Sunday, May 31, 2009

Sunday, Gaudy Sunday

Ah, Sunday.

This morning I got up, ate some breakfast and then gave a few wayward plants new homes. We had an pair of strawberries that didn't fit in anywhere, so they got their own pot, as did a coleus that we rescued from Lowe's. A tall salvia got a temporary home in a pot that Dave made, and an indoor plant that's been four years in a too-small pot got some breathing room.

After that, we had a fabulous lunch (pasta with goat feta, asparagus, kalamata olives, garlic, and lemon) and then I wanted to go to the cemetery to visit my Grandma Josie and my younger brother.

Cemetery

You can see all the flowers and such from Memorial Day. There were a lot of people there today, too. It was a perfect cemetery day--whatever that means--and Dave and I took flowers for my grandmother and a tin calavera ornament that I made for my brother. My grandmother and brother are buried right near each other, so it's very convenient.

I remember that it was February when my brother was buried, and I looked at the bare ground around his grave (which is now overgrown with grass) and I looked at the big blue sky above his grave and I thought, this is a pretty nice place to rest awhile. Today I lay down on the grass beside his grave, and aside from the grass being a little prickly and the sun being a little too strong, it actually was a pretty nice place to rest awhile. Next time I visit, I'll bring a picnic lunch and sit longer with both him and my grandmother.

After the cemetery, we went up to the crafts store and I picked up some wood picture frames, a couple of wooden plaques, and a birdhouse to paint (maybe with calaveras?). We also stopped by Vitamin Cottage and bought some flax seed oil, Amy's frozen pizzas, some snack bars for Dave, and a Bach Flower Remedy (clematis, which is supposed to help one focus on the present) for me.

Earlier, I had worked a bit on the other side of my altar.

This is the top side up side, the Catrina side:

Catrina de las Calaveras Ofrenda

This, so far, is the bottom side up side, what I'm calling the Gaudy Calavera:

Gaudy Calavera (In Progress)

You can barely see the glitter. Here's a closer look:

Gaudy Calavera (In Progress)

She's kind of iridescent because of a pearl finish paint I found, and I'm adding a ton of glitter to make her very gaudy. I haven't finished her face yet, and I think I'm going to paint out the blue eyes and make them lime green, but I like her so far.

Did you know that the word "gaudy" comes from a Latin word gaudium, "joy," or gaude, which means "rejoice!"

I think it fits.

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