Happy Holidays

Here are some more of the Christmas orders I have completed. It has kept me busy working to get them all done in time!! But I delivered the last ones yesterday! I hope everyone is happy with their orders

and the recipients will enjoy them for years to come!! Hopefully some wonderful little bird will find a new safe place to raise a family come spring in the birdhouses.

       We are finally getting some snow today which makes it feel a little more like the holidays, but it could cause some traveling problems for family! My art studio has made some progress with soffit and fascia now on and some cedar shingles in the peak of the roof. We boarded up the doorway just to keep the predicted blowing snow out! I picked out a door for it but we haven't picked it up yet.
      I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday, no matter what you celebrate and a Happy ,healthy, beautiful, New Year!!!  I will also add a frack free New year!! :)

Art Studio Progress

Lots of progress has been made on my little art studio since last time. billy and I worked really hard building the floor and insulating it. Then he pretty much took over with the help of some other strong guys to do the rest. ( I helped where I was able!)  So now the building is under roof and shingled and for the most part dry!

I have been trying to decide now on siding options and colors. I think I have finally convinced my husband to let me use some kind of wood for the siding. I think I will put cedar shingles up in the peak of the porch roof. The two logs laying on the ground will be the support posts for the porch. I am very excited and thankful for the way my little building is taking shape!!

     I have also been busy painting and preparing gourds for Christmas orders I have gotten. Here are some of the ones I have just about finished. I even dried the flowers myself from my garden. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving , spent with those you love.

Fall meanderings

Things have been busy around here since my last post. We have been traveling quite a bit . We made a trip to New York for my daughter's 30th birthday party. (Can she really be 30????) It was a fun time even though we had a tornado warning in the middle of the party. After a few days of recovering at home, we were off to visit our son and daughter in law in Bend, Oregon. It was a wonderful visit, and the boys got most of the heating system in the new addition of their house. Back home ,work has been keeping my husband busy and I have been trying to clean out my Dad's house. It is an emotional and sad job, and every day I find some note or saved letter that brings tears to my eyes. My art studio has not made much progress, but we have decided the timberframe was too expensive, so it will be a conventional building. we may work on the floor tomorrow. Before the remnants of hurricane Sandy hit here, we had some beautiful weather. The small maple tree in my yard was beautiful. Lake wilhelm was gorgeous in fall color. Now the leaves have just about been blown from the trees and the beautiful fall colors are history for another year. I am once again worried about our area due to the ongoing onslaught of unconventional gas drilling. There are now two wells going in only a few miles from here and more to come. They are doing seismic testing in this neighborhood and I cringe to think of the damage being done to mother earth!! Will we have clean water, air, quiet country evenings, beautiful scenery, in a year from now??? Or will it  be all frack ponds, air pollution, water pollution, truck traffic, and noise??? I shudder to think what is coming.

         After all that gloom and doom talk, go to the link I list for Skyes Spirit wildlife rehab and watch the amazing video there of the release of  an eagle they saved. What wonderful work these people do!!!    

 Here is one of the many woodpecker's that have been visiting my suet feeder. sometimes there is a waiting line!!
       



The only completed art work I have done lately is this gourd oil lamp with a polar bear . It has some crystal snowflakes on it so it should sparkle nicely when lit!! Until next time......

New Art Studio

I am pleased to announce that we have started to build a new small art studio for me , at our farm. I had the idea of buying a small garden shed and converting it into a studio, where I could work and not have all my art supplies spread all over the dining room table. Also I could display and sell my artwork from it. At first my husband was not on board , but he has since changed his tune. Soo now my little shed has grown into a bit larger building ,that will probably be timberframe. It will be 16 x 16 with a porch on the front. I am so excited and looking forward to the opportunities it will provide!! My husband worked really hard for two days getting the posts put in. I helped but he did soo much more than I did! ( and we aren't getting any younger!!) Above is the area where an old building used to be, and below is the area with the poles in. 

Here is a new watercolor of two fawns I recently finished.I thought it was funny they were facing opposite directions!! When I took the reference photo, the doe ran for the woods but the fawns acted like nothing was wrong! So sweet!

Dad

I lost my Dad on August 10th, just a month shy of his 90th birthday! He was a wonderful Dad and gave me so many things, including my artistic side. He was good natured and was being sweet and funny right up until the end. I will miss him terribly!!

Here is a new painting I finished titled " Sweet Attraction". It is watercolor and colored pencil. It is matted in white with a black frame and really stands out. I am currently working on a gourd birdfeeder for myself as a recent storm broke the branch my old one was hanging on and smashed it. I also finished a carved sign that was ordered for a gift.

Here is a lovely heron picture I took at the state park nearby, to close this post. Take a moment to enjoy the beauty around us, life is short!!

close up of campbell pottery entry

Here is a close up view of my entry in the Campbell Pottery Lily festival art show.  It is done in watercolor and colored pencil. Hope you like it!

It has been very warm and dry here lately and it has been a challenge to keep the flowers and vegetables watered enough. The butterflies have been visiting my flowers though, along with the hummingbirds. I love summer!

