Welcome Little G. into the world

Saturday morning at 3:20 am, my daughter gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby boy named Gregory Charles.  He was 6 lbs 11 oz.

He is our first grandchild and I am already so in love with him that I am busting at the seams. I can see that he will become a wonderful source of journaling material.

 

I want to thank my girl and her husband for letting us, my guy and I, be a part of the birthing process. We were with them through all of it and while it was so difficult to witness her pain, I am so grateful that we were allowed to help them. It brought us even closer together than we already were.

It was through this experience I learned that my daughter is the strongest woman I know. She had to go through so much to give birth to this beautiful little boy and she barely cried even though she was in a tremendous amount of pain. I AM SO PROUD OF HER. She is going to be a wonderful mother.

Now you know what I’ve been up to. What about you?  What have you been doing?

Yes, I’m still a Twirp.

A few weeks ago I was reorganizing our collection of family photos and memorabilia and I came across a scrapbook I kept when I was in high school.  Among the photos of my high school buds I found my old learners permit and a “Twirp License.” Have you ever heard of a Twirp License? 

Every year we had a week long school event called Sadie Hawkins week and at the end of the week we had the Sadie Hawkins dance. In order to go to this dance, the guys had to be invited by a girl and the girl had to buy a Twirp license if they wanted to do the inviting.  (Now I’m wishing I hadn’t packed away the photograph of me with my date. Talk about looking like a Twirp.)

The dance was a lot of fun and I was able to get close to the boy I may have never had the chance to know well had I not acted like “a Twirp”.  (Unfortunately he met his demise a year or so later but that’s another story altogether.) The lesson it taught me was that sometimes you have to risk getting embarrassed to get something you want.

I took that same type of risk some years later when I first laid eyes on my husband. He walked in to the bar where I was having drinks with my girlfriends, I took one look in his eyes and knew I wanted him in my life. I immediately wondered how I was going to meet him and still not look too forward or trashy. As he stood talking with some friends, I walked past him and as I did, I reached over and lightly touched his hand with my fingertips and said Hi….That’s all, just Hi and kept walking.  Lucky for him he followed me (LOL), and the rest is a 25 year history.

Have you ever wondered what would have happened had you taken the risk you were too afraid to take? Or did you take the risk and reap the benefits? Tell me about it.

Starting Over

I bet you though I’d disappeared never to return.  Nah, just been so busy I haven’t had the opportunity to create art.  Although I have been working on a big project, not a painting, that I can’t discuss or show you just yet.  But I will when it’s complete.

If you’re a frequent reader of my blog you know that there has been some turmoil around Casa de LittleBit. Well, decisions have been made and all for the better I might add.  Except that while I know intellectually that the changes will be good for us, my emotions are still fighting it.  Giving up on this life is H-A-R-D. 

We will be putting our house on the market soon and are now in the process of cleaning, decluttering and purging ourselves of unnecessary household goods. How do you collect that much stuff in just 4 years?  Unbelievable.

To what end?  We have decided to move back to our home town in New Mexico. That is where my husband and I are both from (although we never lived there as a married couple.) My daughter lives there with her husband and her soon to be born son as does my step-daughter..  While I am beyond thrilled that we will be living close to our precious children and grandchild…… I never planned on living in NM ever again.  It’s not the place I really want to be. And yet…we’re going because that’s where we should be … with our family.  We decided we need to be in our grandchild’s life much more than we hate living in NM. So that’s where we are going to be starting over.  But I don’t know when just yet.

My journal page reflects the conflict that’s been plaguing my mind:

“We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us. “

 

Have I told you that I love the movie “The Crow” with Brandon Lee? No? Well, last weekend as I watched my 10th or so viewing of it, I took this photo of the TV screen with an Iphone app called Procamera, then used the PSMobile app, to alter it. I think it’s cool. :)

 

What’s on your mind these days?

To my Dad and Father-in-Law

And especially to all the men and women who have

died in service to our country. 

Thank you !

Don’t just stand there gyrating.

