This lovely lady will be on Etsy as soon as I can get her up there. There is kind of a story that goes with this one. You may notice the strange markings of this cat. Everyday on the way to school we pass a farm that has a cat that is all black with an orange face. The first time we saw it crossing the road I screamed because I thought it had an animal in its mouth, then I realised that was its face! We have only seen it twice, so needless to say we are always on the lookout for the black cat with the orange face. In fact, I even have another painting of this cat that I have never finished in hopes of seeing its face one more time before I do. Crazy, huh.

It is officially cold here. The heat has kicked on and Rose would rather warm her toes this way than keep socks on.

Thanksgiving went off without a hitch. I hope my guests enjoyed it. I know I did.
It even snowed a little. It was so pretty!

This is my husband and I. A rare moment together in a photo.






We had a little fun scaring the kids with a human head dessert and I could not resist walking around with these candles on MY head pretending to be Santa Lucia.

It was a fun night. Hope you all had a safe and happy one too.

"Her Friends are Feathered" will be up later tonight on Etsy.

It's beginning to look a lot like Thanksgiving everywhere you go.....

I have moved just about every table and chair into my kitchen for the feast.

The children and cat were employed to make a wreath for the door. I moved it inside because it has been soooo windy. I think colder weather is blowing in. I also spruced up my flower stand with some dried Hydrangea flowers. I will NOT show you my Hydrangea bush. It looks very sad and naked after all this. I did leave a few on that were still alive that I will later cut for bouquets on the table.

Anthony looks so happy working on this, not.

I am also working on an "Over the River and Through the Woods" painting for myself. It is kind of hard to see here, but I have a lot more to do on it. I will show you when it is done.

The squirrels are so busy around here gathering nuts. Rose, my daughter, was explaining to me that they use their tails for blankets. We were trying to picture how cute they must look all curled up in the tree snuggled together at night. The second painting is of a parakeet. I had one that talked when I was a child. She was probably one of the most talkative parakeets I have ever met. No one can believe that she said all that she did. It was quite a list and my mom still has a cassette tape to prove it. These are on Etsy.

I will be adding these framed canvas mini prints to the shop.

My latest painting "Bird Feeder Kitty" is up on Etsy. We just recently started feeding the birds again. Tamale sits at the window cackling at each bird that comes to the feeder and then begs to go out. Does she really think I am going to let her out after seeing her drool?


This was a rough weekend. I am glad it is over. I have to say that the high point of my weekend was an impromptu visit with my husbands Grandma. She is a very old-fashioned Sicilian grandma. The kind that says,"Don't call, just come over". We really should do it more often. We were in the area Sunday so we stopped in WITHOUT calling first and she was happy as can be to take us into her kitchen where she was chopping meat for a future stew. We sat and talked about old family recipes, trying to get siked up for Thanksgiving in which we will be hosting for my family. We will still visit his family that day and then rush back home to open the doors for mine. Sounds crazy, I know. Anyway, that is why we wanted to stop by and see her because we knew we would be rushed that day. She of course can never let us leave without giving us something to take. We walked out of there with sweet potatoes and homemade chicken and dumplings to warm up later. That generation has sooo much to teach us, we really need to take note before they are gone.

This has been a busy week of getting the house ready for Thanksgiving. Moving furniture out of the kitchen and into the living room to make room for more tablage. Then I started messing with the play room and that took a whole day of taking shelves down in the closet to put in giant shelving units. Now the play room has enough space for a semi couch, coffee table and MY tv that I was kind enough to donate to the cause. What was the cause? Keeping the kids out of the dark man cave and into a bright creative hang out. I think all of my hard work is paying off. If you are wondering why I am rambling about this it is because I felt bad just saying ,"Here is my newest painting on Etsy".

Jennifer

This one is called "They Found the Milky Way". I remember as a little girl being able to see so many more stars out here than I do now. I was reminded of this at a recent trip to the St. Louis Science Center. They have a dome shaped room there where you lay down on the floor in the pitch dark and stare up at the round ceiling that is made to look just like the night sky. The little stars even twinkle. As the narrator went through all the constellations he began to show off the Milky Way. It was then that I realised it had been sooo long since I was able to see it. Now that it is more populated where I live I guess we have more light pollution. I will have to find a place on a clear night to take the kids to see the Milky Way soon.

Here are a couple new paintings in my Etsy shop.

I have a couple more I am working on and hope to get those up soon.

I leave you with a few pics of the Halloween weekend. Hope you all had a nice one.