artsyfartsyme

Roses for the Dead continued

2012-02-10T09:29:00.000-06:00

Slowly but surely, I continue to work on my "Roses for the Dead" pastel painting. The work actually goes fast, but I've been doing busy work like painting frames and other things instead of working on this.

My local Blick Art Materials had some wing ding yesterday and was giving out pull tab cards with discounts on them. I pulled a 20% off which is good considering I didn't have a coupon to be begin with but the lady in front of me picked out a card that was a $100 gift card! Dang! Oh well, good for her.

I'm hooking up with Paint Party Friday Woo Hoo! Go and see all the inspiration and talent there if you get a chance.

For those of you that read my post from last Friday, I have an update on my mammogram that I had to have "further evaluation" on. I got great news yesterday. I had my mammogram redone yesterday and everything is fine. No cancer! I am so relieved. The doctor was pointing at these little lines that crossed over in my x-rays that he was showing me but it all looked the same to me. Good thing that's not my job! Anyway, thanks for all the nice things you all said and well wishes and prayers. I love our support group here in blogland.

Oh, also some of you may know about Google getting rid of friend connect (a way to follow blogs). I found through Inspiration Avenue an alternative by the same smart guy that brought us Mr. Linky. It's free, you should check it out and if you do it, I'd love it if you followed me through there, too! See my upper right hand corner for a link.

Have a great weekend friends :)

Happiness in the mailbox

2012-02-07T09:25:00.000-06:00

I opened up my mailbox last night to find a happy little envelope with stickers and hearts and stamps and was so excited to discover that it held goodies inside!

In this world of automation, there is nothing like getting a hand written letter in the mailbox. And not that fakey hand written look either. Nope, this is the real thing. Just look what I got! My sweet friend Lisa over at Priti Studio must've felt sorry for me because I've been so pitiful lately, haha. Naww... she was just being her sweet giving self.

Isn't it a beautiful little set? I call it a set because she sent along one of her cards, I think it was a moo card, isn't that what their called? It's beautiful and a tiny piece of art! Now to the gorgeous pendant... I think I even made a little peep sound when I looked at the pendant and saw the word artist on there. I always feel kinda strange referring to myself as artist, but wearing it is a different story. I will proudly wear this beautiful piece of art by my friend Lisa. It makes me so happy. I love Frida and Lisa paints her beautifully.

If you haven't visited Lisa in a while you should go peek in. She just finished a spectacular commissioned piece of The Last Supper.

Thank you, thank you Lisa... you've made my difficult week suck a little less.

p.s. is this font size crazy big?

Pass the wine please

2012-02-03T14:21:00.001-06:00

I'm working on a pastel painting at the moment, it's still of course a work in progress. "Roses for the Dead". You may remember seeing the drawing from some post from who knows when. I fall in love with pastels every time I use them. I don't know why I stop and go to other things. Paints for some reason just beckon me with their come hither texture and fabulous colors not to mention I find such delight in just admiring my palette. There's just something so romantic about holding a brush in your hand. Okay, I'm a little crazy.

But what a fickle medium it is, I have these marvelous paintings in my mind and for some reason the end result gets hacked by either the paints, the brushes or technique. It can't possibly be me, right? haha Do you ever feel like you have no control over what you're doing?

Well I got the girls squished this week, Tuesday to be precise and then just yesterday I got the dreaded letter in the mail saying I have to go back in for "an ultra sound and further evaluation". Great. Just what I need, a week of worry and fret. I can't get back in until next Thursday. Pass the wine bottle please. I think I'll just stay drunk until then.

The chirpy girl on the other end of the phone was all "now this is all routine, it doesn't mean anything" Well if it doesn't mean anything then why the hell do I have to go back?!! I knew that technician was too good to be true. She didn't hurt me at all. She should've flattened those puppies out. At least now the pain would be gone and maybe now I would not be worried.

Ah so maybe I'm got a self portrait here... just kidding. Other than that, I have tinnitus now in my left ear from probably coughing my head off and I just got back from having my eyes dilated. So I can't see a damn thing. If there's typo's I'm sorry but it's the doctors fault. I was sure I had macular degeneration. So far their just floaters, probably from coughing hard for so long. But I'm supposed to be looking for a black curtain, a sign of a torn retina. Wonderful.

Let's see, is there anything else I can complain about? Not at this moment. Check back later though ;)

Happy Paint Party Friday! (I'm back!)

P.S. I've a quick question for everyone. Are the words too small and hard to read for you? It seems small to me, but I'd like your opinions.

UPDATE: I have an update on my mammogram that I had to have "further evaluation" on. I got great news yesterday (Thurs. 2/9/12). I had my mammogram redone yesterday and everything is fine. No cancer! I am so relieved. The doctor was pointing at these little lines that crossed over in my x-rays that he was showing me but it all looked the same to me. Good thing that's not my job! Anyway, thanks for all the nice things you all said and well wishes and prayers. I love our support group here in blogland.

How to photograph your artwork on the cheap

2012-01-24T14:37:00.000-06:00

I wanted to share a few things I've learned lately about photographing your art to sell, say on FineArtAmerica.com. Since I've got a new shop there and I've been adding some art pieces lately it is fresh in my mind and I've made some boo boo's along the way that might help or offer things you might not have thought of. Now, I'm not a professional photographer so of course with any free advice, you know what they say... you get what you pay for... haha or how about opinions? they are like poop shoots, everybody's got one. Here's mine:

A few words about making your art.

Odd sizes: I found through trial and error that odd size paintings will not be printed as large on FAA. That means that your lovely customer will only be able to purchase up to a certain size of your fabulous artwork. That also means you're out extra moolah cause it won't print any bigger than said size.

Signing your work: Again, through trial and error I found that signing your artwork close to the edge of your piece is a mistake. See the photo above, my initials are right on the edge. Now when I was creating this piece 4 inches away from it, that seemed fine. Fine until I had to look at the photograph of it and straighten it and practically crop it off. No good. Sign your artwork at least an inch away if not more from all sides, I say.

Metallic ink and paint: They don't photograph for shit. Enough said.

Taking your mugshot with your art: Wear makeup (see above) What was I thinking??

Don't frame it: Do not frame your beloved piece of artwork before you photograph it. The glare will be bad and make it a nightmare to try to find a spot in your yard or house that won't show your stupid ass in the glass.

If I figure out more stuff, I'll edit this post, til then that's it... go wild!

Ok, so now to the tutorial part of this post. Remember this scanner = no good. You need to photograph it.

So I've got my piece of art right here that I finished yesterday and I'm ready to sell that sucker! Screw Etsy and Artfire, I've found FAA (here's my shop). I've made a sale too already which has pulled me out of my funk and spurred a little fire down below if you know what I mean. Of course I don't know who bought the piece, it could've been one of you trying to keep me from falling into an abyss of self pity. If it was, thanks!! ;)

Here's what I use:
my spiffy digital camera (set on the highest quality setting possible and in manual mode set for shade)
super cheap easel from Michaels for like $10 with 40% off coupon
chalkboard for backing, stolen from my son
stick or pencils to elevate artwork
sticky tack (miracle shit)
bright natural light from behind
luck and lots of shots

here's that sticky tack aka miracle shit

First I set up my easel and use the square stick to elevate my artwork so the camera can get even the very bottom. I've used pencils, and blocks, anything to get my work out of that groove that is on the easel.

Then you need to have a backing that is sturdy, I'm using my son's chalkboard but you could use whatever you have handy like foam core or cardboard or a big book (not thick). It doesn't matter what color it is or how it looks cause you will crop it out completely at the end.

Next, you don't want your artwork at an angle, that will make it out of square and then you'll have to crop off quite a bit to make it square (or rectangle) and when I say out of square I mean the bottom will be wider than the top giving it a carnival glass look to it, it would be distorted got it? See image below.

So I've been working with wood to paint on lately so I don't have to tape up my paper, but if I had paper I would use this sticky tack blue stuff to attach it to the board you have on your easel to hold up your art. It is better than tape, comes right down when you're done and won't hurt your art. I found mine at Home Depot in the adhesives aisle. If you're like me and didn't know about this stuff, you've got to try it. My son's Kindergarten teacher uses it and my son knew about it before I did! It's great stuff.

If you have to tape your paper artwork to the board, then you would need to stick something behind the board to try to make it as plumb as you can. Mine isn't perfect in the picture but close enough. I didn't have to crop much of anything off.

You want to have light behind your camera. I like the natural light best. I think direct sunlight might wash your colors out, but from what I've found online it's a preference thing. I like bright shade best. You have to plan to photograph your art during the day or have really good lighting but you'll probably still have to mess with it in your photo program.

So you've got the camera in front of your piece and you're ready. I use a tri-pod for my camera so I don't get a blurry image. You can get these really cheap at Walmart and the like. Get one. You'll use it, I promise. I also set my camera to use the timer so I don't get a blurry image or move the camera when I push the button. Figure out your camera people! It just takes a short time to see what kinda goodies are on there, it's in the manual. If you lost yours, chances are you can download it from the manufacturers website.

I set my camera for the highest setting and I switch it to manual so I can put it in shade setting. Yours might not have a manual setting but I bet it has a setting for cloudy or shady. Use it. It allows the most light to come into the camera as possible for a better picture. You don't need to understand it, just do it.

Take lots of photos. Move out of the way of the light coming from behind. If you need to, direct some light with something light like a white sheet on the floor. You don't want shadows to appear on your flat image. If you have them, then you might not have enough light. Experiment, that is the best teacher.

Download your photos without taking down your make-shift studio if at all possible. Because you might have to go back and reshoot it! Use your absolute best shot and take it in to a program like Photoshop or similar. Even the basic ones have the tools to brighten, change the exposure (which will lighten up a dark photo) and add vibrance and saturation (which bumps up your colors). Mine has a blacks feature which is nice to add richness. Just don't go hawg wild and make it look totally different from your original. Remember you are photographing this to 1) have a record of it in case it sells and 2) to sell as a print online.

Crop your photo to include the art only! No edges from anything else. It is better to take off a fraction of an inch off your artwork than to leave a bit on there that may show up as a border. Border = bad :(

One last piece of advice that I can think of is to name your photos so that search engines can understand what they are and also to take advantage of the adding your info to your photos. In Photoshop, I go to the File... File Info and it opens a box where I can add my name, website, tags and a description of the photo (or artwork). I've just started doing this so I hope it helps. There is even a place where you can add the copyright if you have copyrighted your piece. Pretty cool.

I hope this helps you even if just a little bit. I've just learned a few of these lessons myself the hard way a day ago. If you've got any questions, I'll be glad to try and help.

Just showing the love people, just showing the love ;)

UpDate: I answered a few questions in the comments section.

Haunted Beginnings

2012-01-22T19:23:00.000-06:00

Well I promised quite a while back to tell the stories of my haunting's that I've encountered, so no better time than to start now. This is a long post and gives details to the first of my haunting's that I remember.

This picture is where I remember it all starting once I was out of my parents house. I was almost 21 when I moved in this old farmhouse that unfortunately has since been torn down. It was a beauty inside. Lots of original stuff inside, I'm not sure why they tore it down but I've noticed lots of old beautiful ladies like this are being torn down all the time.

I remember hearing about it from my boyfriend's (at the time) parents friend. She talked about loving it and wanting to buy it to renovate it but never did. So I looked into it and found out who owned it. I had to bug and ultimately beg the farmers who owned it to rent it out to me. It had sat empty for years. We got it for a song (rent wise). I think it was something crazy like $135 a month.

I was so excited when I finally broke them down and they agreed to rent it to me and I wanted to show my mom. I took her out there and as we were driving up to house, she started shaking her head. She never liked it from the beginning. Said it didn't sit well with her. I didn't care, I loved it. We went up to the windows to look in and see if we could get in, since I didn't have a key yet.

As we looked in the windows, we saw a black cat inside on the stairs that were positioned in the middle of the room in with the door in the kitchen. It just stared at us. My mom was very uneasy and said it didn't feel right and she wished I wouldn't move in and wanted to leave right away.

side view of the old farmhouse

Fast forward to moving day and my boyfriend, whom I was going to share the house, and I were cleaning it out. Strangely, we never saw that cat again not even in the barn or old garage on the property. Another weird thing was that there wasn't any animal droppings inside. Not any bugs or evidence of mice. Nothing in the window sills, no spiders. I noticed it and thought it was odd.

an almost 21 year old me in the doorway of my bedroom in my old haunted farmhouse taken from kitchen

The great old house had I guess a typical floor plan for that era. Four rooms on the bottom including a formal living room, two parlors and a kitchen. A bathroom had been added on to the kitchen later. Upstairs, there were four bedrooms. A staircase went straight up through the center of the home. The formal living room had that octagon shaped room with tall windows at angles and red stain glass as the transoms. There were red curtains and when the sun shined, it was very red inside. I called it the red room from then on. It had a gorgeous old fireplace with beautiful tile and mirror at the top. It hadn't even been painted. I loved it. I did notice that room was exceptionally colder than any other room.

beautiful unpainted woodwork, beautiful tiles in earth tones, beautiful old wallpaper

We were young and loved to entertain our friends with our new house. Many get togethers were happening, mostly outside surrounding their 4 wheel drive trucks since they were all a bunch of rednecks. One particular party, I was inside watching TV and one of our friends came in the kitchen door and hollered at me that he was going to use the bathroom. Next thing I know he comes running out of the kitchen and asked me if I was jiggling the door handle. No. That was the first of many people claiming that someone tried to enter the bathroom with them in it. It happened to me while I was in the shower.

My boyfriend and I had taken one of the parlor rooms as our bedroom and had our huge waterbed set up and everything in it's place. Being so young we didn't have a lot of furniture, but more than most since my grandmother had died and left me all her furniture. I had her bed and boxed up things upstairs which we didn't use. We hadn't planned on using the upstairs, so we didn't sweep or clean upstairs.

During this time I had a young kitty named Whiskey. (partyers, remember haha) She was about a year old when we lived here. I woke up one night and she was going nuts clawing at the wall from our dresser, meowing and looking up at the ceiling. I could hear something upstairs just thrashing my boxed stuff all around. I woke up my boyfriend and he could here it too. We were both scared. We didn't know what was up there. We figured it was some sort of animal and we would find out good enough the next day. He was too scared to go up there, hee hee.

The next morning, he took a baseball bat upstairs to find out what had all gotten tore up. We kept the door to the upstairs closed so we hadn't worried about it coming in on us. I stayed downstairs! When he got up there he yelled at me to come up. I couldn't believe it, nothing had been touched. Not even the dust was disturbed. In fact, you could see our foot prints as we walked. There were the boxes with lots of sheets and fabric remnants in them. Nothing had been disturbed. We just looked at each other in disbelief.

