Sunrise...Sunset

I just finished this painting for my hubby's present in the nick of time. I'm not sure if it is a sunrise or a sunset. It is just a picture that I found. I love painting clouds but these were challenging. The upper right hand side is kind of like "I spy." What shapes can I find there.

Colorful Furniture

This is a nightstand that I painted and tiled that I have listed in my Etsy shop. It was an old, but sturdy one that I found at Goodwill and gave it a new life.

Friends, Joy, Life

New Collage

New Swap Goodies

I just received a wonderful package of goodies from Steph in Belgium. There is a beautiful necklace, beads, and pendants that she made, some yummy chocolates(one didn't make it until the photo) , a cool key (soon to have its home on a necklace for myself), postcards, coins, and an ornament. Fun stuff! Check out her blog, vlaDtHeBaT's aTTiC for some really beautiful, unique jewelry and photography.

Busy Busy

Put together all of the right elements

My computer has been feeling a little neglected this week because I've been busy filling orders for bracelets. My sister-in-law has been a great salesperson for me. She is a hair dresser and has been selling them to her clients. I think she has sold nine of them. Hallelujah! Making two or three a day is about my limit but I'll keep making them as long as people want them. It's nice to have things moving along at a faster pace.

I would not make a very good hand model.

After the Feast

Well, everything is back to routine here. The company and our kids are gone home and it is quiet again. Here is a photo of the height of the feeding frenzy at our house on Thursday. Everyone brought food so I didn't have to cook a lot, but I did do two turkeys which were totally devoured. (Not by myself, I don't eat meat but I still have to cook it for my family) I think I overdosed on sweet potatoes. My aunts make the best, with lots of brown sugar, butter, and pecans on top. Now it is time for more healthy food. Here is a recipe for a broccoli salad that I came up with.

This is the view of our yard that I've seen for the past two mornings. Our neighbors cows have discovered that our grass is really greener than theirs and now they are determined that they should live over here. He keeps putting them back and they find a way out. They aren't hurting anything and it is good to see them enjoying themselves and having their own feast. I have another story to share about these cows when I get pictures from our brother-in-law of the wedding that we had here in September.

I've spent a lazy morning napping, drinking tea, and looking at thought provoking websites. What bliss! Here is a fun site: Keri Smith's Wish Jar.
Check out her blog. It will keep you entertained for a long while. I'm working my way through her archives. It's addictive.

Happy Thanksgiving

View from our road, about a mile away.

I hope that all of you have a very blessed Thanksgiving and that you get to spend it with family and friends. That is what we will be doing tomorrow. There will be anywhere from 30 to 50 people here at our house. Everyone brings a dish and so there is plenty of variety. I wish that you all could come too. That would make it just perfect.
I just thought I would send a quick greeting before I have to get back to the kitchen... turkey's roasting.

Merrily, Merrily, Merrily

Spirit

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22

I was inspired to try to make a piece of jewelry with a message. The piece turned out kind of large and rustic. I'm not one who cares much for flashy jewelry. Please excuse the bad photo. Despite minoring in photography in college, I still take lousy photos...I'll blame it on the camera. I tried to scan it, but that wasn't entirely successful either.
I think I'll wear it to town today and see if anyone likes it. It may be a bit large. Sometimes I'm not sure about some of my creations. Last week, one of my young friends (she's 21) was introducing me to one of her co-workers by saying, "She's so artsy, she can take tacky and make it look good." I think that was a compliment.

Anyway...I can look down at the words and be reminded of the fruit I should bear. Some days I need reminding.

The Fox and the Bobcat

I was lying on the swing on our deck this afternoon, enjoying the beautiful fall sunshine, when I heard a horrible screeching cry. At first I thought that maybe something was attacking a fawn in the woods. It kept crying over and over. The sound was coming from across the road. I ran to that side of the house and I could see two animals in the field. I got our binoculars and ran back. It was the oddest sight. There was a gray fox and a bobcat having a face off in the field. They were pretty near each other. The fox would walk toward the bobcat and screech at it. The bobcat seemed a little confused. It didn't attack. They kept this up for about ten minutes and then the bobcat walked off to the right into the woods, and the fox walked off to the left into the woods. I was wondering if the fox was trying to divert the bobcat from its young. Too bad I didn't have a camera with a telephoto lens. Sometimes it's like living on Animal Planet around here. (This photo is only a digital re-creation.)

Cats and Cows

I just completed a painting of cows on an old window. A friend had given me several of the windows and had asked if I would paint one of them with cows because they live on an farm and raise cattle. They are not my favorite subject matter, but I had fun painting them anyway.

Here is Bella checking out the painting. She has to be in the middle of everything.

