Where did the week go?

Nothing real exciting this past week. Just meetings and an attempt to get a carving done  so it can be put into a fund raising auction.
Weather: It will be in the high forties today and 50's tomorrow. Is this really the end of January, I fear February is in the wings waiting to attack.

The Weather

Snowstorm on Friday with about 7" of snow, last night a thunder storm and in the 40's today. Most of the snow is gone except  where it was piled up. Should have waited before I had the plow guy plow the driveway.lol.  Karrie's birthday is today. We celebrated yesterday by going out to lunch. She's not a cake eater so I made her bread pudding and brownies in lieu of a birthday cake.

Waiting

Waiting for the snow to start. I'm hoping it isn't too bad this morning, I'm trying to get a haircut and have an 11:45 appointment.

Here is the latest carving. I plan on giving it to a friend's son who will earn his Eagle Scout rating soon. I'm also going to make another to give to my nephew, Brad. He became an Eagle Scout a few years back, but once an Eagle Scout always an Eagle Scout.

After Lunch

Here are the ladies that lunch plus two men.

Two of my friends, June and Bonnie, that I used to work with

Julie Hyzy signing my book.

I thought I would see a few of my artist friends at the lunch, but they were busy. The lunch was good. Salad, chicken breast, rice, carrots, rolls and baked apple for dessert. Julie Hyzy[pronounced high-zee] spoke about her writing career and how she came upon writing the books about the White House Chef. We all received a book and she signed them. So now I have the first book and last book in the series and I'll have to buy the three in between. She has recipes in  all of the books.
My friend Bonnie[above] remembered that I belong to a quilting group and emailed me that she had a bunch of material from a deceased aunt. I said when can we get together and she said she was going to The Center to hear this author and I was going there too. So I now have a bunch of material in the back of my car. I will need to have someone remove it as the containers are very heavy.

Lunch

I'm going to the Center for lunch to hear author Julie Hyzy. I read one of her books State of the Onion and liked it. It is about a chef in the White House. Her new book is Affairs of Steak. She has a few books in the White House Mysteries series. Should be fun.

More Drawing

Still practicing my drawing of faces. I did this one last night. I hope my carving doesn't suffer, but I think not, my first love is wood.

Drawing

I've been practicing my drawing and did a self portrait from a photo. What do you think, does it look like me?

Nick's

I won a $10 gift certificate to Nick's for being the closest to guessing the score of a Bear game. Nick's is the place in Lemont that serves 1/2# hamburgers. I took Ben, our intern and Stephanie, his wife because they have never been there and I wouldn't go in to Nick's on my own. She had a chili dog and said it was very good, he had a cheeseburger and finished it all. I had a hamburger and no, I didn't finish it.
Tomorrow I am meeting a few folks at the Front Street Cantina for a little birthday party for one of our Church members. Before that is our monthly Cut & Sew group that sews quilts that are given to homeless shelters in Joliet.

Phil's Friends

I went to the ribbon cutting of Phil's Friends new quarters. Phil started in his basement, then moved to a store front and now is in much larger quarters with an office for Phil and cubicles for the staff and tables for volunteers to pack care packages. In case you are not familiar with Phil's Friends, it is a Christ centered ministry started by a young  man who fought cancer twice and won. His group sends out care packages to cancer patients and then follows up with weekly cards. He is now ministering to over 900 people that are suffering from cancer. Their motto is We Bring Hope.

Now I'm off to buy pencils so I can practice drawing portraits.

After Art Class

I'm back home after a 2 hour art class and will show you what I learned. The picture on the left is what I drew before we started, the one on the right is after instructions.



 This is the last picture I drew using a newspaper model. Overall I think I did pretty good and look forward to the Drawing 101 class the Maggie Poplowski is doing in February. That will be a 3 session class.



Art Class

I'm taking an art  class today at the Lemont Center for the Arts. It is teaching portrait drawing, which I think will help me in my carving.

Tomorrow, I plan on going to Phil's Friends new opening of  much larger quarters. This way I can get rid of the fuzzy socks I bought before Christmas at a great price. They use these socks in their care packages.

The weather continues to be nice and sunny. Snow stay away, I haven't fretted about my driveway so far this winter.

A Good Day

I saw my Oncologist yesterday and he said everything looks good to keep up the good work. I don't know if he realizes, that I have nothing to do with my health, it's all in God's hands. So thank you God for keeping me healthy this past year.
Today is another nice sunshiny day, a little chilly but nice. I think we all or most of us can appreciate this weather.  Sorry snow bunnies.