A Wedding

My son, RJ and his longtime girlfriend got married on Saturday the 24th of April 2010.

They have lived together for the last four or five years and finally got around to tying the knot. Most couples get married before they have babies but RJ and Terah gave me a grand daughter before the nuptials and that is perfectly OK with me! I not only gained a daughter-in-law, I also gained a grandson, Brenton, from a previous union of hers.

One happy little family making the vows to stay together for eternity.

I do believe they are a good match for one another. They balance each other out most of the time.

Terah, RJ and Little Annabel

Brenton had been at his dad's house when this picture was taken back in March.

This wedding had been in the planning for almost two years before it actually took place.  

More than likely I have messed up the placement of the photos as they relate to the story but you'll get the idea, I'm sure. There isn't going to be a whole lot of commentary on some of these pictures anyway.

The wedding party is at the altar waiting for the bride.

The bride arrives at the altar on the arm of her dad, Rick.

On Friday evening we had a rehearsal for this wedding. The preacher, Mike (that's what everyone called him!) lead us through the paces and got us all to pay attention and we were all pretty certain we had our parts down pat.

My part, as mother of the groom, was to kick off this wingding. As the music started at the beginning of the ceremony, it was my job to walk to the altar and light the right hand candle to signify I was responsible for the boy getting married. Terah's mom then came down the aisle after I had lit RJ's candle to light Terah's candle (on the left side of the unity candle which RJ and Terah lit at the end of the ceremony) to signify she was responsible for the girl getting married. Sherry had no trouble getting Terah's candle to light. I had to try three times before the flame stayed lit on RJ's!

At rehearsal Preacher Mike had said, "You know if something goes wrong, don't worry about it! There is no such thing as a PERFECT WEDDING! Something will go wrong. That's just how these things work." And he was right!

If this picture were larger, you'd be able to see that everyone in this photo is laughing out loud! The Bride laughing the most! RJ had already said his "I do" as the groom does that first. Preacher Mike was going through the vows with Terah....do you take this man to be ....yadda yadda yadda....well he wasn't quite done with the yadda yadda yadda and she says, "Yes! I do!" and immediately realized she had not heard the cue to say such just yet. Preacher Mike hadn't got to the part about forever and ever yet. Preacher Mike looked at RJ when Terah missed her cue and said, "She's quite eager for this!" and the whole church burst into laughter! It was a precious moment indeed! Cause Miss Terah, she was eager to be my son's lawful wife! And I am so glad to officially have her as a part of this family!

Here the preacher is fixing to present the newly married couple to the  heathens congregation seated in his church.

And RJ kissed his bride.

I was going to say this is their official wedding picture but it isn't. Not THIS particular picture anyway. The real official picture, I am sure came out much clearer than this one did! Danielle, their good friend and photographer will have made all the wedding pictures she took look beautiful! Of that I am certain! This picture was taken with my cheapo digital camera and I know it ain't as good as the pictures taken with Danielle's expensive set up. I can't wait to see the pictures she took of this wedding!

Both RJ and Terah look fabulous!

The happy couple and their children, Little Annabel and Brenton.

RJ was smiles all day long! He was indeed a very happy man!

My handsome sons, RJ and RW.

Otherwise known as Ronnie and Richard. It's just easier to call the RJ and RW while typing.

Down the screen some, you'll find a picture of  RW in the outfit he showed up to the wedding in. He was dressed appropiately in my opinion. No one, NO ONE, expected RW to show up dressed to the nines! If RW had shown up dressed to the nines, I'm pretty sure there would have been some fainting going on....RJ would have fell right on the floor from amazement! RJ had gone through his closet the day before to find something that RW could wear so he'd be dressed up somewhat. Therefore RW got to wear a white shirt and black pants instead of his Tshirt and jeans. More on this subject in a few moments....

The lady in the middle of this picture is RJ's grandmother, his father's mother. I didn't know if she would be in good enough health to make the trip or not. I should have known she wouldn't have missed this for world! I was so glad she did come. I hadn't seen her since Feburary of last year.

