Stuff...

Apparently painting for fun agrees with me. I've felt so inspired lately and I even finished a painting. And I am completely happy with how it turned out. I might do some minor tweaking but other than that I'm signing it varnishing it and I'm done. I might even do a pear series or something. They're fun to paint, it hardly takes any time at all, and they're *green* so it's a win-win-win. Except I did buy a red pear once that I intended to paint so maybe I'll do a red one too. And in other things artsy related- drumroll please....Amanda has been invited to attend The New York Conservatory of the Dramatic Arts. Um, yeah, wow! IN NYC!!! The thought right now is for her to attend their summer session next summer. So my kid could be spending a month next summer in NYC! I'm so excited for her. She'll be spending about the same amount of money as she did for AMTC but it covers her room and it's in a fabulous city. So, nothing is set in stone right now but she is applying.

And I wanted to add this just because it's funny. Apparently the antibiotics I'm taking are causing me to have very vivid and extremely weird dreams. Let's see- one night I dreamed I had a moustache. The next night I dreamed about talking, biting trout and whitewater rapids. The next night the dream was so bizarre that I won't even type it out- but it concerned people that I went to high school with. And the next night I dreamed that all of the Buttons were in a communist country and were trying to run away. But it was comical, like a musical, and there were car chases and we eventually got out of the country by stowing away on a cruise ship. Because cruise ships often depart from communist countries. But it's keeping me from sleeping well. There's lots of running in all my dreams...so I'm hoping that everything will be back to normal soon.

La-de-da

This past weekend was a pretty eventful one. Valentine's Day was low-key and that's fine with me. When I was a kid Valentine's Day usually involved a heart shaped box of chocolates and a stuffed animal of some sort. My parents probably went out for dinner, but I can't remember. And I find that the holidays that weren't huge at my house when I was younger, usually isn't as big of a deal at the Button casa. Trav and I had a few hours out but it was kind of lame on the Ooh and Ahh-o-meter. I don't really mind lame things that much usually and had a great time just being out.

Amanda had a big thing though. She auditioned for an acting thing and was invited to go to a super-big, high-falutin' acting thing in June- in Orlando! Apparently this is *the place* to meet agents and directors and such that you could not get an audience with otherwise. She prayed about it and we prayed about it and even though the cost is going to be really, really high, we know that this is the thing she's supposed to do. So my daughter has dropped out of college to become an actor...and I'm encouraging it. Funny.

Oh, and you probably should know that the insurance adjuster came out this morning and said that we do, in fact, need a new roof that they will be mostly paying for. The window guy came out this morning and installed a new window in our bedroom- finally. I can actually see Westhaven from my window now. Trav's van is fixed- and it took amazingly little money to fix it. And I'm thankful.

So on to the crafty stuff. I've finished block #2 of Kyleigh's- sans bells. I watched Holiday Inn last night while I was hand-stitching it and forgot to put the bells in. Which I was reminded of by Halle, Travis and Amanda. Bummer.

And I decided to go a different direction with one of those frames I bought. I mixed a little bit of white artist acrylic paint (the amount shown was *way* too much) with a really wet brush and brushed it over the frame. Easy peasy.

The watered down paint pooled nicely in the grooves while still coating a lot of the frame itself.

Then I took the black ribbon off and switched it for this nice brown and blue one. Beachy, no? Ignore the palm tree-ish things inside. It was an experiment with masking fluid gone awry. I'm pretty sure that I can do better than that, which is why I haven't let Travis take this one to work.

And just for giggles, here's a shot of the gutter that was blown off the house. If you look closely you can see a shingle stuck in the bushes. That was some wind we had last week, wasn't it? When that nasty rain storm that was part of it came through our area I was stuck in car line waiting for Chloe. I got a bit nervous at one point and was thinking about tornadoes, not realizing that the school had apparently gotten some sort of tornado warning. I probably should have turned the radio on. But I was busy reading my very first issue of Coastal Living- and I love it.

Oh, and one more tidbit before I sign off. If you have time you should totally take this quiz. Yes, it's another one about style but I really liked it. I scored 33% Nantucket Style, 33% Cottage Chic and 34% Modern Elegance. I thought it pretty much nailed the looks that I really like. So have fun with that one. I didn't think I had much to write about but sometimes once I get started I just don't stop. So I'll stop now.