Frida Boxes and Fur Baby

Our little grand pup is growing quickly!

Gus loves this little patch of grass we

have in the backyard for our tortoise. 

It's the softest and coolest place to lay.

No wonder he gravitates there

every time he visits. 

Our son-in-law is in the middle

of a 2 month long chemo treatment. 

Every opportunity to help the kids out

during this tough season of life is a blessing. 

This is one of my two Frida 

shadow boxes. 

The yellow background on this

one is an easy way to tell the two apart. 

(Just a little side note, there's a glare

in this picture that isn't in the actual piece.

These are hard pieces to get good pictures.)

This one has loteria cards

on the side. 

 This is the second one. 

It's sides are painted with gems added here and there. 

I've left a spot in front of each to

place some tea light flameless candles. 

It'll help to light up the inside. 

Personally, I don't think pictures

do them justice. 

I love the way they look in person if

I do say so myself. 

Hoping you're having a wonderful 

week and all is well with your soul! 

Terri 

Frida Folk Art Painting

I'm having fun working on some

Frida boxes that I look forward 

to sharing with you in the near future. 

In the meantime I finished this 

Frida painting. 

We're finally seeing a break in

the weather here in the southwestern United States. 

The monsoon season is coming to a close. 

We look forward to sleeping with the windows

open very soon. 

Wishing you a wonderful week ahead! 

Terri

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

Giving New Life to an Old Guitar

My dear friends and neighbors

will sometimes give me things

they think I may like to paint. 

This old broken down

guitar is an example of one 

of those things. 

It's been sitting in the corner

of my art room for  a couple

of years waiting to be brought

back to life. 

I had a design percolating 

in my mind, now it was a matter

of putting it all together. 

The same friend that gave me the guitar, 

also gave me the cool wooden heart she'd

designed and had her husband cut out for her. 

I designed a pattern for wings and the "Love"

sign, and my husband cut them out for me

on the scroll saw. 

I strung beads where the tuning keys

would've been.

I used my wood carving tools to 

give the "Love" sign a little dimension. 

I also decided to change the plain heart 

into a flaming heart. 

My husband made

sure every piece was secured

properly with a combination of 

liquid nails and nails or screws. 

Here's another view from the front. 

I'm pleased with the way it 

turned out. 

It was so much fun to create. 

I hope you have a wonderful week ahead! 

Thank you for stopping by. 

Terri

Shrine Embellishing

Remember this shrine from

way back when? 

In case you missed it

and are so inclined, 

you'll find the related post here.

It's just been sitting around 

on a shelf waiting 

for some zhooshing up.

I got out my bead box,

assorted assemblage items,

and went to work (or play, as I'd rather say). 

I used a PVA glue instead

of a glue gun, or the stinky

kind of glue that'll literally 

glue your (I should say,

 'my') fingers together. 

It takes a little longer to dry,

but I think in the long run

it'll create a more durable hold

and my fingers will remain separated. 

Thank you for stopping by.

Hoping you have a fabulously creative week! 

Terri

This House is for the Birds

I hadn't planned on posting more

than once this week, but I took

these pictures this morning and

thought, 'Why not?'

 This is another one of our collaborations 

(my husband the builder, and me the artist). 

This is probably

my favorite bird house that we've

made together. 

I think it's because the design

is the funkiest he's made so far, and

I'm all about the funkier the better. 

It also makes me think I'm sort

of weird as an artist, because I 

love color clashes. 

(as is obvious by my pieces). 

Sometimes it's intentional,

and sometimes it's just because

I have to use whatever paint

I have on hand. 

Either way, I try and make 

it work and am usually 

pleased with the outcome. 

Thank you for visiting

and saying hello. 

Terri

Folk Art Cats

A month or so ago I base

coated several block squares

of wood in black paint. 

Then I painted a round head

with shoulders in white on each

one as a base to do a series

of snowmen. I set those aside for 

another day. 

Well, another day came last weekend,

but instead of snowmen I turned

them into cats. 

Need I say I'm ready 

to move on to the spring season?

This is my mixed media angel cat. 

I had a lot of fun painting

these and for the most part

things seemed to flow along 

quickly. 

There was one afternoon I would've

thought 30 minutes had passed when it

was actually 3 hours. 

My husband actually waved at me and 

said, "Hello. . . there's another person in

the house. . ." haha (oops, it was time

to put the brush down and give

some time to my husband). 

Except for my husband feeling neglected, 

those are my favorite kind of days.

Thanks for visiting!

Hope you have a fantastic week. 

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

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! 

Felt Sugar Skull Magnets & Ornaments

Living in the Southwest, I have

a deep affection for all things Mexican.

I love the food, art, music, design, culture, 

you name it. 

I started making these felt sugar skulls about

a year and a half ago. 

My husband was interested in giving

his co-workers a Christmas gift

and I came up with these. 

I cut out the cardboard pattern first. 

The felt pieces were cut slightly larger than

the cardboard.

This one is a magnet that

I glued to the back. 

I used all sorts of buttons, baubles,

and jewels. 

I also added some puff paints. 

The felt is lightly glued

to the cardboard after

the faces are completed. 

Glue in ribbon at this

point if you're going to

make ornaments. 

Last step is a blanket stitch 

around the whole thing. 

I think they're so cute and

it's a very therapeutic project. 

Make it a great day! 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Terri

Birdy's New Digs

A few months back my husband and I came

across a good deal on some scrap wood

that a neighbor was selling. 

Shortly there after, I hear him out in the backyard 

sawing and hammering away.  

He brought me the cutest bird house ever

and asked me to paint it. 

It was kind of big and got me thinking

that it really needed to be mounted on a 

wooden stand of some kind. 

We came up with a stand design together and he made that too.

(It's so nice having a handy husband). 

Then it was my turn to start painting!

I never really plan out my designs in

the beginning. They sort of form organically,

and start to take on a path of their own. 

You can see that I love folk art

and funky designs. 

I put a flaming "love" heart on the back,

along with some prickly pear and yuccas on the side. 

I love wabi sabi in art~ perfection in the imperfection. 

To me, that's one of the things that make art beautiful.

Thanks for stopping by.

Wishing you peace, love and joy.

Terri