And here is RW in the outfit he showed up in. His wife and younguns couldn't make it to the wedding because they had no way to get there. RW bummed a ride with my sisters and there wasn't room for 5 other people. My brother was going to come with the sisters but he gave up his seat in the car so RW could come instead. And there he stands in his ONE LOVE Tshirt, a bandana, blue jeans and flipflops on his feet! He did trim up the beard but I doubt very seriously the boy combed his hair before he put that bandana on his head. That's just RW...the rebel at heart....and he'll always do things his way and to heck with what anyone thinks about it! He caved and agreed to wear the white shirt and black pants though. He gave me a hard time about the bandana though, said he was going to wear it. I said he was not going to wear it and he was going to comb his hair....grinning the whole while, he said no, no, no! I'm his mother though and he knows he has to do things he's not agreeable to from time to time and this day was one of those times! He looked rather handsome when he showed up dressed like you see....but he was even more handsome (so long as you didn't look at his feet...the flipflops, you know!) dressed in the white shirt and black pants, minus the red bandana.

RW cleaned up rather nicely even with the flipflops on his feet! I was resizing this picture to put it here when I noticed that RW not only has the silliest shoes seen at this wedding, but he is giving his brother rabbit ears in this picture as well. LOL Typical Rich! Love that boy dearly! Never a dull moment with RW around!

I have no idea who took this picture of me and the kids. There were very few pictures of me on my camera when I downloaded the smart card on Sunday afternoon.

Here is a picture of me with RW, his grandma, his Aunt Cindy (RW's dad's sister) and the fellow behind is one of my sister's husbands, Brad. Grandma Edna had ahold of RW like she was never going to turn the boy loose. It had been quite some time since they had seen one another.

This little guy is Oren. He belongs to my sister's boy, Jake. Marilyn brought him with her but left Jake at home. Jake is 6 months older than RJ and I really wished Jake could have come as well but it just wasn't to be. Little Oren was one of four babies at the wedding younger than a year old. Oren is 4 months old. He's such a cute little guy too! That is my sister Susan holding him.

Something that struck me after the fact was that there were four babies and numerous young children in that church as the ceremony was in progress. Not a one of those children made enough noise to be distracting. Little Annabel slept through the ceremony actually. Susan was holding her then. Just before the ceremony started, Annabel was fast asleep! And she didn't wake up till it was over!

This is Oren and his grandma, my younger sister, Marilyn. The lady in the background is one of Terah's people. I'm not sure how she fits in to Terah's family but her name is Kim.

Susan is the woman nearest in the picture and Linda the one in the driver's seat. Both are my sisters. They didn't stay for the reception because they needed to get back home before it got dark. That was their excuse anyway...that and they had Evelyn with them and they weren't sure Evelyn could hold out that long if they went to the reception as well. They were probably right in that aspect as the reception went on till well after midnight.

And here is a picture of Miss Terah in that beautiful gown! She looked so pretty!

I didn't get any pictures at the reception. I don't have a clue what the heck I was thinking leaving the camera in the van at that time! I did go retrieve it and got a short video of RJ being bossy telling me, "You have to dance! Put the camera away!" If I knew how to get that video here for you all to see, I'd do it, but since I can't, you all will just have to take my word for it! I had to dance with that bossy boy cause I'm his mother. I had never danced with my son before this. As we were on the dance floor, I forget which song we were dancing to....we were laughing up storm and contemplating mosying over the doorway into the bar to have a beer! We didn't do that though. I didn't drink at all that night...only ice tea.

All in all, it was a beautiful day!

And I've been pooped since I got home early Sunday morning around 3a.m. After the reception broke up I followed RJ and Terah back to their house and helped them unload the gifts so they didn't have to haul them around when they went to Salina for their honeymoon. I'm not sure what was so appealing about Salina but when I talked to both of them earlier today, they had a great time! The went to see a movie on Sunday after they slept in that morning. Then they came home on Monday. And it's back to the same ol' same ol'.

Lots of hugs were given and gotten on Saturday and on Friday as well.

I do hope you collected your fair share of hugs over the weekend! If one could save up hugs, I'd have an over abundance of them! But being hugs must be renewed continually, I guess I better go collect some more before too long!

