Chocolate Silk, $25 , and Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookies

Come on, enjoy it. Shimmery, yummy color on silk.

And, "waiting out a storm" Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip cookies, bite into those too.

Here's some more of the silks from late yesterday, look all you want.

But you may not, NOT, have the $25 I won off the Men With Pens yesterday. Nope cannot have it. Mine. All mine. Not even that "nut graf exposing Viking" gets the prize this time. Why is it that winning cash is so much fun? And the "buy something totally indulgent" instructions that came with the cash even more fun?

Yesterday was just one of those days that could have gone either way. Oh, we had thunderstorms all around, high winds, rain, that kind of challenged my plans to paint the silks outside. But my 2 minute plan has me on deadline. I want x number of pearlescent, shimmery, sensual silks done in x number of days. Think Mother Nature gives one squat about my plans? Nope. Believe me on that one.

So yesterday morning, early set up, a little swirling of French dyes, some brush work, and the first leaves start dancing by on the increasing winds. Not to worry. I have been known to walk over to my neighborhood shop for treats while hurricanes are stirring around in the Gulf. A little Texas rainstorm? Nothing. So I pop back inside briefly to check email, and see that Pen Men have posted a challenge. Hm. I really don't have time, the clouds are getting darker, but I'll give it a try. I make a couple of guesses. The winds are picking up. I run back out to bring the silks on their frames into the shelter of the garage just as the first big splats of rain begin. Hm, I think, "maybe I should check the radar"...ya think?

Rain, in earnest, now beats against the window panes. Time for plan B. I wanted to play with chocolate didn't I? So out come the Ghirardelli chips, the Kitchen Aid mixer and the goodies to whip up some homemade cookies. Ahh, that is such a nice smell on a rainy dark day. While the first silks dry (those winds are good for that), the cookies bake, and I find out this is going to be a little bit more of a storm than a summer shower, back I go to MwP to see if I had gotten lucky. No. Hm. A couple more guesses, and back to work I go. I take the last batch of warm cookies out, photograph and post the morning's silks and yes, make one more guess. That's it. Enough of that. I have work to do.

I am back outside under overcast skies, but there's a break in the rain. So I pour deep Havana and Tabac into a little bit of black, ooh, and some blues might be nice, too. As the clouds move over my head, my brush moves over the silk. Yummy. I love this kind of free. I told Friar, it is the negative ions that invigorate me, in storms and at a seashore. So brush and I skipped, darted, and dashed as the winds picked up again. Splat!...Splat! Oops. The dyes until set will run when wet. So back to the shelter of the garage they go. But I was done. Spent. All was good. Time to clean up. Go inside.

So I wash my brushes and mixing cups. Put away the containers. Clean off my hands and sniff warm cookies as thunder rolled back in. Okay, I'll just check to see if anybody won that challenge. DING DING DING. There it was from James. Janice you won... and a whole chorus of congrats. I looked around at my chocolate silk filled day, and the wonderful beauty that was this storm and there all over the country and Canada were friends cheering for me. So I did a happy dance, accepted the cash and the "well played". I poured some wine raised my glass to them and to myself. Indeed well played all.

Later I would find out those were 61 mile per hour winds that downed a couple of trees and tore a few roofs off. But... I got my silks, my $25, some cookies...and warm hugs from some friends... And I am buying something wonderfully indulgent with the cash. Not a bad Tuesday I am thinking.