How Long?

I haven't updated here in HOW LONG?

Oh, my goodness. Life has been very busy. We're blogging regularly (Diahn and I) over at Quirk, where we are doing food and recipes for the month of November. Kind of our way of keeping up our photo practice, acknowledging that the month of November becomes All About Food Anyway by the second week of the month, and giving a nod to all of the brave people out there doing NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo and NaWhateverElseMo.

Miss you guys. Off to see what the rest of you have been doing out there in Bloggerville.
Love,
Linda

Tomato

I've never had much luck growing vegetables in our yard. We have too many trees that compete for the sunshine and the water to have a successful vegetable garden. Still, I try.

This spring at a local nursery I found a nice sized patio tomato plant that was already off to a good start. Our deck gets a good amount of sun, so, even though the plant was a bit pricey, we figured it would be worth a try.

We planted it and watered it.

We pinched back the suckers and weeded the pot occasionally.

Then, we had a new grandbaby. And we traveled a little. And we went out onto the lake on the weekends. And we kind of forgot about the plant, which had, by August, flopped over out of it's pot and was lying on a deck chair's footstool.

Not a sign of a tomato, though. None.

Today, doing some pre-fall cleaning, I went out to the deck with the plan of pulling the plant up so we could at least get to the chair. AND...

...and...

and, there on the footstool, positively GLOWING, was a tomato.

So, just in case you've never seen one before, ladies and gentlemen,
Allow me proudly to present...



THE NINE DOLLAR TOMATO.

Yippee.
(sigh)

Doll Face

I just noticed that I never gave details about our new little fellow!

This is A.J. -- he was 6 lb 12 oz when he was born a little over a month ago, and is now 9 lb 10 oz at his one month check up.

He likes well built women, quiet evenings at home, and long conversations late LATE into the night.

Finger Lickin Good

I tell him if he keeps that finger in his mouth people will start calling him "that nine fingered boy."

He doesn't care...

First Morning at Home

You know how it is when you wake up in a new place and you're all, like, "whoa, what the..." and then you're like, "oh, yeah, I remember now."

It was kind of like that, but with an, "aaargh, matey, the name be AJ and I be squintin' my pirate eye at ye'..." thrown in.

Dudes

There's just something about great big guys holding little bitty babies...

Unexpectedly arriving this afternoon via the fastest emergency C-section most of the nurses at this hospital have ever seen... we are all still just stunned and thankful at how blessed we are.

You people, however, are about to be subjected to many many MANY baby pictures. And I'm not apologizing.
:-)

Shadow Shot Beach Chair

Still in Florida waiting for the baby to arrive.
So, since it's Sunday, here's a shadow shot ... just for the heck of it.

still waiting

in Florida ... still waiting

Totally Excited

I'm off to paint this morning ...
then to work to finish EVERYTHING on my desk...
then to the store to exchange my brand new (malfunctioning) camera...
then home to clean house and do ALL the laundry...
then to gather my kit for on-the-road sketching and watercolor...
then to pack my clothes...
then MONDAY...after much anticipation and excitement...
after what will be a VERY long day at work (even though I will leave early)...

I'll be off to Florida, to be with my daughter...

and await the arrival of my FIRST GRANDBABY!!!

Believe me. You guys are going to be just SICK of baby pictures when this is all said and done with.

Wish us luck and keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Talk to you all soon!

True Story

Dear Blogger Buddies,
The worst part about being absent for so long is that it is so dang AWKWARD starting back.
But I started back today.
Today I squeezed some magenta paint into a palette.
Then work called, so...
TRUE STORY.  Stay tuned.
Love,
Linda (The Slacker)

I've been working on a little series of portraits in a small "folder" style journal since about mid January. (Starting with the little portrait I posted earlier.) This past Friday night I couldn't find my palette of gouache anywhere, and after turning the house upside down, gave up the search and just filled an extra empty palette with fresh paint, with the plan of finishing up the book Saturday afternoon. It wasn't until Saturday afternoon that I realized my little book of finished portraits was also missing.

Gone. And I can't imagine where it could be... except that I've been doing a LOT of housecleaning which has involved throwing a lot of stuff away...

Sigh. I'm starting over from scratch.

Oddly, I'm not terribly upset that it's gone missing. Don't know what's up with THAT.

****************

Other news -- Diahn and I have had a little photography project going this year where we've done a photo a day of ... well, of whatever we see that day. We call the project "Quirk" and would love to invite you all over to take a peek.

Hmmmm... maybe I need to look through all my photos for clues to my missing sketchbook...

Promises

I did this a month ago, and haven't drawn much of anything since. But I look at it and it makes me happy. Something about it feels like the direction I want to go this year.

BUT ... if you are expecting New Year's resolutions and goals for 2010 ... well, it just ain't happening right now.

Diahn and I met up today and talked about how we normally set goals this time of year. She didn't quite read me the riot act about my lack of blog posts this past month, but she very firmly and sweetly pointed out that I was a dismal disappointment. A slacker, you might say. And I had to agree. So I PROMISE to do better!!! And while we don't have major goals, we might have a little no-stress project to play with this year -- an idea that we're just tossing around right now. To be quite honest, I'm still a bit overwhelmed with life, and have to get through my "to-do list" before I can think about doing much more!

My To Do List:

Pick out new floors for my downstairs and get them installed so I can finally get this house straightened back up!

I have a new dining room set in my living room -- the old dining room furniture is still in the dining room waiting to get put up on Craig's List. Maybe I'd have better luck getting to the drawing table if I wasn't climbing over an extra dining room table. You think?

Good Will can expect a major donation, as I am going through my entire house and getting rid of stuff that I don't use. I've already done a couple of rooms, but my closet is ... well, let's just say that it is a bit full.

I have to get caught up on some things at work. Seriously.

AND THEN I can think about art projects. Big ones, that is.

Still. I have major art guilt right now about not keeping up the sketching habit, so I'll be starting that back up. And I think little gouache paintings on tan paper, like the one above, are a good starting point for now. Promise.