A Handful of Daisies

In the car today...a delightful one-sided conversation.

"Do you know how to get people to smell your farts?

Say, 'Do you smell popcorn?'

That's all it takes...and they won't be smelling popcorn."

My little guy. Gotta love him!


Here's my version of a whimsical girl with some stars as supporting characters.

Click here to view my gallery.

Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

Please click the links below to share my blog.

I'd love to hear from you...feel free to leave me a comment

Supporting Characters

How do I know that David and I are perfect for each other?


Appliance repair guy commenting on our fridge's coils: "Your bottom looks good."

David and me: "Thank you."


Oy, you can't take us anywhere...even our own kitchen.



Today I worked on some "supporting characters" for my future whimsical paintings (as part of this class).

Click here to view my gallery.

Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

Please click the links below to share my blog.

I'd love to hear from you...feel free to leave me a comment

Legs and Bodies

I recently bought a crimper for my paint tubes. Confession...I'm obsessed! All of our toothpaste tubes are delightfully crimped and I'm on a quest for more things. I'm finding myself considering raiding my friends' bathrooms and maybe even trying it on my hair. Seriously, it's so cool!


Tonight I worked on body shapes and legs for the class I'm taking. Pretty soon I'll be putting all this practice into a painting! Yay!

Click here to view my gallery.

Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

Please click the links below to share my blog.

I'd love to hear from you...feel free to leave me a comment

Scents and Tastes

I went shoe shopping yesterday. I had become increasingly concerned about how big my feet looked in my running shoes. I mean, really...they were at least an inch bigger than my little casual canvas sneakers. Why, I have no idea. But as someone whose feet grew half a size with each kiddo, I kid you not, I admit to having some minor concerns about it. (Let me say right here that my kiddos were absolutely, positively worth the elongation of my tootsies.)

Well, I discovered that if you go to the walking shoes section rather than the running shoes section the shoes are dramatically smaller. And, hey, I'm no runner, I AM a walker.

Oh, and side note, there are a remarkable number of shoe shoppers that talk to themselves while they're trying on shoes. I thought that was really nifty.


I continued working on features of whimsical faces for the class I'm taking. Tonight I worked on mouths and noses.

Click here to view my gallery.

Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

Please click the links below to share my blog.

I'd love to hear from you...feel free to leave me a comment

The Eyes Have It

I'm working on creating some whimsical faces for a class I'm taking. Tonight I worked on eyes as my focus.


Dave: "Why are you making aliens."

Me: "I'm not, I'm making whimsical faces."

Little guy: "That's such a weird word."


I take that as a big thumbs up from the family!

Click here to view my gallery.

Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

Please click the links below to share my blog.

I'd love to hear from you...feel free to leave me a comment

Feeling a Tiny Tad Frida

I've got an egg dilemma. Today I discovered that Phyllis had laid an egg way, WAY, up under our deck. I can see it. But I can't get it. We've had a bit of an egg shortage lately and I'm wondering if there are other eggs under there. And I must admit that I'm a bit terrified about the smell these potential eggs might create after a bunch of 90+ degree Texas days. I need fall weather and a long stick STAT!


As part of my art class we did a super quick study on creating faces. Here's mine. Below it are a couple of stages.

"Feeling a Tiny Tad Frida"

I sketched the face with a pencil.

I used white acrylic to go over my sketch.
The graphite blended with the paint. On my
finished painting I used a bit of black acrylic
as well to get the darks.

Click here to view my gallery.

Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

Please click the links below to share my blog.

Thankful

Me: "You have beautiful blue eyes."

Little guy: "Uh-huh."

Me: "You should say, 'Thank you.'"

Little guy: "Why, you didn't give them to me."

Me: "It was a compliment, that's why you should say, 'Thank you.'"

Little guy: "Oh, I thought we were talking about genetics."

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

A Backyard Whodunnit

We've had four eggs laid by our chicken(s). And it is fabulous! But the mystery of which chicken is laying them has been driving us a bit nuts. We knew that it couldn't have been Red. Her eggs are expected to be brown and the eggs we've been finding have been white. So that left Phyllis and Fuzzy as possible layers. Hmmmmmm....

