A Van Gogh Weekend

Let's start out by announcing the winner of my give-away last week regarding the Make Do and Mend post. The not-so-scientific approach of using a random generator resulted in having the husband pick a number from 1 to 14, and he chose a random number of "8".  The eighth post was from Ann at Tin and Sparkle.  I will be sending Ann the piece of needlepoint this week.  Yea Ann!
The prior three days were spent in Denver with friend Kathy and Ellen, her 11 year old daughter.  We visited the Van Gogh exhibit.  It was excellent.  Read all about it here. Fine art and painting are some of the things that I count as blessings. (Linking to Inspiration Avenue's weekly challenge of Count Your Blessings.)

This picture (1889) was the one I spent the most time examining because Van Gogh did not follow the rules, yet created a masterpiece.  Do you see what I mean? ( Hint: clouds)  Do you like the blues?
linking to Blue Monday
Niece Cindy was singing with the Sweet Adelines.  Her group had an international competition last week in Denver with over 4000 participants, and she seemed to be having a great time.  We had dinner and caught up on family.
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Then on to Kathy's activities: Ellen played a basketball game (her mom and I cheered), we shopped a bit, we had an outdoor iced tea at a local restaurant, we ate at the Olive Bargain (ok, Olive Garden) and Kathy hosted her sister's birthday party one evening.

One of Kathy's other four sisters (right in light blue) helped in the festivities.  The birthday girl is in dark blue and Ellen is in yellow. Kathy is in white on the left.
The color on the trees was absent on the drive between Grand Junction and Denver due to cold weather, but I will leave you with this lovely autumn picture.
sourceYes, I am almost finished with the ottoman makeover and will post this week about its completion.