Mother's love

hi friends, this isn't really a post, but I wanted to share some photos with you. I noticed yesterday a blackbird built her nest in the neighbor's eaves trough! Right over their garage. I saw the tiny babies popping their heads out waiting for mom to come with dinner. Today it was a very hot sunny day, and I saw the mom covering them to keep them safe from the sun. I ran and got my camera, went on the porch and tried to zoom in. Even though my camera is a cheap crappy one, it did a reasonable job, lol!

In this photo you can see one of the babies with his mouth open. I told my dad I thought this was a strange place to build a nest as it has no protection against the elements. We may be getting rain tomorrow, and I really hope the babies are ok. It's a steep roof, and all the rain will be falling down and collecting in the eaves troughs.  Poor little babies :-(

Since this is the first nice weekend in a long time, I will be out enjoying it. I hope you all have a wonderful week end wherever you are.
thanks for reading

Short Sunday post

  hi friends. I thought I'd show those 2 lilies I mentioned in my last post. The white one is a more traditional one, but I've never seen a deep purple one! Are these called peace lilies? ( thank you Cameron, for correcting me, these are calla lilies, not peace lilies).
  I took the photos when the sun finally came out...however, just in time for the weekend, those damn thick grey clouds moved in. I don't think I have seen a decent weekend in quite a while. It's getting a bit depressing, and I haven't felt very creative lately. Do you ever feel just 'blah' about everything?

The only thing I am excited ( a wee bit at least) about is trying some new raw recipes I've been looking into on Youtube. Today I made a raw pasta with marinara sauce and it was so delicious!
For the pasta you use zuccini, which you use a potato peeler to make into thin strips.
For the marinara sauce you use tomatoes, red bell pepper, sun dried tomatoes, garlic, basil, oregano, olive oil, and a touch of cayenne.  I added avocado too. Since I don't have a processor, I just used my blender to blend all the ingredients. All you do is pour your sauce over top of the zuccini, and you have an easy dish. I also added nutritional yeast for extra flavor.  If you want to see details, check out the video on Youtube.  You will be surprised at how good this is.  I decided that it's time to eat healthier, so I've been searching for easy ideas.  One video led to another, and before I knew it, I have a notebook filled with very healthy and nutritious meals.
If any of you have raw food recipes, feel free to share. I may add some more a bit later, once I have a chance to try them and make them my own.

thanks for reading

Love Shy

hi friends, thanks to all of you who left comments on my last post letting me know that Blogger was acting up. I thought it was just me. I see the curser problem is still not fixed, you click enter and you never know where the curser will end up, lol!

Above is my latest small painting titled 'Love Shy'.  I thought her expression looked hopeful, and vulnerable at the same time....which I didn't plan, but you have to let the painting go where it wants.
She is now listed in my Etsy shop.

We had quite the exciting thunderstorm this morning. I was just making breakfast, when I looked outside and it was pitch black. A big storm rolled in, and luckily I made my first coffee, because we lost power for a bit.
Can you imagine not being able to make a nice big cup of coffee in the morning, lol!

If the sun ever comes out, I want to take some photos of this gorgeous lily my mom bought me.  After the storm ended I thought the sun would come out, but once again, all we saw is a totally white sky...those damn thick white clouds that block out the sun don't want to go away. Sounds like various parts of the US have the same crap weather.  At least the sun shone all of last week -- while I was at work- and surprise! clouds and rain, just in time for the weekend, lol!
Oh well, gave me a chance to get all my housework done :-)

hope you are all having a lovely weekend wherever you are,
thanks for reading!

new mermaid painting

It's been a while since I did  a mixed media paintings on wood, so here's my newest. I must have spent at least 10 hours on it, the background originally had seaweed, but I hated how that looked, so I kept playing around with it until I was happy with the result. I forgot how much fun it was to use my wood burner. It also gave me a chance to get out my glitter and gold stars, lol!

Since the weather is still crappy and overcast, I will take advantage and stay inside working on more art.

I have a question for my fellow bloggers: does this happen to you?  when I am writing a blog post, and I hit the enter key to move to a new paragraph, the curser jumps to the top of the page...what's up with that?? and I noticed last night, Blogger won't let me sign out. Is there some weird glitches happening?

hope you are all having a lovely weekend where ever you are, and thanks for reading!

