Mixed Media Post Card

My daughter and son-in-law recently

returned from a wonderful trip to Denmark.

Everywhere they went, they saw long

white taper candles in simple holders. 

Whether on restaurant tables,  

in store front windows, or in the windows 

of private homes, they saw these candles. 

As a gift and reminder of their trip they bought each

family member their own taper,

holder, and card wishing the "hygge" life for us. 

Hygge (hue-gah) is the Danish ritual

of enjoying the simple pleasures of life

(a sentiment I'm all about embracing). 

As a thank you, I made them

this mixed media post card. 

I used acrylic paint, collage papers,

stamps, ink, fabric paint, and little plastic "jewels". 

Hopefully this small

gesture will add to the hygge

of their lives. 

Christmas Folk Art

I've been working on some

folk art pieces for Christmas

the past few days. 

It's been so much fun painting them! 

That's what it's all about isn't it?

They've only taken me

about a day each to finish,

which is a record for me. 

I put on a relaxing Christmas youtube

music video and went to work painting. 

I'll share a couple more I'm finishing 

up next time. 

Wishing you peace and joy

this holiday season. 

Bowl Cozies

A couple years ago I received a 

bowl cozy as a gag gift. 

As it turns out, that had to be

one of the most useful gag gifts

I've ever gotten. 

We eat a lot of hot foods

in bowls, from soup to

rice with vegetables, and of course, 

our morning oatmeal routine. 

I'm always heating up a bowl 

of something in the microwave. 

Since these have come in 

so handy for us, I decided to

make a bunch for Christmas gifts.

I've picked up a few helpful hints

that have made the process of making

multiples much easier. 

First I made a 10" template out

of cardboard which included the triangles

for the darts. This saved a lot of time measuring. 

There are several good instructional videos

online that will give you measurements

for the right size bowl you're looking for. 

I cut the cotton batting an inch smaller (9")

than my fabric (10"). This made finishing much simpler. 

My last helpful tip is to work

in an assembly line process

instead of making one at a time. 

This saved me so much time and 

was much more efficient.

I hope our recipients get

as much use out of these as we do!

Travel Pillow Case

My little travel pillow is one of those

things that ranks right up there with my 

toothbrush when it comes to daily use. 

From cushioning sore bones at night,

to resting on my lap while I drink

my hot tea and chat with my husband

on our couch, it's never far from me. 

I've made at least half a dozen

custom pillow cases over the years for it. 

They're so much fun because I can

play around with some funky combinations

and fabrics. 

I've been happy with the

way they've all turned out with

the exception of the inside. 

My raw edges were exposed and

would fray and tangle and make

an ugly mess if you ever took a peek inside. 

Well I was really excited this time, 

because I finally learned how to 

do a french seam!! 

It's just as beautiful on the inside

as it is on the outside (if I do say so myself). 

It's so much fun learning 

a new skill an upping my

game (especially as I get older). 

I'm already gathering material

for my next one. 

New Folk Art Dog House

There's a bit a humor

related to this latest project. 

My husband decided he wanted

to build a dog house for a larger dog.

He'd built several for 

small dogs, but this is his

first one in this size. 

He also wanted to make

it more comfortable for me

to work on, so he built it in our

family room!

The problem arose once it

was finished and we needed

to get it out of the house and 

into the garage. 

We only had one inch to spare around

the front door frame, it had to

be turned on it's side to get it out,

and the thing weighs a ton!

He ended up building a contraption

with wheels and figured out a way

for us to remain safe, but it wasn't easy

and we won't be doing that again! 

We just bought some

material to start on a second one. 

This time it'll be built and 

completed in the garage! 

Halloween Door Decor

I spent a good part of this past

weekend making some holiday decorations.

There's a great youtube video I watched

about making tissue paper flowers.

They were so much fun to make!

I would've made more had I not

run short on tissue paper. 

I asked my husband to cut out

a skull shape that I'd drawn

onto a piece of plywood. 

He kindly base coated it white

for me and then I took it from there

with a simple folk art design. 

Years ago, my daughter made the circle

felt garland, so I grabbed that from the picture

it'd been hanging over. 

I cut out patterned felt half circles with pinking shears and sewed

them to some colorful ric rac for a cute little bunting. 

Adding the string of holiday beads seemed

to finish it off. 

Hoping the little trick or treaters

will enjoy it tonight. 

Happy Halloween!

Painted Chicken Coop 3

 First of all, I need to give

credit to Aimee from the Farm

Animal Sanctuary for these pictures. 

I forgot to bring my camera and 

she was kind enough to take these. 

My husband put in the hinged door 

within the front door. 

This way the chickens

can get in and out without having to open

the larger door. There's a little carabiner at the 

bottom that can secure the door shut, or hold it open. 

The back wall has 3 panels with decorative

wood strips in between. 

For the benches, I decided to paint a 

rug design in predominantly gray to

hopefully camouflage the inevitable mess. 

Here's Bob attaching the carabiner

to the chicken wire to hold the door open. 

