I've Moved my Blog...

I'm moved over to Wordpress....  You can find me here:   http://www.lillithsnapped.wordpress.com.   

Splatter Pain, err, Paint, Birthday

 

It's going to be a messy birthday this weekend, can I just tell you.    We are having a paint splatter party, and it is quite possible we will be cleaning up the mess for all eternity.    Today I have to go and find some dropsheets, and more importantly, try to figure out how to get them to stay hung on basement walls, since they are a bit heavy and I am not so confident in duct tape...  

I keep accidentally writing "splatter pain".   Rather appropriate for artists in general, if you know what I mean.   Not so much for a kids' birthday... LOL...

While Googling various items for the party, I came across the factoid that Katy Perry had a splatter paint birthday a few years ago.   I had no idea, so that seems like a bonus in trying to make teenagers happy, doesn't it?   Perhaps it can be my secret weapon as an inoculation against any drama... 

Watch You Step

Pretty soon all the ghosties and other creepies will be wandering around...

Love Sales

This photograph sold in my shop two days ago.   Do I feel like a kid finding something new and lovely to jump up and down about when I make a sale?  Yessss.    Am I goofy?  Yessss.   

Where Nearly Everything Is Orange

We went to the pumpkin patch this weekend.  There was so much for the kids to do.    Not only did they have a great time, they were utterly exhausted after running atop a hay bale maze and jumping from bale to bale.   This meant bedtime was not a dramatic ordeal.

While there, we met this guy - an animatronic dinosaur that quite enjoyed "eating" pumpkins.  

I have to say my first thought was WTF

"Hmmmmm," he pondered audibly, as he picked out a pumpkin

"Crush IT!  Crush IT!" chanted all the kids

Mr. Dino snoring while we waited for him to wake up

The Picture I Didn't Take...

Going about my business yesterday, I drove right past an ordinary-looking man sitting on the sidewalk on the street.   He looked like any other "dad" type man, nothing especially bedraggled about him at all.   No fancy jacket, just some sort of non-nondescript long coat, and a multicolored (not in a good way) hat.

What caught my attention was the way he sat with his knees drawn up, as if he were not really expecting anyone to notice him, as if he were lost in his thoughts. 

That and the small cardboard sign, small enough to have been ripped off the top of a moving box, that stated simply "Anything is helpful."

I wanted to pull over and give him my coffee, which I had just gotten at Starbucks, for lack of a more edgy place nearby.    Or maybe my son's hot chocolate - he will never miss it, I reasoned, since he doesn't know I have gotten him one.   Surely this man needed it more; surely he could be made briefly just a bit happier by a cup of coffee or hot chocolate on a 55 degree morning...

The trouble with helping people on street corners is more obvious downtown, where you can see it in many of the eyes of those who ask for help that they are taking you for a ride.    You can see it in the eyes of the urban natives, as they watch the little short girl get approached - already judging me as a silly tourist for not being a total jerk to them.    Sometimes I stop and talk with the more entertaining ones outside the Art Institute.    But mostly, I shake my head and go on my way, as I have been a grownup now for quite some time, and am not so naive.    I feel sad when a super cute chick, who seems put together and intelligent, comes up to me in the parking garage, giving me the line that she needs money for gas to get back to wherever.    I say sorry, I don't have any cash.   But I want to say, SERIOUSLY?

So with these thoughts tumbling around, I didn't give him anything.   I had already gone by anyhow.   But it bugged me all day.   Because my sense was that maybe he was one of the ones that do need help...   And so if I see him today, I think I will definitely buy him a cup of something helpful... Not like that makes me a good person, or like it's going to change his life beyond those few moments of warmth...

Steps Among Ghosts...

I pass this cemetery all the time. Always, I'm late on my way for somewhere, and on the way back, I'm too tired, the light is wrong, the kids are with me, etc. This time I stopped for an ever so brief few snaps. There was a funeral going on at the other end, such a small burial... I felt intrusive, even as far away as I was. However, I did manage to get these few that I love...

This image is haunting to me, not only because it's so sad but also because she seems to be staring right at you...