Peace

831

Chester and a Book

I'm done with being mad at that man who had me venting in the last post. Life goes on and my junk pile just keeps growing. It's all cool!

The pear trees have finished their show of flowers for the year. I don't have a picture to show you of that today but there are white flower petals all over the front porch and scattered across the front yard. I wasn't quite sure just what those white things laying about were when I first noticed them. After coming home from town I picked one up off the front porch to get a better look at it. Yep, flower petals. And the pear trees seem to have changed from their frilly party dresses into their green gowns for growing. They still look quite lovely!  I'll see if I can be awake during daylight hours and in my right mind enough to take a few pictures of the trees...they're changing so quickly! I am in hopes the show of all those flowers is a prelude to a show of nice fat juicy pears come the end of summer!

I have only a couple of pieces of art to show you today. There is one sitting on the desk staring at me but you won't get to see him cause Mr. Franklin has not been scanned as of yet.

Chester

ATC

18 April 2010

365 Project #108

Markers on recycled cardstock.

I am behind on the 365 Project and need to add to Mr. Franklin to get caught up.

That is on the plans this evening.

The Guest Book

Handmade Book

My oldest son and his girl are getting married on Saturday, the 24th of April (in four day's time). Miss Terah asked me to make the book thier guests would sign at the reception. I am quite pleased with how it turned out! The flowers on the front of the book were traded for a couple of my ATCs. Kristen helped me out so much by these flowers. She also sent the leaves with that trade. Thanks Kristin! The purple frame around the photograph of my son kissing his girl is made from chipboard painted with purple acrylic ink. The covers of the book are made from a game board cut to size and covered with recycled linen textured cream colored cardstock (same thing I use for all my ATCs done in marker). The spine of the book is canvas drywall repair tape. It has six signatures with 1 sheet of cardstock and 5 sheets of copy paper sewn with cotton thread.

This book went together beautifully. It is, by far, the best book I have ever made! I'm so pleased with it! Terah says she can't wait to show it off and she hasn't even seen it yet!

The dishes are hollering at me from the kitchen and the laundry needs attention as well. I slept for 14 hours straight and now it is night time. I'll be up all night doing what most folks do during the day.

Doesn't appear I will be getting any hugs this Tuesday. I do hope you collected your fair share!

Peace

831

Some Venting, Pictures From Saturday's Roadtrip, Bottle Cap Kids and a Handmade Book

I am a tad ticked at a certain person I know. I'll not name any names but he let me down - yet again. I've never intentionally made his life miserable, but every chance he gets, he takes me for granted and I'm getting a bit tired of it after all these years! I've always been there anytime he or his family needed anything! Anything! If it was in my power, I was there for whatever they might need. I seldom ask for anything from any of them. Yet, it seems each time I do ask a favor, something comes up and what was agreed upon gets put aside till it's more convenient. I got up early on Saturday morning to be there for the favor I asked of him. I waited and I waited some more! No call to say, "Gee, Donna, it's just not going to happen today. Sorry." I'd of been cool with that. I know things come up and sometimes plans have to change. I've not a problem with that. So I called him to see what the plan was. His wife was out of town and he just couldn't do what we had agreed upon, he was busy playing Mr. Mom, (as he put it). OK, still no problem. But why the hell couldn't he call and let me know plans had changed and he wasn't going to be coming out to do the job I asked of him? I waited from 7:30 till 9:00, thinking any minute now, he'll be coming down the highway with the rig. I could have got a lot more accomplished if I hadn't been sitting out in the garage with my brother waiting on the man to show up! I could have slept a bit longer! I only got about three hours sleep. I'm just ticked off at him for the time being and I needed to vent! Thanks for letting me do so! We did agree upon the weekend after next to get that job done. We'll see if he comes up with another excuse not to do it then. If that happens, he's going to get a piece of my mind! He's not in 12 years time ever seen me angry. Maybe it's time?

