Look what arrived on my front porch today...
This was inside...
I love the simplicity of the background.
I love the intricacies of Wynonna’s feathered pattern...
... and the quick brushstrokes that provide depth.
I love that it was painted in a cozy little house in the French countryside.
It was created by Bruce Anderson, who captured Wynonna perfectly! 
Bruce Anderson and his wife, Alisa Rosseter are artists I met blogging. You can read about their adventures here. They did something most of us only dream about. They left already seemingly perfect lives behind in Los Angeles, California, and spent a year living, teaching, bicycling, hiking, eating, drinking wine, having fun, meeting new people, in France. The year went by oh so quickly, as you can imagine, so they’ve managed to find a way to live the dream full-time when they move back to France this winter. They’ll be providing art education to kids and teens who will travel to study with them. You can read about their plans here.
Now I’m trying to figure out how I can pass for a teenage girl.I like Wynonna so much as an oil painting! She’s beautiful. There’s no poop to clean up. No ornery attitude to contend with. She can’t run away when I approach her. She can’t boss her coop mates around. She can’t plop herself in the middle of my potted flowers. She can’t trample through or eat my newly planted vegetable garden. No food or water needed. She’s perfect!
Look at that gorgeous basil! It smells amazing too. More about that later.
We’ve been racking our brains to come up with a good solution for keeping the chickens out of our raised beds since last year. That’s when we covered them with netting that got caught in the lawn mower and tangled into a frustrating mess every time I uncovered the beds to maintain the contents or harvest the fruits (or veggies) of our labor.
Our chickens love doing this in the raised beds on warm spring days...
Which is all good and fine as long as there isn’t anything planted in their midst. But we just can’t have them scratching and destroying the newly planted starts and seeds.
So here’s what we came up with...
We built six of these wire cages in about three hours yesterday. All you need is a roll of wire fencing, a good wire cutting tool and some pliers to create these. Today my hands are covered with cuts and feeling a bit numb, but I think these are going to do the trick, at least for getting several veggies started, like lettuce, carrots, potatoes, radishes, cilantro. I don't mind sharing with the girls, but when they dig up seeds and starts... grrrrr.
If you live anywhere near a Trader Joe’s, you must get there right away and pick up some of these basil plants. They’re only $2.99 and each pot contains 6 (six) plants! And these are not small, immature plants... they’re already a foot high!Thank you to my friend Theresa for letting me know about this great deal.Happy spring!
Happy Mother’s Day! A few days late, I know, but I’ve just returned from our annual beach adventure. Every Mother’s Day for the last ten years, my Mother, Iz and I have escaped to a small motel located in the heart of Cannon Beach, a quaint town on the northern Oregon coast. This year I mixed things up a bit and reserved a lovely house in Lincoln City. The house is less than a year old and has none of those issues related to an old 1927 house like ours. I could get used to this!
The house is located in a new housing development. The construction company decided to build custom homes here after the economy went sour, so there are just a few new houses in the development and many available lots for sale. Needless to say, the neighborhood was eerie quiet. We arrived late Friday afternoon and stayed until yesterday, and during that time a handful of cars drove by (one of which was a census taker who stopped by). I told him I lived there with my 20 cats and he slipped quietly away. I kept expecting people to arrive at the nearby homes for the weekend, but that never happened.
Here’s a little tour of this fabulous house. I didn’t bring the right lens to get it all in, but you’ll get the idea. After you enter through the front door, there’s a hallway that leads to a laundry room and three bedrooms (each with its own bathroom!) Mine also had its own deck.
A staircase (with 18 stairs) takes you up to the great room...
The great room includes a gourmet kitchen...
Notice how small my Mom looks in this kitchen? Everything is oversized. The counters were quite high, the sink very deep, and the cupboards out of reach.
Check out the concrete counters. They look great, but I’m not ready to have them in my house. If you leave any liquids on them, they stain.
Living room with a gas fireplace and an ocean view...
Library...
Deck with an ocean view... (or a view of the woods, depending on which direction you look)
TV room... name that movie
And, of course, another bathroom (that makes a total of four!)
We actually did a little shopping in the nearby town.
Yum, chocolate!We found it difficult to spend too much of our precious time hanging out with the crowds when we had the quiet house luring us back.
... or Lucy and Ricky?
... or Ricky and Fred?
Only time will tell.It’s amazing how quickly these little buggers grow... like bamboo in the spring I tell ya.
Disclaimer: I am not the most experienced, all-knowing parent in the world. I have one child. Some people equate that with having a pet.
A friend called me last week. She’s writing an article for a local parenting magazine about ages and stages. She needed a quote from the parent of an 11-14 year old. The section about this age group discusses preparing ‘tweens to deal with peer pressure.
Our conversation got me thinking...
For the most part, the ‘tween years are all about preparing kids (and their parents) for the peer pressures that lie ahead in the teenage years. Girls begin to take notice of their appearance fairly early. They become extremely self-conscience. My daughter is currently in the “I’m fat.” “I’m ugly.” “I just wish I looked normal” (whatever that is) stage. Her desire to fit in is extremely important. Hair, clothes, height, weight, looks, are all-consuming in the daily life of a ‘tween.
So how can we (parents) play a role in helping our kids through this stage?
The word that kept coming up in the conversation with my writer friend was communication. That word gets used a lot in parenting. It’s really about being accessible to our kids. Making them feel comfortable talking to us about ANYTHING.
Every day when I pick up Iz from school, the first thing I ask is, “How was school today?”
Usually this turns into a monologue about some not-so-pleasant thing that happened, i.e. she may have failed a math test, one of her friends made a comment about her _______ (fill in the blank) shirt, hair, project, shoe laces... Occasionally she says, “Good.”
Yesterday she jumped into the car and before I had a chance to ask my question, she says, “The gym locker room smelled like pot today.”
“And how do you know what pot smells like?” I asked.
Apparently, the gym teacher had made this claim. So this led to our discussion about what she plans to do when someone asks her to smoke pot with them. She said she’s never going to smoke pot. I told her about the damage it can do to a developing brain. I also told her that if she ever wants to try it (sometime around legal drinking age), talk to us about it, and we’ll see what we can do to make that happen. She looked at me with a shocked look. I just don’t want it to be so taboo that she finds herself curious about it and therefore wants to try it. I also think that when kids don’t feel comfortable talking to parents, they’re likely to seek answers elsewhere. I want her to feel like she can talk to me without me freaking out on her.
If I can show I’m willing to listen and discuss things, I’m hoping she’ll feel comfortable talking to me about sensitive subjects in the future.
I’m gonna need to work on my poker face.
I will not freak.
I will not freak.
I will not freak.
Any parenting advice will be appreciated.
Thank you.