Gifts and Favorite Painting

I just wanted to post a picture of the lovely gift that I got from my Australian blog friend Julie. There is a beautiful atc entitled "Patient Woman," a copper and bead bookmark, and a colorful card. Julie does beautiful work, so check out her blog.


Also, another one of my favorite bloggers, Jafabrit, asked on her most recent post, " What is your favorite painting." Mine is a painting that I did in high school when I was about 17. It is of a woman in a tropical setting and my sons always say that it looks like me with gray hair. I tell them that it is prophetic and that I will live in a tropical place when I am old and gray. (I hope!)

Florida Fun

Gladys Heron and her Pips

Well I just flew in from Florida and boy are my arms tired. I know... bad joke. That could go along with the ones that the flight attendant was telling as we were taxiing into the Nashville airport.

What did the fish say when he swam into a concrete wall?

Dam!


Where do you find a turtle without legs?

Right where you left him.



How do you make a tissue dance?

Put a little boogie in it.

My very generous sister and her husband had rented a house on Little Gasparilla Island and invited us to come down for a weekend. It was so fun! You have to take a water taxi to the island and the only transportation is golf carts. No stores or restaurants. I took this picture while I was sitting on the dock watching my hubby fish. I kept walking closer and closer to this heron and it just stood there. I guess they know no one will bother them there. While we were on the docks, three dolphins where swimming around. They didn' t stay up long enough to have their picture taken.

I guess that it's back to the real world now.

Sketchbook

I have been trying to get over my fear, block, hesitancy, or whatever it is of drawing people. Lately, each evening that I get to sit and watch TV I've been sketching. This is one that I did last night. The face was from a jewelry advertisement. When I finished the face, I thought she looked middle eastern so I gave her a paisley head covering. I think I will name her Esther.

Travel

This is a dangly that I just finished. The image is a transparency over a page from a hundred and twenty year old book, sewn over a map of Mexico, on a watercolored and stamped background.

Good Fortune

Here is a group of charms that I just finished for an ICE charm swap. The theme was Asian Good Fortune and the charms were to have a red theme and include a fortune in the packaging or on the charm. The charms have a red jasper bead, a black glass bead, and a Chinese coin charm. The package is made from a tag that is painted with red watercolor, with a hand carved stamp. The stamp is supposed to say "harmony" but I forgot to carve it backwards. There is an origami crane in each holding a fortune in its wings.

Very Old Art

I was looking around in some drawers at my mom's house a couple of days ago and found something that brought back old memories. I found a painting that I did when I was 5 years old. I thought that it had gotten thrown away. I was so excited to find it! My parent's had decided that I would take art lessons from a man named Mr. Luby. I don't remember his first name, but I think that he was German. I remember an accent. Mr Luby lived several houses down the street from us. When I went for my first lesson, I remember that he was quite agitated because my set of watercolors included purple. He said that I should learn to mix my own colors. He drew this picture and had me paint it. I remember him telling me about highlights and shadows. Even though I was just 5, he treated the lessons seriously.

That was the beginning of a lifetime of making art. From then on, my parents gave me art lessons from everyone in the county that they could find to teach me. I remember taking a course at the community college when I was 14 and being the youngest one in the class. I changed high schools because ours no longer had an art teacher. Then, it was on to college.
I don't consider myself a great artist, but I cannot imagine my life without art. Nurture the creative in your children. It will enrich their life.

Blessed Sukkot

It is the wonderful season of Sukkot, or in English, the Feast of Tabernacles. It is a time of Messianic hope for both Jews and Christians. For the past 6 or 7 years, my family and I have been observing Sukkot and I have begun to cherish it. I had a sukkah that I could put up each year and take apart when it is over, but last year the wind blew it down (a testament to my bad carpentry skills.) This year, with everything that has been going on in our lives, I didn't have time to build a proper new one, so I stretched sheer cloths from my top deck down to the patio below. It gives a feeling of shelter and festiveness but is not quite what I would prefer. It will have to do for this year. Saturday evening, both of our boys and their wives came and dined with us in our sukkah. It is a wonderful feeling to all be together.

In some of my research, I found that more than likely, Yashuah was born during Sukkot and definitely not in the middle of winter. The king would not have required the census that Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem for in the winter. Most likely it would have been after the harvest at the time when Sukkot falls. I guess carols would be appropriate at this time, though it will take some getting used to.

On the news Thursday, I heard of a sukkah that they are building in Jerusalem this year made of 2 tons of candy. They are giving out candy for free to all visitors. If they can build one of candy, I guess mine will do, though we can't eat it.