Beings that man didn't show up, my brother and I decided to go to town to his house to get rid of the 6 five gallon buckets of dirt in the back end of his truck. He's redoing his driveway and the dirt was to fill in spots that were low. He actually moved the driveway...the front yard is now his driveway and the driveway, he's planting back to grass. I think the boy just made a whole lot more work for himself, but it's his house. If he wants to move the driveway, who am I to tell him differently? It would just be wasted energy on my part anyway! So he empties the buckets in his drive and rakes the dirt smooth and we head off to get a soda. We talked about going to Phillipsburg but it rained on Thursday up by Pburg and the back roads are not passable after it rains. We were on a junk finding mission and you can't find junk on the well traveled roads. So we head west out of town and then north at the first mile road heading north. We found a lot of junk along our travels! I'm getting ahead of myself here...there are pictures.

While I was waiting for the man to show up on Saturday morning I took some pictures around the house.

This is the front yard. Pear trees are in bloom (the white flowers) and the redbud is just gorgeous this year! That's the burned house to the right and the house I live in to the left. Smells wonderful in the yard still!

That little tree in the foreground to the right of the pear tree is dead as a doornail and it must come out! There's a small redbud blooming in that mess too. Three little trees growing together and two of them are dead. The pear trees are loaded with blossoms! I'm hoping for a decent pear crop this year but that remains to be seen.

I have only red tulips in my flower beds. These are on the patio east of the burned house. There are other flowers planted there as well but not a one of them bloomed! The irises are planted too deeply and all they ever do is leaf out, no showy flowers. The spiderworts didn't come up this year at all and the giant allium died last year for lack of room to breathe cause there were so many weeds in that flower bed it wasn't even funny! The tulips have put on a good show this year though.

More tulips on the patio. I snipped off four of these tulips and a bunch of grape hiacynths out by the west flower bed to give to my sister for her birthday bouquet.

There's that fat dog Fred watching traffic go by out front of the house.

We should get a really good crop of plums this year. Last year was the first year the four plum bushes produced fruit. The bushes are loaded with blooms! And they smell really nice too! That's my sister's house on the far side of the plum bush.

This is a farm house we passed on our roadtrip Saturday. Those are tulips, red and yellow, planted all over their front yard! Hundreds of them! This picture doesn't do them justice. I didn't want to sit there in their drive though taking pictures of thier place. I wouldn't want someone doing that at my house so I won't do it to others. We turned around in their drive cause the road past this house didn't look too passable. It was quite muddy on the dirt road. I'd like to plant the space beneath the pear trees to daffodils like they've planted their yard to tulips.

We did do a bit of driving though. Well, Sammy drove, I rode.

All of these cows were in the same pen. Lots of babies! It appeared to be naptime for some of them. We saw lots of cows on our journey. We also saw some wildlife, but I'm a terrible photographer and the pictures I got of the turkeys and the deer, well, lets just say I'm not a real good shot!

These are sand plum bushes bordering a wheatfield. It was so pretty out on Saturday! So pretty! A perfect day for a drive, a perfect day to have gotten that job done that didn't get done! But things happen so you can go do something else and the something else that got done was indeed an adventure!

There's brother and the junk in the back of his truck we picked up off the side of the roads we traveled out in the country. All this crap was laying in the ditches. We didn't cross any fences to pick it all up. We added probably 100-150 pounds of junk to the pile so when the man does come to do that job, we'll just have that much more to sell to the junkman. My friend works for the junkman and he runs the rig that will bale this pile of junk. There's a few pieces of culvert in there that the maintainer tore up grading the dirt roads, pieces of a windmill the wind apparently took down (there was a lot of that windmill!), couple of TVs that someone had already taken all the good copper out of and shot with a shotgun. We took what was left of the copperwire and the screen behind the picture tube. All just junk laying there for the taking.

All in all, even despite the fact that things didn't get done I had expected to get done, it was a stellar day!

I'll get over the fact I am upset with my friend for going back on his word. Which is what he did! His kids are old enough he doesn't have to play Mr. Mom to them even though that's pretty much what his excuse was for not getting the pile baled on Saturday. There will just be that much more junk for him to bale when he finally gets around to doing it!

I have a kitten thinking she can get up on the desk to lay across my right arm while I type. That kitten is thinking wrong! She's not getting up here cause I can't type with her laying across my arm.

