A Splash of Color and Light and a Look at Chinese Loos

This past week I've been as busy as a cat on a hot tin roof, to borrow a phrase from Tennessee Williams. And speaking of hot, summer has finally come to our part of the state and it's hotter than the Chili at The Shed in Santa Fe!

It seems as though there's no rest for the wicked and if that's really the case, we must be the baddest of the bad! Between meetings, social gatherings and paintings I've hardly had time to draw a breath. And of course, we've danced every step with the competitors from So You Think You Can Dance so at least we're in fairly good shape. Frank has had to confine his steps to slow waltzes since his cataract surgery but I'd better watch out in another week or so. Dr. Tran will turn him loose and he can dance a mean Rumba and Paso Doble!
I have been working on a new art technique and it had taken up a lot of my time the last few days. You can see one of the pieces that I have done today that I've included in this blog. It's a reproduction of one of my larger pieces on a small 6x6 canvas. I am working on several of these in various sizes and I think that they would make wonderful stocking stuffers at Christmas time, birthday gifts or great house guest gifts. They are from my own original paintings, so they would not be something that you will see everywhere. If you need anything like this, please keep me in mind.
We also are getting ready for 3 big shows for Canvas by Canvas and I have worked on and finished one of my assignments and have 4 more to complete before we leave for China. According to my age, I'm in my "Twilight Years" , and if this is the case, I wish that sunset would hurry up so I can take a break! We have something on our agenda almost every day until we leave for China. I never thought I'd look forward to a 20 hour flight, but I think I'll need the rest to gear up for the agenda while we are there! And speaking of China, I keep getting Email warnings about the toilets over there. It might turn out to be a challenge since I don't plan on taking many skirts. You can see what I mean from the photo above!However, it can't be any worse than it was when I was in Egypt. They had bathroom attendants who would sit outside of the stalls with buckets of water and wait for you to exit so they could perform the task of flushing. There's a country western song entitled "Mammas, Don't Let You Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys". Had I written the song the title would have been, "Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Bathroom Attendants in Egypt!"
Here is a quote from a letter that a friend sent me so I'll be prepared! She said, and I quote, "For one thing, she will be assuming the ‘potty stance’ 99 times out of 100 visits to the ladies’ room because there are very few ‘Western’ toilets in China, just a porcelain hole in the floor with a grid where your feet go. And toilet paper, surely you jest! Every morning before leaving for the day’s adventures, I took a few minutes to carefully unwind the day’s supply from the hotel roll, folding each precious square into little packages for easy access in times of need!" I think that I'll take small purse size packages of Kleenex just to be on the safe side!
I'd better close this out for the night. We're going to Franklin and Beth's house shortly. We're taking the dinner and then we will play cards after we have a toddy or two and cook out. The boys have more things to do at their own home. They will all leave on a cruise next weekend before school starts and we leave shortly after they return, so this may be our last opportunity to all be together for a while.
One of Frank's friends refers to this as my "Blob" and he just may have the right name for it.... a little blob on information here and there. Hopefully my ramblings will all connect to one another and make some sense. At any rate, I'll just keep blobbing along and will write again a time or two before we leave on our trip. Have a great and productive week.
Pcasso