Friday:) Artist Friends at Towne Creek

“The artist has one function–to affirm and glorify life.”
— W. Edward Brown

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A very busy, amazing, and rewarding day. A couple of days of preparing arts, crafts, and food preparations for our Young at Heart senior art group at Towne Creek.

I had some fun art projects planned and Helene and I prepared our usual feast. Then we made up big gift bags with Christmas snacks, drinks, goodies and gifts.

We spent over three hours making fun Santas from chip paint brushes and ginger bread men from brown grocery bags. Holiday magic.

Cute! Right? Quite a few holiday gifts were made,

Everyone had a good time and loved their projects. Everyone received a big gift bag filled with drinks and snacks. A fun holiday paint party.

I made another cute turkey shaped cracker/cheese/veggie platter. Helene made delicious homemade chicken salad sandwich, we had Ramen mushroom soup, and peanut butter cheesecake brownies. Quite the feast and celebration.

Happy Friday my friends,

Friday:) Fun Art Friends at Towne Creek

“You can never have to many artsy friends, especially when you can be creative together.”

~Toni Armenta Andrukaitis

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Well, another Friday with my friends at Towne Creek Apartments. I decided we should work on some Halloween projects so they can have something fun to hang on their door or wall. their door. How about a spooky haunted house?

It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the haunted house was colored in with markers and is dimensional, standing out about 1/2 in from the page. John said this was his first time coloring and he’d be back next time.

Miss Nancy went with a blood red house and scary ghosts flying around.

Miss Kathy’s was so cool, and she was done in record time, so she painted some watercolor pumpkin note cards.

Miss Bonnie had fun and started on another coloring page.

Miss Michelle is a high school volunteer that comes to help out.

Great haunted houses. I need to make one.

Miss Dorothy came to join us after work. She didn’t get to work on a project or even eat, but she helped clean up the mess and do the dishes. Thanks!

Very talented folks,

I did a quick demo of a watercolor pumpkin on a notecard. Quick and easy.

Then, we end our day with our feast. Lots of food, fun, and conversation.

Good times!

Friday:) Friends and Fun Art at Projects Towne Creek

“Sharing and caring and creating with friends is the best!”

~Toni Armenta Andrukaitis

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Another fun art day at Towne Creek Senior Apartments. The smiles are worth gold, and we have a good time.

I do spend a lot of time preparing food, snacks, and projects to work on. I never know if we will have 3 or 13 folks, so we have to be prepared.

Our theme today was Fall leaves. Wishful thinking. Hoping Fall weather
will soon be here.

We drew leaves, painted on leaves, and collaged with leaves. Then, when all was said and done, everyone agreed, “Miss Toni is Amazing,” and I had to agree.

Then for our feast. We sure know how to have a good time. Good friends, awesome artwork, and fine food.

Happy Friday my friends!

Friday:) Fun Art Friends At Towne Creek and My Firemen

“I love my fabulous frantic frenzied FridayS with my fabulous art friends at Towne Creek Apartments. Sharing is caring.”

~Toni Armenta Andrukaitis

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My house is usually a chaotic mess for a couple of days preparing for my art group at Towne Creek. I’ve been volunteering there for over 15 years. The funny part is, I never run out of ideas to share with the group. Granted, some projects we’ve done a few times before, but we are all seniors, so we probably forgot what we did five or six years ago…thank goodness.

My biggest dilemma is what food to prepare for our feast. Instead of hot dogs, I decided to make sandwiches and homemade potato salad. Of course, more triple lemon pudding cheesecake cupcakes and some watermelon. I wasn’t going to make my popcorn/pretzel/cereal snack mix, but I decided last minute that they really look forward to the snack for watching tv later in the evening. A busy couple of days in the kitchen. Then, a few hours preparing art projects and packing up supplies.

My potato salad was awesome. I sautéed the onions and celery, used little baby potatoes and hard boiled eggs. So good. Always sauté your onions/celery. It gives us a sweet caramelized flavor.

This is my refrigerator on Art day. 🤦‍♀️

Then, pack up the car and off to the east side for a day of arts, painting, crafts, feasting, laughing, singing and friendship.

Everyone hard at work, painting their wine bottles. NO… we didn’t drink the wine first, if you were wondering. 🤦‍♀️🍷

Instead of baking them in an oven, we set them outside in the 100° outdoor oven for a while to dry before adding the next layers.

I brought red roses so each artist could have a rose for their awesome new wine bottle vase. 🌹 They were all amazing, but Miss Kathy’s red roses on her pink bottle was just perfect.

I painted a couple of examples for them to get some ideas.

It was another “amazing” art day at Towne Creek. And, everyone will agree, and I’ve been told, because…. Miss Toni is….. wait for it…. “AMAZING.”

And, I can’t forget my firemen. We made a couple of stops with treats on Wednesday for our awesome firefighters.

We stopped at Station 5 with my cupcakes and a huge tray of sandwiches that Dave Manders donated after the Celebration of Life funeral Mass.

My buddies at Station 9.
A busy week, a busy Friday.

Happy Friday my friends! 🤗

Friday:)Fabulous Artist Friends At Towne Creek Senior Apartments

“The only thing better than a day creating art, is a day creating art with old friends.”

