Pool Party!

I promised a look at our new pool finish, so here it is.

But first, a look at how it used to be.

This was taken when we were building a rail for our deck to please the insurance company. The pool is in frame. This is before our pool became very sick. It developed a leak, and went down in level about two feet. It's only 5 and a half feet deep to start with. Here is our sick pool.

This is a picture of... well, actually, it's a picture of an alligator in our pool, but the water was so cloudy and un-chlorinated, the gator was very happy.

Backstory is this: Our dog Lola...

here she is...

...is a barky thing, and will run and bark at anything that moves. Well one day she would not stop barking outside, and I noticed the pitch was a bit anxious even for her. I went outside and found her standing off with a three foot gator. Now despite what you may think, gators are VERY quick--we have had a 12 foot gator in our yard before, and when the animal control guy tried to grab it with his rope pole, I WAS WATCHING IT AND I **DID NOT** SEE THE GATOR MOVE, but one second the pole was intact, and the next nanosecond, it was snapped in half and in the gator's mouth...

Anyway, I got Lola inside, then grabbed a flashlight to shine in his eyes (it's supposed to distract and mesmerize the gator, keeping him still--worked for me...) and called my brother to come *do* something about it. (My husband was at work.) Two hours later... (don't ask) ...he put on welding gloves and grabbed it by the neck (don't try this at home) and held it up for all to see, then he did the obligatory "flip it on its back and rub the tummy and watch the gator go to sleep" (yes, it really works, but don't try this at home!) and at my request, dropped it in our pool, which was already very sickly and cloudy and the perfect place for a dehydrated alligator used to being in lakewater. It was quite dry last summer in Florida and instead of raining every afternoon like it normally does, we had a bit of a drought. Gators will come roaming under two conditions--really wet and really dry. We live next to a State Preserve where gators are plentiful, and like to roam when it floods or it droughts. (Is that a word? It is now...)

So, backstory aside, Here is our new pool!

We went with black RiverRock,

and off-white tile on the steps.

Important for safety... always a mom.  :-]

I think it looks great with our existing border tile treatment.

With the water, it looks like a cool dark green.

As for the gator, my husband caught it the next morning in the fishing net (don't try this at home) and after doing the obligatory "flip it on its back and rub the tummy and watch the gator go to sleep"...

(don't try this at home)

...we let it go (a mile and a half away) in the middle of the Preserve next door. Happy endings all around!

New Paint!

Just a quick note to say that our house has undergone a makeover, and the *best* part about it is that *I* didn't have to do it!!

Before:

A blue-gray that I actually liked, but it was getting a bit tired.

After:

A gold-leaning tan...

...with the classic red door--this is called "Sun-dried Tomato" which is on the darker side, which I like. The kick plate is on the right side of our door rather than on the bottom for a good reason.  Our dog, Kaiser, likes to open the door himself, and previously scratched up the door right around the handle. 

This is Kaiser.  Here he is in perspective--size-wise...

Without the kickplate, he would scratch a hole through the door!  (He nearly did.)  :-]

Do you like our door-knocker?  I love it!  My husband found it in Hungary.

AND:

Look at our front porch! No, it's not really tile...

It's painted to look like tile, and I *love* it!

Next I'll show you how the new finish on our pool turned out.  Pretty!  :-]



Shout! pictures :-]

Here are some of the costumes I did for "Shout, The Mod Musical" that is running at our high school.  This was a fun show to costume, and I really wanted to be as authentic as I could with what the script described and the time dictated.  My daughter Carolyn directed the show, so she introduced it.

The show is about five young women that make their way from 1962 to 1972, chronicled by the magazine "Shout" with its various features about fashion, music, and "coming of age" in the sixties.  As our disclaimer at the beginning of the show says, "We neither condone, nor condemn what went on in the Sixties Generation". haha...  Each of the women are characterized as a "color", which matches their personality.  Orange, Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow. 

Orange Girl--maternal and idealistic.

Red Girl--youthful and awkward.

Blue Girl--model, actress, in her "Mary Quant mini".

Green Girl--how can I put this nicely?  Um, the "free-spirit"... ;-]

Yellow Girl--"loud and thoughtless, quite possibly American".

Fashions changed through the years.  Here is the Blue Girl in her sequined top and plastic skirt:

Here is Orange Girl releasing her "Inner Purple".  She stays purple through the rest of the show.

Notice the Cage Dancer in the back.  We had two Cage Dancers.  I dressed one in a white dress with black fringe, and the other in a black dress with white fringe.  It was mesmerizing!  The ensemble girls I dressed in black and white bold prints. Similar to the psychodelic artwork of the day, but not in color so as to compete with the Color Girls.  You can see most of them here. 

