It's been a long time comin'

Here is what I wrote a little while ago that I thought I lost................(it was just hiding)

Well. Well. Well. Long time since I've posted. Not that I haven't tried. I've tried and tried and tried. But all I could ever do was type in a title and then Mr. Blogspot refused to let me write inside the text box. I kept getting an error message and frustration set in until I finally gave up. (Have you guessed that I'm not much of a techie?) Tonight I decided to try one more time and SUCCESS!!

So I'll give you a brief update.

The most wonderful thing that happened to me since my last post in March (really? a year ago?) was that on May 29th my grandbaby Josephine was born. I am over the moon with happiness since my daughter, my only child, swore to me she was never having children. I accepted that no one would ever call me Grannie Annie, but that is no longer the case. Josephine is a joy and I'm very excited that this coming weekend I'll be going to Colorado to hug and kiss and cuddle and spoil her. This photo was from last Christmas and my husband Ed played Santa.

Last summer Ed and I took a trip to Europe. We spent five glorious days in Paris where we met up with Judy Belcher and Julie Eakes. How exciting is THAT? Catching up with old friends in Gay Paree?

Then Ed and I took the train to Toulouse where we met up with my friend Jane and some other artists to attend a workshop with Dayle Doroshow at La Cascade in Durfort. What a marvelous time we had. We created art, went on excursions (don't get me started on how fabulous the flea markets were) and we got to see the Tour de France. Ed spent several years as a cycling coach so he was over the moon.

(That is Ed in the red shirt taking photos as the cyclists zoomed by.)

From there we went to Lausanne, Switzerland, where I lived for 14 years. The view from our rented apartment was spectacular!

(That is Lake Geneva (Lac Leman) in the background)

In September I hosted a workshop with Tracy Verdugo and it was fabulous. Tracy is a wonderful, inspiring teacher and a gentle spirit. We had lots of fun hanging out together. When the workshop was over, she gifted me with her demo piece "The Owl and the Pussycat". What a thrill. It now hangs over our fireplace and the piece I painted now hangs over my mom's bed.

The end of the year was here before we knew it (time passes more and more quickly it seems) and I have lots of fun things planned for the coming months. Just this past weekend I attended "An Artful Journey" in Los Gatos, California - a wonderful three days in Danielle Daniel and Mindy Lacefield's workshop. Here I am holding the doll I made and one of the pages I created in my new journal.

Lots more to come. Now that I've discovered how to post again there may be no stopping me!!!