Painted pots

For my friends with whom I paint, this is the jar from "Gift jars and Tags" completed with Folk Art Enamels. Hopefully this is a better picture of the lid and tag than the previous clip.
These are the completed pots, from recycled corn husks. The pattern is from the October issue of Quick and Easy Painting designed by Monika Brint.

So, considering the fact that we woke up to snow....YES SNOW..this morning, fall is definitely in the air and how many days 'til Christmas? Yikes, my tomatoes are doomed if I don't rescue them tomorrow. Pumpkins and Halloween and witches come to mind.

Ships ahoy!!

Here is the lighthouse which is made from 4 flower pots and a solar light. Cool huh?!! At least the ships and the ducks and the rhinoceros won't collide in the night. This is just a quick post. I have had a bug and saw the Dr. for some drugs on Thursday. I don't do SICK!! I don't have time for SICK! As you can see below, this is the finished phone case. I just love it!!! Thank you Mr.

We're all in the middle

We are all in the middle!! Jamie Lee Curtis has a new book out for children titled "Is There Really A Human Race?" What race? Who wins? The idea is that we are taught as children that we need to do the best we can, but we are encouraged always to win the race. Be the first, be competitive, win, win, win. Well, this story will hit home to a lot of us, especially the older generation whose life is slipping away faster and faster. I am not by nature a competitive person. I do not like conflict. I don't need to win. I have always known this and-- try to explain that to someone who excels at anything. They don't understand! I am content to muddle along behind everyone else, the middle would be nice, but usually I am the last to do most anything. Computers boggle my mind and although I am struggling with this, I get it done at my speed. Her point is that we are all in the middle of the race. One may win a foot race, but be last in a spelling competition and in the middle of the choir. Those of us who are at the end of the race, get to stop and smell the roses, pet a cute puppy, make a new friend along the way and essentially win our own race which is most important of all!!

Some of my friends who paint with me, don't feel as talented as others, but for me it is important that they have fun!! It is NO race. There is no human race to win. Thank you Jamie!!

Next post will be the completed cell phone case below. My beloved heard me say I needed a phone case and ask and ye shall receive!



These photos show the Mr. tooling a leather phone case for me. The first step involves dampening the leather and beginning the tedious stamping and actual tooling.



As you see, the progress has produced this wonderful snake!!! Yes, that was my choice!

We went to a ranch auction this weekend. We were interested in the log beds, but lordy, lordy, as with most auctions, they were sky-high. Heck, you can buy a new one with no shipping for less! People just go ape at an auction. However my friend Debby did score some irrigation stuff! That sounds like work to me. Another thing we did was to put our camp trailer up for sale. It was used when we bought it and we had it for 14 years, but it served us well!! The fridge quit working and the heat was really temperamental. Put up a flyer yesterday and sold it today. Yea!So kiddos, hopefully we will have a new one next year with a real fridge again.

So be in the middle and from James Leo Herlihy..."Be yourself. No one can ever tell you you're doing it wrong."

Fall projects

White beans?Pumpkin seeds? White brownie mix? Gotta have something white in the jar to get the full effect and I see that I cut off the top of the lid. Next time a full picture. But it turned out OK. My girls like to try different things and painting on glass was something new last year for them. Nothing says fall like pumpkins. This pattern from "Gift Jars and Tags" was inspiration for the container. The FolkArt Enamels are great for this type of project and it seems to cure better for me if it is baked in the oven, following the instructions on the paint containers. These make great gifts and if the project turns out really awful (and some do), give it to someone you don't like. It especially looks good on my orange countertops...excuse me Persimmon Formica countertops which are over 25 years old and, dang it, are still in pretty good shape.

Below is the first project we are embarking upon. Recycled corn husk flower pots. Who'da thought? They are lightweight, inexpensive, and I can think of a million and one things to do with 'em. This shows the progression from an antique olive original color, to a primed surface, a coat of paint followed by an antique...wait a minute. Aren't we back to the original color? Well that surface proved to be too glossy and waxy to paint on and believe me I tried sandpaper and even a coat of gesso to no avail. So...it will keep the girls busy. These are supposed to be Halloween bells, but I haven't gotten the jingle bell for the inside yet so will continue to brainstorm and post the finished projects.

