Snow Snow Snow

Here is my studio now in the midst of our snow storm! It is very pretty I must say but I still prefer sunshine and flowers!!

This is the view looking out one of the windows of my studio into the woods.

Here is a woodpecker enjoying the suet I put out for them!

I have been working on a lot of custom orders for Christmas but I did find time to complete this decorative gourd pitcher with appaloosas on it. I used one of my horses old slide plates for the handle!! It has a horsehair decorated rim. Available on etsy or at my shop.

This is a coat hook I made also from cedar with a wolf painted on it in acrylic.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and please remember the wildlife and pets in this cold weather!!

Open Studio Weekend

Finally my little studio is completely finished!  In celebration, I will be having an open studio weekend, Nov. 16th and 17th from 11 to 6 each day. There will be some refreshments for everyone and a drawing for a gift certificate, and the best thing is, I will donate 5 % of all sales to Skye's spirit wildlife rehab center in Harrisville. These people do wonderful work helping injured and sick wildlife and hopefully getting them back to nature. Check out the link I have to the website they have. So please come and visit me !!! There are directions on the events page if you need them.  I am having some new signs made but not sure if they will be ready by the open studio.  Hopefully it won't be the day for our first blizzard this year!! I also want to take this time to publicly thank my husband for all the work he put into this building!! He is the best!!

I have been working on some more Christmas décor to offer at the open house. I hope to have quite a few ornaments ready and I will take orders until I run out of time. Here are two Santa gourds I recently finished which will be available.

Here is a picture of one of my last sunflowers from last week ,since now we finally got a killing frost and all my flowers are history until next year!!!  I will miss them!!

 

Studio open at last!

My little art studio is finally open, after a year of working so hard on it. My husband still has to put up the track lights, because they just arrived last week. I have not advertised much yet because I am not sure how much of a mess will be involved in putting up track lights. I am open for now on Tuesdays from 11 to 5, and Thursdays from 11 to 7. Come and visit and check out our little cabin in the country!!
     The weather here has been so beautiful for October.. still wearing shorts and t shirts all last week!! This means I am also still mowing grass and doing some canning!! I actually rode my reining horse also which hasn't happened in quite awhile!! He was really good, amazing since he has been on vacation for way too long..

I also took my dog for a walk at Lake Wilhelm and wondered why she wouldn't get in the water in a stream we hiked near until I looked beside me and saw this quite large snake looking back at me!!!

Here is a gourd vase I recently completed. It is carved and woodburned and would make a nice decoration for a fall or Thanksgiving table. It is for sale on Etsy and of course here in my studio.

This is a new watercolor I finished ,titled, Alone.

I hope I see some of you at my studio very soon!!Until next time......

Trip to Maine

 We recently helped move our daughter from NY state to Maine. It was my first trip to Maine and I liked it a lot. This picture is from Acadia national Park, which is close to where our daughter lives now. We waded in the waters of the Atlantic here and boy was it cold!! I guess those lobsters like that because that was the big fresh seafood offering everywhere.

Back home my flowers were growing and beautiful, but we arrived to find that my tomatoes had gotten the blight and were nearly dead!! Guess I will be buying tomatoes this year if I want to can my usual sauce and salsa.

The dogs have been enjoying our cookouts and the sweet corn we have been eating a lot of lately. They think they are human and every night after dinner excitedly run to the car thinking they will get to go to the ice cream place in town for their ice cream dish.

We are still finishing up the last few details on the art studio, staining the front door and track lights. Who would have thought it would be a year in the making!

Here is a new gourd I finished with a cat looking longingly at a butterfly. I made the butterfly out of apoxysculpt and painted it.

This is a gourd wall pocket I made recently too. Unfortunately during a bad storm we had it got blown off the wall and cracked. I have glued it back together , but it will have to be just for me!!

Here is a picture of my painting at the Campbell Pottery Lily art show and me. The artist reception was very nice and the show is beautiful. Thank you to all who attended! The show is still up until August 4th and is well worth a trip to the store and gallery.

My garden and flowers are all looking beautiful this time of year! They must have liked all the rain and hot humid weather we had been having.

 

 

 

Check out this beautiful cloud that appeared the other night outside of our house! I had to get a picture! I hope to get more time to work in my new studio this week!! So I am off to get the chores done. Hope you have a wonderful week filled with flowers and fun!! 

This is one of the fields of lilies at Campbell Pottery!

Campbell Pottery Lily Festival, third year for me!

Just got word last week that my watercolor and colored pencil painting titled Brights and Blues, was accepted into the Campbell Pottery Lily Festival art show this year!! I am so pleased!  This makes three years that I have made it into the beautiful show!! I was really nervous this year wondering if I could make it again! The show starts tomorrow, July 8th and runs until August 4th, at the Campbell Pottery store in Edinboro. The artists reception isn't until the 20th, from 1 to 3. I would love to have any of my blog readers or customers come to the reception.


Here are some pictures of my art studio as it looks now. I have actually moved some things in and have been working in there a few times. There is still a corner cabinet to go in and some more trim pieces and the track lights, but it is really taking shape! I found a little table and chairs on craigslist that fits in perfectly! I painted an old dresser to match and an old antique china closet too. They will add much needed storage space and display area for my gourds.

