The garden at the center of the universe

Everything comes from my garden. Food, inspiration, art, relaxation, exercise...the list is endless and of course includes the businesses where I market some of the artwork I create on various household items.

It made me laugh this week to create over 1/2 dozen new designs simply based on the unmowed grass in the corner of one of the photos that I took of my tulips a few weeks ago.

As I changed the image over and over again I eventually reduced it to what appears to be a perfectly conventional neutral tweed pattern and it really amused me to create something so classy out of a yard that's wildly grassy.

Oh dear, I find myself starting to rhyme so I'll sign off for mow before I drive us all a bit crazy.

Have fun! Don't take life so seriously, you'll enjoy it more.

Think Pink

Think Pink. As  well as being the name of cute musical number in the Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire movie Funny Face it's the general theme around here today. As I continue to crochet those pink scarves I'm thinking, about Barbie, peptobismol, an breast cancer awareness...not to mention the number of Pink Panther cartoons running through my mind.
And as these things ran through my mind we were fortunate to see groceries running through the house. Just as I'd been doing all of this crocheting for charity someone who knew about our financial situation brought us lots of groceries and paper products.
Life is just amazing, isn't it? And so are the people in mine. Thanks so much to Cheryl and Fred for today's miracle and to Jerry and Laura for yesterday's stamps and stationery.

It's looking like a Happy New Year after all

Results of the mac and cheese challenge

The 3 brands tried were: Our Specialty at 37 cents, Great Value at 50 cents and Kraft at 88 cents. The prices on Kraft vary widely from around 80 cents to well over a dollar depending on where and when you buy it. The wild range of prices is what made me want to look into this. The weights and cooking instructions on all three were the same so you don't run into the differences until you get to the facts and ingredients panels. It would probably take a chemist to break those down and explain them so all I can say is that the old saying "you get what you pay for" seems to apply here because the taste and texture of each of the products was better at each of the different price points.
It is interesting that the best tasting one also has the highest cholesterol and had more protein as well as more calories. I find myself wondering why but wasn't interested enough to follow it further.
How does this tie in with a blog about painting? The answer is simple, there isn't a lot of money in art and sometimes those extra few pennies you save can help you stretch a dollar and stay fed a bit longer in between things.

A dull but pleasant day

I spent more time outdoors working on the yard and garden, then indoors for excitement like laundry, dishes and sweeping floors so you can imagine what a treat it was to go down to the lake for live music and the farmers market (one of the vendors even had egg rolls and that's the first time I noticed that-as usual I was looking for the pizza ; )
Now, I'm relaxing at home with a nice cup of hot chocolate with waaay too much whipped cream and thinking life (except for my diet) is good.