The Living Room Wall is DONE!

Today was a 'Stay at Home' day - my very favorite kind!

I was gearing up to finish the living room wall when I heard Tabitha scratching up a rug and I realized we haven't cut their nails since they have been home from the Bells.

Everytime she knows she's going to get her nails trimmed, she hides her head under Louis Dean's arm. 

Everytime. I'm quick and made short work of it and she was happy to get that over with and left the room in a hurry!

I worked all afternoon and into the evening......hours and hours......but I finished the living room.

I lit several candles to celebrate.

I pretty much trashed the den while I was putting this room back together,

taking pictures down from in there to hang up in here.

A few of the painitngs are very old.....I've been painting since 1976 but only have canvases from 1983 since that's the year my house burned. The sheperdess watching her sheep is from 1986 and I still love it. I painted the eagle and flag in 2003 when I was going through my divorce.I taught it in my Tuesday art class and remember how my anxiety at the time affected my art and made my eagle look very angry! As in life so it is in art - you can work through things and I was able to pull out this painting and ended up happy with it. In 2002, on my way to a craft fair in Ardmore, Oklahoma, I saw a poster in a gift shop and bought it. That was my pattern for the canvas.

All the other paintings are since 2000 except for one or two.

Some of my favorite paintings are on this one wall.

The one at the upper right has a tear across the sky area and I had Louis Dean put some duct tape on the back. I take pictures down when I put the Santa wall up each year and that one was ripped last year while I had it in the storage building. I'm going to need to repair that soon.

The two large burnt sienna scenes of trees and mountains are two of my favorite paintings.

All in all, I am pleased with it all and have had a good time working and listening to music.

On October 1st I put Neil Diamond back in the basket of CDs and today I loaded the CD player with 5 different ones ranging from a Pat Green disc that Amber 'burned' for me long years ago to Elvis Presley love songs my sister, Deanie, sent me for my birthday and a Frank Lloyd Webber, Mario Lanza and Floyd Cramer. I'm so very old school.....listening to music on a stereo Louis Dean bought me for my birthday the first year we were married - 2005. I remember asking him if it was on sale? "NO!" he said, "It just came on the market!! It's the latest and best one!"

I gathered the four portraits I love best to hang on the narrow wall going into the dining room.

I painted Amber from a photograph in 1987 - she was three years old.

This portrait of Sam was painted in 2006 when he was four.

And this was Amber in 2006 - the year I took her to London to celebrate her 21st birthday.

I painted this one for my mother's 80th birthday - and it doesn't really look like her - but I hung it anyway!

Now that's done!!

Tomorrow I will move on to the den and hang the Santa wall - which will be weird since the room is decorated for Halloween and fall!

Summer and Rayne and Sabrina are enjoying being back in Texas and they are so sweet to send me photos.

Rayne and Sunshine!

And here they are eating the sugar cookies I made for them!

I'm so looking forward to meeting up with them in Arkansas next week!

It's raining in Texas tonight as I close this journal entry.

Sleeping weather except we still have the AC on and it won't be cool enough to open up the house tonight. Soon....I hope we have real fall weather soon.....