Memories and Little Miss Pink

Hello, we have been gone  on a little trip.  We are still celebrating our 50th anniversary.  Trying to celebrate all year.   Eldon keeps looking for the expiration date on the marriage license.  I have told him there is not one but he keeps looking.   Just a little game we play.  All  the time, while I co-pilot our steel stallion,  I was thinking of different things I wanted to blog about.  I certainly needed to write them down.  Do you think I did?  Probably not, but I was bound and determined to touch base and blog.   I certainly didn't want to forget how to do it.  

There are so many good things to remember as your days go by.  Even if nothing really happens that would shake the world, little things make up our lives.  There is a saying by Robert Brault-Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.  I like this saying and Robert Brault, I think, talks like me.  Scary isn't it ?

I found this painting of this pretty baby on the computer I had photographed and then painted. I thought now someone might enjoy looking at it as much as I did painting it.  My style, as it should, has changed but just wanted  you to enjoy it as much as I did. 

Here she is, Little Miss Pink. 

She was  first photographed by myself and then I painted her digitally.  Remember, not the push of a button trick but stroke by stroke.  Sometimes I like to do realistic and sometimes not. Guess it depends on my mood and how much chocolate I have eaten.  I do enjoy painting this type of painting for clients.  Just a feel good experience.

Thanks for stopping by and seeing what is happening in my world today. 

The First One to Pop into My Head~~Lyrics

It is funny that some days certain songs or poems or movies or just memories just pop into your head.  Nothing really spurs you to think of them they are just filed away in your head like a little filing cabinet I suppose.   What do you think ?  Possibly filed under pleasant  memories ?   Maybe a butterfly floats along in the sky and makes you think of a peaceful place where you have been and butterflies were in the picture.

On my art journal adventure, I do believe art is an adventure, Zinnia had the prompt of Lyrics.  So many subjects could come up.   Growing up in the , shall we say middle 40's to 2011 there are a lot of songs you could think of.  Well, some of them you could get out of your head as soon as you heard them.  Even "Down At Pappa Joes "is a pretty catchy one.

I remember going to the movies and for a whole 25 cents you could get a coke and popcorn and see the movie.   Cartoons were shown first or second, not for sure now and always Tom and Jerry was one of them.  Then the newsreels, we saw the world news, not that a child of few years would watch that part. There was no TV you know.  That was before Bennie and Cecil  or even Howdy Doody.   I bet that shocks some of you. We actually use to listen to the radio and listen to Little Orphan Annie, The Shawdow and other goodies like that. 

One of my favoites was Roy Rogers and Dale Evans and his wonderful horse Trigger.  One of the songs he sang was------"Don't Fence Me In"  Why I thought of that I don't know.  But I did so that is what I chose to art journal on. 

Don't Fence Me In---- I had to use rafia around the edges, didn't have any leather laces to play with.  This was from a knapkin and the horses were to pretty to trash.   I even found a little map of Texas and marked where we were. 

I used some of the tape that you use to fix sheet rock with.  Hey it is texture. 

I hope you enjoy it and thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in my world.    I guess I could sign off with Happy Trails.

Pans ?

Hello there and Happy June.  Where does the time go ? They say, whoever they are, that time goes by quickly when you are having a good time.  I must be having the party of a lifetime here.  Come join me. 

Now this thing about pans.   You know there are cooking pans of all sizes and shapes and oil pans under your car just to name a couple   I have a nice collection of pans to cook with and I am sure our Steel stalion (aka automobile) has an oil pan.  Funny I use to help hubby work on cars and could help tear into pistons and all the goings on of an auto, but now days when you open a hood it is all  full of stuff. 

Back to the subject here Annette.  I have discovered, not a country or anything like that but something called Pan Pastels.  Man those are the best things since sliced bread, I kid you not.  I have, I could safely say hundred of soft and hard pastels.  They do make dust and dry your hands out but just feels good like a first grader playing with colors.   I drug them out and straightened the up from their 25 plus years of vacation.  When seeing about the Pan Pastels I thought nope I don't need them, until I saw them in action.  The company has their own website about them and Christy Tomlinson of Scarlet Lime showed their wonders and magic on a journaling class I am taking   "She had three hearts."  I have to get these.   So I went online, my favorite source nowdays and of course Dick Blick has them on sale.  Yep a SALE !!!  So I figured out which set I "needed" and even got the tools and sponges in the kit  for $64 and bought seperately a little plastic case for a whole $8 plus change.   People I am in hog heaven. 

Here you go the Pan Pastels, the case and applicators.  Mana from heaven to me.  The sponges, applicators and all the colors.  There are 80 colors in all  but figure I can get into trouble with 20.