I made some more Bottle Cap Kids. I have yet to measure them so you'll have to wait for a description for them. I'll do that later in the day when I add thier tags with their info and mine. I used some new (for BCKs) materials for these guys. We've some googly eyes (not used as eyes), florists wire, pull tabs from aluminum cans, bottle caps I've not used before, and plastic coated wire I've not used before.

I'm running out of watch gears and will have to find some soon if the kids are going to have any on their tummies. I also added polished stones and faceted gemstones to a few of these guys. I've lots of polished stones but few faceted gemstones. I'll have to make a trade with my sister to acquire some more faceted gemstones.

Frank Bonner

BCK

16 April 2010

Delores Dunkin

BCK

16 April 2010

Sally Samson

BCK

16 April 2010

Chester Cocran

BCK

16 April 2010

Lanny Olsen

BCK

16 April 2010

Edna Standish

BCK

16 April 2010

Oren Olivent

BCK

16 April 2010

Yancy Yarkle

BCK

16 April 2010

The Grass Book

Handmade Book

15 April 2010

This book's pages are 'hot'. My oldest son swiped a pad of monitor paper from the hospital the night my grand daughter was born and gave it to me to use for whatever. It made wonderful pages for this little book! The book is made from game boards, magazine picture, foil tape and the monitor paper. It's 3 x 4 inches and has 6 signature of 5 sheets of paper each.

Right now I need to go sew together the page block for the Guest Book for RJ and Terah's wedding. I cut all the pages and started on the covers yesterday. Won't take long to complete the book once I get the page block sewn and decide what I'm going to use to bind the spine of the book. I got some purple mylar yesterday and I think that will be used somewhere on the covers of the book. I'm still in the planning stages for the covers even though they are already started. You'll see the Guest Book in the next post.

Go get your hugs! Wish I could get a lot more hugs than I seem to get on a daily basis....

Be good to one another! It does matter!

Peace

831

A Variety of ART and Some Rambling From Your's Truly

I have been a bit busy with things other than art this past week. What that stuff may be, I can't quite remember but I have been busy, busy, busy. Went on a couple of roadtrips with my brother, one of them in pouring rain. That was FUN! I'd show you the 8 minute video I took while riding down the highway with rain falling in bucketfuls but I really don't know how to post it, nor do I think that you all want to see an 8 minute video of a rainstorm in the DARK! So you'll just have to imagine it for yourselves. It rained 2 inches in an hour's time in that storm so the rain was rather exciting. The lightning was spectacular and I was so glad it wasn't me doing the driving!

I don't much remember the other roadtrip I went on with my brother. I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open! I know it wasn't raining for that one though. The roadtrips brother and I take never take us too awful far from home! The one we took in the rain took us about 60 miles round trip. It rained at home, but nowhere near like it did only 15 miles south of home!

I am enjoying my new porch! It looks so nice and is so nice to sit on in the afternoon when the sun isn't shining quite so brightly on the east side of the house where the porch is!

And it smells wonderful in my yard! The pear trees and redbud are blooming nicely! You can't see the forsthia bush but it too is blooming. Not the greatest picture of my new porch, but you all get the idea! Its the porch in the far distance, the one attached to the gray house. The bare spot is the lower driveway, we just drive across the grass to get there. That's five years worth of driving across that grass, yet the grass still grows pretty good there. The structure in the foreground of this picture is my burned house's west side porch and the corner of the roof.

My monkey sculpture is still sitting on the porch waiting for me to get back to it. That will happen eventually. Not this coming week though.

I'll not be home on Monday. I'm driving my sister home from her doc's appt in Wichita that day. On Tuesday I must finish the guest book for my son's wedding if it isn't done by then. I've started it but I've stalled on the creative aspect of the book. On Wednesday I'll be out in the burned house going through that mountain of clothes that no one wants. I've been slowly cutting up the things that have material I can use in making book covers, stealing the buttons and the labels out of said clothes. And there are a few things out there I've found that I brought in to wash and wear myself. On Thursday I'll be Hays doing the tests for my thyroid and on Friday I'll be headed to Nickerson so I can be there for the rehearsal dinner for the wedding on Saturday. Busy week ahead! I hope the old body cooperates!

