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.       

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!