The next night the very same thing happened. This time he went upstairs in the night with a gun. I really don't know why, but he did. When he got up there, the noise stopped and there was nothing. The next day he decided to put up a big clamp type trap up there to try to catch whatever was up there making this noise. Nothing ever set it off. I even put a chicken leg up there in the center of it and nothing ate it. We had mouse traps up there and they were never tripped. We finally just gave up and ignored it. It went away.

My cat became what I call neurotic in that house. She acted very erratic and wanted to be outside most of the time.

Once we had an inside party and everyone wanted a tour of the haunted house. So I took a bunch of about 4 upstairs and I took them into the room over the kitchen that had caught on fire at one time. You could see the walls were singed. It must not have been a bad fire, thankfully since the house was still very much intact. I had found lots of old stuff in that room from a very long time ago. A wooden ironing board, old papers, magazines and a set of very old clothing one looked like an old drummer boy outfit in dark green velvet and an old long black skirt and blouse. As we entered the room and were looking around, a very strong scent of candles burning became present. I wasn't even the one who brought it up, but there was no doubt that's what it was. Some didn't want to mess around with that and left. I found this all very intriguing and wanted to have more encounters. I welcomed it. I didn't feel anything negative.

Even back then I had a dedicated art studio in one of the parlors and had it set up perfectly. My boyfriend was working 2nd shift and I was alone at night until after midnight. I remember one night a couple of his friends came over to wait for him to get off and I was working in my studio. We were talking and I had my back to the red room and I tend to talk with my hands so they were bent at the elbow and the red room was dark behind me. As I was talking, I had the 2 guys in front of me and I just stopped and froze. They looked at me like I was nuts and I spun around and then asked them did one of you just touch me? They told me with wide opened eyes that I was white as a sheet. I had just been touched. The back of my arm had been gently squeezed.

On another occasion, my best friend Kelly had come over and was visiting me. We sat in the kitchen at the table. We had decided to read her cards. Now, I have no claim to being psychic but I do trust my gut and intuition. I had to read the instructions with the cards as I was new to tarot. What I read in her cards were a baby. She scoffed and that was that. It turns out she actually was pregnant. Crazy. We still talk about that.

So, we ended up moving out of that old house and I thought that would be the end of that, but the story doesn't end there. I'll continue with my haunting stories another time. It has occurred to me recently that it's not the houses that I live in that are necessarily the only thing haunted.

Blah blah blah

2012-01-18T14:04:00.000-06:00

Blah. That's how I've been feeling lately. I never used to feel like I have SADD or any seasonal disorder but I'm starting to wonder now. I'm getting older and the winter season feels colder, longer and more depressing than ever. Being sick with cold after cold hasn't helped. Knowing there is no one to take care of you when you get sick is kinda depressing, too.

I have been pretty sick the last week. I've finally gotten my taste back and everything tastes pretty good. For some crazy reason though I still cannot smell too much. I keep getting whiffs here and there. I've ignored the litter box for a while now, partly because I don't smell it and partly cause I'm just lazy and tired. That one will come back to haunt me... haha

I can't remember the last time I've sat around or laid around doing nothing for so long. It all started early last week. I've not even felt like going up to the studio to create anything. In fact, as I've sat feeling sorry for myself, I've thought of quitting all together. What's the point, really? Why do I keep creating things that mostly go unnoticed or unwanted. Am I contributing anything viable to society by continuing?

I know this is one big pity party. Please forgive me for this. I rarely am like this. I got a phone call last week that I didn't know what to say to or how to react to. My biological father died. Now, we were estranged and to be honest we were not a part of each others lives. I'm okay and not really mourning or anything remotely close to feeling like I did with the loss of my mother. But something about it bothers me. Something about the thought of the two people that were responsible of putting me in this world are now gone. It is a very strange feeling indeed.

It makes me think about things of the past. My mind wonders a million miles a second it seems, darting this way and that. I think about how different things are for me now. My mother is gone, my dad I don't get to see too often. Grandparents who used to be so much a part of my life, no longer here. One is, just not with us in our state of mind, sadly. Alzhiemers. Aunts and uncles, no longer around. My childhood family has dwindled away.

Do you remember the way life was when you were a child? How get togethers and holidays were magical and fun, we felt invincible, full and happy and that life was great, exciting and easy. Then as you get older, people die... the magic fades. Life seems different, less fun, less together. Death changes everything. We get older. Death becomes more and more a part of life. How ironic.

I wonder how my son will feel about his childhood. Is he having the same feelings of fun and family and togetherness that I felt? I hope he does. I worry he doesn't.

People who have lots of other people in their lives like brothers and sisters may not feel this way. But as an only child who married an only child who has an only child, life can seem pretty lonely at times. I've always longed for a sibling. For most all my life, my mom was the one. The one I shared everything with, felt at one with. Now that's gone. Friends are there, but they have busy lives and family of their own. Maybe I'm having a mid life crisis. We don't live a conventional life shift wise around here. My son is at school, I don't have a job. My art business is pretty much a failure. Hell, I don't even feel like growing and selling my heirloom tomatoes this year.

I heard on the TV something about the most depressing day of the year was coming up. I wonder if it was the other day. There must be something to that. I'm ready for spring.

I'll now send you back to your regular programming... hahah and a less disturbing post coming soon, I promise. I choose to by happy. I hate feeling melancholy. Sometimes it's just easier to write all this down that flows through my brain than to try to tell it to someone. Thanks for being there.

New Inkings and paintings

2012-01-12T11:07:00.001-06:00

I've been working on a few new pieces the last couple days. They are all on wood. I've got 3 inkings done and one of them painted and finished. This colored one is called "A Girl and Her Bird". It is inked with india ink and them painted with metallic paint mostly. The yellow is plain acrylic. The scanner just cannot capture the sheen to these and it looks so much better in person. So here's a photograph that shows the different metallics a little bit better...

Here's the inking:

This one I call "My Three Suns"

This one is "Sinister Feline"

When I'm inking, the marks I make are totally random. I do not have anything in mind when I take my brush to the gesso'd wood. I don't sketch anything first. Once I get a few marks on the board, the story starts to come to me and the characters come out from hiding. It is always a surprise when it's finished. After I feel the painting is finished, I add color. I love to let the painting tell me what it wants to be.

There is going to be a local Art Show at my county's library that I'm trying to come up with something unique for. I'm not sure if everyone gets in or it's a juried event. In any case, I'm hoping I can get in. I've got until February 15th to come up with a masterpiece.. haha

Well me and the kid are sick at home again today. We just go from one cold to the next it seems. It's freezing outside and blowing the snow that is falling. I'm so ready for spring.

Later Taters,

Curse you Blogger!

2012-01-09T10:45:00.000-06:00

Curses! I've reached my maximum blogs to follow! Apparently 300 is the magic number. Why is there even a limit? I've read on other blogs of this problem but since I hadn't encountered this dilemma, I assumed they got rid of the nasty situation. Not so. So now I'll have to go through the grueling task of selecting some blogs to unfollow :( I hate that. If I follow a blog, it's because I am genuinely interested in reading it, or at least looking at the pictures ;) Does anyone have a tip to give me on finding blogs that might be no longer used?

So if you've not blogged in a while and I was a follower, sorry!

Purple Locks ~ A rather long tale of hair coloring under the influence of PMS

2012-01-04T10:36:00.000-06:00

So I was feeling a little blue on New Year's Eve during the early day and decided I needed a little pick me up in the way of beauty. Never a good time to venture into new hair color technique territory, but hey, it's never stopped me before.

Some of you may know that I am a licensed beautician. And some of you may think to yourselves, "is that right." and not in an inquisitive tone but perhaps a sarcastic one. hee hee, I might have had one of those "is that right" moments on Saturday.

I was feeling a bit sorry for myself, a little irritated, a little wistful and more than a little PMSy. So while I shoved the last of my Hershey Kisses in my mouth I headed downstairs where I keep my "beauty shop". I had enough color for a root touch up but felt like a little something more jazzy for the new year. I found some demi color in a great shade of red violet and some bleach... perfect. For those of you who don't know, demi color lasts longer than a semi permanent color but does wash out eventually.

Slopping my color on my roots I head back upstairs to suddenly decide to sweep and mop the kitchen ( I get easily distracted). So by the time I head back down to put the red violet on the rest of my hair, it was nearly time to take off my root color. Pfffft... 45 minutes is just a suggestion, right?

I go back down and add the demi color. I do this in the basement because I have 3 big splotch marks on my bathroom floor now from previous PMS moments :( (really it should stand for Passing Moments of Sanity) ooooo, the bottle looks a really pretty shade of purple I noticed as I took it upstairs after the color was on my hair.

I wash my hair out upside down in my tub and again notice oooo what a pretty shade of violet! Then it dons on me. Hmmmm.. This is not only a little purple but it's pretty dark too. Oh well. It's just hair.

So I get it all washed out and look in the mirror. Great. I now look like Dracula with a dark widow's peak on my pasty forehead. Apparently over an hour might be a tad too long for regular hair color. Oops. Dang and I don't have bangs to hide it either. Hmmm... scissors? I had enough sense at that moment to think, mmm. no. not yet. Then I notice wow, my hair is pretty dark. Where's that bleach? Back downstairs I go.

I've got this Matrix bleach given to me by my friend. She was nice enough to give me a little bag so I could sample it before I purchased a tub of it. Great - except there are no instructions. Each line of hair care use their own gimmick of ratios and I wasn't familiar with Matrix so I try to call my friend. Dang. It's New Year's Eve, I hate to bother her. I try to call the beauty supply house, closed. I looked online. The ratio or recipe if you will, is a closely guarded secret that I could not find anywhere even after registering in as a hairdresser. They weren't even civil enough to post their phone number. Bastards.

Meh... Just do it I thought. So I did. I threw the bleach powder in a bowl, added some peroxide and squeezed a big glob of the toner in. Mixed it all up and thought that looked pretty good. Great! Now I just have to try to foil my own hair. Ick. Not easy. Things would be so much easier if I could just take my head off and do it, then pop my head back on. Yeah, not happenin.

So I managed to get it slopped on all the while forgetting to put on gloves. (Now I have sandpaper fingers.) I remember reading online that you can add heat and it would speed up the process. So I think I'm in a hurry and get under my dryer. After what I feel is 2 minutes, I get up and look in the mirror expecting to see blonde. Nope. Nothing. Get back under and turn heat all the way up. 10 minutes later get up and look again half expecting hair to come out with foil. Nope, nothing still. I figured the peroxide must be too old. So I give up and go upstairs to wash it all out and give myself a proper shower. Wow, again with the dark purple washing over me. hmmm.

After the shower I notice some high lights. No too bad I'm thinking, while not noticing my purple hair. (Hey, it was wet) I get ready and we all go to friends to play cards and have an adult beverage or two. When we get there, my friend's husband says wow, your hair. Uh. Really? Notice my husband and kid didn't say a thing to me about it. I think my hair could be on fire and Daryl wouldn't say anything about it. So I just laugh and say yeah, I colored it today and they just look at me and smile. I guess that's what one does when there really isn't something nice to say. haha

Fast forward to the next day and I finally see my hair in the daylight. Holy Shit. I've got dark Gothic purple hair with pink hi-lights. Happy Fucking New Year to me. Please excuse my language but it was a bit of a shock and I am secretly a potty mouth.

So now I look like a short fat pasty troll with blackish purple hair and pinky stained streaks around my face wearing dark red lipstick and pale white skin. I look like a garish Halloween trainwreck. Have you ever had those Aha moments when you really see something in a different light? Well this was mine. And if it weren't so dang funny I'd be crying.

It has since lightened up a little bit and I've calmed down. It's not seeming quite so purple, it's more of the dark red that I wanted in the first place. And the streaks are not so pink more coppery now, which is good. I wish I had thought to take my picture when I saw myself in the daylight for the first time. Scary. This might be my new get up for Halloween 2012.

I want to wish all of you a Happy New Year, since this is my first post of 2012. I hope this year is better for all of us and brings joy, inspiration and creativity.

New painting of baby barn owl

2011-12-30T11:28:00.000-06:00

I haven't been in my studio much the last two weeks because of Christmas break, but I did manage to paint this baby barn owl right before Christmas. I thought it turned out wintery looking, probably the blue background. It is acrylics on wood (Luan).

Pin It
While I hate the word cute being used to describe art, this little guy is kinda cute, huh?

It's Paint Party Friday! Take time to visit the other artists and their work if you have a chance. Lots of talent!

First Snow

2011-12-27T17:51:00.001-06:00

Today we woke up to our first snow. Pretty, white, fresh and

bright.

if only he could reach the falling flakes. Such sweet little hands.

Stay warm, xx

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T11:00:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas! All the presents are unwrapped and toys are being played with. Ham will be going in the oven soon, cheesy potatoes, green beans and other yummies will all be consumed. Pecan and pumpkin pie, oh my.

Wishing all my friends the happiest of holidays and Merry Christmas today!

xx

Butterfly Housing

2011-12-21T12:34:00.000-06:00

I've been working on painting a butterfly box for a Christmas present and I've got it finished except for the clear coats. I used acrylics and of course I had to add a little metallic paint and what perfect place to add that but the only colored butterfly on the whole box. It looks a bit like a hot mess in these photos, I took them at night. But it really does look better in natural light.

close up of metallic butterfly!

I've been sick this week and to add insult to injury, I fell down my very wicked stairs last night. I am so very sore. I couldn't even sleep on my injured side last night.

wicked stairs - see my slippers? that's where I landed.

Luckily, I landed on my very cushioned caboose and didn't break anything, bone-wise. It could have been very ugly. These stairs are wicked I tell you and there is a brick floor at the bottom. I was at the very top and took a step or two down (I had slippers on) and I felt it slide out from under me and down I went . I think I even bounced. I landed where you see the slippers, about half way down. Like I said it could've ended very badly. At least I didn't have an audience. I won't be wearing those slippers again. This is a good reason to try and talk my husband into a main floor studio!

Happy Holidays!

WOOO HOOOT!

2011-12-19T10:42:00.000-06:00

I won, I won! I was lucky enough to win this fabulous print of "Hootie Clause" by Heather Foust of Let the Journey Begin. If you are so jealous that you must have your very own, lucky for you that she sells them in her Etsy Shop here.

It's going to be a great week!

xx,

Old Man Sun

2011-12-16T11:02:00.000-06:00

Happy Friday! One week until Christmas Eve, can you believe it?! Have you got all your shopping done? I'm pretty much done, a few little things here and there.

It's Paint Party Friday! Yay! So today I want to share a drawing that I've actually re-drawn and re-purposed. It was fun to do different things with this piece and I kinda had the feeling of reckless abandon since it was a print. I got the idea from my friend and artist Diane Salter of My Art Journal. If you've not visited her blog, you need to go if for nothing more than inspiration. I'm linking up with her tutorial page.

