Watercolor Greeting Cards

Back last spring, when insomnia and I began our current relationship, I chose to use the early morning hours to paint (instead of complaining there were too many unproductive hours in the day). Coffee tasted better at 2 or 3 am, when I had the run of the kitchen and sweets were the only foods that remained palatable because of Ibrance.  So, coffee, cookie(s) and a paintbrush were in hand while I half-way watched reruns of Midsomer Murders. A year ago, it was rocks that I painted.

The insomnia continued, so I changed my painting target to that of wooden discs. Discs were kind of intriguing, but I could give away only so many.  And they were a real bust on Etsy, so I closed up my Etsy shop fairly soon after opening it. No wealth there.

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Back in May of 2017, I was still painting rocks, interspersed with paintings for my study and one acrylic canvas for a friend.

Next I went on to painting Christmas cards. I really enjoyed making them, and watched YouTube videos for some differing ways to mount small pieces of watercolor onto the fronts of plain white purchased note cards.

Welcome, 2018.  Now comes this year's collection of greeting cards and little miniatures of fanciful flowers and people, and even a rabbit or two.

Rabbit and this vase of flowers are matted and framed and are wall hangings:

Below are some miniatures that were used for card fronts.  

Painting on Rocks with Acrylics

Because I cannot sleep well at night due to taking steroids for metastatic breast cancer, I have been painting rocks during the dark hours.  This activity can be accomplished while reclining, so between knitting, reading and painting rocks, I keep occupied during the dark hours.  It keeps me occupied and the attention to detail seems to help my mind slow down a bit. 

Here are a few rocks I photographed today that I have painted over the past weeks for the Latimer House Fundraiser (termed Extraordiinary Women,) with proceeds going toward domestic violence services provided by Hilltop Community Resources in Mesa County, Colorado. 

These are small rocks, painted with acrylics and art pens similar to Sharpies, and averaging about four square inches.  There are two dozen more I might touch up and spray with clear polyurethane before handing them over for sale. 

Pumpkin Faces & Pumpkin Cake

It is time to Get Pumpkin!

 

Bing has a few faces displayed, but a more fun look is my goal.  It is to gild the lily on my fall front door wreath that we used last year that now needs a little update.

Boo!

Take a look here at Attic Clutter to see some airbrush art with cute pumpkin faces.  I'll try to paint one on a blank oval canvas and put behind this door wreath:

Here is the canvas, an oval with a rust colored acrylic prepped on it and ready for its pumpkin face.  The craft store did not have a circular canvas, so this one will have to do.

Now to paint the pumpkin face and figure out how to attach it behind the wreath.  Duck tape?  Duck tape can do anything, right?

Here it is.

 

August Flowers

 

For an easy and delicious autumnal cake with pumpkin, Pinterest has this cake!  The Food Critic forgot to say to add the eggs to the wet mixture, but otherwise the cake directions are straight forward.  It was delicious, although my brother said it was not sweet enough to his liking.  It makes a firm, dense cake with just enough sweetness for me.

 

 



September 2013 Flowers

 

Enjoy your last days of September!



Hello, June

We've been saying hello to spring. Sprucing up. Painting. Gardening.

(in process, but now painted)

The master bathroom has been painted white the entire time we have lived here, so it was only appropriate to welcome in spring with a bit of a face lift and a few new accessories for the necessary room.  The picture above is a "before" one of the east window.  Indulgent Mocha from Behr over builders' white paint is now its cover.  A new clock on another bathroom wall to let us know how long it takes to brush teeth.

And I whipped up a new valence for that east window.  Seems it always gets hot in mid morning from that direct sun, so perhaps this fabric will shield some of that sun while taking showers.

Gardening!  Our wildflower garden planted last spring is doing nicely, thank you.  But the bluebells did not make it over the winter.  It was just too darned cold for their survival.  But the penstemon did VERY well.

Welcome to my garden with purple and yellow columbines...

 

 

honeysuckle that opened up this morning with a heavenly smell...

and welcome also to the prayer garden in the back that is filling in nicely with ground cover, iris, chives, mums and natural tall grasses, along with a few other bulbs.

 

And then it was time to whip up a few new dishcloths (the eLoomanator and Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth held with triple strands of cotton yarn to make a couple of fiesta potholders.

 



 

 

Sadly, my husband the chef said that three strands of cotton was not enough thickness to keep his hands from a burn.  So these fiesta cloths might have to go into the facecloth pile in the closet. Sigh.  

 

For lunch, my favorite chicken salad recipe found here by Emeril.  It uses fresh tarragon, of which there is an abundance in the herb area.   I use more than Emeril says, and we seem to never have an apple on hand, but it is good enough even without the apple.   Next time a picture; this time I forgot to snap a picture of the herbs, and the salad is not yet made.

 

How are you welcoming June?