another sunset?

Everyday, the Texas sky has a beautiful surprise!!

and everyday, there is a farm animal around the corner!!

but a buffalo ?   don't see that everyday.

Through my son’s eyes

For those of you who follow my posts on a regular basis, you know that I started a new job 4 weeks ago. The nursing home/rehab business is beyond busy. I have been working 10 hour days, six day weeks with no lunch and I could stay 24 hours and there would still be work to do. For me, that is a good thing. When I work, I work. I love to be busy. The day flies by. The bad thing is, I have run out of dish detergent, toilet paper, hair spray, laundry detergent, bleach, everything you can imagine. And all at once, mind you. This is so unlike me. I am always on top of those things. I haven’t cooked a meal, but once, in those four weeks. I LOVE to cook. I am exhausted. I am not whining, I just want you to know that my creativeness is asleep. I haven’t had time to take any photos. So with that said, I started going through my son’s photos that are on my computer. They make me smile. Us girls love pretty things to take pictures of ~ decor or gardening photos are our preference. For boys, not so much. 

I am missing my boy because he is living his life to the fullest these days. A new love. Great buddies. His work. So, I am going to get close to him by posting his photos for you to see. They are pretty. Just pretty to a man's eye.  I hope you enjoy them! 

 

I paint roses on vintage finds. He paints pin-striping. He’s his mother’s son!

He appreciates a stormy sky!

Of course a guy thinks this is quite funny. Me, not so much. They ruin the lawn!! These lovely creatures live on a farm nearby and the old farmer’s fence fell over. They don’t know the difference. Grass is grass~ whether it grows free from God, or someone spent $3,000 to put a Bermuda lawn in. Same difference to them! Luckily this was not my lawn. 

Dirt is pretty to the male species. And Red Dirt that stains everything ~ All the better!

And BIG tires. BIG DIRTY TIRES. That makes their hearts pound and palms sweat!

Now, just so you know what kind of son I have. He bought me my laptop. He knew I would never fork out $1,000 for something that I didn’t need. I had a working desktop ~ it was out of date, it ran slow, the monitor was going out. It basically worked. But oh, how I LOVE my laptop. I never could have started blogging with my outdated computer. He used this photo above as my desktop wallpaper. Afterall, it is shabby chic, vintage chippy …. is he sweet or what! He didn’t think I would leave it on for long, but I love it and so it stays !

Photos through my son’s eyes.

Such a guy! XXOO

Sunday “Date Day” ~ The Soloist

Date day was with my son for Mother’s Day.  He took me to this movie and to lunch (Mexican, what else!)

click pic to view & listen

I wanted to see The Soloist because I am a fan of actors Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr.   Sometimes I just see a movie because I want to watch the actors perform.  This movie was quiet and slow.  The music was mesmerizing.  The actors in my opinion were exceptional.  The ending was very touching.  Cry-o-meter, for me,  ~ a seven (7). This movie is based on a true story and chronicles Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez and homeless schizophrenic Nathaniel Ayers, who was once a musical prodigy.  The two form an unlikely friendship in which Lopez feels compelled to fix Nathaniel’s circumstances.  In the end both must accept the limitations of such a fragile relationship. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

Greater Los Angeles area alone, there are 90,000 homeless people. Homeless due to all kinds of unfortunate circumstances ~ it is beyond my comprehension.
We all have ups and downs in our lives, but we must admit, we virtually live in a bubble. There is so much that goes on around us that we are unaware of or choose not to look at.  It is painful, so why would we want to introduce unnecessary pain into our lives on a daily basis?  Homelessness, poverty, abuse, starvation, war, murder, abduction, mental illness, cancer, degenerative disease and aging.  The list goes on and on.  And here we sit, pounding away on our laptops with our pretty things around us, our fancy cameras, vacations on our minds, food in our cupboards, recipes and pretty decorated cupcakes to share, healthy & happy children.  The list goes on and on. 

It is ok to have the happiness and beauty in our lives that we are so fortunate to have.  It is not ok to turn away from the sadness and ugliness in the world and not look it in the eye because it is too painful for us. 
Each and everyone of us can or will be there one day. A loss of a job, an illness, a disease, divorce, death of a spouse ~ any one of those things can turn our life upside down.  If we just remember that, and always offer a smile, a touch, a look directly in the eye of someone who is in need of a connection or validity that they may have been us at one time, or could have been us.  That is the least we can do.  This is what I took away from the film.  It wasn’t depressing, it was touching and eye-opening. 