But this afternoon the most amazing and wonderful thing EVER happened. I was outside in our chickens' yard giving them cottage cheese and grass. They were super duper happy, munching, munching, munching. All of a sudden one of them ran behind the air conditioner, faced the corner where two walls meet, and started doing very strange movements. Now I've seen my chickens do a lot of strange movements, but nothing like this, so of course I got myself in a good spot to watch.

And lo and behold, a couple of minutes later an egg popped out. A beautiful, perfect, and amazingly oval egg!


Me: "Phyllis! You are awesome! Thank you!"

Phyllis: "Whatever, I'm going back to eat some more."


And that amazing girl of mine scampered back to the food and I retrieved my prize.


Woo hoo! Mystery solved!

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

A Lack of Space

I've been trying to teach an old dog a new trick.

The old dog being me, and the new trick being only using one space between sentences when I'm typing.

I have some friends who are editors and I keep hearing them griping about writers using the double space. I've kept my mouth shut as I, myself, am guilty of that double spacing. It's how I was taught thirty-two years ago when I took typing in high school. We practiced it, and practiced it, and practiced it. We were knocked down grade-wise if we didn't do a double space. So I was quite the good double spacer, of course.

But after a couple of months' effort, this old dog no longer double spaces. Yup, I'm rockin' the single space nearly 100% of the time.

I think I may go howl at the moon to celebrate.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Chicken Dance

The little guy had his karate holiday party today. It was all perfectly wonderful...until...it was time for the parents to try their hand at what the kids do.

Dave pulled the whole "I'm being the photographer, I can't." And so it was me.

The kid tried to teach me a few things and soon realized that I am, in fact, unteachable.

So when it was my turn to get in front of the students and their parents, I bowed, pointed at my kid and said, "He taught me everything I know," and then I did ten punches followed by the chicken dance and a loud, "BA-CAW!!!!"

I did the kid proud, I have no doubt.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

No Shave November Fail

I've been actively participating in No Shave November.  Actually, now that I think about it, it's not an active thing at all.  Rather, I should say that I've been passively participating in No Shave November.  And things were going quite swimmingly until....


Me: "Those few long hairs on your face are getting pretty long, kid." Turns out that sixteen year old boys get random long hairs while all the other hairs just stay short, sweet, and delightfully prepubescent. 

Little guy: "You can trim them if you want," he said as he played a game on his phone.

Me: "OK."  And I did.

Little guy: "Wow, mom, serious No Shave November fail."

Me: "Ack! Why didn't you remind me?!?!"

Little guy: "I'm just joking, mom. You're the only one in the family doing the No Shave November thing."


Yeah, but gosh, somehow I feel like I just blew it.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

No Shave November 3 - American Cancer Society Fundraiser

Sometimes I think I'm quite the tough old middle-aged broad.  Here's what I can do.


I can be texted a photo of my kid's latest injury...a lovely bloody gash down his shin "I think it goes all the way to my bone"...and never miss a beat whilst eating my potato and chick pea soup.

That, and I can also watch an episode of "The Walking Dead" with no eating hesitation.


Yup, tough.  I have my kids to thank me for that.


Again, I'll donate the sales of these bearded wonders to the American Cancer Society in memory of my wonderful and totally not bearded, yet cool as all get out, Nana.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

No Shave November I - American Cancer Society Fundraiser

So obviously I can't quit shaving my face for the month of November, though I could easily blow off eyebrow plucking for thirty days and I will.  I can also give up shaving my legs and pits for the month.  But I can do even better than that.  For the month of November I'll be featuring a series of awesomely bearded dudes and I'll donate the sales of these to the American Cancer Society in memory of my wonderful and totally not bearded, yet cool as all get out, Nana.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Got a Frog in his Throat

...or maybe a toad...or perhaps a lizard.

