A tree? For me!?!

It's so shiny!

There's something on my head. It tickles.

Wonder if I can reach the shiny ball swinging down there, hmmmm....

I'm invisible and the humans can't see me!

Puncture marks on watercolor paper, copper foil and a custom card

I don't know about you, but I needed a little extra sparkle in my life today...so run your mouse around on the page and watch the faerie dust fall from your mouse!

Sooooo much fun and a totally time drain, but it still brings a smile to my face! Happy day to you!

Commemorating A Wild and Wacky Mother's Day

Ever go to Gatorland on Mother's Day?

Ever been to Gatorland...at all?!

Well, we have! We went this past Sunday with family and friends and it would not do but some of them just had to go zip-lining over the gator ponds!

The Zippers

And they all had a blast. So much so, that I've already heard discussion about a return trip though we'll probably wait for cooler temperatures—it was HOT! (And yes, I know this is Florida, the land of there perpetual summer!).

The park had plenty of alligators and crocodiles along with lots of other critters—panthers, bobcats, tortoise, parrots, budgies, snakes, spiders, herons, egrets, flamingos, ducks, wood storks, anhingas, a rookery,  and without a doubt, the most buzzards I have ever seen at one time! There were hundreds of them!

It was interesting to watch the shows. Most of them were quite comical and at the same time, they were sliding in a lot of education about the critters, their habitats, what kind of environment and food they needed as well as a good bit of common sense about how to avoid being lunch.

My sketch above was just a fun parody on the goofiness of the day! The folks that ran the zip line were great sports and did everything they could to scare the pants off all the "zippers." (At no point was anyone in any danger.)

My goofball having a great time. If you enlarge the photo, you'll see me as a pink blob doing some videoing on the right

The Great Blue Heron was the only thing I actually managed to sketch on location. Everything else was done from photos once we got home. I was too busy running around attempting to video those flying through the air with the greatest of ease.

The silver token has the saying, "See you later, alligator" on one side and the Gatorland logo on the other.

If you're after a slower pace and a glimpse of old Florida attractions, this is a fun place to visit. Unless you go zip-lining, it won't take you a full day to visit, but I think you'll be glad you did!

Food Sculpture by Chris Ferlita Click to enlarge

We had a family celebration last night, and of course, there's always lots of hugs, laughter and mischief going on. Chris contributed one of his (in)famous food sculptures. This is made of lemon, zucchini, tomatoes and rib bones.

Don't you want to come and join us for our next dinner?

Oddly enough, the waiters and waitress always seem to remember us.


Our normal programming will return tomorrow......

...I thought y'all might benefit as well, especially if you've been as distracted this week as I have:

1st Note: When filling waterbrush with the black stopper thingie, do NOT do it over the garbage disposal side of the sink.
     1st Sub-Note: Cease eye-rolling and sighing immediately. They are no help.

2nd Note: The time to think about cleaning the garbage disposal is BEFORE you drop the black stopper thingie, not after.

3rd Note: Before you get brave enough to stick your hand down in the garbage disposal to retrieve the black stopper thingie, be sure to move the knife with peanut butter on it, out of the way.

4th Note: Black stopper thingies seem to diminish in size when they are at the bottom of a garbage disposal. Check internet to see if phenomenon is true.

5th Note: Once you have retrieved the black stopper thingie, and find peanut butter on your arm, check your clothing. BEFORE you go to the market. Not after.

6th Note: Better yet, change out of your good shirt BEFORE you attempt to retrieve black stopper thingie out of the garbage disposal.

7th Note: Back up two steps and scrub hands and arms up to armpits with anti-bacterial soap.

8th Note: AFTER arriving home from the market, check the seats of the Jeep to see if you managed to smear peanut butter on them, too.

9th Note: Switch to using a regular brush with a container of water so that you can avoid losing the black stopper thingie down the garbage disposal with the peanut buttered-knife lying in the way so you can avoid looking like a 3-year-old with peanut butter smeared down the side of your good shirt while strolling casually around the market.

