So it’s been a long time, I know.  I have an excuse… morning sicknesss, sleepless nights, and breathlessness.  it’s all for a good cause of course….

sorry it’s blurry… my 10 yr old took it, and i think he did a great job. 

i wanted to share what we did today…. we went to the American Cemetary in Luxembourg.  we havn’t been to any cemetaries or really any truly historical spots yet, other than castles, so it was neat.  we went for the ceremony, which was also neat. 

we’ve been doing this and that, starting new things, doing the same old same old, and then there are the random bits…

OH YEAH!  and rumor has it that ……….

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had to take two because SOMBODY didn’t quite believe it…..

so my hubby has been gone for training and only has a little bit of time to spend at home with us before heading off again for 6mths!  while he was gone we were pretty busy….

there was a Pig Festival , a sleepover, an art class taught here in my house (which i will blog about soon), two meetings with ladies, and the annual Grill Party the neighbors have in OUR garage.  wait…. the neighbors have a party in your garage, you ask? 

yes… the first year we lived here one of the neighbors came to us and said they wanted us to know that they were having a party and that we were invited!   we so said “sehr gut! wo ist die Party?”  they said somthing we didnt understand and then brought us outside and pointed to the garage…

so funny….

said we have come to a party in our garage every year… they try to have it around the same time every year.  sometimes its really cold, or a little cool.  this year was the best!  hot during day and nice and warm in the evening….

so in the above photo, the two girls sitting in front of my camara and the lady with the bright blue shirt and the man with tan pants standing a little in front of her to the left, are the family who USED to live in our house.  they come to the party every year…. the lady in the pretty brown skirt and the lady holding the baby over on the right, are our neighbors who live in the house behind where i’m standing now. 

nice shot of the tables all set up and ready to go….

in the photo above, the two ladies wearing peach and orangy-peach colors shirts, are mother and daughter and live in the house two down from us.  the older one (the mom) is good buddies with the older lady, whom my kids call Oma,  she is sitting next to on the bench.  Oma is our neighber who live with HER daughter and son-in-law in the house with garden you can see behind them in the photo. 

yummy food i didnt eat.  germans really KNOW how took the wazoo out of pork i tell you…..

my baby boy talking to the neighbors baby girl….

i had to keep getting up because of chasing my littlest one around and what not so i was able to get some fun shots of this night…. 

THIS  is my landlord.  he’s awsome… i’ve heard some crazy stories of americans having a LOT of problems with their landlords, all during the 4.5 years we’ve lived here.  we are truly blessed to have not only an awsome landlord, but a landlord with a sil who works in the same job field as my hubby!    anyway, our landlord is awsome, he brings the kiddies gifts for christmas, and puts them to work when he comes here to work on the yard or whatever.   I LOVE that…

i will leave you with shots of the evening festivities that my oldest boy took part in with the neighbor boys. 

“All I need to make a comedy, is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.”  Charlie Chaplin

I really love CHARLIE CHAPLIN about as long as I’ve loved Elvis… I remember the very first collage I ever made had a magazine clip of Charlie Chaplin in the middle and Elvis from Jailhouse Rock dancing around Charlie along with other collaged people. I don’t still have that collage , but it’s ok because I remember it very well. I think the point of doing the collage was to create a story using only things we found in the magazine, and my peeps I found were all dancing because of the way I place them. This was in like 9th grade art class… my first REAL art class…. long story.

Anyway I’m being brave and teaching Adults *gulp* how to paint…. last week was the first painting class and I THINK it went ok. I hope they enjoyed it and want to come back this week…. one of the ladies coming suggested we paint Charlie Chaplin this week…. I was thinking about it and decided I would give folks the option to choose their own oldie but goodie to paint in black and white. I know it sounds a little boring to paint in black and white but it won’t be. It’s actually kinda fun coming up with all of the shades you need to create a 3d effect… or make the image pop.

So I’ve always wanted to paint Charlie Chaplin, and I got inspired while looking for some clip art…..
and this is what I have so far:

In a couple days I’ll show you the step by step… sort of. 

