Still in progress...(and a shopping tale)

Here are the two paintings I have been working on this week. They need to be glued and sewn to the border paper before I might call them done. I feel very happy with them both. I only wish I had better pictures of them for you. Soon I will buy a scanner to get a proper picture that does them justice. The rocking chair one reminds me of the room in the house I grew up that we called great-grandma's room. It was yellow with a floral pattern. I guess something about the wallpaper reminded everyone of her. (The same great-grandmother who made me the stool) I should paint that stool into one of my paintings... hmmmm....

Completely unrelated: Ema and I dropped Lili off at Becca's this afternoon (Thanks a million Beccer!) and went in search of a dress to wear to Christine's wedding this coming week in Nicaragua (remember this?) Now keep in mind that the beginning of the holiday season and winter is not the ideal time to find a dress for a poolside, 90 degree wedding. After searching through endless racks of sweater-dresses and thick, velvety, black dresses at Ross and TJ Max, Ema convinced me to go to the Dillard's Outlet. And...It was like a movie- or maybe from my dreams. I typically hate shopping because I never feel like I fit in anything right. But I found score upon score with Ema cheering me on the whole way. All of these already marked down cute dresses (between $10-$18) were 60% off that price! My problem was not that I couldn't find a dress, it was that I had to narrow it down. What a problem... sigh* I settled on this cute, sassy, bold dress with a taffeta layer underneath that Ema brought into the dressing room at the last minute. Then I bought these slightly gaudy (but totally cute at the same time) yellow shoes to go with it. It was a shopping victory. The only downside is that I will clash with Alex. Oh well... It can't be too perfect or that would be boring.