My good friend Danielle with her mother Alice after building one incredible snowman.
This photo was submitted to me by a fellow blogger earlier in the year when I was asking for photo submissions to paint for a show back in June. She recently posted on her blog that it would have been her father's 73rd birthday had he not died of lung cancer at the young age of 47. It made me remember that I had this image of her and her sister sitting on their daddy's lap so I had to add it to my sketchbook. 
I found an old photo of my mother so excited to play with her new dollhouse, even in the dead of a Chicago winter. Her birthday is January 8, so I'm sure this must have been a much desired birthday present. You can even see a tiny CAROL written above the door. Sweet.
There he is again, little Polito, in his Sunday best, surrounded by women-his 3 sisters and his mother. Looks like a special occasion, or maybe Easter Sunday? I guess it's been all about Polo this week.
Another from the "young Polo collection"...on his birthday I'm sure, trying to hit the somewhat scary looking pinata in the backyard. (p.s. I can't quite figure out how to get that little tilde over the n in pinata within blogger, so pardon the omission.)
New drawing from a photo of a young little Polito posing along side a photo of his dad. So darn cute. I've been posting all of these drawings to my Picasa Web Album.
Autumn Tree Bouquet
Here's a shot of the group. Don't we look like professionals?
Here's Polo working on his masterpiece. He received the prize for the day which was a "trip to paradise" for the best painting. I hope he brings me along!
Here is Frank hard at work on his second painting. Show off.
And here is Cindy in action. Look at those colors!
Haydi is crafting a beautiful rendition of Lake Pearl in watercolor.
We found out a little later that our host Diane, is also a swan whisperer. She lured this family of swans-mom, dad, and 5 babies over to the dock-for us all to get a closer look.
Tashi was our guardian. Ever on the look out from the deck, ready to protect.
And as a finale to our wonderful 10-10-10 day, we saw this fish cloud in the sky. So beautiful and yet so bizarre as these were the only clouds in the entire sky. Do you see the bubbles coming out of his mouth? What does it mean?
When my friend Kim first posted this photo of her younger self on Facebook, I commented that I liked the Pom Poms on her sweater. This started a discussion that ended with "is it pom pom or pom pon?" Well-technically it is pom pon but "Pom Pon Girls" just doesn't sound right, does it?