~Toni Armenta Andrukaitis

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Today was our Towne Creek Craft and Art Day with our senior friends. There’s always a lot of preparation, anticipation and great expectation… (you See my literary play on words there? I was going to say constipation🤦‍♀️)

I decided we would work on the torn tissue paper project from my Tuesday video. I really wasn’t sure if it would go over well or if it would be too difficult. Boy, was I surprised. They all turned out fabulous.

I started out this morning making my famous popcorn/pretzel/cereal mixture. I make individual bags for each person to take home after the class. They said that they like to watch tv and have their popcorn snack. I gathered up all the supplies, and cut up individual brown bag trees, little squares of 4 colors of green for the trees, and squares of tissue paper colors for the background. A lot of prep.

I also chocolate dipped some strawberries, made a few more lemon cheesecake cookies and cut up a watermelon. Helene was making her famous pasta salad and I was bringing hot dogs, nacho cheese dip, tortilla chips, drinks, and ice cream. Can you say Friday Feast!

Helene and I arrived about the same time and got a couple of carts to haul in all our supplies and goodies. We organized tables, put plastic table cloths and passed out the art supplies needed. I did a brief demo of how to tear the tissue paper, add the dimensional tree, and make all the dimensional leaves. Then, everyone got to work. I couldn’t believe how awesome each background looked.

The background layers were pretty wet from the watery glue, so we set them outside to dry. They were dry in 10 minutes in the sun.

We also had a lovely teenage girl, Michele, who volunteers at Towne Creek, join us. (Miss Kathy-top left, Michelle-top right, Nadia-bottom left, David-bottom right.

Helene’s and Bonnie’s trees turned out so cute. Helene even experimented with two or three colors in one leaf. I love when people experiment and create something spectacular. While the trees were drying, we had a dessert break, then worked on some holographic scratch boards. Those were cool, too.

Then time for our Friday Feast. We hold hands, say a prayer of thanks for our meal and our friendship. Then, we eat like little piggies u til we are about to explode.

Happy Friday, my friends. I hope your day was a fun and fabulous as ours. ❤️

Friday: Fabulous Artist Friends at Towne Creek

“The family that paints and eats together, faints together. Sugar overload.”

~Toni Armenta Andrukaitis

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Another fun afternoon drawing, painting, laughing and sharing good food with the folks obverse at Towne Creek Apartments. We always have a good time.

A lot of baking and prep and getting ideas for projects.

Everyone worked on something different today.

Then, time for our Friday feast.

It was a good day. Happy Friday.

Friday:) Young At Heart Friends At Towne Creek

“Friendship knows no boundaries, no age, no worries, just friendship.”

~Toni Armenta Andrukaitis

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Another fun Friday with our senior artist friends over at Towne Creek. Today we worked on Easter projects.

It wasn’t too crowded, so Helene and I got to do a little crafting.

We take a break around 5 for our feast.

Today, we had all kinds of goodies for their homemade bunny bags. The Peep cupcakes are always a big hit. This year I made lemon this time. Helene made sandwiches and deviled eggs. Yum!

It was a fun Friday.

Friday:) Friends and Towne Creek and My Firemen

“Life is short, so eat dessert first, but with friends, and all the time.”

~Toni Armenta Andrukaitis

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Today was our Towne Creek Young At Heart Art Group. We were working on painting bowls for Empty Bowls. It takes a lot of prep, not only to gather all the art supplies, bowls and paints, it also to prepare all the food for the feast. Helene and I always provide a fun feast.

Preparing the feast. We always make plenty to eat for our feast. We also had homemade soup and sandwiches.

I stopped at Fire Station 9 on my way.

I asked if they had any of my precious containers. Yep. 4. 🤦‍♀️

Everyone had a good time painting bowls.

Everyone hard at work.

Time for the feast.

Happy Friday my friends. Time to put my feet up. I’m exhausted, but in a good happy creative fun way.

Friday:) Friends At Towne Creek and My Firemen

“Today is Friday, I’m exhausted and life is good.”

~Toni Armenta Andrukaitis

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Another fun day with my senior artist friends at Towne Creek. We had a blast.

A lot of Valentines Day projects.

After all that hard work painting, we look for warped to our feast.

Lots of snacks and desserts, it we also had homemade potato-corn chowder and Helene made egg salad sandwiches.

A wonderful busy day with my lovely senior artist friends at Towne Creek.

Then of course, a visit to my firefighters at Station 9.

Friday Friends at Towne Creek

“Old friends are the best friends. And yes, we are all pretty old.”

Me

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Today was our Young At Heart group over at Towne Creek. As usual, Helene and I prepared all kinds of goodies for our monthly meeting. I recounted how I’ve been volunteering there around 15 years now. And every time I go. It’s a fun new adventure.

Today’s menu was turkey sandwiches, tomato shell soup, snacks, mini cheesecakes, ice cream sandwiches, and more.

Fun crafts and projects and Christmas and holiday gifts.

Hard at work, creating fun crafts and gifts to share with friends and family.

A lot of cool projects.

Our Friday feast is always the highlight of the evening.

That’s all from the Elf as herself. (Yes, Helene and I wore our goofy elf hats all day.)

Happy Friday, my friends!