Don't be a Laure. Learn from my mistakes. Please.

It's too late for me.

Chris and I are not your usual sweethearts on Valentine's Day, exchanging boxes of chocolate and roses for power tools....no, we go in for things that are just a little off-beat. We have also been on an anti-clutter campaign for quite a while now, so if we give each other "stuff" it better be some really kickin' waaaay cool "stuff!!"

With this in mind, I was pretty sure that Chris was going to be thrilled with getting a box of artificial eyes for Valentine's Day....

I distressed this with sepia ink and tore the corner off to add to the look of antiquity

I overlapped the end pieces as if they were seals, and then "broke" them as if the box had been open a long, long time

Click to enlarge and read—it's pretty funny!

Is that not just wicked cool?!! I had the best fun making this from a piece of clip art I found over on the Graphic Fairy's blog (do check it out...Karen's got some really cool stuff!) and a wooden tea box that my sister-in-law sent to me because she knew something awesome could be made out of that box!

I spray-painted the box black and touched up a few areas with a black marker. I then measured all the surfaces and sized the art to fit. I had to put a black border around some of the pieces because it didn't quite work out to size. I printed the art on the back of some paper headed for the recycle bin. Once I cut down the art, I blackened the edges and "distressed" the pieces with some sepia ink. After gluing everything down, I went and found some antique glass marbles and put them inside for "sound effects!"

I wrapped it in an old paper box with lots of stuffing and bubble wrap to complete the "look." When Chris went to open it and the marbles clacked together, I cautioned Chris to be careful so as to not break anything! He was trying to figure out how to open the eye box (the lid slides open) when he realized what he was actually holding in his hands—the tea box. Too much fun!

He gave me an anatomically-correct squeeze heart.....
...with our initials written on it. He seems to think I may occasionally need some stress release......I'm not sure where he gets that idea from????

What did you get for Valentine's Day?!!

The attic door swung wide and free,
And box by box, we began to see,
Some lights, some tinsel, maybe even a tree!
Christmas was finally here, weaving its magic all through the house!
Everywhere you looked, creatures were stirring, and not one, a mouse!

We spotted a huge tree free-grazing in the back 40 of the attic—it was so majestic! The Tree Wrangler lassoed the huge beast and it went wild! It bucked! It fought! And at long last, our heroic wrangler subdued and tamed that tree so that he could ride it around the living room floor!

Tucker, The Tree Wrangler

Once the tree had been subdued, Tucker wandered off for a snack, satisfied with a job well done.

Meanwhile, for the Light Master, work had just begun.....

Joey, The Light Master

Lights. They were everywhere in knots and piles. The Light Master looked at us with reproach for allowing the lights to become tangled. We tried to explain to him that they did this on their own. Eleven months in the attic, by themselves, is a long time and they sometimes got bored. He wasn't buying.

Joey knew the key to untangling the lights was to keep calm and breathe deep. To approach the lights with an attitude and knowledge that they wanted to become linear and straight.....

Post Script: A huge thank you to our guest artist, Chris, for sharing his wonderfully quirky artwork with us all last week! Chris assures me that he and Boomer will return from time to time.

In the prior post, we see a disturbing side of Boomer as he makes the squirrel go "boom!," but that may be explained by the images below.

Bob the Squirrel was quite the jokester and Boomer was....well, Boomer just too easy to pick on!

© Chris Ferlita

Boomer tried to ignore Bob, but the squirrel was relentless....and so the games began....

© Chris Ferlita

Now that Chris' imagination is going full throttle, the possibilities are just rolling in! Seems that Boomer doesn't play well with others....

© Chris Ferlita

Then there's always the possibility that there's some kind of vision problem. Or perhaps he's just easily distracted....

