Bunches of Birthdays and a Trip to Arizona!

Tomorrow, Sunday the 5th of October, is Max's Birthday. So, today I have been cooking and will be doing the same tomorrow morning. Because I have been on a diet for the past week and a half...I am beginning to crave some comfort food...which for me is Italian food! I have lost 5 1/2 lbs. I have about 10 to go and I will be happy (difficult for me being of Italian descent! Sweet Max thinks I am just fine.....and truthfully if I loose to much I do look a little sickly. I am making crusty Italian bread, a delicious herb/olive oil dipping sauce for the bread, Ravioli with ricotta/spinach filling, Pesto, an antipasto salad and a chocolate cake to die for! One day splurge and back to the eating plan. I was also requested to make cinnamon rolls...good grief! As I have gotten older and the kids are all grown I don't bake very often...fortunately for me.... but it is a special occasion so I will...lovingly. The spinach, pasta and ricotta, basil for the pesto, herbs for the dipping sauce and tomato's and pepper for the salad are all home grown minus chemicals. The flavors are so much better in homegrown foods! The large painting I started a while back is my gift to Max. I have called "Drunken Poets Dream" It is a song by Hayes Carll that we both like...If you look up the words they are a little wild...not to imply that we are! I am not sure what the kids are getting him....but I am sure it will be well thought out and with love....even if it is just phone call. So we will be making merry and having a few drinks this Sunday.
On the same subject of birthdays my dear friend Jacquie who lives in Arizona has her birthday tomorrow also. The painting "Bottom of the Glass" is of her and is in her possession. It was done a few years ago. Packing will begin sometime next week.
On the art front....I am having a few paintings reframed to send to Kansas City. Cherry the owner of the gallery I am in is doing the framing and does a beautiful job! I completely trust her judgment. I have been accepted into a show put on by the Artists of Northwest Arkansas. There are 11 states that enter the show and there has been some very stiff competition not to mention a ton of entries! I expect the competition to be even stiffer this year. My painting "The Golden Hour" was picked for exhibition. In the past I have won Second Place there twice and Best Oil Painting once. Maybe one day I will win Best of Show and then I won't have to enter anymore! I was also advised that the Thomas Hart Benton Show at Crowder College, which I received Best of Show two years running, has decided that if I enter and win Best of Show again they will make an award in my name and give me signature status. I can't tell you how honored I am or how lucky and grateful I am.
Here around the house we have been picking up walnuts and pecans for cracking...ugh! A nice but tedious chore to do by the fire in the evenings while watching TV or listening to music. So far there 8 sacks full. We have been harvesting and cleaning up the yard to ready it for winter. Still have a ways to go but it is looking better all the time. I still need to unpack one room since I moved in here in June. I have been busy with so many things but the holidays are coming and we intend to have party here at the house so it would probably be a good idea to finish the living room...which we have two of in this old Victorian.
That's about it for now, the bread is calling me, there is still much more to say but it will have to wait!!!