Happy 18th Birthday Christine!

18 years ago today, a little Angel came into the world!

I still remember the moment I first laid eyes on her. She was the closest thing to Heaven I had ever seen. She was brilliant, and sparkly and more beautiful than any other baby in the world. And then she opened her mouth... (j/k wee head) She had pipes to rival the ones in the tabarnacle. I can recall one time in particular where we had to pull over on the side of the road because nobody could ignore that sound. She was a pill, but she was my best friend and she changed my life. Before this angel came to earth I didn't understand what it meant to love another person with every facet of your existence. She has been an example to me for 18 years, she has always called me out when I needed it (even at age 1) and loved me unconditionally.
So today I celebrate the past 18 years and all the love, laughter and tears of sisterhood and I look forward to another 50 on this earth together and an eternity after. Happy Brithday my beautiful, strong, courageous, free-spirited, talented, exceptional, loving, supporting, laugh-out-loud funny angel sister!

Christine's 1st Birthday

Christmas 2008

Homecoming 2008

I created...then I destroyed

I started this painting with very high hopes of creating something incredible. That should have been my first clue that things weren't going to go as planned.

You might be able to tell on the right side of the painting is a can of indoor semi-gloss. I loved the consistency of the pain as it pooled onto the painting and it looked amazing...

...until it started to dry.



But i kept going hoping it would trun out okay. This was the final and it was still a little wet. So after it dried and I had crater-sized cracks in my flowers, and the black paint had run I decided to remove the black pain and see if I couldn't re-touch the white with acrylic instead.

Once I took the black off it left a very cool design. I was excited again for just a moment as I pondered ways to fix the cracks. I tried the acrylic but it just couldn't cover the damage. In one last ditch attempt I took the power sander to the painting in hopes of sanding off the excess paint and thereby eliminating my crack problem (I had a crack problem. =0)).

Sadly I have to report that the painting is now displayed at the local land-fill because no matter the effort I couldn't save my masterpiece.

Such is life... on to the next one I guess.

Finished a painting

I started this painting about a month ago and I think it's finally finished. I have very mixed feelings about it. Some days I love it, other times not so much.
Christine thinks it's great so I might just have a graduation present for her after all.
For now the painting resides over the fireplace although it is really out of place there.

This is the new painting I started. =0) Hopefully it will turn into something amazing. But even if not, I get such stress relief and pleasure from painting that the rewards to me are so worth it.