Apples and Pear Paintings

I have mentioned I am learning a new painting technique.  I practiced first on this hapless pear.  My! but it needs more work, especially in the leaves. 

The artist acrylics blended with medium to mimic oils is a whole new ball game for me. And the technique entails much more tapping and blending rather than stroking on the paint. 



By the time I finished the apples I was getting a better feel for it.

I will do a third one, maybe some cherries or other intensely colored fruit, then they can be sold as a set on my website.
 


This lovely machine is an industrial tailoring machine that was the pride and joy of my paternal Grandmother.  Grandma Jo (short for Josephine)loved this hearty workhorse and she upholstered a bounty of sofas and chairs with it.  She also sewed countless shorts and tops for children that she sold at the flea market to make ends meet along with the sets she made for her grandchildren. 



It has been in storage and I have finally gotten it brought into the house.  Now to make it pretty again.  I know it was working when we removed it from Grandma’s house but that was quite a few years ago.  I have not been brave enough to plug it in.  I learned to upholster on this machine, it sews beautifully when running properly.  

I am rather liking it in the living room but I am not sure my husband will.  We have a small home and every space needs to pull double duty.  Having something for mostly show is not practical and yet I just may push this up under the window after removing the bench you see behind it and just enjoy it as eye candy for awhile.  

The trick will be gussying this baby up.  And/or getting it upstairs to the sewing/guest room, it is very heavy.  I two man job for sure! I am thinking of a nice gray for the metal base and a warm white for the top…??? Or would the black of the sewing machine be to stark against that?  Decisions, decisions.
I have one more Japanese Maple shot for you from the other day.



The rain has started and the cold has arrived.  It felt frigid when I ran to the Post Office earlier this afternoon.  The chill bit right through my jeans.  

So I came on home and started cooking and the spicy sweet aroma of delicious pumpkin bars is wafting into my office as we speak.  Time to see if they are ready for their scrumptious cream cheese frosting.
 
Enjoy!
 

Come visit me in my studio

 

 

Another beautiful day!

The weather has been spring like making it easier to work out of doors.  My bench is coming along and I will post the update soon with photos of us building it. 

I took the time Sunday morning to walk my gardens and see what was blooming.  My Hyacinths provide a sweet perfume that is pleasant as I walk thru the different blooms. 



This was taken just a few days ago and now it has change already. As soon as the sun starts shining steadily and warms up the earth the garden begins to really get to work.



One of my New Millennium Delphinium seedlings, in the past I have called them English Delphiniums but I should correct myself here.  This one was in my greenhouse and is already blooming but the ones I put out in the garden last Fall are cropping up just fine as well, they will take longer to produce blooms.

You can go here to see my post on starting these from seed.



I have started a lot of these and I am going to plant them all in my garden, I love them! These were protected by wire to keep the chickens from digging them up as they hunted for worms.



My Japanese Maple seedlings are all leafing out.  I will share my method of sprouting these guys soon, it is easy enough.  I had nabbed these seeds off the patio of a restaurant that was surrounded by Japanese Maples, the seeds littered the ground thickly.  I will have to try there again this Fall and see if I can get more.



My Cecile Brunner climber is loaded with buds, the side I my chicken house this is clambering up will be awash with the spicy scented pink blooms soon.



All of my Clematis are donning buds as well.  Each one is a different color.  They sure seem to like it here. 



A thick carpet of Larkspur volunteering in the garden.



And some purple flower signs I have been painting on.






And a couple rose signs to ship out today.





I certainly hope everyone enjoys their Tuesday.  Another sunny spring day here and out to the studio I go.  First I think I will put down some more Delphinium seeds, I can’t have too many!

A great day!

I seemed to accomplish many things on my long list of chores.  I was able to get a couple tomato plants yanked up and buckets of chicken manure compost dumped in those beds.  I am wanting to plant my delphiniums I started from seed this past spring in that spot soon. 


The yanked up plants were loaded with tomatoes still, mostly green, I did retrieve the ones turning red and have them on my kitchen counter to continue ripening, this variety is a sauce tomato.  The ones to the right are Brandywines and I am going to leave those for another week in high hopes of getting some more to ripen.  I have a lone deer coming around at night taking a bite out of any he can access so I left some on the ground for him to nibble. 

We have had our first frost, a light one but still a frost.  It did not prove fatal for my geraniums or even my Angels Trumpet.



I need to move that one to my mom’s sunroom to overwinter, I just do not have anywhere that gets enough light to keep it healthy. 

I still have a few Casablanca lilies trying to bloom.  What a lovely way to end my growing season, one last hurrah, a beautifully scented one.  I may have to cut it and bring it in the house. 



I whipped out my D40 for dummies book again, I learned some new things on the information panel, like how to get the battery life info and how many photos the SD card will hold.  The one I have now says 2000 photos, not bad at all.  I also learned how to manipulate settings with one button instead of having to go into the menu area.  The more I am learning the more I get the feeling I should’ve done this long ago!

I took some photos of my Japanese Maples. 



The one above I do not know the name of, but the one below is Cherokee Red.



Then Spring Delight. This one stays this delightful bright green all season long. 



I started working on the shawl I mentioned in my last post.  Here is the first half of a motif.  It is an intermediate in difficulty pattern but not bad, you just have to pay attention, once I get the pattern down it will move faster but I am already liking it.
I did get stuck on one unfamiliar stitch.  I Googled it and up pops a great site called “Learn A Stitch A Day” and it had a step by step video that was perfect.  I never would’ve figured it out on my own.

I love the internet!

Unfortunately the color of the yarn is not coming thru true in the photo but you get the drift.



I think I will go work on it now.  A nice way to unwind after a busy day! 
Enjoy your evening!