Hello Friends, 😊
Welcome to Thursday's Art Date, today our theme is Looking Down. Tweety Bird is looking down at Sylvester the cat...who thinks he will finally outsmart the little bird! Not a chance!!
Marilyn Monroe, looking down (charcoals). Sad lady. 😢
My Critters: Dana and Oscar looking down at me from their loft - yes, they have their own loft, we call it the Cat Loft!
This is what I call my "Tradesman Lunch". I usually make this type of lunch for any tradesperson who comes over to do a day or two of work - must feed them!
Lunch was chicken salad sandwiches, CLT's on toast, Pinwheel Sandwiches (made with my Homemade Cheez Whiz), dips, chips, pretzels, olives and cheese slices.
Hatch Door Renovation:
Alex and I hired a nice man named Doug, a retired carpenter, to build us a hatch door and staircase that will link the main house to the basement. The only way to access the basement before was to walk around the house to the basement door in the backyard. Our washer and dryer are in the basement, and there was NO WAY I was shlepping through snow to do laundry! The last few months it was tolerable, but we decided to do this just in time for winter. Alex helped Doug and they did a fantastic job! All that's left to do is to build a pulley system to help lift the hatch door, stain the stairs and handrail, and get some carpeting to cover the hatch door to help with insulation. We are SO pleased with this project. Next task is the chimney!
Today I'm linking up with some lovely bloggers, please visit them for some very fun and interesting posts!
Friday November 6th: Paint Party Friday
Saturday November 7th: Eileen's Saturday's Critters
Monday November 9th: Angie's Mosaic Mondays
That's all for now folks! Please check out the link gadget below to see more Looking Down artwork!
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| My points and dots watercolour of Jack (2019) |
November 12th: Next Thursday's theme is Points and Dots. Click on the link for ideas and inspiration! Remember it's all about creating. You can showcase your paintings, drawings, photography, sculpting, baking, poetry...whatever you like! 🎨
Thursday Art Date With Rain. Click on the link for a description of the art date as well as a list of upcoming themes.
Don't forget to add the URL link to your post (not your blog) to the link gadget below to share your wonderful creations! Please revisit to make sure you don't miss those who join in a little late! Also, if anyone adds a link that has nothing to do with the art date theme, it will be removed! The link gadget expires Friday at midnight (EST).
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The photo of your cats in the loft is brilliant. Such a wonderful capture -- I cannot imagine how you nabbed both of them in the same shot at that time. Well done -- this makes me smile big!
ReplyDeleteLove your tradesmen's lunch. They are lucky workers!
Sylvester can live to be 100 and never outsmart Tweety Bird. Very cleverly created, Rain. I also like your North America from space. You draw so well and I really love the John Wayne drawing. But Marilyn's charcoal really touched my heart. Yes, she was a very sad lady. Looking for love in all the wrong places.
ReplyDeleteThe critters are looking good. Love that they have their own loft.
You should have warned me that you were going to show food. Now I'm really, really hungry. Alex and Doug the carpenter did a great job on those stairs. When I had a flood in my basement in 2016, my friend Scott rebuilt the stairs going to the basement. They had given out under the weight of us carrying items out of the basement to higher ground. Those photos reminded me of what I experienced. I'm glad you found a way to get to your basement laundry room. I've had a basement in two of the three homes I've owned, but never had my laundry room in the basement. That was one of my priorities when I purchased this home. I had to have a laundry room on the ground floor. At least you now have a way to get your laundry to and fro without going outside in the winter snow. Good for you, dear.
ReplyDeleteOh, it won't be New Year's Eve .. great drawing and the Monroe drawing is * wow * fabulous and the landcape!
The Video is cool!!!
How cute are the two cats in the photo
It looks delicious what you do for lunch, I would like to eat with you.Great that you make the workers tasty with the wonderful food and if you serve them they like to come back
That looks great the stairs good job done with the nice man. Check off something again from the work.
I wish you all the best in your work with everything you still have in mind. Take care, hug Elke
Lovely selection of photos, especially the food! Can't join in today, have to promote a new challenge at one of the blogs where I'm on the DT, sorry. Hopefully back again next week. Have a good and safe day, hugs, Valerie
ReplyDeleteThese are all fabulous. I like the cats and you at the bottom of the stairs. Ohhh I am with you. Laundry is bad enough without going through the snow to do it. Great job on the stairs. I am off to make my post.
ReplyDeleteLove your very different perspective this week - and am a big Bowie fan.
