July 4th Coming Up

In light of the upcoming holiday, I thought I would post a couple of my pictures that make me think of or are directly related to our Independence Day. I love this Uncle Sam one. I've gotten lots of compliments on it.

The one with the ship in the storm was painted for my son, Jonathan, on his 23rd birthday. It just puts me in the mind of colonial America and the immigrants sailing to our country.

Then also the first ship makes me think of those who sailed to America looking for freedom.

I hope you enjoy these pics and have a great 4th of July on Saturday!!~

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Another Mood!

Some time back I was in a completely awful mood. When I get like that I have a tendency to paint...let us say...weirdly. At the time I had a canvas board that I had attempted to paint a ship on and absolutely could not do it! I believe, it was just not meant to be. So, I didn't have any Gesso to primer over the ship and didn't want to use so much of my white paint, so I took my little canister of drywall putty (or whatever you call it, I can't remember--Oh, yeah, spackle!) and slathered it onto my canvas board making sure to leave plenty of texture.
I love swirls, I've discovered as I've been painting, and all I wanted to see was a dark background with these swirls of color. I thought as I painted about how there is always something beautiful (in this case the colors) when darkness is surrounding you. It was a rare philosophical moment in my life. (Like I said, I was in a mood! ha!) Then later, I decided to give a counter balance to this one and make another one with the darkness being amidst all the light. Sort of a some days you're in a good mood, some days you're not kind of thing. And, yes, I guess you can compare that to the whole Eastern philosophy of the yin/yang thing, but I don't go in for that. I like my version better.
Anywho, I'm sort of in the same type of mood today as I was when I painted that first dark picture. So I thought it was a great time to bring them both out into the vast openness that is the internet and share them with anyone who happens across them. Enjoy!~

Jane Austen Quiz

Take the Quiz here!

Jane Austen Fan!

Image by allie™ via Flickr

I love Jane Austen, as I have stated earlier. I found a blog of a woman who took this quiz and I thought I would add it here on mine. I am Elizabeth Bennett, the heroine of the very first Jane Austen book I ever read, 'Pride and Prejudice'! I can see it. (I'm having a problem with getting the thing on here. I'll try it again and hopefully I'll get it.)
FYI-I first got interested in Jane Austen while watching 'You've Got Mail'. Pride and Prejudice was Kathlene Kelly's (Meg Ryan's character) favorite book because she gets "caught up in the language." This picture, of course, depicts the book 'Emma', which was the second book of hers I read. I have both of these and all of the others (my sweetie went out and bought them for me!) except for 'Sense and Sensibility', but I did see the BBC miniseries and the movie with Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet. (Wonderful movie!) At some time, when I get a little cash to spend on it, I still want to get the book and read it, if I can make the time.
I think everyone who likes to read good books without bad language to mess everything up and wants to get lost in another era should take the time and read Jane Austen's books!

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A Strange Mood

Image by Fr Antunes via Flickr

I'm in an odd mood today. I think I'm sort of melancholy. I have a great longing to be near the ocean and I'd love to go visit a lighthouse. I've never been in a lighthouse! Isn't this a great picture?! I'm assuming that is a lighthouse at the end of that road. With my eyes the way they are, it kind of looks like the Space Shuttle!

Every so often I get in a traveling mood, but I want to go to places like on the north eastern coast of the US or somewhere really historical like Pennsylvania or Virginia. I want to be somewhere near the ocean, but not a "springbreak" destination! Know what I mean? If I could only stand on a cliff somewhere and look out at the ocean; that would be the bomb! Going by my really big dreams, I'd love to visit the western coast of England. There are some awesome cliffs there!

I think what I need to do is to go back to my story and write. There I can escape to the cliffs of western England! I'm really excited to get finished with it (almost there!) so that I can begin to send my manuscript off to publishers and see what happens! And I can start brainstorming for a new story!~

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A Couple More

Here are a couple that I really enjoyed painting, especially because they are Autumn themed.