At the end they all had 70's costumes on.  I know I can relate to each one of these styles!

Hot pants with a bolero vest, the Maxi dress, long-sleeve top with mini skirt, print tunic with split bell-bottom jeans, and a long flowy scarf with a mini dress.

Welcome to my world! Next show is "Forbidden Broadway" opening in April.  That one will be loads of fun to costume and to watch.  The show parodies all the major hit musicals on Broadway in the past 20 years or so: Annie, Les Mis, Spam-a-Lot, Chicago, etc. And some of the more memorable stars: Carol Channing, Mandy Patinkin, Bebe Neuwirth... 

Can't wait! 

busy busy busy...

...costuming costuming costuming three shows!  And they all open the same day.  Why can't I say no?  That's a topic for another time I guess...

One show I'm helping my daughter Carolyn with, and only doing a few costumes.  It's Shakespeare's "The Tempest", and I love the concept.  They are making each character as a character from a different story.  For example, the boatswain is Captain Hook, Prospero is Merlin, the Sprite Ariel is Superman, etc.  What a great idea, huh?  Should be fun to watch.

Another show is called "Sherlock's Last Case".  1900's England, one of my favorite eras to costume.  There are five characters, and not so much to do, but I did have to make two Sherlock capes *and* two deerstalker caps, which I had never done before.  Also a lady's formal gown and a couple of lady's everyday dresses.  I love thrift shopping for things that I can make into period pieces.  For the formal gown I found a rather plain dress with a lovely jacket with fancy trim.  The jacket was perfect for the time, and I simply made the dress into a skirt by putting elastic right under the arms!  It turned out nicely.  [I'll insert pictures when I'm finished and will get the actors to model them, so keep checking back!]

The last show is huge.  It's the musical that Carolyn (yes, she can't say no either...) is directing for her high school.  Oh, and she's also in the ensemble...8-/  The show is "Shout! The 60's Mod Musical".  The costumes are really fun--five girls, each represented by a certain color: Yellow, Blue, Red, Green, and Orange (which changes to Purple mid-show).  They each have at least three color costume changes spanning 1962-1972, each have Union Jack dresses (British Flag--luckily we were able to order them online), and each have their color raincoats. 

In addition to the Color girls, there are five ensemble singers, which I'm putting in black and white bold shapes, two cage dancers which will be in fringe dresses, the band, in 70's hippie outfits, and the editor of the "Shout!" magazine who is a conservative Dolores Umbridge type. 

I love costuming.  I have done Children's Theater (Anne of Green Gables, Beauty and the Beast, Hunchback of Notre Dame, to name a few), Community Theater shows (Jane Eyre the Musical, Oliver!), and school shows (Twelfth Night, Nightfall with Edgar Allan Poe).  Here are some pictures of those past shows.

                      Cast of Jane Eyre. Many modified prom and bridesmaids dresses, and...

                                                 ...curtains!!  This is Blanche Ingram's ballgown.

 Jane Eyre I put in browns.  The play starts out with her memory of her childhood, so I made all those costumes in sepias.  I had her start out in brown, then gradually brought color (reds) into her costumes as she gained more and more confidence in herself.  I made a lot of capes for this show!

 I costumed Fagin's Gang for Oliver!  My daughter Carolyn played Dodger. She is fourth from the right, in the top hat.  Several people were surprised when they found out she was a girl at the Meet and Greet after the shows.  BTW, I also painted the backdrop that you see there.  :-]

This is The Raven (Death) from Nightfall with Edgar Allan Poe.  My favorite costume from that show!

My Favorite Topic, Part 4

Since my husband and I determined to have "either two or four kids", when I got pregnant with Carolyn I knew there would be another one coming along soon after.  I loved having my first two close together, so that's what we planned for our third and fourth as well.  Shaefer was obediently born one and a half years after Carolyn, on his due date.  And he's been "on time" ever since!

