place cards for her wedding dinner several years ago and we did. She loves me much you understand, so I think she was just being kind to me, but they were used and for that alone, I’m eternally grateful to her. Caroline is the other thing for which I’m grateful to her. ;-) And if you look at the URL at the top of your screen if you’re reading my blog, you’ll see I made it my avatar also. Pretty unique, huh?

Now, here you can see I’m truly NOT an artist by this little caricature I drew of me. It’s my place-holder. What is a place-holder you ask? Well, I work with templates. When I make one for a person to use, I color code them for text and photos. In other words, when they see red they put their text in there. When they see blue, they put the photos in that space where the html is. Makes it much easier for them when using the template. So my place holder is this little caricature of me. If that pops up, they know they need to change it to the photo they want instead of my photo. This is what I see all the time when I’m creating a blog post. If I see that little caricature, I know I need to change it to another photo. But this is in here to show you my creative endeavor. Stop laughing!

This is another shade of pink I really like. More of an orchid color, but beautiful.

Another sweet thatched cottage in the UK somewhere. I believe they are allowed in certain places in the U.S. as I’ve seen them, but I doubt many places would allow them. In Ireland, one of the B&Bs we stayed in didn’t allow me to use my blow dryer. You should have seen me. I got under the electric blanket and just started running my fingers vigorously through my hair until it dried. Turned out pretty dang good though!

Another stunning lamp for you. This is one I would like to copy on one of my lampshades, but I’m not sure I’ll do it any time soon.

Some really pretty lampshades here.

Love the feather trim around this one. Elegant. I would definitely buy this lamp.

Yes, these are the colors of my “Dream” house. While it’s not winter yet, I thought you’d like to see this gorgeous home now. Ooooooh, huge sigh.

Sweet little cart. I really like how they use it for decoration around their home.

Just eye candy to make you drool.

You can go and make some chocolate and pink macaroons now. ;-)

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Pink Saturday 5/14/2011

Another Pink Saturday has come around. To view all of the participants, hop on over to Beverly's blog by clicking on the icon below:
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I cannot tell you how good it feels to simply take a shower or even just wash my hair over the kitchen sink. Having this boot on my foot has lost its luster, let me tell ya. To update you, I had a doctor's appointment 3 days ago. When he walked into the room he asked me where my boot was. It went downhill from there. :-(

Through miscommunication I thought I didn't have to wear the boot. He had a fit when he found a lump on my heel incision. He thinks he may have to go back in if that lump is an injury. We'll know next Tuesday. I was furious with myself for believing I wasn't finished with the boot. Plus he had told me not to drive and I drove there! Love Bunny was teaching and couldn't get out of it so feeling pleasantly well enough I drove. I didn't drive home! I called a friend to come and get me.

Then when hubby called me that he was on his way home that afternoon I told him what happened. I figured he'd come home and get someone to go with him to fetch my car. Nuuuuu, Mr. Macho drives his truck to the doctor's office, switches to my car, leaves his truck there, comes home, rides his bike over there, pitches it into the back of the truck and drives home. What is it with men having a problem asking for help?

But anyway, I'm having to wear the boot even to bed and can only take it off if sitting and watching videos on my laptop. I've now watched over 50 videos from friends and the complete collection of James Bond movies for which my daughter sent me the DVDs. Okay, enough of my travail.

I was in WalMart on Tuesday with hubs—me in the riding cart—and a woman stopped me and said she loved my hair. What is it about my hair that so many women find appealing? Her appeal was its fluffiness. Sometimes it's the color. For Pete's sake, it's only gray sprinkled around a light brown, nothing special I assure you, but her compliment came as a surprise. I said thank you, always the best response, and drove away in my electric cart. But I was still astounded by the flattery, albeit, pleasantly. This photo is today after washing it and feeling marvelously better.

This little shelf was one of my very first attempts at painting. I'm sharing "old stuff" as I simply don't feel stable enough to go out much wearing this boot.

Another attempt at bird nests.

My bouquet will be 50 years old in about 3 1/2 more weeks. I couldn't just stash it away. It is part of my wall decor in the living room.

My Mother's Day rose is finally wilting but I won't throw it out until the petals drop.

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