It's Showtime!!!!!

Thursday evening we set up our show and Friday evening there was a special showing for a Rotary group.   Today was day one of the actual start of sales and meeting the public.  It was a good day.

Thanks for checking in on the progress of it...........another long day on Sunday.

Memorial Day

Jesse T. Burgus  1917-2000

I blog a lot about my dad's war days and how it effected our family so I won't do much more than just remember the day.  He loved Memorial Day purely because it was one more day that recognized all veterans of this nation.  Dad never ever felt that he had received much for all that he had given up in his youth.  I wished he had been alive and would have been able to see the Memorial in Washington D.C.  He would have smiled and cried through it all.

Art show a'comin........

 

We spent 12 yours yesterday getting ready and putting up our display for the two day art show.  We have some tweaking to do this evening before the pre show to special members of the Rotary.  Saturday and Sunday will be the two days for the event and maybe I will sell something. 

Paintings do become like friends or a part of you so it is sometimes hard to let them go.  The barn at top I painted in oil many years ago but I finally reframed it. I have it ready to be taken away to go to another good home. It had a bad frame on it and I think I was trying not to sell it.  With the age of prints, I can make so many copies of the original so I don't feel like I am totally loosing anything.  I know the original is so much better than the print but our prints are really very good.

I am back at school today and will finish off my day as an art teacher. Been there, done that as you know.

Thanks for stopping by............I will be clicking lots of pictures the next couple of days to share the event .

Too busy but......

I do have lots of excuses as to why I don't  have any pictures taken for my Creative Zone.  One of the photos I would have taken is the dozen or so art works that have been framed or matted ready to go to the show this weekend.  We work from the time I get home from school until 9:00.  We took breaks to see one of our shows on tv but we were at it for a long time last night.  I have a shortened day today at school so there will be more time to work. 

Our school's volleyball team is going to play at state on Thursday and it is 133 miles away from here.  They canceled school for that day and will make it up later in the year. The day off is a blessing as we have to set up our show in Perry on Thursday evening from 4:00 until 8:00.  The last show we did we had only 45 minutes or so to set up so this will be another great thing for us to have plenty of time.

"A Brave New Journey" was the first painting that I created after leaving the teaching field three and a  half years ago. I don't have the heart to sell it but I will be selling prints of it at the show. My wife and I have done one other show together but this one is a longer time period and we are actually getting a little excited about it.  I know we will be tired but it will be a good tired.

I will try to get photos  of our on  going work in the gallery right now including the mess and maybe can get them posted tomorrow.  My wife has been painting a lot and we have some really great work framed for this show.

Thanks for stopping by.............snow on the ground a much needed rain came our way the last 24 hours.

Tuesday's a white day.

They keep hanging in there.  It is warmer close to the house so I have these petunias that just can't quit.

Another milk glass find from the burn pile.  It is actually a caster plate to put underneath a roller on a bed.  I have only one and it is just another of my collectible valuables.

My last piece is one that I call stoneware, even though it is described as being made by a china company.  I guess china is just a higher fired piece compared to a lower fired clay everyday bowl.  I assume this is from an old cafe.  I use to eat oatmeal from a bowl like this every morning. I found this in the back of a cupboard in the old farm house and I really don't think the history of it is know.

Thanks for stopping by....I am an middle school english teacher today, again!

The last thing that I grabbed.......

I was feeling badly that we had finally finished the cleaning out of the house.  I am very glad to have sold it.  I went into the garage one last time and picked up some padded moving blankets that my brother had in there for some reason. I looked around in the garage and opened cupboard doors just to see if there was anything left that I had missed.

On the wall was this beat-up hammer and nailed to the wall above the counter was this thermometer.  I don't know where my dad found this as he was not in the farm business by the time he built this garage.  I know he had not done business with them but I just decided it needed to come home with me.

Lorimor, Iowa is a very small town, west and near the Murray, Iowa area.  My mom was born in a farmhouse in 1919,  north of there between Lorimor and Winterset, Iowa, the covered bridge town.  The house that my grandfather built north of Murray in the country was moved into Lorimor.  So the connection to this metal thermometer is greater just because of the stories I can tell about it.

I really will have to see if the business still exists today in the town.  I doubt they are on the internet so it will have to be a phone book search.

I did an internet search and found some items on sale as collectibles for the Roseman Feed and Milling.  I also was reminded that the covered bridge that was used for the movie, "Bridges of Madison County",  was named the Roseman bridge.

It is a busy week for us and Monday kicks off with me being at school.  School is cancelled on Thursday as our volleyball girls are playing at state on that day at noon.  The day off will help me to get things done for the art show that we are participating in on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  We will be weary after it is over but I am hoping that it will be a fun experience for us both.

Thanks for stopping by to check out my blog.  Rain is coming tonight and we do need it.

Saturday's late posting

My wife and I had a very busy day.  One of the things we accomplished was to go to the house in Osceola and mow, mulch the leaves for the last time ever in my lifetime.  The closing is going to be happening in the next ten days.

The amazing thing that I saw in my parents yard was the blanket of red leaves on the ground around their burning bush.  It was quite a sight and I refused to mow them.  I think they just can be enjoyed by everyone instead.

I have mixed emotions about being done with the home.  It has been an eight year journey of first losing my Dad in 2000 and then in 2008 losing my Mom and then my brother within a three month period.  Having the house now sell and the place being readied for the new buyer is a good feeling.  The taking of the last of the items from the house that remind me of my parents was tough.

It is all done now and we can now move on with our lives.  As my wife said, she and I have really fond memories of the times we worked down there together as the house started taking shape and reaching it's completion.  We would snack on Subway's in the living room on boxes and rest between all that we had to do.

We would laugh at me making inquires to two different electricians about a ceiling light problem.  Finally I discovered that my mom was putting burned out light bulbs back into the sleeves and I just needed to buy new bulbs.  I am glad I never had an electrician come to the house.

Time flies and we move on now.  We are tired from the day and yet have accomplished a lot finishing up things for our art show and getting down to finish up the yard work.

Thanks for stopping by to visit my blog.

For those who are confused about the farm situation, my wife's dad had a farm and we are still in the working stages of getting that cleaned up for an eventual sale.  I don't know how long that will take as it has already been a long hard process this past few months.  I have mentioned it off and on but it is all too confusing to explain the complications of that situation. I have cut a lot of trees down and we have just begun.