Shaefer is very compliant, and alot like my oldest daughter.  (And my husband.)  A "farmer" personality, one who hoes the field, tends it, patiently awaits the harvest, and then (gasp) does the harvesting!  His outlook is quite positive.  This morning the woodstove fire went out early on, and I tried to get it going again before the kids were to get up for school.  In doing so, I realized too late that all the air in the chimney had cooled so much that it would just push the warm air (read: smoke) out of the box into the room.  Not long after, Shaefer's smoke alarm went off--piercing, as I'm sure you know.  I turned on the fan to dissipate the smoke, and it went off eventually.  Later after Shaefer got up, I apologized for the alarm going off, and he said, "That's okay, I had to get up sometime today anyway."  I *love* that kid!  :-]

Shaefer is the most athletic of my kids, and was involved in team sports early on.  This led to some disappointments, especially when you're trying to instill "teamwork" and nobody tended to show up...  So we switched him to TaeKwondo at about age 11.  He excelled, and now at 16, he has just earned his Third Degree Blackbelt, and is a second level trainer with ATA.  He is great with the kids!  His manners and politeness are impeccable--I get comments all the time--and he knows how and when to defend himself and others, which is priceless.  He is involved in theater (how could he not be and live in this family!) and is a conscientious and meticulous actor.  He understudied the lead in his high school's fall play this year, "Nightfall With Edgar Allan Poe", but probably prefers comedies.  His true love with the theater, though, is in technical theater--design, construction, props and stage management.

 Shaefer as Edgar Allan Poe in "Nightfall".

With his instructor, Master Valino, 6th Deg BB at their Halloween Party.

He will make his future wife a fine husband one day, and that pleases his mother very much.  :-]

OCC and Christmas songs!

Hi!  A friend of mine is raising money for the Orlando Children's Church.  Any gift of at least $25 gets RC Sproul's new book "The Lightlings" as a thank you gift.  She made this video commercial and used two songs of mine that I wrote and recorded as background.  So cool, because I wanted to post the songs as a Christmas gift to you all, but I didn't know how to do it!  So Have a Blessed Christmas!!

http://jaycut.com/content/21-december-2010-1144-0

The first song you will hear is "Bethlehem Ephrathah". (starts at 30 seconds)

The second song is one by Ben and Kevin Hofer.

The last song is mine also, "This Tree". Helped on the music by Ronny Cates.

Following are the lyrics to my two:

Bethlehem Ephrathah (Micah 5:2) by DE Lloyd

A flock
A fourish
An angel flight

Fear not
The Savior
Behold the Sign

A man
A maiden
A lonely place

The Babe
The manger
The gift of grace

CHORUS:
The soul that sees it's need
To heal the human flaw
Its search for peace will lead  >>>  (2)  Will find the peace it seeks
   to Bethlehem Ephrathah        In Bethlehem Ephrathah

            BGV's:   You are by no means least among Judah
                From you will come My governing ruler
                    (2x's)

A star
A journey
A prophet's tale

A king
The magi
A starlit trail

A dream
A warning
An ill intent

The Child
The offering
Messiah sent

CHORUS 2

BRIDGE:  Creation holds it's breath with teary eyes
               As a mother's sobs give way to baby cries

CHORUS 1, 2, BGV'S

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This Tree by DE Lloyd, Music by DE Lloyd, Ronny Cates
No candy canes are hung
No sweetness on a bitter tongue
Red stripes will stain pale white
From whip and thorn, from spear and spike

No star atop this tree
Tho' darkness caused the sun to flee
His glory will not fade
Beneath the thorny woven braid

No fancy bulbs displayed
Instead receipt for payment made
Is hanging "Paid In Full"
There written on His fleshly scroll

CHO    
    This Tree
      He trimmed for you
    His gift
      He paid your due
    The Son uniquely born
      In flesh adorned
      The blessed First
    There beaten, bruised, and torn
      Our sin He mourned        (2nd: The shame He scorned)
      His heart lay burst
        And on This Tree hung cursed

No angels greet the crowd
With joyful praises ringing loud
But stunned in silence hear
As foolish mockers blindly jeer

No manger scene below
Each piece in its appointed row
But there a Roman guard
"Surely this was the Son of God"

No tinsel wrapped about
But there clothed in His royal shroud
He took our sin for us
And robed us in His righteousness

CHO 2x's

Something Old, Something New

Well, I've been away keeping busy.  Years ago when we found out that we were expecting our first, we decided that I would have my own in-home business doing graphic art--logos, corporate design, ads, etc.  We named it Arterie Graphics.  I had clients, but when Melinda came along I found it was difficult to keep up with it all.  I also had a really bad habit of not wanting to pursue payment from my clients.  Not good for a small business.  Well, recently while rummaging through attic boxes (a new AC/Heat unit warranted that), I found a lot of my old artwork, and lot of memories.

Jump ahead, and I've decided to grab some of the old stuff, add some new stuff, and open a store on Cafepress.com.  It will be something I build upon weekly.  The store I have is limited in its offering (it's a free site), but once I see whether or not it is profitable I'll step it up to the paid site and be able to offer a lot more.  Suggestions are always welcome.  Even design ideas.  So enjoy my site as it is so far, and visit often, because designs will be added often!

site: http://www.cafepress.com/ArterieGraphics