Garden Tour, Iris and Roses mostly.

Don't ya just love this Candyland rose?
My garden is performing a good month early this year.
Normally I would not see roses until mid to late June.
I am not complaining....
no, not at all.
As I walk around the profusion of petaled glory each morning I breathe deep and revel in the scent.
Some perfumey roses..
actually override the aroma of the Eau de Poulet
(just my fancy way of saying chicken doo).
Cecile Brunner seems to like this spot on the chicken house.
She adds a bit of grace to a rather shabby little place.
I do need to do something different with that ugly window,
we had to cover it with plastic as the raccoons were trying to get the chickens through it.
hmm...project #112

Not to be overlooked (or smelled)
is the grape koolaid scent of the old fashioned Flags.
Their sweet scent floats into the living room when the doors are flung open to catch the evening breeze.

  Other Iris have little fragrance but their colors please the eye..
Flamboyant blue Dutch Iris
or a beauty in contrasting yellow and purple.

Presently there is a lot of purple in the garden but soon,
very soon,
that will change.

The clematis are at their height for the season.
Most will only put on this flamboyant Spring show,
but I have one that blooms all summer long.
More and more iris are opening their colorful buds each day.
I will come back and share a complete post of just Iris, I think.
Have a great day.
Oh, wait, just one more shot...
my bounty of the morning.
I beat the robins to these in my strawberry patch.
Delish!

How to Paint Lilacs Fast and Easy!

Well, are you ready for a new fast and easy painting tutorial???
Complete with VIDEO!
  Last time I shared with you how to paint the roses on the sign...
it has a video also.

Now I demo the lilacs.
I use a scruffy brush and start with pouncing on a conical shape in a darker color,
in this case Dioxinine Purple.
(a pattern packet with the entire design for the sign shown at the top of this post will be available soon)
As you can see, it is very dark.
Next you take your filbert brush or a small flat brush,
load with paint (you can double load or single, up to you)
and  stroke on the petals.
Press, drag and lift to a point to make a simple little 4 or 5 petal flower.
Just keep layering them on leaving some darker space showing.
Some flowers can be a mere 2 or 3 strokes to emulate a partial bud.
Add in a lighter color and stroke over some of the first flowers.
Fill in with flowers all the way to the tip.
Add the dots with a liner brush for the flower centers, and some little twiggy strokes.
You can get a better feel for it from the video.
  It is actually two videos made into one.
The first one I painted with a filbert brush and the second was with a #4 flat brush.

And just for fun,
here is an example of a sign painted with a different color of lilacs.
Ignore the banner across the bottom,
this is the thumbnail for the rose painting tutorial.

I think next time I need to do a lesson on leaves.
What do you think?
I will share that as soon as possible..

Ta...

Nelly Moser Inspiration

Good Morning everyone.
  A fine day it is.
I am working on more garden tours for you but I need to tweak the photos a bit before sharing so you get the most bang for the buck.
In the meantime I will send you this thought for the day.
I have tons of painting to get done.
It may be a holiday for most but not for me.
Though I will break away to stretch my aching muscles (from hunching over a painting table)
to pull a weed or two, maybe pick a bouquet of roses
or just wander amongst the blooms.
Happy Monday!

Learn to Paint Fabulous Pink Roses!

Are you ready for another painting tutorial?
Roses are my specialty and I know they can be a bit tricky to master...
but believe it or not they are really fast and easy once you get the steps down pat.

Which you know what that means...
practice, practice, practice!
For me, videos have been a huge help in learning how to paint.
So I made another rose painting video for you.
Paint Pretty Pink Roses
This is the actual painting I did in the video.

I am working on another to show how I painted all the flowers and leaves on a sign like this one.
  I will share that very soon.
With that post I will also include a link to a pattern packet.
Complete with a list of paint colors and brushes used.

The rest of this post is photo intensive.
I am going to show you stroke by stroke of how I paint my roses.
The video is great because I do 3 roses in a row and it displays how each is a little different.

Lets get started...
first double load your brush with your two colors,
stroke an upside down U.
I do this in 3 steps
I wiggle my brush as I stroke to get some movement in the petal.
See the bit of wave in the petal?
Now do two scallop C strokes and bring them down to a point...more or less
I did the outline of the design on my board with the graphite much darker than I normally would so you could see it in the photos.
Typically it is so light the camera would have a hard time picking it up.
This is the actual design that will be in my pattern packet.

