19th Century Inspired ornaments

I initially saw these little cuties on Better Homes & Gardens website last year and wanted to try some of my own. (I tried one out last year) The end result is pretty much the same but I used some different materials to make them. I used a glass ball Christmas ornament and paper clay.

Remove the hanger(the silver top) from the glass ball and mold paper clay around the ball. I pushed down gently on the ball at this point so that the bottom is a bit flat and it will sit on a surface too as well as hang. Make a ball for the head and blend in to the neck and body of the ornament. Use two smaller pieces of round clay for the cheeks and blend in. Make a shape for the nose and blend in to the face. I trimmed the bottom of the silver hanger(hat) with wire cutters(just so they weren't so long) and slipped it right in to the top of the head. Let dry.

Once they're dry, it's time to paint! You can sand them a bit if you'd like. I like all the imperfections so I didn't do any sanding. I did mine to resemble the ones on BHG.com, but the possibilities are endless! I used antique white and pink acrylic paint and painted their faces with black. Added a few words to their bellies and let dry.
I grunged these fellows up a bit with some water based Maple Stain. I took a paint brush and wet it with water and then brushed it over the snowmen and then brushed on the stain and dabbed it with a towel until I got the look I wanted. A little brown paint mixed with water will give the same effect. After this dried I took some spray gold glitter and gave them a spritz of gold. I let that dry and sprayed them with a clear acrylic sealer. But wait......!



What snowman doesn't appreciate a nice scarf? I glued some glittery tinsel garland around their necks. I also put two stripes of glue around the stripes on their tummies and added some glitter glass and sparkles. Viola! Again, there are endless possibilities to how these are painted and what you add to them. Such sweet little guys!

Angel

Angel
Loving Light
Embracing White Wings
Contented and Perfectly Safe
Enchanting

Hidden Angels

This is one of two paintings I've been working on for a silent auction that's being held at a golf resort in our area. The Rivanna Resort & Golf Club will be teaming up with Rock ‘n Renew
(www.rocknrenew.com) on a number of innovative green projects
including an ecology program at the resort that will educate Virginia
students on sustainability, water and eco-system conservation and
green jobs. My painting is done on a 12X12 piece of birch. I collaged her dress with beautiful vintage images in black and white and added paint to it. There are some sweet angels playing hide and seek. Can you find them?

Va. Safari Park

One of the day trips we took this summer was to the Va. Safari Park, which is in Natural Bridge Va. It's about an hour and a half from our home. I had been before with some friends, but this was a first time for my son and he had a blast! The drive thru park is situated on 180 acres with all kinds of animals from zebras and camels to pot bellied pigs and ostrich's. It's a chance to see animals in a more natural habitat and as you drive through you get to feed them. AND, they are not shy at all! Tons of fun!

My what big eyes you have!

Sweet Summertime..

I can't seem to slow it down, no matter how hard I try! Time that is. What a whirlwind of a summer. Trying to get back in to the swing of things now that school has started back, but I find myself staying up way to late and getting up way to early and wanting to take a nap in the middle of the day. Gotta stop that...even though it is quite heavenly....

This is one of my favorite pics of this summer. We had a brief storm one day and then to our delight, a double rainbow appeared! It was beautiful. Wonder if you get twice the loot?

Waiting To Exhale

Whew! Time to take a breath. Hello everyone. School started today-yay, so it's time to get back in to the working mode again. Hope everyone is well! I have a lot of catching up to do. I've barely picked up a paintbrush in two weeks :(...so I'm itching to get busy. These are some little ladies I managed to fit in here and there. I can't wait to see what you guys have been up to!

Shades Of Lazy

I've only worked on two paintings in the past 7 days. I really need to get busy. This is one of them. I've been practicing on doing lots of shading on the faces with a bunch of color. She's still a work in progress, but she's coming along. She might like to have some arms too. Where does time go? I know......

Have you ever played FarmTown on Facebook???? Zan? You would love it-it's quite addicting!

Tea Time?

Generally I use paper clay when making my dolls but I had a box of Sculpey that has been just sitting on top of the fridge begging to be used so I grabbed that first. I like sculpting and baking! Much easier drying time for me. My intentions were to make a prim doll but this little character appeared out of nowhere. He's been invited to Wonderland for a tea party and he's supposed to bring the tarts,...but alas...he has no arms or legs yet. (He's awaiting some pretty copper wire)

Born In The USA

THANK YOU

Would you like that on the rocks?

Well, of course it's much better that way. This is Sugar, the 14 year old matriarch of the tribe here. She loves ice. In fact both of my kitties come running when they hear the ice machine going. So, I often fill up the water bowl with ice, but of course if you have a nice cold glass of water sitting around it's free game. Tsk, tsk, so unlady-like, when she usually drinks water like this....

Dips paw gently in...


and licks it off.

Do we grow to look like our pets?

Or they like us?

Once in a Blue Moon everything's uber

My bud Michelle (aka the Energizer bunny)from Thestudioatcrowhavenfarm
gifted me with this fabulous Uber award. Michelle is a gifted artist of so many wonderful characters and dolls, paintings, ideas, tutorials (I know there's more) She's also a spreader of sunshine and a wonderful dancer :) Thank you Michelle!

Here are the Rules:

The Uber Award is a blog award given to sites who:1. Inspire you 2. Make you smile and laugh, or maybe give amazing information 3. A great read 4. Has an amazing design 5. Any other reasons you can think of that make them Uber amazing!The rules of this award are:* Put the logo on your blog or post.* Nominate at least 6 blogs* Let them know that they have received this Uber Amazing award by commenting on their blog.* Share the love and link to this post and to the person you received your award from.