ReplyDeleteHooray for getting work done (and done well) in the nick of time.
wow, you made a great job with all your "looking down" artwork. It is hard to single out a favorite as they are all different styles. :)
ReplyDeleteI like David Bowie but I don´t remember this song :( He was an amazing artist.
Your new basement entry reminded me of my grandmothers kitchen storage room. My father built a "cooler" for her on the floor. It was a small space in the ground where she could keep butter and milk rather cool. It was covered with a hatchway that also was the floor. The handle for open the hatchway was just a ring where you put your finger to lift it. Worked rather well. Old days refrigerator. :)
Take care!
Hello, Rain
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy your Bugs Bunny and Tweety bird art, well done. Lovely image of Marilyn Monroe. The kitties looks so cute looking down from their loft. The food all looks yummy! The new steps and hatch door are great, it is a nice access to the basement. My favorite image is the last watercolor of Jack, awesome! Take care, enjoy your day!
I think I will visit your house disguised as a tradesman!
ReplyDeletethe cats are so funny! i love the pic of you on your wonderful new stairs! i bet doug loved that lunch. well-fed workers are happy workers!
ReplyDeleteOutstanding work for ‘looking down’ Rain! I love your very necessary basement stairs. The tradesman lunch looks delicious!
ReplyDeleteThe kitty loft is too fun. I love the picture of jack shaking! SO clever with the colors and the movement of the drops. Marilyn was so beautiful and you did capture her torn expression. Great that you have basement steps now! Blessings
ReplyDelete...looking down is ok, but keep looking UP!
ReplyDeleteI love the kitties, the food and Marilyn. ahh she's a favorite of mine. Great job with the theme.
ReplyDeleteDawn aka Spatulas On Parade
When I was a kid, we had a hatch door to our earthen cellar under the house. Be sure to have a hook on the outside to attach the opened hatch door to the wall once you open it, because you do NOT want it to fall closed while you're downstairs.
ReplyDeleteThat cat photo is so cool, Rain! I think that's how cats want it to be...them looking down on us. We are their servants after all, aren't we? LOL So cool to build a staircase like that to your basement. You will really appreciate it when it gets really cold out! And your food? What can I say? It always looks delicious and ends up making me hungry. HAHA
ReplyDeleteNow I read the title as lock down not look down... on my mind so much this week and today it's officially here. How silly would I have looked if i'd joined in, i'd have been looking down for a while.. Hee hee. Look at Sylvester licking his lips but Elizabeth is right he'll never outsmart tweety bird.
ReplyDeleteYour charcoal sketch is amazing, one to be framed.
How awesome the cats have their own loft, I can imagine it all smells so wonderful surrounded by all that newly laid timber..
Take care & stay creative Rain Hugs Tracey xx
Oh Rain! Before scrolling down, I looked at the second picture and saw a kangaroo laying on its side and I figured we were looking down on it. LOL Imagine the total brain shift that happened when you explained that it was a picture of North America! lol It's a great watercolor of North America, now that you made the kangaroo disappear. So glad you have a nice staircase and door to your basement. What a difference that will make!
ReplyDeleteLovely art
ReplyDeleteLovely food
Lovely photograph of your cats in the loft
Have a good weekend.
All the best Jan
I want to work at your house! I would suggest you put some Thin lightweight insulation on the underside of that hatch door. We did that on the inside of our garage door and it made a huge difference and didn't weigh anything. I'm not sure what they call it in Canada, in the United States is blue about 3/4 of an inch thick rigid foam, about 4 by 8 feet I think if I remember correctly. You could screw it in or actually just use some construction adhesive and cut it to fit. It would make it a lot warmer for sure in the winter. Great to find those retired professionals to do a great job! They're lucky that you feed them so well. Love your artwork especially Marilyn Monroe it was so tragic with her whole life in general. Glad your house is coming along for the winter!
ReplyDeleteGood job on the stairs! Which room do they go down from? Love the picture of the kitties looking down. That is some lunch!
ReplyDeleteI agree with a few of the previous comments, Rain, that doing work at your place would be a pleasure to then have such a great lunch. The stairs look great and Doug and Alex certainly earned that meal. Nice to see the kitties in the loft and yourself on the new stairs.walking outside in winter to get to the laundry would not be for me either, now all you have to do is carry it down and then up the stairs, which itself will be a workout.
ReplyDeleteyou have big house now dear Rain and i know how much time energy and focus takes it to get things repair ,i loved reading about your Hatch door renovation ,wonderful job i can see here :)))
ReplyDeletei envy the workman to whom you served these delicious looking meal haha wow you are amazingly talented and all rounder i would say :)
art is CUTE as always ,i doubt cat will ever be out smart the bugs though lol
oh absolutely loved the sneaking cats ,i adore your insight for picking ideas for art ,excellent indeed :)
wishing you more grace of lord on you both and furry friends !