Here's my original

I drew this with Prisma Colors quite a while back and like it and plan to frame it, so I don't really want to sell it. I've had offers to buy it, but I can't let go. I'm bad about that. So I found this idea on Diane's blog and tried it with my Old Man Sun.

You scan or photograph your original. (I photographed b/c it was too big) Then print it out with some thick paper and do whatever you want on the print. Easy peasy, right? and fun! I wanted to bump up my colors on my print so I ended up drawing the entire piece over again only this time with these new (to me) crayons called Caran d'Ache Neocolor I Artist Crayons. Wow! What color and fun these are. They are water soluble so that just adds a whole new dimension to our projects. As I was getting the link for this post I just discovered they have metallic crayons too! Oh be still my heart. I'll be getting those for sure, cause I love me some metallic.

I ended up doing a few different ones including this one with my favorite metallic shimmery powders and made a treasure box that I'm happy with. I've got it in my Artfire and Etsy shop.

I also made this other one on a board and don't know what to call it, a plaque? or wall hanging? they both sound silly so I haven't listed it yet. Any suggestions?

Here it is, slightly different than the box and for a different use. I love the streaky look of the metallic. Pictures are hard to capture the shimmer, but shimmer they do!

So there you go, new uses for old art. Thanks to Diane :) Now go visit the other Paint Party Players.

Toodles,

New Customized Treasure Box

2011-12-13T23:08:00.001-06:00

What do you think?

I made a new treasure box for one of Asher's little friends late last week. He was invited to a birthday party and I thought this would be a good opportunity to make a custom treasure box and then take pics so I could try to sell them on ARtfire and Etsy. She seemed to really like it and all the little kids "oooo'd" when she opened it, which is a great sign and made me feel good. Asher was so proud. He had made her a birthday card and couldn't wait for her to open it.

Five is such a cute age. But unfortunately, with fun, birthday parties and lots of kids come lots of germs. The party was at a gym that has gymnastics and they all just had a blast. There were trampolines everywhere, balance beams to climb on and inflatable bouncy houses. But the star of the show was a sponge pit.

Ick.

I refer to it as the Cesspool of Snot. So... today Asher missed school and has an ear infection. Oh well, goes with the territory. I just hope I don't get it, seems like germs just know when vacation or holidays are coming don't they?

Hamburger Stew for a cold winter's night

2011-12-11T18:44:00.001-06:00

I've got a recipe to share today and it's perfect for this time of year. With all the big dinner's going on and family over but you still gotta make your normal every day dinners, this is great to have around in the fridge. It just gets better in the fridge as a matter of fact. It's also one of those recipes that you can add or delete whatever you have on hand. It's filling and warm good comfort food. I hope you enjoy it :)

Hamburger Stew

2 big cans of whole tomatoes
potatoes as many as you want
carrots about 2 lbs.
onion
garlic
hamburger, about 2 pounds
tomato sauces (according to how much you want to make, i.e. how soupy. Sometimes I use a big can of spaghetti sauce)
sweet basil
oregano
salt + pepper

So the first thing I do is get a big pot and get my sauces and tomatoes simmering with the spices in it. This way they get all yummy and flavorful. The longer it simmers the better.

Side note: This is perfect for my tomatoes that I've frozen from my garden. If you've never done this, it is sooooo much easier than canning. Just toss your washed and cored smaller tomatoes like roma type in freezer bags and freeze those suckers solid. No blanching, no peeling. When you pull them out of the freezer to use, the skins slide right off as they thaw. Great for sauces, soups and chili's.

I then peel my carrots and cut them up in 1" bites and pop them in my micro cooker with a little water to steam them in the microwave. I like my carrots real soft, so I do this instead of just letting them cook in the sauce.

I'm usually in a hurry, so I cut up my potatoes and usually cook them up in my pressure cooker which takes like 3 minutes. I should probably just toss my carrots in there too. You could also just cook them on the stove or microwave.

Then I fry up my burger with the onion and garlic. Drain the grease and add to stew. Let it simmer. You really could serve it up right then, but I like to let all the flavors come together. Serve it up with some butter bread and there you go. Like I said, it is even better the next day.

Let me know if you try it :)

Pirate Ship Treasure Box

2011-12-08T23:15:00.001-06:00

My last art show is over for the year and it was fun. I had a roomie in my booth, my friend Amelia and I shared a booth. That makes the day go by a lot more smooth and it's also more fun to have someone to laugh and gripe with. Sales were decent and I did more face painting which is such a kick. I even wore my own snowflake glitter tattoos. Fun :)

If you saw my last post, it was about a painting of a pirate ship I did. I put that painting on a box and many other illustrations with it. It was the very first piece to sell and here it is :)

I used prints of my original paintings and illustrations so I can recreate this box, although it wouldn't be identical which I don't want anyway.

I'm linking to Paint Party Friday =) Check out the talent!

Ahoy me matey

2011-11-29T18:53:00.001-06:00

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was wonderful. I had a rather dull one this year. We had plans to eat with Daryl's family but I had been sick and they were 7 and a half hours away, so that fizzled. I had no intention of cooking, so we had to hit the town to see what was open, and not a 2 hour wait. After checking three other restaurants we ended up at Denny's. Woo Hoo. Actually, it was really good but not terribly traditional. I got the turkey dinner, Daryl got a cheeseburger and Asher got chocolate chip pancakes. But we were all happy and we were together so that's all that matters.

On the artfront... I have been busier than a one legged man in a butt kickin' contest! I've got a show this weekend and I'm trying to get some new stuff ready for it and it is coming together rather slow. I've got new ideas but they are not quite coming together, yet.

I've drawn the pirate ship along with other pirate stuff for some boxes I'm making for boy treasure boxes. Or girl, I guess. I mean, I like pirates. Surely some girls do too.. haha

So here it is all painted in. I made the mistake of not using watercolor paper. I used 300 series Strathmore Sketch paper which says it's for watercolor pencils wet or dry, but I got a little ambitious with the water and then added real watercolors on top of it. I tried to iron it with my regular iron which helped a tiny bit, but it still looks pretty warpy. I've seen tricks where they spray the whole sheet of paper on the back with water to straighten it out, but I'm afraid to do that since it's not watercolor paper. Any suggestions?

I'll be 'round to visit all ye skally wags soon.

Treasure Boxes

2011-11-19T09:53:00.001-06:00

I've been painting some treasure boxes the last couple days and here's one I call Indian Sun. I have a show coming up and I thought I'd offer some new things for Christmas. Although at the rate I'm creating these, I might not have many to offer!

I had an eye in the center of the sun motiff, but decided I didn't like it. So I filled it in.

Then I felt it needed more embellishment, so I started playing around with some bling...

Ehhhh... not big enough and not quite right.

But this... this I like. And so it is.

I have another box that is ready to show you, but I need to take some final pictures to show it off. I will tell you it's a pretty and shiny snake head! If these don't sell at the show, I'll be adding them to my Etsy and Artfire shops.

Thanks to all you guys... my friends, fellow artists, creative minds, and incredibly talented bloggers. You are wrapped up in one as the people who always bring encouragement and love with your comments. I love you guys! Our "little" online world... it is fantastic!

ARtisan StARs

2011-11-15T22:27:00.001-06:00

I have been working on a new project for Christmas. I have been asked (along with other artists) to create an ornament(s) to be sold for a club called Junior League, which raises money for different causes to help the community and of course I said yes ;) While this is partly charity, I will be compensated some what for each one.

After thinking about what I could create for a while, I came up with painting a wooden star I call ARtisan StARs. They are about 7 inches in diameter. I will create them as the orders come in. Right now, I've just provided two prototypes. Tonight was the reveal meeting, so I hope my ornaments were well received.

inked in the design before I picked up Asher from school

I got my husband into the act, he is cutting the stars out of wood with a scroll saw. I drew the pattern and he cut them out. He's pretty handy to have around, I guess I'll keep him.

sorry about the poor lighting, I was painting in the studio at night

another night time shot

These are fairly labor intensive but I enjoyed making these. I've got about two hours into each one not counting cutting out time. I didn't get a picture of the final product which just has a gold cord on it so it can hang from whatever. I will also have silver cord.

Each star is unique and I couldn't make two exactly alike if I tried. I've used my india ink and metallic paint technique. The designs are spontaneous. I love the way the flat black contrasts with the metallic sheen.

"Candy" - more traditional Christmas colors. Both sides look pretty close.

"Ribbon" - my kinda Christmas colors ;)

swirl side of "Ribbon"

Wish me luck!

Tutorial for Recycled Foam Stamps

2011-11-10T17:51:00.001-06:00

I've put together a little tutorial for my homemade stamps at the urging of my friend and Creative Sistah Stephanie of Dragonfly Design Studios.

These "green"and grungy stamps are fun to make and might just fill a little niche that you may need but don't know you need it yet ;) They are made from the packaging that ground beef, pork or chicken comes in and I've also used a styrofoam box that I brought some left overs home from my favorite Mexican Restaurant.

So here we go...

Here's what you'll need. Sorry, I forgot to add in the ink pad...

Start with your recycled foam. Here I've used the lid from a white styrofoam box.

Then cut it up for the usable flat parts

I started with a sketch of a key (in sketchbook) that I thought I might use for something. You don't have to do this, you can just draw straight on your foam and that's what I usually do, but for simplicity's sake, here is a little sketch. Don't forget your drawing will be in reverse.

I put the foam under my sketchbook page and traced over the top of it to dent in the foam, then I traced it with a black marker so you could see it easier.

Then you may want to shade in the parts you want to "carve" out with a sharpened blunt tool like this pencil... it worked great. This kind of stamp looks like a wood carved stamp to me, so make sure you add interesting "cut" marks. I did this by drawing the background with lines going different directions. This will show up on your inked stamp.

"Carve" out your design by drawing with a little pressure to dent in the foam. The white that is left over will be what the ink adheres to.

Carved ~ See all the dents?

Here's the finished stamp.

stamped on cheap packing paper recycled from a purchase

Stamped in my sketchbook along side of initial sketch

Ok, confession time. As I was thinking about making this tutorial today, I thought I better use white foam instead of the black that I've used up to this point so you all could see it easier. But in all honesty the black really looks better in the end result.

Black meat packaging foam

Here's why, see the thickness difference? You can make a deeper cut (dent) and that produces a better imprint.

white foam on top and black on bottom

Here's the stamp I made from the recycled black meat foam packing after I discovered the white really didn't work out so great. I just free handed the stars on the foam real quick, which I usually do anyway and they generally turn out better! haha

Not sure if you can see how much deeper the cuts are (above), but it is fairly significant. So if you plan to do this, do your own experiment or just learn from me here and use the black.

Here's the imprint it made... yee haw!

The foam makes the stamp look mottled and grungy and the cut marks just add to the charm. I love it. This is not for intricate designs, for that get some Speedball Speedy Carve foam and a Speedball Linoleum cutter from the craft or art store, I like Blick Art Materials myself unless you've got yourself a 40% off coupon from Michaels, then get it there!

I hope you've enjoyed my first tutorial! :) Feel free to email me with any questions.

Happy stamp creating!

Rather insignificant stuff about me

2011-11-06T23:59:00.001-06:00

So one of my Creative Sistah's, Andrea of Falling Ladies, has a giveaway on her blog and one of the critera is that you have to copy and paste interview questions. Since I know you're just chomping at the bit and on the edge of your seats... here is mine

1. What should you be doing right now instead of sitting on the computer?

Watching a couple shows off my dvr since it's down to 1% before I go to bed. It keeps erasing good stuff! I know, I live a sad existence.

2. What's the messiest area of your house? and dare you to show us...

Anyone who knows me well enough to have been in my home knows that I am a ~~slob~~ creative genius therefore I have controlled chaos and mayhem throughout. But to answer the question... My kitchen bar. The hubs calls it the magic bar. One day it's cleared off and you go to the bathroom and come back and all kinds of stuff has magically appeared. Also, I try to save every plant I own by taking cuttings and then I end up with their sad little carcasses standing in jars of water. Oh and my desk is right up there, probably before the magic bar but they are both in the kitchen, so it counts as one, right?

The magic bar

3. 5 simple things that make you happy right now, above and beyond the obvious like your family and your health...

                  1.) new art materials
                 2.) watching scary movies/shows
                 3.) chocolate covered raisins
                  4.) black fingernails
                  5.) lots of gypsyish jewelry I've been wearing lately

some of my frequently worn junk.

4. When did you last cry?

Ugh... like an hour ago. the tiniest thing can conjure up memories of my mom and the waterworks start flowing

5. Favorite book...

I mostly read art books and mags, but I guess a favorite book would be one that you've read more than once. That would be a book called Beauty. A very cool version of Beauty and the Beast, my favorite fairy tale. A close second is Lasher by Anne Rice. Really all of her Mayfair Witches books.

6. How many pets...

Currently, we have 2 cats, Glove and Thunder, a dog Zoey, a lonely cichlid, George and a bunch of lake fish that managed to get into my koi pond along with one gold fish cause all my koi ended up dying. :(

Glove, the princess cat

Zoey and Thunder the jungle cat

7. 2 Goals... one huge and unrealistic one, and one achievable one...

I would like to be some big time artist and have a big art studio in Maui and have all my family and friends live there too since I probably couldn't stand to be away from them. This is unattainable because basically I'm pretty lazy.

One I can probably pull off is to just keep trying to get in the studio to create. Art ain't making itself up there.

8. 5 things in your purse besides money and a cell phone...

a red bandana
tons of coupons
the very last of my Maybeline "Hot, Hot Hot" red sparkly lipstick that they discontinued :(
my mp3 player
a pair of my son's underwear (you never know)

9. The emotion or feeling you hate the most...

For myself: Guilt... I have to go with guilt. Feeling like I'm screwing up my son, by not always doing the right thing or saying the right thing. the only thing I don't feel guilt about is that I love him unconditionally and never withhold love from him even if I am punishing him.

For other people: indecisiveness.

10. If you could have 50 pounds of anything except money or gold what would you want?

Well I keep thinking 50 pounds of chocolate covered raisins but I'd probably gain like 75 pounds from them, so my second choice is 50 pounds of fresh home grown tomatoes every month even in the winter. Yeah, that would be pretty sweet.

Ok that's it! If you want to join in and get in on the giveaway or just share your quirkiness... go here.

Homemade Stamps!

2011-11-04T17:05:00.001-05:00

Today I made my own stamps. I've wanted to do this for a while now and I have a new project in mind. But it would cost a small fortune to purchase so many plus I might not be able to find exactly what I needed. So what's a creative but not so rich artist to do? Why... make their own of course! I was so pleased with the way they look. Totally grungy like I wanted.

