Finally Done with my Sister's Birthday Present....

Well I am D-O-N-E!!!

I love the artwork on the blogs as you can tell.  That is why I haven't been blogging like I should.

I have put down a blog called tatertotsandjello blog a while ago.  Jen has become my muse.

There are over 125 people that have submitted their subway art on her blog.  Some are just amazing, I couldn't wait to try it!

I did a smaller one for one of my sisters back in September.  Then I came up with the bright idea to do a huge project (uh, 4  feet by two feet) for my little sister that just went to Europe for the first time and celebrated a milestone birthday.

There were so many, many and many more layers to this "little" gift.  I first had to get specific words from her and told her  that was her assignment while she was on vacation.  Not knowing what it is, she probably thinks I am crazy, well, a little more crazy then usual.

I cannot tell you how excited I am to a) to have it done b) to have it turn out EXACTLY how I wanted it to.

Where is the picutre you ask?  Hang on I want to tell you about it before I post it.

I wanted it to look antiqued.  What I was looking for when I was designing this is a story of the two of them in Paris when they came across the painting:

(Here is my story of this painting).

Bill and June were walking into antique shops in the cold, damp, autumn day in Paris.  Not knowing what they are looking for.  What fun it  is to actually hunt for treasure and not knowing what it is, is the best part of antiquing!

They walk into the shop quickly to escape the fine mist of rain falling.  Inside was warm with the smell of coffee just being brewed.  A tiny lady late in her late 70's welcomed them and invited them in and asked if they would like a cup of coffee to warm them up.  Thankfully, they accepted and sat down while quickly looking over the place.

The lady said her name was Rose and this had been her shop over the past 60 years and had been handed down in the family for over 100 years before her.  She said that very rarely does someone come in and not find a "treasure" for themselves.   She then asked what they were looking for and they said in unison "We won't know until we find it".  They chatted about the history of the shop and the surrounding area and it had  been saved from the Germans during World War II.  Rose said "They knew this shop was special".

Then Bill got up and started looking around in the jewelery cases and books on the shelves.  June had finished her coffee and joined in the search.

In the back of the shop had many paintings leaned up against the bookshelves, a little dusty but nothing a good cleaning wouldn't fix.  June started going through them one by one.  Bill had made the remark that the pictures were quite large and getting them home would be a challenge.  She laughed a little almost deciding to stop then when she flipped the next picture, there is was!

"What"? She screamed, "how in the world could this be"!  She yelled for Bill to come over and said to him,  "Look at this,  I, I, I,  can't breath" !  She held on to his arm while she pointed at the picture. 

He studied her for a moment then his eyes went to the picture.  "What the..." he said letting his words trail off.

This painting  was words of  their trip and it was the very words of the events that were memorable to them and even had Gordon Ramsey's restaurant where they had dinner just a couple of nights ago!

Bill went to the shop owner and asked "Where did you get this picture"?  Rose told him very calmly that this picture had been in the shop every since she was a little girl. 

"Why?" She asked.

Rubbing his chin, he tells Rose about the picture and what each word means. 

"Then this is what you are looking for" she smiling slightly.

June then let's out another scream.! Oh my God!,   When she turned the painting over it said "Happy Birthday,  Love Jeanine and Andy.   

Sometimes in life there aren't answers to all questions and somethings just don't need answers.  They are there because they are supposed to be there, just waiting for the moment.

I hope your present is as special to you and it was for me to make it for you.  I love you and always will.




(This is to be read by my sister before she see the gift )


So here is the painting that was done in her honor of her birthday and trip:

Whew!  Who wants a tutorial?  Say it and I will make it so!!!

Well, my feet are finally on the ground!

I am finally home from the crazy week!

I am writing to update everyone what has been going on.....my birthday week was fantastic! What an incredible town we live in. On Tuesday morning of the 16th, I received a call from the Post Office (can you believe the Post office called my house!!!) It was Guy and he said that there is a package that is sent to the Post office at is supposed to be sent to our home but since we do not get any mail here and only in the P O Box, he wanted me to know that the box was there! I go the biggest tickle out of that, and "Oh by the way" he says...Happy Birthday! What?!!! Found ot that Andy was at the Post Office the day before and told him it was my birthday and was waiting for this box to come in. Too funny!

My day was wonderful, we did go to Lake Arrowhead for lunch then down the hill in the afternoon for dinner at Linko's. Love that place!! We had such a good time with the boys, Kim and Daryl and of course Benard! We had some incredible food, thanks to Benards talents!

The weekend was busy with the Cowboy Gathering...my booth went well, thank Goodness for Chuck and Lavonne. I love them! What great friends they are of mine! I am so blessed to have them in my life! Long hours and a lot of dirt whirling around. Susie came over on Sunday morning and said that she woke up at 5AM that morning sat straight up and said" Oh no I hope Jeanine removed her food from the booth!" See, there were reports of a BIG POPPA BEAR sighted Friday around the PAC. When we came over to my booth and asked I said "Oh yeah, I took it all home and brought it back". Which I would of had to do anyway with the Heath Permit. The show was a lot of fun, except that I wanted to participate in everything and that just wasn't going to happen.

