love 2 paint

Happy (late) birthday, Jessica! Last night, after some delectable Mexican food and a beer or two, our giggling group of girls went to Easely Amused to celebrate. You may recall I gave EA a shout-out earlier and expressed my desire to take part. Well, I got the chance, and we had a blast.

Here are some shots from our evening:

Wine and art? How European of us.

A work in progress.

My finished product - "Harry's Chapel of Love"

Hooray for friends and painting!


MK posted some cute Valentine one-liners on her blog and inspired me to do the same. These are super-cute, and you can find them found it at upup’s etsy shop – great print-your-own stuff!

Happy Heart Day to my Valentine…

…and to each of you!

clean

What do you think of the new white background? I was growing a little tired of the Shrek green.

let's color

As a child, I loved to draw, or “color” as I called it. Anything that stood still and could take a crayon was fair game (though it was NOT me who drew pumpkins on the wall for Halloween – that was Harris). We had coloring books covering the floors as children and no doubt a crayon or 10 ground into the carpet. I have such fond memories of coloring on the reverse side of computer paper. The pages were so big, and when you were finished with one, you just tore it off and started clean with the next.

The best part of coloring no doubt was a brand-new box of crayons. I can still remember what a fresh box smells like. All those colors in that familiar yellow box with the green stripes – for a while I could even identify every color in a 64 pack just by looking at it. So imagine my excitement when I stumbled across this familiar video from Sesame Street about how crayons are made. It’s still fascinating to me to this day.

groovy mix and grammys

Hello, readers, and happy Monday.

I went to Indianola on Friday for work to hang out with some European journalists at the BB King Museum. I wasn’t in my car, which means I was away from my XM radio – it’s pathetic how attached to those things you can get. Anywho, whenever I have a long drive in the car, XM or not, I love to make a mix CD to enjoy on the road. Claire and I have called these compilations “groovy mix” for as long as I can remember. And since I always like to hear what other people listen to, I thought you might enjoy seeing what appeared on my latest groovy mix – in the actual order in which they appeared.

anyone else but you - the moldy peaches
This is that weird, hilarious song on Juno. The lyrics are completely random, but are actually pretty sweet.

blackbird - the beatles
I absolutely love this song. So much in fact, that I replaced my missing White Album just to get it.

colorblind - counting crows
This song will forever remind me of Cruel Intentions. Weird movie, great soundtrack.

come on get higher - matt nathanson
Even though it’s a little pop rock-y for me, I really like this song. Not sure why, I just do.

elenore - the turtles
I’m sure this one looks familiar to most of you.

a falling through - ray lamontagne
OK, if you aren’t listening to ray lamontagne, you are missing out. I can’t think of another way to describe his voice other than “smoky.” He sounds like a guy you’d hear in an obscure piano bar.

farewell - rosie thomas
Another song that I’m not sure why I like it. And it’s not really the words that I like, but the actual melody and the voice of the singer. It’s kind of sad and mournful.

God only knows - the beach boys
Every time Big Love starts a new season, I am reminded of how much I love this song. I love to watch that show start.

honey pie - the beatles
Another song off the White Album. It’s so fun to hear musicians do something outside their normal style. I can imagine Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby dancing to it.

i'm the man who loves you – wilco
Thanks to iTunes Genius for recommending Wilco and to MK for suggesting which album to download first. This one is my favorite of their songs I’ve listened to.

let it be me - ray lamontagne
another appearance by the smoky piano man.

listen to the darkside - charlie mars
Who doesn’t love a hometown (or home state) musician? This song is off Charlie’s new album Like a Bird, Like a Plane. How sad that I had to ask what the Darkside was, but it was just MK and she knows I’m not cool. But let the record show that when I was told, I knew exactly what it was.

love, save the empty - erin mccarley
I just mentioned this song in an earlier post, and I still love it. Thanks, Kendy, for encouraging me to get more Erin.

lovebug - jonas brothers
OK, if you can get past that it is a jonas brothers song, you’d really like it. I think it’s fun. And Joe Jonas is hot. I’m just saying.

moon river - peter mayer
Another oldie but goodie.

new york state of mind - billy joel
I’ve sort of had NYC on the brain lately, so this song was a natural choice.

sympathy for the devil - the rolling stones
Even though Mick Jagger grosses me out, I still love The Stones. And this is my absolute fave of their songs.

until i fall away - gin blossoms
Who doesn’t love a little 90’s rock? The Gin Blossoms remind me of high school.

you found me - the fray
The lyrics of this song were so intriguing, I made Harris find the meaning for me while I was in the car. Fascinating. And a good song, too.

You might also notice that the above songs are in alphabetical order by title. I like to arrange my groovy mixes this way so it assures a haphazard layout of songs (though not really haphazard at all) and most of the time prevents any singer from being right next to himself or herself. Weird? Perhaps.

In other music news, the Grammy Awards were on last night. Who knew Alison Krauss was such a critic’s darling? I don’t know that I’ve ever listened to a second of her music, but maybe I should. And let me just say Flo Rida and T-Pain got ROBBED. “Low” so should have won.

Have a good week, friends.

write it right

How fun does this look? Get your handwriting as a computer font! And it’s free!

big lovin'

She’s from Memphis, plays the endearing Margene in HBO's Big Love and is also in He’s Just Not That Into You. I love that Ginnifer Goodwin. I’ve never really been one to be excited over a chick flick, but I can’t wait to see this one (also starring girl crush Scarlett Johannson!). I saw the preview the other day, and I loved the theme song “Love, Save the Empty” so much, I immediately went home and downloaded it. And how much do we love that necklace?

(photo courtesy of foxnews.com)

color me excited!

I mentioned at the beginning of this year that I want to paint more, but sometimes it’s hard to get in that frame of mind. Here’s something that I think will do just the trick…


If you’re in the Jackson area, check out Easely Amused. It’s a painting class that’s more like a party – no artistic ability required. You just show up with your $25 (great price, by the way), and an instructor paints a work of art while you watch and paint along. And when class is over, you’ve had fun with friends and have a lovely parting gift!

Can’t wait to attend my first class!