He is the Fred to My Wilma

Thursday was our 9 year married, 15 year "together" anniverary! He is the Fred to my Wilma! :) This picture is from 2006...taken just south of the Grand Canyon in a tourist attraction called Bedrock. I was last there when I was just three years old...it's SO much fun! It's the whole town, even has its own movie theater, and dinosaur for you to slide down when you are finished with work.

We love the Flintstones. When Lil was born she looked just like Pebbles. Her first birthday party was a Flintstones party and we were all in costume. Lil to the bone in her hair, me with the raggedy white skirt, and Awesome Guy in well, bright orange fur. My one friend told me the next day that after they left, her husband turned around and said, "Hey must REALLY love her." I love him for putting up with all my crazy ideas, some willingly, and some not so willingly. Teehee. The things we do to make each other happy!

The one thing I know is that this is a man that I can have fun with. Who puts up with my art supplies everywhere and doesn't blink when I make bunnies in October and Santas in February. Who dances with me on stage at the Big Bang in Tempe, and loves festivals and road trips. Who's so incredibly smart and can make me laugh like no other...especially when he quotes from movies at the just the right moment. :) He's a great friend, husband, and father. Love you honey!

Yabbaa Dabba Doo!


P.S. This is what we did for our date out! It was SO much fun!

Hello My Lovelies! :)

Thank you SO much for all the video love on the post below...I truly appreciate it and I'm glad you liked it! The painting isn't finished, but I'll post it when it's done. :)

Now it's time for that announcement that I talked about a couple posts ago. I am SO excited about this!!!

In an effort to become more serious with my painting (even though it's the most fun thing I do next to laughing at my little redheads), I applied to join the Prim & Whimsy Girls on ebay. I thought it would be a perfect fit since I can never decide if I want to glitter something or age it, and sometimes do both. :) They do challenges and swaps and that seemed like fun too. They even have some giveaways planned for YOU coming up in the next month!

I was nervous about applying, afraid they would say no...so you can imagine how ecstatic I was when I got an email saying I am now a Prim & Whimsy Girl! Woohoo!
The first challenge I've joined was to create something around the theme "A Bird in the Hand."
This is what I came up with. This girl is hopeful that her bird's eggs will hatch soon. Of course this could be taken as the whole "signs of spring" kind of thing. However, I was waiting on results from some scary tests done on Madeline and I was trying to keep from freaking out. She's okay, the tests have confirmed, but it was terrifying there for a while and I am so grateful it turned out the way I wanted! :)
As I painted this, I started to realize that this girl looks like a friend of mine from middle school! Her name was Jennifer and she and I would play the FIRST Nintendo Mario Brothers every day after school. We did it the "cool" way though. lol We turned down the volume, and turn up the radio (same station) while we talked on the phone. We could play all the way to the end every night in an hour or two.

She had beautiful curly black hair (think Diane of Anne of Green Gables), the bluest of eyes, and naturally rosy lips. Everyone called her China Doll because she looked so much like one. I haven't seen her since middle school, but here's to you Jen, wherever you are! :)

I've put two other things on ebay too, and a couple paintings on etsy as well. I just posted this one today, so it's not showing up yet in the search engine.

I hope you're having a great day! Lillian is on spring break and her only request was to go to the Phoenix Art Museum...that's my girl! :) I've never been, so it will be an adventure for us all!

Yeah! The circus is READY! :)

Faerie Enchantment, a blog I only stumbled upon yesterday (much to my pleasure!) is having a Carnivale Soiree. Awesome Guy's great aunts (twins) were in the circus when they were young. We only have 1 photo of them during this time, but I absolutely cherish it! Can you imagine the guts it took to leave their family and join a circus?! They had great training though...Gene Kelly's (be still my heart!) dance studio was right in their hometown! They traveled up and down the east coast in the Johnny J Jones train circus. They are gone now...how I wish I could of heard those stories!

I love these ladies...they accepted me right when Awesome Guy and I started dating and would look at me with so much love in their eyes that they dazzled me. There is more on the description on youtube, but enough talk...you've waited long enough already! The show MUST go on!

I hope you all realize how much I love you...I stayed up all night. :) Enjoy it!

Carnival Soiree

The posters are up all over blogland! This show is about to start! I am SO close to being finished on this one...been up all night! I found this wonderful blog only yesterday and having relatives that were once in the circus, I HAD to do something! I put a lot of work into it, so if you would please come back in just a little bit, I promise to give you an amazing show!

Featured Artist- Painter of the Past

Today I would like to talk about Suzanne, the Painter of the Past. I stumbled upon her blog over a year ago and loved the traditional, colonial type pieces that she creates. Over time, I have enjoyed her blog and paintings very much!To my surprise, she replied to a comment I had posted on her blog and mentioned that she used to live in Arizona. Better yet, she used to work at my all time favorite store, The Country Manor. I never called it that though...I called it the rooster store. Did you know I LOVE roosters? The are incredibly beautiful and this store was once full of them. It even had this at the back door...

I shared this story with Suzanne. I told her about my love of roosters, the store, and especially this door. I remember that I gasped the first time I saw it. When visitors would come into town, I'd bring them there and hear their gasps as well. I wanted to unhinge that door and take it home with me. It reminds me of the country life I lived on the east coast before I came to Arizona.

Wouldn't you know it? My next email from Suzanne said that she PAINTED that door!! Is that a small world or what?! I am so excited to know the amazing artist behind this door. If you visit her blog or her etsy shop, I'm sure you'll enjoy it too!

Sadly, The Country Manor is no more. It was bought by a new owner who focused more on furniture and then it fell victim to the economy. Part of my favorite store lives on though, and I can visit her blog any time I want. :) Thanks Suzanne!

Giveaway II Winners :)

Hello Bloggers! :) I've missed you! I had work to finish and commitments I made at Lillian's school to meet, but I am back! Woohoo!


Before I go off to reply to your comments, I wanted to post the winners of my 2nd giveaway, the one for my blogaversary. :) Drumroll please......

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Dapoppins wins the print!

Ketelcopia wins the $15 gift card!

Congratulations ladies! :) I wrote all the kindred spirits that follow my blog, the comments I received, and then the ones who posted about it on their blog. Dapoppin's kindred spirit entry was drawn and #46, one of Trish's entries for posting about the giveaway, was the one other one that drawn! Thank you to all who entered! It would be so cute if you dropped by and saw these lovely ladies to congratulate them! :)

The next post will be a feature on a very sweet artist that I have one of those 6 ways to Kevin Bacon kind of connections! :) Who will it be? Can you guess? And then! An announcement that I am SO excited about!

Til then...I was writing a friend and thinking about all the scary economy stuff that is going on right now. It made me think of the depression in the 30's. Do you know what people did then to escape all their scary economy stuff? They went to the movies and saw Shirley Temple. She dazzled them, she shared her talent, and they left with lighter hearts than they came in with. That's what you are to me, my Shirley Temples. Too much television news and I hop on here to be dazzled, to be in awe of your talent, and I leave with a lighter heart than I came in with.

Thank you. Here is a little Shirley Temple for you! :)