Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you have a wonderful holiday!  I would like to start my day thinking about all that I am thankful for.  (Actually, my day started 3 hours ago when I got up to walk the dogs, but you know what I mean.)  My husband and I are in love and enjoy each other's company.  I'm very good friends with my sister Tammy.  My parents taught us well and their three daughters grew up to be happy adults.  My sisters and I like to spend time with our parents.  Our grandparents were the best!

I've been blessed with wonderful animals now and throughout my life.  They've been my children and have given me much love. 

I'm healthy.  I'm seldom sick, except (oddly enough) I'm sick today.  I have a cold or something.  The cool thing is that I'm not cooking Thanksgiving dinner.  We're going out.  Jim asked me this morning what I would have done if we were having Thanksgiving here like we usually do.  I said that I would have handed someone the ingredients and told him or her to have fun:) 

I love my job.  I love working with students.  I'm very grateful for the opportunity to teach.  I'm even more grateful if my students have actually learned something from me:)

I'm thankful for having discovered you artists here in the world of technology.

I love my little granddaughters.  I got them the easy way by marrying a man who already had children who grew up to have children of their own.  One of my favorite things to do is to paint with my oldest granddaughter. 

I could go on and on, but I don't want anyone to fall asleep reading.  In short, life is very, very good.  I am truly blessed.

Waaaaaah!! This Is Really Hard!

This afternoon I went here http://www.fcembranelli.com.br/english/at-demo1.html to do a demo by Fabio Cembranelli.  Oh my goodness!  Let us say that my painting looks nothing like his.  The best thing I can say about my painting is that although none of my roses look like roses, one looks like a very large pansy:)  We have Thanksgiving break coming up, so my plan is to paint, paint, paint.

I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!

What Does It Take to Get Going?

I love Olivia Quintin (you should visit her blog and see why) and I was thrilled to read this interview on Carrie Waller's blog http://carriewaller.blogspot.com/2011/11/friday-feature-olivia-quintin.html?
Please check it out.  Her art is brilliant, loose and lively.  She said the best advice she received as an artist was to not be afraid.  All day I've heard a voice (with a French accent:)) saying, "Don't be afraid."  If I spoke French, the words would be in French, but the extent of my French vocabulary is "bonjour", "merci", and "au revoir."  Be sure to read how she feels about watercolor.  It's exactly the way I feel, but she said it much better than I.  I love the phrase "swimming in watercolor".

There's no way around it - no magic beans, no divine inspiration - I have to put in the time in order to improve.  Olivia is one of the artists who participated in 100 Washes.  They're all wonderful artists.  I would say they've inspired me to work harder, but since I haven't been doing any painting at all, I have to say they've inspired me to get to work.

There are other blogger friends who inspire me, too.  Lucinda and Sherry are two of them.  They're just as busy with life as I am and yet they manage to squeeze in things like painting, Italian lessons, weaving, knitting, and other activities.

I have to get going on this.  Time is flying and I've got a lot of things on my to do list.  Things like learn French, learn to play the piano, learn to knit, start a rock band...