Now the main question is----do I leave them pretty like this or just mess them up and use them ?   Zinnia, on another forum says we need to use our supplies.  So use them I will use them and post something that I do with them soon. 

There you go and thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in my world.  

Song of the Sunflower

I remember when we bought a farm, close to our other farms, that it had sunflowers.  Lots and lots of sunflowers.  These were not the big pretty ones you see in a field and in flower arrangements.  They were little pest  cousins of the big flamboyant ones.  They hogged all the water and just flat got in the way.  We had them hoed down, the real arm swinging chopping down type of hoeing.   Then we used-gasp-chemicals
 It was WAR !!!  They were stealing the moisture from our cotton and peanuts, our lively hood.  After a good lengthy and costly  battle we won.  At least for the time being.   Now we have sold the farms and do hope the new owners are continuing the battle of the sunflowers.  

When hubby and I are driving around and see how pretty the little pest ones look on the side of the road, we both say I hope they don't lose control of them.  

Now here I am painting them.  Not the pests but the big flamboyant ones.  They are so pretty.  I have done several paintings of them and enjoyed them all.   This painting is done for the Open Studio class with Karen Bonaker.  She shows us differnt techniques and just to let ourselves go and play.  So play I did.  Getting back into the swing of digital painting.   This is certainly not done with a click of a button either.  Lets see a button do this.  Guess that could be a challenge of the buttons?  Kind of like the sunflowers I suppose.

                                              Here you go the Sunflower's Song

  Well, actually it is the music from The Stars and Stripes Forever  but just thought the notes were pretty.    Sort of a watercolor and paint combined.  

May is coming to an end.  I cannot believe how quick the months just fly by.   The wind is still blowing quite hefty.  Now we are talking 30 to 50 mile an hour winds.  Some years it just blows forever, then when you think you can't stand it anymore it quits.  No rain though since October.  We'll see what June brings to us. 

Thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in Annette's world.

WAX and IRONING

In my adventure to figure out what I want to do after retiring, as I might have mentioned, my friend Bev suggested Roses on my Table.  I am a member of the group R.A.I.L.  Every month Zinnia posts fun lessons for us to play and create. 

Take a little quilting iron, nope don't iron clothes with it,  I do love to iron while watching TV, and bees wax and just have a good time.  

Here is what I created with her instructions and going to do one more before we go on to a new project.

I can't remember where I got this beautiful image,   I think Vintage Catnip.  Here is the art piece, I loved the whole process and just a relaxing and creative process.  Like I said it has been over 25 years since I have played with any type of traditional art.  I hope you enjoy it. 

Now Saturday I am starting a digital painting class with Karen Bonaker on the Digital Art Academy classes.  These are always fun and gets my painting muse going and working overtime.  I always try the new brushes and explore them,  but go back to Marilyn Sholin's brushes.  Guess you just can't break old habits.   I always said I am not going to do more than one class at a time and here I am fixing to do three.  What is the third one you ask?  Well, just wait and see I say.   I watched the videos and will start playing soon.  

There you go and thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in my world today.    Of course I will share more artsy goodies with you.

Cardboard, Wood and Batteries

Several years ago hubby, of now 50 years, and I took one of our "trips".  These are the kind that when we back out of the driveway we really are not sure where we will go.  This trip we wandered some in Oregon.  Just a tiny ways from Texas.  We were surprised how different the East side was than what we thought.  We thought all of it was lush and green, not so for the East side, or at least the part we saw.  Along one of the highways were rows and rows of trees, planted close and reminded me of corn  and how close they plant it.  We just couldn't imagine planting trees that close and why.   Well, our question was answered at the next stop, besides buying gasoline you have to buy "junk"  you know the kind that is bad for you.  We do off set it though with a Sprite Zero so it all kind of balances out in the scheme of things.   The trees were Popular trees and planted for harvest, I am thinking they said every seven years.  And what do they do with the trees you ask?  They make cardboard.  I haven't ever really thought of where cardboard came from but then I don't think it really cares if I knew. 

So how does this tie in with my story?  Well, do you think that possibly the cardboard used in these ROBOTS came from Oregon?     

Yep you read correct.  ROBOTS    We met this sweet young lady at Thanksgiving and she told us that in her class they were going to build robots.  Now that certainly sparked my ears up.   ROBOTS?   Sounded like a wonderful thing to go watch to me.   

It seems that this college in a nearby town has two campus locations.  One in Levelland and one here in Lubbock.  They compete in the making of the robots and then have a little battle so to speak.   Well here we were, reminded me of the Romans watching Gladiators fighting it out.  There was even one that had a wicked looking blade on it like in Ben Hur with Charleston Heston.  The one scene with the chariot race?