The Fibro has been acting up all this past week. I hurt in places I didn't know could hurt! Different spots every day! No rhyme. No reason to it all. I'll survive though, I'm sure of that. I really wish my ankles would straighten up and quit that swelling up like toads though. The ankles don't hurt, they just look like hell!  The lower back, hips and arms hurt the most these days. I keep seeing little white lights, waiting for a migraine to come on but thankfully that hasn't happened! Not sure what's up with the little white lights showing up but no migraine following...a migraine ALWAYS follows on the heels of the little white lights!  I have noticed I can't see worth a damn lately. When I read in bed at night I have to wear my reading glasses to see the words in the book. I will be finished with that book soon. Maybe by Monday...all depends on how much downtime I get. If not by Monday, then I'll take it with me when I go with my sis to Wichita and read while I'm waiting for her to get done with what she has to do there. She won't be able to drive when she's done so I'm going to drive home.

Sunrise 12 April 2010

Phillips County Kansas

I went to Phillipsburg with my sister Susan that morning to take her to the doctor. She had a cataract removed from her right eye that morning. She says it's a miracle! She now can see!

There's Billy sitting on Susan's lap on Friday evening. He's my greeting committee. He thinks he has to sit on everyone's lap when they come to visit. Most will let him take over their laps cause he just won't take no for an answer. He's like Miss Blue was, he doesn't like to sit on my lap, he prefers to sit on someone else's.

OK, I've rambled enough for the time being! On to Art!

Shore Bird

ATC

12 April 2010

365 Project Day #103

Watercolor, gesso and marker on recycled cardstock.

Into the Unknown

ATC

10 April 2010

365 Project Day #102

Watercolors on recycled cardstock. This is basically fingerpainting cause that's what I used to paint it! Abstracts are not my usual fare when painting. I kinda like this one though.

Caulder's Cat

ATC

14 April 2010

365 Project Day #104

Markers on recycled cardstock.

High Beams

ATC

14 April 2010

365 Project Day #105

Markers on recycled cardstock.

Rose

ATC

14 April 2010

365 Project Day #106

Markers on recycled cardstock.

Smoked Chicken

ATC

14 April 2010

365 Project Day #107

Markers on recycled cardstock.

I put to good use one of the ugly mass produced pictures I bought at the thrift store in Norton for a quarter.

An Ocean of One

Mixed Media

Mixed Media Collage/Assemblage

April 2010

The base for this piece started out its life as a flocked fabric picture stretched over a sturdy cardboard base. It measures 12 x 9 x 1 1/2 inches. The elements on it include (from the bottom layer up) a layer of dictionary pages dry brushed with black paint, crocheted video tape (part of the movie The Full Monty), silver metallic paint, blue glitter paint, spackling compound tinted orangish with watercolor paints, blue glitter and more blue glitter paint. I'm uncertain what the green stuff across the middle is...its a bit like excelsior but not quite, red string from a dog food bag, fake pearls of two sizes, orange/red plastic coffee stirrer stick cut into little pieces, more spackling compound tinted with the blue glitter paint, real tiny white shells. The fish is constructed from recycled chipboard, brown foil candy wrapper, googly eye, sequins and copper paint pen. There's a boatload of E6000 holding the little doodads and the fish on. This is my second larger than ATC size mixed media piece.

Two fake leather handmade books

April 2010

The one on the left is 3 x 5 inches, the one on the right is 4.5 x 5 inches. One of them has thin drawing paper in it and the other has sturdier drawing paper.  I bought a leather portfolio at the thrift store for 75 cents, the same time I bought the substrate for the fish picture above. Out of that portfolio I will get four little books and perhaps scrap enough for even more. I have an idea for some of the very small scraps. Handmade books are involved in those plans. You'll see them if it comes to fruition.

I already have more art to show but none of it has been scanned. There are 8 bottle cap kids completed, drying as we speak and another little book. Hopefull there will be two handmade books ready the next time I post. I hope to post sometime mid week.

You all get your hugs!

Peace

831