Yeah!!!

I have an exciting announcement. My pastor, Toby Sumpter and his wife Jenny are pregnant with their third baby! Congratulations Sumpters!

The Silver Chair's Private Opening

It went really well with only a few glitches (like the toilet plugging up within the first hour.)The store looks great. I 'll post more pictures without the people and in the daytime when it looks really nice and all the light from the windows is coming in. We are opening our doors tomorrow the 26th and will have a grand opening soon. My mural is a wreck still but I'll get to work on it when things calm a bit. It's very exciting!

Drawings

This is not a mural. I had a few people think this was part of the mural because of how it was placed on the blog. These are two drawings. The top one is oil pastel on brown craft paper ( a favorite combination of mine.) And the bottom is acrylic on watercolor paper. Man, I am having a hard time adjusting back to acrylic after oil painting. I hate it. I used to love it. I didn't realize how long it had been. The dragon and knight picture is a work up for the mural. The dragon is killin' me. I'm not so hot at the fantasy stuff. I still need to work on it but I 'm taking a rest from it because it is annoying me. One of my professors in college used to liken a painting to raising a child and one of the phases is the teenage agnst stage. Well the dragon picture is a 15 year old right now. The flying ship is one I really like and I think I'm finished. Next is another ship in water. These are ones I plan on reproducing and selling.

I 'm not able to work on the mural because we are working so hard on other priorities right now. I'll be working on it while the bookstore is open. Joffre and I have been working our buns off today because we are trying to open by Monday.

When it is all set up the pictures will come.

What I'm working on.

The first day's work on the mural for the bookstore. I'll keep you updated.


This picture is unfinished but is just for fun but I have been considering reproducing it and selling it. After it is done I'll see.



These two were done with the intent of reproducing them and selling them on nice paper in the bookstore. My father-in-law will hopefully be able to take better reproductions.

Birthdays

Renata is now 4 and George is officially 1 year old.

Renata is now helping her brother wash his hands and keeping her other brother away from the toilet which he likes to try to play in. She is already a clothes horse and likes to change her clothes at least twice a day until mean Mom tells her to put back on her original outfit because 8 loads of laundry a week is plenty. She plays with her new Target hearts club dolls (a more wholesome looking Barbieish doll) and sets up the doll furniture to play with. She loves to play games on the computer and is learning to read. Her new favorite show is Magic School Bus and I'm a big fan too.

George says Dada, cacker, down and a few other wordish words. He struts around the house like he owns it and believes it too. He is really big on walking around the house, gesturing, and babbling a speech out to any who are in hearing distance. He makes me think of Mad Eyed Moody in Harry Potter, "Constant vigilance!".

Fall Is In The Air

It is going to get down into the fifties tonight. A bit nippy outside it is. I'm a little giddy. I think I'm going to make some hot chocolate and sit outside in my shorts. It's cooler and I got to plant some spinach and sugar peas. We had 11 baptisms today at out church and a party afterwards. Great fun. And I've been painting and drawing more which is nice. I'll post some pictures soon. I promise.
The bookstore was painted this week and looks great. It is so hard to pick out paint for a wall. Color is so dependent on light and other colors that surround it. We painted one of the beiges on and it looked really pink.I was horrified because I chose the colors, but it looks much better now that the other colors are around it. Some of the wood floors are being refinished this week and we are planning the grand opening for the 24th. Pray for us. It's very exciting.

Hat Love

I saw this hat on Etsy and I love it. I wish I could justify buying it but I've become addicted to ebay and overspent a bit. I have been buying books and furniture at the thrift store for the bookstore and it's gone to my head. Super hat though, isn't it?

More Fun

Here are a few of my favorites in my toy questing. There were some others that were so high priced I was scandalized and could not bring myself to put them up. I was also a bit bitter because we need to sell reasonably priced toys. ( the cactus is a balancing game.)

Cool Toys

We are considering selling some toys at the bookstore and I have been researching. Check out these awesome chess sets The Gentle Dragon Toy Company. The include The Hundred Years War, The Civil War, The Alamo, Humans vs. Aliens, Cops and Robbers, Cowboys vs. Indians, The Battle of Troy. They are really neat.

Fun Article

So my friend Alaina has a fun article she linked to on her blog and I wanted to share it too. The part about the uninterrupted bathroom trips was my personal favorite because it rings true in my household.

Belarusan Art

So I found this lovely drawing online and liked the artist's other drawings as well but I didn't care for her color work except the tomato drawing. I wasn't able to put the image on my blog, but I can link to it. Sometimes I'm at a loss about how to search for artwork online and then at another time I'm looking for tomato drawings and find Belarusan art. I'm going to check out the rest of the site now. Bye.

p.s. I probably won't be posting much .I am busy working on stuff for the bookstore, but once we get open I'll post lots of pictures and more of my charming wit.