Welcome Back, Fishducky and Blogger Friends Roland and Ron.

As some of you know, Fran, aka fishducky, is back to blogging after a major cancer surgery. Coming back so soon would be a great achievement at any age, but at the age of 79, well, it is pretty amazing! 

I wanted to welcome Fran back with a post about her fabulous stained glass art. I know I posted some of it before, but couldn't find it yesterday as I looked through my old posts. The actual photos must be in my old computer, pre-Picasa days, but hopefully saved somewhere else too.  

I found my favorite, the stained glass window from Fran's hall, this morning and posted it below. The pictures of the lamps are new to my blog.

This window is my favorite.

If you want to smile, giggle and laugh, and who doesn't, please go check Fran's very funny blog out here.

Welcome back, my friend. 

Thank you also for thinking of my blogger friends Roland and Ron. Roland is back, both to work and to blogging, which is so great. You can find his blog here.  Roland writes some amazing books, filled with literary and other famous characters doing magical things with time and place. If your mind works well with magical writing, you may want to order one of his books from amazon. I will write much more about Roland's books later, after I get my Kindle up and running. (Not as easy as you may think when you live out in the boondocks.)

And Ron, SophieDoodle's dad, who suffered a heart attack and had stents implanted, is home from the hospital and doing well. I know Jim and Sophie will make sure he has an uneventful, peaceful, recovery. You can read their lovely blog here.

fishducky's art corner

Pen-and-Ink Drawing by Fran, a.k.a. fishducky

This drawing speaks to me. Maybe that tower, perhaps it's called something else, with its three windows. I imagine a window seat there, a young girl sitting with her knees drawn up under her long skirt, daydreaming.


If you are in need of a good belly laugh, and who isn't, please click here to read fishducky's blog.

And if that doesn't do it, there's always her book; fishducky's take on famous fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and much, much more:

To purchase this book from amazon.com, please go to the bottom of my blog and click on the image. 

Fran: Something's wrong with your ducky. He looks OK in my download, but when I upload him, he comes out like this, I tried several times:  




P.S. Both Soldier and the vet survived the vet visit yesterday. More later. It was not fun, I'll tell you that much. But he's OK.

fishducky's art corner ~ THE MIRROR

It's been a couple of years since I posted about the mirror Fran, aka fishducky, made for us. Since then I have started fishducky's art corner, posts that feature her art, and both fishducky and I have made many new blogger friends. So, I thought, why not share the mirror again. It is a unique piece of art that I am very, very happy to own. 

fishducky's creative spirit stretches far and wide and some years ago she decided to make special mirrors for her family and friends. The mirrors would depict their lives, things they enjoyed and cared about. So the mirror we have in our home is a picture of our lives and what is important to us. And the vibrant colors fit perfectly with the crazy wall color of our living room and entrance hall.

fishducky asked my husband to make frames for all the mirrors, which he did. She then asked us to let her know what we most liked to do and what we valued in life. I submitted a list to her and she made this mirror for us.

The first square: Aren't people interesting? My husband is a people person, much more so than I, but I do find people interesting. Second: Have a long, happy marriage. Something we both wish for, of course, and so far it's been 26 years! And third: Love animals. And that we both do.

Go sailing. Something we loved to do at the time. Still would, but we're desert dwellers now and the boat has been sold.

The blue square: Yeah, team! Some of our most fun memories are from Dodger Stadium, when the Cubs, my team, came to town. We also enjoyed Pop Warner Football when our nephews were little. Next: Visit antique stores. That would be me. And below: Read a good book. Me again, as most of you know, I have loved reading my whole life.

Something you may not know about me is that I love miniatures. There was a dollhouse museum in Los Angeles, close by where I lived, and each time I went there I was in miniature heaven. So you can imagine how much I love these miniatures. An old-fashioned juke box: Listen to music. Something we both like to do. After that, a pretty flower in a frame: Go to the museum. I think we both like that, but it is definitely one of my most favorite things to do. And, finally, the cutest claw-foot bathtub: Soak in a bubble bath, with fishducky's signature ducky, a plaid towel, and a brush to scrub your back. Now how great is that?

Then to the top of the right side panel:

Where you find an acknowledgement of my husband's true love, cooking: Cook yummy food. It says on the little box that it contains Italia Mostaccioli, the very best from Italy. Underneath the cooking square, a butterfly rests: Isn't nature wonderful? Love of nature, dogs and cats was what brought us together. I knew my husband, who was my neighbor in Los Angeles, as a friend for many years, before…..

