Red Rock Canyon Hike

Here is a photo Jim took of Red Rock Canyon while we were eating lunch at The Top of the World at the Stratosphere.  The rest of the photos were taken when were went hiking in Red Rock last Saturday.

 

 

You say it's your birthday! It's my birthday, too, yeah!

Let the birthday celebration continue!  A lovely surprise party last night!  (Who knew Jim could keep a secret?)  A special meal at Top of the World today!  Tomorrow, we're going hiking in Red Rock Canyon!  I'm a very happy birthday girl:)  I hope your weekend is fabulous.  I will paint again, so please don't give up on me.  I've been a distracted artist, but a very good birthday girl!  

I Belong in the Desert

I love to visit different places.  I always come home to the wild, wild West.  I like to be able to see forever. 

 

Where Were We?

Jim and I have listened to all kinds of music all our lives.  My dad used to sing in a country band - electrician by day, country singer and guitar player by night.  I grew up on the music of Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, the Statler Brothers, Waylon and Willie and other country greats.  My mom was in love with Elvis Presley and rock, so I listened to Elvis, Cream, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin.  I also developed a love of show tunes, some classical music and jazz.  Jim grew up on folk,  rock and old standards, courtesy of his older brother and sister and his parents.  We know a lot of music.  At least we thought we did.

A couple of months ago, Jim fell in love with ABBA.  We both wondered where the heck he had been in the seventies.  Everyone else in our generation, everyone in our children's generation, everyone in our parent's generation, everyone in our grandchildren's generation...Heck!  Everyone knows ABBA's music!  I was a real smarty-pants about it until we watched The Colbert Report Thursday night.

Stephen Colbert's guest was John Prine.  Where had I been?  Jim was no better.  Neither of us knew his music, but it is great.  We got on YouTube.  We found him singing his songs with Emmylou Harris, Johnny Cash, Vince Gil.  Have you heard of him?  His lyrics are a slice of life - funny, happy, tragic.  His tunes are lovely.

No art from me today.  I've got lesson plans to do and then I must watch my Green Bay Packers. (Every time I write Green Bay Packers, I make a typo and it comes out Green Baby Packers.  I wonder if there's any significance to that:)) Have a beautiful Sunday.  It's sprinkling rain here today.  It's warm, but not hot.  A perfect day.

P. S.  I'd like to share one more discovery that we made this week.  The song was written by Paul McCartney and it is performed by Glen Campbell.  Neither of us had ever heard it before.  It's beautiful enough to make you cry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU5Kb3MnCqs

Happy Sunday!

Lesson plans are done, so I thought I'd take a moment to say hi.  I painted the blue flowers, but I don't like the painting.  I may post it anyway.  I have to think about it:)  I'm going to be on summer vacation for the month of August.  Hooray!  I love school, but I'm looking forward to August.  I'm sure my students are, too. 

Did you know that Martine Alison has a show coming up July 29 to August 4 at the Renaissance Gallery?  Wouldn't it be fun to hop on a plane to France and meet Martine and see her paintings in person?  I love her art and I love her world!  Someday...

The only news here in Las Vegas is that it's hot, hot, hot!  We're used to it.  We try to have all outdoor activities done by 9:00 a.m. in July and August. 

I hope you are having a wonderful Sunday.  I'm coming around to visit your blogs.

More Flowers

Mary Oliver is one of my favorite poets.  I went into my art room to start a sketch and I found a copy of this poem.  I copied it from the Good Reads website so I could share it with you by using copy and paste rather than typing it myself:)

The sweetness of dogs (fifteen)

What do you say, Percy? I am thinking
of sitting out on the sand to watch
the moon rise. Full tonight.
So we go

and the moon rises, so beautiful it
makes me shudder, makes me think about
time and space, makes me take
measure of myself: one iota
pondering heaven. Thus we sit,

I thinking how grateful I am for the moon’s
perfect beauty and also, oh! How rich
it is to love the world. Percy, meanwhile,
leans against me and gazes up into
my face. As though I were
his perfect moon.”
― Mary Oliver 

This may be a sign that I should paint one of my furry children today, but I already had my mind set on painting some more flowers from my garden.  This is my next project. 



I started out by putting a full sheet on my board, but I'm switching to a quarter sheet.  I'm going to do something else on the full sheet.  I hope you are having a magical weekend!

While I'm Waiting for a Layer to Dry

I've had a wonderful week!  Last Saturday, Jim and I participated in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.  We didn't run the 5K, we walked it along with thousands of others.  It's an amazing feeling to be walking down the middle of Las Vegas Boulevard and other streets downtown with so many people to help raise funds to fight cancer.

I also received my very elegant, beautiful book from the very elegant, beautiful, sweet artist Martine Alison on Wednesday!  Oh, how I love the book!  To be able to enter the magical world that she has created on the pages of this book is such a special experience that I can't even find words to describe it.  Check out her blog on my sidebar  "Ma dollhouse joue un grand air de peinture" .  You'll be glad you did.

Last night we took my mom out to dinner for Mother's Day (a little early).  We went to Oscar's.  Have you heard of our wild former mayor Oscar Goodman?  He's quite a character.  We enjoyed our dinner, the view of Fremont Street was spectacular and Oscar was in the bar at the restaurant.  My mom loves him, but we didn't get to talk to him because he was with some people and we didn't want to interrupt.  Mom had a good time even if she didn't get to talk to Oscar.  The evening was a definite success.

Here's my WIP.

Happy Mother's Day!