Mother’s Day in Sarasota. Brunch at the Broken Egg. At 1:00PM.
WAFFLE WITH SLICED BANANAS, STRAWBERRIES AND WHIP CREAM: YUMYUM!!!!!
FLO’S toes
Pam at Broken Egg for brunch.
Sarah in Europe
FRF ❤️
I found my mind was shut down. I was 75 years old and could no longer work in my profession as a real estate agent, I could barely do the everyday essentials of taking care of myself for a few years. When cancer took my daughter Carole Suzanne I was at a virtual stand still.
But my daughter Pamela who is a psychiatrist who everyday was helping people similar, got me painting again after not touching an artist painting brush since I was 17 years old.
To encourage me she sent a set of French oil paints, brushes, and an easel to my home in Venice Florida. Well…..her effort worked. And I spent 6 months painting my first portrait of her daughters (and my granddaughters) Evin Nicole and Sarah Christina replicating the picture on the Christmas card she had sent.
The above is the Christmas card and below is my first portrait after over 60 years of not painting.
And this is my two little granddaughters as they look today all grownup.
Sarah and Evin
Seeing she loved that painting, had it framed and hung it in her living room gave me the courage to continue with others.
So I decided…….OK, now I’ll paint a portrait of her using a little black and white snapshot showing her in the tap dance outfit she wore in a program at her dance school.
After several weeks of drawing, painting over and over (you can do that with oil paints) adding what I thought were special touches, I sent her a picture of my prize completed portrait that I was very proud of. And here it is:
How you like???????????
My daughter hated it!!!!!!!!! And looking back I can see why. Now……I don’t like it either. I must have drifted back into my sorrow phase of loosing my daughter Carole Suzanne who we all called by her nickname Susie.
So now I start over, working in a much lighter mood and after a few months this is what I came up with:
SHE LOVED IT, framed it and hung it in her living room in Salem Ohio. So Mom done good!!!
But who really did good was my Psychiatrist daughter Dr Pamela Dawn Drake. She got her depressed mother moving again and now at age 93 I have painted over twenty portraits. that currently hang in family homes in Montana, Ohio, Georgia and in Florida where I am living with my daughter Pamela and her husband Tracy Drake in their home in the gated community of Deer Creek Sarasota.
You can check my blogs to see pictures of that home including my private rooms of bedroom, studio for painting and my private bathroom.
I lived in my own home until September 20, 2015, last year when after selling my condo home in Highland Creek Salem Ohio I flew here I currently live with my daughter Pamela And her husband Tracy Drake in beautiful Sarasota Florida.
After living in Venice Florida 28 years before moving to Salem Ohio in April of 2006, I am now back home and consider myself VERY FORTUNATE!!!!
FRF ❤️
Do you have a history of precious family pets? My daughter Pamela and her husband Tracy Drake love pets. Here are a few of the ones they had over a period of years.
We start with this one:
My granddaughter Sarah with puppy
Look Mom I can pick him up!!!!
Evin and Sarah making a snack. We were hungry Mom!
Peek-a-boo!
I love flower beds! Yes I do!
Hi there you all!!
Hey! I’m up here!
My precious daughter Susie’s last puppy before cancer took her from us. My granddaughter Evin Drake is holding Susie’s little golden retriever puppy.
My granddaughter Sarah with this little Yorky.
Little Rambo fits in Tracy’s pocket as they each take a snooze in the sun.
Way to go!
HOW YOU LIKE??????
FRF❤️
My! Oh! My!! How we do change over the years. You, me and even my very special grandson Dean Wedding.
I have written several blogs about him and his interesting life from a baby to present day. Well…….almost present day!!!! So let’s go further in this endeavor and see what we can come up with.
Here we see the portrait I painted of him showing what he looked like at about seven or eight months old.
And here we see him in the picture the boat captain took of him when he caught the biggest fish going out in the Gulf of Mexico for an Saturday all day excursion of fishing while spending a week with me in Venice Florida.
Now he and his family are living in Dillon Montana where on a hunting trip he got this prize. A ten pointer deer.
But who is this bearded man in a picture my daughter Meredythe Wedding sent to me?? Oh! No! That can’t be my grandson Dean Wedding!!!!!! Can it??????
My! Oh! My! IT IS MY GRANDSON DEAN WEDDING!!!!
FRF❤️
There is never a dull moment while family vacationing on Hilton Head Island. It doesn’t take much coaxing for my son-in-law Tracy Drake to get his daughter (my granddaughter) little Evin to join him on a fishing cruise in the Atlantic Ocean.
And……WOW!!!! Look what little Evin caught.
Have a look-see at this prize
Not to be left out Daddy gets a hammer head shark.
Oh! my! Daddy….you done good!!!!!! THAT WHITE SHARK IS A BEAUTY!!!
It’s the end of a perfect day as the sun is slowly sinking into the water and they cruise back to port.
It’s for sure……….little daughter Evin and daddy Tracy gonna sleep good tonight!!!!!
FRF ❤️