Today Casa Feliz was closed, an opportunity to begin a study of the post that took the brunt of the wrecking ball. This is a message of hope. Although the 1st blow to the house was brutal and the damage is done and the scar still remains, the house still stands. So it had to move; it was not wanted. That moment that made the ugly scar is gone and the house is now in a place where it is loved and treasured and happy. After I left the house today I went to Central Park to the spot I call Percival's post. Instead of sketching Perci, I started a sketch of the tree I have named "six fingers". Kids love this tree. Squirrels love to scamper around in its trunks chasing each other up and down and around and among the "six fingers".  When I rose to leave I had a treat, just to be fair full disclosure, I must declare I adore watching squirrels.
Have you have seen a thousand squirrels ? Seeing the world through other' s eyes is fun. Observed an excited young lady with her date, or spouse perhaps. He asked, what you've never seen a squirrel? Don't they have squirrels in (name of country inaudible) . This cute, young, probably Asian couple seemed to be declaring to the world that they were a pair since they were each wearing a spiffy pair of matching black and white low tops on their feet .
As I sketched the tree, I observed a family handle a discovery, they had found a wallet. First one of them said I know we will look him up on Facebook, everyone is on Facebook but apparently he was not so one of them called Costco from the number on his executive membership card and gave his membership number and his name to Costco. I was thinking of the million signs of good people in the world. I hope they find Dr David Gable (? spelling) and give him back his wallet. This was my Sunday afternoon adventure today which was different because there was no music at the house. Fortunately I spent the weekend with one of my favorite musicians, my son, who played his guitar for me while I listened to the pound of the surf. We watched 2 sunrises together. I wrote the lyrics to the chorus of a song that I hope he will compose a piece of music to match the moments that inspired my lyrics. Till next Sunday see the sketches on Facebook......just a click away ,If you like, share . Perhaps one of you is friend of a friend who knows the doctor? Tell him Costco knows who found his wallet.

Sunday 12/20/2015 @ Casa Feliz

Casa Feliz . How do I begin to explain how happy it makes me to be at Casa Feliz?.

This house is where I started on an artistic journey which began in 2008.

I found music. I found music on Sundays.
The music allowed me to discover a previously hidden gift .
A gift given to me by God.
I did not know when faced with those terrifyingly blank pages  that I could
render a drawing that could make me feel these moments .
When I heard the music I could focus. I could sketch it.
I could put it on the page.
This is what this happy house has given to me.
The music made me want to just try .  I told myself do this just for yourself.
If it is not perfect, or even half way decent give it time let yourself learn. 

Consider yourself in kindergarten
Don't be critical to yourself
So now I have been sketching at the house almost every
Sunday since 2008.
In this journey I was not just learning to sketch .
What I really have been learning is how to be brave .
I have learned how to be my authentic self.
This is me. Sarah, the artist. I like it. It makes me happy.
I share my happiness with you.

adversity.... The wrecking ball started at this post ,,,,,but when the public realized we were about to lose a treasure,,,,,adversity for the happy house gave birth to many days of happiness for me and many others in this happy house.  Journey with me through my Casa Feliz journal . Sketch is viewable on the public Facebook page She sketcheson Sundays. The cover page for this journal is today!s profile photo update.

She sketches....this Sunday
....at Casa Felix......x marks the spot where a letter z should should reside. However ...
....as she started to sketch down a few notes about the experience she was startled by someone trying to get her attention.   She wishes she could reveal the delightful details here...but. she decides this is not the proper venue to pen this story.  She will instead file it away in her memory under D for delightful.

Josh Wilson performed on keyboard today at Casa Feliz,
 to view sketch follow link at right to  go to Facebook page:    She sketcheson Sundays

Today's adventure

Sunday is coming..........today is almost gone....

Lynx route 40 ......to where the sidewalk ends.

On the way to the Mall at Millenia the bus makes a stop at the Orlando Amtrak station and at the Orlando Health hospital campuses. Will it be a straight shot down Orange to Americana Blvd?

We turn right on Michigan and I see the Adult literacy League office next to Aramark. At the corner of OBT I See the Bargain Spot thrift store. We turn left onto Rio Grande. We are in Holden Heights. Rio Grande runs under I-4.  J.  points out his old apartment complex. When we turn right  at Honour Rd., he says he thinks this used to be a dirt road in the ice age of 1973 when he moved to Florida.  Just barely after Disney I'm thinking.  A left onto San Antonio, then we must have taken a right onto Americana and we went past Texas before we arrive at the Mall at Millenia.  I hear the young lady on the seat behind me say "old people don't need to go outside". I turned around to ask my question ..which was.......what do you call old?  The tall thin man with the black backpack in the white "tennis" got off somewhere along Americana before we reached the corner of Texas Ave.  He seemed to be probably Hispanic.  After we left the bus, the sidewalk took us right to IKEA instead of the mall.  The bushes around the perimeter of the parking lot in front of the mall and the lack of a sidewalk on the mall side or crosswalks to the mall imply the mall developers want to strongly discourage those people who don't have cars to transport purchases, from visiting this mall. Today we are the non car driving people who have taken public transit to arrive at the mall. We drove the truck to Colonial Plaza where we parked and hopped on the 313 to the Lynx Central station where we had transferred on to the 40. We like to take a bus adventures around Orlando periodically. We see streets and areas of town where we normally do not drive  and we walk and ride and wait for our busses to arrive with those of our community who get around town without a car.  This is our community.  The bus system is not the most luxurious transit mode on a Saturday afternoon adventure and most of our fellow   passengers are not on a leisurely afternoon excursion.  We both grew up in the midwest in towns where we used public transportation when we were teenagers and we like being brave in our "old age" and daring to do things we know some of our acquaintances would never dare. It is dark when we arrive back at the truck with my purchases in my new 99 cent IKEA shopping bag.  I found  gifts at IKEA for all of my sister's family members, two  of my other nieces, my two grandsons, and also picked up some cool food stuffs for the office Christmas luncheon.  We did finally find the one spot along the scary circular road around the mall where there is a break in the bushes and a sidewalk to let us walk safely from the IKEA parking  lot to the Bloomingdales parking lot. The only thing we bought at the mall was lunch at the food court shop the young man J mentors has been working.   J.  bought our lunch, 2 "Great Wraps" and I paid the  8 dollars for our round trip transit costs. It would be a dollar cheaper each way for us if we took the time to pick up our senior discount cards at Central Station. We hiked back to the bus stop and the sidewalk took us  in front of a shop where I stopped to purchase a gift certificate for an upcoming birthday of my daughter in "love".  I was able to complete most of my holiday gift shopping  today.  It was almost too easy .  J. carried the big blue IKEA bag around for me inside the mall.  Neither one of us missed driving on I-4 in traffic or looking for a place to park at the mall.