Charlie Chaplin memorial in Ireland…. apparently he came there A LOT. 

Go Here….

i recently watched these two movies, PIECE BY PIECE  …..  an awesome documentary about the history of graffiti.  one thing i learned, is that it’s not even considered graffiti by artists unless there’s words.   this movie is based on a bunch of graffiti artists in San Fransisco, which is apparently graffiti mecca/heaven.   i loved the art , and the stories, i could have done without the cursing though, so beware if you rent it.

and THE FALL  and if this trailer alone doesn’t make you want to see THE FALL then you WILL be missing something…

i wanted to make something after watching both movies and being inspired by words painted by graffiti artists, and the colors and imagery of the beautiful movie THE FALL.  I haven’t completely finished this yet but i wanted to show it at this stage because it’s still kind of cool.  i also had to add one more pic of my mad hatter…. i think  he turned out quite nice. 

oh my i had fun painting this for an alice in wonderland theme…..whaddya think? 

when we got back from our vacation in June,  we came home to a very interesting surprise!   a BLUE CHAIR  on the front porch!  

I originally  found this greyneverwouldhaveseenitiftherewasntsomethingbrightsittingontopofit, chair junking , which i’ve told you about before.  the Germans, twice a year, throw out their junk!  now sometimes it’s perfectly good junk!  i’ve never really gone to any other towns when they do junking , mainly because i have a teeny tiny VW golf  and three kids.  we have junked in our town of wittlich, though.   so anyway, we get back from our trip and lo and behold this little greyweatherednevernoticeditbeforebecauseitblendsintothewall,  chair is now blue!  

 i love it…. but it is a mystery!  none of my peeps here did it!  so they say….   i’m pretty sure that one of the many wonderful ideas i have in the middle of the night, did not turn into sleep walking and produce this chair… so  my hubbies theory is that our landlord did it… he is a house painter, fixer upper, and a super awsome landlord.  he gives my kids money for BARELY helping him when he comes to mow or things like that, and if we see him at the annual Pig Festival, he always treats them on a ride.  he has no problem coming to help fix whatever thing we’ve messed up… he’s just cool like that.    i’m sure he has blue paint somewhere.  

 i really really think that a friend of mine HAD to do it!   i’m not sure if  just anybody would like somone doing somthing like that while they were away, but i just LOVE IT!!    so know this… if we are friends and are in the same hood, then by all means you can leave me a surprise like that , any time you want! 

here is the chair:

 not much of a chair before, but now… wow!  

and to go with the blue theme of my little post, here is a  blue journal page, done just last night for a special project:

~blue is a happy color~

my friend  FINALLY sent me pictures of the mural i added to,  on her sons bedroom wall. 

  they moved into another friends house, and their son loved SPIDERMAN.  there was already a  night-time city scene and even some spiderwebs painted on the walls.  my friends son likes KING KONG and GODZILLA.  or actually he liked KING KONG and then after some talking realized it would be cool to have them fighting in the city scene. 

and so here’s the result … with before and afters and a special bonus painting in the web.  apparently his favorite pig is wilbur.    jk…..

I’m not sure what’s been up with me lately… I just havn’t felt CREATIVE!  I don’t know why it’s happening now because I have so many ideas, but I’m not writing them down, or sketching them down, or keepingtrack very well of the ideas I’m having.  I feel very blah… like there’s not just a blank canvas looming on my horizon, or a blank jounal, but a blank wall, and skillet, and day ahead of me. 

I am trying different things to get back the passion I had, but so far not much is happening.  In the meantime I’ve been sewing.   That’s fun.. because I have to do it all by hand, so I’m just making small things.  Toys, and dress up stuff for the kiddies.  I have also been doing a teeny bit of journaling , which  I need.  I really want to paint, but it’s just not happenng yet.

  I also teach some homeschooling kids an art class.  Tomorrow is the first day back at it and we are going to draw!  We will be doing portraits…    I don’t about any of you but I think kids are very inspirational.  They really help you to look at the world with different eyes.

First I wil call upon the Lord : 

Psalm 119:28   My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.