© Chris Ferlita

Either way, Chris is having way too much fun with this! And you'll get to meet more of the cast tomorrow.

The conversations in our household often revolve around art as well as the ideas or concepts behind the art. Chris and I differ wildly on our views and thoughts around art as I think you'll see for the art below.

Up for recent discussion and debate was how Boomer came to be nicknamed Boomer (click link for more on Boomer). I chose not to reveal that piece of information, and that left the door wide open for Chris' imagination!

© Chris Ferlita "How Boomer Got His Name!"

And, before you ask, NO! This is not how Boomer came to be called Boomer!

Be warned! This may be far more information than you ever wanted to know about me....
I am not a housekeeper. Never have been, and I dare say, never will be. Despite a strong desire for a sparkling, pristine, clean house, I have little to no enthusiasm for housecleaning. I have far better things to do and can ignore housework like nobody's business. In fact, the house does a far better job of keeping me than I do it.

I also live with cats. Cats that drop fur everywhere they go like they're leaving a breadcrumb trail in case they need to find their way back to the bedroom again. As if they couldn't find it any other way. Sheesh.

And then there's the litter. We have two litter "trapping" mats; however, the cats are amazingly adept at stepping over or around them as they don't like how they feel on their little paws. And litter "decorates" the floor like seashells on the beach but with far less appeal.

So, now I have cat-hair-dust-bunny-thingies the size of chihuahuas hanging out under furniture and in the corners. Sometimes they brazenly sit out there in the middle of the room. Like they owned the place. I'm pretty sure I heard one growl at me when I attempted to get at it and its kin with the vacuum hose. The nerve! Oh, and they routinely hijack the vacuum cleaner and hold it hostage. They render it useless by wrapping themselves around the roller brush.

I think they must have gotten that idea from watching the "save-our-planet" channel and seeing tree huggers trying to save an endangered animal/tree's life by chaining themselves to the tree. It does the cat-hair-dust-bunny-thingies about as much good as the tree huggers.

It just slows down the inevitable.

The other reason I hate to clean....is the cats. They are terrified of the vacuum cleaner. You'd think, after 18 years with no harm befalling any cat in the household, they would figure it out. But every time the beast rolls out of the closet and roars to life, it is cause for instantaneous and complete panic! Fur flies, claws skittle and scrape across the hardwood floors as they try to find purchase so quivering, feline bodies can be propelled to safety in the nearest hidey hole.

And let's not forget the heart failure the cats give me when they burst forth from their hiding places like a startled covey of quail because the beast was getting too close! Paws and claws justaflyin' as they streak past me and the beast, me forgetting to breathe for a few seconds until I can sort out the racket and commotion.

Such fun, these creatures. Not.

After the beast has quieted and been escorted back to its "hole in the wall," one by one, they slink into the living room to see first hand the desecration of their homes.

Only....there is none.

So then they start looking sideways at me as if to say "Are you okay?" Tucker begins to hang close, giving me occasional, worried looks with a patina of pitying annoyance. He also feels it is necessary to escort me everywhere I go in the house lest I fall under the spell of the beast yet again as simpletons are wont to do.

With trauma of housekeeping being what it is, I have found only one way to truly get the house cleaned up, and I do mean clean, on an annual basis.

Invite people over for a holiday party.

Three days before said party I panic and turn into a manic cleaner, tossing things, hiding stuff that can't be tossed and cleaning anything I can reach. And wonder, the whole time I'm engaged in this cleaning marathon, why I do it. I'm not fooling anybody. These people are usually family. They know me. And they know I did not suddenly sprout a halo and turn into Miss Susie Homemaker.

Still.

I don't seem to be able to help myself nor stop the insanity. It's a compulsion. Am I afraid of being reported to the sanitation/health department for substandard conditions? That someone's going to run their white-gloved finger over the edge of the baseboard and give me a raised eyebrow? The only person likely to do that is my mother and she wouldn't bother as she already knows the sordid truth.

