Paintings and Thoughts on Procrastination

I've found one positive thing about 

myself in regard to procrastination today.

When I procrastinate about doing 

the thing I don't want to do, I'm extremely

productive in doing everything

else that eventually needs to be done. 

Laundry's done, dishes are done, birthday card

that had to go out is in the mail, blog post

almost finished. . . 

Speaking of which, I'll get

started on now. 

I was sort of willy nilly in my

painting this week. 

I had some wood pieces my husband

had cut for me that I wanted to use up.

Here's what I came up with for now. 

It's funny, the thing I'm procrastinating about

is not a big deal at all.

It's just something I don't feel like doing. 

Oh, I just remembered the pomodoro time

management method!

That's what I'll do, set the timer and get started.  

Thank you for visiting today!

I hope you have a fabulous week.

Terri

Cats and Skulls and Magnets, Oh My!

The past weekend was so much fun! 

My daughter and son-in-law

took their "mom's" out for an early

 surprise Mother's Day celebration. 

(It's so nice being good friends

with my daughter's mother-in-law.)

The four of us went to the 

English Rose Tea Room

in Carefree Arizona. 

It was just perfect. 

Being a tea drinker myself I had

to up my game the following morning

and forgo my usual mug for Grandma's 

porcelain tea set. 

While it wasn't quite as delicious without

the real cream and lump of sugar,

it extended the delightful memory just the same. 

If you ever happen to be in the 

area, it's a wonderful place to visit. 

* * * * *

Moving on now to my 

art creations of this past week. 

Here's a pic of my purple kitty plaque, . . .

. . . . my new skull plaque, . . . 

. .  .  and some fun little art magnets. 

These little guys are all painted on 2"x 2" pieces of wood. 

I decided to make some one of a kind 

mini artwork magnets as well. 

This little kitty is one of those. 

So much fun! 

Hope you have a wonderful week. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Terri

ART~ Receiving, Creating, Mailing~ Love it all!

This sweet little trio arrived

in the mail over the weekend.

I'd participated in my first

Altered Art Ladies ATC swap

a few weeks ago.  It's been

such a fun experience. 

Steph did an exemplary job

hosting and I'm very grateful to her. 

She plans on hosting some more swaps

periodically during the year

if you'd like to check out her

inspiring blog here. 

I finished another skull

painting over the weekend. 

It gave my mind a bit of rest

after finishing my skyline paintings. 

Speaking of my skyline paintings,

I sold both of them! 

Thanking the Lord

for that blessing! 

If you'd like to see what

they looked like while they

were still works in progress,

you can see them here. 

My husband and I spent 

some time this weekend getting

them all protected and packaged

up for delivery to their new home

in Chicago. 

I was born in Chicago (as were my parents), 

and spent the first 21 years of my life there. 

It'll always have a special place in my heart. 

That's why I called them "Sweet Home Chicago". 

Hoping you have a wonderful week! 

Terri

Lastest Creations

I'd set this piece aside a few

weeks ago and finally added

the finishing touches. 

It still needs a coat of varnish

which I'm hoping will really 

make it pop. 

She went from looking Japanese

to looking more Indian. 

The following is my 4th out of 4 small

sugar skulls that my husband

cut out for me. 

I hid it behind my back before I 

showed him and said, "This is

the look on my face if I see

a scorpion in the house." 

I pulled it out and showed him

and sure enough, he laughed and agreed. 

Fortunately we don't see

them in the house very often. 

Next I made a couple of 

twin thank you post cards

for some special ladies.

"Your the best" is 

a phrase dear to my heart

because those were the

last words my Dad said to me. 

It's hard to believe he's

been gone 16 years. 

He was always such an

encourager.

This next little painting is of

a quoll. 

I'd been watching a documentary

on Australian wildlife and saw

this cute little critter and decided

to paint him. 

Last but not least, I 

painted this folk art sun today. 

My husband had cut out

the pattern I drew for him.

I gave myself a very short

time to work on it. 

I kept telling myself not

to over-think it and just paint.

It's my Sunday sun.

Thank you for visiting.

Wishing you a fabulous week ahead. 

Outsider Art

I've always loved outsider art.

I should probably qualify that statement.

Some of it can be pretty dark and disturbing,

and not my cup of tea. 

I'm drawn more towards uplifting, colorful,

positive themes and images. 

What I'm most drawn to is the idea

that this is my own little world. 

If I want a flower taller than a 

high rise, I can have that. 

I guess I'm always drawn to

the freedom of expression that 

outsider art (or art in general) lends. 

Sometimes life can seem so structured

and regimented. 

It's nice to "escape" for a little

while into a land of my own. 

I also finished number 3 of 4 smaller sugar skulls. 

This guy needs some Visine. 

That's sometimes how I feel when

I wake up.

Yikes!

