Welcome to "The Roaring 20's" !

OK so I jumped the gun. There are still a few hours left in this tired decade but what the heck!

For me personally, the "teens" have ended well.

Last night, my Florida Gators won their football bowl game vs. Virginia and now I look forward to following their basketball team. Go Gators!

Last weekend, we drove to Dartmouth to see daughter Sandra and her family and also old friends visiting from Ontario. Sandra and Vickie saw "Cats" and, contrary to the reviews, absolutely LOVED it. So much for critic reviews.

And of course, no Boxing Day (27th here) would be complete without an amazing lobster feast!

That's son-in-law Sean "guarding" them! In all, Vickie and Sandra cooked and cut in half 26 1.5 pound lobsters in one hour and 50 minutes! I'm pretty sure that that is a world record. Even the drive through the beautiful Annapolis Valley was fun- especially with a sky like this!

Not too shabby, huh?

Meantime, our other daughter and her family were enjoying their weather in Freeport, Grand Bahama, where life is slowly returning to normal after Hurricane Dorion.

I am supposed to get my second bionic hip on Feb. 24th. It's a Monday so I hope they don't make hips like they make cars! The timing is good as I should be ready to go when it's time to open the shop in the spring.

I was involved in a very interesting test project for Hi-Tech (lapidary products) and have just sent in my results. If you are interested in lapidary, watch this space as I may be able to let you in on it at some point.

Cheers and best to all!

Doodling on Steroids!

At one time or another, I'm sure most of us have doodled. But I doubt very many of us have ever "doodled" quite like this.
Our daughter Lisa volunteers with the humane society where she lives- in Freeport, Grand Bahama. The society is having a 50th anniversary fund raising gala (as with most such ventures they are chronically underfunded) and Lisa asked Vickie if she would donate a piece of her art for auction as she has in the past.
Vickie agreed but then the creative juices took over and not only did she come up with an art idea, she hit on a real promotional opportunity. The theme of the gala is "Black and White and Gold" so she decided to do something in keeping with the theme and work they do.
A big part of the humane society's work is rounding up local wild dogs- called Potcakes- to be spayed and neutered. So Vickie decided to draw a Potcake- in her own unique way.

This is a drawing method called Zentangles and it is a real skill to choose patterns that won't obliterate what the image is.
Since she and Lisa liked it so much and since the humane society also handles a lot of cats, Vickie decided to do a cat as well.

So now things have expanded somewhat. The images you see are going to be used to silk screen       t-shirts that will be sold by the society and then Vickie will add some shading and a bit of gold to the final art that will then be used to produce sets of cards and finally auctioned off at the gala.
So if you like to draw, give it a try. It is supposed to be very relaxing although I think choosing the patterns would drive me nuts!
And if you ever want to donate to a worthy cause, check out the Humane Society of Freeport.
I have been working on ear rings recently and the next blog will show some examples.
The days are getting longer and it is almost time to put the sign back up by the road and open for business. Hope to see you at some point.
Cheers!