WOYWW

My desk looks pretty clean; that is because I have vowed to work on a watercolor today. It is so easy to procrastinate and get busy doing something else. I recently watched the video from Strathmore on watercolor. Cathy used a wooden quill pen with acrylic ink to draw her subject. That has been going around and around in my head, so I will draw the wooden duck you see at the back of the desk. The pen keeps you from being too particular, because it skips here and there. Our son carved this duck for us a few years back and it is lovely.
 I just has some Ginger tea in the beautiful cup in the foreground. It belongs to my Mother, and she wanted me to have it. I like to drink tea from a pretty china mug or cup, and coffee from a heavier pottery mug. I don't know why; that is just the way I do it!
Ann saved the day with her advice on the problem I was having with my blog. Thank you Ann!
Hop on over to Julie's and see what others are doing.

Help please

For the last 2 days I have not been able to access the dashboard on blogger, therefore I cannot see any of the blogs that I follow with the RSS feed. I have looked all over the web for help without success. :<((  Can anyone help, or tell me where to go for help. I would prefer a free site.

Blue Monday

My blue bottles have a very special place in my heart.
This is one of my favorite ones; just big enough for the
first rose of summer. The roses are filling our back fence with
their pink,and they are beautiful!
Blue is the subject over at Smiling Sally's web site.

Go see for yourself, and enjoy the blue.

Old Salado

Just got back from a wonderful weekend with my favorite guy of 50 years.
We walked up and down Main street in Salado checking out all the antique stores,
art gallery, and even the herb shop. I am so blessed to have a patient mate who
just lets me roam in and out while he visits with the locals, or just enjoys people watching..
There was a Wine Fest and an Art Festival going on. It was a bit too early for all the wine tasting,
but we enjoyed looking at the"copper bull" who will be used as a grill; smoke will come out of the horns. It was for sale, however the price was not posted! 
We stayed in the Historic Stagecoach Inn. The original inn, built in1860 stands as a reminder of days when the Overland Stage and the Pony Express  ran along the Chisholm Trail. The Inn was also frequented by General Robert E Lee, General Custer, and Stephen F. Austin. This Historical Inn has a lot to do with keeping Salado a town of importance today. Beautiful Salado Creek runs right through town, and we enjoyed sitting out on the rocks. Now, we will put our feet up and rest awhile!

TGIF

TGIF---Thank God it's Friday, and time to express our gratitude for the little things in life.
It is always good to read what makes others thankful, and feel joy.
You can do so right here at Liv's site, and here at Joy Jam.
My Little Bliss list is quite mundane, but not to me.
1)  Found some Cherry Limeade at Walmart. It is just like Sonic, only better.
2 ) Mama dove sitting on her nest on top of the trellis right outside the window, where we can watch as Mr. Dove brings her good things to eat.
3) A new meditation tape by one of my favorite people, Wayne Dyer.
4) Making plans to go on an art retreat.

I hope you all have a glorious weekend. My hubby and I are sneaking off for some fun and time to enjoy this weather.

TaDa

I am still peeling E-6000 from my fingers, however I am pretty pleased with the result
of my zipper pin. I guess I could have used fabric fusion or hot glue, or even Elmer's, however I feel that hot glue sometimes puts blobs where you don't want them. The zipper had to be wound very tight in order to look right. I put Triple Thick on when it was dry thinking it would give it a shine, but it actually dulled it down a little. Anyway, now I am wondering if it needs something to jazz it up a little. I could glue feathers on the back. The long feathers are from an Emu, given to me by a friend in Taylor. Some of them have a tinge of blue on the end which I like. The short feathers were in my stash. What do you think about the feather idea, or perhaps another idea; maybe beads? I just think it looks kinda plain and needs something to add some spice. I would love to hear from you.

WOYWW

It is Wednesday when we get to hop around and see what everyone is working on.
You can find some fun at Julie's blog; they are all listed. You can also click on the blog button on the right side of this blog. WOYWW.


A few days ago I showed some zippers that I had bought.
I have been working with them to make a pin.
No instructions, just guessing at the process.

Tomorrow you can see the finished product, if it works!

Warm Up Indeed!

