Daniel

Song - Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd 

Life is short
and oh so fragile.

Hold it softly

Treasure it dearly.

Daniel...

The world feels a little quieter 

and very empty with out you here.

You will be missed. 



"We all shine on...." - John Lennon

A New Line of Work

Song - Little Deuce Coupe by The Beach Boys 

Yes it is true. 

I am hoping to sell cars!

Well, paintings of cars anyway.

I just finished a painting of a BMW 507 Roadster (circa 1957) that was accepted into the BMW show next month.  Check out the information HERE.

"All of those cars were once just a dream in somebody's head."  --Peter Gabriel

Plan B

 Good morning!

It sure feels like Spring here in Northern California!

I am in the process of moving my website  http://jeanettebaird.com/ over to a blog format so that I can update it myself instead of having my son, Jon, the web-master, having to work on it constantly.

It is fun to go through my paintings to see how my art has changed.  Also to see what I want to add to my new blog and to delete those paintings that have been on my website for a little too long or have already sold!

When you have any kind of profile on the Internet, you tend to get some Spam. 

So several weeks ago, I received an email from an interested party who wanted to buy several paintings (clue #1).

We emailed back and forth several times and they were still interested in both paintings but were in the process of moving and going on vacation (clue #2). 

So I quickly set up this new painting blog that would have a direct connection to PayPal so that I would not have to be personally involved in any transaction. 

Their third email to me wanted to sent a "friend of theirs" over to my home to pick up the paintings and give me cash (clue #3).  I insisted that I only worked through PayPal and would happily ship their paintings to their new location. 

Suddenly they were no longer interested (clue #4).

Please check out my Painting Blog, say hello and let me know your thoughts  -  Click Here


When it is completed, I will change the name over to www.jeanettebaird.com but for now it is www.jeanettebairdsstudio.blogspot.com

Enjoy your lovely week.....

“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.” – Khalil Gibran 

Heading Home

Song - Heading Home by Jack Johnson & Donavon Frankenreiter

"Many people take umbrage

 when someone sets out

 to find his or her spiritual home. 

If you embark on a similar journey, 

you should expect some people 

to be shocked, 

to be angry, 

to tell you 

you’re breaking the rules. 

That has certainly been my experience. 

However, 

the rewards are 

inexpressibly wonderful. 

Heading towards 

that inner home 

will take you places—

both inside yourself 

and in the external world—

which your heart 

 will recognize 

as its native environment, 

even though 

you have never been there before. 

I would go so far as to say 

that this may be 

the purpose for human life; 

that we are set free 

into a lonely universe 

like homing pigeons 

meant to find our way back to joy."

 -- Martha Beck

Wiped Out

 Song - Pipeline by Stevie Ray Vaughan & Dick Dale

Valentine's Day is Mr. B's birthday, so with the long Presidents weekend, we decided to head on down to Santa Cruz for a few days to celebrate and relax.

The weather was just exceptional - in the mid 70's and clear as can be.

We took long walks on the beach every morning.

Stopped in at Gayle's bakery a few times.

Just to "smell" the wonderful pastries and goodies that she and her staff make! (wink....)

We watched the surfers enjoying the waves.

 We called this guy "Spidy" as he was dressed in Spiderman colors and he was quite the trickster!







And the Sandpipers were enjoying the waves as well......

 

In they go, run, run, run, run, and.....

...out they come, run, run, run, run!

 

 

 



We also found a little "honey bee" enjoying the waves too....well as long as they didn't catch her!


We enjoyed several new restaurants that were incredible.  Soif is a Wine Bar & Restaurant that had an excellent menu and Laili which is Silk Road/Mediterian food.  Both were wonderful &  Mmmmm.....can not wait to go back!



Andy and Ashley joined us for a few days and we went wine tasting.....

 

 

 

Both Nickelson and Alfaro Wineries were fun and beautiful late in the day.  They are both just little family run wineries but friendly and served some very good wines.



Saturday morning we headed to Natural Bridges to watch the Monarch butterflies fly North....

I guess with the weather being so warm they had taken off several days ago but there were still a few dancing in the air with eachother and basking in the warm sunlight.

.....good talks,

breakfast on the Wharf,

crab & spaghetti at the cabin for Saturday's dinner

and lot's of laughter!

 

I have never seen seals piled up like this, have you?  Usually they are under the Wharf barking or basking in the sunshine.

Do you know why they are doing this???

