Back on the Farm

My sweet friend Aimee asked if

I'd help add some color and

cheer to some of her animal shelters.

She wanted a border painted around

the edge of two of her new shelters

that someone had kindly donated. 

I knew there would be no way I could be up

on a ladder in 105 plus degree weather

during monsoon season

with all the inquisitive (and large) animals 

trying to figure out what I was up to. 

I immediately thought painting wooden

boards that could be affixed to the metal

sides was the way to go. (I'd let

my husband work out those details). 

Twenty-three wooden flowers were added 

throughout the design to give it dimension. 

My husband gets the credit for cutting 

those out for me. He had at least as much

work on this project as I did. 

I had 10 boards to paint. At one point they

were spread all over our family room floor,

the fireplace, our kitchen table, 

and the kitchen counter. 

It's so good to have our house back!

As I was painting and maneuvering backwards

on my hands and knees around the boards

I felt a sharp painful pop on my left side. 

It turns out I dislocated a rib. Ouch! 

When we went to install the pieces, I decided

to feed the animals first and keep them busy

while we worked. 

This is the larger of the two shelters. 

Her family of animals are so sweet and

she takes such good care of them. 

Aimee also asked if I'd paint a board

with a rainbow and a peace sign on it

for her horses palette shanty. 

There'll be some girl scouts coming

by soon. She's asked them to paint

the rest of the shanty boards in rainbow colors. 

Now I'm back to painting

some smaller pieces and

giving my ribs a rest. 

I hope you have a wonderful week

and greatly appreciate you stopping by! 

Terri

Completing the Cow Painting

This is the cow painting I was

working on in my last post. 

I was unsettled with it. 

There was too much busyness here and

there and I actually made it even busier

after this. 

I was about to sand the whole 

thing and start over, but I restrained myself. 

It's a happy party cow, so I left some of

those elements in it. I just did some rearranging. 

I could work on it longer, but I really

need to finish it up and moooo-ve on. 

(could not resist)

Hope it's a great day

and an even better week for you.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Terri

Funky Frame and Pig Painting

As I was painting the goat picture,

I noticed a butterfly I'd

asked my husband cut out of wood for me

sitting on one of my work tables. 

I put it behind my painting on the side so

just one of the wings was showing.

That's it! I'll give my painting "wings" 

instead of a traditional frame. 

I drew out some patterns and my husband

cut them out and attached them to the 

painting for me. 

Viola! First painting completed. 

Yesterday, I started on my pig

painting. These two (the goat and the pig paintings) will be 

on either side of the barn doors. 

I have a couple flying pigs

that'll go on the barn doors that I'll share 

with you in another post.

Today I'm finishing up on 

the pig and painting the "wings"

on this one. 

After this, I have a cow
painting and a bunny hutch to finish.

I'm hoping to get it all done within a week. . .

Back to work!

Hope you're having 

a wonderful week.

Until next time. 

Terri

Goat Folk Art Painting

A dear lady who owns a farm animal

sanctuary asked if I could do some more

artwork for her. (My husband and I have done

some work for her in the past). 

She'd like a goat, pig, and cow painting. 

I've got the goat just about finished, and have

been working on a few other things

to help cheer and brighten up her place 

(not that it's not already really cheerful). 

I thought of this unconventional funky frame idea

after I'd already started this piece. My husbands 

been working on that. 

Unfortunately, for him to attach it, it may mean

a lot of nail holes and wood putty to cover those holes

of the front of this piece. 

I told him to just do what he needs to 

do and I'd go back over and fix what needs

to be fixed. 

Between you and me, I'm hoping not much. 

When I finish something, I like to wash my

hands of it, and not have a potential redo in my future. 

I'll be sure to post a picture

after the "frame" has been attached. 

Hoping you're having a wonderful week. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Terri

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. 

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

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