And did you know that no matter how well you've cleaned, dusted, vacuumed mopped and otherwise beat the house into submission that the cat-hair-dust-bunny-thingies are required to come casually rolling across the floor and gently land at the tip of a guests' shoe? It's a union contract thing. They have to do it or they could get kicked out of the union and lose their bennies.

Of course, they seem to be enjoy it just a little too much. It's as if they're taunting me as the saunter gleefully across the floor, pausing and pirouetting in oh, so, slow motion to make sure everyone will notice them. And I can tell you that when this happens, it will cause my mother to raise an eyebrow. As if to say, "Didn't I raise you better than that?"

To which I can say nothing and only hope that the stars and planets will align and transport me into some space vortex/black hole at that very second.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I still have things to hide, a cat or three to terrorize and a house to beat into submission before guests start arriving.
Whether you are in America and celebrating Thanksgiving or not, I hope your table is overflowing with good eats, good laughs and plenty of love!

Sometimes our pets just do the cutest things and yesterday was Tucker's turn, though he would die of indignation if he knew he was being accused of anything so dastardly as being cute. He's fought that battle his whole life. Alas, he's never realized that fate stacked the cards against him by giving him that long, lux, grey fur and cute little mug!

At our house, anytime the UPS person brings a package, its for everybody, not just whoever's name happens to be on the box. Any packing materials, like crinkly, crunchy, smelly paper belongs to the cats, especially this one! He attacks, romps, beats, smacks, rolls, hides, and sleeps in "his" paper nest!


We put the paper down and Tucker immediately begins to shape it to his satisfaction. Woe be to any misguided feline that happens within batting range during this stage! This time he managed to create a tunnel. The photos were all taken from underneath a chair with the help of a flashlight. If I use the flash, he's gone in a flash as he hates the bright light. Not to mention it makes him look like a demon with red, glowing eyes.

Had some time to kill this morning, so I decided a good place for killing it would be in Target. I had to get some cat food anyway. Other than the cat food, I didn't "need" anything, so I wandered throughout the store. Dangerous activity. Amazing all the "stuff" you find that you suddenly need, but I digress....

I went through the little bargain bin area at the front....and escaped with nothing in hand! A rarity for me. Then I spotted the handbags and given our recent discussions, thought I'd check out the latest offerings. I consider Target to be slightly more fashion forward than say, Walmart, as they usually do a decent job of knocking off designer brands, following the trends and carrying goods in the latest colors of the season. And this is where things started getting dicey.....

You see, they had some really cute little handbags–in lime, hot pink and salmon. Fifteen bucks. Not bad. But try as I might I could not find a good reason to buy one of those little bags that were just as cute as could be. Because they'd clash with my closest? No. Over 70% of my closet IS lime, hot pink and salmon! I live in Florida. That's about all we wear down here! Well, truth to tell, they had way too many tucks, buttons, snaps and zips. Not to mention I couldn't get my sketchbook into one if I'd wanted to. Feeling a little discomfort, I moved on to the shoes.....

Once up a time, if shoes were cute and in my size, they were mine! The cute factor was top priority. This morning, I found a pair of really cute sandals. They were lime green with a big pink daisy in the middle with a jeweled ladybug on one flower.....and miserably uncomfortable. Back onto the shelf they went. Next, I saw a pair of espadrilles. They were red with a reasonable heel on them, reasonable meaning they were not 3" high. One of the straps cut into my little toes. Nope. Back on the shelf. Beginning to grumble, I wander on....

Back around in the clothes department, I spotted some capris. I love capris. I wear them just about all the time. (Again, this is Florida. Far better to wear capris than a pair of shorts that should not be worn outside of the house.) They were advertised as having a "comfort" waist. Hmmm, figured that meant they were for apple-shaped people. I tried them on. The waist was fine (being of the apple persuasion myself), but the legs were made for a stick figure! I mean come on, if we need a comfort waist don't you think chances are good we're going to need "comfort" legs as well?!!!