Campbell Pottery opening reception

First of all I would like to thank everyone that came to see me today at the Campbell Pottery Lily festival opening reception!I appreciate all your support. Here is a picture of me with my artwork that made it in this year.It is entitled, "red, white, and crystal".It is made using watercolor and colored pencil on black matboard. This year's show is full of amazing works and well worth the trip to see it. It runs until August 12th. The only thing missing this year, was my Dad. He was here with me last year , but is now in a nursing home and not doing real well. 

Lily festival juried art show

Got the news Friday that one of my art pieces made it into the juried art show at Campbell Pottery!! This is the  second year I have made it into the show!! All entries have to be Lily themed. The opening is on July 14th and the artists reception is  from 1 to 3 PM. It runs until August 11th at the Gallery at Campbell Pottery.It is a beautiful show and worth the trip to see it. http://www.campbellpotterystore.com/  Here is a photo of some Lilies and swallowtail butterfly to get you in the mood to go!!

Here is a small ornament I made for a special order.I think the chickadee is one of my favorite birds!

The last two birdhouses



My Clematis with azalea in the background



Here are the last two birdhouses I finished lately, one is of tree sparrows and the other is a house finch.  They were both given as Mother's day gifts. Now I hope to spend all of my art time on a couple of entries for the Campbell Pottery Lily Festival. It is a busy time here now, since planting time is upon us. My flowers are starting to bloom and my seedlings in the green  houses are ready to plant. Mowing, weeding, mulching, and planting will require alot of time now. Hopefully I will have some time to ride my horses, as they have been neglected alot the last year. The beauty and promise of Spring still leaves me a little sad and worried, due to the threat of environmental destruction by fracking and the tire burning plant planned for this area. I wonder how long it will take for the beauty of this rural area to be gone and the views I so love to be a distant memory! Will we have clean air, water,safe food, lakes , streams, forests,wildlife,to enjoy in the future?



Geese on the nearby lake



A visit with Sandra Steingraber

Here I am getting copies of Sandra Steingrabers' books signed at a presentation she gave at Washington and Jefferson College last night. She is such an eloquent and beautiful speaker, covering topics that are dirty and frightening and in need of immediate action. She even managed to keep my husband awake for the whole presentation which is really saying something!! :) IF you CAN, read her books and go see her speak!!

It would be time well spent, for all of us!  

Here is a picture of some lovely pink dogwoods in bloom at the college! Aren't they gorgeous!!?

Springs Arrival!

It seems that spring has arrived in western PA! The trees are blooming and the birds are singing! I love this time of year for all the beauty and promise of things to come it affords! I have finished 3 more birdhouses that were ordered and have a couple more to go! I would like to get orders done so I can start work on an entry for the Cambell Pottery Lily festival. I have been busy of late with my Dad who is 89 and was in the hospital for 2 weeks and has since gone to a nursing home. It is so hard watching the Dad that took care of you and was strong for you , waste away before your eyes! I love him dearly and hope he can stay around a while longer!! Life is so precious and so short, makes you want to not waste a second of it!! I still am keeping up on the fracking fight but have not had time to do much lately, thankfully others are keeping the fight on track!! Sometimes it is hard to stay optimistic about stopping this awful practice , but I look at the beauty around here and know that we must fight to save our clean air, water, and country lifestyle!! Here are some photos I took recently. Enjoy!

Vacation, Birdhouses, and Fracking Fight

We are back from a weeks vacation in beautiful Punta Cana. The sun and rest was wonderful for recharging the spirit and the body. It was good to take a break from the fracking nightmare and now I am ready to fight anew!! I also started to do some artwork again since returning. I finished two birdhouse orders I had. Now I have four more of them ordered. They are popular this time of year and are great for so many of our feathered friends that need some where to nest. We have a planning meeting this week for our fracking group so we can plan our next event!! The gas companies are really active now in acquiring leases here.  Makes me so sad!! What destruction of our area is ahead???

Fracking Meeting

Here is a picture of a meeting our neighborhood group put on last night about the risks of hydrofracking and the environmental costs it poses. Our speakers did a great job and we had a full house! I hope we were successful in starting a conversation other than how much money you can make. One of our speakers is surrounded by wells in Butler county and as a result has contaminated water. She and her family have to go to their daughters house to get a shower. Have to boil bottled water to cook and wash dishes etc.. Is it really ok for this to happen??? And as the Industry claims it is not their fault, and people are lying about this problem all over the country, do you believe a corporation that stands to make billions or the people that just want clean water and air????  

        on another note, my artwork has been taking a back seat to my work on this issue but I have some orders to fill so I hope to get back to art real soon. Here is a picture of a state park near here that is due to have a well drilled starting in March--300 feet from the border. A Shame!!!

Playtime with Pappy

Here is a watercolor painting of my Dad and my son taken from one of my old favorite photos of them. This is still a work in progress but I haven't had much time to work on it during the holidays and with end of year tax work. I am also continuing to work on educating people on the practice of hydrofracking. My neighbor and I went to a township meeting to see how educated they were on the subject as the wear and tear on roads from the thousands of truck trips per well will definetly affect them. Sorry to say they didn't seem to be to aware of what will come, if this happens as the gas drillers hope . There did seem to be interest in finding out more about it and lots of concerns from all the people there. Encouraging!

   On a different note, I  have gotten some good photos of the birds at the feeders recently!! They are great for cheering up my day!! Here is one to cheer up yours!