Winter

Am I the only one that's getting tired of 

this awful winter?

I shouldn't complain, though.

My husband's son lives up near Boston,

and we all know how bad this winter has 

been for them and other parts of the country.

I wish them all well,

and hope that they can soon say goodbye

to the record cold and snowfalls. 

We had the most snow last week

here in NC

that we've had since I moved here eight

years ago,

and whereas it normally melts within a day,

it has stayed on the ground due to the record

low temperatures, even here.

But still,

I yearn for the day where I can walk

through our yard and once again see this...

and this...

and this...

and this...

and this...

and this...

...even though it will mean a return to the

 sometimes backbreaking yard work!

Be still my heart.

A Valentine's Wish

Hello dearest friends. I hope that you are having a wonderful holiday. Do you have any special plans? Hubby and are going to our favorite local Italian restaurant tonight. We got engaged there six years ago today!

In honor of this day I couldn't resist sharing with you one of my vintage Valentine's Day wedding photos. I got it for a good price due to the stain on the bottom, but we can certainly work around that! Scan and use as you wish.

Isn't this a lovely couple.

I wonder what became of them.

I hope that they had a fine family 

and lived happy and healthy lives...

A few days ago, while I was making lunch, UPS delivered a package (or was it FedEx...can't remember now),and much to my pleasant surprise, it was an early Valentine's gift from Mr. Perch. He said it was supposed to come yesterday, but trust me when I say, getting it early was not a problem.

He saw this company advertised on TV,

and I'm happy that he decided to give them a try...

Beautiful huge, and I mean HUGE,

chocolate covered strawberries.

One of them is a meal in itself...

The instructions suggested that they be consumed within

48 hours.

Really?

No problem for moi!

Absolutely delicious!

Mine is just the sweetest guy!

An early jump on the garden...

Good morning. Old Man Winter is still hanging tight here in NC, so the other day I pretended that spring was right around the corner, and got a jump on starting some plants indoors for my garden.

In the smaller pots I started some daylilies

and some seeds that I had harvested last year

from mature daylilies growing in the gardens...

...along with some dahlias in the larger square pots.

All planted in clean pots with fresh potting soil,

and labeled as to what they are.

They happily sit in the downstairs guest room

in front of the sunniest window...

This is the iris...

...and the dahlias...

...and the daylilies...

...along with some lilies...

These are all Walmart specials, 

but I have also ordered some rarer beauties

from three mail order nurseries that I have worked 

with before. 

Whoopie! 

Can't wait to get diggin' again!

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Today I am going to pretend that it is NOT Friday the 13th. 

I might even drive my car somewhere. 

I am not superstitious. No, I am not. Really, I'm not. 

( But I won't tempt fate in any case!)

As a matter of fact, 

I am going to pretend that this is just any other day.

Mixed Media Collage: "Hope"

Last weekend I decided to do a mixed media canvas for my sister-in-law, who is fighting cancer and undergoing chemotherapy. Though she has had a pretty positive outlook this past year, I wanted to make her something that she could look at any time that she didn't feel well. I also gave her a plate holder to sit it on so that she could look at it whenever she needed to.

Here is the whole piece. 

Parden the photos,

but the sunlight was not great when

I took them...

Her favorite color is red, 

so I wanted to work some into this piece...

The piece of music is from a sweet little children's

book from the 1800's that I recently purchased,

and of course, resisting lace is so difficult

for me...

I backed this one with a piece of coordinating

scrapbook paper

and put one of my favorite quotes on the back.

I took this photo at a slant,

but it was actually straight on the canvas...

It's so much more rewarding creating a piece for someone else

than it is creating it just for the sake of creating something.

I hope that you have a day filled with hope!

Many thanks for stopping by.

Vintage photos of some beautiful children...

Some lovely old photos that

I couldn't resist when I recently saw them on eBay...

Don't you just love the hats? 

They make me think of spring...

It's so hard to find photos of twins anymore,

so I couldn't resist this one...

To me,

these are more beautiful

than a designer purse.

I hope that you have a lovely evening!

Mixed Media Collage: "Dancing"

Valentine's Day is around the corner, and I couldn't let it pass by without creating a piece of art to honor this day of love. 

I took a slightly different approach with another mixed media collage, and it speaks of Valentine's Day only through the use of pink.

"Dancing"

I have wanted to use this beautiful 

ballerina photo and the

sweet vintage sheet music

 for a long while...

I delicately colored her dress

to match the green in the Basic Grey

paper scrap...

I also used a piece of the lovely pink 

vintage velvet ribbon that I showed you in a 

recent post,

along with a mother of pearl belt buckle...