Super cute pic of the kitties looking down from their perches in the cat loft!! and I would love to one of your work-guys yummy lunch... and I love your new hatch and stair case... that is how we get to our cellar altho ours have old stone walls and not nice enough to have laundry down there.. but still great storage.. yours is super..
ReplyDeleteI am impressed with your finger food. I like that, too, for informal chats with friends. I like what your carpenter did with the stairs leading to the basement.
ReplyDeleteSuper creations. WOW I would love to come help out with the amazing lunch you provided, thats such a kind thing to do. Love the kitties looking down from their loft, Stay Safe, Hazel (Didos) x
ReplyDeleteI am really slow at commenting this week. My mind is consumed with the election craziness that we are experiencing. I can only hope that it turns out well in the end. In the meantime, you have really arrived at your full potential with this post. The pictures are wonderful and draw on people who have been an important part of my past. I am surprised you were even alive to see John Wayne or even Marilyn Monroe. Your map is exquisite and amazingly accurate ... do you see the smiley face at the top? So moving on, I must know your secret. I don't write down your recipes because if I ate all that wonderful food, I wouldn't be able to waddle across the room, let alone fit in my favorite chair. I don't know how you do it ... or maybe I do. You exercise a lot as you are always doing major projects like your stairs to the basement ... Wow, how awesome is that. Well enough said ... I must get back to stressing over the election. See you next week, Rain and thank you again and again for providing an escape into a world that I love :)
ReplyDeleteAndrea @ From the Sol
Love the perspective from which you chose to illustrate Tweety and Sylvester, and I love your kitties photo as well! How nice of you to set such a generous spread for the workers- I'm sure they really appreciated it all. Your new basement set up looks great- and just in time. No way I'd be venturing out in cold and nasty weather to do laundry either:) Happy PPF!
ReplyDeleteand now I can come sit and listen with a cuppa to space oddity.. sigh!!
ReplyDeleteHappy PPF Rain Hugs Tracey xx
I like the cats and paintings. Have a lovely weekend!
ReplyDeleteA cat loft! Love it!
ReplyDeleteAlso what a great project to have done, to now have stairs to the basement inside!
wonderful art, wonderful food, and that staircase going down is going to be wonderful for you.
ReplyDeleteRain,
ReplyDeleteI'm back! Well, sorta...I'm having a hard time finding my blogging legs with everything keeping my mind busy. I'll get the hang of things again but I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. I love your Sylvester and Tweety sketch. That silly bird will never get his birdy feast. lol I love, love your Marilyn Monroe charcoal - excellent job! Your furbabies looking down is a hoot. That made me smile! :D Oh yeah, come I come work for you? That looks like a great lunch! :p Have a doodletastic weekend, my friend.
That staircase to the basement is a work of art! the tradesmens meal you lay on is what we would call 'party food' a really good spread :) I didnt have time this week to join the art theme but will try and join another one soon. Looking down on America is great, would look good on your office wall.
ReplyDeleteHello Rain,
ReplyDeleteYou art work is amazing, you are very talented. Love the sweet kitties and the last painting of the dog shaking off. I know you will be happy to have easy access to your basement. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Take care, stay safe! Enjoy your weekend! PS, thank you for leaving me a comment.
What interesting idea for a theme. The pictures are lovely as always.
ReplyDeleteIn all fairness, cats have been looking down on the rest of us for thousands of years.
Hello. Wonderful art. I also like that song by Bowie.
ReplyDeleteTake care.
Hi Rain,
ReplyDeleteWonderful charcoal of Marilyn M.
Great photo of your kitties looking down. And what a fun painting of Sylvester
And Tweety.
What a lovely spread for the workers.Wow!
Enjoy the weekend...
What cute pics of the cats! They are loving a place to climb. Love your art too! Happy weekend!
ReplyDeleteI don't know which I admire more, your art or meals!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great difference this will make for you!
Interesting implementations of the topic! I love the David Bowie song too! Your cats Dana and Oscar have a paradisiacal life with you <3
ReplyDeleteYour "Tradesman Lunch" looks very inviting (I'd love to come to work for you too - unfortunately it's a bit far from Austria ;-)) ...) Only I wouldn't want the drinks in aluminum cans. Do you know that so much rainforest is destroyed by aluminum production? Industry doesn't like to tell us, but ist true.... See my older post on this topic here - in (unfortunately not perfect) English translation: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Frostrose.blogspot.com%2F2018%2F10 % 2Fanl-34-why-should-we-as-possible-on.html
You have made good progress with your renovation - great! Congratulations!
