Friday's a Go........

Along the Lake Superior shore in Northern Minnesota is a park area that you can drive onto from the highway.  I do think it is a state park but I am not certain.  When you visit the area you are required to get on trails to see what is along the shoreline.  This area is called Shovel Point.  My wife  and I would stop there and find places to paint.  The wedge of granite stone is large.  One can follow a trail along the edge of the cliff and end up down to the shore.

We chose to take a steep trail down off of the area and set up on a penisuala made up of boulders.  It isn't the best place to set up things in order to paint but it gives us this view of the stone wedge. This painting has been in storage for a while, as we needed to use the glass that was on it for a quick frame job.  The painting is still matted but was upstairs leaning against a lot of other unframed works.  Anyone who is in the art world knows about the medium, oil pastel.  I did the work, rubbing the oil-like sticks of color onto paper. I like to describe the process to be like using lipstick only there isn't a metal or plastic tube around it. The paper helps a little to keep the oil crayon from melting in my hand.

I saw, while shopping today, different ornaments that portrayed stockings with presents inside. I took a little time to look at them in a high end store but I didn't buy any of them.  The shapes and kinds of modern decorations seem to be evolving into strange things now that they make them our of cast plastic.  Pink flamingos, cactus, hamburgers and green frogs are a few of the different new kinds of ornaments. I would like the ornaments to be more traditional and maybe even follow with a true Christmas-like theme.

Another vies of the village shows a house with a Queen Anne tower attached to the Victorian house. When the lights are on at night it is a very picturesque scene.

The big and small nutcracker guys guard the edge of the couch and teddy bear tree. I see that the market has decided to stock up on hundreds of them for sale. I am not a collector but I guess two makes a collection  I do appreciate them and their use as a decoration is good.

I shared another penguin ornament earlier this week and this one is my fancier girl.  A sister-in-law gave this to me one
Christmas a few years back when we were still exchanging presents at the time.  Life is sure easier now that we don't do that. The penguin has eyeshadow and rosy cheeks. I known of the items she holds is a purse but I don't know what the other item is, maybe a symbol for an umbrella. I think she has earmuffs on to keep her ears warm.

It is snowing right now this Friday morning but that will probably change to rain.  We need to make a trip to see my wife's friend today.  We may be driving through snowy roads at first but as we keep traveling south it will turn into rain. Our shopping is all done even though I need to return for one more thing that I forgot to buy for my wife.  I may get that done as we return home.

We have lots of wrapping to do, but the two of us can put large dents into the pile of items in quick time. The gifts we take to the kids in Illinois can be wrapped in the next two days. I will work at mailing out cards later today.  We never have our cards arrive on time and there has never been a complaint from anyone about them being late. We will just stay on status quo and keep on keeping on.  I hope everyone is doing well at this time and everyone is staying safe.  I thank you again for stopping by my post today.