Watercolor Sunday and Saturday's Color: February 2018

It helps when you have a really short month to make the time fly even faster, right?  It also helps to have two weeks of Winter Olympics!  Did you know that the USA won only 3 more overall medals than the Netherlands????  23-20.  That's really saying something about this wee country (whose children are born on skates, as you know by now).

Anyway, I digress.

My Watercolor Sunday posts on Facebook for February 2018:

February 4 (photo manipulation)

"People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy."

--Anton Chekhov

February 11 (photo manipulation)

"You can lead a heart to love, but you can't make it fall."

--George Strait

February 18 (photo manipulation)

"I think the way to become the best is to just have fun."

--Shaun White, American Olympic gold medalist in snowboarding 2006, 2010, and 2018.

February 25 (photo manipulation)

"If men could learn from history, what lessons it might teach us!

But passion and party blind our eyes, and the light which experience gives is a lantern on the stern,

which shines only on the waves behind us!"

--Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

My Saturday's Color posts on Facebook for February 2018:

(finished on 22 January 2018, posted on FB 3 February 2018)

This Vintage Patterns design (on black-background paper) reminds me of my maternal grandmother,

Olive Nelson Bennett, who designed wallpaper for a ritzy company in New York City back in her day.

[Sister, Ruth Hart Mowry, says the wallpaper company was Thibaut, the oldest American
wallpaper company, established 1886.  I have a feeling I owe a LOT to her!]

(finished on 20 August 2017, posted on FB 10 February 2018)

Did you watch the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games?

OMG!  How awesome and spectacular.  

I saw the Olympic Rings all over this Techellations design.

"The Olympic flag has a white background, with five interlaced rings in the centre:

blue, yellow, black, green and red.

The design is symbolic; it represents the five continents of the world, united by Olympism,

while the six colours are those that appear on all the national flags of the world at the present time."

(finished on 13 February 2018, posted on FB 17 February 2018)

So, what do you see!

We're now midway through the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Did you know that there are 38 countries (out of 195) that have a tricolor red, white and blue flag?

You can see the Dutch and French flags here, which are always easy to confuse.

(from my Mindfulness book)

(finished on 16 December 2017, posted on FB 24 February 2018)

We're getting ready to break our coldest record ever for this time of the year here where we live

in the Netherlands (at the same time that we're seeing many signs of spring.)

The canals may even freeze again, finally, for ice skating (and not just at the Olympics!).

(from my Kaleido Color book)

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Actually, on that last note, while it's been cold enough, the ice is NOT good for skating because of the winds that have rendered it unsafe...with patches that are too thin next to patches thick enough.  One man has already died from falling through the ice (age 75) and 4 kids also have fallen through.  I learn every day so much from Astrid about these things!

Just a PENNY???

If you think this is going to be a cheap post, you're on the right track.

It starts with this Richard Quest ad we often hear while watching CNN Int'l these days (my only channel for watching American and world news):

When it comes on and Astrid hears his voice, she immediately says,

"Just a PENNY?"

You could say Richard and I are on the same page, as surely was my dad, whose daughter I truly am when it comes to all things "conservational."  I know I embarrassed my kids every time I bent down to pick up a penny, let alone when I bought them brand-new clothes at yard sales.

You probably know where I'm going with this.

Richard's ad got me thinking about all the things in our small apartment that we've either acquired for free or for pennies on the dollar at flea markets or our nearby Kringloop (circle-loop = second-hand store).

Where do I start!

Our dining table with 6 chairs for €50 at Kringloop, which Astrid lovingly refinished.

Our €15 antique koffie grinder from the flea market, also refurbished by Astrid.

My €25 rollator after knee surgery from Kringloop.

Our €30 exercise bike and €65 cross-trainer, used every day!

Free planters and such (from our center's freebie room) for Astrid's green thumb.

My favorite freebie of them all, for the amaryllis each year.

I could continue on and on about how I saved in this life and past lives...as well as did Astrid.

But now...THIS!

YES!  Astrid and I are gonna be grandmas!!!  (A Freebie??)

Astrid's son Jeroen and Eva are expecting their first child around the first of September!!!

On March 11 we expect to find out the gender with only the name to remain a secret from us.

So, guess what we're already finding.  HA!

A brand-new hoodie for €.75 at Kringloop,

the perfect size for next winter.

A freebie caterpillar and a bike that Astrid will restore once she's retired in May.

Disney piggy banks from Kringloop....everything perfectly sanitized by Astrid.

Astrid and I often say to each other that we make good Jews.  If you're Jewish and reading this, surely you know that's the highest compliment we could ever pay you.

Do we like money???  YES!  That's why we save it, one penny at a time.  Are we too proud to admit it???  NO!  

After all, it's NOT just a penny.  "Every penny has power and it's not how many you have, it's what you do with them that counts!  That's the marvel of money."