First Journal book (almost) done, and a new friend

hi friends, Here is the cover of my first altered book which I filled with paintings of girls, and song lyrics  .I may add a bit more embellishment, because all I have right now is some baby pink pom poms on the bottom, lol! and I think she needs some more glitter.
I can't wait to start another one soon.  Using these recycled board books was a great way to practice my faces, with no worry about ruining a canvas. I was able to try different faces, and even paint a portrait without starting with a sketch first.
Now I also want to make my own journal. I've seen some artists with those really big juicy journals, with thick pages, and torn edges. I've been looking on Etsy hoping to find something similar, but had no luck.
However, I can make something similar, and the very talented Teesha Moore has a fabulous Youtube video, showing you how to make a 16 page journal. I love Teesha!

Last Saturday we finally saw the sun shine, yay! so me and my dad drove to a greenhouse to buy some flowers and vegetable plants for my garden. I wanted to go to this particular place since hearing they have animals, like chickens, goats, pigs, ponies,  and of course parrots. This cute little guy was hard to photograph, each time I would move back trying to get a good profile pic of him, he would follow me, lol! 
I used to want one of these birds since seeing one on the tv show Baretta,! does anyone else remember that one? I'm showing my age now, so I will stop :-)

thanks for reading! and have a blessed day

Today I got dirty....

Hi friends, now don't get any ideas.....I got dirty with paint. 
I know many of you love to paint using your hands, and don't mind getting messy, but not me,
In fact I can be a bit of a princess, and head to the sink to wash off the slightest paint on my fingers, lol! Well, this little painting got me messy, and there was nothing I could do about it. There was no plan, I simply sat down and put some colors down on a canvas and played. The green bits looked like flowers, so I went with it. Normally I tend to over control things, to know in advance what I will be doing, so this was very freeing!  I got sick of the excuses I kept making for not creating art larger than my ACEOs (not including my journal pages from the previous post).  I love painting whimsical girls, and my sketchbook has been filled with these little folk art ideas for several months. It's about time I let them out on the canvas to play :-)

I don't know about you, but lately I have made a conscious effort to appreciate every moment, to be grateful for each day I am given on this beautiful planet. We have so much to be grateful for, and we mostly go through life without noticing. I guess maybe we are waiting for the big moments to come, but life is made up of small moments, every single day. Life is in the yellow tulips from your garden you bring inside, it is in that first delicious cup of coffee in the morning, it is spending time with people you love.
There is so much going on in the world right now,  to help us keep our balance we need to make the effort to be present in every moment.
Something has changed for me last few months, and for the first time in my life, I am paying attention.. And it has made a world of difference.
Many blessings to you all and thanks for reading!

More rain, and art

hi friends. I hope you are having great weather where you are, because it's been crappy all weekend here. Friday was a gorgeous day, the first one where the weather was warm enough to go outside without a jacket. On my lunch break I sat under a magnolia tree. It was so filled with blossoms, that the branches looked like they couldn't hold them up. Of course I never have a camera with me when I need it! The scent of the blossoms was just heavenly. I enjoyed sitting in the sun, and letting the fragrance wash over me for a few moments. Little did I know it would start raining that evening, and hasn't stopped since.
I sure hope this is not going to be like 2 summers ago, where it rained the entire summer! 
Hey, at least it's a great day to stay inside and paint.

I managed to get a few little ACEOs done, mostly owls. There are several cards that turned out so bad, I don't think there is any way of salvaging them. Don't you hate it when you have a great idea, and it just doesn't work for you?

I am almost finished my altered book of girls and songs. Below is one of the illustrations,  and on the left side of the book are the lyrics to the song Wildfire.  My handwriting is so bad, I'm embarrassed to show it, lol!
Painting in a children's board book is wonderful! I will definitely be looking to pick up more used books to recycle, and to give new life to.  The pages are so sturdy, you can do anything to them and they won't warp.
Great way to experiment with mixed media techniques, without ruining a good art journal.

That's it for now, thanks for reading!

More art journal pages

hi friends. Well, I'd hoped to update my blog more frequently, but looks like I failed again, lol!
I guess we all go through phases where you feel like you have nothing interesting to say.  Since my last post, I continued working on journal pages. The above is more my 'style', and I attempted to paint a fox with the fairy girl. He didn't turn out too great, haha! but if you don't practice, you will never learn. So far I've been adding lyrics from songs I love with these pages, and I wasn't sure what to write with this one. I had some oldies music playing in the background and when this song by Marvin Gaye came in, I knew it was the perfect song to add. Funny how it's still appropriate today, in fact, even more so.