Yup, our wee little cat learned a valuable life lesson the other night.  At least we hope he did.

Dave saw the little dude with some sort of amphibian/lizard type critter in his mouth.  Being the proud little cat that he is, he took off runnin' not about to give up his prized possession.

But it turns out that such critters have a defense of their own designed to discourage predators...and our sweet little predator was soon frothing at the mouth and barely able to see through his swollen, squinty eyes.

Off to the emergency vet we went where $89 later it was determined that our little dude would be just fine.  And maybe, just maybe, he learned a little somethin'.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Me...Happy!

Sometimes I'm reminded of what a simple creature I am.  What did it take me to get super excited last night?  Well, I'll tell ya. 

Last night I was all set to floss my teeth when I realized that I didn't have to.  They'd already been flossed at the dentist's office.

And I was elated!!!


Yup, keepin' it (and me) simple.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

The Chicken and the Egg

I'd heard rumor that chickens like to eat scrambled eggs.  As in chicken eggs.  Well, I found out that that's not exactly true.  They don't like scrambled eggs, they LOVE them!!

Now I find this to be just fine and dandy, but the rest of my family thinks it's some kind of disgusting cannibalism.  I say my family worries too much.

And what did the chickens and I eat for dinner?  You guessed it...scrambled eggs.  Delicious!

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Walk this Way

I rescue bugs a lot.  If you read this blog, you know it's true.  This morning as I walked on the hike and bike trail around the lake I spied a walking stick in my path.  It had stepped out from a crop of poison ivy and was just frozen there.  So of course I stopped, too.  I had to get that little guy out of danger.  I was on a mission.

I tried picking it up.  Nope.  I tried scooping it up.  Nope.  And then I tried poking its rear.  Yup!  Back into the poison ivy it ran.

My job was done.

Click here to purchase this piece.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Smile

I go for walks every day.  Sometimes twice a day if I'm feeling particularly ambitious.  And when I'm walking I'm so, so, so happy!  Truly it's pure bliss.  And when I'm on my walks I always have a companion...one of my two sweet dogs or my iPhone playing podcasts from NPR shows (not the news).

What I've noticed is this.  I catch myself smiling or laughing goofily often throughout my walks.  I also catch a lot of other people not smiling or laughing.  And so one of my favorite things is to catch other people's eyes and share a genuine smile with them.  And I tell you what, I bet 90% of them return my smile...and if I'm with one of my dogs they got a big smile, too.

So go share a smile, they're seriously contagious!

Click here to purchase this piece.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Here's Looking at You, Kid

Little guy:  "Ooooow!  I think I just broke my finger."


Now I know I should have run to his aid.  I know I should have felt badly for him.  I know a 'good' mom would have shower him with love and kisses.

What did I do?  Well, I rolled my eyes and turned the other direction.

Why?  You ask?


Well, when your fifteen-year-old has come up with every distraction available to avoid doing homework for about three hours straight, and that has been accompanied by tons of nagging on your part, and then he decides to ride his unicycle through the kitchen and catches his pinky on the pot rack as he flails his arms around....

You get what I'm saying, right?


But I could only do it for a few seconds.  And then I got him a bag of ice and gave him a hug.  After all, I'm not that bad of a mom. And he's an absolutely terrific kid.

Click here to purchase this piece.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

If it's wrong to have my art reflect my life, then I don't wanna be right.

Sometimes my art is just what pops into my head, sometimes it's my attempt to accurately approximately represent something I've seen, and sometimes it's an illustration to reflect something that's going on in my life.

Well, sorry to report, folks, that I currently have a cold.  A drippy, whiny, pity party kind of cold.  So there ya go, my friends. 

Bottoms up with my cup of water with Emergen-C...here's to feeling inspired to paint kitties, birdies, and flowers tomorrow.


P.S. Every time my family looks my way, at me holding a tissue, sniffling, hair all cwazy...well, I shout, "I'm pretty!"  Pretty sure it's agreement (or maybe fear) that I see in their eyes.

Click here to purchase this painting.