Right now, I'm just using foam and a pencil and a plastic tool that is a flower pick. Check out what I've got so far. These are fun to make! You should try some of your own :)

I'm linking up with Paint Party Friday, although technically I'm not painting... but I've missed it so hey... sue me. Go check out the other players, ok?

Have a great Friday night!

Update about CMOE Dinosaur

2011-11-02T10:05:00.001-05:00

I have an update about one of my pieces of art. Do you remember the dinosaur that I worked on for a while? It was for charity for the Children's Museum of Evansville. Well they had the Gala last Friday evening and they auctioned off the dinosaurs that had been done up by different artist, including moi. I was excited to learn that mine was the highest bid on dinosaur of the night and fetched over $300. I haven't been told an exact number yet, and it might not be appropriate to tell exactly how much, but I was so excited! I was told everyone loved my piece. It is going for a great project and I hope the new owner loves it.

Thanks for letting me toot my own horn a bit ;)

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T21:51:00.001-05:00

Happy Halloween everyone! Here is Asher's first Jack O' Lantern that he designed all by himself. I did the cutting of course, but he drew the face how he wanted it and I cut it out. Didn't he do a great job?

I've got pumpkin seeds roasting right now and Halloween, my most favorite holiday, is almost over. I hope you all have had a frightfully great Halloween!

Halloween Yummies on Hallow's Eve

2011-10-30T19:37:00.001-05:00

Asher and I made sugar cookies today with some new cookie cutters that I bought. I think they are all cute but the bat and the cat cutter are my favorites. He's taking them to school tomorrow. I love the icing that dries hard, it's great for kids to take to school since there's not much mess. Next time I'll make enough to draw faces and details on the cookies.

Happy Hallow's Eve!

Surprise in my mailbox

2011-10-28T13:54:00.000-05:00

I opened up my mailbox this morning and I had a tasty surprise waiting for me! My best friend Kelly had sent me a package with a cute Halloween card and some chocolate goodies inside. She went all out, too. It was Libs Chocolate! For those of you not from my area, Libs is a local chocolate and candy maker that has the best premier chocolates! Works of art each one, they are.

Look at the deliciousness...

how cute!

mmph mph mmm... it's a chocolate covered Oreo! mmm... *nosh nosh nom*

seal of yumminess

cute little ghouls all lined up!

oh yeah, it's soooo good!

Death by chocolate, what better way?

On Wednesday, there was a town Halloween Party for the kids and Asher decided to be a cowboy this year. Better than the cat he claimed he would be all year long... haha So I made him this cute outfit including the chaps and matching vest. He's just missing boots. I'm in a non scary get up of a happy gypsy. I just love dressing up and could do it all year. In fact I might!

Happy Friday night! It's almost Halloween!!!!!!

New Page Added ~ Halloween Faces Tutorials

2011-10-25T13:28:00.003-05:00

I've made a whole new page dedicated to my Spooky faces for Halloween. See it either by clicking on the new tab above or by clicking the logo on my sidebar.

You all know how much I put into my costumes so I thought I'd have a little bragging page and include my tutorials on how I created the faces. Lots of pictures so feel free to be inspired or just laugh at my silly obsession with spookiness. I'll probably add pics of Asher's costumes, too. More pics will be added as I find them.

I made the logo above and of course all the graphics that I use in the pages. I hope you all enjoy looking at them and it gets you even more into the spooky mood for Halloween. Now I've got to get back to making my sons cowboy outfit. I will enjoy it when he's ready to go for the scary costumes!

Thanks for looking. I appreciate any comments from my super fun blogging friends :)

Halloween Costume 2011

2011-10-24T11:08:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was my friend's Halloween Costume Party, something I am always excited to attend. Everyone is required to dress up which so up my alley. This time I chose to be a Sugar Skull in honor of the Day of the Dead or Día de los Muertos. I made my head piece and skirt, and I used a blouse that I already had. It was a lot of fun getting ready and this is my first attempt at painting a Sugar Skull.

So here is my shameless gallery of pictures of myself. I love to take pictures of myself all done up when you can't tell who I am. I'll post my "how I did it" pictures soon. Unfortunately, my lighting is really bad and you can't see my costume very well. Oh and nothing reminds you faster that you have a face the size of the moon like white paint... oh well.

Two years today

2011-10-20T17:14:00.000-05:00

Two years. Wow, two years have gone by since my mother died of cancer. Two years ago I thought how can I possibly go on without my dear mother? My mother who was my best friend, and the person who knew me better than anyone. My mother, who loved me more than anyone ever would in my life. My mother, whom I was joined at the heart with. A lot goes on in two years that she has missed, that we have missed with her. Life just keeps on going even though she isn't living right along with us. How can life possibly still go on? Yet it does.

Somehow though, I choose to be happy. I could so easily have sunk into my misery and still be there. Not that I don't dip down into that deep dark abyss that is grief. I do it often. I just don't stay there. I choose to be happy. Not happy that she's gone of course, but happy to be alive and enjoy the things that she enjoyed. I got my optimism from her. I smile to myself when I see, hear, smell and taste things that remind me of her and in an instant I'm taken back to a time with her. There is not a day I don't run through my mind my memories of her, usually many times a day. In fact, most of my days consist of thinking to myself what I think my mother would be saying in whatever situation I am in.

I choose to be happy because my faith takes me there. I do think some people are happier people by nature, kinda the glass is half full thing. But I also believe you can fight your urge to be negative and put yourself in a happier frame of mind and be around happy people and surround yourself with things that you know make you happy. Even if that happiness requires a pill... take it. Accept it. Pride or stubbornness only stands in your way most of the time. It's so much easier to be happy... I'm not saying you have to be a happy idiot, but just try it. Just smile, it starts you off in the right direction... Laugh and your practically there.

As I am writing this, the wind is blowing and my wind chimes are happily singing. Along with many I have bought, I have a set of chimes that were my mothers and I cherish them. I like to think that is my mom speaking to me from heaven through the chiming sounds.

So today while I've already shed many tears, I choose to be happy. Can you?

Lovin' from the oven - Banana Bread Bonanza!

2011-10-18T20:30:00.003-05:00

Today we had rain and temperatures colder than normal and I had some bananas that were way past their prime so that makes a great combination for Banana Bread! Oh the wonderful smell that fills the house... so warm and homey.

I've made lots of loaves of banana bread in my lifetime, as it has always been a favorite of mine and my family growing up and now my family as an adult. My most favorite recipe and the one I always go back to is from a great long time friend, Amie (a very gifted artist) and it's the best I've ever tasted. I've used this recipe for a long time now and added a little cinnamon and walnuts but that is it.

start with these!

add some yummy walnuts

makes a lot of batter

I always work in a mess and make a bigger mess ;)

So here it is in all is yummy deliciousness... baked in my mother's loaf pan :)

Banana Bread

1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 1/2 cups of sugar
2 eggs, beaten
4 tablespoons of sour cream
1 teaspoon baking soda (dissolved in sour cream before added)
3 really ripe bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup of flour
handful of walnuts (optional)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

Pre heat oven to 375 degrees F

Cream sugar, butter and eggs. Stir in mashed bananas, vanilla, sour cream w/baking soda dissolved in it and finally the flour.

Bake in a greased loaf pan for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out fairly clean and not gooey. Top will be pretty brown and firm. Let cool some (if you can!) and enjoy.

My first Face Painting gig!

2011-10-17T23:27:00.000-05:00

I haven't mentioned anything about it, but I just had my very first Face Painting booth at a craft fair this past Saturday. I didn't know what to expect and I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to make the kids happy but boy was I wrong.

First of all, I had the best time painting all the cute faces and was amazed at how long a kid will stand in line to get their face painted! Secondly, they were all very happy with their faces and I impressed myself at how at ease I was while doing it and felt like I did a great job considering I've had no training or experience with this at all.

All I had done was watch a couple of you tube video's and looked at a bunch of pictures. I had bought some face paint and practiced a couple things on my arm. I painted a tractor on Asher and war paint and that was about it. I had an idea for a Face Painting sign to hang from my tent and it turned out great I thought. I printed out the faces that I felt I could do that I got from the internet and put them in a binder to refer to and voila! I was in business!

Once I had the first couple kids come and go, the line got long real quick and didn't let up the whole time. I didn't even take a break to eat or use the bathroom! I was numb by the time it was time to pack up. Non-stop for 7 and a half hours. I hurt so bad and learned so much and gained a ton of confidence. Even a local newspaper took my picture of me painting and took my card, so I might be in the paper.. haha.

Funny how sometimes things just fall in your lap. Face painting was one of them. I had no intention of ever doing it, but felt very comfortable and was pleased to make some money at a show. I am thinking of doing birthday parties and such.

This sure puts you on the spot to come up with something quick and talk about keeping me loose and fresh! I think this could be a great way for me to be spontaneous and creative. It was great for my ego, as the kids were so happy to have it done and even the parents seemed to be impressed even though it was my first time.

I wish I had taken more photos, but here are some of the faces that I did that I actually remembered to ask to photograph. Everyone was so nice, it was just great. Kinda made up for getting my van hit in the Walmart parking lot on Friday... well maybe. hahahWhat have you done to push yourself out of your comfort zone?

CMOE Dinosaur is finished!

2011-10-12T14:30:00.001-05:00

I just took the final photos of my painted and adorned wooden dinosaur to benefit the Children's Museum of Evansville. I'm quite happy with how it turned out. You can see the project start to finish through this link. Start with the September post at the bottom of the link's page.

This angle shows the metallic paint a little bit. I used metallic paint on almost every inch of it. As you can see, my special touch that I was hiding from everyone was adding what I call glass blobs. These are actually little glass squares and I thought they would be perfect for this dinosaur.

I also adorned his toes with more glass blobs that show the metallic paint from underneath. The pictures just aren't doing the metallic paint justice. I just love the shimmer this guy has and the glass adds a little extra special sparkle.

The mouth is where you insert a quarter, this is after all what they have to collect donations for the museum in several local businesses. There will be a plastic coin collector belly where the giant hole is. I'm not actually sure who will be bidding for these dinosaurs and if they are businesses that will use this as a donation collection, but I kinda hope not. I think it would get nicked up, scratched and broken if it were just out in the public not being protected. I hope this will be viewed as artwork and not a donation box.

So there he is... I've wondered if I should name him since it wasn't asked of me, but since I usually title my work I will. I call him Seymour.

Feed me Seymour!

Thank you friends for your encouraging words and thoughts. It's been a fun project and I'm ready to move on to the next.

Ya know what I love?

2011-10-10T21:50:00.000-05:00

Ya know what I love? No, not Pineapple Upside-down Cake... Daryl does and this is for him as his belated birthday cake. But this turned out beautifully didn't it? It really fluffed up and was about 3 inches above the skillet. Here's the recipe, it's a Duncan Hines recipe. It tasted good, but it is sooo sweet and I don't think it needed all that butter and brown sugar or the pudding for that matter. My mom had a great one that went like this:

Mom's Pineapple Upside-down Cake

Yellow Cake Mix as prepared except replace water with pineapple juice. Heat your iron skillet, add some butter and brown sugar and scramble it up with a fork then pour in your batter over the top of the pineapple and cherries.

pretty simple, huh? Tasted better, too.

Anyway, I lost where I was at. Do you know what I love????

I love to read a blogger's very first post. It reveals a lot of someone's vulnerabilities and honesty. After a few posts, they start to get into the groove and then their personality starts to show up more and then as it progresses you really get a feel for who they are. But there is something about that very first post that intrigues me and I usually try to read it right away once I find a blog that I like. You can tell the spit fire's from the easy going ones. The crafty ones and the cooks, the business people from the free spirits and on and on. Every one has a story to tell, that's why we're doing this after all... to tell our story and to connect with other souls out there... kindred spirits. I love this place that is BlogLand. Oh, and I truly love all my friends on here that visit me when they can :)

What do you love?

Abstract Dinosaur for CMOE still a WIP

2011-10-07T07:00:00.000-05:00

I'm coming along with my abstract dinosaur that I'm painting for an auction to benefit CMOE (Children's Museum of Evansville). I've got several hours in on it so far and I've got quite a few more I think. There was lots of intricate work that has got my neck muscles screaming and my eyes crossing! I've got more shading to do and I'm going to do something a little special to it that you're gonna have to wait to find out what it is ;)

All the paint except the black is metallic. The pictures aren't picking up on that much, but I really like the effect. I'm fairly happy with the way it's looking but you know how it is, things are always just a little different in your head. Well, my head at least.

I know I'm getting off subject here, but did anyone catch that new show on FX called "American Horror Story"? Wow. I'm liking what I've seen so far. It was made just like a movie and kept my eyes glued on the TV! Does anyone else think the gimp was the ghost guy that burned his family or possibly the creepy patient of Ben's? Freaky! I love it! They've picked a great cast, with Jessica Lange playing a great role (as usual) and eye candy Dylan McDermott with semi nude scenes (which doesn't offend me in the least!) since he basically looks like Michelangelo's David. It's not for kids at all, but if you love a good scare, I think this will fit the bill. It comes on every Wednesday evening.

Does anyone have any advice on going from a 2 column to a 3 column? Blogger has changed so much, that the info I've seen seems outdated now. I want to make my own header and possibly background. Any help or links would be appreciated =)

Happy Paint Party Friday gang! Visit all the artists as you can...

Steve Jobs, visionary

2011-10-06T19:33:00.000-05:00

So many people today are remembering and celebrating the life of Steve Jobs, the creative genius behind Apple, including me. My very first computer that I bought was an Apple Macintosh. It was 1995 and it looked like a pizza box. I was so thrilled to have it as I had been using nothing but Apple in college. I first worked on an Apple SE and I think it had like a 40 mb hard drive, a little black and white screen. I've now got an imac and a MacBook and still wouldn't want any other computer other than a Mac. I've not kept up with technology other than that but if I had the money, I'd have an iphone, ipad and an ipod and all things Apple.

It is sad to lose such an innovative mind in his prime. Imagine what was to come! It's also sad that in is this day and age that cancer is still winning. Strangely enough, I was talking to my dad on the phone when I looked up at the TV and saw that Steve Jobs had died, just as my dad informed me that his brother and my Uncle found out he has lung cancer. His biopsy was today, so fingers crossed and prayers said. This month marks 2 years for my mother dying of melanoma cancer... hard to believe but still as fresh as yesterday. I worry about my uncle, I worry about my dad. Cancer still seems like a death sentence to me and chips away at the souls of the family.

We are so lucky to be living in such exciting times technology wise. Just think about how much Steve Jobs have contributed to our lives. Made our lives better, easier and just more fun. What an amazing man and such an inspiration. How fortunate for our world to have had him. What a legacy he has left, a legacy that I am grateful for. Truly he was a great man. Thank you Steve Jobs...