Now this girl gave me lots of trouble, I was trying for an innocent look but I think she looks more irritated than anything, haha!
I can't tell you how much fun I have had working in a recycled children's book.  There is no pressure to make anything look perfect, and it's a great way to experiment, and find your style. There are a couple more pages to go before I finish, then I need to paint something on the front and back, and maybe embellish it with ribbons, or lace. The entire book is simply girls, with lyrics to various songs on the other side.  I'm not happy with the 2 pages I showed  in my last post, and will go back and add more 'stuff' to them, just to fill up the pages. Do you know that there are dozens of art journaling videos on Youtube?? You could spend hours getting ideas, and being inspired! If only there were more hours in a day to fit in everything. I could never be bored :-)
thanks for reading, stay inspired ♥

Some journaling portraits

hi everyone.  I finally started doing some of the workshops I had signed up for. I am forever behind , it's worse when they are ongoing. It gives me an excuse to postpone working on them. Last week, I decided it was time to get to to Jodi Ohl's workshop called 'lets face it'. The above is my first page using her instruction.
I was watching American Idol, and Casey sang Nature Boy, which was going through  my head as I painted the girl, so I thought I'd write some of the lyrics down, changing it to 'girl' of course. The rest of the page is blank, as I am stumped as to what else to add, lol!

This next one is another fun portrait I did. For this one, I didn't do a sketch first, but started painting the face free lance. This looks nothing like my usual whimsy faces but I am very happy with it.
I am trying to get more creative with journaling, as it's been something I love when others do, but I have such a hard time with it. Practice makes perfect I suppose. I love the quote used. It's a reminder for me to work on what I love and stop wasting so much time!
Once I finish this post I will be working on my next face. Who knew this would be so much fun?
Maybe my renewed motivation is due to spring coming? Or the fact that it feels like time is speeding up, who knows?  With everything going on in the world, art is a refuge for me, and I know for many of you as well. It's what makes us happy. It's also a way to leave a bit of ourselves in our art.  When I paint, everything is beautiful, and time stands still. I could do this for hours, taking only short breaks to make some delicious coffee.
After the long slump I  had this is a refreshing change. Hopefully my muse will stick around longer this time, lol!

______

PS -Regarding my last post,  Thanks to everyone who mentioned stretching my watercolor paper. Of course!! How did I not know that? That's exactly what I needed to hear, so thanks to those of you kind folks who  took the time to remind me of something that should have been so obvious. The art community is filled with the best people on the planet, and I adore you all :-)

Just one of those days...

hi friends. Do you ever have one of those days when you plan to paint all day, but by the end of the day, you've accomplished so little? that was today for me.
I woke up looking forward to a day of painting. My goal was to create at least 5 or 6 ACEOs, and work on a portrait workshop I am behind on. Well, everything I painted came out just awful! I spent hours on a flower fairy, changing it, trying to make it better, and in the end scrapped the whole thing. My owls, which I paint regularly, were also giving me a hard time.  The above painting is the second version, the first was a disaster, so I started that again as well. I couldn't do anything right!

I'm going to blame the paper.  I know most people when using watercolor, use 140lb paper. How do you all do it?? I find it warps so easily. Am I adding too much water? Also, I find the colors are dull.
I ended up starting over again on 200lb paper, which I normally use. So what am I missing, is there some secret? The 140lb paper isn't cheap, it's Arches brand. Any of you watercolorists out there, do you have any tips for the rest of us?
In the end, I worked most of the day and have 2 lousy ACEOs to show for it...I swear time sped up! Before I knew it, the day was over.

On a happier note, on Friday I went to my nearest art shop, and picked up some Copic markers. Folks, if you haven't used them before, they are a joy! I will be going back for more. They're perfect for little details, and the colors are gorgeous! Unfortunately they are a bit pricey, so I can only pick up a few at a time.

Well, that's it for today, hope you are all enjoying the spring weather (or the fall for my friends in the South hemisphere).


I

And just like that the snow is back...