I know some people don’t like to dance, they feel silly shaking their bootie.  Me? I love dancing.  I just wish I was better at it.  My Guy and I only go dancing once a year or so on New Years Eve (except this year, we didn’t go this year because of the job situation.)

We’re from the baby boomer generation and because there is no *dance* that goes along with “Purple Haze,” we didn’t learn to dance. We just kind of stand there and gyrate, as my dad used to say. 

My Guy and I tried dance lessons about 20 years ago but we both wanted to lead. LOL ( My motto is if you’re not going to lead, I will….LOL) So we didn’t learn much.   But now I’d love to take Salsa lessons and we have actually thought giving lessons another try. Someday, when we actually have a place to try what we learned, we just might.

Anyone know where we can Salsa dance in Sacramento?

 

And in the late but better than never category is the page inspired by the Mother’s Day card I got from my guy. I still haven’t told him I cut it up the same day he gave it to me. Sshhh!

Beauty comes in small packages

 

 

Yay!! I just got these beautiful tapes in the mail from Tapeswell.com. A week or two ago, someone on Twitter mentioned that Brides Buddy blog was having a tape giveaway. So I hurried myself over there to enter and I was the lucky winner.  Aren’t they gorgeous?

I want to thank both Tracy Kuethe from the Brides Buddy blog and Eileen from Tapeswell.com for their generosity.  They are almost too pretty to use but use them I will; in my journals and art mail.

OK, gotta go put them to good use…..

The Girl, the Bird and the Pipe

 

Here are some new journal pages that I have been working on. Nothing fancy, just something to keep me creating.  I’m having fun with the colorful geometric designs but I decided to try something else too. Don’t want to get in a rut. :)

The Girl:

I’ve been questioning my decisions a lot lately.  I guess it has to do with our financial situation, which is still not good.  I will probably be second guessing myself until things normalize …. whatever normal might be in the future. I know normal will be very different but I’m hopeful that it will be better even if it’s scaled down. 

The Bird:

I could never be a bird; I hate worms.  I’d rather have coffee.

The Pipe:

I almost feel like I should add text to the pipe. Maybe later. I’m not feeling very wordy right now. Although I’m sure my husband would disagree considering I had a few with him a while ago.  :)

Abstracts and Florals

It seems that my journal pages have been following a certain theme lately….abstract shapes colored with watercolor pencils, intense pencils or Prismacolor markers and floral designs. 

Colorful Flowers 2

On this first page, I used Prismacolor markers on the right side and watercolor background on the left.  For the floral color, I used Intense pencils.  I used a Pitt pen for the zentangle doodles.  You’d think I would have worked in the two sides separately but No.  Both side were done at the same time. I really like the intensity of the color.

 

Colorful Flowers 3

The right side of this page was really a happy accident.  When I colored the page above with the markers, they bled to the other side of the page so I decided to make use of the color there.  It’s a little patchy and not as intense as the first page but I like it just as much.  

We Had Jungle Fever

This past weekend I went to help My Girl get a room ready for the new baby. “Little G” is due in a little over two months.  My Girl sweetly said that I inspired her desire to decorate the room in a jungle animal theme when I gave her stuffed giraffe and baby clothes with cute jungle animals on them.

So for weeks she searched for just the right pictures that we could paint on the walls taking into consideration our level of painting expertise and the time required to do it.  Because I’m not in the same town our time frame was short and the images had to be uncomplicated and easy to do. Not only did we only have a few short days to paint but we also had to shop for baby accessories to fit with the painting and go on a hospital maternity tour. (I’ll be with her and her husband in the delivery room.) 

The animals are not as detailed as I would have liked but we think it came out great. We had loads of fun and we worked out butts off getting the room done.  Here is what we painted:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not too bad for a couple of amateurs.  We also got a lamps, rugs and other jungley accessories to round out the jungle theme.  It was a great bonding experience.

No Fabric Involved

Doesn’t this page look like a crazy quilt?  So colorful and happy.  I used both Derwent Inktense Pencils and watercolor crayons to add the background color. then added the doodle using my Pitt pen and more Intense Pencils for the flower colors.

 

I love the colors in this next page too.

 

 

Thanks for lookin’