Sunday, May 22, 2016

Hot Day, Quick Post


Ok, I'm pleased! A little glare here but you get the gist. Loved how he came out. Someone's baby!  Tomorrow onto a new piece and hopefully finally finish one that I keep avoiding.  Sigh.


I paint in a small space and today wore my clean shorts. It's hot and humid out there. Pthalo blue tends to be my nemesis. When ever I use it it seems to jump all over me. Ah, but not today. I wasn't using it. It was Pthalo Green.  For pete's sake.  Rubbed turps into it then grabbed my faithful brush cleaner. I'm hopeful that when I wash these that stain will come out.  Well, for one thing if you ever came across me somewhere you would know who I was...covered in small hair balls from the dogs and stained paint over my clothes. Hiding my good clothes in the closet til I go up to NH in a few weeks for our granddaughters recital. 


Just chillin today! I'm also happy to report that there were no breakages today in the coach! (holding breath), no wait, our ice machine is dying yet again. When is Mercury out of Retrograde????

Have a great night..

Warmly,
Sheila

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Artists And RV Friends

We have both artist and RV friends and it's especially wonderful when they are one couple! Our friend Jeanette called me this morning and left a message to call because her hubby Mike wanted to talk with us about our coach.  Jeanette is a fantastic artist and Mike a wizard with mechanics and Rv's. We called and I gave the phone to Roger. They chatted for quite awhile giving us great info on where to go for service and other tid bits that will come in handy. Mike and Jeanette have saved us before when my "petite" rear shut off the switch to the main power. Duh. Thank you again guys!! And Bon Voyage on your upcoming adventure!


We heard a loud crash. Oh lord, now what. Roger could see from his computer area that our bedroom awning came down all the way. Our awning on the drivers side will do that when it gets water in the rail and I go out and give it a push back to its position.  So, off I went, long wash brush in hand to give it a push back but it wasn't moving. In fact it was really heavy. Hmm, a lot of water, I thought. Today Roger and I went out and tried again thinking we'd get the water out but realized the spring had sprung. The canvas was flapping and there was no way we would get this to rewind so we could raise the awning, much less, pull in the slide. I googled "how to fix a broken spring in a Carefree awning". They did have good directions but my eyes wouldn't move from the large print saying " Don't Attempt This If You Don't Know What You Are Doing, You Could Be Injured"  Ok then...works for me. So I called and left a message on our repair guys phone adding our sprung spring onto the list!!



Close but not finished. Not my plan for today but it's all good.  I made a list of what oils I needed then went through my stash of paints. Sort of a procrastination but also give me a night of staring at the background of the painting. I'm feeling it's bland, even though it is the original background in the reference photo. I want him to pop.  I then placed a small order and cleaned out some of the caps that go on the tubes of paint. I'm terrible about putting the caps back on so need to turn over a new leaf! 

Snake photo..  Putting that first so you are warned. Just so you know, I hate snakes. Well, not hate, but they scare me. Lat night Lola and I were doing a casual walk along the grass as we left the dog park.  Lola missed it totally but I was just getting ready to step on the quietly laying in the grass not moving yellow with green striped about 24" snake. I pulled her and if anyone was looking they saw me doing a contorted leap while hopping like a crazed woman to the roadway.  I researched last night to find they are non-poisonous and he wouldn't have bothered us unless of course I stepped on him.  He's a common Florida snake and my first sighting of them. A Ribbon Snake. (shivering as I even think about this...eeeek!!!)

Ok..let's see what tomorrow brings! Have a great night!!

Warmly,
Sheila


Friday, May 20, 2016

Trying To Get Ready

My weekly call to the repair man this week was actually a good one. I was told we made the appointment list for next week and this means our stairs will be repaired. Right now we wobble out onto plastic stairs that are giving out. Perfect timing.

The rear view camera/radio needs to be checked before they call the warranty company. At first they thought that it was officially dead but to replace the one we have, they have found, the price is way up there. Warranty companies like to check sometimes that the replacement they are getting, the high cost, is because the original piece is really not repairable. So that would be two things down.  I have a few doors to put new latches in but that won't take long.



On the easel!! Realizing that when we come back in the Fall, we will be totally, living the artist's dream. Roger does bis part to bring in finances, now I need to really step it up and do my part. What I have come to realize that our home on wheels needs yearly care, which at this point, we don't know how to do. Chassis care, changing the fluids, minor repairs. We need savings! Today I told myself that I am ready for the challenge.! My plan also will include putting artwork right on this blog for purchase. I'll also be doing prints of some of the favorites!


On the easel for tomorrow. No more days off. Good thing I love what I do!! If you are interested in having a portrait done you may EMAIL ME HERE  
What a great gift for someone who loves their pet or has recently lost one.


Lola had a spa day!! The heat and humidity are really high right now so we get her fur cut to 2" all around. She gets more energy but looks like she has no pants on. Poor girl. Newfies have fur on their back legs that look like pantaloons.  Her's are shaved down. Lola is going commando!! Shhhh.!


And finally, our Sammy turned 11 on May 10! He's still active and quite an imp. In the beginning the line up was my girl Sophie and Roger had Fergus. We lost both a year apart to cancer just before their 11th birthdays.  We held our breath as the 10th arrived and on the day we celebrated and missed our other two. 

Have a great night...see you tomorrow with the finished painting. !!

Warmly, Sheila

Saturday, May 7, 2016

A DNA Surprise..Sort Of

Roger asked me what I wanted for my 69th birthday. Hmm...The Ancestry.com DNA test. I was adopted at 6 weeks old and grew up totally Irish. I heard "The map of Ireland on her face" many times so, sure, that's it. In my 40's I found my bio family. The adoption paperwork said "Portuguese/Irish" . Plot thickens!


