My Yard..........

 

                                            Is now a Nursery.... for many, many baby Horny Toads also called a Horned Lizard...I have honestly never seen one so tiny.. They are adorable in my opinion... They are a 'Protected' species here in TX.  I've learned the construction companies have to have a special permit and make certain protections for them and even stop construction during breeding season... I learned that and it made me wonder about my housing development.. did they do that? Are the doing that with the continuing construction that is going on... ? I think i'll dig a little deeper... They do hold a special place in my heart...💓Hope your having a great week! Hugs! deb

Long picture heavy post........

 

.......Real quick.... those that wanted to know how i did this.. I don't have step by step pics but i can tell you.... Started with a hardcover sketch book and put texture paste through a feather stencil then painted the whole thing shades of blue... then used sandpaper to reveal the feathers... easy peasy... 

Let's start off by showing you my Halloween themed Belated Birthday Tea Party pictures! See the Witch Fingers? I made those! I think the pink 'nail polish' really made them great.. lol

Everyone had their own special tea cup... sugar cubes were a big hit as you can imagine... 

I spent an entire day and a half pulling out Halloween decorations and setting it up... fun but i was pooped by the time the party rolled around and i had to put it all away after... 

Found the perfect pumpkin color roses for the occasion.  

I had a skeleton sitting by the front door holding a sign that said 'Knock three times for the party'... That was a big hit... 

And this guy sitting at the table with us was a big hit too... They loved to go over and make his jaw move and pretend he was talking... lol ! Had me laughing alot...lol They both showed up dressed like the most adorable little witches... :)

The littlest Grandlittle is very much into little boos..So i tried my hand at painting her one... I think it came out adorable... I'm more into a scary Halloween but the Grandlittles like cute so hey i can do cute...lol

If your still hanging in there thought i would show you how tall those plants are getting! I didn't crop it in close because i wanted you to have something to compare them too so you could tell how tall they are!!! 

And they have produced a few flowers... Wasps are crawing all over them... so i guess thats who will pollinate them.. .I hope to collect the seeds.. 

Wow you made it! If you made it to the end thank you so much for hanging in there!  Its hot and humid here but we've had no rain since that BIG rain and flooding event.. The grass that sprouted with that is beginning to die back .. thank goodness.. We seem to be back to our typical hot dry conditions at least for the moment.. with some humidity thrown in .. Hubs is doing well ... he's been off playing alot of golf.. does my heart good to see him out and about and active.. Right at the moment he's in his shop building a bird house.. :)  Take care till next time! Hugs!deb

 

Scattered........

..... picture heavy post... in no particular order of photos.... Me and mine... we are all safe from the flooding here in TX... We did get ALOT of rain.... some parts of my city are flooded... WE live on a hill... and never been so grateful to live on a hill.... I think no matter where i live i will always live on a hill... 😳My heart goes out to everyone involved... Really can't stop thinking about the girls at the camp... so sad..  Above is my ArtJournal you may remember... If you want to know how i did those feathers let me know and i'll tell you next post..  
 

             Here are my latest sketches in there. With room to write... 

I've had a Birthday since we last spoke... getting waaay too close to 60 for my liking... Above is the present i asked for.. Now i just have to be brave enough to go out and paint in front of people... 😱

Had some scraps leftover from projects and made a bookmark that my daughter claimed... 😄Love it when she loves something i've made... 

Day out with eldest granddaughter...Dinosaur museum had these cool virtual reality set ups... She loved it and i LOVED watching her love it...lol... 

Since we visited..... theres been time for hobbies... This coin thing was 'supposed' to me hubby's hobby....in retirement.... well its become my hobby... lol

Another hobby i've had time for since we last chatted .. is repairing Liliput Lane and David Winter houses... they are collectibles.. I'm getting quite the collection of them... but i tend to get rundown, derelict, in need of repair houses for good prices... then i spruce them up where the paint has chipped or pieces broken off... I match colors... I only take the ones i feel confident i can make look like new.. I use air dry clay for missing pieces... lots of fun. I enjoy the challenge... 

Do you think only girls pick a bouquet of wild flowers from the yard before they mow it...? lol 

My petunias were awful this year... buggy and just not holding up their end of the deal so i replaced them with Purslane... so far so good... Now i have to remember these do better if i neglect them a little.. :)

You would have no trouble finding my house... I'am the only one in the whole neighborhood who embraces the SunFlower weeds around here and i have one right out front... lol  I keep it trimmed up and the dead flowers taken off... I think they are beautiful , require almost no water from me.. Until i can afford the water bill for roses these make me happy... 

Are you still there? Are you making it through this long post?? Thats what happens when i post once a month...  I've tried another craft... Introduced to me by Kathy on the Lake... She gave me the correct link to purchase flexible wax that will go through the mail... 

I've made my first few and it was alot of fun!! I've seen a video where you can make multi colored ones and i'd like to try that.. Getting the image centered will be a challenge i think.. 

And last but not least is my sketch of a frog... remember the flies from an earlier post?  They might go good together in a painting... :)  Take care everyone... thanks for visiting... and be safe! Hugs! deb

Trial and Error.....

 

.....Lots and lots of error.... lol but i was determined to bake cupcakes for my eldest Grandlittles Birthday... 

I wanted them to look like little multicolor rosettes on top... Attempted recipe for buttercream off internet... held shape well but tasted awful... Gave up on the home made recipe... bought the little tubs... like Duncan Hines etc... nope tasted good but wouldn't pipe and hold the shape...too soft...  So i ended up getting a tub of buttercream at Hobby Lobby of all places... recommended to me by a professional baker... and they were maybe overly sweet but tasted good and held the shape... figured out how to load the piping bag to pipe out the multicolors... really it was alot of fun and i learned something... 

