Paint Night, Baby J and Cheesy Zucchini and Red Onion Flatbread

     During the Pandemic lockdown I really missed sharing a paint night with my sister Lisa and our friend Lupe. The three of us are like the Three Amigos and at times like the Three Stooges, depending on how much wine and how many shots of Agavero we've shared. But no matter what, we always have fun.

    Here's a photo of the three of us, it's pretty old, I believe from 2019, but I just love this one. 

    Because of the health of my mom she and I were very careful to stay in quarantine to prevent her getting sick, so paint night was put on hold until this past Saturday night, June 11th. 

    We had planned to get together at 5pm at my house, but Lisa and Lupe surprised me by showing up at around 4:30! They caught me still prepping and I didn't even have time to change the grungy t-shirt I was wearing, so needless to say there are no pictures that I allowed to be taken of me that night!

    However we did take pictures of almost everything else, but let's start with the food we shared. 

    Lupe brought our appetizer, a veggie tray with snap peas, carrots, broccoli, celery, baby tomatoes and ranch dressing. Wish we had a picture!!! Picture or not, it was so good!

   As for a beverage, we started the festivities with a shot of our favorite tequila, Agavero. It was delicious. I had bought two kinds of wine because I know some people don't really like wine and I didn't remember if Lupe did, so I bought a very mellow and sweet Stella Rosa, cause everyone loves Stella Rosa wines. I also bought a 2019 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon as I'm partial to Cabs. I don't remember who had what but after a shot of Agavero and half a glass of Cab I was not so worried anymore about people showing up early!

    By this time the Cheesy Zucchini and Red Onion Flatbread was done and we had that with a mixed spring salad on the side with Italian Dressing. Again no photo, but I have blogged the recipe, so here's a picture and a link to the recipe is HERE. 

    We then cleaned up and what I like best about these two ladies is that they jump in and help! Then it was time to get down to painting.

    But before I talk about the painting, we had a special guest. Someone that has made multiple appearances on my blog, someone near and dear to my heart, Baby J!!! She is Lisa's granddaughter. Here's one of the first pictures I posted about her on the blog back on Sept, 2014. 

    She and I have done numerous Art Projects every time she visits and it was so fun to have her join us for the first time ever for Paint Night. Here she is, all grown up and beautiful!

    I'll show her artwork first. She painted a bunny rabbit peeking out from the left side of the canvas. She's only halfway through in this photo, but you can tell she's pretty pleased with her work so far!

    Here is her final piece, she did an excellent job and she is the smartest, funniest, most insightful child ever. She astonished us with her knowledge and her vocabulary is over the moon. I know she's my niece but I'm not exaggerating, it's a flippin' genius!

    Here's the piece Lupe started, none of us really had time to completely finish our art piece, except for Baby J, but we got a good start. Lupe is wanting to try stenciling designs on some of her walls at home, so she took the opportunity to stencil on a canvas board and we all loved where this is going and hope she frames this once she is done. (You can see the intensity on Baby J's face in the background as she works on her painting.)

    Lisa decided to work on what was to me a very difficult piece, but I love what she's got so far and it's going to be beautiful once she is done. There's a waterfall in the middle part there that is not painted in yet.

    I had purchased a book for Lisa when we had our road trip to Ojai a couple of weeks ago and there was a photo in that book that I really wanted to try painting, here's the photo.

    And here's what I've done so far, I have quite a ways to go and in the photo it looks like the sun setting behind the tree, but in mine it looks more like dusk already, so I may add some stars and then paint the tree over it, not sure yet.

    We also had a surprise visit from Baby J's dad and Lisa's son Sean, who is a police officer with our local police department. Since he was there my mom took the opportunity to give him a handmade quilt she was making for his birthday but she couldn't wait until January of next year. She's so proud of him!

    He just stayed for a second as he was on a break and had to go back on duty, but it was wonderful to see him and I am so grateful to him for sharing Baby J with us all these year. Love you Sean!

    I will end this post with a photo of the joyful chaos that was on my kitchen table that night. I hope Baby J remembers this night, but if not this blog post will always be here for her, as well as all the other blog posts since 2014. 

    Thank you Lisa and Lupe and when can we do this again!

60 is the new 40

On July 20th I reached a milestone in my life...the big 60! Seriously? 60? Where did 60 years go? They went by like a dream and sometimes like a nightmare!

Does this look like the face of a 60 year old?  Well...maybe  a little bit around the eyes, but those aren't wrinkles they're laugh lines.

Everyone keeps telling me that 60 is the new 40 but I don't know....my 40's were pretty great and my body felt pretty great and now I'm a bundle of aches and pains. 

Nothing an Aleve can't take care of, but still you kinda have to think about it before you jump out of bed in the morning, and of course you no longer jump, you gingerly step out to make sure that your legs and/or feet aren't asleep!

The one thing for sure you can't stop is getting older. Well, I guess you can stop it, death would end aging really quickly so it's not an alternative worth contemplating!

But I'm not complaining about getting older because I had the best birthday ever!

I took my actual birthday off from work. Our employer gives us that day as our gift from them, plus they sent me a lovely gift VISA gift card. 

My coworkers went off their diets so we could all have cake...delicious cake!

My co-worker/friend Angelica also knows me so well and gifted me this awesome Art Set that I can take with me anywhere so I always have art supplies at hand! Thank you Angelica!

On my actual birthday, my sister and our friend Lupe both took the day off, as did I, and we headed off to Pismo Beach. We stopped along the way for some shopping which is always fun. We also stopped at a new place we've never been to named Chulo's Cafe & Cantina where we had the most fabulous Carnitas Nachos ever! Their Margarita left a lot to be desired but they made up for it with the nachos. I can't wait to go back.

Carnitas Nachos at Chulo's Cafe & Cantina

Then we just sat on the beach enjoying being somewhere where it was not 104 as it was back home. It was overcast and I was actually a bit chilly but I kept remembering how hot it was back home and enjoyed being cold!

For dinner we headed to Cayucos where we walked on the pier to build up an appetite. Here's my sister and I on the pier. You can see how foggy it was but when we left Shafter it was already 85 degrees and we were dressed for the heat!

We found a lovely little place to have dinner in Cayucos called Duckies Chowder House. I had the BEST fish and chips ever with an ice cold Tecate beer. It was fabulous and a great way to end my birthday and face the long drive home.

Thank you Lisa and Lupe for celebrating my 60th birthday with me and for treating me like a Queen for a Day!

When my friends found out on Facebook that it was my 60th birthday and that I tried to stay under the radar with that info, they were not having it and this past Friday, August 3rd they all got together to celebrate me yet again!

Here's a few photos from that celebration where I had a great time with a Giant Margarita, A Cake made of Money and a real cake, plus spending time with the greatest group of people it has ever been my pleasure to know. Thank you Pat, Linda, Connie, Diana, Carmen, Angelica, Lupe, Lisa, Pauline, Joe and Guero!

Me, Carmen, Diana, Connie and Pat 

Me, Angelica, Lupe, Lisa and Carmen and my giant Margarita!

The Gang

Me and my sister Lisa and my Cake of Money. A beautiful creation by my friend Pat. Thank you Pat!

 "Youth is a Gift of Nature, but Age is a Work of Art" - Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

You my friends and family are part of the rich tapestry of my life. 

Happy Birthday Alicia and remember, "Do not regret growing older. It's a privilege denied to many".