Cows, Cats, and Life's Rollercoaster

Last week was a crazy one of

highs and lows. 

One day it was remembering a dear friend's brother

at a memorial service. 

The next day it was celebrating our 

daughter's 29th birthday. 

The day after that, another dear friend called to say 

her Dad is in his last days. 

Through it all, God is 

faithful and His presence has been evident. 

Needless to say, I apologize for not

having a chance to catch up on all

the wonderful blogs I follow. 

Hopefully this week will be a little

less eventful. 

********

To start with, I'll share the cow

painting that I'm working on. 

I'm kind a stuck for a bit here and

am in the pondering stage. . . 

Meanwhile I thought I'd take a fun

little detour and paint this little gal. 

While I was at it, I saw this one waiting

to be finished and took care of it too. 

My goal for this week is to finish up

on the cow painting, and start

on the bunny hutch I have sitting

in the middle of my kitchen floor! 

Fortunately, it's only been there since Saturday. 

Hope you have a wonderful week. 

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

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! 

Home Tweet Home Bird House Part 2

Here're the rest of the pictures

of my funky folk art bird house. 

If you missed Part 1, you can see that here.

My husband asked me to 

draw a couple designs for him 

to adhere to the sides of the house to

give it some dimension. 

I gave him my drawings and after looking at me 

quizzically for a second, 

(He's the first to admit he doesn't get art.)

he cut them out using his scroll saw 

and nailed and glued them to the house. 

He liked them much better once

he saw them in their finished state. 

I took the following picture so 

you can see that every visible 

surface is painted with some

type of design. 

I even paint a design on the bottom

(which I didn't take a picture of). 

There's more dimension and raised

elements on the back. 

I try to make the overall design balanced,

but not perfect. That's the fun of folk art for me. 

Thanks for visiting. 

Wishing you a wonderful day!

Terri

Folk Art Bird Feeder

My husband and I finally 

hung our bird feeder. 

It's the Chirp'n Chomp Cafe

where you can eat Cheep Food.

Cheesy I know, but I'm my Fathers' daughter. 

We learned a lot with this

project. It was one of the first we

made together. 

For instance, there're some things that

need to be painted before

the piece is put together. 

You can see the inside. It's

so narrow that I can't fit

a brush to do any painting in there. 

(As I write this, I realize I probably

could've done some stamping.

I'm tempted to go do that now, we'll see.)

Fortunately, most of that blank

space will be filled with bird seed

and hopefully birds!

Most of the painting was free hand work

with the exception of the "landing pad"

where I used a paper doily as a stencil.

It's a little hard to see in the picture.

Because I couldn't reach the inside,

I made sure to cover all

the sides I could reach including the bottom.

I want it to be pretty for any

kids looking up at it. 

All that's left is to add bird

seed and see who shows up. 

Thanks for visiting. 

Hope you make it a great day!

Terri

Pink Castle Bird House

I'd love to share some pictures

of our pink castle bird house. 

I say "our" because my husband and I

collaborate on our bird houses. 

He builds, and I paint.

We work well together because

I let him do his thing, and 

he let's me do my thing.

Originally my intention was to have a 

pink stand for the castle. 

When it was time to place it 

on the stand, I happened to have

this brown based stand ready at the

same time. 

The brown based stand ended up being the right fit. 

I made a beaded chain with thin gage wire for the draw bridge. 

Inside on the back wall is a surprise not visible in the pictures.

There's a mini cow skull with a halo of colorful 

cold pressed clay flowers. 

Every surface is decorated so you

can see the folk art design from all angles.

Please excuse the "background noise" in my pictures.

The stand and birdhouse are affixed 

to one another and it's not the easiest piece to move. 

I did use all exterior house paint and

finished it with a marine spar varnish.

It'll be safe in the elements, but for now I keep

it in our spare bedroom until it sells. 

 Thanks for stopping by! 

Terri

Folk Art Mixed Media No. 3

This piece started out with a cool

moon and starry sky behind her. 

I really liked it, but thought it needed something else.

It was missing an oomph of some sort. 

Well, one thing led to another and the background

I started out with has now vanished. 

I'm kind of sad that I didn't take a picture

at that earlier stage.  C'est la vie. 

It still doesn't have any type of top coat on it. 

I'm leery of the beeswax and I don't have any self

leveling gel, nor have I ever used it before.

I need to figure something out in that regard. 

Other than that, I call her finished. 

Now that number 3 is behind me, I can

say I'm learning not to take the process

too seriously. 

If I make a mistake or somehow ruin it, so what?!

I'll take note of what I learned from the mistake, put

it behind me, and move on!

Thanks for stopping by!

Terri

Folk Art Mixed Media

This is my second try at mixed media. 

I wanted to paint over her face and start over

so many times, but I promised myself

beforehand that I was choosing volume

of work over perfection. 

This is what she looks like before beeswax.

The following is after the beeswax. 

Grrr. . ruined another piece. 

It'd be easy to insert a snarky 

remark here, but I'll refrain.

I want and need to allow myself grace throughout

this season of learning. 

Well, it's back to the drawing board.

Happy Mother's Day if it applies to you.  

Peace, Love and Joy

Terri