 

Here is a watercolor and colored pencil painting I have recently finished.

My Bad!

Until next time....

Studio progress and Spring at last!!

Here is the latest progress on my art studio! The outside lights are up now and the final grading is done and the grass seed is planted! I have been staining the oak boards for the floor and my husband finished the first coat of varnish on them last night! hopefully they will be put down on Saturday! So we are getting real close to having it finished!!

Here is a new gourd birdhouse I finished with a scarlet tanager and strawberries on it!

Spring is finally here and it seems to be one of the most beautiful in recent memory! I swear every tree and flowering bush is loaded with flowers! I have had lots of gorgeous birds visiting my yard and feeders, like this indigo bunting!

Here is a rose breasted grosbeak at a gourd feeder! It is in my plum tree that is loaded with blossoms!

I have also had the most funny thing happening on a daily basis!! This woodpecker has been visiting my hummingbird feeder and seems to have figured out how to drink out of it with his tongue! I have never heard of this happening before! Have any of you had this happen??

This is a watercolor of a little girl we saw on vacation in Panama. I am still tweaking it a bit, but she was a real cutie! Hope everyone has a wonderful spring!

Vacation and Spring

Here are two pictures taken on my favorite beach in Curacao! If I ever retire to a beach, I would like to stay Here! We had a nice cruise this year for vacation and thankfully our ship had no issues, like some of the others recently!

Here are some awesome plants growing in Costa Rica, and my husband while we were ziplining there. The strange array of flora and fauna there was amazing! I was hoping to come home to some nice weather but that didn't happen! It has been cold and snowy until the last few days. I think just maybe spring is finally here! Not much has been done on my studio as we have sold the house my Dad was living in and the final cleaning out on that had to be done and some projects done by my husband for the new owners. Hopefully work will resume soon on my little space!

I have been getting some artwork done.

Here is another painting I did on birch bark in acrylics. I have also been working on a couple watercolors I hope to enter in some juried art shows soon. I will post those in the future. I hope spring is blooming and sunshine is abundant wherever you are!! Until next time....

Duck gourd and other news

Here is the latest gourd I finished. It is a vase with cattails carved and painted on the side and a mallard duck painted on the front.I filled it with dried flowers from my garden and a couple of feathers.

I also tried something new. I did an acrylic painting on a piece of birch bark , mounted on black mat board. It is in a 5 x 7 frame. I think I will try more of these since I liked the way it turned out.

Here is an interior view of my art studio before we insulated it and got the drywall up. Billy , my husband , has been working evenings getting the drywall finished and it is almost ready to paint. We did take time out for a beautiful valentines day dinner though.

On the fracking front, I am very upset as of late because I can't drive the short distance into our one stop light town now without seeing at least one brine waste truck and usually 3 or 4!!! I am not sure if they are hauling it from wells near here to Ohio for dumping or bringing it here to dump in Franklin at the brine dump there. In either case it is an awful large amount of POISON that is being dumped probably in one of our rivers!!! Right now there is a case in Youngstown Ohio of the owner of D and L energy that has been telling his workers to dump the frack fluid into storm drains where it has been flowing into the Mahoning river!!!!  An anonymous tip alerted officials and he got caught but not before it has been going on for months!!!! The Epa is now trying to clean up the mess and he has been charged in federal court! Sickening!!!!!!! How many people that get water from that river have been drinking poison all these months not to mention the damage to wildlife! I was glad to hear that New York has postponed deciding on fracking there until a health study is done!!! YAY!!!

Here is a picture of just a couple of the beautiful cardinals that have been at the feeders in my yard!!Aren't they Lovely!!!?

Outside finished,,almost!!!

Here is the art studio with the outside done, except for staining , which will have to wait for warmer weather. I am really happy with the way it looks!! The log posts in the front are awesome and the real front door is beautiful!! Now work will move inside with wiring, then insulation, then drywall, ceiling boards and floor boards.  What do you think of my new little studio?

    I have finished another gourd with butterflies carved into it and black and tan leather lacing up at the rim.... I also did a small watercolor painting of some nasturtiums I grew last summer along with some salvia, and veronca,in a little blue bottle. It is 5x7 and can be purchased from my Etsy shop.

I can't believe January is almost over! Does time really go much faster the older we get? Soon I need to start looking at my seed catalogs and get ready for the wonderful warm weather that will be here before I know it!!

Lots of art studio progress!

Here is the latest picture of my art studio! It now has most of the siding on and a temporary door on the front. We had the ditch dug over the past weekend for the electric line. Most of the porch floor is on but the log posts need to be put on the front to finish that. It is really starting to take shape!! So Exciting! I can almost picture my supplies all inside and flowers planted around the outside! Oh and a porch swing on the front!! It is the time of year for getting my  husbands business book work finalized for the past year , so that has been taking up alot of my time. I have managed to start several gourd projects and just finished one.

It is a large canteen gourd That I painted with some goldfinches and a sparrow. The lid is handmade from butternut wood and a piece of driftwood for the handle. I have changed my online shop from artfire to etsy. So that is where items will be for now.