Found Art

This is a found art piece that I made from my digital collage, watercolor background, paper bead, and a 3-D butterfly. I will leave it at the hospital today.

Canning Time

I just checked a new book out of the library called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kinsolver. It is about how her family lived off of the fruit of their land plus locally grown produce for a whole year. I'm just in the second chapter but I'm inspired.

My own garden is winding down for the year, but I just picked the last of the green tomatoes and turned them into green tomato relish. This is something that my relatives have made for generations and my aunt and uncle came to my house one summer and showed me how to make it. Mine will probably never be as good as theirs but it will do. They would save a bit from the previous years for a taste comparison so that it would be consistent. The relish is the only thing that I canned this year besides the pickles in a previous post. We usually freeze corn and pears and make fig preserves and blackberry jelly, but this was a drought year so the corn didn't make it and the late freeze got the pears and most of the figs.

Maybe next year will be a better gardening year and the freezer will be full. For this year we will have to make do with the farm stands and the grocery store. Homegrown tastes best.

Life Comes At You Fast

I think I would like to have just one dull, uneventful day...maybe not a lot of them...just one or two. On Saturday while we were helping one son and daughter-in-law into their new home, I got a call from my older son's best friend saying that they were at the emergency room having my son's hand stitched up because he had cut it while building a deck behind their house. It turns out that he severed a tendon on the back of his middle finger on his left hand. He had surgery yesterday to reattach it and won't be able to move it for a month. That's not a good thing for a contractor. His wife is in the process of interviewing for a job, so I think they will be okay financially. He seems to be in pretty good spirits about it and I told them that something good will probably come out of this. Sometimes when things seem the worst, they lead to unexpected blessings.


Meanwhile, I am still checking on my Mom every day at the hospital. She is having some swelling on her operative leg, so she is not progressing as fast as we had hoped. Today she said that the swelling is down, so hopefully she can get back on her feet soon.


I'm trying to squeeze in a little artwork. Here is a digital collage that I did today, with a photo of a cemetery angel .

Cup Overflowing

Wow! Just when I think life will be a little calmer, my days fill up more. I have been a little remiss in my blogging because everyone else's agenda overtakes my own. That's okay. I guess that's why I'm here...to help where I'm needed.
Last weekend I had a wedding and a funeral. The wedding was at my house. My nephew was the groom. The funeral was a good friend's mother. On Saturday morning, I sat though about an hour and a half funeral that was almost totally in Spanish. It was very interesting. Then I came home and helped finish preparing for the wedding which was at 4:00. All went well despite some much needed rain. (Pictures to follow when I receive the photo disc from my brother-in-law.)

Then on Monday I had to accompany my mother to the hospital for her knee replacement surgery. I have been at the hospital every day this week. I took art supplies with me, thinking I would have a lot of down time to create but that didn't happen.

I did get to do a little art the week before and didn't get to post it because my battery in my camera died. This is my graffiti inspired mixed media collage on Tyvek. I did a series of graffiti about love.

Also, I did a digital collage on healing.

It's off to the hospital for me to check on Mom.

A Special Day

Happy 21st Birthday
To Windsor!

This is my "baby" whom I have always said was born knowing how to drive. The bottom photo is from when he got to drive at Talladega and went 173 miles an hour. It is a dream of his to get to drive Nascar. Does anyone out there have any Nascar connections? I guess, from a mom's viewpoint, there are scarier things he could be doing.

Not By Bread Alone

It's finally finished! I have been working on this painting for about a month and a half, off and on. It is to hang in the Community Outreach building at our church. We have a food bank there and feed from 60 to 100 families there each week. The building is kind of blank, so they asked me if I would paint a mural. They have been known to redecorate frequently at the church, so I decided that if I painted it on canvas, it could easily be removed when someone decides to do something different. The size is 6'x6' and this photo was taken from the landing at the top of our stairs. I'm noticing that the lettering is slightly crooked. I have a hard time being consistent when I'm doing lettering. I also think that the holes were probably in Yahshua's wrists rather than his hands, but that is the traditional view so for art's sake that is the way I painted them, even though I tend to not be very traditional. The fan is blowing on it because the paint was not quite dry and I am impatient (I need a little work on that character trait.) I plan to take it into town today and deliver it.
It's kind of ironic that the quote is about bread. A lot of our food that we give away is from the local grocery stores and they always seem to have a lot of bread that is ready to go out of date that they give us. Usually, when I help out, my post is at the bread table and I always have to persuade the people that they need 4 or 5 loaves, just to try to get rid of it all. A majority of them are coming to the service that we have before the food bank doors open so they are getting fed the Word also.

Time Flies

Birthday card that I made for a friend.