That's Zobe the beautiful little zebu cow

in the background. 

I just love her!!

We've had so much fun

helping to beautify the farm.

It's been an honor and a privilege. 

Canoeing Clear Creek Reservoir

My husband has the week off

and I've been taking a break from my artistic 

endeavors to spend some quality time with him. 

We decided to load up our canoe and

head up north to enjoy this

beautiful state of ours. 

Our final destination, Winslow Arizona. 

For those not familiar with the town, 

there's actually a corner in downtown Winslow 

where you can stand near a reflection of

a flatbed Ford in a window and 

take your picture next to a statue of Glenn Frey.

That said, as you'll see from the pictures, 

there's another fine sight to see when you're there. 

It's called Clear Creek Reservoir and

it's a hidden gem. 

We started our adventure at McHood Park.

Near the camping area, there's

a large gravel parking lot and a nice dock

to put in the water. 

The mirror reflection of the

cliffs on the water was absolutely gorgeous. 

The water was so still and the temperature outside 

was a perfect 74 degrees. 

The farther we went, 

the higher the cliffs got, and

the more narrow the canyon. 

We were the only ones

on the water the entire 6 mile 

round trip!

We came across this niche

in the rock and my husband

said it was just missing a statue,

so I obliged. 

Oh the things we get ourselves into. . . 

You should've seen me trying to

get back into the canoe after that 

shot was taken!

It took us an hour and a half

of paddling to get to the end and only  

an hour to get back. 

(I was working a little harder

on the way back). 

This was just a day trip from

Phoenix and we were

back home in the Valley before sunset. 

This place is a must see if

you get the chance! 

We have some treasured memories

of our visit there and look forward to 

going back again. 

Painted Chicken Coop 2

I finished painting the panels for 

the outside of the chicken coop, and

yesterday was delivery day. 

Here's a picture of the brand new

coop we had to start with. 

Here's the outside all prettied up!

The flags belong to Aimee the owner. 

They're a cute folk art rooster print

and fit right in with the design, so

I think she'll leave them up. 

My husband used liquid nails and 

his nail gun to secure the panels. 

This handsome guy is checking out his new digs. 

I hope he likes it!

My husband is measuring the inside

for the next part of the project. 

That needs to be pretty too. 

Peace, love, and chickens. . . 

Terri

Painted Chicken Coop

I've been painting a wood panel that'll be

attached to the chicken coop 

my husband Bob measuring in 

the picture below. 

There's just no way I could paint it 

on location, so this is the solution we

came up with. It'll actually add

additional support to the structure,

as well as making it pretty. 

I'm going to call this first

panel finished. 

Fortunately the biggest panel is

behind me. 

That said, I have four more ahead of 

me that I want to finish by Monday!

Lord help me!

Terri

Picnic Table No. 2

I'm happy to say I finished the second picnic table

for Aimee's Animal Farm Sanctuary

and thought I'd share some pictures of it with you. 

Unlike the first picnic table, this one

started out painted in a solid red color. 

It'd been placed in a part of the yard that gets

watered by irrigation, which means it was regularly 

sitting in water for extended periods of time. 

The legs were all rotted and my handy 

husband needed to replace those before

I could get started. 

As you can see, my palette colors were gray, blue,

green, and purple tones. It wasn't a typical 

palette for me, but I like the way it turned out. 

      

You can see a tiny part of the first table

I did in the background. 

My intent was for them to compliment

one other in style, without being too matchy-matchy. 

Now, I've got to get back

to the chicken coop panels I'm painting. 

More on that later. 

Thanks for visiting!

Terri

My Painting Process

 There's a local PBS show I watch

from time to time called Books & Company. 

The host of the show interviews a particular

author and inquires about his or her book 

and their personal process

of writing and developing their stories. 

I love hearing about the different ways

they go about it. 

I know many artists travel similar unique

paths to end up with their finished pieces. 

Those kinds of things fascinate me, whether

it be an artist of the word, paint brush, 

or musical instrument.

Today I'll briefly share one of the ways

I go about painting my pieces by

sharing some of my works in progress in

the earliest stages. 

I'm working on a dog house and another

picnic table. One's in my family room,

and the other's in the garage, so the pictures

aren't the greatest, (thanks to poor lighting)

 but you'll get the gist. 

Before I start any piece I pray. 

I ask God to bless the work of my hands

and to guide and lead me as I create the design

and paint the piece. I ask that it'll be a blessing

to whomever it ends up going to. 

After that, I don't worry about it how I'm going 

to proceed, I just start with one element and

let the design flow from there. 

I always use one color (usually a dark one)

to get my basic design down. 

This is what I call free hand folk art. 

I have had to be more precise in the past

with a design image, and in that case

I'll draw it out on transparencies and

use the overhead projector to complete 

the design that way. 

I did the base design in the following picture

and started in with my first color. 

That's what I usually do. Then I'll 

go back with one color at a time and

continually add to the design until it feels and 

looks done to me (which can take a while). 