Abstract Sidewalk Art

2011-10-04T06:00:00.000-05:00

Asher and I have just discovered the joys of sidewalk paint this past Saturday. We've played around with chalk before but this sidewalk paint, let me tell you! It just knocks sidewalk graffiti up a whole notch or two in my book. From what started as whining from Asher turned out to be the highlight of my day.

You see he just found a birthday present from way back in March that I've been pushing aside. Okay I was hiding it, I admit it. It just seemed like one of those kid things that was gonna be one big mess that I had to clean up then to add insult to injury, a nice scream fest to top it off. No thank you.

But since having found it a few days prior, he's been hounding me to get this stuff out. Now you all know, I'm all for creative play. But this was Saturday and I really hadn't planned on getting out of my robe for most or all of the day. Besides it was like 50 something degrees out there... ick.

But Asher managed to talk me into it. Code for: drove me nuts until I caved. So I annoyingly got my clothes on, all the while telling him that he could do it himself and that I was going to sit inside while he did it. He accepted, just thrilled to try out the new stuff. So I get him set up and show him what to do, it came with a roller and a brush, and I went back inside to do more lounging.

Well I started to feel a twinge of guilt since he is now in school and I really don't spend much time playing like that anymore with him. I looked out the window and he looked so cute slopping the paint and rolling away. Not only that, I started to get a little envious. He painted with abandon. Sloshing paint this way and that. What fun! So I went out there and asked him if I could join in. Happily, he said I could and then proceeded to tell me I could use the brush because he like the roller. Yippee! So it began.

mine is on the left and Asher's is on the right in case you can't tell ;)

Of course he was totally tired of it within 10 minutes, so I thought well I don't want to waste the paint that had already been poured out so I kept painting (about 30 minutes) and came up with what you see here. I still ended up having to clean it all up, but hey, it was well worth it.

Just so you know, it looks much prettier when sidewalk paint is wet. The dog trotted all over it, but it surprisingly dries fast. The cat couldn't care less. It's amazing the color combinations you can create with hot pink, blue and yellow... although it takes a little extra work. Also, I don't think it's gonna come off. Oy!

CMOE benefit project & PPF 29

2011-09-30T22:22:00.002-05:00

I'm killing two birds with one stone here. It's Paint Party Friday and I want to tell you about a project I've got started. I've been asked to participate in a benefit for CMOE, a local children's museum. I am decorating a pre-made wooden "piggy bank" shaped like a dinosaur that you can insert a coin into its mouth and it swirls around and ends up in his belly. It will be auctioned off for their 5th Birthday Gala. I am honored to be asked to help and hope that my dinosaur will fetch a good price to help out the museum. I'm not going for a childlike theme, more of a serious piece with attitude... haha at least in my head!

It stands a couple feet high but as I paint on it, I've discovered there really isn't much surface area. So far, I've gesso'd it and ink'd it with india ink in my random pattern technique and now I've just started to add paint... metallic of course. I have more plans for this other than just painting but you'll have to tune in later to see what I've got up my sleeve ;)


gesso'd

ink'd

ink'd other side

adding the metallic paint

I've missed like 3 Paint Party Friday's and I'm just barely squeaking in for this one tonight! This week I've brought all my plants back into my greenhouse cause it's going to get pretty chilly tonight and it's time. Bringing all my plants in has turned out to be a big project (just like every year, how quick I forget!). I was hoping to be further along with my dinosaur by now, especially since the gala is this month... yikes! I'll make it, no worries.

Try to visit all the talent that is PPF! Til next time ;)

Putting off this post :(

2011-09-28T23:52:00.001-05:00

I've put off this post for over a month now hoping if I didn't talk about it, he would return. Writing this makes it too real, sad and final. Lightning, one of my twin boy kitties, has disappeared and I'm heart broken. He and his brother Thunder occasionally would go out for an all-nighter but they always returned until recently. All too much like losing my beloved Banshee a little over a year ago.

The strange thing is that Thunder was usually my wanderer, not Lightning. Lightning was my lover cat. He loved to be held and petted. Asher could pick him up and drag him around and Lightning loved it. He would jump up in my lap if ever I gave him the chance. Lightning would always run in the house when I opened the door. I feel horribly guilty now that he is gone and most likely is not coming back that I moved them outside. I miss him terribly. They started out as inside cats but Thunder started to attack my 19 year old Queen of the house cat, Glove, so I moved them out this summer together because they were inseparable.

I still scour the sides of the roads, fields and porches for him everyday I take Asher to school. I can't imagine where he could have gone and hate to think of what my gut tells me happened. We live in the country and there are dogs and coyotes. My husband won't answer me truthfully when I ask him (about 6 million times) what he thought happened to Lightning. He tries to make me feel better and tells me maybe he got too far away from home and he's lost. Not likely.

I've called the animal control, they apparently don't pick up cats. Who knew? I've searched the animal shelter websites with no luck. Not likely again since we're 15 miles from the nearest town with a shelter. I even ask Thunder and Zoey all the time "Where is your brother?" they both look at me with their sweet innocent eyes, not a care in the world. Odd though... no grieving for them. At least not that I've noticed. How does a grieving animal act? How can they not miss him? Maybe they know something I don't. Maybe they're glad the brown-noser is gone. I'm kidding. Either way, everyone please say a little prayer that Lightning returns to me.

Swamp tour - last of Florida vacation pics

2011-09-25T12:00:00.002-05:00

Last pics from vacation that I'll share, at least for now. These were taken at Black Hammock Adventures Air Boat Rides on Lake Jesup which boasts to have the most alligators in any lake in central Florida. This was such a fun day, I've always wanted to take an airboat ride and we finally found one that was a good fit for us. Actually in all it only took four hours from the time we left the condo to the time we got back. I would love to take a longer ride sometime.

I love the swamp. I have always loved spooky things and the swamp seems spooky and peaceful. One of my favorite movies is Passion Fish, it's based down south and has great cinematography of the swamps there plus I love the story. Now that I think about it there are quite a few movies I love that have swamps in them, like The Gift and The Skeleton Key. I know there are more. I am also addicted to the show Swamp People and The Glades. Of course who didn't like Swamp Thing!

I was concerned about skeeters, since they think I'm a buffet, but honestly, I think we have more mosquitoes in Indiana than I encountered in the swamp or Florida for that matter.

We were posing next to these beautiful parrots and all of a sudden they screeched and I thought they were gonna eat us up! It was so loud and scared us all... lol.

So right away I could tell photographing the scenery was going to be difficult because of the railing but I managed to get a few good ones. The birds were beautiful and so diverse.

We got to see baby alligators in the wild. These were just born in July (it's now September). Captain Joel told us this was her 2nd batch of hatchlings this year.

This is a bird coming out of the water. I thought Daryl was gonna jump out of his skin when it surfaced! haha He thought it was a snake but first it startled him splashing out like that.

Unfortunately, Asher was not a happy camper. He hated having to wear the life jacket and the ear things he had to wear to cancel the noise, they're not on him at the moment. I thought he was sea sick for a moment, but he's just pouting.

So here is "Firecracker" the baby alligator we got to pet and hold. I was thrilled but Asher refused to hold him. He did pet him though.

I wanted to leave you with a photo that I liked and altered a bit. Spooky, the way I see a swamp :) These trees were amazing. We have a cypress growing next to our lake but you gotta admit it's the moss that adds that special touch. I wish we had that moss up here, I love it.

Ok, no more boring vacation pics (for a while!) haha... thanks for playing along and reliving my vacation with me. Enjoy the day!

Florida Day 2,3,4 and 5!

2011-09-20T20:29:00.001-05:00

Day 2, 3, 4 and 5 all neatly wrapped up here. We basically did more beach time but we did bowl one night and then day 5 we went to Disney World's Magic Kingdom for the first time with Asher.

The hurricane that was way out in the ocean (Maria) had sent us lots of nice big shells that aren't normally easily found. I always take shells home, some day I'll do something with them ;)

Remnants of sand castles...

Another fine beach day, lots of beautiful sunshine. Later in the week the jellyfish forced us away from the ocean.

There was a funeral procession of sorts one day. I noticed people all lining up and walking into the ocean who were all in normal clothes and not swimsuits and then I noticed they were tossing flowers into the sea. I know it's kinda morbid but I was fascinated by it. I of course immediately thought of my mom and how she just loved the ocean. This would've been something that would have made her smile too. It was touching. Then my mind travels to so many dark corners and I had to direct my attention somewhere else.

Bowling turned out to be fun for the kids... and I swear the longest set ever.

So day 5 was Disney and Asher honestly wasn't that thrilled with it but he did like the roller coaster Thunder Mountain and the water ride Splash Mountain. He was too small for Space Mountain which was fine, because the first things we got on was Stitch something and he was scared to death when the lights went out. I kept telling him it wasn't real, but he was terrified the poor baby. The one thing I thought he would really like, Swiss Family Robinson, was closed for remodeling. We had about 4 rides stop on us, things just were quitting left and right. They are already celebrating Halloween there so they closed early at 7pm and you had to have a special ticket to get in for that (high dollar $$), so we missed the fireworks which we were really looking forward to, but we were exhausted by then anyway.

More for the last remaining days coming... Oh and if you're just reading this and wonder where the first day is, see it here. Thanks for visiting and reminiscing with me :)

Day 1 of Florida Bliss

2011-09-19T22:54:00.000-05:00

My vacations to Florida usually start out like this. Ocean breeze in my nappy hair and no tan on my face. Who knew that it was summer just a week before in Indiana? By late August/early September I suddenly develop a no care attitude for color on my skin. While I think I look better with it, I just don't care. Especially now, since Mom died of skin cancer almost two years now (gasp! 2 years?! wipe tears) But me with my fair skin knows that it's not safe and I always wear sunscreen and have little Asher accustomed to being slathered with it. He knows no other way, thankfully.

So this is Day One...

Ahhh... a tradition for us is to hit the beach first thing, even in the early evening as this was our first Friday and Asher is eagerly running to fetch a bucket of sea water for the very first sand castle!

So this is pretty much my view through out my beach side vacation... I love it. If only you could see the book in my lap, tea at my side and grin on my chubby little face =)

Soon, the cousins start to arrive. Bliss for Asher as I call this frantic happiness. Luckily, he has two that are right about his age, Emma and Abigail ~ two sweet little sisters. So far, we've all vacationed together for years here. What fun memories I hope they will have. At least I have a zillion photos if they don't.

Time for searching the sand to see what the sea along with the help of Hurricane Maria has churned up for us to find!

Exploring and still searching... running here and there. Squeals and shouts abound.

Treasures are quickly discovered. Happiness is found in a sleepy little town called New Smyrna Beach just south of Daytona on the east coast of Florida.

Stay tuned for Day two :)

Back and Ready to Yack!

2011-09-18T11:35:00.001-05:00

I'm back and ready to yack! I am downloading 414 pictures from our Florida trip that we just got back from late last night. Actually, I'm surprised I only took 414. I kept thinking, I'm going to post something tonight while I was in Florida, but it just never happened. We kept busy and I was exhausted every night. I apologize for just disappearing like that! I don't like to announce we're going on vacation for obvious reasons. I had all kinds of things I wanted to share, but it would in turn let it be known we were away.

It was an exhausting trip back, more than normal. We got caught in two traffic jams, one in Atlanta from roadwork and the other right before Chattanooga where there was a terrible wreck involving one truck hitting a bridge support. I'd say they added almost two hours to our normal 13 hour trip.

I've missed 2 Paint Party Friday's and have missed reading all my favorite blogs so I'm ready to get back in the groove refreshed and ready to create some art! I've read some art books and eye candy magazines to recharge my creative batteries. But, right now I've got a lot to unpack and loads and loads of laundry to do so I'll save my stories for now. But I'll be back with my Florida thoughts and pictures :) I know it's just want everyone wants to hear about... hahaha!

Paint Party Week 25

2011-09-02T00:00:00.000-05:00

Paint Party Friday has arrived again. Today I have another work in progress called "Forest Floor" done with metallics and a couple pics of the now finished and framed "Water for Elephant". See the post for Water for Elephant here.

Forest Floor stage 1

Forest Floor stage 2 work in progress

Forest Floor stage 2 close up work in progress

I was so inspired by one of the paint players last week that I had to go outside and pick up some leaves and create a painting with some natural stamps. I learned as I created and thoroughly enjoyed the process. I have lots more to do to this painting, it really started out as just playing but now I have more of a vision for the piece and will share it as soon as I finish it.

Water for Elephant - finished

Water for Elephant - finished and framed

Thanks for looking :) check out all the Paint Players for inspiration and fantastic eye candy!

Paint Party Week 24

2011-08-26T18:58:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my entry for Paint Party week 24. I am later than normal and my painting isn't finished, but I've made it! I call this Water for Elephant and I've created it today as I've watched Hurricane Irene make her way up the east coast. It is in my new media craze... metallic acrylic paints and now Jacquard Pearl Ex.

I am watching Nightly News and have heard New York City is now under a hurricane warning. That is just crazy talk! This week has been a natural disaster week. The earthquake, which we felt here in Indiana and now the hurricane which looks like it will affect a lot of people, no doubt. I feel for those people, how will they all evacuate? I hope the devastation is minimal and pray for the people in it's path. Most destruction and lives lost is from flooding though, I've always heard. So as the coming hours bring fear, let's pray a miracle happens and Irene breaks away and heads east to the Atlantic. I have many blogging friends on the east coast and my prayers are with you all.


Water for elephant - India ink on gesso, work in progress

Water for elephant - adding metallic paint

close up

see the shimmer from the metallic paint?

This painting created itself pretty much. I started out thinking zetangle with my paint brush loaded up with india ink. But then it started to show me an elephant and then a waterfall and all the other hidden images. Maybe I was inspired a bit by my son's book of I Spy. Have you seen those books? I think I am addicted to them. :)

Of course the colors in the photo are not as brilliant as the original, too much sunlight on the painting when I took the picture. I am not sure about the red face in front. I've already bumped it up to a darker red and now I'm thinking it's taking the center of attention too much. It's not finished yet, so I'll post the finished piece later.

See all the fantastic work from Paint Party Friday. Have a great weekend!

Paint Party Week 23

2011-08-19T00:01:00.002-05:00

The weeks keep passing by like "sand in the hour glass... these are the days of our lives..."
That phrase will be in my mind forever, it was my grandma's "story" as she called it. My mom's mom. I lost her too early, too. But I regress... it's Paint Party Friday and I've got a work in progress to show today. A really long work in progress.

It's one of those projects you start and then set aside and think I'll get back to that. Well, it's time to get back to it. It's been years and it's been whispering to me in my dreams to come back to it. So I shall. Here's what I've got so far.

