Happy St. Patrick's Day Tuesday!

 I want to thank everyone for the birthday wishes!! We found out the downtown St. Patrick's Day festivities were on Saturday -not Sunday-and it was actually a shame because the rain came down so hard most of the day that the parade and several other things were cancelled :( However, I will be making up for it later today when my friend LuAnn and I head down to our favorite Irish place for lunch, and perhaps a few shenanigans:)

 For my T stands For Tuesday gang I have some photos of the lunch I had last week with Uncle Truman and Aunt Betty:

                                                  Truman (95) and his sister Betty (87)

 We went to a café where Truman has enjoyed going for some years now. The food is always good and I enjoyed my first time there very much. By the time we left, the waiting room to be seated was packed!
                                                                                              

 


 Burgers are their specialty so Truman had a mushroom burger and Betty  chose a California burger.

    I very rarely eat meat so I had a broiled haddock sandwich and it was delicious!

  

Then Betty surprised both Truman and I by having the waitress bring French Vanilla ice cream with a birthday candle and a group of them sang happy birthday.








 Hubby took me out to a fabulous dinner Sat nite but I'll save those pics for another time. Our tickets arrived in the mail for, YES, ANOTHER CELTIC THUNDER CONCERT-and this time we will be 4th row center-WOOHOO!!!! Sunday we went to see the Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and we LOVED it!! I thought it was just as good as the first one. I will def. be buying both the movie and the soundtrack when it comes out. I do love Maggie Smith , and Judy Dench and oh, some of the lines and quips by Maggie were hilarious- and oh so clever! Richard Gere is as handsome as ever too.

 Here's a pic of my table with my birthday cards -and flowers from Todd:

 The flowers were to make up for that card on the right where you can read part of it. It says "you aren't old until the fat lady sings" and when the card is opened there is a loud operatic voice singing. Hmpf!

 I mentioned I wanted to do something to celebrate my birthday and blogiversary so here's what I wrote in Friday's post:

"...AND my birthday  and 3 year blogiversary on Sunday!!  I began by offering giveaways to begin each year but this year I want to do something a bit different. Rather than offering just a few things I would like to randomly send out happy mail throughout the year as RAKS (random acts of kindness)!! Do you know how much art  I accumulate just through the fun of challenges?? All I ask is that if you wish to receive a little something is to email me at (neenfrance(at)yahoo(dot)com) with your snail mail address. I will note it in my paper address book (I do not keep any of this info on my PC) and promise it will NOT be given out to anyone."

 It would bring me joy to send something out to anyone who sends me their addy!

 Now, here's  bit of art. I mentioned taking the online class Radiant Faces and have finally begun to tackle the first lesson. It is taught by Jane Davenport and is about learning to be inspired by famous masters portraits.

 this is a Waterhouse painting and the idea is to look for the bare bones of line, shape and shadows and sketch it without a lot of detail.

 This is my sketch of it:

 I will sketch another and then choose which one I will redraw and paint a portrait of. Once I got over the fear of doing this I actually liked it, and it sure is good practice. It is not meant to be a copy but a way of getting a feel for proportion and emotion.

 Happy T day to Elizabeth and friends and ...

                                                                        Slàinte!!!

" Gratitude helps you to grow and expand, gratitude brings joy and laughter into your life and into the lives of all those around you".    Eileen Caddy