New Paintings - Puppies and Choo Choos

After our dear little Saydi-dog passed away I wanted to do something to remember her by so I got out my paint brushes and tried my hand at painting her. Here is the results:

I tried to capture her happy smile. Considering I don't paint animals that often, I think she turned out pretty well.

Also earlier this month my youngest brother sent me a texts asking if I would like to paint a picture for him and his wife's new baby's nursery. Setting my Saydi painting aside for a bit I worked on converting this photo he gave me into something of my own.

When I first saw the picture I was like, wow that is a lot of arches. But with a little pencil drawing to start with first and a couple of attempts I got them down to a more simple design I could work with. And here is the results for my work.

I tried to keep it simple and fun. Good enough for my new nephew to enjoy. I have to thank Mike and Nicole for giving me a chance to paint something for their little one. I had fun. Now to let it dry and figure out a way to get it to them safely.

Looking a Bit Green

So since March is the month for St Patrick's Day, I decided to throw a little St Patty's party last night. I have always thought it was fun to dress in green and see what other things we could turn green in the process. And this year I had a couple friends that were happy to join in the fun. Being a history fan I decided to actually look up the history of St. Patrick and find out what he was all about. Here are a few things I learned:

*He is the patron saint of Ireland, because he brought Christianity to Ireland.
*He used a shamrock (a three leaf clover) to explain the God Head. That in the one god there are three divine beings.
*He is said to be the one who drove the snakes out of Ireland.
*He lived during the 5th century. March 17th is the date of his death. At the age of 16 he was taken from his home in Britain and taken to Ireland as a slave. Six years later he escaped and returned home. He studied Christianity and later returned to Ireland to teach them.

Its always fun to learn something new. For my party I wanted to try baking something new. I found a recipe for an Irish Apple Cake with custard sauce. It is a kind of crumb cake. Since I had never had it before I gave it a try. And here is the results:

I made it the day before and made the mistake of leaving it out, so it turned out a little dryer than I would have liked but it tasted really good.

The custard sauce was the tricky part. It is fairly simple, consisting of egg yolks, sugar, milk and vanilla. But if you get the eggs too hot you end up with yummy scrambled eggs. I got lucky and it turned out perfect.

Here is the finished dish.

To get into the spirit of the party I found a cute little hat to wear and of course a green shirt.

My brother pointed out to me that we are technically from Northern Irish descent, so I should be wearing orange....but I just don't look as good in orange.

Here are my two buddies that came out for my party.

One is from South Africa and told me my custard sauce was better than the stuff she made with a mix. It was her first time eating a made from scratch sauce. I was so happy to hear that. That silly sauce had me so worried.

And here was my little stab at decorating:

Those No-Bake cookies are a new recipe, I substituted the vanilla with mint extract and left out the peanut butter. So I got mint No-bakes....nice and refreshing.

And to wash down our treats I brought out some sparkling cider. Green of course.

I think my little party was a success. We were going to watch some Irish movies but ended up getting into the BBC Robin Hood series....they want to come back over and watch the rest some time. So I think they had fun. I was happy to try something new and make some new friends.

Fancy Night Out

This last Saturday I got to dress up and be fancy again. My brother, Doug is taking a Music Appreciation class in college and as part of the course he has to attend some fine arts concerts. So he and I went to the Las Vegas Smith's Center and watched the St. Petersburg's Philharmonic Orchestra.

The building was located just 20 minutes from our homes and was really easy to get to. I've decided to try and go to a concert at least once a year. To get more cultured.

We arrived just before 6:30 pm so we were an hour early, meaning we got a great parking spot, and we got to people watch for an hour.

 

We found a nice birds eye view spot up on the second balcony hallway. These pictures are of the lobby an hour early before the show. It filled completely up by the time they opened the doors. For his assignment, Doug had to observed the people who came to the concert. We noticed that there were a lot of the older generation. But we did see a couple young families with their children all dressed up. We even got to help a little old woman locate her confused and lost husband. They were cute and ended up sitting right behind us.

We were up on the second balcony and had a great view of the stage. I don't believe there was a bad seat in the house.

I didn't get a shot of the orchestra because cameras were band during the performance. But that stage filled up. The performance lasted almost two hours but it felt like it was only a few minutes, the music was so masterfully played you wanted to keep listening to it. And they looked like they were having a lot of fun. At the end the audience give a loud applause, some people standing, others shouting "bravo!" The concert master was happy to get the conductor to come out for two encores. Ending the night with a fun moment of the conductor dragging his concert master off the stage so he couldn't make him do any more encore.

It was a really fun and Doug still has to go to one more concert for his class. He is thinking of seeing the Las Vegas Philharmonic Orchestra in April...this time taking Mom and Dad. If you've never heard the St. Petersburg Philharmonics you need to, they are amazingly talented.