Lake Worth Street Painting Festival.

Lake Worth St Painting Festival from C.M. Scott on Vimeo.


Shannon and I have participated in the Lake Worth Street Painting Festival three times when we were still living in south Florida. Here was one of our first conversations about trying to go back. It was a really great experience and we loved doing it. (Here's the one from 2008) Since moving away, me to Boston and her to IL, we've been talking about going back specifically to do the fest again.

This year we finally made it happen. It was a great weekend! Libby hosted me and Taylor hosted Shannon. I arrived on a Thursday and was able to catch up with my friend Ellen over dinner that night. On Friday, Shannon, Libby and I went for a hip breakfast to meet Libby's friend Meggie who was also participating in the festival and wanted to pick out brains. Not that there was much to pick. While a lot of people use the entire weekend to work on their elaborate piece (the woman stationed next to us was doing, no joke, the Sistine Chapel), Shannon and I generally make it out goal to do something that's fun, manageable, recognizable, and gets us to lunch at Toojays by 1.

We did some shopping in preparation for a really nice gathering Libby hosted of Post people, and in the afternoon I had lunch with Thomas. It was really great to see him and catch up after over six years!

Saturday morning, Shannon and I headed over to Lake Worth. The application process was more involved this year. We had to send a screen grab of the art we were doing, a sketch of the screen grab, and to give ourselves an extra edge, we sent pictures of past works we'd done. We were relieved to get accepted eventually (we would be guaranteed a spot of we sponsored ourselves, but I was too cheap to do it).

The scene we chose was from an animated movie called The Book of Life. Neither of us have seen it but we could see it was visually very cool, with it's theme of Day of the Dead. Our character was a dramatic woman with a giant hat. In the end, we got rid of the hat, convinced we wouldn't actually have enough chalk in the end to pull it off and make it look good. So, we improvised and we were pretty happy with the results (although looking at it now I see my flower is sort of floating BY her head rather than resting on her ear, but whatever. We're not artists. We're chalk drawers, we decided.

We also decided we needed to make this a yearly tradition.

Saturday we had a really nice Indian meal and Sunday, Libby and I went down to Miami to a neighborhood called Winwood, where public art abounds!

yummy Friday morning breakfast

Only in Florida!

TooJay's deliciousness!

angry baby mural

For Susan. At Block 11 cafe

This place it looks familiar
This cafe I've just walked in
It took a sec to place it
But then I knew I'd been

Many years and counting
With you I saw this place
Many years and counting
Since I've seen your smiling  face

New Annoying Toy

Because we don't have enough annoying toys around here, I bought her yet another one. I'm glad I did though because she loves the thing and it actually tires her out. It took a bit to get used to it though. At first it freaked her out (evidence below).

After she was done playing with it last night, I vaguely remember wondering where it went to. Tonight when I went to the pantry to get a cup of dog food for her, there the ball was, right next to the dreaded vacuum cleaner! She's afraid of the vacuum cleaner so, of course, she went nowhere near the ball.

Discovering her new toy from C.M. Scott on Vimeo.

More Snow

According to local news, we have exceeded the snow fall of 1978! And in the video below, I say that it's Sunday. It is not Sunday, it's monday. I'm very confused and have lost track of time.

Untitled from C.M. Scott on Vimeo.

Carport Part 2

We have a lot of snow here in Boston. A lot of snow. A record amount of it.
Even though I've run out of places for it, I keep shoveling. Clearing the front stairs, clearing the back stairs, clearing the sidewalk to the carport, clearing the sections between the carport and the street.

This morning Harlow and I ran errands before the next storm hits. Food, pet-friendly ice melt, etc.  Pulling back into my carport though, I slid sideways into the snow mound on the right. I got really stuck. So I delivered Harlow to the yard and got myself the shovel and got to work, moving out as much snow as a could, then jamming some cardboard under the wheels for traction. It worked like a charm!

And once I got the car settled, I looked up and saw this on top of the carport. Of course...

2/8/15 the endless snow essentially made a ramp for her to get the best view! from C.M. Scott on Vimeo.



I tried to clear some of the snow which was helping her get access to the top of the carport, but it was a beast of a job, and in truth, my priority was clearing my access to the street a little better for the sake of my car. We'd only get more snow to remake her access ramps anyway.

Gee, I wonder where she's getting up onto the carport?

I worked to remove some of the snow, but who am I kidding? She could easily jump that if she was bored enough.

So, I put the correction collar on her and basically tried to bait her. I let her back outside and acted busy on the porch (from where I can see the carport) and hoped she would try to jump up again. I would shock her to teach her to stop doing it. I don't love that (there's a vibrate mode on the collar which tends to be effective enough), but I'll take puppy's temporary discomfort over her being crushed by a plow because she got out of the yard again and when for a walkabout!

Alas, she knows exactly what that collar does, so she knew better than to take the bait. In fact, she'll approach the carport and then look into the window to see if I'm watching her, remote in hand. If I'm there, she scurries in another direction. So make no mistake about it; she knows what that collar does and she knows she's not allowed on the carport.

Yesterday though, before the back-breaking snow removal and car digging out, I got some nice snow play shots.

she's an excellent snowball collecter

tracking those nasty squirrels!