Really Folk Artsy

Here are some of my paintings that are really folk-artsy looking. I think these are my favorite kinds to paint! Sorry about the quality of the photos. I can't seem to keep the camera steady! Hope you like them!~

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Happy Anniversary to Us!

Image via Wikipedia

Today, June 14, 2009, is my and Bill's 6th wedding anniversary!! Yay us!! Since it's a day to pause and reflect upon all of the wonderful memories he and I have shared, I thought it might be nice to write some of them down and invite you to share your favorite memory with me.
As those of you who know us know that Bill and I were married on the Walnut Street Bridge (those that were there, who could forget it, right?!). Those of you who are unfamiliar with Chattanooga, the Walnut Street Bridge is one of four bridges in downtown Chattanooga and was built in 1881. It used to be used for cars, but as the years passed and it became too unsafe for them, it was restored (sometime in the 1980's I think?) as a pedestrian walking bridge. It is a wonderful place to visit with the Bluff View art district on the south side and Coolidge Park and Frazier Ave. on the north side.
Bill and I would go there often as we were courting and he once sang a love song to me (Garth Brooks 'To Make You Feel My Love'). So that was where I told him I wanted to get married.
His "official" proposal was beside the Tennessee River at sunset (Ah, so romantic!) and then we honeymooned in Ashville, NC and then on to Gatlinburg, TN. We stayed at the Bearskin Lodge on River Rd. It's a huge log cabin style hotel next to the Little Pigeon creek and our room had a balcony where we could see the creek below. If you ever get the chance to stay there--do! It's beautiful! And go to The Park restaurant; it looks just like the Bearskin.
In the manner of the Smoky Mtns., it rained for most of our visit. But, for the majority of the time, it just misty rained. I remember walking back to the hotel after breakfast or lunch (?) and walking near the creek. There was a tree that came out over the sidewalk and just as Bill and I were walking under it, I reached up and grabbed a branch and gave it a great shake! Bill, in his wonderful humor, just laughed!
Most of the wonderful memories I have with my Sweetie happens in the day to day living with him. The crazy lyrics he makes up to songs and commercials, the way he always flirts and sweet talks me and constantly telling me he loves me, and his way of looking at things logically and sensibly, grounds me (I can get too caught up in my emotional side of thinking sometimes) and gives me encouragement that I can do whatever I put my mind to. He makes me so very happy to have in my life and-Sweetheart, you are the love of my life! Happy Anniversary!~

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My Art Work

I love, love, love to paint on canvas! I use acrylic craft paint and then seal my pics with a gloss or matte sealer. I began painting one day when I had some cross stitch material and thought about doing some wall hangings. So I made this first little guy welcoming us into Autumn, because I am a huge Fall fan! I love all the pumpkins and scarecrows and the earth-tone colors and the cool weather. So many of my paintings are folk art/fall related and it doesn't even matter if it's summer or spring or winter, I love to paint in the primitive and folk art genre.

After I used up my scrap material, I bought 11 yrds of a good cotton material that was on sale for $1 a yard! SCORE! I was able to get many paintings out of it. Some I left the edges raw and some I hemmed and added a wooden dowel and twine for easy hanging.

Trees are another one of my favs! I've painted many different kinds. This tree was made in the primitive look. Its crooked trunk and curvy branches give it a spooky halloween-ish feel. I actually do have some Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas pictures that I painted, but they are all put away with my holiday decorations. I'll get them out closer to fall and post them then.

There are times, though, that I like to divert from the folk art look and do something crazy. Like this fish. This little guy is completely wild and the colors were exciting to work with! I really wanted to blend the colors together and have them fade into each other. I think I pulled it off well!

In my first post for today, I said I wouldn't take pictures of all of my paintings, but there really weren't many left over that I didn't take pictures of! Ha! And there have been paintings that I've given as gifts, so I don't have them readily available for snap shots. But, I hope you keep checking back, because there is more to come!~

TA DA!!

