Christmas Festivities

Hello Everyone! We have a dinner every Christmas with some close friends. This year our friends Katy and Tim hosted. I had to take a picture of their pretty table. I didn't take the picture with a flash, (the flash makes everything look garish to me!) hence the yellow looking walls. Here's Katy below:
They are such a fun couple - we always have lots of laughs.

Instead of seeing Santa this year, we took a picture by the side of his cabin. None of us had the patience to wait in line:
I think I'm pretty much ready for Christmas. The baking and cards have all gone out. I just need to wrap gifts and clean the house for Christmas brunch with family here at our house. Are you all ready?

Holiday Parties

We're going to my husband's company party this weekend. So, of course the first thing I think of when I heard of the event was, what to wear? It's cocktail attire. Instead of buying a new dress, I'm going to wear something out of the closet. Something simple and black. The problem is I've gained 5 pounds since I wore the dresses I have and everything is a bit tight. :( On a 5 ft frame, every pound counts! Maybe if I accessorized with a pretty purse, it will be a nice distration from my mid-section?

"Choices" for sale on Etsy. Click here to view.

Have a great and safe weekend everyone!

Semi-homemade Donuts

"Donuts on a Saturday Morning" in my shop. Click here to view

A few Saturdays ago, my husband, who loves breakfast and grew up with a mom who actually prepared breakfast every single day, decided to prepare a smorgasbord of breakfast items. I don't know what got into him. Really. There was soooo much food! His spread included biscuits and gravy, sausage, scrambled eggs, and donuts. He enlisted the help of these two:

My son did not help, but wanted to be in the picture:


The donuts were semi-homemade, made from a Paula Deen recipe using refrigerated biscuits. They were fried in peanut oil, which smelled the house and made me sick the whole day. The kids had fun, and memories were made.

Have a great weekend everyone! (I don't think donuts are on the menu this weekend. Not homemade anyway! )

A Wintery Mantle

This year, I decided to go for a more Wintery scene for the fireplace mantel. I painted a mountain aspen scene, with lots of texture. I pulled some of the chartreuse and blue colors from the painting and purchased some velvet chartreuse colored pillows ($10 each at Cost Plus), and used some silvery-blue pillows that I already had.

To go with the Winter theme, I used some leftover crystals from the chandelier project on some branches I cut from our trees. Here’s our mantle last year:

It’s a completely different look this year. It’s a nice change from my traditional red that I’ve always used. Here’s a closer up of the mantle this year:

I’ll probably teak it some more as the month goes by. For now, I like the more simple look. By the way, I’ve linked this post up to Layla’s mantle party. Click here for some more holiday mantles!

HUGE SALE

"Lighthouse" on sale in my shop. Click here to view.

I am clearing out some of my older original paintings. I hate to part with them, but I need the space! I will start listing them one by one, at deeply discounted prices. The one above is a 24x30 inch. The colors are cobalt, greens, and oranges.

BlueGreen Butterfly

"BlueGreen Butterfly" for sale. Click here to view.

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We always celebrate 2 Thanksgivings, as both my husband's and my families live in town. I got on the scale this morning, and it was not pretty. 2 Thanksgivings means double the turkey - which I don't eat much of, but, a whole lot of pies and yam casserole. Plus, we went to a B'nai Mitzvah for a set of twins, so we ate more yummy food there. Anyhow, all this randomness about food has nothing to do with my butterfly painting that I recently put in the shop. The painting is very textural. I don't sell it, I may put the whole series on my dining room wall. I can envision it - 3 rows of 3 or 4 of the colorful butterflies....

Cupcakes for Two Peanuts and a Tween

My youngest (pictured below middle) had a friend(below right) over the other day. My oldest (left) and the two peanuts decided to decorate cupcakes. My youngest, an aspiring chef, has been BEGGING for a cupcake painting. So, in the style of one of my favorite painters, Wayne Thiebaud, I painted one as a Christmas present.
I had so much fun with it, I painted another one for her friend as a birthday gift. Her friend's cupcake painting below:


I didn't want to stop. I was having fun with all the whimsy. I thought it wasn't fair for my youngest to get a cupcake painting, and not give one to my older daughter. So I painted this one below: (shhhh, these are all Christmas presents!)


I haven't told you all about all the cupcakes I had to decorate for my older daughter's birthday party. She had a sleepover. Here are the cupcakes:

I'm not a baker, but my kids love to do it. So I help them. I got instructions for the above cupcakes in this book:
To be honest, I like to look at cupcakes more than eat them. Too much buttercream frosting for me. (I like whipped cream on my cakes more.) I may paint some more cupcakes. It was way too fun, and they put a smile on my face!

Weekend Plans

My husband cleaned up the yard and trimmed up some trees a few weeks ago. He left some branches out for me, because he knows I LOVE using branches. See the crabapple branches out above? Perfect for the Christmas decor. I laid out a scarf that I'm using as a runner to catch any falling crabapples. (Need to iron scarf) I've learned that if I leave them alone and don't move them, they will dry right there on the branches.

