Oh my God!! These are to die for. While visiting my brother and his wife this weekend, Karyn treated us to these home made scones for breakfast on Saturday. Thanks Karyn, for turning me on to this recipe... and it's only 2 Points!! Did I mention it's also easy?!! But really, how many points if you eat the whole thing in one sitting? Muuuuummmmm...Click here for this yummy recipe.
We grabbed Mom and headed to Ft. Lauderdale on Friday for a weekend
with my brother Joe and his wife, Karyn. A great time was had by all!
Meet my brother Joe!
And his "baby"! He's responsible for building this huge upscale shopping center at Gulfstream Park in Hallendale. We're so proud of his accomplishments and so happy his job has finally moved him and his
family close enough for more frequent visits.
I remember when he used to build with Lincoln Logs and Tinker toys!
We can't wait to see this finished project... sometime in Feb. 2009
It was a gorgeous day so a trip to the beach was in order/
Eddie may have even found a new gig! Well, at least the hat fits!
With their girls both away at college, Annie has taken over the empty nest. She is the most adorable little bundle of fur you have ever seen. Notice her little bowls off to the left? Well,nothing beats the tasty morsels of her big brother Oliver's food!
It's been a busy week so I'll so my best to catch up! We took a field trip on Wednesday to visit Ringling School of Art and Design with Eddie's daughter, Leann. She is about to graduate with her AA from Valencia Community College this July and looking towards the next step on her chosen career path. ART!!!
I know... try as I might... I couldn't seem to talk her out of it! This
is just the kind of stubborn attitude she needs to make it, so we are
100% behind her all the way!!! GO Leann! We're so proud and she's so happy that she got all those icky academic credits behind her so she can now follow her passion. Check out Leann on her brand new blog!
It's a beautiful school with lots to offer. ...hummm...maybe?
Lunch was great but check out the bakery we found while walking back to the
car in beautiful downtown Sarasota!
Now this was the highlight of the trip for sure! This inspires me to do a pastry illustration. How about you, Leann?
Here's something new for me to try to keep up with... (just what I need)! I thought it would keep me thinkin' & sketchin' if I start a collection of RANDOM THOUGHTS & MINDLESS DOODLES. After all, that was the original purpose of the"Doodles n' Scribbles" blog in the first place. Here goes...
YEP.. this could work. I'm already thinkin' this would be a great look for a new collection.
Seems like a fitting title for this post. Yesterday marked the anniversary of what Eddie and I fondly refer to as our "Greek Tragedy". As I often do, I never got around to noticing the date until late afternoon, but all day I found myself in a sort of melancholy mood with this underlying tone that this was some sort of "special day." By evening I realized what "it" was and was happily toasting the one year anniversary of my hip surgery with some friends at an art festival cocktail party. As I recounted the events I shed a few tears and thought about a lot of memories, but mostly felt grateful for my good fortune and a pretty full recovery. There are no words to describe the closeness and love that my wonderful husband Eddie and I share together which saw us through a pretty difficult situation. He is presently away in Italy but he told me in a phone conversation that he also shed some tears as he reflected on the events of this time last year.
To be brief, Eddie was booked to play on this fabulous 3 week jazz cruise docking in several Greek Islands and beautiful ports around the Mediterranean, ending in Venice on the luxury Crystal Cruise ship, the MS. Serenity. The cruise of a lifetime... with a paycheck! What more could any one ask for?! While in Athens Greece, two days before we were to set sail, I took a fall after dinner and fractured my femur just below the hip. I ended up having surgery the next day in a hospital in Athens and I now have to stop for the wand treatment every time I go through security airport. I have a plate with screws attached to my femur with another kind of metal screw thing going into my hip joint. Not a day goes by that I don't feel some kind of "reminder" but I am so grateful to be able to walk and for the care I received while so far away in a foreign country. It's much too long a story to repeat in a post, but if you would like to read more, the letter we sent home is to your right, Just click on The Metz Greek Tragedy. We did end up going aboard, not once, but twice and Eddie got to fulfill his contract while I recovered in the lap of luxury with our good friends from the band. We truly are so blessed.
I somehow feel the need to mark the time on my blog today so here are a few memories. By the way, the goofy musicians we associate with, find it necessary whenever something weird happens to come up with a song list. They take words or titles from standard jazz tunes and each of them contributes to the list. How lucky am I?... I have my own Hip List !
Here we are... our first exciting day climbing the ruins in Athens. I seem to have no problem climbing rocks...just walking on streets!
My view from the Athens Hospital. There's always a silver lining... at least I was able to enjoy my favorite artist, Matisse!
My happy husband on the ferry that took us to meet the ship in Mycanos
"MS Crystal Serenity"... that's me! On board for the second time.
