Artsy Hodgepodge

We have visited some art museums in our travels and a local one in Seattle when we lived on that side of the state. The piece above stood out to me on one of our visits. The description of this piece reads “One of the most penetrating portraitists of the seventeenth century, Phillipe de Champaigne assimilated his observations of real people into religious paintings giving them a down-to-earth quality. Here, the central focus is the aged face of Elizabeth, as she affectionately greets her younger cousin, the Virgin Mary. According to the Gospel of Luke, both women were pregnant–Elizabeth with John the Baptist and Mary with Jesus. For Christians, their meeting symbolized the transition from the Old Law to the New Law of Christianity.”

Thank you to Joyce for Hodgepodge Wednesday. Here are this weeks questions to ponder.

1. October 25th is International Artists Day…do you have a favorite artist? If so tell us who and why.

I enjoy Impressionists like Renoir or Monet.

2. Would you describe yourself as artistic? Elaborate.

No, and here is an example of my flop of a craft project…

Mine is the angry matryoshka on the far right. Everyone else had a cute result.

3. What’s a skill, task, hobby, or job you’ve done so often you now have it ‘down to a fine art’?

Setting a table…

4. How often do you dine out? Fast food, fine dining, or somewhere in between? Tell us about a less than stellar restaurant experience you’ve had recently (or not so recently if that’s easier).

We probably eat out once a week even though our choices are very limited here in Colville.

My less than stellar experiences are mostly my fault because I order the wrong item.

The latest less than stellar experience was not noticing that the waitress gave us the wrong bill and a week later when looking at the receipt I realized that error. We were suffering from jetlag and our brains were not up to par.

5. Do you celebrate Halloween? To what extent? Are there trick or treaters where you live?

We love trick or treaters but decor and celebrations are on the down low.  Now that we live farther from the city and on a country road we do not get trick or treaters except for our grandchildren who dress up with their parents and come over for treats!

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Our larches have turned golden…

Enjoy the end of October y’all!

What’s New?

Dear and our son laid out and fastened all the rebar over the vapor barrier last Saturday.

Now all we need is the Concrete contractor to fit us into his busy schedule. We hope that’s soon!!

Addy started Awana this week for the first time. She’s in the Cubbies class. She thought it was GREAT!

I was gifted this new puzzle and it’s not an easy one. This will be our 7th COVID puzzle to date.

Even though it’s not easy I love it. Thank you, Linda!

We are still smokey but we are suppose to get some rain on Friday or Saturday.

We have a pie social tonight with our JOY group at church. (Just Older Youth) I’m bringing a cherry pie. What would be your favorite pie?

True Confession: I do not bake pies but I did find a handcrafted frozen cherry pie that looked real good at the store. It was pricier than the name brand frozen pies. I’ll put it in the oven to bake tomorrow before our event. I’ll let you know if it was worth the big bucks!

True Confession #2: I am not fond of cherry pie. Other pies were already signed up for and no one had signed up to bring cherry and that’s why I ended up with it. Dear enjoys cherry pie.

***Update on the store bought pie…It was delicious per Dear (he had two slices) The crust was flaky and the filling was wonderful. The pie maker was Village Pie Maker. I think I bought it at Wal-Mart in the frozen section.

Snow Trumps All…

When snow falls in our area it trumps everything. We were at a Memorial Service yesterday afternoon where it was so good to see so many loved ones we don’t see often. Forever friends are good to have. After the service we had dinner out with our kids. When we got home we started seeing that some of our Facebook friends south of us were seeing snow fall. At about 8 P.M. it started falling at our house in earnest.

Feb Snow 030When we woke up this morning we had a nice 2 to 3 inch covering. That probably makes some of you snow worthy people chuckle. Here in our area where snow is always a surprise 3 inches is enough to keep us at home and some events end up being cancelled.

feb snow day 034We didn’t watch any news yesterday so we did not hear any warnings about a possible snow fall which made it a delightful surprise.

feb snow day 033

Snow is great around these parts only if it doesn’t hang around for too long. Remember we are an area with lots of steep hills. You cannot describe our part of Washington as flat. This old house is at the top of a hill so for us to get out and about we have to go downhill which can work okay but then we have to come uphill to get home and that is a bit tougher.

feb snow day 026

 

feb snow day 005

feb snow day 004It will be interesting to see when this snow will melt off. I just told Dear he might have to make a run down the hill to buy some milk and try out his 4 x 4 Jeep in the snow. You think he’ll jump to my challenge? Time will tell. Well that didn’t take long. Dear did go down the hill and made it back with no problem but at the very bottom of our hill signs were up saying “Road Closed”. Dear made it through the barriers and up the hill with no problems but there were cars abandoned on the road that could not make it up…oops!

Are you watching the Olympics? It’s been fun for me to hear the Russian and understand some of it. I was able to sing along with the Moscow Nights number in the opening ceremonies. And we keep wanting to train the U.S. announcers on the pronunciation of Matryoshka (the Russian stacking dolls). Three syllables not four!! Maw-trosh-kah or Maw-trosh-key (plural) is the easiest way I can spell it phonetically. Love seeing these dolls at all the venues!

After shots 003Watching the Winter Olympics with snow on the ground outside seems quite appropriate. Hope you have a good week!

Matryoshka Bridal Shower

On Saturday we had a Northwest Bridal Shower for Katie with a Matryoshka Theme.

The Bride Katie

Katie and Laura, sisters by marriage.

The color theme was purple, deep red, and gold.

I was so busy I forgot to take photos of all the other food. We had Savory Blintzes, a Quinoa taboulleh salad, orange-mango chicken salad, pumpkin praline trifle, and pumpkin spice cookies.

It was a fun reunion of friends who have touched Katie’s life over the years. Katie’s maid of honor, Jamie, led us in prayers for Andrew and Katie and she ended with a prayer of blessing on her friend. Such a wonderful dear time we had. Katie was showered with blessings and nice gifts. At the end of our evening the power went out so we rushed around lighting more candles. My sister Lana escorted all our guests to their cars with a flashlight!

I have to admit that I am wiped out today. We couldn’t clean up last night because we had no power so I went over to Lana’s this morning to gather my stuff and to help clean up. By the time I got there Lana had everything washed and ready to go so all I had to do was load up my car. Everything is put away in it’s place here at my house now and I’m just gonna sit around the rest of the day!

I’m linking up with Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.