We've had alot of rain and some hail... we are getting a new roof... I've had some rain lilies come up in the yard.. i had to pick them before i mowed it all down... I'm pretty sure only us 'lady mowers' do that..:)  

Remember these seeds that i swiped from the Sunken Garden downtown...? Littlest Grandlittle and i planted them... In a terrible mishap i left them sitting in the wet papertowel too long and they actually got mushy... so only 4 of them came up  .. i think all of them would have come up if i hadn't done that.. 

Well i finally got them in the ground... Hard to know when to do it with 60-70 mph winds and hail... But i just did it... cross your fingers.. I must have seen over a dozen worms while i was planting.. .thats a good sign i think... :)

I still have no idea what their name is... I've tried figuring it out without much luck... Any ideas??? The closest i came was an Aralia.. but i don't think thats right...   

I've had one SunFlower come up out front... I'm going to try to keep it trimmed up somehow because they get quite big.. 

I've had a handful come up along the walkway in the back yard... they are late comers...I'll play heck keeping them off the sidewalk enough to walk on it and i'm sure hubby will complain... but again i will keep them trimmed as much as i can.. .They NEVER come up in an convenient place... sigh

Here's a SunFlower when its small... the leaves are very easy to recognize from the surrounding grass and weeds... 

And finally ... the Devil's Bouquet has come up in a few places.. I thought all the rain would make it die out as it really likes the dry soil and sun but so far so good..  I hope you all have been well  and safe in all this crazy weather... or is it just my neck of the woods??? 

One last image if you've made it this far...  This is for CJ... she doodled a lovely cat and i told her i would show her mine from a few years ago.. Hope to paint this one day.. Hugs! deb

Summer Has Arrived........

Just in the last week!  Temps up in the mid 90's... no rain... we could use some... but you can keep the storms... Above is my Mother in law's kettle first planted with the GrandLittles.. 
 

Here it is about a week or so ago.. Its even more full now... The metal dragonfly was given to me from a friend... I thought putting it there was a good idea at first but now the birds sit on it and poop all over the flowers....hmmm maybe not such a good idea...lol 

My latest drawing....of a fly...kinda unusual i think to draw a fly... so 

I sketched 2 more... I like them i think they would make a good painting or maybe a woodburn project...because i like weird and unusual things like that....  

I scored off FaceBook Marketplace!  These are boot removers that look like bugs... The darker ,cast iron one i've had for years but recently just found the silver, aluminum one.. The aluminum one says Ricardo on the underside and the cast iron one has a bunch of writing that is too faded to read... Need to do a little research... 

I know this is a longer, picture heavy post but if you bear with me i'll tell you a story of these plates... The plate above is made of pewter, we found it in Germany when we lived there with the military... I'm pretty sure i didn't pay much for it because, well i never do pay much for my fleamkt finds.. lol  Its pretty light weight..especially notice the 'bedknob' and the space above the bedknob... 

Now above this is the plate hubby and i found a couple of weeks ago at a HUGE fleamkt in Wimberley , TX .  It was on the $1 shelf.. Heavy pewter and check out the differences... they are alike but not the same... besides being MUCH heavier it also has much more detail...And the bedknob or whatever is a different shape... interesting 

The one from Germany has this angel mark on the back ... thats the only mark on it... I found out the angel mark is to let you know it is lead free... 

The one i just found also only has an angel mark on it but a different angel...I just thought that was so cool to run into the same but different plate in my life time in two different countries...lol 

I hope you remember my wood fish i painted... i thought you might like to see where they ended up... 

This is the master bath... I think they look nice with that canvas painting of one-eyed fish.... I wish the camera picked up all the shine and glitter from the wood fish.. 

   Well there... your all caught up with me.. lol ! There's been lots of GrandLittle stuff... sleep overs, play dates... Grass and weed mowing and weedeating for me.. at least the lack of rain keeps that down.. I hope your having a wonderful and safe beginning to your Summer... and thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs! deb

AND..... the Results are in.....

 

Hubby retook the photo of the wild Verbena and his came out so much better.... I wish we had smellovision... lol 

This is a large cast iron kettle that used to belong to Hubby's Mother.  I have coveted it for a very long time... Hubby drilled a few extra holes in the bottom and the GrandLittles and i planted it last week... pink and purple and white and red Petunias and some Sweet Potato Vine... so much fun... I know i'am in great danger of the SPV sweet potato vine taking over the pot... i will have to keep an eye on that... The problem was i couldn't find the SPV when i wanted it so i started buying Petunias... then i found it... lol 

I never look online for the results of the Art Competition... I like to walk up and hopefully see a Ribbon... but for some reason this year I did peek... The above painting which is my first of any kind of Landscape painting got Honorable Mention... Not what you hope for but they could have not given it anything... so they thought enough of it to give it that.. 

         The Gold Feather Windchime won a Blue                         Ribbon!!!  So happy about that!! 

Mr. Owl is bringing home an Honorable Mention too....  I'm looking forward to going to the event and seeing what he was up against because i really like him... 

Another windchime made of glass and metal lids that i used alcohol inks on them... strung on fishingline and used glass marble beads to help me string it... 

           It is bringing home a second place win... 

This was under dry brush ceramics... this is the first year in a couple years that i have not entered a dragon... I don't know if you can tell but their eyes are glossy... and they each have a gold tooth.. They are bringing home a second place...  

I'm looking forward to going up to the StockShow/Carnival / Rodeo and seeing my exhibits on the wall and in glass cases with their ribbons... I'm still on the hunt for a Best In Show Ribbon... maybe next year! Hugs! deb