Have a nice day!
Traude
https://rostrose.blogspot.com/2020/11/herbstzeit-2020-und-ein-paar-gedanken.html
Wonderful post and delightful art work ^_^ ~ Love your kitties!
ReplyDeleteLive each moment with love,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)
Great drawing of Sylvester and I love the photo of the cats. Looks a very practical renovation.
ReplyDeleteHi Rain. Again I am in awe of your art work. The Sylvester is super. And I think I need to come visit with some tools so as to sample a lunch.
ReplyDeleteDo you display and sell your art? You really should. I'd be in the market.
Wonderful art, I love it. Bowie is one of my favorites, love his music. That was a nice project to get completed before winter comes, it looks fantastic. Cats with their own loft, how nice is that.:) Have a wonderful week and stay safe!
ReplyDeleteYou are a very talented artist, I love them all!
ReplyDeleteDana and Oscar are so cute! I have two cats, one looks like the one on the left.
That's quite an impressive lunch spread!
I think a hatch door is a great idea! Stairs always worry my because anyone or animal could tumble down them. A hatch door would be a good way to make them safter.
I hope you have a great week!
Love your drawings and the cute kitties--looking down. Hreat remodel job. I like the trap door idea. Love the workman lunch---you do it up so nice.
ReplyDeleteMB
Actually looks like Dana and Oscar are checking out your tradesman spread of delicious eats. You really know how to treat your tradespeople well.
ReplyDeleteMarilyn Monroe= sad woman, sad life, + sad end.
ReplyDeleteHi Rain,
ReplyDeleteYou make beautiful art.
I think lunch looks delicious, I spontaneously get hungry.
Greetings Irma
Awwww! Dana and Oscar, what a couple! :)
ReplyDeletePure genius, the artwork are beautiful, the painting of MM is excellent, well done Rain.
ReplyDeleteoooooh that lunch, i want to come work for you!!! love the point and dots color work!!!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful drawing. Great shot of the cats looking down from the cat loft. That was a yummy lunch spread. Hope the project is completed before the winter sets in.
ReplyDeletenice collection of "looking down" but my favs are the 2 cat heads looking down!
ReplyDeleteDana and Oscar are lovely, I must smile about them, Rain 🥰 We have no more two cats, there is only one named Luzie.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course the funny Tweety with Silvester.
Have a wonderful week, dear blogfriend.
Happy MosaicMonday
Rain - your drawing of Marilyn is wonderful. It is a shame when anyone is manipulated in the way so many young people were back in those days! Dana and Oscar are so adorable - I miss my furbabies so much. My goodness, I wish I was a tradesman if I got a lunch such as that!!! Thanks for linking to Mosaic Monday!!!
ReplyDeleteHow hilarious Dana and Oscar's peering act! .... they look smart and have a great curiosity.
ReplyDeleteGreetings from Indonesia.
The “Looking Down” art is wonderful, especially I smiled at your loved cats looking down from the loft. Your “Tradesman Lunch” is so appealing.
ReplyDeleteFantastic renovation of the steps and door! Well done! And I love the photo of your kitties lookiing down. Sorry for not participating over the last weeks, but life and a vacation got in the way. Points and Dots for this week gave me an idea already. A technique I wanted to try for long. Have a great day!
ReplyDeleteHi Rain
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed looking at your artwork for the David Bowie-inspired theme. Your cats are so cute and lucky ones to have their own loft!.
Your made a wonderful lunch for your workman and I'm sure he appreciated it. I know you will enjoy having easy access to your basement--the staircase is well made!
Did you see where I asked if I could add your blog to my left sidebar so I never miss one of your posts? I have TAD on my right sidebar, but would love to add your blog to my left side. Will only do so with your permission, though.
ReplyDeleteHi Elizabeth! :) Yes I did see your comment and I replied on your blog! Of course you can add my blog to your blogroll! No need to ask permission! :) Thanks so much! :))
ReplyDeleteAll looking great, but one burning question: what is a CLT? I guess I really just need the C .... I think I know lettuce and Tomato. Oh, is it cheese?
ReplyDeleteThanks Sallie :) Yes! The "C" stands for Cheddar! :)
ReplyDeleteLove the Jack dot art and LOL your kitties looking down.
ReplyDelete