artistic endeavors: guess what . . .

So.

Everything good starts with inspiration. :)

[The one on the left is obviously the original, the one on the right is my trying to do something like it, with pen and coloring in with crayons. :) Aren't I classy?]

But first I would like to say...that there are truly no words to say how much I love slop.

Stephanie made it with me while Anna and Heather scrapbooked at Grammy's house.

We watched Danny tote the little baby doll around, the one that I got when I was like, 6. He was adorable with it, finding a random jar and giving the doll sips of the imaginary drink in it. Then he got one of his diapers out of his bag, and Steph put it on the baby doll. Hilarious.

He talks quite a bit more nowadays, and he warmed up to Steph and I after a while... he usually likes Rachel the most, but I think I earned his affection and respect with the strawberries I made him say please for, and the rice-honey-cinnamon-milk that I fed him and he kept coming back for more. :)

So that's my swooning over slop and my little blurb about last night with Heath and Steph...oh yeah--here's to a public Happy Birthday to Heather dear! ;) 

(whenever she gets on here and reads this, she is so going to love me;)

Next up, I may or may not have mentioned that I love the book of John?

It's amazing. My favorite of the gospels.

1:50pm

At the coffee shop in town with Skylar... We had $5.50 together, but it was .50 short of paying for her chocolate-raspberry iced cappuccino and my small English toffee cappuccino. This random guy at the end of the counter footed the 50 cents. He doesn't seem too creeper, which is good...it's nice to live in a small town.

For some reason, I don't think people in a New York coffee shop/bistro would be so generous if we were short a certain amount of change?
Something funny.
A man walked in, went to the counter, and told one of those nice, friendly ladies, "One pound, please."
I looked at Skylar.
"Did you hear that?"
We snickered.
"It's like a drug! It's...like a drug!" She whispered.
"Um, honey. It is."
Har. Har. Caffeine is a drug, isn't it?
Well, then. Let's keep it moderate. It's not my fault I post pictures on here and you worry about me. ;)
(Sincerely, I hope you don't...worry, I mean.)

Anyhow...

John.

We were talking about the book of John.

Inbetween telling Lyd silence! I need silence!!!  while she sang the theme song of Robin Hood BBC and Rachel doing the sweet typing accuracy program on our computer (which is a quiet occupation, haha), I read John 17 and sipped some leftover cold coffee from last night (after two huge glasses of water) and ate some warmed up slop and downloaded some music by City and Colour, who is the author of that beautiful first song on my blog playlist: Hello, I'm in Delaware. What can I say? I love the acoustic sound. Heather and Steph were shocked but pleased that I'm on a softer musical kick. ;)

John. Back to John.

In my ESV (English Standard Version) Bible, the chapter is called "The High Priestly Prayer." It's Jesus, talking to God.

As I read, --I had to read it aloud to the girls because them and Gram were the ones I was home with as Anna was babysitting and Mom took the boys somewhere, and if I didn't read it aloud, Lyd was singing and that was . . . haha, distracting-- this verse stood out to me:

³And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

.....wow.  
I don't want to go funky and give a long spiel about those who have their eyes opened and hearts turned away from all this crap in the world, but I can at least mention it as I just did. Right?
So, random fact, when I had the first part of Rachel's canvas done, I nearly cried at the beauty and the fact that in the pamphlet for the little boy Jacob's funeral, his Mom had named the song we sang (Psalm 23) Jacob's Song. I thought of him when I had that first part done. And I've never almost started crying while looking at a painting.

Hmmm.
We're going to move on now.
To the next crafty thing I did.
And all the ideas Mom and us have had the past few days for my paintings? Lots. :) Ah yes, and Jen dear! 
Just keep in mind that those cards (yes, those were cards up there, and I did take a picture of them) were an inspiration for me. I thought of them, and you know what I wanted to do. :)

No, that's not coffee right there. That, my dears, is dirty paint water. :)

Alright. Now that's coffee there. I have to confess, I wasn't sure what to think of the colors I was fudging about with; but I recently looked at a color wheel in a design book and I'm comforted by that and how the painting turned out... pretty darn cute:)

If no one else likes it, I have it for myself . . . which of course I'm going to keep this prototype, but it turns out that I'm not the only one who really, really likes it.
Heather loved it.
Anna likes it.
I'm not alone... ;)

I love how the purple and yellow turned out. :)

Painting during the day is a beautiful thing.
It reminds me of Grammy. She used to paint. Quite a bit, not so random, and better than this. Harhar.

That's one of the ways I sign it--on the bottom...with the brand that I made up a few years ago when I would make cards and bookmarks with coffee stamps and color them in and shade with yummy colors.

So there's the finished coffee canvas.
And we are . . . going to head home, if I have to drag Sky by the silver grommets of her Gothic-looking black borrowed coat. :)  
(we revamped her blog and gave it a new background, yummy dark chocolate-looking. :) since she's starting over...deleted posts and going brand new...) 
There are things to do, and this is the longest I've ever been here. About an hour. Wow.
Hope y'all have a lovely day.