"Dolly"

This is a Christmas present
 for my grand-daughter, Jilly 

Crafted by a friend I made through the blogging world

Janet Wilcox(J K W Galleries)you can visit her here 

this is called a birthmark doll 

she has a star on her cheek

perfect for Jillian

She is truly a STAR !

 Janet made it for me, in one week

and I received it two days later.

I was never so excited to give a gift of a doll.

I know Jilly will love her.

Happy Birthday Fun

 

I celebrated my 50-something birthday 

It was just me 

and my youngest son, Ryan 

 left here at home this weekend

Mr G. had to go on a Boy Scout

 Turkey Dinner camp-out 

There was no one that could take his place 

and they needed two deep leadership

or none of the scouts could have gone

My love left me with a sigh

 and a smooch

a beautiful and touching card

and  a big bottle of Wine !

Anyway Ryan surprised me with breakfast

He made me two eggs

 and a cinnamon raisin bagel

and coffee

I showed him how to make coffee recently

He says he likes the smell of it 

...always asks if he can try a cup

I always tell him it not good for him

What a bad habit to start at 12, right ?

Would you let a 12 yr old drink coffee ?

So we spent much of the weekend doing some art projects

Ryan wants to enter an art contest

 (kids only) at my studios building

he has to turn in one or two art works

 by the end of this month.

This is so fun

He wants to do a drawing of a character

 from a video game he plays called Sky Rim

and the other art is something I asked him to do

This is art from a few yrs back
 done by Ryan
He was in third grade
I really liked it a lot

It is made by printing out a photo (he did himself)
then trace the contours onto a piece of foam
I think they used foam from food packages
 like what meat comes on in the store
so an indentation is made .

Then roll on some paint and press
construction paper down on top of the "carved" foam

We wanted to try it with Ryan's niece, Jillian
so I printed out a photo
and we went over parts of the photo,
that was taped over the box,
 with a ball point pen

This is the Jillian stamp impression
kind of hard to see
sorry

and here is the stamped impression
on a piece of black construction paper
we used white and black acrylic craft paint.
Turned out pretty good I think
there are two black prints
and two white prints
maybe we should mount them on canvas
 and make a collage with them

Ryan did this one
this is Bandit our dog
Ryan used the foam egg carton lid
 to make this one
next we have to roll paint on it
and stamp it on a piece of paper

Ryan is more interested in doing his
 dragon and warrior drawing
I'll show you that when he has it more finished

It is so fun to do art with Ryan

-  KAT - 

 

My Smokey Mountain Vacation/ Family reunion

My six sisters, three brothers and my dad
Dad is 80 yrs old this year !
 we all sang to him and celebrated his birthday
in wonderful cabins
in Tennessee's Smokey Mountains

My four sons and my sons friend from college

trekking the Appalachian Trail

My son Joe ...first time trying out
his fly fishing gear on a real stream

YES !
His wallet is in his back pocket

There you go Joe
I blew it up to extra-large size for ya!

craft shopping in the mountains

gourd painting

My dad and brother in law

gourd art is very popular
I love all the bird art I saw there

now I am in Virginia with my oldest sons family
 and my grand-daughter
Jillian
She had a great time at Busch Gardens, Williamsburg

eagles

my son is a great daddy
even lets Jilly decorate him

Smokey mountain fun !

my grand-daughter, Jilly
she is a character

my dog, Bandit came along on
the trip too

I will miss you
My sweet Jillian
Ill be back soon !
Gramma