Restoration

I began painting in 2006 and I began with garden stepping stones.  If you have ever looked at my blog Obedience Stones, you know that when asking God what on earth I was to do with all of my photographs of flowers He clearly said, "Paint a Stone."  And I did!  No I'm not always that obedient, but that was too clear to ignore and I had always wanted to paint, so my journey began.

My first stone was a very sad sunflower, but you could tell that's what it was.  It's still in my yard.  I soon turned toward hibiscus and they became my favorite flower to paint, but at the request of friends I branched out to many other flowers.

But as I said that was 2006 and although I have given away and sold many stones, I have kept a lot too and some have seen their better day!  But after all what did I expect?  Few garden items really last more than a few years in our heat and a weed-eater plays havoc, so I'm surprised they look as good as they do, after seven years and so I decided to do some restoration.  Wish I could offer this to everyone I've gifted, but unless they bring them to me, well I digress!  On to my restorations!

This first one was a pink and yellow hibiscus in it's first life - two colors that fade the fastest in the sun! And so this time I kept the shape, but totally changed the color - all new and fresh for the yard, well, as soon as I finish the stamen!

The second one is refreshed in just about it's original colors, but now it's a bright show piece for the yard.

I have several more to bring in for restoration and I'm so glad I can do this.
So fun to be back painting stones - the joy of obedience never goes away!

Words Should Always Be Covered In Chocolate!

A very dear friend once told me she always covered her words in chocolate, so if she had to eat them she would enjoy them!  This is very good advice and I'm so glad I listened to her. Thanks, Deb!

What was it, a month ago that I said I've found what I really enjoy and it's not sewing!  Well, what do you think I got at the quilt show?   Yes, I am the proud owner of a Bernina!  Now, it's a baby one - not one of those big multi-thousand $$$$$$ machines, but it is a Bernina.  Why you ask?  Because I've decided I want to make small quilts.  (I know what you're thinking - I just said sewing wasn't my thing) but I've now decided I want to make small wall hangings with both photographs and painted squares and quilt them.  Oh, how good those chocolate covered words taste!  Ha Ha

  Now don't think I've turned my back on those saws, I have not!  I just cut out a new piece for my front door last Sunday.  I have worked on it this week preparing it with colored papers.  I've added a ribbon and bow to the bottom package and will add  more ribbon and bows to the rest of the gifts, and it will be ready for decoration day.

Pattern

Wood Cutout

 Ready for Bows

And, that brings up a whole other topic - Thanksgiving Day.  My sweet husband and I have gone to "Autorama" every Thanksgiving evening for over 20 years and they changed the dates.  There is no Thursday evening show this year - I can't tell you the disappointment that flowed through our house when we discovered this tidbit of information.  But recovery has been quick and we shall use Thursday afternoon to put up our outside decorations, or at least get started. Friday we will do Autorama and Saturday, I will be in a sewing machine class all day!!!!!  Sounds like a great holiday weekend to me, with much to be thankful for this year, as always.

But now back to the reality of today!  What to do with the new machine?  Every inch of my craft room is covered!  Way too many projects going on at once and to be honest, just way too much stuff.  And so my new machine sits on my dining room table as I gut my room and rearrange, redecorate, get rid of much and make a place for this new treasure.  So as much fun as this is, I must stop, get off of my fanny and head back upstairs and face the mess!  The soon to be organized, great to look at and even greater to create in studio!  I mean it's going to be soooo neat and it will deserve the name studio!  Pictures to follow soon.

Rainy Day

Back side yard - trees are about to float!

I love my life!  And that's even when it doesn't go as expected!  My sweet husband had a cold over the weekend and then last night I felt kind of lousy, so thought I would sleep in this morning and nip this possible cold in the bud.  Sleeping in, to me, means, get up fix our breakfast and send him off to work and then my little dog, Jack, and I go back to bed.  Well, that's just what we did this morning - we were back in bed by about 6:30 and then the emergency weather radio went off!  And then it went off again, and again, and well, you know the rest.  I just finally got up and watched it rain.  I can thankfully say that we got lots of rain and our back field and then our front yard were full of water (most of it's gone or at least receded now) but we didn't have the severe wind and no tornadoes, so a little rain just seems fine to me!  But, sleeping in just didn't happen!

As I walked around the house this morning looking out the windows, I paused by a shelf and looked at some of the small stones I've painted.  I don't know about you, but ever since I was a little girl I have loved rocks!  I still love all rocks, large and small, but now I seem to focus on stones that have been tumbled around in a river and are now smooth so I can paint on them.  Most of these are just the right size for a paper weight and have a single flower on them, but now I seem to have a magnet in my eye that spots rocks shaped like feet!


My foot rocks never
come as "feet" rocks, I mean like a somewhat matching pair,  but I see feet (singular) every where!  And I paint toes, and toenails in pretty colors and sometimes add a flip flop and I must admit, some of them look like they just might hurt and I'm glad I don't have to walk on them.  Heehee!  But I love to paint them.  So as I paused and looked at the ones I have done right now and I suddenly was engulfed by just how much I love to paint!  Once again, I'm reminded that I need to concentrate on what I love!   I love to paint!  I love watercolors, and acrylics.  I love painting on stones, on wood, on paper and fabric!  You notice I didn't mention canvas, well, I've done it, but it's just not me!

 For those of you who have followed my Obedience Stones blog you know that I began with a very simple flower on a round stepping stone fresh from my garden.  My flowers are still simple, but they give me such joy.  In my case, it's the journey, not the destination that makes me happy!  I love how many stones tell me what they should be!  For one, it just screamed that it had to be a pear and a pear it became.  Most of them just say paint me!  I actually have a stone somewhere, I'll have to find it, that looked to me exactly like a sheep!  I've never painted it, it looks good just like it is, but maybe someday I'll embellish it too.


One little stone said I'm Mary and baby Jesus and soon it was my interpretation of just that. I love that God has given us so many canvases to fill.  I went down to the rock (stone) yard down the highway from us and ask if I could pick out some to paint.  They looked at me like I was crazy but sent me back into a heavenly area to find my treasures.  I'm so blessed to find joy in such simple things!

And so, I'm going to do just that - I'm going to go do a few watercolors for some card fronts.  Later, I will post some I've made recently and hopefully some I do today.  I also need nome more bookmarks, so that's got to be added to my agenda too.  Oh, my goodness, so much to paint and so little thyme!

Now, you tell me - what do you love to do?