A Lot of Catching Up

I can't believe it's been 3 months since I've posted. Time really got away from me/us. The first of March I attended a portrait workshop by Clayton Beck, awesome, awesome. I was intimidated going in - some artist/instructors can be rather arrogant and undiplomatic. So I usually go and keep my mouth shut. There's always one person ( usually a guy) who is a know it all and starts out name dropping and brown nosing. Invariably they are the ones who make the biggest mess. We did live model portrait sketches - each one was 3 hours or less. I was getting a little concerned because he never came by my canvas. He finally walked up behind me and just stood there for about 3 minutes and said nothing. The he said "the only thing you need to do is soften the edges around the mouth", turned around and walked off. So I felt pretty good after that. I learned a lot and plan to attend some more of his workshops - don't think I want to go to China tho.

The family weekend was planned for Easter weekend and as fate would have it, Mom L took a rapid turned for the worse and died the Monday before Easter. We buried her Thursday, it's like she knew all the family would be here. Mouse, Poppy and I were with her until the end. D, T, T's mother and Dav were there also. Hospice was there and absolutely wonderful. It happened a little sooner that we thought it would, but it was such a blessing. She was so clueless and had gotten to the point of not being able to do anything for herself. The nursing home was outstanding and she was truly one of their pets.

The "annual" crawfish boil was great. In addition to the usual family, we invited friends. Tia and Bobbles bought 2 bags of crawfish form Louisiana. Our "daughter" from Atlanta made it and other "daughter", husband and 2 little ones came too. They camped out in the front yard. Such a wonderful ending to a sad week. Truly, there is nothing to compare to family and friends.