For Crusade 11 on Michelle Ward's website, she has challenged each blogger to add some music to their blog. This is a link to my friend Aline Bilodeau George's music on her website, Mishkanim. She and her husband Howie are currently living in Wales, but plan to return to Israel this fall to minister as long as Yahweh allows.

And it is still hot.

Is It Hot, Or Is It Just Me?

It's just hot! It was 107 degrees yesterday and should be about the same today. Some relief is expected this weekend with temperatures in the 90's. Maybe that will feel cool.
I made another fan and played around with watercolors and Photoshop yesterday. I think the heat is zapping my creativity and I'm hoping a little play will jump start it.

HOT!

Yesterday my mom called and informed me that it was 105 degrees outside. I was aware of this fact because I had been outside watering plants and bushes for 3 hours. According to weather.com this will be the trend for at least the next week. Scary! To go with the theme of the heat, I decided to alter a paper fan. You know, the kind that they give out for advertising. I did a random one and then I got to thinking about people who would use a fan, and then hot flashes came to mind. I am very near that time of life, though I tend to only get warm flashes. So, then I decided to do a series of hot flash fans. I had just finished reading the blog of Michelle Ward and was inspired by her spray paint journal with stencils. I got some printed fans that I already had and spray painted them and added sprayed stencils and then some collage and glitter glue. The image is from a 1958 Maidenform bra ad. I liked the way it turned out and I may put a couple of them in my Etsy shop.

Meanwhile, I'm just trying to stay cool.

The Art of Food

This is my husband's creative endeavor. Super HOT dill pickles. I am just the assistant and he composes the jars and amounts of ingredients. Every year he says, "I don't know how much longer I'm going to do this" but he loves the kudos and keeps making them. This is probably the last batch for this summer and will give us a total of 23 quarts. I love the smell of the house for a couple of days after we make them...vinegar, garlic, and dill. I think maybe I'll do a painting of them sometime. This is a photo with the Photoshop dry brush filter and kind of gives me a feeling of what I'd want the painting to look like. Also, I would like to come up with a name and label for them. Something like "Fire and Dill." Any ideas?

New Bracelet

Here is a new bracelet that I made today, being modeled by one of the many cucumbers in my sink, destined for the pickle jar tonight. ( The cucumber, not the bracelet. )
It is not cool as a cucumber here today though. The high was around 100 degrees.

Wildflowers and Pickles

Not much going on art wise these days. Everyone is keeping me too busy. I seem to be at the mercy of everyone else's agenda. That's okay, it's nice to be needed. I just thought I'd post a picture of one of the wildflowers from our field. This is a purple passionflower and it is Tennessee's state wildflower. The vines grow wild all over our farm. They make a fruit that we call a Maypop and my boys used to have Maypop battles with their friends. Oh what strange things you do to entertain yourself in the country. The flowers are very fragile when picked, but I got a good scan of this one before it wilted.
My next project will probably be to make dill pickles with my husband. They are his specialty and our family and friends have put in their orders for this year's batch. He makes them super hot with three or four kinds of peppers, including habeneros. The zucchini and tomatoes have been keeping me busy also. If you were here, I'd send you home with a bag of them.

Wedding and Building

Wow! Has it been a whole month since I last posted? I have been so busy that I've barely had time to check my email.
The first big news is the wedding of our older son that took place on June 30 in Sarasota, Florida. It was a beautiful, simple ceremony on the beach with immediate family and a couple of their best friends. The lovely photos were taken by the minister's wife, Natalie Evans. This past Saturday, we had a belated reception for them at our home. I did almost all of the food preparation, including two cakes, and also had some help from my other daughter-in-law and my sister. We had at least 90 people here. I've decided that I have no desire to take up catering. That was a big job.
My other occupation for the past 3 weeks has been to help my other son and his wife with the house they are building. My older son is the contractor, but we are doing some of the work and not subbing it out, in order to save money. We have been cleaning and staining the concrete floors and laying tile in the bathrooms. When we get it all cleaned up and finished I will post pictures of the tile. In the master bath shower, we used slate on the walls and added accents of ammonite fossils that they found in the rocks on the property. The floor of the shower is covered with smooth river stones that they picked up in Chattanooga, where they used to live. It is quite unique. Later this week we will be tiling the counter tops. In a couple of weeks they will be moving in and we will have an empty nest again.
Life is constant change and lately it has been wonderful and exciting. I pray daily for the strength to keep up. Uphold your family daily with prayer and cherish every moment with them. Blessings to you and yours.

A Smile From My Garden

Today's harvest. Rain today! Hallelujah! This is the first substantial rain we have had in 2 months. I thought we were going to turn into a desert.