Feeling more than a little disgruntled, I found a bag of cat food and decided to get out of there. Reviewing the experience, I've come to the conclusion that cuteness, sass, fashion forwardness and trendy have gone the way of some other things I've notice missing here lately–like my memory, my ability to multitask, my waist.......

P.S. The title a play on words of a recent title of a post by KJ!

"So here I am with all the props. Pretty cute, huh?

I thought so too. A little over the top for my tastes, but then these kids I work with, it's ah, it's sometimes a little difficult to curve their.....enthusiasm.

Not sure why they stuck that goofy stuffed rabbit in MY photo–isn't that the point, that I'm SUPPOSE to be the Easter Bunny? (Sorry, too many jelly beans makes me a grouch.)"

I tried to post a new short "film" of Simon's cat but it's way too big for the blog and it would not let me resize it. So do yourself a favor, especially if you have cats or are in need of a laugh, and visit this site and watch all the little shorts - they are hysterical!!

This individual has obviously been around a very neurotic cat for quite some time! "Snow Business" is the latest in a string of truly funny escapades! Enjoy!!

Woohoo!! Finally! Christmas has finally been packed away and safely deposited back into the attic for the next 10 months. Yes, I know it's February. We had a running debate for several weeks about just leaving it up as fast as January flew through here!

It never fails, though, that something, an ornament, a pillow, or a piece of greenery, will hide out in the wide open until we get everything put away, and then say "hey, what about me?!"

So a few years back, I decided I would keep one ornament out. I would deliberately not put something away in an effort to stop this nonsense. It hasn't worked. Instead of one, I just have two things out. But that's okay 'cause he's cute, he's happy, he doesn't ask for anything, and he doesn't give me a hard time about anything. (Secretly, I think he's just delighted not to be stuffed back in a box for 11 months!)

…strikes again!

In another lifetime, Chris and I were the proud owners of the Chevy pickup. Now, I will freely admit that anything within a 100 feet of me was subject to be decorated at the holidays. However, this was ALL Chris' doing! He may say "bah, humbug!" but on the inside he has the spirit. Especially if it's just a little off center or odd!

We used to have a great deal of fun riding around during the holidays with this get-up - we'd get waves, and horn honks, and a few shouts as well as the occasional odd look or double take. After all, it's not often you get to follow a deer butt down the road!

Close-ups:

If you follow the blog, you know my life has taken some pretty sharp turns here of late, and so, in keeping with the zaniness that is defining this holiday, I thought I would share Santa Bob with you!

Santa Bob is the mascot where Chris works, The Compounding Shop of Riverview. His real name is Bob Skurrel. He works in Marketing and Purchasing as a manager in addition to bringing cheer to the office. He sometimes comments on my blog as "Drugstore Bob."

In addition to Santa, Bob has been known to dress up as a pirate for our local holiday, Gasparilla, the Easter Bunny, a doctor (just for fun) and even as a turkey in honor of Thanksgiving - he takes his job of cheering the office very seriously.

Bob knows and uniquely understands the value of humor and lightness during times of stress. He learned this during his ordeal being a victim of vehicular homicide and his reincarnation as Bob Skurrel. He is known to often comment "You gotta laugh or you'll cry. Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and you'll get ran over. No. Really. It happened to me. Let me tell you………………"

As you can see, Painted Thoughts Blog has undergone a rather festive transformation! I am so in the mood for celebrating as I've been able to close some outstanding items from the computer crash waaaay back in September! I feel this great sense of accomplishment and I'm so ready to celebrate and play - care to join me?!!

Run your mouse over some of the darker areas - see the little sparklies??!!! Isn't that fun?!! It's fairy dust and if you look around you might even see that it's snowing here at Painted Thoughts! It's a fun, happy change - for a while anyway! I do hope you enjoy!!