Ok, Tabby juiced up the digital camera and uploaded (or downloaded or whatever you do with it) all the pictures I took to my files and now I can add them whenever I'm ready!! Yay!
So, the very first one I will post is the crocheted TN/GA blanket I made for Tripp. And there he is when he was just little! I decided to crochet this blanket because it was a big thing between his parents, my niece, April, and her husband, Lee, about which team they're fans of. April is a TN fan (Go Vols!) and Lee is a GA fan (but we don't hold it against him). The recessional song at their wedding was Tn's and Ga's fight songs! So when they found out Tripp was coming, I thought what better gift could I give them? Of course, I could never make them and sell them without getting licensing, but I can make them for gifts. I was really proud that it turned out so well!~

I Said I was Fickle!

Last week it was painting on canvas and gluing polymer clay sculptures to it. Today and yesterday it was writing on the long story I spoke about (which I will probably stay on until I hit a writer's block), but I also must revisit my artwork sometime today after Tabby's camera charges up so I can begin to once again take pictures of them all and post them here on my site. Maybe today I can get them posted. Granted, I won't post ALL of them, just the ones I think are best.

I'm also posting another one of the blankets I made for my niece's son, Tripp, (not Whitley's mom--my other niece). This is the one that got me started working on blankets for all of my nieces' and nephew's kids. I'm currently working on one for Whitley's brother, Keaton, and then I'll start on Jackson's--my nephew's son. I also made one for Emma--my step-granddaughter, and Madison--my expected granddaughter--oh yeah, and one for a friend's little baby, Zoe. (I hope I spelled that right!) Wow! I never realized how many blankets I've cranked out! Besides those I also made two huge bedspreads for my and Bill's bed and I'm working on an afghan for our bed and a throw for my antique rocking chair. Being fickle causes me to have many projects going on at any given time.

I usually never know from day to day which project I will wind up working on when I wake up in the morning. I can't decide the night before what I'll work on the next day. I have several cloth dolls (I named Prissy Prims) that I've been working on from time to time (when I remember I'm doing them. They will be posted as well) and I think they are just adori-bell.

My other "fickle traits" come in the form that I usually end up being the last one to decide what I want to order at a restaurant or--on a broader scale--do with my life. I usually have an easier time ordering in a restaurant than deciding what to do with my life (professionally speaking) because ordering in a restaurant offers very little risk. I've always been very interested in the medical field. I don't know why, maybe it was because my mother worked for an insurance company for 26 years and I thought the building looked cool? Or maybe it was because I associated my mother's very stable job with a lower level of risk and the medical industry is by far the least risky profession to get into--if you pick the right venue. The problem between me and the medical industry (in which I have never had a job), I think, happened when I did very well in my Medical Assitant training, but flubbed up the practical side of it in my externship. I made a very low grade and it did something to my thinking--or my self-confidence.

Then a few years ago we bought our first house and were faced with higher-than-rent mortgage payments. Once again my fear of instability kicked in and I decided I should go back to school and get a degree with which I could safely land a secure job. So, what did I think to do? I took classes for an Associate's degree in Health Care Administration! What a shocker! I graduated in October of 2008. In November, I was at my sister's house in Arkansas when my husband informed me that my degree had come in the mail. I thought, "Oh, how nice." It really was very anti-climatic because my sister, Linda, was in the process of moving from her home in Arkansas to her home in Heaven. After going through all that, in January of '09, my best friend's father passed away and I was there with the family afterward and it was excruciating for everyone. I then found out I was going to be a Grammie again, which was exciting, but very unplanned. So, needless to say, my emotions and mental state were crazy. Then I kept feeling nauseous and it wouldn't go away so I went to the doctor and did all sorts of blood work and tests and found out I had an ulcer and needed my gallbladder removed (which I'm still waiting to do four months later).
After all that happened, I started to dread looking for a 9 to 5 job. Such fickleness! Now, the very thought of it absolutely turns my stomach. I just feel there is more required of my life than that and I can not shake it. So I'm stepping out of my comfort zone and I'm trying to do things that will fulfill my dreams. I have to. I can not do anything else. I WILL have the life I dream of and it will benefit me and everyone that God has brought or will bring into my life. Maybe then I'll only be fickle in restaurants!~