Monday, October 13, 2014

New Art Work

Cow on pine, purple water color
Remember when I posted about the pictures I was drawing on wood remnants?

I asked if any of you readers had ideas for methods I could use on wood, and someone.. I'm  ashamed to admit I don't remember who, suggested I
try wood burning and paint..

It works really well!

Wanted to share some of the pieces I've completed.


bison facing the storm, poplar, pencil
I have many more and I've learned how to make replicas so I can make the same (pretty much)
image with different colors to make a set.

Any way.... take a look.
I opened an etsy store, but haven't loaded much yet..
Novellasfarm... surprise.

Guess my favorite subject? 
cow on pine, sage green water color


Cow jumping over the moon, pine water color

Cow on poplar, yellow water color

St Frances of Assisi, pine, acrylic paint

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Back to Home School

"Can I go to the gym after prison?"
Did I mention that my son  decided to go to public school this year?

He anguished about it all last semester and then this summer. Finally he decided, no doubt about it he wanted to give it a try.

Like I told him, he won't know until he tried it....

Now you should know our school district is really highly ranked. I mean people actually move out here for the schools.

So I figured, it'll be great.

Great classes, all kinds of wonderful opportunities that, as a home schooler just aren't available.

One condition I set was he had to give it at least 6 weeks. So when he started complaining about the teachers in the first few weeks I told him to give it a while, you know it takes a while to get in the swing of things.

I did ask about home work and why there wasn't any, I mean my daughter was reading the "Scarlett Letter",
writing papers and working on math and my son didn't seem to have any homework at all, so I checked his grades... and he was doing fine. OK.....

Then one night he finally pulled out his Chemistry homework, and asked me to help him. I said "OK, let's look at the text book and I'll explain it to you" ..
He told me " we don't have text books" Yep, that's right.. no text books,  no reference material except a hand out of 2 pages which was absolutely no help.

 I have a Science Degree from A&M and I still would have needed text book to look at to be sure about what we doing.. but to expect a high school kid to understand it with out reading it through on their own, just seemed, well... not smart.

Long story short he in home schooling again. He came out of his Chemistry class this week ( a home schooling class) got in the car and sighed, "man, I have a lot of homework"...

So ultimately, while there were good things about the public school, and everyone was very, very kind... he made his decision based on the education.....
Gives you something to wonder about.... doesn't it?

Friday, October 3, 2014

Coco's Passing

Cute Coco
 I hope this is the last sad post for a while...

Last Sunday started as a  busy, good day. Juliette and I did things around the house and we agreed to not go the YMCA (which we usually do) and to take a walk with the dogs when it was cooler.

At around 6:30, I had finished making dinner and we decided to go for our walk.

I mentioned we got a new dog, so we were short a leash... and this was my mistake.
I said, "Coco will be ok with out a leash". You see many, many times we've gone for walks and let Coco be unleashed because she stays with us...


 But last Sunday as we went around the corner and onto the main road of our neighborhood, a big silver truck appeared out of no where. It was going so fast, we jumped out of the road and like a flash the truck was gone and Coco was laying in the  middle of the street.

Juliette was hysterical, I told her to calm down and to go get some
one from home, to bring a vehicle so we could get her home....

But that poor little dog was looking at me, and she had blood pouring out of her mouth...

I held Jasmine in one arm and knelt down with Coco and petted her and talked to her telling her what a good dog she was and how much we loved her....
I also was flagging cars to drive around her because I didn't want to move her or let anther car hit her.

One truck with couple drove by and just stared, but another car, a
man got out to help me..His name was Woody and he was so kind.
He stayed there and closed Coco's eyes and waited til my husband and Juliette got back.

Then I thanked him and took Juliette home.

My  son buried her next to Blackie and I just can't explain how sad we all felt. I was just so sudden, so violent.

The next day Juliette made a sign that we put up at the entrance of our neighborhood....
It said... " To the driver of the Big Silver Truck speeding on Sunday around 7pm, You hit and killed my dog.
SLOW DOWN, there are animals and children"

I've left her little bed out for a while just in case her spirit was still around.. I know that must sound silly but I did the same with Blackie...

The worst part about it all is that the guy didn't even stop, how can any one not stop when they hit an animal?
How dare he think she wasn't important, she was a pet, a living creature...
 I understand on the highway where it's dangerous, but this is a neighborhood... and I know he saw her,
for heavens sake I stop for lizards, beetles and frogs in the road....

It's the end of an era, Blackie and Coco were our dogs when my kids were little, and we lived in Austin...
and now that time is gone, and so are they.