Pembroke 4 Gallery Show

It is about time for an artwork update. I have been very busy these last few months, not just with mommy/baby business, but squeezing painting time into any second I have. It is hard to balance housework, artwork and baby care without feeling guilty that I am cheating Callie of time with me. My remedy to this situation is to stay up very late. Sometimes I don't even get started until 10pm or later since she is such a night owl. But God has given me the strength and energy to get accomplished what I needed to do in time for deadlines. Another artist at the Artist's Gallery invited me to be a guest artist at another gallery he is a part of. Every gallery member can invite two guests for every show but the guest can only show work at this gallery once a year. It is a huge honor to be invited and I realized just how privileged I am to be a part of it once all the guests introduced themselves. There are some extremely accomplished artists that are a part of this show. The theme of the show is "Local Sites/Local Sights" so it fits right in to what I usually paint. I had to enter 6-10 paintings and then the juror chose what would be part of the show. All eight of the paintings I entered made it in. I entered four of my normal watercolor/pastel/pen paintings. I also entered four of my newest adventures in collage and acrylic. I call these my "Vintage Beach and Boardwalk Series." I am working on two more tonight to take to the Artist's Gallery tomorrow. Here are the paintings in the Pembroke 4 show. The show lasts until October 19th.



Callie and I are ready for the show reception. Matt went too, but he wasn't as colorfully dressed!

Keeping Watch

Waiting for Action - this is not in the Pembroke 4 show, but is a painting I just sold in the Summerscapes show at the Artists Gallery. I forgot to post it earlier.

Moonlight Surf (I put this on the blog earlier, I decided to enter it into the Pembroke 4 show.)

Boardwalk Spigot

Beach Umbrellas (part of the Vintage Beach and Boardwalk Series)

Beach Buggie - Water break (part of the Vintage Beach and Boardwalk Series)

Beach Buggie - Lavern's (part of the Vintage Beach and Boardwalk Series)

31st Street Rockers (part of the Vintage Beach and Boardwalk Series)

Mush and Smoosh

Callie had a very exciting outing today that wore her out. She went with Matt, me and her three brothers to the vet. She didn't sleep the entire time she was there. She was way to curious about all the furry things around her and all the barking and meowing. All the babies were very good for this outing. I was glad that Matt went this year because last year, even without a baby, it was so hard to carry a two pet crates filled with fatties. Poe and Chester share and Ollie has his own. I wish that the entire visit had been good news. My visit last spring where they told me Indey was dying is still pretty fresh in my mind. Today we found out that Oliver has little tumors in his ears that will need to be removed and biopsied. Fortunately, the surgery is not nearly as much as we thought it would be. Hopefully we will find out that they are all benign and there will be no more need to worry. But his ears are full of little gray nodules. The vet acted like she had never seen so many in one cat before. She said that there is no cause, they are just something that some cats get. The other boys were fine. Poe had lost weight but Chester had gained a pound. The doctor told us to start feeding them some canned food every day because of its water content. She said research has found that it is now good for cats because it gives them more water and helps prevent kidney failure which is the number one cause of death in kitties. So it seems that they boys will only be getting fatter! Lucky them! Here are some pictures of Callie with her best buddy Chester. He loves her and follows her around just waiting for an opportunity to lick her head or rub up against her. I predict that he will sleep with her every night once she is big enough and in a normal bed.





Just to calm any worry-worts or people who still believe the old wives tale that cats will suck the air out of infants! This napping situation was closely monitored and only lasted a few minutes!


Callie loves to rub her feet in the fur. Chester thinks he is getting a belly rub so he just rolls around loving it!

Sea Legs

Here are some more pics from July at the Lake '09. The theme for this installation is boating. Callie not only went for her first swim on this vacation, she also went on her first boat ride. She went on two rides actually and slept through the first parts of both of them. Once she woke up, she was not at all happy about the life vest!

On the second ride, she was able to get out of the vest for a while so that she could be Papa's co-captain.

She enjoyed the wind in her face!

Captain Will. (He is not going to like it when Callie and Brighton get old enough to steer and want their turn!)

Brighton hated her vest!

Will and "Bet-ty" (his blankey) helping Captain Nana.

Brighton is starting a new trend in yuppy boating apparel.

Cousin Time!

Callie and I were able to spend a total of two weeks this month at the lake visiting my parents and my sister and her kids. Our hubbies were present for part of the time. Matt drove down for the July 4th weekend and Jon flew up to Va for a week. Becky stayed almost an entire month in Virginia and was able to escape some of the intense Louisiana heat for a while. Callie loved spending time with her cousins and they seemed to love her. Brighton still wanted to put Callie in her mouth most of the time and Callie thought it was really funny. Will proved that he is not only a great big brother but he is also a wonderful big cousin. He looked after Callie, put her pacifier back in when she was upset and shared his precious car collection with her. I know that mom and dad loved having all their grandbabies in one place and they were very happy for the opportunity to show them off at church. We had so much fun and took tons of pictures. Here are a few of the three cousins together. Notice how fair Callie is compared to her cousins! She is a sunscreen manufacturers dream. Becky and I have that same obvious difference in our skin tones. There are more pictures to come but here is the first installation of July at the Lake '09.


We had several matching outfits for the kids. I don't think they had near the fun wearing them as Becky and I had picking them out and dressing them. Here is one of their July 4th outfits.

Much time was spent playing on the floor of the family room.

Will sharing with the girls. (As long as they didn't want his "best buddy" Lightnin' McQueen or his blankey and Baby Jaquar!)

Nana enjoyed having her hands full. Will enjoyed orange soda and cheese doodles.

Long Time No Bloggy

I have so much blogging to catch up on, I just don't know where to start. I think I will start with the most recent and work backwards. I am very behind from two trips to the lake to visit with my parents, my sister and her kids. I have a bazillion pictures so I will just have to post a few at a time. As for the most recent, I had a beach volleyball game tonight (I play every Thursday evening) and I got some great photos of Callie on the beach. She is getting so big and is now laughing and "talking" and is constantly sucking her fingers. Her hair is coming in very blonde and her eyes are as blue as ever. She has also had several nights where she slept up to eight hours at a time. She is not consistent with that yet, but I can't complain! Even when she doesn't sleep through the night, she still only wakes me once or twice. So here are the most recent pictures for all who have missed their regular Callie-fix!

Is there anything cuter than these little tootsies covered in sand???

THREE MONTHS OLD!

Callie Mae is three months old today! We are so blessed to have such a healthy, sweet, beautiful little baby. She is so good-natued and energetic...and chunky!--weighing in at 15 lbs. this morning. She has been very busy hanging out with her cousins at the lake and I will post those pics later.