An Artsy Day

This morning, Dear Husband started applying stain/sealer to our back porch and came across another new chrysalis visitor: This is far different from Monarch chrysalisis (? what is the plural?). You can see how tiny it is with Dear Husband's stainy fingernail for comparison, and it has that neat kind of calico coloring with those wonderful golden beads attached. He called me out to see it, feeling very confident that it is due to emerge shortly.

This was the second Nature Call of the morning. Earlier, around 6:30 or so, I settled down in my Old Lady Lazy Boy to watch infomercials and knit on Cable Eight. Almost immediately, I was taken over by sweet Beau who found my lap irresistible, and he does all too seldom. After just a few minutes, his head popped up to stare across the room ... then he hopped down and ran over for a closer look. I assumed he was after a cricket (although we have been less cricket-ridden these days), and simply went back to my knitting. Several minutes later, I noticed he had moved over towards me and was again watching intently. So, I decided to have a look and this is what I saw:
Now it wasn't EXACTLY this guy -- he came from a Google image -- but this could be his twin brother. Now I ask, "How the heck did he get in?" The crickets I can understand ... they squeeze through any tiny hole in these old floorboards ... but a BIG OLE TOAD??? The only thing we can figure is that he was on the front porch last night when we enjoyed cocktails and munchies with Gretch, James, Mandy and Arbor. We did not turn lights on and so, maybe when one of us went in for something, he hopped in too without our seeing. Very strange indeed. I'm just wondering what would have happened if Isabella had found him first ... I would truly lose it if she brought a toad to me in bed.

Okay, so I spent the rest of the morning knitting -- or should I say TRYING to knit -- as Beau continued to find me irresistible and since that rarely happens, I accommodate him to any length necessary. Along about 12:30, I headed out to ...
Face Painting Seminar!! I really enjoyed myself, particularly as I have had no real creative outlet for quite some time. My fellow students were all friendly and funny. We first practiced on each other. My partner, Melanie (ADORABLE young gal) models my very first butterfly .

She painted me as Spiderman (sorry no picture), then we took to painting ourselves.

Here's Melanie and Kathy working on the scarecrow. (Pretty artsy photo composition too, huh?) And next, one of Old Town's most respected merchants becomes two-faced: skeleton on the left, and scarecrow on the right.

Finally, we chose random pictures of real animals and had to try to recreate the image. I drew a growling Puma, but my classmates guessed I was a baboon!!

I got high marks for the open mouth, but I think I blew it on the ears placed so close on top of the eyes. In fact, looking at it now, I wouldn't have the slightest clue what the heck it was! In any event, it was loads of fun, I'm glad I went, and I might even buy some facepaints so I can try it again.