Layer 3 of Floral Tile

Evolving Piece - Alcohol Ink on Tile

Yesterday, I posted this tile:

It dried overnight and I did a second layer today:

I really like the shape it is taking, but I want to get some of the earlier colors back into my "bouquet." Especially the orange.  Maybe where the yellow is on the top left quadrant and the bottom.

So I'll do some more this afternoon some time.

Memorial Day Memories and Some New Art

Memorial Day always brings bitter sweet memories of my Dad, a veteran of WWII and Korea, career military man who moved us many different places around the world over his 21 year career in the Corps of Engineers.  He was admitted to the hospital on Memorial Day 1977 and died on June 12. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery on my mother's birthday, June 15.  She was only 54 and lived 19 more years.  I don't believe that she was ever really happy after Daddy died.  19 years is a long time to live without the love of your life.

I let other memories get to me this morning and then I made myself go to my "Happy Place" and play around for a few hours.

The first thing I did was pull out two cards I had created last month.  They are on black card stock, 5" square.  I like this one with the bottles.  It was the first one I did so it is a little messy.  I'll have to do another.  This is created using a substance called, "Perfect Medium" on the card and then embossing powder of different colors are brushed onto the wet medium.  Then brushed off, leaving the outline.  I mist with a fixative or water to set the powders.

I used a Gelly Roll pen made for writing on dark backgrounds.

My second attempt was a little more successful, I think.  I loved how the leaves turned out.

After I took the pictures of the cards, I pulled out my new alcohol inks and started creating a sheet of samples of all the palette colors and, just for fun, I dropped a little of each color in puddles of blending mixative on a tile as I worked with each color.  When I finished, I dobbed the tile with a crumpled tissue and took a photo of it.

Then I put a little more color and mixative on it and covered it with Glad Press n' Seal wrap.  I will pull it off tomorrow to see what pattern has been created and decide what else to do with it.

By the time I picked up the laptop to upload my photos, I had dispensed with the feeling of depression I had experienced this morning.  I am so grateful, it is that easy for me.  I know there are other people like my Mom who cannot seem to be able to do that.  But then I still have the love of my life with me every day.

Tomato and Pineapple Update

Picked up a banana plant from my friend, Neila, yesterday.  Butch says I need to tell him where I want to plant it.  I'm watching where the sun hits the yard and will decide today.  No pictures of it yet.  While I was out there taking pics of the plumeria the other day, I got some of Butch's tomato plants.  They have blooms but no fruit has formed yet.

There are five of them altogether.  I just took a picture of two of them.

Butch gave me an owl last weekend.  It will end up out there guarding the tomatoes.  But right now I have it sitting on the lanai where I can see it through the sliders.

I was tempted to keep him on the dining room table where I first found him.

But he looks good out on the lanai table.

And my pineapples are really coming along!  I can hardly wait to pick them.

One is quite a bit larger than the other, but I wasn't expecting twin pineapples to get that large when they share one pot full of foliage.

I'll be planting the tops from these two in separate pots later this summer.

Our Plumerias

This blog entry needs no words.   Even the newest sticks have sprouted big, healthy leaves.  We have some out in the front yard, too.  These are all around the lanai.

Best Laid Plans.....

did go astray.  I truly did plan to blog about my vacation but I was having such a good time doing stuff with the Irresistibles that I just didn't get around to it.  I did post pics to FaceBook, though.  Here they are for my non-FaceBook friends:

Gail, Jane and Paula on our first night there

Beach right in front of our condo

From 16th Floor Balcony

Easy beach access

Nice pool - which we didn't use.

Beautiful balcony views

Oriental decor throughout the 3B/3Ba condo

View through master bedroom sliders

Windy day kicked up some waves

More waves

View from kitchen/dinette window

View from window in living room

View from side of balcony

 We used VRBO.com to find the condo and the property is owned by an individual but managed by Luxury Real Estate located on Perdido Key Drive.  They were WONDERFUL to deal with.  Made everything super easy.

It was a long drive from Tarpon Springs but actually faster driving than trying to fly -- and I was able to take stuff I could not have fit into one or two suitcases.  I met Paula in High Springs at Chele's place.  My car was loaded down with all the stuff we had both brought for our group's comfort.

It was a wonderful, wonderful five days. And I love these girls more than I did before.

That's the object of a girls' trip, right?

Carpe Diem

The car is packed and I'll hit the road to Perdido Key early (very early) tomorrow morning.  I'm making a stop at my daughter's place in High Springs to meet one of our group, Paula, who is driving down from Bluffton, SC.  My drive is a little under 3 hours and hers is a tad over 3 hours.  We'll leave her car there and continue to Perdido Key, another 5 hours.  Our other Irresistibles will be coming from the opposite direction on I-10.  Jane, who has been on the road from Timberon, New Mexico since Tuesday, is timing her travel to pick up Gail (flying in from Waterloo, IA) at the mobile airport.  They'll have a little over an hour's drive from the airport to the condo on Perdido Key.

We are hoping to get to the beach front penthouse condo in time to ice some glasses and make Mint Juleps, don our beach hats, and cheer our favorite horse(s) to a win at the Kentucky Derby.

My favorite is the winner of the Tampa Bay Derby, "Carpe Diem."  Since we are all "seizing the day" to finally get together again, it seems a fitting choice to me.  I love the name and it reminded me of one of my favorite Robin Williams performances in "Dead Poet's Society."

"They're not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they're destined for great things, just like many of you, their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because, you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it?— Carpe— hear it?— Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary."

I hope Carpe Diem realizes an extraordinary win tomorrow.

My high school Latin teacher, Mrs. Mears, would be so happy with this post.  She was always giving us a point or two extra credit when we brought examples of daily use of this supposedly "dead" language to her.  Her husband was the Principal of Douglas Southall Freeman High School in Henrico County, Virginia when I attended from 1961-1964.  He could be pretty stern, but Mrs. Mears had him beat by a mile.  NO ONE crossed her.  Yet she was my second favorite teacher.  And I remember her well.  Over 50 years ago now and Mrs. Mears is long gone as she was close to retirement back then.

My girlfriends and I will be seizing several days together from tomorrow until we have to leave on Thursday to head back to our very different lives.  We tend to laugh a lot and talk a lot.  I'll miss Butch and Beau, and will be happy to come home to them.  But, it's been a long and busy year and I am ready for a few days of R & R.

Tomorrow, I'll have some of my own photos taken on Day 1 of this latest meeting of some Irresistible women.

“You can be gorgeous at thirty, charming at forty, and irresistible for the rest of your life.” 
― Coco Chanel"

What are they saying now? "60 is the new 40?"  If so, our group is now "charmingly irresistible."