Hope you have a great and productive weekend! 

Terri

A Sugar Skull, a Puppy, and the Superstitions

There's a photo realism piece

I'd like to get started on this week. 

I'm all prepped for it and am ready to go. 

You could say the plane is on the runway 

and ready for take off. 

It's just waiting for clearance

from the tower (me). 

I haven't done one since high school,

and am finding myself procrastinating.

Why do I do this to myself?

Who cares if it doesn't turn out?

I can just paint over it and 

start again. 

While I'm in my self imposed

"holding pattern," I decided

to paint some simple light

hearted folk art pieces.  

Now that I'm reflecting on

these folk art pieces, they may

actually be harder than the

photo realism piece I'm planning. 

It's hard for me to paint freely. 

Photo realism isn't free. 

Hmmm. . . 

I finished up another

sugar skull.

That's 2 down and 2 to go

on that project. 

I only did one coat of 

the blue because I 

like a little of 

the black showing through. 

It's gives it a more rustic feel. 

I thought I'd share some pictures

from our weekend adventure. 

My husband and I live a short distance from

the Superstition Mountains and Wilderness

which is part of the Tonto National Forest in Arizona. 

It's such a beautiful place to explore. 

The only wildlife we saw this time

were some turkey vultures and

a beautiful herd of black cows

(all wearing their fuzzy winter coats). 

I wanted to take a picture of them until

we saw the bull, and then we decided to 

zip on out of there.

 Hope you're having a wonderful week!

Thanks for visiting. 

Sunny Days and Sundry Projects

My mind is boggled by

the weather forecasters actually 

complaining about the 80 degree 

temperatures we're expecting this week. 

Granted, the normal temps are in the upper 60's, 

but I'm not seeing a thing to complain about. 

I'm going to enjoy every bit of warm

sunshine I can. 

My husband and I are just hoping our desert 

tortoises don't come out of hibernation. 

It's still too early for that. 

We're sure to have a cold snap

or two before spring arrives. 

They need warm nights

along with the warm days

to be happy and healthy. 

I made this post card

to send to my son-in-law and

daughter this week. 

It's nice to be remembered

when you're going through 

a tough time in life. 

It looks to me like my 5th grade

self made it, but it's the sentiment

behind it that counts, right?

Last weekend I drew

out a pattern for some

smaller sugar skulls and

my sweet husband cut them 

out for me. 

I finished this one 

with the exception of

the varnish, which should

make the colors pop

even more because it's a gloss. 

This last mixed media piece

is one I'm still working on. 

I'm kind of stuck and

am not sure where to go now. 

Maybe I'll just set her aside

for a while and come back

hopefully with some inspiration

as to where to go next. 

Thanks for visiting. 

Hope you have a great week!

Paintings and Orange Season

It's citrus season in Arizona! 

Here's a view of our orange tree

from out our bathroom window. 

We need to get them off the tree before

blossom time around March. 

Needless to say, we've been eating a

lot of oranges and drinking a lot of juice. 

There's a bunch of trading and giving away

amongst the neighbors this time of year. 

Some have lemons, ruby red or yellow grapefruit,

navel or valencia oranges. 

The smell of their skins is heavenly

when they're fresh off the tree. 

I look forward to blossom time. 

The perfume in the air from 

the orange blossoms is intoxicating. 

I wish I could share it, and our oranges too!

The following is a sugar skull that

my husband had cut out of wood for me. 

It's 19" x 13", so it's a perfectly fun size. 

Instead of hemming and hawing about my design

for this one, I set myself an imaginary timer of 15 minutes.

I worked quickly and just let the design flow naturally. 

When my husband came home from work and I showed

it to him, he said, "That's cool, but the eyes are kind of low."

I said, "Really? They may be a little on the small side, but

I don't thing they're too low.". 

Then I realized, he thought the cheeks were the eyes! haha

Oh well, I'm not changing it. I kind of like it like it is. 

I'm back to my pink cacti in this next piece. 

I just love cactus and I love the color pink. 

It was fun figuring out what to do with her glasses. 

Maybe next time I'll experiment with a glaze

as well as highlights on the lenses. We'll see. . . 

Wishing you a wonderful and creatively

productive weekend! 

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!

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

Sugar Skull Dog House

I recently finished painting another folk art 

dog house that my husband built. 

In case you missed the first one, you may

see it here. 

This time I started with a lighter background. 

Pink is my favorite color right

now, so I try to incorporate it whenever I can. 

I may eventually go in an add

some more detail to it, but for now it's finished.

I love Mexican and Southwest

inspired designs as you can see. 

I made sure to use all exterior house

paints. 

Every time my husband and I are at 

Home Depot, I'm always checking the "oops shelf"

in the paint department. 

Now all it needs is a little Chihuahua

and we'll be all set. 

Thank you for visiting! 

Terri