This time I made use of one of my long 

forgotten rubber art stamps,

and cut out each word separately.

It felt good to use this one again!

I shaded her skin ever so slightly...

The best part about these pieces is that there is no requirement

to be perfect with your painting.

And that is certainly a perk for me!!

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Many thanks for coming by.

Mixed Media Collage: "At the Fair"

Good morning!

I am still working on some collage pieces, and couldn't resist using this image on one. I love this vernacular photo of the two couples munching down on watermelon, so I assembled some things that I thought would enhance this image.

"At the Fair"

I could picture these couples back in the thirties

going to the county fair,

and eating too much watermelon...

I wanted to let the image speak for itself,

so I used minimal color on it, 

but had fun playing with the background painting...

I found the ferris wheel image on Pinterest...

...and in my stash I have an old ledger book

that must have belonged to a doctor.

In it I found this note written by someone

whom I assume

was an employer asking the doctor to treat 

Frank Moran for a nail in his foot.

I covered over the nail part with this great

Basic Grey paper scrap and some vintage rick rack,

leaving the date showing.

I thought the date suited the photo,

and imagined that maybe one of these guys

got a stomach ache after eating all of

the watermelon...

Another fun piece!

I am still really having fun with the tutorial from 

Heather Murray.

Christina Evangeline: A Mixed Media Painting

Christina Evangeline was my great-grandmother, my dad's maternal grandmother. She was born in Paris, and later met my great-grandfather, who was German, in Alsace-Lorraine. That they met and fell in love was interesting, since the relations between Germany and France in this area were perhaps not always the best. They eventually came to America, where they raised a family, and though they both passed away years before I was born, I feel like I knew them based upon the stories that my dad has told me. I especially feel a bond with Christina, as until I saw her photos after the death of my grandfather, I never realized that I looked more like her than I did my grandmother. It's funny how the genes can pass down through three generations.

So after taking Heather Murray's Memory Portrait Painting Project class (see yesterday's post), I decided to try my hand at doing a piece centered around one of my own relatives.

Meet Christina Evangeline...

The background image of the Eiffel tower is from

The Graphics Fairy...

Though I didn't apply her makeup very well,

it's fun to see what this cabinet photo might have

looked like if it had been in color...

I got to use some of my old lace

and more of my Basic Grey scrapbook paper...

I'm really having fun with these!

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Have a great day!

Taking a class for a different twist in my art...

Hello there and happy February.

January is over. Hooray. My least favorite month of the year. I hate cold weather, and since Christmas is over, there is no need for it anymore. At least February holds the hope of spring here in North Carolina. If we're lucky!

Before boring January ended, I decided that not only was I ready for a change in the weather, but I was also ready for a change in my art. I found my self yearning to return to my mixed media roots of having some paper fun. With some color. Of course my love for vintage photos, fabrics, laces, and buttons will never go away, so I wanted to find something new to work on that would enable me to use all of my little lovelies. Not to mention doing something with all of the gorgeous scrapbook papers that I have, but rarely use. Oh, and let's not forget those rubber stamps!

If you purchase Somerset Studio magazine, you may remember the May/June 2014 issue, where the Artist Portfolio featured Heather Murray, a wonderful Canadian collage artist. I was instantly drawn to her art, which is colorful and vintage at the same time.

Here is the cover of that issue...

...and a portion of the article...

...along with some of Heather's work...

So I purchased one of her on-line classes, and am glad that I did. The class that I took was "The Memory Portrait Painting Project", and in it she shares how she builds up her substrate, and then applies color to her vintage photos and ephemera. What fun!

You can find the class here at The Trodden Path. And you can see more of Heather's art on her blog, My Ephemeral Imagination.

The class is geared to someone who wants to use family photos in their mixed media art, but of course, you can use any photo that you like, which is what I did. It was so much fun to work with acrylics again. And I got over my initial fear of taking an online class. The videos are great and the artist works in real time. It is the best of both worlds, as it almost feels like you are in the same room as the artist, but without other class interruptions and trying to keep up, since you are able to stop and restart the video as needed. I even signed up for a second class with another artist. More about that in a future post.

This is my first piece,

which I have entitled

"The Echoless Shore".

It's all about using what you have,

with a little color from cheap acrylic paints...

I got to use one of my favorite old beach photos

(I concede that I need a little practice on

the faces!)...

...and another for the background...

Not to mention some vintage sheet music,

a starfish from Florida,

and some fibers and paper from 

Basic Grey...

As I said before, I can't wait for warm weather, 

and I guess this piece proves that!

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Have you tried anything new lately?