Sometimes I Forget The Best Part!

If you haven't read the previous post go there first or this will not make as much sense.

 

 

Okay, so I got a couple comments from astute bloggers who caught the fact that I totally left out my wife's reaction to this anniversary present.

She was ecstatic!! Hand-over-the-heart-OMG-it's-gorgeous-I-Love-it (repeated ten times!). She almost started to cry. Immediately she had the iPhone out and pictures were flowing to Facebook. I was the hero of the day. I was as excited as she was. Giving unexpected gifts is the best! She had to tell everyone about it and the fact it was her picture come to life in art...priceless!

And since I have this extra space on this post doing nothing at all, there was more to our anniversary. All my giving this year!!

Next came our annual shipment from Just Paper Roses where for the last 5 years I have ordered a bouquet of flowers (roses) made from the material that marked that years wedding anniversary. This year was silk (12 years). Soooo the box shows up with 12 beautiful red silk roses in various stages of bloom in a teak wood vase. (No watering and noooo dying). Dig the forever longevity. Check out their site, it's pretty cool.

And here they are (sorry iPhone picture quality)...

Crappy picture but really awesome. You would swear they are real...except no rose smell :(

 But wait there was still one more little present in the bottom of the rose box...sly dog that I am...a unique and engraved solitary rose in a little tiny pot...printed on a 3-D printer at the awesomely creativity inspiring folks at Shapeways and sold by Just Paper Roses. This capped off a cool 12th anniversary and a flurry of surprises. The wife was supremely surprised and happy!!

Here is the little rose that could (the item is about 10" high and the flower is 3" in diameter)...

You can get up to 15 characters (including spaces) and the lettering is raised. This is a cool piece of stuff

I am officially The Man around our house for a little while longer!!


For those interested in this technology of 3-D printing and who may have a creative bent, watch the short video of the concept and process of 3-D printing. Very cool and thought-provoking. You can send them items (or create something from their site) and they can render them in 3-D for a very reasonable price. Shapeways...check it out.





Okay, so I hope I did not leave anything out this time! Oh, and thanks again MMS!!!

A Sincere Thanks To A Friend

I did something really cool for my wife on our 12th wedding anniversary.

But before I get to all that, I want to mention a really great and awesome thing that was all brought about by this blogging thing we do.

Meeting virtual people is not as weird as some would have you believe. Conversing and interacting on the Internet has been a lot of fun and very educational since I started blogging. I have met numerous people online, both courtesy of the A-Z Challenge and through the odd traveler who happens to land at my site and stick around for a while.

Alex Cavanaugh and Pat Tillett have been staunch followers almost since the beginning and I am sure a great time would be had should we ever chance to get together. Robyn's adventure with chocolate and pizza?? hey whoever thought those two would go together? So I don't slight the many I could name by leaving anyone out, I will stop there. Suffice to say the list is fairly long and diverse and the blogs I enjoy reading are a truly worth my time and effort to keep up with. Even when I miss a few days I try to at least go back and catch up reading (even if I don't have the time to always comment). So to summarize this point, you people in MY blogosphere are great!!

Now to the point of this post and its title...

After participating again in this years A-Z Challenge (and it WAS a challenge towards the end), I was particularly taken with what appeared to me to be a monumental task of one blogger...painting one picture a day to represent an animal for that days letter. These were not stick figures, these were high quality paintings...and not done a year in advance. Hell, I could barely write a post a day. I cannot imagine painting a picture from start to finish in a day. (Partly because I have no skill whatsoever when it comes to painting.)

I am of course referring to the wonderful work of Mary Montague Sikes!

I was excited each day to open up my site and see her latest work waiting in my reader for the unveiling. I would marvel at her ability to capture the essence of each animal she painted...their eyes, or pose, or color scheme...it was too cool.

During the challenge and while I was on vacation in Roatan, I took the opportunity to post a great picture my wife had taken of a sea turtle. Some of you may remember it but if, not then fear not...it is shown again here...



Enlarge for full effect...seriously

 Well...one of the comments I received on that post was from Mary (an accomplished photographer herself) saying how much she liked the picture. So apparently a seed was planted deep in my brain...deep enough that it nurtured for a couple weeks after the A-Z was over.

Come mid-May and realizing my wedding anniversary was a month away, I suddenly got the great idea to send this picture to Mary in an email with a request to paint a 16 x 20 canvas of this shot. Giving my wife an artist's rendering of one of her photos was going to be just too cool.

When Mary replied that she would be glad to paint this for me and quoted me her more than reasonable price...I was immediately excited for her to begin! We discussed framing and border color, of course I knew almost nothing about that stuff. By the end of May it was ready. She sent me a photo of the painting that I must have stared at transfixed, for 10 minutes. A real hand-to-my-mouth moment. I was stunned by how awesome it looked. Then I wanted it right now and to see my wife's face when I gave it to her. My birthday was the next Monday and I knew it was going to arrive a couple days later than that but this was an early anniversary present...and my birthday present would be the look on her face when she opened it!

Wednesday the 5th arrived and so did the package. Handled of course by the old Samsonite gorilla from the long ago TV commercial. The box had been through the mill. I had to wait a half hour to open it because if the painting had been damaged I would have been destroyed. Thank God for bubble wrap packing material! The painting was unhurt and looked even better in my hands.

And now for your viewing pleasure, I present the fantastic work of art created by Mary Montague Sikes....

 

When I tell you that as great as this looks it does not do justice to the actual painting hanging on my wall. It is nothing short of Spectacular! Mary, I cannot thank you enough for taking the time from your busy schedule to complete this work as fast as you did. I had no doubt it was going to be awesome and you did not disappoint.

Having this in my house makes you more than a virtual friend...

I knew immediately after I hung it that it would need a companion on the wall. My wife will help pick out that photo!

Stop by and visit Mary's site and view her incredible art whenever you can.

Sincere thanks MMS...I'll be in touch.