Well, OK, then!

My painting, "The Youngest Groomsman" came home quite beribboned from the Glenwood Springs Fall Art festival today. The exhibit is the largest one in the state, with almost 400 artists participating. This painting won the Reserve Champion award, and the first place award in the professional oils division. The Reserve Champion is the 2nd to the top award for the overall exhibit. The Grand Champion award went to one of my art traveling buddies! Her piece was a watercolor, also a portrait, so the 3 judges must have had a preference for figures this time. I don't take art-as-competition very seriously normally, except for when I do well! So this time, I guess I can say they were excellent judges. Ha! The even nicer thing about being beribboned at this particular exhibit, is that with the ribbons comes quite generous cash awards. Well, OK... I can deal with that, too!
In addition to the awards and money, we cleaned out our box room in the basement this weekend; a job we've been procrastinating over for 12 years. There were boxes of stuff in there that hadn't been opened since we moved to this house. We took a truckload of stuff to Goodwill, and at least that much will be trashed or recycled. An exhausting but quite rewarding accomplishment. Hey, I think I deserve a ribbon for that too!!