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Its such a beautiful day. We have spent most of today on the porch. Henry can walk well now, so he is enjoying the fresh air too. I guess the leaves do not taste good; he stopped trying to eat them after the first half hour.
Speaking of eating, last night we enjoyed a lovely meal at Rachel and Andrew Harris’ home. Miles sneaked away from the table at one point, and was supping with the dog. Jonathan found him with crunched up doggy kibble in his mouth. He must have enjoyed it, because he was not interested in letting me take it out of his mouth.
Well, first, I want to mention that I have a few new things in my Etsy shop.
And this hat pattern makes me want to learn to crochet :
Or maybe someone could make this for me as a gift. hint, hint.
I also wanted to show you the paintings I entered for the Salon International. The entries are being judged now for acceptance. At this point, I am happy just to have entered, and acceptance would make me overjoyed.
Oh, yeah, look at this owl mug from Portugal that I bought on etsy. 
I could not resist.
The Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of Turkey (1880-91)
I just ordered a new book about Repin from Amazon.com. Just looking at Repin’s paintings makes me exhausted physically and mentally. It’s like taking in an entire Russian novel. I love it.
Today I sketched a truly miniature drawing of vintage thread and a jingle bell. I want to stitch it onto the handmade paper in this photo and pop it into a nice frame.
Also, the boys and I went to La Hacienda to eat dinner and to meet Nan Sugg, author of Erin and Katrina, and her husband Rob. It was great to meet someone I illustrated for. I have never met my representative, Gwen Walters, or the McGraw Hill folks. I will never meet them. Nan being a fellow Christian found it important to meet her colleagues, and I thoroughly thank her for her kindness. Please check out her book.
Happy Mardi Gras! Tomorrow Jonathan and I will be observing Lent by giving up refined sugars. I get a headache just thinking about it. I think most people understand why it is difficult for smokers to quit, well, I am that way with sugar. So, I have stocked up on bananas, peaches, plums, and honey. These naturally sweet items have to ease my withdrawal pains. I even found some recipes for sugarless cookies.
Hey ladies, does anyone have any thoughts on this? I hate the idea of hormone pills.
I have noticed that I get a lot of hits from people searching for information about the Genuine Scooter Stella. Here is what wikipedia has to say about Stella:
Stella is a vintage-style scooter imported by the Chicago-based Genuine Scooter Company between 2003 and 2005. The scooter is based on the design of the legendary Vespa PX 150, which had been absent from U.S. markets due to environmental restrictions between 1985 and 2007, even though it is still one of the most popular models worldwide. Stella was produced by the LML company located in Kanpur, India, which previously produced the PX 150 and many of its parts in cooperation with Vespa. The Stella is a classically styled steel-bodied scooter with twist-shift 4-speed manual transmission and a 150cc two-stroke engine.
They were discontinued in 2005 when, as rumor has it, the factory in India had a strike. So Stella really is a collector’s item now. We bought our Stella partly because we saw it as an investment, and it just so happened to meet our need for a second vehicle for Jonathan to take to work. Also, Stella gets about 80+ miles to the gallon.
If you are looking for a Stella to call your own, you may have noticed how difficult Stella is to find. We looked around for 3 months until I stumbled onto a yahoo group called StellaScooters. A Stella dealer in Shreveport, Louisiana posted about 2 Stellas he had for sale. I gave him a call. We bought his last one, our mint green Stella scooter, and we had it shipped using UShip. It was the best and most economic way to ship.
The yahoo group is great. Members often offer advice and updates and also will ask questions about Stella’s maintenance. Occasionally someone will advertise scooters for sale. Its a great resource.
Impressive for a 9 month old baby. Miles walked at 10 months, and he was so big (always 95% for heighth). Henry is short (he is 10% for heighth), and it makes him so cute.
I have some catching up to do now that my G5 is home. Right now I need to rest my wary eyes after seeing Pan’s Labyrinth in the theatre. What a heart breaking film.
