Summer in the Desert

 This picture was taken on a recent trip

 to the Desert Botanical Garden. 

I love the juxtaposition of the beautiful

delicate flowers, alongside the stiff piercing thorns.

It reminds me of life. 

Summertime is coming. It's held off until

now, and we've had such beautiful weather. 

My husband and I were on our walk this morning

and talking about how this is the longest we've gone

into the year without having to turn on the air conditioner. 

Thanking God for that blessing!

The following are a hand full of some

recent pieces I've painted. 

My husband cut a silhouette of Arizona

out of pine wood for me on our scroll saw 

and I did my thing. Cheerful as

cheerful can be. I really love the 

way this turned out. 

This is a landscape I did on a gallery wrapped

canvas with acrylic paint and posca pens. 

A couple of sweet kitties. . .

and two colorful fish, finish

out the bunch. 

Now it's time for me to get back to work

on a couple projects. 

I hope you're having a wonderful day! 

Terri 

Lost in a World of Painting

This week I'll share some

of my most recent creations. 

The following piece

is dimensional. I designed 5

raised pieces that were cut

out and attached to a 

plywood base. 

Trim was added to the edges

to frame it out. 

Blue Kitty. 

Purple Kitty with some mixed media additions. 

This is a sweet little kitty that started

as a pattern I drew and my husband

cut out for me on our scroll saw. 

He used pine and said it was a really nice

material to cut. I painted the sides to

match the floral motif on the front. 

I also drew a fish pattern for my husband to

cut out for me using the same pine. 

It was fun painting something new. 

Lastly is this yellow kitty

that I just finished this morning. 

Such fun! 

I hope you're having a wonderful day! 

Thanks for stopping by.

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

Grand-pup and Painting

In a mother's heart there's a desire to nurture and care 

for little ones that never goes away. 

At least I can speak for myself, and don't

think I'm alone. 

Many of my empty nester friends have gotten

pets at this stage in life. 

That need to "mother" always has

a place in our hearts even when our

kids are grown and gone from the house.

These were my thoughts as I painted 

this week's painting. 

This past week I've been dog

sitting for the little white pup in

the next picture. His name is Finley

and he's a sweetie. 

The little black cutie is my new

"Grand-dog" Gus. 

He's only 8 weeks old. 

He's the most adorable little Berniedoodle. 

Here he is after sniffing around in

some mesquite leaves. 

He's the sweetest puppy ever! 

I just love him. 

Growing up, I had an Aunt that

was a golden retriever breeder.

I have the fondest memories of going

over to her house to play with all the puppies. 

Finley's heading back to his home tomorrow.

He'll be missed, but I'm really looking forward

to my future visits with Gus. 

Hoping you're having a wonderful

week so far. 

Warmest regards,

Terri

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

Daily Paintings of Late

My goal is to finish

a painting a day. 

I'm not always successful

with that goal, but I have

been successful in pressing

forward whether I reach it or not. 

This fact is a win for

me on it's own. 

Here are some

of my most recent

accomplishments. 

I'll keep my words

to a minimum in this post.

Thank you for visiting

and touching base.

I hope you have a fabulous week!

Terri

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall. . .

One of my neighbors kindly gave me

a big mirror a couple of months ago. 

It's 38" x 32". 

Another neighbor that knows about the mirror

keeps asking me if I've done anything

with it yet. 

Well, it's finally time to call her over

to see the mirror. 

I should say, the frame of the mirror. 

I'll let my husband get the mirror

part securely back in the frame. 

The frame was initially a brown

mottled paint and it was primed

in white to start the process. 

These first few pictures were taken at sunrise.

That's why they're a little dark. 

Next, I drew out my design and made

patterns for wood pieces that my husband

gladly cut out for me on the scroll saw. 

I placed the pieces where I wanted them

just to check my design, before

they were adhered to the frame. 

Voila! The finished piece. 

It's much more bright

and cheerful now. 

Thank you for stopping by.

Hoping you have a wonderfully

creative week! 

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

Camping Dreams Become Reality

Camping is something I've

always loved to do. 

Being out in nature, wandering 

around and exploring new places,

is so much fun for me. 

Rocks, insects, creatures, and plant life

are all things I patiently observe and study

when we camp and hike. 

I decided to paint myself a camper.

Of course, it had to be pink with

lots of flowers. 

I added a little kitty that I'd drawn with

prismacolor pencils and adhered

it to the piece with matte medium. 

I showed it to my husband when I finished

and asked him if he'd travel with

me in my pink camper. 

He said as long as I was with him, 

that was all that mattered. 

Apparently I wasn't the only one 

with the camping bug. 

My husband was itching to go

back to one of our favorite spots

in the Chiricahua National Forest

in Southeastern Arizona. 

I thought I'd share a picture or two

of one of our "go to" camping spots. 

We've been to this one several

times over the past 20 years or so. 

I'm sure you can see why. 

Of course we had to do 

some hiking while we were there. 

The following are a couple

pictures from the trails

around our site.

In 2007 they had a bad forest

fire that really changed the landscape

for many years to come. 

It was still beautiful though. 

We stopped for lunch on our way

home in Safford Arizona and I spotted

this artsy camper in the parking lot

of the restaurant we visited. 

Whenever I see things like this, it makes

me smile. No matter if it's a little cooky,

or masterfully done, it's a slice of Americana. 

Thank you for coming along

with me on my little camping adventure. 

I hope you have a wonderful 

rest of the week! 

Terri

Little Girl At Heart Art

As I look over this collection

of pieces from the past

week, it reminds me that I'm 

still a little girl at heart. 

Bright colors

and cheerful themes

are what I'm drawn to. 

I'm the same way when it comes

to movies. 

I want to leave the theater uplifted and happy,

not drained or discouraged. 

There's enough heavy stuff

going on in every day life.

Movies and art tend to be pleasant escapes

for me most of the time. 

*******

The following are mostly mixed

media pieces, which

I've been having fun

with lately. 

The saying on this last piece is actually

one of Willie Nelson's song titles. 

My dear artist friend Dede and I both

love Willie Nelson music and this

is her favorite song of his.

It makes me smile. 

Thank you for visiting. 

I hope you have a fabulous and productive week! 

Terri