Family Fun & Painting
We have had such a fabulous time visiting with family.





My oldest Austin with his Christmas present from Nana & PopPop ~ a Flying V guitar! He absolutely LOVES it and has kicked up practicing more every day.

My mom, younger sister, Me and my grandmother










































Me & Austin
















Kendall and his great-grandmother
Kendall wasn't in a lot of our pictures because he had football practice almost every night.


















Andrew, Hannah and their great-grandmother


















Hannah & Andrew being silly






































I've had a bit of time to get some painting in too. I painted the two projects on the right hand side of my blog for two upcoming September classes.
I painted this canvas for my sisters boss - this is her favorite saying and she will proudly hang it on her door at work when she's had about enough!LOL

































I painted this tissue box for my grandmother because her favorite project that we painted in paint class was the strawberry tray.





































I painted this hydrangea photo cube for my grandmother as well.

























My mom leaves on Saturday -boohoo. I know my dad will be happy to have her home as well as her two pups.

This week our bowling league started back - YIPPEE!! I love to bowl! I was actually pretty consistent with 159, 160, and 161 which started my average off pretty good but I'm sure it will take a nose dive quickly!

September 11th - a day to REMEMBER and NEVER FORGET!!

Blessings,
Sandy

NIENIE's RECOVERY
I'm sure many of you saw the TODAY show this morning about this blogger and her husband that were in a private plane crash. They have 4 children small children and she has one of the most positive blogs I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Weird how you recognize things - but when I saw her blog header on the news I remember having been to her blog before and seeing the fabulous pictures of her and her family. They are raising money to help the family - She has been burnt over 83% of her body and her husband 35%. They are in serious need of your prayers first and a donation would greatly help. Go on over and check out her blog here
http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/
You can also click on the button to the side to donate!

It's times like these that it really makes you stop and look at what you HAVE in your life. The people ~ not the things that are so important! Let them know how much they mean to you!!

Blessings,
Sandy

STORMS for Sherry's Paint day
Sherry and I had the best time painting yesterday and learning new techniques and tricks painting stormy weather! She is off to see her daughter and family and they want murals painted while she is there visiting. One of her grandsons wants lightning and a tornado painted in his room so that is how we spent most of the day for her special paint day with me. She took all the classes I offered in May and won the drawing to come and spend the day with me painting and claying. We made the
holly and berry hurricane out of the Studio Home Dimensions clay and then had a wonderful lunch and then started painting the storms.



Of course, since I had never painted a storm before I thought it would be a good idea to do so before she came over.





























Sherry with her clay project and painted storm.

(Congratulations to her daughter Joann - she had a baby boy yesterday afternoon - she lives in TX and Sherry was on phone alert and knew that her daughter was having it that day)



The storm I painted with Sherry yesterday.















Had a grand time with my mother and grandmother this past week and having my younger sister over with her family for dinner most nights. Hopefully my mother's camera card will work in my printer tomorrow when she comes back from visiting my sister in
TN. We weren't that great about taking photos especially since one of my sons played football after school almost every day and he wasn't here to take photos with us.
I'm off to paint!!

Have a fabulous day!
Blessings,
Sandy

TODAY I CELEBRATE 18 YEARS OF WEDDED BLISS!

Today is my 18th year wedding anniversary.
I am honored to say that I am married to the most amazing man.I know I shared some of this last year but I have some new visitors to my blog I'd love to share it again with you all.I moved to Okinawa, Japan where my father was stationed in 1988. My dad gave me the chance to move over to Japan and go to school and start a new chapter in my life. We all have life changing moments and let me tell you this is one of the best decisions I've made in my life to date! I went to school and worked and since my dad was a Marine I dated marines. In 1990 my best friend called me at work and asked if I wanted to go on a blind date and I said "sure" (WHAT?) and then she mentioned it was at a sushi bar and was that okay and I said "sure" (WHAT?). First off, I've never been on a blind date and second I didn't like seafood ~ let alone RAW seafood. I think that was my first anxiety attack in my life. I started thinking of excuses to get out of it and even phoned my friend to say "I'm not sure I can go through with this". She assured me that this blind date was incredibly sweet and that he truly was my type. She picked me up and we went to Jirocho's (a sushi bar outside gate 1 at Kadena AB) and the boys had already arrived. When we approached the table there were 3 men there. I knew my friends boyfriend, but of the other 2 guys ~ which one was my date. I knew which one I hoped it was and walked over by him and sat down. THANK goodness it was my date - how incredibly rude that would have been to the other guy huh?!?hehehe.Long story short - we ate ~ I ate EEL. The thought of it now makes those hairs on the back of my neck stand up ~ YUK. This is where the second anxiety attack in my life kicked in ~ how in the world did I get way over here away from where my friend is sitting. How did I end up sitting next to this guy? When I go somewhere where I don't know others I tend to stick by those I go with ~ hard to believe I'm sure for some of you that know me well but I am a bit shy around other people that I don't really know. I was pleased with myself though and got over the anxiety and well this date just made me feel comfortable. He was so sweet and very interesting. Before the night was over I felt like I'd known him all my life. After eating we went upstairs to the Karaoke Bar (like you do in Japan you know) and I ended up singing You Are The Sunshine of My Life in front of this wonderful man I just met ~ WHAT??? Third anxiety attack kicked in!He called me the next day and several days after that we had our second date without the friends. SO many memories that would take up way too much of your time to read so I'll fast track for you. We met April 28th and got married on Sept. 1 the same year. I knew almost the minute that I met this man that this was the MAN God intended for me to marry. I used to always say that my Mr. Right was in Ethiopia or somewhere not in the USA and guess what he was waiting for me in Japan.We married on base but had many Japanese friends come and it was an incredible day. I remember walking down the isle to my waiting soon to be husband and all of a sudden his glasses fogged up! Too funny! We had a good laugh over that!From day one my DH has done so much for me! He cooks, he cleans, he probably changed more diapers than I did with all 3 of our boys ~ why ~ because he wanted me to get an extra hour of sleep, or he knew I had them all day when he was at work and wanted me to have a little break. HE is the most THOUGHTFUL man I've ever known. Honey, I LOVE YOU with all my heart and soul and know that God brought us together and keeps us together!


