Happy spring, fronds! Here I am last month, hanging up a smallish selection of paintings at “The Cup and Crepe”, a cute little cafe in Everett. Goo was my photographer. They are hanging up for two months, so I’ll be taking them down next week. It’s not lucrative by any means but it’s nice to get them out of the house for a little while.

My first (and only) stained glass project. I bought a kit that had the pieces already cut, so I had to sand them and prep and then buy a soldering iron to put the whole thing together. You know what I discovered? A huge LACK of already cut out stained glass kits! I couldn’t even find a single rainbow one. I’d totally pay a little extra to have the pieces already cut out for me. Sheesh!

Sad news this year–all of the Jo Ann Fabrics are closing! I was “blessed” to have one less than 10 minutes from my house during the past 10 years. Any time I wanted to put together a quick little skirt or make a “softy blankie” for the boys, BAM, right there. Now I’ll have to slog all the way over to Monroe (45 minutes away) just to browse fabrics. LAME. The end of an era, man!

Since I last blogged, I’ve published two children’s books! This is the first (link to buy here).

Here’s book number two, “Miles Conquers His Fear”, about a praying mantis who’s afraid of water. This one was easy to write and illustrate. I paid an editor to edit it, and voila! You can buy it here. Currently both books are Kindle only, and I’m working on getting “Ingram Spark” to send me a print version (it’s taking forever).

In the meantime, I am hard at work illustrating my third book about bears in a talent show. For my little redhead, although he’s mad that I’m making the main character a sloth bear and not a brown bear, his particular favorite. Redheads are hard to please!

I quit getting my hair cut about a year ago and I’m finally starting to see some progression with length. It’s slow-going. Believe me when I say that I will NEVER bob my hair again. This morning on the way to school, the little redhead told me he wants me to grow my hair out waist-length.

“Why?” scoffed Goo.

“So I can be a mermaid!” I replied.

“Mermaids don’t exist,” said my cynical son.

“Of course they do! What about Ariel? Sebastian the crab?” I cried.

“Who?” he muttered. I started singing “Under the Sea” but nobody was impressed. I guess I know what we’re gonna be watching this weekend!

Guess who Joshy and I saw at the Neptune Theater this month? That’s right, RuPaul! He is doing a tour promoting his latest book, which I read on my Kindle. He wore a black sequined suit and the show was great.

It’s nice to get out of the house and do grown-up things, too. I engaged in a spirited conversation pre-show with someone in line who agreed with me about a certain mean-spirited queen who had just gotten booted off of the latest season. As for my prediction of the winner of Season 17…I think it probably will be Onya. Jewels and Sam seem like runner-ups, Lexi is way too cray to make it to the top (but I do love her!).

Speaking of drag queens, I photoshopped my face into this lovely spring picture of Jinkx’s and I’m quite pleased with it. Ha!

I am doing a second “Pancakes and Booze” art show the first weekend of April. In preparation, I ordered myself some new artist cards on Moo.com. I just love the round edges!

I was about to fall asleep a few weeks ago when I had not one, but TWO painting ideas emerge in my head, fully-formed. I just had to put the paint on the canvas. This was one of them, “Acid Summer”, acrylic on an 8 x 10 inch canvas. I’ll put it in the show in two weeks.

I threw a tea party at our house with “dresses encouraged” and my husband is a good sport. He even donned a pair of my platform heels! He didn’t have to do that! Haw haw. I made tiny cucumber and whipped cream cheese sandwiches, fresh strawberry mini sponge cakes, and got some “Vienna Finger” cookies from Keebler (not that great). The boys drank apple juice. I enjoyed it! Finally a reason to break out my wedding china.

Here’s the project I led Goo’s class in as my role of art docent for the spring art fair. It’s a wooden puzzle with a “candy” theme that can be put together however you like–I like rainbow order, of course.

And finally, this miss turned 2 years old this month! She enjoys: eating, going outside, eating, playing fetch, eating, and snuggling with me. She does NOT enjoy: having her muddy paws wiped off, meeting dogs without barking. Ugh. We have some work to do. Ta ta, blog!