BRILLIANT, Terry!! Get her over here - she is utterly welcome!

And over to cultures to parler francais!

Another kind of inner...

Yeah, we pretty much just talk about everybody here at the spring :-)

riette: i tried to scan the birdhouse but didn't have enough cord---nooo, i didn't drag the scanner out to the birdhouse!! hi autumn :)

HA-HA!! How's it going, Wolf?

one word or less? BUSY!!!!!

What are you up to, Girl? What keeps you so busy? Just work?

heck yeah!! and then there's my son's homework, daughter's gymnastics, intramural bowling league...

Oh, tell me about! Brownies, Sunday School, tap & ballet...did someone say I have to attend another meeting??

ha-ha! We're not quite there yet. Though I've signed the girls and me up for music/rhythm classes at the consi for parents and toddlers - starting beginning of next year. That's probably how all that starts, hey?

yup, you're in it now, riette!

Oh dear - hope I can keep up with them. At least they're so close in age that they always fall into the same age group - which means fewer trips. Until they decide to do different things, that is....

riette: here's the long awaited birdhouse! Birdhouse by Wolf acrylic on wood

well, the colors didn't come out right. hmmm....

Oh, wow! That's really really pretty, Wolf! Almost like the shadows of leaves and flowers in the moonlight. Love it.

Even though the colors are kind of murky, wolf, I can still tell how pretty it is. It almost has a Japanese flavor to it.

you guys are much too kind. the shadows are a result of the light bouncing back off the roof (from putting the birdhouse directly on the scanner)! but it does look kind of neat the way it came out....

Very neat. Do you find that you're improving all the time - getting more comfortable at it?

well, i don't paint very often, but each time my confidence improves when i see what i can do....birdhouses are popular in decorating right now. the two that i painted are to be used outdoors (and one of them housed four clutches of sparrows). this is why i like them because they actually get used.

I would have loved to have been artistic.

everybody has their own talents, the trick is to find it (them) and cultivate it.

Sonja IS an artist at what she does, believe me. When we were both still living in Windhoek, Namibia, I sometimes went with her when she got emergency calls. And she was amazing! The way she kept the patients calm, and reassured, her gentleness to them - that's better than art. It gives people something REAL.

Is Sonja trained in emergency medicine also?

Not really, but it's more or less inevitable to pick things up in this line of work. I mean, alot of the people who come in from car accidents with injuries haven't the slightest chance of surviving, and you know it - the scanning too easily becomes just a last official medical procedure before they're carried off to ICU to die. So it's a matter of making their last hour or so as comfortable as possible. That's the tough part.

but to give them hope, because you never know what miracles are waiting to happen. you must be an angel to them, sonja. and riette, your art is real. you take nothing and make something with it. i believe we are all given our talents for a purpose and it's up to us to do something with it. and it doesn't matter how we see the purpose (whether big or small) all of it comes together for the whole.

Not an angel - but at least THERE, I hope, Wolf.

Don't underestimate your power of giving - I've seen it, and it's amazing.

You're my best friend in the world.

And you mine.

Hey, y'all! SHUT UP! NOW! LISTEN! That's: L I S T E N ! YOU HEAR ME: L I S T E N !!! Ok, thank you for your attention. Come close, so I don't hafta shout, alright? Will you please stop whatever you do, thougth to do or planned to do AND GIT TO IT! CREATE MORE, that is M O R E ART ! "This personal attack is brought to you by Adrenalino-Fix, the 100% pure Adrenaline fix - only a smack in the face works better!"

(Gosh, this is my art - and I'm always look so cute and pathetic doing it...)

*laugh* cute and pathetic... the way to every artistic woman's heart... Encore, ENcore, ENCORE!

ok, rrrhnmm, ahem: O K ! G I M M E M O R E A R T ! ! !

And you know you must obey THE EDITOR FROM HELL!

I am so glad I looked all the way through this gallery before I made a huge fool if myself. Talented children are treasures to be nurtured and encouraged. Talented fathers, in ways I never even imagined, even moreso. Riette, you have a true treasure here. Your gifts are so overwhelming, I am just going to be quiet and look. Thank you for enabling me to have my own version of "eye candy"

Ok, now that I have really looked through here, everyone is talented except for me. I am more sorry about that than you are, but there it is. Wolf, I adore your birds! Love your first oil, too. But where did all of the creative juices go? We need more art!!!