My husband always says, when he's dizzy,

he knows I'm finished. 

I'll be sure to post the finished

pieces, (hopefully in better lighting)

so you can see how they turned out. 

Until then, may God bless the work of your hands. 

Terri

Painted Picnic Table

Imagine painting in an enclosed garage

without air conditioning and the temperature 

is over 105 degrees.

I had to keep the garage door shut because

it's monsoon season, and that means mosquitoes. 

Did I mention mosquitoes love me?

The affection isn't mutual. 

Although the working conditions weren't ideal,

I was in the zone and loving every minute of it. 

I made sure my glass of ice water was filled

and I was staying hydrated. 

It took me a solid 3 1/2 days to finish

and I'm pleased with the results. 

Delivery day was yesterday

and I'm so happy the dear

lady I painted it for loved it. 

Oh, to make a living at painting. . .

That'd be my dream. 

Terri

Successful Delivery!

Delivering Ziggy's house

was rather worrisome for me. 

I knew once we got it to the farm we'd

have help, but I didn't know how my

husband and I were going to load this several

hundred pound house on our truck by ourselves. 

Thankfully my husband invested a lot of planning

and forethought on that part and all went well. 

Aimee had a fine group of willing and able volunteers

who made bringing it to it's new location a cinch. 

Once we got it to the penned in area, 

we had to lift it over the fence.

Working in tandem, the house just glided

over the top to the other side. 

Thank You Lord!

We kept the roof separate to lessen

the weight. My husband Bob secured it

with hurricane clips once we got it in place.

That roof isn't going anywhere!

All the animals had to come and check

out the new digs. They all seemed to love it. 

But the best news of all is

that Ziggy loves it too!

I'm so grateful. . .

~for people in 

this world like Aimee Takaha. 

~for places in this world

like Aimee's Farm Animal Sanctuary.

~for the special people who

volunteer their time at places like this one. 

And, I'm so grateful for the opportunity we

had to make one corner of it a little more colorful.

Terri

The Hog Haven

Today I'm going to share a sneak

peek of what's kept me so busy

the past week or so. 

Everything from cleaning house, exercising, 

doing laundry, and blogging fell to the wayside

 while I worked on this project. 

It's a house my husband built for

a 300lb baby hog that'll grow to be 600lbs!

I've been painting from sunrise to sunset

for the past 7 plus days in a row. 

It'll soon be headed to a wonderful

Farm Animal Sanctuary near our home. 

One of the greatest things about

this project was recognizing how

many times I thought to myself, 

"This is so much fun!"

That's saying something considering the fact

that I was working in an non air conditioned garage

in Phoenix, in the middle of summer!

The temperature was never less than 100 degrees,

but I was loving every minute. 

It feels good to be done. 

Now it's time to get to my household chores!

Thanks for stopping by.

Terri

Mixed Media Drawing

I have a love hate relationship

with this drawing. 

I'm happy with the face, 

the basic design and the balance

of the drawing as a whole. 

The headdress is so flat

though. It bugs me. 

Even if I tried shading it, it 

wouldn't help. That part of 

the drawing is off. 

I call it Mardi Gras, because that's

what it reminds me of. 

Not that I've ever been, but it's what I'd

imagine seeing someone in a Mardi Gras

parade looking like. 

Well, I guess it's back to the "drawing" table for me.

Have a wonderful day.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Terri

Mixed Media Paper Quilt

I love to quilt and this

time I decided to put an 

artistic spin on it. 

The 12 main squares are

individual magazine collages. 

I took my time to make each

one as if it was it's own little

piece of art. 

Next I created an op art border.

I wanted to surround the colorful

centers with a black and white neutral design.

Small red squares were chosen to accent

the quilt. It's actually red duct tape

covered card stock. 

I used the zig zag setting on my machine

 to stitch it all together. 

It was fun to create and

the possibilities are endless. 

Thanks for visiting!

Happy creating.

Terri

Folk Art Bird House 5

This bird house gave me a little

trouble at first. 

My initial idea for it (which I was

really excited about) bombed when 

I told my husband what I wanted to do. 

He told me how hard he worked

on certain features and I was going to cover

them up with my idea. I could see his point 

(after a long discussion) and I decided 

to move on to a plan B. 

By the way, after this incident, we made

the decision that he'll do his thing when it

comes to building, and I'll do my thing when

it comes to painting. Our team projects have been

harmonious ever since.

Back to plan B. .  . I had to come up with

a new idea, and instead I just sat and sat in

front of this thing, starting at it and 

wondering where to start. 

Ever been there yourself?

After a grueling amount of time passed I 

decided enough was enough. 

I set a timer for 20 minutes and started painting

a base design without thinking about it. 

"Just paint!" I told myself. 

After all was said and done,

I really liked the way it turned out. 

Sorry my pictures aren't the best.

I keep this bird house in my daughters

old room and the lighting isn't the best. 

I think the gist of it comes across though. 

Hope you have a fabulous day!

Happy Creating. 

Terri