What a great idea Amy has for warming up in the studio!
She likes to make greeting cards fast and furiously, using her intuition
for the right choices, instead of laboring over it. I could take a lesson from her, as I sometimes

spend so much time thinking about what I am going to do, that I never get around to doing it. :>) I usually spend one long day making cards, and by the end of the day, I'm getting stale. I think I will try Amy's idea.
Her thoughts and beautiful cards are at www.paper-paisleys.blogspot.com

Blue Monday

Blue Monday and Blue Skies over Texas! I think Spring has finally come to this part of the state.

We planted grass seed and are praying for rain. Trying to fill in all the spots left bare from last summer's drought. If you want to have a Blue Monday, head on over to Smiling Sally's blog and have a look around.
 I am actually starting a little "blue" project today. Can you guess what it is? Can you believe that this package has a 35 cent price tag on it?

St. Pat's Day

Today we celebrate our Irish heritage. My hubby's Mother was an O'Hogan, which had the O dropped somewhere along the line. We scurried around this morning looking for green shirts to wear today, so we wouldn't get pinched.

SMV stands for slow moving vehicle, and I must say we have gotten a little slower over the years.
The other day I was wearing my green shirt and I was cleaning the sink with bleach; well, you can guess what happened, so I got out my new Olfa Rotary cutter and cut the shirt into strips. This morning I assembled my new necklace to wear.

We decided to try a green martini to go along with the March Madness on TV. The Leprechaun shirt came from my sister who used to walk in the Relay for Life walks. I'm sure she would be happy that I am wearing her shirt drinking a green martini for St. Pat's Day! Have a great weekend.

Bliss and Joy

This week has been especially nice and I am thankful for every minute I got to spend with our daughter and family.
Grand daughter and I painted together, played ball, and hugged.
Hubby brings me coffee every morning
Spring has sprung
A wonderful surprise in the mail from a special friend
All of these make me very thankful.
On Liv's site here and there is Joy here
Take a look and brighten your day.

There is joy and bliss all around!

 More pictures from the festival. I think Spring has sprung, as it was 80 degrees yesterday.

I am anxious to get back to my studio and work on some watercolors with lettering.

Well, we have had a busy week with a Historic home tour, a Daffodil Festival, a birthday party, and just plain having fun with family and friends. I was in charge of flowers for each room before the tour. We cut most of them from the gardens and trees in the yard. Grand daughter decided to try her luck at climbing the rock wall at the festival; she is fearless!  I brought several of my watercolors here to hang; I think I will leave them here, as they look very nice with the antique furniture. The docents loved their daffodil bookmarks and fabric flowers.

Well my friend Dixie got a great award on her blog http://gypsyczech.blogspot.com/
today. She really does have some very creative and interesting ideas. Go on over and see for yourself.
I thought I was busy, but Dixie manages to go a lot, do a lot, and still has time to create collage. I want to thank her for thinking of me also.

WOYWW

Every Wednesday it is customary to show others in blog land what we have been working on. Julie, over at Stamping Ground has graciously organized this little adventure. Actually, it's not so little, as there are almost 200  lookers and participants. I have been making daffodil bookmarks, as you can see from the previous post, so on my desk I had my carving tools in the box for making rubber stamps. I found that the Master Carve made be Staedtler is much easier to carve, especially when doing something small. I also had some pink rubber from Speedball. I guess they each have their place; because Master Carve is like cutting butter,  it is easy for the tool to slip off the track, but I much preferred it for this project. I ended us painting the stems and leaves on each,even though I had cut them out also.

Daffodils

Daffodils are blooming everywhere, but especially in Camden, Arkansas where they have the annual  Daffodil Festival. There will be booths, and home and garden tours. I wanted to make some book marks for some
special people as a small thank you. I started  with watercolor  but it just wasn't looking bright enough, so I carved 2 daffodil blooms out of rubber and used them with vibrant yellow and orange colors. I had carved one bloom with the leaves and stem, but then I read on line that giving 1 daffodil  bloom brings bad luck, so I cut the leaves off and used 2 flower heads instead.  Bristol board worked much better for stamping than the watercolor paper. I painted the stems and leaves and then wrote Daffodil  Festival and the date on the bottom. Since I had 2 blossoms, I could actually make each one a little different.I used some thin ribbon I had in place of a tassel. They just might get one of my famous fabric flowers also. They are so fun to wear.