I belong to a garden club and for our garden therapy project, we celebrated the September birthdays at our local nursing home by supplying sherbet, angel food cake and music from the 40's. Those ol' coots wanted so badly to get up and dance. It meant a great deal to them we realized, to have their birthdays celebrated. Some don't have family visits very often. This residency is one of the best in that their activity director schedules so many wonderful things for them. So to my wonderful two children, thank you for remembering my birthdays and please don't commit me just yet. (I had a very dear friend who was so very goofy! I loved her and she constantly embarrassed her grown children. They always threatened to have her committed!)

I just about have the lighthouse finished and will put it out by the lake (pond) tomorrow. It looks so cute!! Did you ever talk to a frog? We have about a dozen little frogs in and around our pond, unless some of them ran away. Some still had their tadpole tails this summer when we released them so they are pretty young, but they have started to croak in various pitches. I can hear them croak and I can croak back to them and they answer. I just suck air up threw my throat and make this funny croaky noise. If I could just figure out what I was saying...oh well. Please, please kids, DON'T have me committed yet. I really can talk to the frogs.

Catch-up

It has been a few days since I posted...The cookies are nearly gone. I photographed the horseshoe again with the macros on, but as my age continues to prove my inability to remember things, I think I have posted the wrong photo above. Oh well!!! Below is a sliced stone with a version of the famous painting...THE END OF THE TRAIL. I found it at a little gift shop and my intention is to put it in a stained glass window or lamp. I can't hardly wait to get started!!
Living in the Cowboy state has some advantages. One evening when we were camping last I got this one. Not as spectacular as some, but in the spring this meadow is totally covered in wildflowers and as the season changes so does the landscape and the sunsets. The milky way was awesome too. Learn to take pleasure in the simple things.
With the onset of fall, comes the end of the garage sales. I LOVE GARAGE SALES!! You get such good stuff and I overheard a lady ask another this weekend what she had found. Her reply was "I don't know, but I don't have one." My kind of shopper!!! My finds? Well, I got a FREE basket, a brown Pyrex bowl from the 70's, (I collect this particular pattern, sort of, at least I have 4 now), a CD rack for $2.00 and a cool Charlie Brown-type of Christmas tree for $2.00. My philosophy is that one cannot have too many Christmas trees. Where would I put all of the vintage ornaments that I glom on to at other garage sales?

Now, I have begun to prepare for fall classes and have finished two of my first 3 projects. I will post them next time, but I spent the better part of today painting. Once I get started, I don't want to quit....it is like an addiction for me and the ideas keep coming. I get my inspiration from other artists and then adapt or change as my mind keeps spinning. Tomorrow, I am heading for town, to paint with 3 of my friends. We intend to have a lighthouse for the yard when we are finished. We hunted for 3 of the right sized flower pots and solar lights and searched for lighthouse examples (remember we are on the prairie). It will be so comforting to have a lighthouse for my pond so that the ships sailing this body of water won't collide with the rhinoceros or the ducks. Well, it will be cute anyway. I hope also to inspire some of my students to do these lighthouses for a class and at least will give them the opportunity to do them.
"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door."--Milton Berle

Cookies

Yummy!! Every so ofter the Mr. gets a hankerin' for cookies. He spent the better part of the day on the roof scraping and painting a primer on the trim boards. We own a stucco home, but it has a lot of wood trim detail and hasn't been painted in a gazillion years. We have lived here 3.
The wind blew like crazy and he is a little bit wary of high places. He deserves cookies!!!
These are peanut butter and I think the recipe is from Martha.

I changed the recipe a little bit by using half shortening and half butter. In case I am wrong about the source here is the recipe:
1 cup of butter, 1 cup of granulated sugar, 1 cup of brown sugar, 1 1/2 cup of crunchy peanut butter, 1 tsp vanilla, 2 eggs, 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda and 2 cups of flour. Pretty simple. Cream butter, peanut butter, sugars together and add vanilla and eggs. Mix well and slowly add dry ingr. Roll into 1 inch balls and flatten with a fork on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Cool slightly on sheet before removing to a rack. Makes 50 to 100 cookies, depending on size.