Reunited with the band... good times ahead, after all :~)
I could not get off the ship at too many of the ports because the ancient cities could not accommodate the wheelchair, but I really enjoyed this day sitting on the back deck sketching the beautiful town of Sorrento. This was a bittersweet day, as I have fond memories of my Dad, who would sit patiently as I practiced the piano. His parents were Italian immigrants. "Back to Sorrento" was his favorite request as he would sing along in Italian. I miss him terribly, but I know he was with me on this special day, guiding my hand as I sketched this beautiful countryside - home to his ancestors, which he never got to see.
Just another chapter in the life of this lucky and happy couple!
I know I've been a little slack in posting so I'm going to do my best to get back on track. I've tried to keep personal journals before and never got further than a page or two. It's funny, when I started this thing, I had an idea of what my purpose would be... to share and connect with other like-minded souls. Now I find myself pleasantly surprised at what I have gained personally. When setting up my blog, I realized there may be very few people who are interested in whatever it is I'm up to in my daily life, but I never made the connection that keeping track of my life publicly, would be the catalyst for keeping a journal - if for no one else but myself. I hope to get better at making my personal space more interesting to a broader audience, but in the meantime, I'm happy that I am doing it for me. If nothing else, when I feel my daily tasks are small and insignificant, I can look back and see that I actually have accomplished a few things. :~)
For the past several months I have been stumbling around my studio in a creative stupor, wondering what to do next. The economy is very scary. Both Eddie and I are in industries that - let's face it - will be the first to go if the economy crashes. We all know art and music are necessities, but try to convince the bean counters of that! Anyway, I'm trying not to let that stress me out. I've reinvented myself so many times over the past 30 years and can't imagine any job that does not involve creating. So I will not rush out to get the Walmart Greeter job just yet. After our little 9 day vacation break I am refreshed and back in the studio creating new images for licensing.
But.. before we get to that, here's what I was doing before I got back into work mode. I call this little break from routine "Painting without a purpose". No commission, no assignment, no trying to figure out who would want it... just painting for pleasure. Here's what I discovered and maybe it will help a few of you who, like me, have a huge fear of the blank canvas.
First, I took a photo from a recent garden tour trip and scanned it into Photoshop.
Next I copied and pasted, playing around with the composition and getting a better feel for tones and values.
Since I like to paint in the style my husband refers to as "Out of Focus", better known to us as "Impressionists", I found this next step to be most helpful. I played around with the filters which helped
to blur out the tiny details that go along with painting from photographs.
It's still a work in progress, but at least this process helped conquer my fear of the blank canvas... which,
by the way, is 36 X 30! What was I thinking? Following the advice of a fellow artist friend, John Petrey,
"Paint it red or paint it big!"
Still a ways to go, but coming along. For now, back to painting WITH a purpose!
I thought I'd take a moment to share my new favorite breakfast. I go on these food kicks every now and then. I find something good and just eat it until I'm sick of it. Like another favorite is grapefruits in salad with Italian dressing. (Strawberries and blueberries are good this way too!) Anyway, this is a rediscovered trend from my kitchen and oh so good!
I take a half a cup of regular oatmeal and a half a cup of steel cut oats and cook it up in about 3 cups of water for about 20 minutes with a handful of walnuts and Craisins and a sprinkle or two of cinnamon. I recently discovered orange flavored Craisins... extra yummy. My husband will tell you, with me, it's all about the crunch! I have to have texture in my food. I'm the one in the family that eats the heels of the bread and the darkest, crunchiest part of any cooked dish. Near burnt french fries are the best! I like pie crust better than the filling. Anyway, the best part of this oatmeal is, this makes about 4 days worth of breakfasts which I keep in the fridge and just heat up in the microwave. I add a little milk for creamy consistency and extra protein and I'm good to go. Only 4 points you weight watchers! (if you measure the nuts and craisins 1/2 cup each and go easy on the milk)
Try it and ENJOY!
The poor guy... You can't blame him for this graffiti. I've been laid out on the couch for 5 days with some kind of extremely contagious crud (Bacterial Conjunctivitis) and he's been taking good care of me, in spite of the way I look (trust me, it ain't pretty). So now he's upstairs painting our new bathroom drywall... I suspect he's trying to stay away from me and loose himself in a mindless chore. Can you blame him?
This was too cute not to share... I love you, baby!
Last Saturday we had the honor and privilege of attending Eddie's son, Philip's college graduation! We're so proud of you and your accomplishments! Soon we'll be attending your master's degree graduation. When are you going to work???!
YAY PJ !!!
Dad's not too proud is he?
PJ's proud sister's, Heidi and Leann
Girlfriend Jessica...2 gators now!
My friend and fellow artist, BJ Lantz and I, only live a little more than an hour away from each other and yet we only seem to see each other either in NY or Atlanta at one show or another. We vowed to try to do better at meeting more often so about 3 weeks ago we met for lunch in DeLand, a quaint little town about half way between us.
Check us out!
Although her favorite second hand store is closed, Beej still managed
to land this sexy find... at a bargain price, I might add!
I, on the other hand, managed to land this sexy find.
Just what I need. Another character around my house!
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