Then another couple of fabulous miniatures. A toolbox with actual miniature tools: Enjoy your work. My husband is now retired, but he has done fabulous work all over the Los Angeles area, including an addition to fishducky's house, as well as the housing for their elevator. And I have seen a gazebo he made, where the roof is floating on air, or so it seems. Then a pair of sneakers: Take a walk. We both love to walk and hike.

The first of the final two squares gives good advice: Celebrate life. Since this mirror was made sometime in the 90s, the computer below is old-fashioned by now, but I remember them well, these early ones with their floppy disks and simple screens: Keep up with the times. I took a minute to look at it through my magnifying glass necklace.  The sidebar offers the following functions: My Computer, Network Neighborhood, Inbox, and Recycle Bin. The screen says: e-mail and You Have Mail. The keyboard is accurate and on the top are a bunch of floppy disks and a cup of coffee. It doesn't get much better than this.

Again, thank you Fran for this very thoughtful gift. A unique and beautiful work of original art and a true treasure of ours. 

Click here to visit fishducky's very funny blog. Last night I was reading her latest post and laughing so hard, while crying out in pain from what this did to my injured rib, that my husband came to see if I was OK. That's how funny she is! 

fishducky's art corner

Pen-and-Ink Drawings by Fran, aka fishducky

The details of the last two drawings are incredibly tiny and fine; they were difficult to capture in these copies of copies. The originals are stunning. 

Click here to visit fishducky's Very Funny Blog!

fishducky's art corner

Asian Mother & Child ~ Pastel

Click here to read fishducky's Very Funny Blog!

fishducky's art corner & link to a very funny post

Black Women ~ Oil 

I love the strength of these women, as captured by the artist, our friend Fran, aka fishducky.

While this is a serious painting, fishducky has a sense of humor that just won't quit. Today, I went to her blog to read about the places where she definitely does not want to live. When I read her posts, I usually find several things that are funny, particularly when she writes about her own life. Today, I was in stitches the whole way through, so I must share this with you, please check it out here.

fishducky's art corner

Here's another treat by fishducky, titled Flood House, Menlo Park, 1879. Always interested in learning more about California history, I googled the house. (I would actually call it a mansion with castle aspirations, wouldn't you?)

I learned that James Clair Flood (1826-1889) was a silver magnate, who commissioned the San Francisco architectural firm of Laver, Curlett, and Lenzen in 1879 to design this three-story mansion in Menlo Park, a suburb of San Francisco. Mr. Flood maintained other palatial homes in the city and in other parts of the country, as was the custom of the very wealthy lumber, railroad, and mining barons of the time. The Flood family demolished it in 1936, but there are many other examples of these mansions still standing in California. And fortunately for us, fishducky has immortalized many of them in her pen-and-ink drawings.

Source: Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD)

FISHDUCKY'S BLOG - VERY FUNNY!

fishducky's art corner

Old Woman ~ oil

by Fran, a.k.a. our much loved fishducky

fishducky's art corner

 Ocean and Rocks ~ oil

Red Ocean ~ oil

The Red Ocean painting reminds me of the sunsets at La Jolla, CA. When I lived in San Diego, I used to drive over to La Jolla to watch the sun set, coloring the ocean red, just like in the painting. 

For those of you who are not familiar with fishducky, here's the link to her very funny blog, where she shares jokes and tells wonderful stories from her storied life: http://fishducky.blogspot.com/  Please check her out, you will not regret it!

fishducky's art corner

It's time for fishducky's art. ~ Enjoy!

Pen and ink drawings by fishducky. 

To see more of fishducky's art, her house, and her elevator that my hubby built, go to Popular Posts in my sidebar and click on: This is a Post About a Brilliant Idea.....

And to read her blog, go to: http://fishducky.blogspot.com/

You will get a kick out of her, I promise you.

And thank you so much, those of you who added your signatures to the petition to stop the donkey roping event. We were able to stop one donkey roping event earlier in the summer thanks to bloggers and other social media. I hope the states involved will make this act of animal cruelty illegal. I believe people are working to make that happen.

You guys are the best and I really appreciate your friendship.

Fishducky's Art Corner

Child ~ Pencil

Woman's Head ~ Charcoal

Fishducky's art corner is back and will be a regular feature of my blog in the coming year. I don't remember if I mentioned earlier that fishducky now has her own blog. If you are up for some interesting, sometimes strange, but always hilarious posts, please visit her at: fishducky, finally!  New posts appear there every Monday and Friday.