Skeleton and Roses - or Roses for the Dead as I like to call it.

You may recognize it as the famous Grateful Dead art of Alton Kelly. He actually got it from obscure etchings from the nineteenth century. He and his life long collaborator, Stanley Mouse.

I am drawn to the creepy or dark so often, I'm not sure where I get it but it is just the way I am. I am thinking maybe pastels to finish. I thought of colored pencil, but pastels are so bright and that's what I'm after. It needs a little tweaking before I start adding color. I'm sure I'll be sharing more of Roses for the Dead in future PPF's.

I'm watching one of my favorite movies as I write this, Practical Magic. So fun :) It's getting me in a great little mood. Happy PPF everybody!

Ta Da - Look what I made!

2011-08-14T23:07:00.000-05:00

I made new cushions for my old outdoor table and chairs with the help of my mother in law last weekend. I wanted to show you all because I'm pretty proud of them :) We made a pattern out of newspaper by cutting up the original cushions. I have had this fabric for a couple years with this in mind, but kept putting it off. I'm so glad it's done now, it looks better than I imagined.

before - ick

After - Ooo la la

Thunder - the jungle cat

Lightning under glass

Have you made anything for your home lately? It's very satisfying :)

Paint Party Week 22

2011-08-11T23:07:00.000-05:00

Hey hey hey! There's a party going on down here! A Paint Party that is. :)

One of the things I've worked on this week was my Sisterhood of the Traveling Sketchbooks project for July (a teensy bit behind). This is in Nicola's book of Nicola Toms Designs and I call it "Shimmering Nights". Sorry about the glare. This painting is a little different for me, more simple and a bit abstract. I used a gigantic bristle brush to try to get that streaky look. I used copper paint to make the shimmers. These are acrylics. The painting is of the nearby Ohio River at night on the fourth of July when we have fireworks for Independence Day in the US. The goldish, coppery shimmery ones are my favorites. I just love fireworks.

I have developed a fascination for metallic paint and went to the Blick Art Supplies store to hopefully buy a set, but was disappointed to find they didn't have many metallics to pick from. Only your usual gold, silver and copper and I am wanting metallic vibrant colors to try. I'll have to order online. No big deal but I'm a right now kinda girl, guess I'll have to wait. Plus I was hoping to use my 40% off coupon for there for a set. Dang. Michaels didn't have any either other than a few craft grade for kids which I did buy 2 to test out. Asher can always paint with them if they don't work out. Does anyone have any experience with metallics... any brand you would recommend or even stay away from?

If you want to see what is painted above it on the facing page, I have it here.

Happy Paint Party Friday. See all the creative participants here.

Spooky Stuff Update

2011-08-11T21:52:00.000-05:00

So, do any of you remember my post that was back in April of this year about gettin' spooked? I talked about the show "My Ghost Story" on the Bio Channel and told you I would keep looking for the video of the story that really freaked me out. I found it! I watched it again and it still gives me chills. If this happened to me, I'm not sure I could ever sleep alone again! The episode was called "Creepy Sleep", it's the first part of this video and here it is...

Let me know what you think!

Metallic Sun

2011-08-09T11:30:00.000-05:00

"Metallic Sun"

My entry for July in Nicola's book for the Sisterhood of the Traveling Sketchbooks. Actually part of the entry. I split my month in two this time since Nicola has such a great large book. I discovered a couple things with this painting. One is that I think I adore metallic paint. Oh the shine! I must get more. I tend to like shiny gaudy things. I only had copper, purple, silver and an antique copper that worked. I used metallic markers for other colors with mixed results and I liked using the paint more than the markers. I added black Sharpie marker after the initial coloring was finished and I like the result, kinda reminds me of an Aztec look plus it gave it more detail. I might revisit this Metallic Sun in the form of a canvas when I get some yummy metallic paints. I'm also thinking some distressing in the form of antiquing might be cool.

I listened to blog talk radio (ARt and Soul radio)for the first time last night by Lesley Riley and she was interviewing New Mexico artist Darlene Olivia McElroy. I went to her website as I listened and explored her site. Her artwork is fabulous and I was drawn in to her techniques. She has videos on her website where she graciously shares techniques. Check it out if you have a chance. She also has books that I'm thinking about looking up. The blog radio can be replayed anytime I think (at least I replayed it after it had broadcasted). Just wanted to share :)

Have a great day!

Giveaway Book is Traveling On...

2011-08-06T14:35:00.000-05:00

I'm so happy to report that a giveaway that I had quite a while back that I called Sisterhood of the Traveling Book is making it's way to another creative spirit and she's again a Creative Sistah no less! Don't get it confused with the Sisterhood of the Traveling Sketchbooks. I liked the name so much I named my next project after it with a slight twist. (Read the original idea here)

So it first went to T over at Poppy Place and then it went to Jennifer at Jewelry By J.P. (A Creative Sistah) and she's just announced on her blog that it is now going to Kim the Queen of Arts! This is exciting for me to see something I came up with actually benefiting others and being enjoyed.

To see the list of people that the book will eventually make it's way to go here. In the end, after everyone has had a chance to read the book I'm hoping the last person will have a giveaway themselves and keep it going. I will be adding a post about who has the book as I get word. Check back soon! :) Enjoy the book Kim!

Paint Party Week 21

2011-08-05T01:31:00.000-05:00

Sweet Summer Night

Week 21?! Holy Schzznics! I've missed a few. But I'm back in the saddle again. This is "Sweet Summer Night" another addition to the Sisterhood of the Traveling Sketchbooks project. This went in Kathy's book for the June installment. I just finished it last night, so I'm behind on the project too. Oh, if anyone is interested in seeing a bunch of the sketchbooks in one place, we have a Facebook page called Creative Sistahs. Come on over and like us ;)

School starts next Wednesday yippee!/boohoo - I'm having mixed feelings... Asher, my son, is going to all day Kindergarten but that means I will have more time to get things done. That also means no more snoozing until 10:30ish everyday and staying up until 2:30 am anymore. Ugh, that I won't like. Cause I've grown quite fond of a life of leisure. I can tell you one thing though, I won't be making any of that damn tomato sauce!

Happy PPF! Visit all the Uber-Creative people here ;)

Live and Learn part 3,891 or Homemade Canned Tomato Sauce Hell

2011-08-03T00:06:00.000-05:00

They say if you can't be a good example then you'll just have to be a horrible warning. So... I'm sharing my experience with dun, dun dunnnnn.... canning homemade tomato sauce.

Oh the visions I had of jars and jars and jars of a thick, rich, complex, yummy homemade better than anything you could ever buy canned tomato sauce from the fruit of my efforts in my veggie garden. What I've ended up with after using 35 pounds of my fresh from the garden tomatoes was three and three quarter quart jars of possibly the longest, exhausting most expensive cooking process ever.

my 1st big pick of the season

blanching

peeling

First offense, I used my primo tomatoes for this project which happened to be from my first of the season big bumper crop, which are always the tastiest you know. Okay, I did devour a few with salt and pepper before the long torturous adventure but we wont' count them cause I had to share them with my family. Picked fresh the evening prior to said slave labor.

After hours of washing, blanching and peeling all these beauties I then had to core and get the seeds and juice out of every single tomato. A totally thankless job and time consuming beyond belief. You would think there would be some easier way to do this, maybe there is but I'm unaware of it so I did it all with a paring knife and my fingers. I honestly don't know how anyone would do this more than once in their lifetime. Maybe that's why Ragu is a huge and profitable company.

I started this project at four in the afternoon. First mistake. Second mistake - I did it by myself. Had I known, I would've had a friend over to help. Preferably one that hates tomato sauce so I wouldn't have to share.

Slaving away for hours it is now about 11:00 pm and I've finally got every tomato peeled, seeded and juiced and in the biggest pot I own besides my big canner. I follow the directions from many websites that tell me to now reduce my tomatoes by one third for a thin sauce and by half for a thick sauce. Easy peasy I'm thinking after all this neck straining feet killing work.

skinned

They didn't say anything about the tomatoes burning to the bottom of the pot! Oh son of a @!*%! Well so now I'm trying to regulate my now fire roasted tomatoes (a.k.a. burnt) into a gentle simmer... three and a half hours later (yes, that's what I said... 3 and a half) it has only reduced by like 1/8th. Ugh... I'm going cross-eyed with exhaustion and trying to pull out the little burnt flecks floating around. So I decide that sleep will win out and I take the whole thing and put it in the refrigerator and finish Tuesday. No telling what that will do to my end result of now a smoky-ish sauce. Jeesh... but I'm not giving up dammit.

I drag myself out of bed at 9:30 and pull the pot out of the fridge and get it back on the burner. It wasn't even cold to the touch. It probably spoiled everything in my refrigerator, too. So back to simmering. I finally felt it was reduced enough by 1:30 in the afternoon (!). That is seven hours folks. Besides it probably not having any nutrients left in it at all, I probably will have an electric bill out of this world.

reduced - finally!

Excitedly, I have my jars ready and start ladling the sauce in and start to realize that there is no way this will make 7 quarts like the directions said it would. I manage to scrape out three and three quarter jars out of the pot and start canning. They are still in the canner as I write this and it is 3:30 pm.

filling up a whopping 3 3/4 jars

lonely tomato sauce

The number one thing I've learned from this expedition is that unless someone has some magical formula to reduce time by like 100 times, this is my first and last time I will ever make canned tomato sauce. I don't care if it turns out to be the best dang tomato sauce I've ever tasted. Liquid gold, texas tea. Nope, that's it. Never again. Chocked up to be yet another lesson learned. Did I mention that my husband hates spaghetti?

Homemade & Canned Tomato Sauce - my final cost = probably about $50 a jar

Work in progress - Sistahood of the traveling sketchbooks

2011-07-28T08:00:00.001-05:00

I haven't had a chance yet to post this, well actually I was hoping to get more done on it before I posted this but oh well here is some artwork that I've managed to create in the midst of gardening mayhem for the Sisterhood of the Traveling Sketchbooks. Canning jars are cooling behind me as I write this. More beans. And more work is to be done on this tonight (hopefully).

Here is another shot, including my feet... hee hee

This is for a June installment in Kathy's book. I've gotta crank out July as quick as I can... we're a little behind due to the Canadian Post Office strike.

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

2011-07-27T11:57:00.000-05:00

Yay! Thermo-O-Ware

I had to share my excitement with everyone. I have finally found my favorite cups that I drink absolutely everything out of except milk. I like a glass with milk. Look at that happy orange color! These are actually a tiny bit different from the ones I've used since I was 7. I was using Bolero brand and these are Olympian brand but they are both Therm-o-ware types. The main thing is the mouth rim is the same. I think I even like this Olympian brand better because the base is more flat so it doesn't fall over easily. I got these for a steal, just $3 for a set of 5. I've been looking on ebay and those people are crazy for what they are asking for their cups. I'm not a "collector", these are just my most favorite cups to drink out of ever! Just thought I'd share ;)

mmmmmm

My favorite drink with my favorite cup! Iced tea :)
Have a great day!

Is your grass greener?

2011-07-24T23:31:00.000-05:00

Do you ever think about the grass being greener on the other side of the fence? I do sometimes. It always cracks me up to see horses and cows stretching and creenin' their neck to eat a little something greener on the other side of the fence.

So my greener side of the fence is this: Since I'm almost in the throws of peek tomato season. They are just waiting to turn red (and yellow and mixed)! *squeals* and I am already eating them as they come in. I was wondering when tomato season was down south. I'm thinking they've got this yummy goodness all year round, right? While we hafta eat hard tasteless impostors from October through July. Up here in Zone 6b, it's a mad rush to get them in the ground about the last of April, pray for good rain but not too much and pray again to get maters by July 4th which I did this year - yay! By September they are slowing down and kinda get a wonky taste by October if a early frost doesn't get em first.

Mom used to pick all her green ones before a frost and put 'em in brown paper bags and we'd have tomatoes till almost Christmas if we rationed them. To her and I a feast during the summer was cornbread, fried potatoes, doctored up pork n beans and a big plate full of garden fresh tomatoes. Oh man, that is making my mouth water just thinking about it. Heaven!

Off to go paint something in my Sistah hood books :)

Let's Stroll

2011-07-22T02:27:00.000-05:00

Isn't inspiration and beauty everywhere? As I take these pictures of the beautiful flowers around my house I always have plans of painting or drawing them. I'm building quite a reference file. Ironically, keeping all these beauties going is time consuming thus taking away from some creative time.... Ah well, I need to have these around me. Literally, my soul needs to have green growing things around me that require my attention, touch and love.

I came by it naturally, maybe even genetically. The nut didn't fall too far from the tree. My mom was a gardener and I have the fondest memories of her digging in the dirt. Even when the dirt came by the way of just being pots on our apartment balcony. She always had gobs of plants inside and out and had the greenest thumb of anyone I've ever known. That woman could put a stick in the ground and it would grow. I miss talking plants with her as I walk my paths that I always walk, looking at my summertime beauties. When I would visit her she would always take my arm and we'd stroll through her garden together even though we had just done the same thing a couple days before. There is always something new and exciting popping up somewhere, you just have to slow down and look. Whenever I'd ask her "where did you get that?" She'd reply "A little bird brought it to me". I'm fairly certain she stole that line from my grandpa, her dad, cause I remember him saying that too. Her nut didn't fall far from his tree either, he was a great gardener and had the most beautiful and bountiful sweet peas. They still remind me of him.

Well I have no idea where I'm getting the energy for this. I did corn all day today then it was trash day, plus I cleaned out the freezers (had to cause there was no room for more corn!). While doing that, I didn't have room to put a pie crust back in without assaulting it, so I made an apple pie! Last night I didn't go to bed until 3:30 and now here it is 2:20 and I'm still awake. Granted, I'm sitting in my most comfy chair and not doing much but letting my mind wander and fingers do the walking. I should be upstairs in my art studio creating something in my journals for the Sitsterhood and PPF but that would require the stairs and I'm far too lazy for that. In fact, I think I'll go to sleep now.

Oh, but first take my arm and stroll around my gardens with me.... won't you?

be still my beating heart ~ a glorious Zinnia

The boys follow me as I give you the tour for this year but I think we're getting the cold shoulder at the moment

Sunflowers make me happy

my greenhouse

inside plant getting a summer vacation outside

huba huba ~ doesn't this Mandevilla look like the sexpot of the flower world?

I love to have color all around even if there aren't many flowers and these coleus are tried and true

Ditch lilies ~ love 'em

see my little toad house in the background? Vacancy...

sweet little guy ~ look at his little antennas, precious!

Coral Bells

never mind the Johnson grass...

look at me! the bouganvilla screams

Alright tour's over... good night!

