Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Ah, Spring at Last

This is my season. My body works best this time of year, after the cold, before the heat. Just like the bulbs that have wintered over, I come alive and for about 5 weeks, getting dirt under my fingernails and scratches on my shins. I have been busy rescuing perennials from waist high grass, building a little fence around my little studio and planting a little garden, and weed wacking the back 40. I have attached a few pictures of the beauty around me and some progress both in the studio and out for your viewing enjoyment.

some things just speak for themselves...


Ah...you should smell them!


First of the season...


I don't think there is even a name for this color!

Today on the pond next to my studio I happened to catch a duck doing what ducks do...it almost looks like a swan! Do I not live in a most beautiful place? A little garden of Eden, it is.



This is a shot looking up into the redwood stand right across from our bus. Magnificent!


The forget-me-nots are wonderful this year. I cannot bare to weedwack them when they are contributing such lovliness, however, in three weeks there will be 10 nasty burrs to every one flower. There have got to go soon...Oh, spring blooms for such a short time...

such simple beauty...such nasty burrs.


I planted some perenials and put up this fence around the studio this weekend. I am hoping there is enough sun for the lavender, salvia and butterfly bush I planted. I will have to water them with water from the pond.


This is the church I attend framed in magnolia blooms. This was taken a couple of weeks ago...they are almost gone now...sigh.


I have been working on creating some product for my etsy site. I have sold quite a few of these repurposed altoid box sewing kits. This time I also added 3 kits with manicure items, bandaids, ect...I wonder if they will be as popular. Time will tell... here they are.



I hope to get these listed along with some other goodies this weekend.

Enjoy the spring my friends...soon the heat of summer will make it a distant memory!

till next time, annie

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Here we are again...

I have had a couple of fun projects going on and tried some new things. I have pretty much finished up the Madonna painting. She is set in her shadow box. I am still undecided what to put in front of her, but the shells look nice for now. One of the new things I tried is the finish on the outside of the shadow box. The box was already black, which was a plus for this technique. I saw this on U Tube. I painted white glue fairly thickly and let it tack up for a few minutes, then painted white paint on top of the glue. You kind of float the paint. You don't want to disturb the glue. As it dries you get the wonderful crackle finish, but when you touch it, it is all smooth and won't peel.


I like this next photo. It is at kind of a weird angle. I had a hard time getting a good picture because of the gold and silver leaf, and the clear finish I sealed the painting with want to glare. I am going to have to play with it.



See the rose in the shell? It was one I had hanging to dry and it had dried to a dark blackish red. I poured glue all over it...slathered it, my new favorite word. I slathered it with glue and let it dry for a couple of days and to my surpries, as the glue dried the color lightened back up. I had done this years ago with some roses from a loved one's funeral and they lasted for years and years. The petals get an elastic rubbery feel to them. Here are a few more...The white spots are where the glue is not dry yet. They take a couple of days after a good slathering.


So, here she is framed and ready. I will have to decide what should sit on her alter and get her listed soon, but for now she is keeping me company. I had hoped to capture the compassionate look of the statue of Mary that I knew as a little girl, but she seems very sad to me, beseeching....



As is usually the case, the photo does not do her justice. I will have to get better pictures to list her. Her halo is gold leaf and really pretty. Her dress is pearlescent...

Here is the other fun thing I have been working on. I saw a couple of tutorials on U Tube by a gal named Jenniebelle on making art journals out of greeting cards and decided to try my hand at it. I like them a lot and hope to make one for each of my grandgirlies and their mom before long. They come out pretty fun. Some of the pages are blank because the cards were. Some I painted with the left over paint from the Madonna and some I will cover with papers and pictures. Some I will draw on, some I will paint, and some I will leave just like the are because the cards were nice to begin with...








That's about eough fun for now. I am all caught up to date. I have to spend sometime now getting photos taken and listings written for my etsy store so I won't be doing much new for a couple of weeks, but I will catch up when I have something new to share. Until then... ta ta.