Eat like Chihuahua feel like a Great Dane

Saddle up your horse this is your lucky day if you are in the THW, HealthyWeigh, Challenge. The beef is coming estimated at a ton or 33 bales of hay at 65lbs per bale. We are starting at 20,000 lbs. with an estimated time of arrival at ten weeks from now and an estimated weight loss of over a ton. 75 teams full of the spirit and in for the bronc riding ride of their lives. YaHOO!! Yippee!! All are already judged winners by showing up!!

I a Chihuahua. Thats what THW calls those who have achieved their goal weight. I have reached that status because my weight hovers in the teens. In case you didn’t know and according to sources during a Google search or if you ever owned a Chihuahua. They are deeply and constantly affectionate. You will find them not hard to love it all. The breed is naturally small rather than being bred down from a larger breed. Their eyes are large and very round and emit a kind luminous quality that reflects that special energy they carry within. They have much energy in a tiny package. Maybe that is why I get to be an assistant for the challenge.

I like being a Chihuahua but I have to remember who I am and that I am not a Great Dane. If I forget and eat like the Great Dane I will lose my Chihuahua status. However I will remember that I am indeed as powerful as a Great Dane. I just can’t eat like one.

The theme for this ten week challenge is Western. I wore a black cowboy hat, Black leather jacket and My grandfathers sheriffs badge around my neck. My grandfather was a sheriff in North Dakota and I inherited his badge. I proudly announced this fact to the trainer at All Pride Fitness, the clerk at Safeway, the Starbucks Barista and the Art Students in my class. Everyone who I happened to come across got the word that I was the Grandaughter of the first sheriff in Dunn County was in town.

This challenge is the most successful weight loss program I have ever seen. Each week people lose weight. The team that loses the most weight wins $1,000.00 but everyone in the challenge comes out a winner. Some of the winners don’t even remember how they spent the prize money. If you ask anyone in the program if they feel like a winner they will say an enthusiastic Yes! I lost weight and had a lot of fun.

The participants were encouraged commit. Commit to being powerful. Powerful committed people will get more out of the next 10 weeks than anyone in the room. What you are going to do has never been accomplished before get excited. Make a decision today to go overboard with this. Why not? What do you have to lose?

What breed of Dog does your weight reflect? We live in the land of plenty and the best abundance you will ever receive is taking off those extra pounds and finding out you are a Chihuahua. Yippee ki-yay! Ki-yay!

Sandra Longmore is a Professional Artist. Art Teacher, and creative thinker whom  is dedicated to the very best of life with enthusiasm, energy and expectancy.

Sandra is committed to sharing her vitality through coaching others to a life of becoming remarkable through personal evolution as a member of MorningCoach Coaching Certification Program.  Connect with Sandra online!  Share your thoughts or follow her journey She would love hearing from you!

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Today’s Daily Painting is the “Draw Class” sponsored by the Portland Plein Air of Portland and taught by Kitty Wallis.  I feel more successful every class.  We are learning many exciting drawing techniques that are helpful for my drawing skills.

The Class is exploring the techniques  of Nicolas Carone using his text book “The Natural Way to Draw” and Nicholas Carone techniques through Kitty Wallis’s guidance.

Daily Painting to me is  about what’s going on in my world of art: daily paintings,  art, my process, and my thoughts about art in general.  I have a commitment with two other painters to email a daily painting by 9:00pm every day.  There are no rules and this creative penatration of daily painting has greatly inflenced  my daily life and art has started to grow in tremendous and unexpected ways.

Work. Keep digging your well.
Don’t think about getting off from work.
Water is there somewhere.
Submit to daily practice.
Your loyalty to that
Is a ring at the door.
Keep knocking, and the joy inside
Will eventually open a window
and look out to see who’s there.
- Rumi

"River Park Villa"

Daily studio work today was on the River Villa Park painting done in Jeff Gunn’s Plein Air Class.  I love the orange bridge and the composition. This painting is in progress.

"Sauvie Island"

My daily today was studio work on a painting done in Jef Gunn’s Plein Air Class at Sauvie Island  The Reeder Road Dyke.

We had farm views, broken water, distant blue hills and lots of atmosphere to choose for  our composition.  We started with lunch and discussion of the site.  Gems of wisdom for the painter from Jef and class members were abundant.  Here is a recap of the days discussion.

• Orient yourself to the land.  Let it speak to you.  Cezanne’s book on Composition is a good book.
• In the afternoon the west changes fast and in the morning the east changes fast.  So we picked north or south
• What is your point of view?  High (cliffs) Low (looking down) or level eye level.
• Stop seeing things and see forms, look for the relationship in things, identify 3 or 4 shapes.
• Dark over light will warm and light over dark will cool.
• let you edges find themselves, edges become beautiful by working and reworking
• Standard glazing medium: 1pt. Turpentine, 1pt. Stand oil, and 1pt. Danmar.

“Today was a great Monet Day”

June 1, 2008
This is the painting for the “Shooting Stars” CD cover for the younger dancers. The front cover is Karen’s Daughter,

She was very happy with the results.

"Gwen Kaspar"

Today’s daily painting  is Gwen, my aunt who lived her  life in North Dakota on” the ranch”. I often heard my mother refer of the ranch and  outdoor plumbing, gardens, cows, and wild horses.  A goose  used to terrorize us when we made the chilling  trip to the outhouse. Gwen never married and lived with my other aunt Helen.  You will see her tomorrow.  Things were really different compared to our lives today.  When we visited there in 1989, I rembered the wondorus smell of the land and the wind on my face.  It is so intriguing  drawing these different life streams and speculating how they impacted my life.  The time lines, stories, and memories carry feelings that touch ones very cells.  I am grateful to be taking this journey with “Everyone I Know” for the Art House Gallery Project.  The project has me going down a very interesting path with my art.

"Blue Dress"

This is a drawing of a model in the Wednesday Draw Night Drawing Class.

We are studying various drawing techniques. Kitty Wallis is the instructor. It is a wonderful opportunity to improve your drawing techniques.

Often I will flip my work upside down to get a fresh look or another method is to look into a mirror.There are many sites that explore this method of drawing. The most famous is Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

CD Cover design

Last Week was full of opportunity and activity.  Richard True called and wanted to have a inner insert in his CD of a man painting the original painting CD cover Design.  He wanted a man in a funky hat standing in front of my painting.  A puzzle for an artist to solve.  I found the funky hat and a model, my husband Tom, and a sunny day to photograph his.  Thankfully being confident with Photoshop and  help from my graphic design Daughter, Chelsea Weiler, I was able to put him in the painting.  wonderful feelings of gratitude when it all came together with awesome results.