Artists, Birthday, Sweater Dog…OH MY

I crawled out of my sickly hole this weekend. Finally!

Friday night, after a nice dinner out with the fam, I headed to Northwinds Art Center to see “The Artists Illustrator” coffee talk, gallery event featuring local artists Barbara Berger, Michael Felber, Max Grover, Pierr Morgan, Jesse Joshua Watson, and Richard Jesse Watson. They explored both sides of their lives as fine artists and illustrators. Although, many great things were said, I thought Richard Watson painted a great picture (excuse my choice of words). He described it as two people trying to drive one car, sharing the steering wheel. Richard acted out a great scene with the two-driver scenario that I can' t recreate here, but...well, you can imagine.

(From left to right: Pierr Morgan, Richard Watson, Barbara Berger, Max Grover, Michael Felber, and Jesse Watson. Some serious talent!)

I have to say, I live in such a cool place…this Victorian seaside town…this artists’ haven. How great to be able to attend an event with so much local talent?

But, a highlight of my night was that my girlies sat through an hour and a half of talk, making me look like the best mother EVER, because they were so well behaved. Thank you, girlies.

Listening to artists speak about their paths, their process, their passion never gets old. And, whenever I hear artists speak about their childhoods, I always think, Hey, that’s my kid! Pencil in hand…drawing non-stop, compulsively… incorporating narrative…existing in a sort-of dreamlike state. Yup, that’s her. I know that kid.

On Saturday the fam celebrated my brother’s birthday. It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to celebrate with him, we figured about 10 years. So what’s an Italian mama to do when she hasn’t celebrated with her baby boy for so long? Cook…cook…cook, oh and bake.

Take a looksey!

The culinary creation was lasagna—not done the typical way—but with homemade meatballs. YES, I know!

And, not only meatballs, but fresh pasta.

That's my six-year-old girlie mixing the pasta dough with my mama. (These skills must be handed down through the generations!)

And my eight-year-old girlie rolling out the lasagna noodles.

Time to layer it all and get it ready for the oven.

And before I could get a picture of the finished product, it’s been consumed.

Of course there was cake!

Chocolate cupcakes with two frosting choices: brown sugar frosting (have you ever had it?) or seven-minute, fluffy yumminess!

The rest of the weekend found me in clean up, catch up, and organize mode. Whew.

As I sorted and filed, purged and shredded, my beagle-dog got himself into this situation:

Sweater Dog! Yes, that’s him! Somehow stuck in the sleeve of a huge sweater. Go figure.

I did finish with the tidying! Not an easy feat. Take a look at my little, desk nook. It’s times like these I vow to file, toss, and organize each and every day so that it always looks so neat. Until a week later when the piles return. You know how it goes.

Maybe I'll post a picture in one week and we'll see how the desk is doing.

SEVEN. Count ‘em! 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 more days of Office Hours until the self-imposed deadline hits. Can she do it?

Yes. Yes, I can. Or at least I can give it all I've got.