It Feels Like Spring

It's my favorite time of year when all of the birds start chirping, the flowers bloom, and everything turns green again.  It is so much happier than winter.  Springtime always means wedding season is approaching.  Even though most of my friends are married (with children), it's my sister's turn.  She's the last wedding of the family, so her future sister-in-law and I threw her a couples shower.  By far, the biggest hit were my tiny individual desserts.  It took 12 times longer to make them in the little jelly jars, but they are 112 times cuter!  And YUM, we had Oreo dirt cups and banana pudding.  Seriously, the cream cheese in both recipes just makes the desserts!

 

In other news, you know how you walk past all of the swimwear racks at the stores and cringe?  Well, at least I do.  It is harder to find a good swimsuit than a pair of jeans, which is also utterly depressing.  I haven't bought a swimsuit since I was in college--and it was my first one piece!  I loooovvvvvve it because it covers, but it is still youthful and not granny-like.  But as luck would have it, I was shopping for a down comforter since Massey threw up Goldfish on ours (totally my fault), and I passed a rack of coverups and two-pieces.  My first thought was, Who even wears bikinis anymore? Sorority girls?  Then I saw one that caught my eye.  How old is too old to wear a two-piece? Eh, I'm  not even thirty!  I grabbed the only small, sadly reliving the dressing room nightmares involving two-piece swimsuits where you don't get to pick the bottom size or the top size. Why do they even do that?  I was starting to tense up just thinking about it, so I almost put it back. Almost.  Somehow I tried it on, and it fit!!!  I had to snap a quick picture and send it to my sister to see if it was cute or too old lady. I will spare you the pale practice shot, but this is the suit!


Macy's has this in other colors for $54, but I snagged this one at TJ Maxx for $29!

Margaret has inspired me to play with watercolors.  She taught me how to mix acrylics and paint on canvas, but I really have no talent for creating colors or the actual painting part.  Not that this is very talented either, but it feels like elementary school, which is nice. 

PS, my very first car (yes, it has been 10 years) has turned to 100,000.  And for the record, I was the passenger when I snapped this picture!

Peaceful Retreat

When Father-in-Law, Father-in-Law's friend, and Dear Husband all pile into the house with projects, I know it's time for me to find something to do and stay out of the way.  I haven't painted since my dear friend Margaret and I lived in the same condos last summer.  Sadness.  So I broke out a new canvas and got to work.  I am pretty good at the standard color wash, and I can even blend colors into other colors (and so can most five-year-olds).  So that's not saying much.  But I wanted something with lots of different colors, so this is what came out of my brain (which is not really what it looked like in my brain).

I really like the blue swishy background, but I don't like how my line arched or that all of my brush marks are nearly the same length.  Creating colors I imagine does not seem to translate to reality, but playing in paint does give me a break from supervising.