I have to add that there is not a blog that I visit that doesn't add something interesting or funny or serious, insightful or whatever to my life. I enjoy my visits to everyone! So I choose everyone. C'mon take it!


The moon was feeling a bit blue....


I did manage to finish a painting yesterday despite that silly couch.

What's wrong with this picture?

As I'm waiting for three canvases to dry I'm sitting in front of the bay window catching up on emails and facebook, eyelids growing heavy, when suddenly, I think I hear the couch calling out to me. I look around, and what do I find?

Blue
Kitty
Jewels......Sugar is upstairs in the closet.

Hmmmmm....

Heed the Signs

Note to self :)....when you need to change thread in the sewing machine and can find only one bobbin that's already full-leave it.
When you finally unravel the bobbin and waste all that beautiful thread and begin to add new thread and it's winding like around like an hour glass-walk away.
When you have to rethread the first six times you begin to sew-turn the sewing machine off.
Alas, I marched on as I wanted to work on some more journals. It was painful, but I did manage to churn out one and a pair of Scooby Doo pirate pants that my son thought were atrocious!..Another note...don't use your expensive red piping material to make pirate pants for Scooby Doo.
Still nothing in the journals yet, but I'll get there. It really was a busy weekend with lots of company so there wasn't a whole lot of time to create. I hope everyone had a lovely weekend and Happy Fathers Day! Something else I've been working on here and there....

Definitely a new kind of face for me.

Lace & Lynyrd Skynyrd?

Doesn't sound right in the same sentence does it? I have some other ideas for this journal, but I thought I'd show my progress so far. This is the journal I created with some of my coffee stained vintage lace. I haven't added anything in the middle yet and I still want to try out a few other ideas. So, I'll keep working on it.

I love all kinds of art forms, and music is definitely a big one of them. I have the radio on all the time and my favorite station plays new and classic rock. Inevitably, "Sweet Home Alabama" by Skynyrd will be played sometime throughout the day. This song was written of course in response to Neil Young's "Southern Man". I've always wondered if Neil Young ever had anything to say about those infamous lines ".....Well, ole Neil Young will remember a southern man don't need him around anyhow." Turns out ole Neil did have something to say....
Young: "Oh, they didn't really put me down! But then again, maybe they did! (laughs) But not in a way that matters. Shit, I think Sweet Home Alabama is a great song. I've actually performed it live a couple of times myself. "

You obviously have to draw your own conclusions about a 'feud' between Skynyrd and Young, as a lot of different parties kind of fueled the fire, perhaps where there really wasn't one. I think it's more of an urban legend. Kind of like the the assumptions that were made of Skynyrd's political views (racism & segregation)after the song was released.

Van Zant said. “We’re southern rebels, but more than that, we know the difference between right and wrong.” In fact, the band was quite outspoken about their disdain for Wallace’s policies."

And like in the above pic it's been said that Ronnie Van Zant would prefer to go on stage in one of the many Neil Young t-shirts that he owned to send out a message to anyone who didn't get the humor and irony in 'Sweet Home Alabama.'

Angels & Lace

" You'll meet more angels on a winding path than on a straight one." ~Daisey Verlaef
I may have mentioned before that a local church in our area has a place where they sell donated items and I scored a bunch of vintage lace the last time I was there...for a quarter a piece! It's so much fun to go there. They have everything from clothes and books to hardware and dishes. It's so cool to browse and check out all the goodies. I took the lace today and soaked it in some coffee and baked(burnt) it a bit. I'm gonna make some cloth journals. Maybe with quotes or inspirational thoughts inside...the possibilities are endless really. I've never made one but I'm excited about trying!

Wash Day

I think every day is 'Wash Day' when you combine wood floors, rainy days and 4 four legged babies...not to mention the two legged ones :) But in between I'm working on two other paintings and hoping to work on some things to put in my lonely Etsy shop. My friend, Anne from Gaalcreative
recently opened her Etsy shop and she's had sales already! Yay Anne! She has some sweet goodies in there. Here's to continued success!

Moon

The Moon
It means blue, light,shine,
It is the number 7,
It is like a beautiful pearl,
It is a starry walk,
It is the memory of the sun,
Who taught me warmth, richness,
When he shone on me,
My name is The Moon,
It means Life is a wonderful dream.

Where are you going?

"Are you looking for answers to questions under the stars?
If along the way
You are grown weary you can rest with me until
A brighter day and you're OK"


"Where you go, is where I want to be" DMB

Thank You Dahling

This award makes me smile! as does the person who bestowed it on me-Anne from Gaal Creative
I love visiting Anne. Her creations and photography are like a good dose of sunshine...and she makes a mean pepperoni pizza :) Thank you dahling!

Rules are simple-post award and nominate whomever you like! My list would go on and on, of course, so I'm only gonna choose 5-

Pattee at odd-dolls
Zan at wildatheartart
Michelle at thestudioatcrowhavenfarm
Becky at behindblueeyes
Caroline at Carolinescrafts
Enjoy Dahlings!

Makes My Heart Smile :) & Strawberry Jam

Look what my friend myrarte
gave to me a few days ago. So sweet. I love it! If you need a big smile you should check out her blog. Her wonderful paintings are full of soul. The faces and the eyes are just stunning and I always love to see what she'll come up with next. Thank you friend!

Oooh, and look at the color of this strawberry jam! Kristin from theoldoakenbucket
sent me a jar of homemade strawberry jam from strawberries that she picked herself...Kristi, I can't tell you how gooooooood this is. My husband loves you :)
Thank you both so much for making my heart and my tastebuds SMILE!

Time To Play

Dance in pink...or purple...or blue or green....

Dress up and sing to the moon and stars..
Or maybe take a midnight stroll in the blue.....

Have a great weekend whatever you may decide to do :)