Friendship,Family and Home

Friendship, family and home are the real gifts that God has giving us. Wishing all my blogger friends a wonderful Holiday.

Rekindling my Spirit

My niece, Lauren heard I was still sick with pneumonia, and sent me this beautiful flower arrangement. The little girl with Santa is me.

The next day her mom surprised me with this lovely Christmas arrangement.

Trying to lift my spirits yesterday, I took the flowers outside to photograph hoping the images will inspired me to paint.

It was four weeks ago that I was diagnosed with pneumonia, and I have to say it has not been fun. My head is so ready to get moving again but my body isn't cooperating. I still have a persistent cough and lack energy. Thursday my doctor recommended that I shouldn't return to work until after the holidays. To say that I'm not fighting depression would be a lie. Yesterday I took a few photographs and went on a short walk outside with my husband. It felt so good to get out of the house. This morning I ordered Heather Smith Jone's new book, Water Paper Paint in another attemp to lift my spirits. Todays goal is getting my watercolors out and painting my flowers. Wish me luck...

Post Thanksgiving

The table my daughter,Jessie and son, Luciano set for this years Thanksgiving dinner.

Father and daughter getting ready to carve the turkey.

This was Jessie's first time preparing the Thanksgiving feast.

Our son, Gian's pecan pie.

Three days before Thanksgiving I was diagnosed with pneumonia. Some of you may have noticed I haven't been posting much lately. I've never felt so bad. But our daughter, Jessie took over the show. She had my favorite cookbook in hand and only casually asked my husband or me for advice. She did an outstanding job! The turkey was both beautiful and delicious, I did take pictures but for some reason their not on the camera. (I really wasn't allowed in the kitchen but kept sneaking in to document the occasion.) So a special Thank you to my daughter for stepping up to the plate and cooking her first Thanksgiving dinner.
Much love, mom

It was Celebration Time

Friday night was the big celebration. My new line of artwork was displayed, Artful Blogger magazines were all through the house, and lots of yummy food and wine were on hand for everyone's enjoyment. This was the first and last picture that my husband managed to take that evening. So many of my good friends attended the celebration, the house was truly filled with merriment! My husband was entertaining in one room while I was busy selling artwork in the other that not another photo was taken. Who would of thought I needed to hire a photographer. Thank you to all my wonderful and supportive friends, I truly felt loved.

Tribute to my husband

Sometimes we are so busy in our daily routines we forget to notice the accomplishments and talent of the people we live with. I must admit, the past few months have been crazy at home. Everyone is busy pursuing their dreams. Notes are posted on the refrigerator or left on the table with messages reading, can you pick me up? I'll be here, don't forget... You get the idea, we have all been there.
Well, one person in our home quietly goes about his day, walks the dog, makes dinner, picks up our son after late night rehearsals and spends countless hours in his home studio glued to the computer editing his photographs. The photographs will be used for ads and websites that he designs for clients.
I almost never look at what he's working on because I'm caught up with teaching, painting, blogging, housework, or driving our son all over town. This morning, as I was checking the latest news on "facebook," our good friend and Glass Artist, Nancy Gong had posted a link to her website with photographs of a recent installation. I followed the link to her new page. I stared with amazement at the beautiful architectural photographs and the gorgeous design of the new page. Good heavens, I discovered that the work was produced by my very own husband. Wow!
So today I'm spotlighting a very talented artist who shares his life with me, my husband, Chris Maggio. Your talent and creativity far exceeds anything I could create. I'm so proud of you!
Chris just finished-up the Erie Station Village website, and just started a site this morning, you can probably see a beta page at Zweigles.

Happy Halloween

Just finished a wonderful on-line class with Susan Tuttle, called Ghostly Figures.
Thought you might enjoy seeing an example of what I learned from the workshop. The lovely ghost is my grandmother.
Happy Halloween.

I've been published!

Good news fellow bloggers! I've been featured in the current issue of Artful Blogging Magazine.
I'm very excited to have been published for my first time. What an experience it has been. I recall reading about artists Karen Cole, Stephanie Hilvitz, and Alisa Burke to name a few in past issues and hope that my article will inspire others like they influenced me.