To Weed or Not to Weed

The weekend is upon us. If you have been a faithful reader of my blog (all two of you) you know that Mother Nature and I have a love/hate relationship.

I love that Mother Nature waters my lawn (more in recent days) and my flowers are growing.

But then there is the bad stuff.

1. During one particular watering incident, she made me slip and fall on my booty, and I managed to break one of my favorite red flip-flops.

2. Those darn bugs that she allows to live in my garden beds find me rather delicious.

3. The dang weeds have more defenses than pretty flowers. They always have either thorns, extensive root systems, or are just tough as nails.

So if the weather is fair on Saturday morning, when the front of my house is in full shade, that is where I will be. If it is raining, I shall be indoors, painting my latest commission, listening to my cool French jazz cds.

I think you know what sorta weather I am rooting for.

Coco Paints Again

I got a call from my bro-in-law yesterday afternoon - he said that they were going to have cake and pie in celebration of my sister's birthday on Tuesday night.

Yep tonight. So I got to thinking - I knew there was no time to shop, and I really did not want to get her a gift certificate, so I decided to paint her something. Sister and I have very different styles, but I knew she would dig this:

She has a t-shirt with a design similar to this on it, and she likes quirky, macabre things, so I think she will enjoy this. I must say that I really enjoyed painting this. I liked the fact that I could produce something I was proud of that isn't necessarily in my genre. It's good practice for future commissions right?

Mother Nature was quite the saucy minx last night. Just as I squeezed my colors onto my pallete my living room (oh yeah and the rest of the house) went dark. Painting in the dark is not really an optimal environment, but there is a big window by my easel, so I cranked open the blinds, and was able to work until the lights came on about 5 minutes later. Good thing those lights came on. If I missed Hell's Kitchen I was going to be super-pissed. I just love it when that potty mouth Gordon Ramsay calls his minions "donkeys" hehehhehe.

Coco's First Paid Commission

Y'all I am so pumped. I have been commissioned to do a painting for a fellow co-worker. He saw the fairy painting I did (BTW my friend ADORED it), and he asked me to do a painting for his baby daughter's room.

It will be 12x16, and it will feature a frog prince. The baby's name will be flanked by these really cute dragonflies. The baby's room is decorated in this theme, so I was able to sketch out the painting with great ease. I'm giving him a great deal because he is just a generally awesome person, and will probably sink the money into getting more art supplies for future works.

Speaking of future works, I have a dear friend that is considering buying a business where she lives, and if she does buy this business, she said she would like to sell my paintings. They will be small in scale (like 4x6), but she thinks that anything with apples, mountains, bears would sell really well. I already have some ideas....I just need the time!

I cannot tell you how awesome it would be for me to get paid for being creative. It would be a dream come true!

Coco Strips in the Car!

As mentioned in my last entry, Dear Husband and I shot a wedding on the east coast this weekend.....Norfolk, Virginia to be exact. We broke our journey in Williamsburg to tend to some errands, and then continued along 1-64 towards Norfolk with two hours to spare before the wedding rehearsal.

We were 1/2 hour late to the rehearsal. Folks.....we are NEVER late to a wedding rehearsal. In fact, we are usually the first people to arrive. We always attend the wedding rehearsals, because then we figure out who everyone is, where everyone will be standing, and all the parties involved are generally more comfortable and relaxed on the wedding day after we have spent time with them. Familiarity is a good thing.

In a place I like to call Fantasy land, also known as Google Maps, the journey should take about 45 minutes. Allow me to introduce you to the capitol of Fantasy Land, the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel.

Anyone that thinks they can go the posted speed limit of 55 m.p.h. is a flipping liar. About 30 miles away from our destination, every car stops, and we creep along at the speed of a glacier. The HRBT is notorious for backing up for no reason before the tunnel opening, but 30 miles out is just crazy. Once you reach the other side, the traffic clears up like nothing ever happened. Are people afraid of the dark? I think so.

Naturally, Dear Husband and I were mental. The great irony of this is that the church is JUST on the other side of the bridge. We figured if we were lucky, we would make it in time to check into our hotel, do a quick change into our nice outfits, and be at the church on time.

Yeah we were so wrong. When we realized we would have to check in after the rehearsal, we decided that we had to change outfits in the car. Dear Husband already had a nice silk button-down shirt on, so he just had to change pants in 5 m.p.h. traffic, and put on his dress shoes and socks. No problem there.

Y'all Coco is not an exhibitionist. Thankfully our luggage was in the back seat, and I was able to pull my outfit out of the garment bag, and changed my top with all the dexterity and modesty of a teenage girl changing in the gym locker room for the first time. After the shirt, the rest was easy, and not exposed to window glass.

In retrospect, it was a pretty funny experience for me. I've never had to do that before. So did Coco receive strange looks from any cars? Nope not one. I guess what happens on the HRBT stays on the HRBT. Except for now, because I just blogged about it. Oops.

Coco Paints

So what do you get for the expectant mother that has (or could buy) everything? That's the query I was faced with recently. Dear husband and I have a friend that is expecting her second child, she has a thriving children's dentistry practice, an au pair for her 13 year old.....

You get my point - sistah girl has it going on!

I thought long and hard on what I should do, and I decided that a few packages of onesies (although extremely useful) would just not do, so I got out my paints, brushes and a new canvas, and made her a painting.


Didn't it turn out cute? I know I am not Rembrandt, but I think she will love it. The best gifts are the ones that come from your heart.

She is naming her baby "Rio." I can't help but think of Duran Duran when I think of that hehehhe. Dear husband and I have a wedding to shoot on the east coast this weekend, and will deliver this on our way out there. I can't wait to give this to her!