Beans and corn and corn and corn and beans

2011-07-21T02:47:00.001-05:00

Sweet Corn - temperatures so hot the camera kept fogging up - but how cute is my little helper?!

So the garden has come in and in a big way. Every year about this time, gardening... vegetable gardening that is, becomes hard work and makes me want to give up quit and just buy grocery store food. Between the mosquitoes that think I'm a free all-you-can-eat smorgasbord for them and my sensitive skin blistering up from just rubbing against the leaves and weeds it's been a trying season.

Especially like the last couple days. I've picked beans, snapped beans, canned beans and they never end. Hours and hours of beans. Yesterday in the sweltering 98 degrees (F) with heat indexs of about 105+ we picked corn, cut down the corn, schucked the corn blanched the corn and wrapped each cob in Saran wrap and then froze the corn.

Today... still more corn to schuck, blanch and this time cut the corn with this blood thirsty little machine that sliced me up good all to get the kernels off and then freeze for creamed corn (but don't freeze the bloody corn). Now the dang beans need to be picked again. I feel like Jack and the Beanstalk, only it's the beans that just keep coming and coming. Oh and guess what I'm doing Thursday (today technically after I go to bed and wake up)... you guessed it, more corn. Plus, the tomatoes are just coming in too so that means salsa and canning tomatoes and maybe some sauce. Wow, no wonder I've got no time for creating any new art!

Yeah, yeah I can hear you all now saying Dang... she's crazy! Well, yes. Yes I am. I've turned into Psycho Suzie Homemaker haha... living off the land but bitchin' about it the whole time. But come December when I'm cracking open those jars of home grown green beans and heating up that sweet corn that tastes like I just picked it I'll be feeling pretty good about myself... haha. Not to mention munching tortilla chips with my to die for Dee-licious Salsa! Yummy! see it here cooking

Jaime's Dee-Licious Salsa
Makes 8 pints + a half pint to eat right then! ;oP

Ingredients:
9 cups tomatoes, peeled, chopped and drained (I don't bother seeding, but you can)
2 1/2 cups onions, chopped
1 1/2 cups green peppers
1 cup jalapeno pepper, chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tablespoon cumin
2 teaspoons pepper
1/8 cup canning salt
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup vinegar ( I like apple cider vinegar)
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (12 ounce) can tomato paste

Mix all together and bring to a slow boil for 10 minutes. I can it and I've also froze it in jelly jars with great results. It smells divine and you'll have to beat off the people with a big stick to get them to leave you alone trying to get you to make more. But believe me, you'll wanna make more.

Waverly Hills Sanatorium Investigation

2011-07-18T13:26:00.001-05:00

Waverly Hills Sanatorium

Last Saturday, the 9th of July, I investigated Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, Kentucky with my friend Robin. Waverly Hills is an old tuberculosis hospital and was later a geriatrics center and is said to be one of the most haunted places in America.

Gargoyle seen from rooftop (5th floor)

We arrived at Waverly just minutes before midnight which is when the investigation/tour began. Running behind as usual, I'm loading mini DV into my recorder and loading film in an old film camera while Robin stands behind me and already is having exciting things happen. She had gotten her phone out and was viewing through the small phone screen and could see these lights whizzing around us but these lights could not be seen with our naked eyes! Excited, but late we had no time to record our findings and ran up to the door to join others and begin our tour.

We entered into what was called the "safe room" to be briefed and split into smaller groups. They allow 40 people on a tour and then split them into smaller groups for each of the 5 floors. The volunteers gave us all the juicy tidbits, experiences and the rules for the place and we were off! The investigation was to last 8 hours. I have to admit, I wondered what kind of people I'd see there at the tour. I envisioned men in their 40's still living at home with their mother, freaky gothic like kids, ghost hunting fanatics, etc and was pleasantly surprised to see mostly ordinary people like us... haha.

Our guide Tiffany took our group up to the 5th floor where she told us what all had happened there and when and also told us of some other people's experiences as well as her own. This was the floor for the infamous room 502 where a nurse had supposedly hung herself. Apparently, it was shrouded in secrecy and there may have been some wrong doing there as she was pregnant. My smaller group got to investigate this floor first. There were 6 of us. the rest was split into the other floors. We all had the floor for about an hour. They told us of many shadow people and that the best way to get these shots are with your flash off and then manipulate your pictures in a photo program later to see if anything shows up.

Robin at Room 502

I took a lot of photos and Robin got out her video camera right away and I also used my phone to record audio. We tried our best to imitate Ghost Hunters (snicker, snort) and we laughed most of the time. It was a beautiful night and the warm breeze was blowing on the top floor nicely. The sanatorium is run down and the windows are missing out of most of it. They are using tour money to restore the magnificent old building... a huge undertaking. It didn't take long for us to get bored since we were not having much going on. Robin did experience her battery being drained almost completely within a very short time, something she says has not happened in the past. Admittedly, I have not gone through most of our recordings very closely so there may be something I haven't found yet.

Boo! just me

There was a nice couple there a few years older than us who had some fancy equipment and also two guys, which I thought to be rather "stoner" types but were friendly enough. It didn't take long to figure out we wanted to hang kinda close to the married couple. They had a "spirit box" and that really intrigued me. A spirit box is a contraption that uses am/fm radio to communicate with spirits. I am skeptical, but it was pretty neat and creepy and added to the ambience of the evening. It sounds like those machines that people who have their voice box removed and talk through a device... creepy. This spirit box went crazy at different times of the investigation. Sometimes, where you would think it would be talking up a storm it would do nothing. It really was mostly gibberish from what we heard of it.

After we sat talking for a while it was finally time to go down to the 4th floor which was exciting because the couple had told us they had been here before and had caught "evidence" and had experiences on the 4th floor. So after walking around and snapping pictures, listening intently and asking questions we did have a few things I am going to report, so here it is and no I'm not crazy well, at least not enough to be in a rubber room...yet.

My friend Robin had found a coveted chair and I am standing behind her with my body open to this room and I remember not feeling comfortable with my body facing that way. I didn't say anything to her at that time, I just moved my body closer to her and stood more to her left leaving her more exposed to the door (what a friend, huh? haha) It was mostly an unconscious thing but I distinctly remember feeling a little uneasy. I am recording audio with my phone at this time (hear it here) and begin to speak when all of a sudden I feel a sensation on my upper right thigh. Just below where your pocket is. I asked her and you can hear me ask her on the audio if she touched me. It was slight, but definitely felt it. It kinda felt like my skin crawling only in just this one small spot. So there is my experience #1.

Room next to chair where I felt other worldly touch

We also had an experience together on another floor and I want to say it was the 3rd, but I was losing track of where we were and what time it was. We were tired so we had found some chairs at the end of a hallway and decided to just do some audio to try to get evp's. We had our flash lights off and our eyes had adjusted quite a bit to the dark. We must've both been looking out at the same direction because we both saw three large windows get the light blocked out of them. We investigated to make sure it wasn't another investigator and it wasn't. In fact others had reported the same thing happened to them. Experience #2.

Experience #3 (maybe), I'm more on the fence with only because I am rather skeptical. I just find it hard to get my mind wrapped around this. We were sitting back in those chairs and heard a baby cry. So loudly in fact that we thought someone was playing a trick. It took a minute and I asked her if she heard that and she said yes, it sounded like a cat, and I said no I thought it sounded like a baby. It wasn't no time and we heard it again, the exact same cry. This time she said "you're right that was a baby cry". We immediately got up to see what was going on. We found our way to the married couple and Robin asked them "ok, who's got the Baby App?" The woman said she thought it was us. They heard it too. We found the two guys and they had not heard it. They had been out on the balcony. I am still reluctant to count this as a 100% experience because I question those two guys. Robin and the lady both agreed they thought the two guys were too stupid to fool us all like that. Good point... haha. Who knows. Of course I didn't have my audio going at that moment :(

Experience #4 happened and we didn't even know it until the tour was over. We had been exploring the 3rd or 4th floor, can't remember and smelled something dead. I looked around for a dead mouse or bird or something and never found anything but we just went on and didn't question it. Later we found out that there has been an apparition that has appeared with a foul dead animal smell with it. We didn't see any apparition, but did smell the funk.

One place that was supposed to be scary and most talked about was on the 1st floor, it had the "Death Tunnel or Body Chute" on it. As you guessed, it was used to move the dead down the hill to a waiting hearse. During the height of TB, people died everyday and this was a convenient way to move them. Nothing happened here for me to report other than bats flying by my head. One was so close it blew my hair as it flew by! I'm not afraid of ghosts, but now if a bat got caught in my hair, that would freak me out.

Death Tunnel or Body Chute - see how dark!

Also on the first floor is (was) a gift shop that is supposedly very active. Nothing for us. Plus the morgue, where a lot of people would put themselves on the slabs and have someone push them in. It made this horrible screeeech sound. No thank you. I only want to encounter being on a cold slab once and I better be dead when it happens. Not tempting fate in this case! Robin didn't either.

So we complained about not seeing any shadow people or hearing anything that we felt was real but really all in all we had quite a few unexplainable things happen to us. Towards the end, many had left and they let us have run of the place. It was becoming daylight and we found another small group and asked if they had encountered anything and they were actually recording stuff right then. It was told to us that if you had a flashlight, unscrewed it a bit and laid it on the floor and asked questions, that the ghost would turn it off and on in according to their response. They claimed they were communicating with a ghost and I think her name was Mary. I actually got this on my mini DV recorder. As soon as I figure out how to post it I will.

I found this picture I took with my flash on in the stairway, can't remember where, but I didn't see anything until I saw it on the computer. Looks like a green orb. I do have a few pictures that have circles on them, but I don't know if they are dust or orbs. The green orb seems to glow a bit.

Green orb middle left of picture - untouched photo

This was taken outside of the building in the morning as we were leaving. Funny how light transforms everything. It just looks like a cool old building now, not the spooky haunted hospital it was hours before. It was fun and has me itching for more experiences perhaps a day trip with my ghost hunting friend. My husband didn't want to have anything to do with it. In fact he's not even asked me what if anything happened. Oh well, it'll just be mine and hers thing :)

My son had an experience a few mornings after I was back. He came running into my room and asked why I had just blew in his ear to wake him up. I was still in bed. He seemed very awake and alert so who knows? I do feel strange feelings sometimes in his room. I did in fact worry about bringing anything (as in spirits) home with me, but I have yet to experience anything since I've been back home except for Asher's story.

One more thing, I asked the tour guide Tiffany if she ever had anything follow her home and she said she occasionally did but the one that sticks out in my mind was the "creepy crawler" as she called it. Apparently when it was a TB hospital they let the patients roam around no matter their condition and there were strange experiments to try to cure them and one spirit that has been reported is this creepy crawler. He was someone who could not walk so he crawled around. I don't know if he had legs or not. But now that might freak me out if I saw that. I'm not afraid of spirits because I know they were just people at one time but something about that creeps me out.

She also told us of a "doppelganger" which is a tangible double of another person usually evil, that is present. We didn't encounter that either but I don't really want to encounter something evil so I wasn't bothered by that! All in all, we had fun and Robin has even said she wants to go back. Maybe, but I'd like to see something else if I'm going to spend the money.

Fearless Ghost Hunters - haha

So I hope you've enjoyed my ghost tour! I'll be back with more of the video when I can. See ya soon!

Koi Pond - small update adding plants

2011-07-01T01:20:00.000-05:00

Not much has progressed with our koi pond since we first started. Life gets in the way. But I did manage to pot up some plants for the pond today. Also, I noticed we have baby fish!! I'm so excited! I can't believe they've made it with no where for them to hide, so that kinda spurred me on to do the pots. I had the plants there and waiting on me, just hadn't done it. Now I'm so glad I did. I am quite pleased with the way they look and maybe it will push my hubby back into "pond mode"... haha

Anyway, enjoy the pics :)

This waterfall spills into the lake

Main waterfall getting some character with the algae

Pot is on concrete block in middle of pond

another view of plants in middle of pond

Plants in a pot on a pond shelf we made, almost not big enough!

another view of shelf plant

Here's a picture I took today of the twins Thunder and Lightning. Can you believe how much they've grown? They are 10 months old now and look like regular cats, not the cute cuddly little fur balls they were. But I still love 'em. They've been booted outside, so I don't get many pics of them anymore.

Thunder (l) and Lightning (r) now 10 months old

And look at Zoey posing just as pretty as a picture.

Zoey in the summer grass

Happy Friday and Happy Independence Day Weekend everyone!

Summer Time Crazy

2011-06-27T20:11:00.000-05:00

Hey Mom! Look at this!

Hey people! Things are just busy and crazy and I'm running here and there. I am so behind on blogging, I just haven't been in the mood. I haven't even created anything for weeks. I have been reading some instructional books and am plenty inspired but not taking time to do anything. I don't know where the time is going.

Summer gets here and I'm outside so much and swimming lessons for Asher 3 days a week, the Farmers Market the other 2 days plus Saturday! I really can't use that as an excuse though... I've only been going to the one on Thursdays. I took my little man with me each time. He has mixed emotions about it... haha. He was actually trying to sell my magnets this last time, so cute. He tells me that it was sorta fun, but if his daddy asks him then he says it wasn't very fun. No choice though due to schedules. It won't kill him and hopefully he'll inherit my entrepreneurial spirit.

I am so unorganized that getting everything together has been a chore and my husband doesn't want me to leave my things out, where getting it all back in the van would be so much easier! Instead I have to trudge it all back upstairs, boxes and bags this and that. I really ought to streamline my booth. I'm about done selling the tomato plants, they take up so much room and are a hassle to take back and forth to the markets because they've gotten so big but I can't hardly give them up, they're like my babies... haha

1st Day of Farmers Market in Wadesville and my little salesmen

I had a scare this weekend with Asher. We all went out to eat Saturday night and my husband was rubbing on ASher's neck and discovered a lump. I freaked out. This kinda shit always happens on a weekend doesn't it? I had to wait to this morning to call the doctor. She got us in this morning and eased my mind right away. She asked if he recently had a tick and he had. In fact it worried me because it swelled up the next morning quite a bit and stayed swollen for a about a week. I never linked the two. His lymph nodes were swollen and they are just basically doing their job. What a relief.

We have lots of ticks around here and it's rare that he comes in at night when he's outside all day to not have one crawling around on him. I've picked plenty off myself including a few in areas I'll not mention! I'm a bug smorgasbord. I've currently got chigger bites, mosquito bites and tick bites. Oh well, I'm just happy it's summer!

who's this cute little guy?

