John had his 4th birthday yesterday. Really special day for a little boy that has fought so hard for his life and through it all that amazing smile always on his face.

65 years old!

 Had my 65th birthday yesterday.  It was pretty fun, part of it anyways. Went over to mom's and watched the winter olympics which is going on right now. Deb and Richard dropped in and brought me my birthday present (a lighthouse suncatcher). Deb is my sister and she is married to Richard.  

By the way back in November, Steve stopped in Rapid City! Totally shocked all of us. He is my brother and is always at the ends of the earth on some assignment or another. He works for the state department. His hair is really long which is different, but it was so neat to see him. We hadn't seen him since 2012, the year dad passed away. Mom was soooo excited. And she got to spend the next day with him also. They went to bear country. He shared photographs he took with me. I'm going to add those to mom's never ending scrapbook I'm making her. I hope to finish it this year. I better, mom is 91 now.

Until next time.

 Been over a decade since I have written here, so thought I would jot down a few lines.  Where to start. I am going to be starting Medicare next month (yes I'm that old!).  I left the Art Trading Card site I was on for a while and just went back this year. I am now a host for swaps and loving it.  

I moved to South Dakota in 2018 and bought a house and a car. I sold the house in October 2024 due to property taxes being so expensive so now i'm living in an apartment. It isn't horrible and isn't great. We'll see how things go.

MACE

ATC's on the Brain!

Dang! It has been awhile since I posted here.  I've been working mostly, and have been piddling with ATC cards.

I joined a 1960's Television swap.  (Della has 2 slots left for anyone interested—due in Feb).

I love Leave it to Beaver.  All these years later I still try to catch an episode daily. :)  For the swap it had to be a collage card and have a character from the television show with a quote.  This one is Eddie Haskell with his usual compliment to June Cleaver.

I loved watching Hogan's Heroes growing up, and like most of you hated Colonel Clink and loved Sergeant Schultz.  I almost portrayed Schultz instead with his "I see nothing...I know nothing!"

 

Out of all of the cards, I think this one turned out the best.  I just recently started watching Dr. Who. I am presently in season 4 and hope to get through the series.

---

I also belong to a few round robin groups.  One is a hand-drawn only group, and the other is pretty much anything goes. The premise is that there is a 1st 2nd and 3rd player.  Someone starts, theres a middle man (LOL) and then the last person finishes it up.  I made this set last nite as a starter.  I'm going to send it off to someone.  After I get it back I'll post how it turned out! 

This set is for the hand-drawn group.

Besides the endless geometrical boxes and cans I used to doodle all over my school work, snoopy had a prominent position.  My teachers were always griping about keeping my papers less "sloppy" :)

For the CCRR group

I still had snoopy on the brain when I made this one last night.  Both of these sets will be added on to by 2 other people.  I can't wait to get them back and post the finished projects!  See you then!

Matt's Short Visit November 2014

My blog, my rules.  :)  My son is visiting for 2 days.  A few pictures from his visit.

Just so there is a little artwork included, he made the heart for his fiance' :)

I LOVE SUSHI!

Wasp Trap

So I constantly have wasp problems here.  They seem to be all over the place and sometimes get into my trailer.  Now that the first freeze is approaching and they are probably gone for the year, I came across this neat, quick, wasp trap. (Thanks Roku)   I'll have to try it next year.  Mine is going inside my house though, not outside because I don't care if the wasps are out there.  They do serve a purpose in controlling the populations of other insect chains like caterpillars, and the like.

Anyhow, pictured below is the little trap that I made. You take a water bottle and cut the top part off, remove the lid and invert it.  It fits nice and snug.  Then you can decorate it or not.  You put the bait (something sweet) inside the bottle and wait.  It really works too.  I saw how many were in the bottle on the demonstration.

Mountains

So I spent my younger years growing up in Fort Collins Colorado.  I always marveled at the huge mountains (I still do).

There was one specific mountain that had a huge A on it.  I asked my mom what it was for and she said it was an A for Aggies.  My young mind always thought the A on the mountain was for the supermarket in town which was called Aggies. I never made the correct connection until I was an adult. In reality it was named after the Colorado State University Aggie Ram which was adopted by the school in 1959.  

Here is  a picture of the Aggie Ram logo

Here is a picture of the Aggies Mountain. Its pretty much how I remember it as four year old me.

My dad was attending the school to get his PhD in Electrical Engineering.



I have fond memories of the five of us traveling to the top of the mountain by car and in shorts and tee-shirts having snowball fights with my brother and sister.  My mom could dish it out too.

I can't draw (or paint) mountains as well as I vision them in my mind, but that doesn't make them any less breathtaking.  Today I spent the better part of the day working on this envelope (cover) for one of my buddies in the art cover exchange.

Its the first time I have attempted a snow scene.  Of course I have my usual barbed wire fencing I have been putting on almost all of my artwork for years.