My youngest has been asking me all month the put up the Christmas tree. This is finally the weekend. She is so excited. We have an artificial tree, because I start holiday decorating so early. Why bother with all the work if we can't enjoy it for a while? Plus, my first job out of college was working for a major insurance company as a claims adjuster. I'm not good at remembering to water my plants, so watering a big ole real tree...it would probably end up all dried out by mid-December, start a fire....

Have any of you all started your holiday decorating? I can't wait for all the blogger holiday links to start, so I can peek into all of your pretty homes!

Carillon Beachside

Some of you know that my family and I vacationed the last two summers in Florida's panhandle. The town is called Carillon, and one of the posts I wrote was on the beach house once owned by designer Suzanne Kasler, and how my friend was able to rent the beautiful home for a week.

Anyhow, a few months ago, I received an email from a woman who's husband developed Carillon. She somehow found me through that post I wrote, and wanted to know if I had any paintings that were inspired from that town. Since this was right after our vacation, I had a ton of paintings in my head. The one I sold her was this:

It is a whimsical scene of the town as viewed from the sea. I spent a few hours on a paddle board (basically a surf board that you stand on while paddling with an oar) in the ocean on one of the days, and I was able to see the cute homes from a different vantage point. I knew I had to paint it, but with a bit of whimsy.

My client gave the painting to her husband as a gift, as his heart is still there. I hope when he sees the painting, he knows he helped make some beautiful memories for many families. How amazing is it that one can randomly meet people like this while blogging?!

Turquoise Peacock

"Turquoise Peacock" for sale. Click here to view.

I just got out my Christmas bins. I'm planning on sorting and weeding all the junk I've accumulated over the years. I'm glad I made it out of the storage room alive - if you saw all the stuff in there piled 9 ft high, I'm sure you would call the fire department. It is a fire hazard and a danger to all who enter!

Anyhow, I'm thinking turquoise and chartreuse for Christmas colors this year. I can't wait! The peacock above sure looks different on the blog than it does in Etsy. The colors more closely match the blog than in Etsy. More of the rich jewel tones of turquoise, greens, and fuchsia. I had to look up the spelling turquoise and fuchsia. How sad is that?

Enough rambling - have a great weekend everyone!

5 Min later - I fixed the color problem in Etsy. For those who are interested, I viewed the image in "monitor RGB" for Etsy in the proof setup view in Photoshop. Trial and error.....

Poppy Field

"Poppy Field" for sale on Etsy. Click here to view.

I love the red set against the greens. Here is another one of my fields for sale. Thanks for looking!

Thank You - an Etsy Treasury

Thank you to Danielle Jewelry for including my Chandelier in Grey original painting in her "Chandeliers and Lace" treasury! Click here to view the painting. Click here to view the treasury.

Restocked

"Purple Field" on sale. Click here to view.

Hello everyone! I've restocked my shop and will continue to stock new artwork throughout the next few weeks. By the way, the art show/boutique was a bit of a disappointment for many vendors, myself included. Well, time to pick myself back up and figure out other ways to get my work out there.

Speaking of time, I forgot to set my clock back Saturday night. The one day out of the year when I allow myself to sleep an extra hour, I was up getting in my work out at 6 am before church, when I realized that it was actually 5 am. And to think I thought I had slept in. I usually set my alarm at 5:20, but I "snoozed" a couple times. I like getting up early. My friends think I'm crazy. I'm going to have to wait till next year to get that extra hour. Bummer.

I love my big clock above. It's 4 feet in diameter. Did I set that hour back? I better go look.

I've been painting a lot of fields lately. With lots of texture. I will be listing them soon. The one above is called "Purple Field". Very original, I know.

Thanks for visiting, have a great Monday everyone!

Preparation

Hello everyone! Sorry for my absence - I am preparing for an art show/boutique this weekend. I will be taking everything out of my Etsy shop tonight, and I will re-list by Monday. Any of you locals who are interested in coming down, I will be at Cherry Hills Community Church (3900 Grace Blvd. Highlands Ranch) on November 5th and 6th.
I know I'm a little behind, but I thought I'd post pictures of our little gang on Halloween night. These pics are post trick or treating. My oldest was a talking mime - an easy costume to put together. My son was an ipad. It was actually an easy costume to make. Here's the back:

See my oldest checking out her loot above? She's busy analyzing. I let them keep 15 pieces each, and we are donating the rest.

My youngest was an owl. The colorful kind, because that is just her personality. This was a little more time consuming than the ipad, but it wasn't too bad. I found the cute hat at Claires. Here are her feathers:

Anyhow, as I mentioned, I will re-stock my shop by Monday, and I will have more art in there as well. Thanks for all your support!

Happy Halloween

I enjoy making costumes for the children. I like creativity, and the fact that no one else will be the same exact thing as them. Above are our costumes from 2 years ago. My husband and I were monsters, my oldest was a werewolf, my son was a frankenstein pizza guy, and my youngest was a princess riding a unicorn (I didn't make this one). I just finished up my children's costumes this year in time for their class parties. I hope people can tell what they are! Happy Halloween everyone!