So what's going on with you all? Are you staying as busy as I am??

cute little guy

Koi Pond - A new beginning Part One

2011-06-15T00:51:00.000-05:00

I want to share with you the making of our new koi pond. It is a work in progress right now and it consumed several days out of our "stay-cation" last week, haha! Up until my hubby hurt his neck and sadly, it sits... patiently waiting. So here it goes!

so here's our old pond, kinda looking tired and sad after years of neglect.

view from other side - still same old pond only being emptied

So, we discovered a month or so ago that our pond was losing water. After figuring out the tears in the liner were pretty down low, I had the fantastic idea to move the pond out from under our deck (where it shouldn't have been in the first place!) so we could see it from our deck and I could finally grow some glorious lotus (hopefully) and other pond plants.

just a short jaunt to the left - our new location for the pond

rough layout for the new pond - I was going for an organic shape

I laid it out with a trusty garden hose and went up on the deck to check it out. Looks good to me!

Breaking ground

Having a backhoe it a definite plus on the digging part.

almost done digging mechanically

It didn't take long to get all we could get with the backhoe. Next was the hand digging and leveling. Yes, I jumped in there and slung dirt too. I've probably got liver damage from all the Ibprofren I've taken... haha

So I don't have many pictures of it in between here as we cut, glued and laid down our liner then schlepped it to the hole, because hubby was not too keen on me stopping to grab my camera every 30 minutes, plus it was 96 degrees (F) and I had sweat rolling down the crack and everywhere else you don't want it... ew. You wouldn't believe how heavy that stinkin' thing is. I think I ruptured my spleen heaving it up on the wagon.

Asher wore out

We even had broken child labor laws I'm sure by having Asher help shovel loads of sand. He is a little sand shovelin' machine! But he loved to feel important by helping and he really did do us a favor by staying in the back of the truck and shovel sand into buckets for us to level the liner. We worked until about 10:30 that night.

not too wore out to do tricks for the camera

happy fish

While we emptied the old pond, we had to keep the fish in a holding tank - an old pre-formed pond I had from a long time ago so they were really happy to discover this ocean of a new pond. The reason we had to remove them was because we put the dirt in the old hole.

curiosity killed the...

Here's Lightning checking out the fish wondering if they are supper. haha

All one day's hard work

Hubby and Asher admiring the work we had done, and watching Lightning

view from deck

The next morning I got this picture and was happy to see the fish happily swimming along. We have 5 fish, 2 are blackish bronze and may never be seen again!

go the pole in for the electric box

This was part of the boring part, but needed. Installing the electric. Luckily hubby is multi-talented. See the little orange koi showing off for the camera?

adding electric box for pump

Another scorcher and to add insult to injury there are these nasty little knats that fly up your nose in your ears and buzz all around you that literally drive you mad. Skin So Soft to the rescue. Too bad it breaks me out, but sacrifces... ya know? Plus it made hubby smell better ;) remember... still 96 degrees F.

playing in the bubbles as we add more water

The white and black koi fish is our largest. I think it's a she, we've had babies but not in the previous pond. Hopefully we'll get more babies as I get plants and the pond matures. Not sure where the time went and what we did in between these pics but before I knew it, we were building the first waterfall and it was dark. Yes, those rocks are heavy!

waterfall #1 made of Kentucky flagstone (limestone? sandstone?

close up - ahhh if you could only hear it.

Really, if you could hear it... heaven. Trickle, trickle and the bull frogs singing to each other. So relaxing. We are going to add more of the same rock all around the perimeter of the pond. I hope I have enough. Rock is really expensive! We don't have this kind around us or on our property to dig up, too bad.

We actually have another waterfall built but I haven't taken pictures of it yet. I'll post them soon. Hubby's vacation is over now (good thing, he was working me like a dog), so back to our normal schedule but stay tuned for more as the koi pond slowly progresses!

Paint Party Friday Week 12

2011-06-03T00:01:00.023-05:00

So, summer has hit here in full swing and I have been slacking big time on the blog. If I didn't get a chance to visit you this last time from PPF (Paint Party Friday), I'm so sorry and I'll be by this week for sure to see both installments.

This PPF, I'm showing my finished painting from last week which was from my May installment of Sisterhood of the Traveling Sketchbooks.

Next week the Farmer's Markets start and I'm seriously considering doing it again to sell some artwork. There are actually 3 in my vicinity of 15 minutes away each way. I'd better get my paintbrush fired up! If you're thinking what does artwork have to do with Farmer's Markets? then you are not aware of it apparently being a trend. To be fair, I am selling plants, too. I'm also trying to stick to artwork that is related to this type of theme this year. Hey, that may be a perfect place for my pastel peppers from a few weeks ago! They invite crafts people and artisans to help generate interest since most of the produce isn't available yet (in our area). Are there any of you that have good luck selling your artwork at a Farmer's Market? I've done it before with limited success. Click here on this Farmer's Market to see my set up for last year and the year before. I plan to make my booth more attractive for sure cause it looks pretty lame. I'd love to here any of your tips, tricks or stories about Farmer's Markets and sprucing up my booth :)

Happy Friday Gang!

Paint Party Friday Week 11!

2011-05-27T10:30:00.000-05:00

Who was this girl? I have forgotten.

Yahoo! It's Paint Party Friday! I've got a WIP (work in progress) today. This is me as a young bride (back in 1994!). It is a small portion of a Sisterhood of the Traveling Sketchbooks journal page. This is my entry for the month of May in Lori's book. I got her book in the mail earlier this week and it is so colorful and pretty and revealing! hee hee...

Join in the fun, all you need to do is create something, post about it and link up on the PPF blog. Then you go and visit the other artists posts. It's very inspiring and will get your creative juices flowing!

Thanks to everyone visiting from PPF! :)
Have a great weekend my friends!

I'm a busy bee!

2011-05-25T01:43:00.000-05:00

I have been MIA for a while now. I'm sorry I haven't really given any kind of explanation. I show up for Paint Party Friday and that's nearly it.

Life has been a whirlwind. A gardening whirlwind! I've been trying to sell my heirloom tomato plants and get my veggie garden planted along with picking out gorgeous new plants for my flower gardens. I always go overboard on the flowers. It's my weakness and I can hardly say no. So I thought I'd share some of my garden with you.

part of my veggie garden - just starting out

other part of veggie garden - corn and beans just peeking their heads out of the soil to the left

Now these pics aren't from the new flowers I've bought, I'll post pictures for those as soon as I finish planting. I take my time, carefully deciding where each little beauty will take its place in my beloved gardens. I set the plant in pot in gardens and step back to see if I like the color and texture combinations. It takes me forever, but I so enjoy it.

The Swing Garden

The above picture is my Swing Garden. I love the roses on here. My favorite being the climber on the left. It was a start from my mother. The only one I've been able to keep alive of all the rose starts she gave me. She could put a stick in the ground and I swear it would grow. She always called this Seven Sisters.

Siberian Iris

just a pretty red rose - I don't recall the name

a vigorous phox - I keep spreading it around cause it just keeps spreading!

peony

I have big plans for the Farmer's Markets around here but I am dreadfully behind on everything. I want to get back to painting my painted pots that I like to do and wanted to sell them with herbs and plants in them this year.

Oh, I wanted to show you also my finished graduation card that I made. Some may know it didn't quite get the warm reception from the recipient that I hoped for, but hey she's 18 and it didn't have any cash in it... haha But it does make me feel good that as soon as I listed it on my Etsy shop, it sold! woohoo!

I have a mystery plant that I would love for anyone to help me identify. I went to pick them out and thought better of it. It just looks like it should be a flower. But I have no idea what it would be. I don't have anything that looks like this that I have found. It may be a bunch of weeds, who knows.

? Do you know what this is?

Thanks for taking the garden walk with me :) Oh, also my son had his last day of Pre-School! More pics are on my Facebook.

Asher and his little crush ~ her name is Piper... how cute are they?!

Speaking of Facebook, I finally made myself a page for my heirloom tomato plants. If you want, look me up... it's called Jaime's Heirloom Tomato Plants. Till next time...

Paint Party Friday Week 10 whew! barely made it!

2011-05-20T23:11:00.000-05:00

Whew! I barely made Paint Party Friday. I just got done with this digital painting I made for a greeting card for my best friend's little girl. Well, she's not so little anymore. She is graduating from high school! jeesh time flies. I remember when she was born. Anyway, this painting is loosely based on her. I created this with Corel Painter and my VisTablet and pressure sensitive pen. Lots of fun.

Come on over to Paint Party Friday and see what all the creative artists are up to and join in the fun!

See all the PPF goers soon! :)

Goodbye Buster Brown :(

2011-05-18T23:24:00.000-05:00

I've had an awful day today. I said to goodbye to a new furry family member. I didn't even get a chance to introduce everyone to Buster Brown, a stray kitty that found me. Now it's a memorial for the sweet boy that could've been. I took these pictures when I found him the first day with my phone, just down the road from our house a little ways. I saw him lying in the gravel and I stopped and rolled my window down and talked to him. He talked back and then came out from under the brush, not scared of the van running with me saying "kitty kitty kitty".

Today, sadly, I took him to the vet because the last few days he has looked not well at all. He's not been eating for a few days and the last time I saw him drink was Monday. When I found him he looked as though a dog or something had got a hold of his tail. It was missing fur and had bite marks. He was not holding it up, but it did move. I washed it with peroxide and sprayed it with Bactine. I figured it would heal on its own in time.

He ate hardy for a few days and drank a lot. Then he dissappeared for a couple days. When he returned, he didn't look as spry. He slept most of the time and I thought maybe his tail was infected. So I gave him some antibiotics I had and hoped he would bounce back. This morning was the 4th dose of the antibiotics and he looked as worse as ever. I noticed his mouth and tongue were yellow and he was dehydrated. He smelled strange, sickly. I stewed and worried for a while as to what to do. I called people I thought could give me answers and finally took him into the vet. Money is a little tight and I was holding off on this. I finally decided I could not take it anymore and would just put in on the credit card.

When it was our turn, the vet was shocked at how weak he was. Buster was in liver failure. It might've been kidney failure, I honestly can't remember in between sobs. He told me there was a 90% chance this cat would die in a couple days. He said that if it were his cat, he'd put Buster down. With a heavy heart, I decided Buster shouldn't suffer any longer. It broke my heart to say yes, and as the vet walked out of the room to get the papers ready for me to sign, Buster got up off the table and walked over to me and touched his head to my chest. I was blubbering by now and the vet couldn't understand me as I asked him was he sure this was the right thing to do. I can't help but feel Buster was getting up to get close to me as to say don't do it. My friend comforted me later and said maybe that was Buster's way of thanking me. I still don't know and it's eating at me. I've done nothing but cry all day. I've got Asher upset because he sees me crying and I didn't lie to him when he asked why the pet carrier was in the van. It's just been a rotten day. I know I could've let nature take its course, but I just couldn't bare to watch him slowly die.

Even though I knew Buster Brown only a very short time, I can't help but feel so devastated. I just can't stand it that I couldn't do anything to save this kitty. The vet said his tail was not the reason why he was so sick. He thought maybe feline leukemia or feline aids possibly. That's why it's so important to get our pets the shots they should have. I know most of you are like me and think of our pets as family. So today I am mourning my Buster Brown. Sweet kitty, good bye.

Paint Party Friday Week 9

2011-05-13T11:38:00.001-05:00

Yippee, it's Paint Party Friday! If you want to join in the fun and share your creative endeavors then hop on over to PPF and add your post to the list. It's super easy, all you do is add your name and your blog post address.

This acrylic painting called "Poppies for Kelly" started out as a greeting card and I thought as I was painting it that this was too much work for it to just get tossed in the trash or stored in a memory box so I cut up the card and framed it. It was my gift to my best friend Kelly who just got to graduate from college and attend commencement, an undertaking that took her 20 years. I'm so proud of her.

My husband had made a few of these frames for me to sell my artwork in about a year ago and it just fit perfectly. I probably didn't paint it on the best paper, but like I said it started out to be a card. I actually used greeting card computer paper.

I'm off to check out all the great artwork from PPF!
See ya soon, have a great weekend & Happy Friday the 13th!

Self Portrait spread

2011-05-12T00:52:00.000-05:00

I finally finished my self portrait page and mailed it yesterday. It was supposed to be mailed the last of April (sorry Brandy!) but better late than never, right?

Over all, I like the look and the colors turned out pretty good. My portrait though really doesn't look too terribly much like me. If I were more brave I'd post the picture I painted this from. I improvised and took my creative license to the max on this... haha. Plus, as I've said I really am just learning to paint so I make it up as I go along. Like I've told a few already, my face isn't a very good Caucasian skin color. I ended up looking more like a pink pig. Now I have rosacea, but even my face isn't this pink ;)

I was going to use this for Paint Party Friday, but I'll either use a quick acrylic painting I made for my girlfriend who just graduated and got her certificate for a new career (hopefully) or I'll be getting busy tomorrow night. My money is on the acrylic. Tomorrow is a busy day.

I finally got my tomatoes planted YAY! and zuchinni, cantaloupe, watermelon and corn. Still need to get out the beans, yellow squash, peppers and jalapeno's. Pumpkins in a month or so. I am loving the warm temps that we have been having. I'm a warm weather girl.

Check out my little man fishing on Monday, how cute is that? Look at that cast... haha!

Also, it seems I have yet another member of the fur family to introduce. I'll post more about him with a picture in a later post. I will tell you he is of the feline persuasion and I've already named him. His name is Buster Brown.

Paint Party Friday Week 8

2011-05-06T10:02:00.000-05:00

Good grief time flies! Another week has gone by and it's Paint Party Friday again! I'm sharing another page from my Sisterhood of the Traveling Sketchbooks project. I've been mentioning it for a long time now, but if you've missed it you can catch up on what it is here. We have already mailed off our sketchbooks to our selected sistah and the fun has started!

This is my sign in page and I struggled for a while as to what to put on this page. I was seeing great ideas from all my Creative Sistahs and didn't want to flake out. So, I thought long about what this project is and it came to me that our sketchbooks are like a bunch of gypsies, or travelers as I've read they prefer to be called. (But I have to say I think gypsy has such a romantic notion, especially to North America and it is not seen as a put down.) Anyway, they are like gypsies in that they are traveling the lands and seas! to bring inspiration and creative fellowship to each of the Creative Sistahs. I keep referring to Creative Sistahs and that is just something I call all of us. There are 13 that have joined this 13 month project. It is closed to new sistahs right now, but if you are interested in doing something like this we will probably be doing another project or if you don't want to wait start your own!

So here it is, my Vardo or gypsy wagon sign in page. It is a combination of some pictures I've found on the net and my imagination. I blurred out my exact address to ward off potential kooks. I liked the idea of peering past a gate to the Vardo to give it a little mystery. Yesterday I gave a first look at my self portrait, see it here.

Please take time to visit the talented artists at Paint Party Friday and here's your invitation to join us!