Little tidbit about the actors:
Jamie Foxx (more info here)

Date of Birth

13 December 1967, Terrell, Texas, USA

Birth Name

Eric Marlon Bishop

Height

5' 9" (1.75 m)

Mini Biography

Jamie's mother, Louise, was an adopted child. When her marriage to his father failed, his grandparents, Mark and Estelle Talley, stepped in and, at age 7 months, adopted him too. He says he had a very rigid upbringing that placed him in the Boy Scouts and the church choir. During high school, he played quarterback for his high school team and was good enough that he got press in Dallas newspapers. He studied music in college. He released a music album in 1994, "Peep This" and sings the theme song for his 1999 movie, Any Given Sunday (1999). However, in 1989, his life changed when a girl friend challenged him to get up onstage at the Comedy Club. In fact, he says he took his androgynous stage name because he learned that women got preference for mike time on open stage nights. That led to his being cast in "Roc" (1991) and "In Living Color" (1990) and ultimately to his own WB network TV series. He has a daughter, Corrine, born in 1995, who lives with her mother.

Robert Downey, Jr. (there is much more than a tidbit - here)

Date of Birth

4 April 1965, New York City, New York, USA

Birth Name

Robert John Ford - Elias Jr.

Nickname

Bob

Height

5' 8½" (1.74 m)

Mini Biography

Robert John Downey Jr. was born in Greenwich Village, New York City, at 1:10 pm. He's the son of underground filmmaker Robert Downey Sr.. His first part in a movie was in his father's Pound (1970), in which 5-year-old Downey played a puppy. When he was 20 years old, he joined _Saturday Night Live_ (1985) for one season. After that, he went to Hollywood. In 1987, he got the leading role in director James Toback's film The Pick-up Artist (1987), co-starring with Molly Ringwald. The same year, he played drug addict Julian Wells in the movie Less Than Zero (1987). In 1992, he played Charles Chaplin in Sir Richard Attenborough's film Chaplin (1992). For his astonishing performance, he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In the year 2000, he guest-starred in the comedy series "Ally McBeal" (1997), where he portrayed the attorney Larry Paul, who became Ally's love interest. For that performance, he won the Golden Globe for "best supporting actor in a comedy series." On "Ally McBeal" (1997), Downey got to show that he can sing as well as act, when he sang Joni Mitchell's "River," "Chances Are" as a duet with Vonda Shepard, and "Every Breath You Take" together with Sting. He released one song of his own, "Snakes," on the "Ally McBeal" (1997) album "For Once in My Life," and a full album of his own work entitled "The Futurist" in 2005.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Wishing all moms a day full of sweets, beauty and fun!

And a very special Mother’s Day wish to my mom and all the beautiful women in my life … you all know who you are :) hugs

…and I can’t wait to spend the day with my son.

I also wanted to mention my first “giveaway” win!! Thank you to Debi from Lavender Chick!!

Here is what I won … it is magnificent and came just in time for Mother’s Day!! Debi owns Hummingbird Farms down in South Texas and she has developed a rich and creamy lavender lotion the consistency of a body butter. I look forward to visiting her one day on my way to Fredericksburg ~ and walk her farm.

And to top off this Mother’s Day post. Here is tonight’s sunset! All hubby had to do is come whisper in my ear, “honey, look at the sunset”. He knew I would jump up and run and get my camera!!! Amazing, each day is simply amazing.

Until next time ~ Cheryl

Mosaic photos from flickr: 1. Cotton Candy, 2. frangipannis, 3. Life is like a box of chocolate, 4. Picnic in the Past, 5. Pink rose, a peace offering to the world, 6. A Postcard From Amsterdam, 7. Strawberry Milkshake - Christchurch, New Zealand - fIMG_0573, 8. lets swing :), 9. Pink colour at sunset

random shots

I don’t have anything creative to show you, but here is what caught my eye this week, which, by the way, was full of rain and work. The above picture was right after it rained. The sky was a magnificent blue!!!

These two are full and happy. I know they don’t look happy …. but they are! Well, the one on the left was happy until I came along to take his picture. For some reason, they just don’t like their pictures taken. I also got a back shot of him the other day, but I won’t share that, just trust me that he is a BIG BOY!!!

When I found a new job, I was hoping I would be able to cross the lake on the way to and from work. I do!

Seeing the water, just makes me smile.

I have shared this abandoned gas station before, it is the one I thought would make a cute little shop! Today, I decided to get out of the car and capture the ivy. I loved how the ivy was growing on the piece of screen that was left on the door. Would make a sweet little porch, don’t cha think?

Have a great week! ~Cheryl