Happy, happy! Joy, joy!

Happy 17th birthday to my darling daughter, Lauren! Its been hard for her to even think about her birthday as this is the week of the fall play. Tonight is Patron's Night and technically the first show. Danny and I have tried to make sure the play didn't overshadow her special day.

But even in all the craziness, she followed in her mother's footsteps and wore a tiara to school today to remind folks it was indeed her birthday. I usually make her a beautiful cake and in my over ambitiousness, I failed and made her what could possibly be the UGLIEST cake EVER!

I have never tried icing/decorating a 3-tier cake. Bottom layer is chocolate, middle is yellow, and the top is white cake. In addition, I used raspberry jam between the layers (YUM!!) I had meant for the colors to be brown, dark orange/red and then light orange. As you can see, that did not happen. Oh well..... The good news is I will be signing up for a cake decorating class for the month of December.
Michael, Danny, and I got cards and gift cards and snuck them in her lunch. And when she came home she got her present --- a black portfolio for her artwork. This Sunday, she will be having "tea" with 3 of her friends at Carolina Inn (same place we got married). Also, Sue and the boys stopped by and decorated the door to her room.
And she reported that there were small gifts and cards from friends at school. I'm so glad she had such an awesome day, she deserves it. I just can't believe she's 17. What happened to all the time? It seems like only yesterday she came into the world a whopping 9.5 lbs...... about the same weight as that cake!!

What My Eyes See

Finally .... an evening that didn't require us to gulp down dinner and drive the kids somewhere. SO ... we put on a romantic playlist on the iPod. Turned down the lights. Lit some candles. Got a small bowl of munchies. Poured a nice glass of Portuguese wine.

And for the first time I did something with my husband I've never really done with him before. I drew him. Yes, I dusted off my sketch pad and dug around for my drawing supplies. As he worked on his computer, I drew him.

I can't remember the last time I drew for the sheer joy of drawing. It is both an exciting and terrifying feeling. I'm finally going to take the plunge and sign up for a community painting/studio class starting in January. I can't wait, but I'm nervous.

Well, here is my first portrait of my Danny. And its my first "work" as the artist Jacqueline Dulin.

This is my drawing.

This was my subject (but live not a pic).


I superimposed my drawing over the pic I took and was pleasantly surprised I got most of his proportions right! This means my eyes still work!

Say it ain't so Joe

Thank you God its over. Thank you God for peaceful transition and the democratic process with flaws and all.

Thank you that in the end, life will always have change, and that God never changes.

And although I voted for her, does anyone else find Elizabeth Dole creepily overly plastic surgerized???

But it was a romantical election day. My husband and I stood in line together at the fire station holding our cup of coffee huddle under an umbrella for our turn to vote. Yeah, it was weird for us to vote for the first time in our lives in any other state than the Old Dominion.