They think I'm Labrador/Newfoundland!!

The whole story would be a novel but I'll give you the really short story. I've always been interested in what traits were passed down from my ancestors. Epigenetics. What had they seen, where were they living? I've had events happen that struck me as "familiar" but yet strange, so I was really interested. When the Gulf war started, Roger and I were standing on Rye Beach, New Hampshire watching squardrons of planes going over heading over seas. My reaction? I was waving with tears coming down. I have also had this happen at air shows when the war planes took off. 

The next event was when we went to Scotland to visit a woman I met on Facebook who started Labrador Retriever Rescue Scotland. We became instant friends, her birthday being the same day as mine and then her Heart dog, D'Arcy went to the Bridge about 5 hours before my sweet Heart Dog, Sophie. We roamed the Highlands and I knew I had been there before. I sobbed when we had to leave. 

Great Britain

Primarily located in: England, Scotland, Wales 61%

Ireland

Primarily located in: Ireland, Wales, Scotland 28%
I have found 4-5th generation cousins that have the Azores connection from where my maternal grandparents are from and there is a 5-6th generation cousin with Africa as her primary ethnic location. 
We are all so connected.  Too bad all peoples can't realize this. 
So now to go into records and files and see how I am related to my 44 "cousins" that I am linked to right now. It just means not everyone is on Ancestry.com. I'm excited and overwhelmed. The ancestors who were there first were the Normans and the Vikings, so good chance I may break out in song, drink heavily and go plunder and pillage very soon!! Instead of a heavy draft horse I have a 40' RV.  (Virginia, we need to get those viking helmets...) 
 Have a great day all. I'll be painting today so no plundering til later!!!
Warmly,
Sheila




Wednesday, May 4, 2016

A Blip In The Week


Let me start off with something peaceful and fun. Today is a dreary rainy day and the boys are cuddling. I may have mentioned before that Sammy taught Ozzie the way of our home. (ok, the counter surfing was really just wrong!)  At first Sammy would do a low growl when ever little Ozzie would come near him, then, one day, he dropped his ball so Oz could get it. The next thing we knew was Ozzie climbing all over Sammy's back nibbling on his ear with Sam giving him a mouthing every so often. The schooling began.

Today was the day we were to have our Hydro-hot cleaned and serviced. The other day when he came in to find us he had a small confrontation with management. It was something any other man would have brushed off. Our "service guy" wrote a scathing review on the park facebook page. That too would have been ok but he called the woman who he had the issue with a "he/she" and a "questionable species" . He has a growing business in the area, he is a businessman. I called and canceled our service. In this day and age when we hope, hope, that people are enlightened, we were appalled at his slurs. So, if I blogged yesterday as I had hoped you would have heard my true anger.



Last night we had our nightly "happy hour" trying to shake off the day. As you see Roger is doing quite well.!!


 I got my Kindle Paperwhite!! This is the cover I chose for it. It reminds me off my friend Lou's artwork.

And..the Paperwhite!! I'm reading about Epigenetics. Huh?? I found out the results of my ancestry DNA test yesterday. I'll blog about that tomorrow!! ;-)

Have a great night.
Warmly,
Sheila



Monday, May 2, 2016

Getting Ready....Are We Really??

Well, this Friday, our friends Betty and Bob are leaving for home. The second season of goodbyes. On top of that, the heat is coming back with a vengeance. Today my back was starting to get itchy and my arms had pins stabbing them. A true sign of what is to come.


Not a dog in site.! I was commissioned to do a large painting for a wall in a new Florida home. We talked about it for about a year trying to decide size and content. I showed them a Plein Air painting that I had painted and they loved the color and asked if I could do something like that and add a dragon fly. Their large ottoman had dragonfly motif on it so ,Voila!!  Then the size! One thought was 36" x 40" but being the artist I decided the wall could handle a 48" x 48" canvas and it did perfectly. Success!!! 

So how does one celebrate the end of a large commission piece?? We ordered a tow dolly!!!  Doesn't everyone? (ok, I also bought a Kindle paperwhite so I could read outside and Roger got a pair of new sandals.) We had researched many brands of tow dollys and the American Car Dolly meets all our needs. The company is backed up so delivery may not be til sometime in June. 

Today I finally got on the phone and called our warranty company to tell them about our dead backup camera/navigation/radio system, then called our go to repair company to add that onto the list along with our stair motor. The last call was to a local Hydo-Hot system repair man. He's certified and we need ours to be cleaned and inspected. During the cold weather our hot water, which is usually on demand, wasn't. When we clicked the diesel switch for it to kick on it only lasted a few minutes before turning off. The system also pre warms our engine before we head out so hopefully it's just clogged.  Getting ready! 

The next thing to do is have the ABS system checked and our oil pressure issue. (Holding breath)  Once we know what's going on there..the sky is the limit. 


Lola is getting ready too!! I got her her own backpack. I have read that since they have been bred to work and carry loads it may help her focus on working rather than a squirrel or other dog.  When she got it on her back, she shook her head and started to parade!  I'm hopeful!

So where would we go. Our plan is to head north to New Hampshire. Our daughter Erin and her family lives there and I would love to spend the summer close to them, plus it would be fun blogging about our trip. Finally!! 

So, to be continued.......

Have a great night and I will actually be back tomorrow with more stuff to chat about. (I'm biting at the bit to start my new reading on the Kindle!! )

Warmly, 
Sheila