Monday, I went to my birthday lunch with Vicki, Blondies, I LOVE that place! That have the best Crab-Shrimp Loui I have ever had! The gifts were beautiful and I am truly blessed to have Vicki and Chuck as my friends, that just travel too much. (that is the selfish part of me!) Well now that the weather is cooling off, they will be spending more time home, YEA!!!

Tuesday I took of around 3PM and drove to Vegas. I arrived at Rachelle's house via Trader Joe's and made an incredible dinner and spent some much needed time with Sugar and Spice. They are so precious! Mark and Rachelle came home around 9:30. Visited with them for a bit then got up the next morning and went to Dr. Wojecks office. All blood work is FINE! So, now I schedule my surgery and get that done! Yea!!!!

Rachelle and I spent the rest of the day shopping at the Fashion Show mall. That night we went to dinner with Mark, Joey, Brenda and Gary and Pop at Green Valley Ranch in celebration of Rachelle's birthday. I was supposed to leave in the afternoon, but I was having so much fun with Rachelle, I decided to stay over. I am really glad of my decision. The next morning I left and stopped at State Line for a couple of more hours of shopping. See what happens when you live in a town that only has Kmart? Made it home around 5 to a glass of wine, dinner of Chicken Marsala and a very happy to see husband.

So today, I have sooo much to do, thank goodness that I have nothing planned this weekend except for taking care of my home and kind of doing a fall cleaning. I can't stand little nick-nacks around, it makes me edgy. So now I get to reorganize everything and get rid of a lot of stuff.

Andy is getting my fall stuff out. I love to collect the Halloween village. I have a few pieces and it is a lot of fun to get new pieces for my village. Ebay is great for that, well isn't Ebay great for EVERYTHING!

Bruce will be here on Monday to do our tile in the kitchen, Steve will be here on Monday for the rock on the bedroom fireplace and when it is done I'll post pictures. It is beautiful now! I can't wait to see the finished product!!!

Well, that is enough for now. Busy huh?

Good Morning!

I wanted to write for a moment. There is sooo much going on this week and in the past week!
As everyone knows we are doing a huge revamp to our home, (being that it is only a year and a half old). There were many things we wanted to get done before the winter hits, so we decided to jump off and get them done, BIG PROJECT!!!!

We took the tile off the kitchen counters (well they kind of took themself's off of the ends, at the worst times!) Andy went ahead and got the rest off the counter and the backsplash, we are having our "new" friend Bruce come up from Orange and do our new tile. I'll post pictures of it when it is done. Everyone asked me why didn't I do granite..well because I really like the varied sizes of tiles and a different pattern, reminds me of Italy. We bought a new stove, no it's not the regular 4 foot stoves like I have had in the other two houses. Can you believe that I got a 30" stove? I did all the research for MANY weeks and actually liked the Electrolux brand. It has the BTU's for my high boil point (being at 7,000 feet it takes FOREVER! for things to boil) and the simmer for my delicate sauces. I love the oven and the great gadgets it has, and look, it has a self clean option on it, Ye haw! The only thing that I really miss, or should I say Andy misses, is the griddle, he loved his 24" griddle on the Wolf and was satisfied with the 12" on the Jennair.

The garage: We finally have it finished! Tuesday the garage door guy came up and put the door in, YEA!!! Saturday, Andy painted it along with my little office. Now to get power to both buildings, which is being done today with Andy's employees. Another yea!

Steve was over on Saturday to work on my fireplace in the bedroom, he has it all framed up, it is HUGE!!!! I have to post pictures of it as the work is being done. Anyway, he decided to cut the boards in MY BEDROOM!!!! So when we were getting ready for bed, I looked at my bed, pictures, bed frame, floor and screamed!!! It was completely covered in sawdust!!!! What the.....? Why didn't he cover the bedroom furniture before he started working on it?!!! Well I am going over to Daryl's to pick up tarps to cover everything before I let him continue with the drywall, can you imagine what they will look like if I don't?

Bobbie came up yesterday for the day to celebrate my birthday early, it's not until Tuesday however, why not now!, what a nice afternoon! We went to lunch, did a little shopping and then went to the house and sat outside for a while before she went home. It is so nice to have her so close, an afternoon is doable.

Tomorrow Andy and I are going to Lake Arrowhead for the afternoon for lunch, then to Linko's down the hill for Sushi. Kim and Daryl will be joining us. I have a show at the PAC on Sat and Sunday for the Cowboy Poetry, I hope it doesn't snow like it did on Memorial Day when they were having the Storyfest! Speaking of snow, fall is on it's way, it is getting down to the 40's at night, almost cold enough to start having fires, I love my fireplace. Also just enough time to finish the one in our bedroom.

The Octoberfest is going on at the Convention Center, hopefully, we can take a weekend and get out there and have some fun! Andy has never been out to it, it has been a huge yearly event for the past 38 years. I havn't been since Linda and I went over 23 years ago! Wow seems like another lifetime! I'll write about it when I get around to going!

Next week will be just as busy, I am going to Vegas during the week to meet with the pulmologist for all the blood they took last week, 13 HUGE vials, those vials came out to over $1,000.00 Thank Goodness for insurance. It will be interesting to see how much at the end of the year this year has cost. I will also be making an appointment for my last (hopefully) surgery.

Well I'd better get goin for today, just wanted to write and say hi and let everyone know that I actually have more going on then just going to Mexico and hangin out!

Have a great day and I will be seeing everyone soon!

Love Jeanine