Dining Buffet Before and After

Hi Everyone! I am back from Fall Break - we didn't go anywhere, but it was a packed week. Sleepovers, projects, kids activities.....

Anyhow, I realized I have a few projects I did over the summer that I didn't get around to posting. One project I had been meaning to do for years is painting our dining buffet, if you can call it that. It is actually an old dresser that my husband and I purchased when we were first married 16 years ago. Below is the after:

Here's the before - it was functional, and I hate to throw away good furniture....

I never intended to paint it this blue color. I was going for grey, but I had a quart of blue I was sampling out several years ago. I am glad I went with it; it goes nicely with my painting. Plus, I was able to get rid of one more can of paint that is taking up space in our basement!

I was able to recycle the handles by spray painting them. I made sure to prime first. I painted them black. It gives it a nice balance of the traditional shape with the modern color. I accessorized with silver inherited from my husband's mother. There again, I like the shiny of the tarnished silver, mixed with the distressed buffet, with the modern/traditional handles.

As I write this, the wind is BLOWING hard outside. Today is trash day, and there is trash all over the street! I am so glad I got some of these painting projects done this summer. It may be a long Winter.....

Fall Break

Hello everyone! I'm sorry for the lack of postings - I am enjoying Fall Break with my children. I hope everyone has had a great week - I'm trying to start and finish a costume for my youngest. She is going to be an owl for Halloween. I'll post pictures if it turns out. :)

Happy Friday

Feelings of Fall:

Above are images from taken in Vail a few weeks ago. Below is a sitting area off the dining area in a nearby model home.

I'm loving the cozy feeling of Fall! Have a great weekend everyone!

Andante

Andante - a musical term meaning "moderately slow tempo". Something I'm constantly trying to achieve. Everyone always tells me life goes faster the older one's children get. How true that is! I want some "andante" in my life - not so slow that we are bored, but slow enough so we can enjoy it.

Happy Friday

"Sincerely" Fine Art Photograph on sale on Etsy. Click here to view.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Music Lessons

"Music Lessons" -print for sale on etsy. Click here to view.

My children all take piano lessons. My son loves it - he is fantastic - he is the musician in the family. My oldest daughter, although a good player, does not play with the passion my son has. She would rather be out on the soccer field. My youngest likes it, but lacks the discipline to practice. Music lessons, although tortuous for some, has been found to be beneficial for young kids' brains. That's what I keep coming back to anyways, when my daughter keeps wanting to quit. Though, after 10 years of lessons, and many more years of playing the piano for my church, I'm not sure I've been "thankful" for those lessons like my mom kept telling me I would be when I grew up. :)

Anyhow, I really like the combination of the above collage of my vintage music, the pears, and scribbles from my old piano teacher. I'm not sure why I combine fruit and music, but it makes sense to me.

A Butterfly Painting

"Orangey Butterfly" for sale on Etsy. Click here to view.

Can you believe the weather? We still have butterflies in October! I hope you all had a great weekend. We went up to Vail, CO for our daughter's soccer tournament. We missed the peak season of the changing of the leaves, but it was still beautiful up there.

I have a series of butterflies I've been working on. I will be listing them in my shop. These butterflies are textural and colorful!

Happy Friday

"Cotton Candy" on sale on Etsy. Click here to view.

Happy Friday everyone! I'm excited to let you know I am now offering some of my photographic images to my shop, as well as some prints of my original paintings. The above image are of the blossoms on a pear tree. I've named the above image "Cotton Candy" because it reminds me of that fluffy stuff I used to devour when I was young!

Thanks for visiting, and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

The Fall Mantle and Other Fall Touches

Hello All! I just wanted to share some seasonal decor changes in the home.

As most you all know, being an artist, I am always revolving my artwork on the mantle. Here is the latest of my blossoms series with the colors of orangey, persimmon, pumpkin, and coral. (Are there any other orangey color descriptions? :) I added my dried Chinese Lantern plant I saved from last year. I've also added my old books on the built-ins.(most are Reader's Digests with the colorful binding)

Here was the mantle in the spring/summer. Another painting in my blossoms series. That painting is really off-center!

Remember this pillow I made that I showed you in a previous post?

Here below is another Fall pillow. This was a simple pillow to make. It is 2 Crate and Barrel placemats that I sewed together, with a zipper at the end. The placemats were purchased several years ago, with the intention of making them into the pillows. Why did I wait so long to do this? It literally took 10 minutes.

I put some of my "warmer-colored" photographic work into my photo art wall. (I will be selling these soon in my shop.)

In the entry, I added some of my cut crabapple branches from the yard, and added the lamp, the candles, and photos of the children when they were younger.

I will buy some pumpkins soon, to complete the Autumnal feel in the home.

What about you? What are you working on?

By the way, I'm linking this post to the Nester's Fall Mantle Party. Thanks for visiting - I'm going to check out some more mantles at the Nester!