the worst of weeks, the best of weeks - lots of photos

Last weekend (NSD and Mother's Day) started out so nice - DH brought me a bouquet of roses, I scrapped, and then finished a painting - see above - it's a mixed media piece with 3 layers of watercolor orchids and leaves, and then knotted ribbons and yarns for roots (the photo doesn't really capture how bright it is.)

I did this layout for the doodling challenge at BPS

We had a lovely dinner of shrimp, French bread, and salad

I washed the dishes and then took my cup of tea and chocolate mousse into the living room to enjoy

BUT

instead I was suddenly overtaken by extreme nausea and rushed to the toilet to throw up

That night I was so sick and again on Monday morning - I had to call in sick to work and then threw up a few sips of tea and returned to bed and slept until 3pm - I was able to eat a little soup for dinner

Tuesday I was weak as a kitten but by Wednesday I was stronger and able to go to the art studio where I began to paint some cactus flowers

This is the beginning of a new mixed media piece - I have begun painting the background on a bigger sheet of paper and plan to make the cactus stickers somewhat 3-d, perhaps with toothpicks or?

On the way home from the art studio, I realized that my car a/c wasn't working properly - it blows cold out the passenger side but not the driver's side - I looked it up on the computer and will try a couple of things but at this point, I just don't have the money to get it fixed so it looks like I will be biting the bullet this summer - did I mention that I live in south Florida?! Once June starts and everything really shuts down here (many things are already closed some days of the week and almost all of the snowbirds are gone), I will probably only be going out a couple of days a week - the museum is closed on Monday so I won't be working there and the art studio on Wed is also shut down until Sept. So it isn't as bad as it would be if I had to leave the house every day.

Anyway, by Thursday I was totally back to my crazy little wired self and was able to run errands and paint. AND we actually had about 20 minutes of rain at my house late Thursday afternoon. I heard a sound outside and wondered what it was - we are in the midst of a terrible drought so the rain was a true blessing (and when I mentioned at work, no one else had had rain - so strange!) I worked on Friday at the used book store where I discovered a bundle of papers that someone had thrown in the trash bin - it was an old scrapbook with newspapers from 1940!!!! That baby came home with me!

Today has been a super day - a slice of sweet Florida cantaloupe for breakfast, cleaned the lanai, took 2 old rattan chairs and some other stuff to St Vincent de Paul and then scored majorly at their shop

I got this cool little loom and the loops for 20 cents - I used to make potholders with one like this when I was a little girl

this pile of books for $1.70 or something like that - and the really cool thing is the very top book by Georgette Heyer Footsteps in the Dark is one I have been looking for quite a while - I read about a new edition of it on Bas Bleu but our library doesn't have it (and with the budget cuts, they no longer do interlibrary loans) so I was super super excited to find it (it doesn't take much to get me excited!!) I also bought a Hot Cotton linen and cotton shirt for $2.50 - It's a black and white plaid and will look fantastic with my black capris, and I remember seeing it at Steinmart last year - yay!

Then I went to the library as they had some books for me

I have read great things about A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness - it sounds like my kind of reading - witches, alchemy, and vampires but all wrapped up in a very literary mystery.

Everyday Icon is a book about Michelle Obama's wonderful style

and I think most bloggers have read or heard about the Pioneer Woman

Drawing Conclusions is the brand new Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon

I also just finished the brand new Jacqueline Winspear mystery A Lesson in Secrets - very good!

I just finished baking a small banana cake (one very soft banana and I just can't bear to throw food away.) I used an old recipe (from 1930) that's in an old cookbook that my mother gave me a long time ago - it is the best cookbook and has so many delicious but inexpensive old recipes - waffles, banana cake, carrot cake, the best pie crust, and wonderful cupcakes.

The rest of the day looks to be a busy one - knitting on my African vest (pix tomorrow), pork scallopini, hot caramelized Vidalia onion roasted potatoes, and salad for dinner, and reading later this afternoon and evening while DH watches the Players golf championship and the Yankees/Red Sox game on tv 

Today is just a really super day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks so much for reading and I hope that you have a wonderful day,

Chris