Now paint in the second layer of the top of the bowl of the rose,
same type strokes
Since this bowl is a little wider I don't do another layer..
but my video does show me demonstrating a rose with a third layer in the bowl.
I dab in the pink on the corner of my brush to fill in the center.
Sometimes I add a darker value of pink here to accentuate the center of the rose.
Next we add the arms,
again these are a scalloped C stroke with tails
Before we finish up the bowl we put in the bottom petals..
scallop strokes
That was the center and now a bit to the sides
We are now ready to come in and finish up the bowl of the rose
Start the chisel edge on the side or on one of the tails of the very inner bowl and make a scalloped U stroke.
Attaching it to the tails on the other side.The next petal is a variation of  a U stroke.
Start your brush on the tail edge of the very back bowl and make a varied U stroke.
As you can see this one only came halfway across the center bowl or maybe it looks more like 3/4.
Now there is several ways to do this to make the roses vary so play around with it and get different looks to your roses.
Now the other side..
It overlaps to create the unfolding of the rose
Now add the next arms, scalloped C strokes again..
You do this on each side of the bowl and the tails come over the bowl somewhat.
This could be the finished rose or you can do a fancy stroke that I could not demonstrate in a photo.
For that you really need to see the video.
You can do a few chisel strokes here and there as you feel it needs.
And that is it.
I hope you whip out those brushes and paint, paint, paint.
Come on back, I will include a tutorial on painting the lilacs and leaves.

For another rose painting display I shared go HERE

Happy Painting!

I am going to the Fair!

The Calaveras County Fair & Jumping Frog Jubilee is this week, complete with warm weather, carnival rides, cotton candy, livestock displays and last but not least, the frog jumping competitions.
I will be out there having fun demonstrating (to the best of my ability) how to crochet.  We will be in the Becky Thatcher building (my friends will be demonstrating how to knit).
I am going to sit and crochet this fun little lovey blanket.
Daisy Cottage Designs has some gorgeous patterns, click on over and give her a visit.

And FYI... Craftsy is having a sale on Fabrics and Yarns 

here is the blurb for that

Don't miss out on Craftsy's Mystery Markdown Flash Sale!
**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links

Don't miss out on Craftsy's Mystery Markdown Flash Sale! Enjoy big savings on nearly 200 yarns/fabrics and project kits now. Limited supply, shop before it disappears! Hurry, offer expires Friday, May 16 at midnight PST 2014.

They have an excellent deal for the Lion's Brand Cotton Ease which the above blanket is made from. 
I think I will get the Turquoise, Lake and Almond to do it in.

On another note completely, I am working on a new rose painting video.
Have I mentioned that before?
So many things are going on...sometimes I forget what I have told you about.
Maybe I can get that up tomorrow so you won't be held in suspense!

Have a fabulous day!

Lilacs of White Pines

Yesterday I promised you a walk around the neighborhood to enjoy the wonderful old lilacs.
Most if not all were probably planted in the 40's.
They are a mass of  blooms right now and the perfume is intoxicating.
My neighbor has this lovely lilac colored one and I do believe it is the most heavily scented of them all.
It's a party for your nose.
Here is a link to a post on how I propagated it so I can have my own. HOW TO PROPAGATE LILACS
Just down a block and around the corner is this beauty.
It is a darker purple, not quite as heavily scented but perfumed just enough.
Lilacs though lovely can be invasive, if they like where they are planted
But when you end up with a hillside in front of your house looking like this, you may not care.
I love the mix of colors on this one.
It has both the light lavender and a touch of the darker so probably two different ones growing into each other.
And now to the white, which has a grace and beauty all its own.
With the weather heating up to near 80 this week my garden will begin to pop with blooms.
Already my iris are opening and even a few roses.
An iris by my front drive.
This one still had rain drops on it.
One of my favorites, a gift from my cousin in Idaho, she had dug it up at an abandoned farmhouse garden.
HOW TO SEPARATE IRIS
HOW TO PLANT IRIS
This is going to be the year of the garden.
Last year, I was so busy working on the mountain that my garden was neglected.
The weeds had party and invited ALL of their friends.
They all made themselves at home and decided to have babies.
Lots of babies!
But I have already dug in to garden work and, of course, I love it.
The best thing about getting to work from home is I can take breaks now and then and take 10 minutes to weed a bed or haul some chicken doo from the chicken pen to add to the hot beds.
Enjoy your day!