I've been having such an awesome time with my mother and grandmother and my younger sister and her family this weekend. We have actually been so busy that we haven't taken many pictures - we will hopefully get some before my grandmother leaves on Thursday.

Saturday I had a clay class here at my house and we had such an awesome time!
We created the wine chiller and wine glasses with vines and grapes. The ladies did a fabulous job and really seemed to enjoy themselves.





Alice























E




























Sherry





















Jeanice


























Joan
























The group with their wine chillers.
I'm so excited that Hobby Lobby finally got all of the clay products (they aren't on the shelves yet - hopefully soon) but I'll start teaching classes in October and cannot wait!






HAPPY LABOR DAY! and I hope you have a great week!
Blessings,
Sandy

Wednesday Paint Class

We painted the Autumn Medley tray again in paint class yesterday and everyone did such an amazing job!




Daphne

She won the drawing and got to take home the project piece I painted in class.












Sylvia

























Roz






















Alice
























Cyndy



























Emma Rose





Jenny painted with us as well but unfortunately wasn't feeling well and had to go home! Hope you are better J.









Off to create some stuff with clay! Have an awesome clay class coming up this Saturday and I'm so looking forward to it. First though I get to pick up my grandmother tomorrow night and my hubby will go back and pick up my mom after midnight.
If you LOVE to play with clay HOBBY LOBBY now has the Studio Clay and tools by Sculpey!! Yippee! I can now add those classes to my monthly schedule and I'm so excited to share the amazing possibilities of creating with the clay and the fabulous tools they have as well - can you tell I'm excited!!

Have an outstanding day!
Sandy

Foxgloves


We painted foxgloves yesterday in paint class and I just love the way they turned out.



















































Jenny
























Sherry






















The sick bug has already visited us and the kids have only been in school for a couple of weeks now. Our youngest came home early Friday with a terrible cough and lots of congestion but is on the mend thankfully and then our Mrs. Posh can't keep anything down. She'll take a trip to the vet tomorrow if not better just to make sure there isn't anything seriously wrong.

We're so excited that my mom and grandmother will be here on Friday. My mom is in the states for work ( she lives in Germany) and my grandmother will be flying in from DC ~ will be nice to be together and visit.

Thanks so much for visiting ~ please let me know you were here!
I just want to say thanks to those sweet people that have emailed me asking how things are! Things are still busy! I still have not regained my momentum of visiting my blog friends. I appreciate those that take the time to visit me whether I've had the time to visit you or not!

Have a great day!
Sandy

Trumpet Vines & Autumn Medley

Today we had two fabulous paint classes and it sure was a day to be inside and painting. We've had a lot of rain today with the remenants of FAY going through our area here in Georgia but nothing compared to what Florida has gotten. We certainly need the rain!

We painted Trumpet Vines in our first class
















































Sue






























Ann
























Josephine
Tomorrow will be her 86th birthday!
She is the sweetest lady - so soft spoken and so eager to learn how to paint!



















Ellen












Ellen won the drawing and took home the project piece I painted in class.

Autumn Medley

Our second paint class was this Autumn Medley tray with pumpkins, wheat, squash, etc.

I stained the trays with PLAID's NEW STAINS ~ LOVE LOVE LOVE these new stains. This was their CHERRY stain and it just takes a dull, plain tray to something that looks like beautifully crafted wood.

Sue






















Kim



























Ellen's (don't know why blogger won't let me turn the picture - I tried uploading it about 25 times and it goes sideways everytime?!?!)





Patti
































Josephine



She won the drawing and got to take home the tray that I painted in class.
















Barb





























Ann







Painting these pumpkins sure has gotten me in the mood for FALL! I am ready for some cooler temps and can't wait to open my windows and let the fresh air in and turn the air conditioner off.
Have a great weekend!
Blessings,
Sandy

Wednesday Paint Class ~

My friend Lori in Florida painted this cool scarecrow and crow and it inspired this idea. The ladies loved it and as usual did a beautiful job on their projects.

Sherry

Kim

I also had a chance to just paint for me this week -doesn't happen often enough but this is what I came up with ~ Oriental Poppies. Again, my friend Lori shared this site with me where this lady in Italy painted with a 3" or larger household flat brush - I had to try it and I LOVED IT! I like to paint BIG!

Wanted to give my friend Terry a HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT ~ Have a safe and great birthday trip to Florida!

Anyway, got to get to work on my paint classes for Saturday! Have a great day.

Blessings,
Sandy