In getting ready for my first painting class for the fall, and wanting a nice fall project, I found a pattern for cute Halloween bells using 4 inch flower pots. NOT available here!! But thanks to a future student, I found a source for recycled corn husk flower pots. With one phone call, I was able to secure at least 40 of these and since I am trusting that they will suffice and perhaps be even better than clay pots, we will venture over the Snowy Range to Laramie tomorrow. There is a greenhouse/nursery there that carries these. Wish me luck and I will post the results.

Horseshoe update

Just a short post to let all see how the sheep wagon and sheep turned out. Realizing that the surface is rough, and rusty and only 5/8ths to 3/4ths of an inch wide, I hope it will please the owner. I am not exactly sure what she is expecting. Trying to interpret another's ideas onto a canvas is not always easy. Below are closer images.

It would be of some help if I were a better photographer. Not my forte. Worked all morning in the garden and am just about ready for winter...mulched, dead-headed and weeded.

One of the interests I have is building birdhouses. Although I have been collecting "goodies" all year to embellish these creations, I have not had the time to construct any new ones. I have lots from past creative moments and more ideas in my head for these rustic abodes. One such house sits on my window box ledge out front and was constructed from a yard lantern piece which had a collision with a tree limb. (Never throw these treasures away). For the last 2 summers I have had families of swallows move in and raise young babies. Mind you, this house sits not even 3 feet from the ground and the shelf affords my cat as well as the neighborhood cats a prime perching place. How these birds manage to swoop down and avoid being slapped out of mid air by the prowling felines, baffles me. I need to do some repair work on this house and will post a picture of the before and after. It is in pretty sad shape. Live each day as if it were your last..especially if you are a swallow.

Wierd Plants

Isn't this a wierd blossom? I have no idea what it is but it is blooming in my kitchen and I think it is really strange. It is also in it's own way very beautiful. Look at the vibrant color!
If anyone knows, please let me know. I have a good friend who keeps me supplied with house plants. She has a green thumb deluxe when it comes to the world of botany indoors, but doesn't do much outside. Most of what she gets are rejects from the retail business where she works. They are doomed to be destroyed when they don't sell or are near the state of suicide, so she takes them and nurses them back to health sometimes. This one obviously wanted to live!!! Now below are two of my three tomato plants. The third is camera shy evidently, but after a chilly camping trip this weekend and threats of snow at 7,000 feet which includes us, I had to break down last night and cover them. No snow this morning and my tomatoes live on!!



We were lucky to have mostly beautiful weather, even though it was a little chilly and fall is on the horizon. Both nights were pretty much two dogs nights and for anyone who doesn't know what that means, you don't live where the nights get cold. Our old, but cozy camp trailer has a temperamental heater so we add a dog to the bed, the colder it gets to keep our feet warm. Hopefully, we will get out another time. Bow hunting season is in full swing and there were quite a few of them out sneakin' around in their cammies. They think they are invisible dressed like sticks and dried leaves. Maybe they are to the critters, but the people we camp with saw a moose family as they were coming down to camp Friday night. We had a bachelor group of 3 bucks grazing on our lawn Thursday evening and no matter how often you see them, they are still amazing.

Garden

A walk through my garden brings me happiness!!! (Mainly because I have defeated those garden gods who plot against the high garden enthusiasts like me trying so desperately to grow anything other than sage brush and Russian thistle.) Mornings are getting crisp and the threat of frost creeps ever so close. When I acquired this garden area it was nothing but a blank canvas...not totally blank mind you. There was the ever present bind weed and other un-named species not found in the flower books along with a few wheel barrows full of rocks. But looky now!!
Above blue morning glories and tansy and below more morning glories. I belong to a garden club, but discovered after joining that it doesn't really fit my gardening style.
Enough of that!! I have a wonderful group of students who supported my attempts to teach a decorative painting class here last fall. They are so much fun. Sooo, with fall coming and the days getting shorter and the fact that we are miles from civilization, time has come to gather the flock. Trina, get your butt back here soon!! Trina's mom Debby and I had coffee today and we determined our schedule. Debby is my support system in this venture in that she provides the most perfect place to paint. The room is large, with each gal having her own table and the lighting is amazing. I am hoping to do a mosaic class or two and will post some of these projects.
"Art washes away from the soul, the dust of every day life."--Picasso