#2868 3 things: birthdays (+ some art!)

 Aw man...I had a big post written already with some photos, but then I saved it to draft, and when I came back, it was in HTML format and I didn't know how to change it, so I wound up deleting it. When I just got back on to write this post, it was still in HTML, and I discovered a little drop-down that switches from HTML to Compose. Now I know. I also know that I will not re-create my original post, but I will instead write about three things.

1. Lizzie's birthday! Today is my dear sister's birthday. In a recent blog post, she wrote about the mixed feelings she has on her birthday. Birthdays can be such an introspective time. Lizzie is one of my favorite people in the world, and I wish I could spend every birthday with her. The last time I got to do it was a couple of years ago when I tried to surprise her by showing up at her door. It was late, and all the poor woman wanted to do was go to bed, but our mom kept trying to keep her awake until I arrived. LOL Before that, we spent her birthday in New Orleans one year. That was freaking fantastic! I feel lucky that I got to hang out with her twice in October, and we'll be hanging out again at the beginning of December, and in mid-December, too. She is just the best. Here's a photo I took of her in Barcelona in May. We were eating churros in the square in front of the church of Santa Maria del Pi. 

I love the face!

2. Linda's birthday! Today is also my MIL's birthday. MT and I were in Pocatello this weekend, and this morning we went to breakfast with Jake, Linda, MT's bro Kelly, and Kelly's wife, Denise. We went to my favorite breakfast place in Poky, Butter Burrs. They have delicious cinnamon twists. I bought an extra to have for breakfast here tomorrow. It was a nice meal, and it was fun to catch up with everyone. I don't go to Pocatello that often, so I enjoyed being with the fam. Here is a pic of Jake, Linda, and MT:

3. Kelly's birthday! The main reason we went to Pocatello this weekend was to attend a birthday party for Kelly. He will be 60 this week, so his son hosted a "Come as Your Favorite Kelly" themed birthday party. There was tai kwon do Kelly, jorts-wearing Kelly, Bells Palsey Kelly, mechanic Kelly, sweatshirt wearing Kelly, young Kelly, and Scoutmaster Kelly, to name a few. It was a clever idea, thought up by Kelly's daughter-in-law, Jen. At one point, I was standing by my nephew, Kelly's son Garrett, who was young Kelly, Kelly himself, and MT, who was future Kelly. I had to take a photo:

Garrett, Kelly, and MT

If only Garrett had been holding a Modelo! The kid truly does look like his dad.

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Time for art show and tell! I've got a bunch tonight:

My tree collage

This is what I was working on last week that I didn't have ready to show you. The prompt was to take a piece of art and rework it. From a previous prompt, I had a photo collage that I made using the Canva app. I printed it, then cut it up into little pieces to make the leaves for this tree that I drew and painted. This was a really fun project for me!

This next one was fun, too, although I only like parts of it. We were given this painting, and told to render it in our own way.

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the model

I like this painting, and I was excited to do this project. I get a bit overzealous with color, and have a lot of practice to do on my skies so they are not so layer-y. I'm also a bit shy of white space:

my version

I'm still learning. I used watercolor brush markers on this, and I like the vibrancy of the tree. The sky is not my favorite.

The art due today was to do a single-line drawing of flowers in a vase. It was meant to be partial-blind, but I wasn't looking at a model, just going for it:

one line - never taking my pen off the paper

I like to draw little doodles every day. It's easy to find prompts on Pinterest that give you a doodle a day. Here are a few doodles from last week:

prompt = HUG

prompt = SCARF

prompt = OUTDOORS

prompt = PETS (I just threw the flower in)

Okay, that's all I've got for tonight. Why do my posts always take so long to write? Maybe if I wrote more often, the posts would be shorter. But it takes so long for me to gather my thoughts and my photos, I run out of time to write. It's a vicious circle.

Have a great week!

xo