I plead guilty. I've been neglecting the conference horribly. THat's because I got lazy for finding trying hours on end to find the pics I want to put into the conference on the web. It's just too damned expensive on my phone bill, what with all the calls to America and Africa on top of it. But I have a few new pics to show - I just have to have the film developed. Be warned though: my recent lack of enthusiasm is reflected rather pathetically in what I've done so far this year. My mind just hasn't been on it properly, because the studies are interesting. I do have a few things to put into comic art. Marcia, could I post them to you to put in? 'Cos I don't know how to do it, and Wer used to do it for me.

And why doesn't he do it anymore?

'Cos I can't mail him.

This is true =) I am more than happy to help, Ree. It looks lovely in here and over there now, too! (as though the man did not have enough to do...)

just send em to me, ree, sweetie, and i'll put them up!

Thanks, Girl!!! Will do, as soon as my film is full, and I get it developed. When do we get to see yours again, eh?

oh my, the ink well has dried up and so has the paints...what can i say? guess i have to wait for the filler-upper to stop by again *grin*

Well, then tell him to get his butt over there!

*nudge* *ootch* *stumble*....I think I am not needed by the artists anymore. I can post pictures and stuff like that...Look at Comic art stuff...It is about as close to doing real art as I get aside from my T-shirts. I will be delighted to post pictures for anyone so desiring!

So that means I've now got two slaves to choose from. Oh good! I LOVE POWERRRRR!

...Ree's tripping...! I will go back to Geo and crack rocks - that is where I truly belong, not in here with the gifted and gorgeous.

The gifted and gorgeous?? Where are those bitches?! I'll kick 'em out for you, no problem!

(...Ooops...I just checked Babes Conference...they are US!!! Better get along, I guess, lest our gorgeousness gets black-and-blued...)

Or pinked and oranged and yellowed and greened!

...and in tastefully arranged stripes, no less...*grin*

That'll only if I hug you - that's what I really want to do.

...and do I really need a hug right now....*Hugs* *sniff*...*sniff*

�BIG BIG HUG�

*sniff*...ooooooh...aaaaaah...*sigh*....*smile* Thank you!!! *BigBigHugs*

*tapping foot anxiously* and where's *gulp* mine? *head hangind down afraid of the answer* by the way, ree, your pics in comics were great!! i loved the birds and snake the most, but i could see the caracatures of those famous people you mentioned!

*HUGS* for Wolfie!!! (me too...going back to comics to see the charactures (however it is spelled!)

...and how are you doing this morning, my fine furry friend? I thought about you a lot...!

Out, bold writing!!! Alakazam!!!

Oh Ree! My letter back to you is undeliverable four hours after I wrote it. I will paste it here if all else fails...or under something of yours in inner...I just wanted you to know that things are OK...and understood and all good things.

marcia, thanks for the hugs, needed them as it was hard to concentrate at work today. am still really in shock, though.

Want to talk about it? My email is open and I am "IN" *hugs*

thanks! poured out my soul to one of my newest friends *wink* and am plum wore out. in fact, my head is really hurting. i'll talk with you later, marcia! thanks and much *hugs*

Any time...*hugs*

Wolfie, are you okay?? What is the matter? I hope you've not had a blow because of Marcia and me, because we set about working it out straight away. And if it is something else; I hope your friend can help you make it better. �BIG HUG� I hope you got my reply too, Marcia. I'm not angry at all.

no, i've already responded to that stuff *hugs* luvs you guys! ree, just hurting and confused about a friend's death (see obits). marcia was kind enough to listen to me go on and on. thanks for asking though *smile*

What great ladies you are...how infinite your wisdom and capacity to understand and heal (after a good lecturing)...one is never too old to hear these things. *Big Happy Hugs*

Joins in on the group hug!

*Big Terry-encompassing HUGS*

Wolfie, I'm so so sorry.

thanks sweetie......am still in disbelief :(

*belated hug*

where's the pic?

For the gallery opening? I do not have permission and he is out of the country right now.

never mind, the hr is the pic that's not showing *grin*

as for the ruined art, I have no idea..! Will post more when I know more.