 

Raise your flipper if you know the answer.....

 

 

 

Luckily Ashley (who is now a Kindergarten teacher) was an Fourth grade teacher last year and provided us with the answer, which we promptly checked her on because a lot, I mean A LOT, of tall tales get started by Mr. B. but because it was his birthday weekend we tried not to bust him too much.  So we went after sweet Ashley instead.

 

She was right!!!  The seals form a "raft" and hang on to each other so they don't get lost while sleeping or in rough seas.  They hold up their flipper to regulate their body temperature. I guess it's kinda like we do at night, one leg under the covers and the other on top!

 

 

 

  

 

Remember after all.....you are still in Santa Cruz and you know the saying ......

 

 

 

"Surfing soothes me, it's always been a kind of Zen experience for me.  The ocean is so magnifiecent, peaceful and awesome.  The rest of the world disappears for me when I'm on a wave." -- Paul Walker

A Little Green Science Experiment

What do you do with old, outdated vitamins?

While trying to "simplify" my surroundings, I discovered that I had 20+ bottles of old, outdated vitamins.

So a couple of days ago, I decided to purge my old stash of vitamins.

I looked online (as I know it is not safe to flush them) and I found it interesting that several articles said to toss them in the trash. But then I came across one article about composting them!


Boy was it fun......I felt like I was in High School science lab all over again!

Pretty cool huh?

Things were bubbling and brewing all around me.  I had several bowls going at once. 

My son, Tyler walked in at one point and kind of rolled his eyes at me while pinching his nose.  I could just hear his mind thinking.....oh, oh, mom's totally lost it this time!

But before I passed this information along to you, I decided to check it all out with my friend Taya Monfried who has a blog on cooking and going green! 

Her blog is "Me and My Green Bin" 

 http://meandmygreenbin.blogspot.com/

Please drop by and say hello!

I though she could shed a little light on the subject.....so I asked her to do some research and to "Guest Blog" on the subject.  Here is what she has to say.........


"Last week Jeanette emailed me that she had decided to clear out her family's outdated vitamins.  She came across a website that advised her to "place them in hot water until they dissolve, add coffee grounds or kitty litter, place them in a ziplock bag and toss them in the garbage."  So in the spirit of curiosity and adventure, she followed the directions exactly and documented her little science experiment.

Sensing that there had to be a green alternative, she consulted her "Green Gal"--me. I immediately thought of composting them, so when I got done chuckling, I decided to check what the experts had to say.  Interestingly, in all my respected sources, there was zero information on the effect of vitamins added to compost.  Neither the comprehensive Rodale Book of Composting, nor The Berkeley Ecology Center, not my favorite guide, Composting for Dummies, had a word to say on the subject.

Finally, it was the Internet that provided some down to earth suggestions for vitamin disposal, and some novel ideas for their transformation - i.e. bead projects, noisemakers or a base for coloring paint.  Others discourage throwing them away at all, since it is debatable whether vitamin pills actually lose potency after their expiration date, which may be merely a gimmick used by manufacturers to sell more vitamins.

The Garden Web has a lively forum with opinions and suggestions on discarding and composting vitamins.  The participants maintain that since compost is, after all, a mélange of organic matter made up of kitchen scraps and lawn clippings, etc., why not add unwanted vitamins into the mix.  These little capsules seem to have all the requirements for good compost material--they're small, non-toxic, water soluble and full of nutrients.  Why wouldn't they decompose with the other stuff, eventually turning into humus, which will in turn lighten, aerate and naturally fertilize the soil in the garden.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/soil/msg0221015016816.html

An Ecology Center employee, told me that it's fine to experiment with home composting, but the City of Berkeley doesn't want vitamin pills in their green waste.  That means I can't dump unwanted multivitamins in my green bin!  So I thought I would make a cleansing scrub fortified with old vitamins that I found on the ehow website.

CLEANSING FACIAL SCRUB

Grind vitamins up in a food processor and mix them with yogurt, avocado and lemon or lime juice for a gentle exfoliating mixture you can use on your face and body."

Taya's facial scrub looks much "prettier" than all of my photos of "slime" but I think we both enjoyed our little experiments and learned something in the process!  Thanks so much Taya!!


"My whole life has been spent waiting for an epiphany, a manifestation of God's presence, the kind of transcendent, magical experience that let's you see your place in the big picture. And that is what I had with my first compost heap." -- Bette Midler