The students built their robots out of cardboard, wooden frame and batteries and drills.  All had  turning, whacking and one had a thumping type  weapon.   They had to get in the corners and then come out fighting.  Each team had a 10 minute time out, to repair or get their little robots together again and they had to keep moving around on the floor.  Here goes the pics. 

Calli and Tri, robot builders extraordinaire.  They were ready for battle.  The workings of Rocky.   They all had to have names.  There was a photo of Rocky Balboa on the top of this robot.  Check out the batteries, the strapping, the drill ran the wheels.  

The time out, both creators had to help their robots along, just a little.

The battle, sadly Rocky lost, his remote control burned up.  Please excuse the reflections, there was a protective plastic to keep the flying pieces from hitting us.  

This was the first set of robots to battle.  Under Cut lost, but certainly put up a good battle.

Can't remember the names of these but the square one got a pretty good beating and quit running, maybe inch or two but not enough to keep in the race.  They had to move and the moving parts had to move, the students got the grade and the rest was fun. 

This stream lined robot was the winner for the year and gets to be proudly on display until the next round of wars.  He was pretty low to the ground and certainly streamed lined.   I think those were flames painted on the side.

There you go, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing about it.   Thanks for seeing what is going on in my world at the moment. 

Oh don't forget to click on the photos that makes them larger.  Probably the whole world knows that but me.  

Beef and Salsa

  I don't read the paper as much as hubby does, I read the local  news and see the front page of the paper and look at the front page of the sports to see if I am on there.   I am rolling on the floor laughing at that one, like I am the most nonathletic human there is on the face of the earth.   Of course when grandson was small,  maybe three to five I could be the coach and player and cheerleader of his teams.   I was pretty good at multitasking at those jobs.   Now when we played basketball, I would grab him as he dribbled circles around me and give him a good Nana kiss.  He would tell me in a cute 3 year old voice, love those voices, that was not in the rules.   

There is one section of the paper I do hunt for though~ the one where the post a recipe every once in a while and the American Profile little booklet that comes some day of the week, I never remember what day but Eldon knows not to chunk it until I look for   A NEW RECIPE !!!!!!!   He must still like them though or he would probably just tell me it is not in the paper this week.

Looking thru the pages I found a recipe!!  Surprise upon surprises.   It is Peppered Beef with Pineapple Salsa.  Now what could be wrong with this combo ?  I mean it has BEEF, Eldon's favorite and salsa, my favorite.   Pineapple Salsa with jalapenos at that.  Now I made it and he like it as I did, even though----gasp---- I am not crazy about beef steak.  I know how could I be a Texas and not like beef steak you ask.  Remember I was not born in Texas so that probably explain the earth shattering puzzle.

Now I will make again but cut back on the jalapeno pepper this next time.  But I did get the go ahead from Eldon to make again.   A success in my eyes.

Here you go the steak and salsa.  Now Eldon likes his steak pinkish inside, I had to get a meat thermomator to help assist me in this task.  I just thought it was so pretty so had to share.   Fresh pineapple by the way and cilantro also.

I thought I would add a PS here---- so P.S.  here is the recipe if you might want it.  Several have asked for it. 

Peppered beef with Pineapple Salsa


Salsa:

1 cup peeled and diced fresh pineapple
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper

1/4 cup diced red onion ( you know I omitted that little killer of Eldon)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves

2 teaspoons minced fresh jalapeno pepper ( I am going to cut to one next time I make it, was a bit warm, either that or I used to much jalapeno

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1/2 coarse salt

fresh ground black pepper ( I just used coarce ground pepper)

Beef:

1/4 cup jalapeno pepper jelly

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 1/4 pound beef flank steak ( I think any type of steak would be good here ) blotted dry on paper towels

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspon freshly ground black pepper

1. To prepare salsa, stir together all ingredients. Cover and set aside.

2. To prepare beef, melt jelly in a small pan; stir in Worcestershire sauace and set aside.

3. Heat oil in a large, heavy skillet over high heat until hot but not smoking. Sprinkle both sides of steak with salt and pepper, place in pan and cook about 4 minutes per side, turning once, or until desired degree of doneness.

4. Reduce heat to low and spoon on jelly glaze. Cook 1 minute longer, until thoroughly heated and beef is glazed. Remove from pan, divide among 4 dinner plates, spoon on salsa and serve.


There you go, thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in my world today.   Oh, a hint to for the next blog ~~  cardboard, wood and batteries.