It's been sunny and mild (for this time of year) the last couple of days, so naturally you would think we were on our way to spring right? Forget it! As I was at my desk painting, suddenly it started snowing, and blowing around.  Well after a few hours, we now have a winter wonderland out there, the trees are covered with snow, and it is beautiful! Thank goodness I didn't remove my snow tires yet, you just never know what crazy weather you will get from one day to the next.
It didn't stop me from creating some new spring time art though, like the ACEO above.

This weekend was one where I mostly sat and watched movies. Yesterday I finally watched 2012, which I enjoyed. I'm probably in the minority but I've always loved disaster movies like War of the Worlds, the Day after Tomorrow, Independence Day.  Besides, I've had a crush on John Cusack for a couple of decades, lol, so that made the movie more enjoyable. He still looks great after all these years.

Next movie on the menu was The book of Eli. Fantastic movie, but it did have a bit of violence in it. Loved the premise, and would not have been able to predict the ending.

Today I watched Brothers, and boy it sure had some intense scenes in it! Another great movie which I would recommend.

The only dud of the bunch was an old one called Baker's Hawk. Sorry if anyone likes this, but I could only get through 15 minutes before I was bored, and moved on.

I'm still in that phase where I can't get too motivated to create, even though I did manage a couple of cards. Hopefully as the weather improves, I can feel like spending more time painting. For now I will just go with the flow.

New Easter Owl artwork and a Film recommendation

What? you haven't heard of Easter owls yet??  Well my friends, they exist in my silly little head, and I like nothing better than bringing them to life - unfortunately I've been slow in creating Easter themed art this year.
Do you ever go through phases where you just want to be lazy, and sit in front of the tv? I have some favorite shows I watch, like American Idol, and Project Runway (yes folks, the one  you in the USA saw last year, is finally airing in Canada!).  But mostly I've taken the time to borrow lots of DVD's  from my public library.

**This is an update, I have removed the documentary recommendation that I had here yesterday, after reading a news report of some barbarian behavior from the country in question. Violence is never the answer,
and because of this report, it has made the entire country look bad. I can not leave my review of this film  up on my blog
Any country that resorts to this kind of behavior will be judged accordingly, and cannot expect the world to treat them with respect, or understanding. 


If you are only now reading this post  obviously you won't know what film I talked about.  Sorry to be so cryptic!
For those who read my blog yesterday and know of what film I wrote about, I'm sure you will understand why it would be offensive to leave it up.

I will definitely be talking about interesting films in the future though.  Thanks for reading!

And the winner of the Dorothy print is.....

Hello everyone, the winner of the print from my Celebrate Oz giveaway is post # 24 which is MARLENE!

YAY!

thanks to all participants, it was a fun event!

It's the Celebrate OZ blog party!!

Hello everyone, I mentioned in my last post that I would take part in the Celebrate Oz blog party, hosted by Linda. There are many other blogs participating, so if you click the banner on the side of my blog it will take you there. Some are even having giveaways, woohoo! So grab a coffee and muffin, and join us in our celebration of all things OZ.

The above painting is my whimsical take on Dorothy, when she runs away with Toto in her basket. Originally I had a tornado in the background, but decided to paint over it.
I will be giving away a print of this painting to one winner, whose name I will draw on Monday March 21st, so if you are interested, just leave a comment on this post.

The Wizard of Oz is one of my favorite classic movies. I watched it again last week, and it is still charming and sweet, a feel good movie - for me at least. 
Needless to say I have been humming  'We're off to see the Wizard'  all week, and almost started skipping along, haha!
As a child I used to be afraid of the flying monkeys, now I think they are adorable, lol!

Thank you for stopping by, don't forgot to visit all the participating blogs

Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore

hello everyone! I've decided to join the  'Celebrate OZ' blog party on March 19th. It is being hosted on Linda's blog: lindaomasoldebaggsnstuftshirts.
Check out the button on the side of my blog, which will take you to her blog, where you can read all the details, and possibly join.

I have no idea what I will do for this event, but you can expect a new painting...way to put pressure on myself, lol!

The above painting is one of my older ones, and part of my fairy tale heroine series. When it sold, I was so heartbroken.
I had just started selling my art, and wasn't used to letting them go...it did get easier over time, but there are still quite a few paintings I've kept, and sold only prints of.

Time to dig out my copy of Wizard of Oz, and get ready for March 19th :-)
thanks for reading