Those Who Don't Do

Well it's been a while since I painted a girl that I liked. This one I like but I know there are many mistakes. This quote makes me feel better, because at least I'm doing. I'm trying and sticking with it. I don't give up easy. I make plenty of mistakes along the way. Sometimes I learn from them, sometimes it takes me awhile to get it. LOL! I guess I'm stubborn too.
It's so much better to try even if you fail. Without sounding to much like a Niki ad here's to "just do it".

♥

Fun day Art day!

  Just fart'n around the studio!

SnowBirds

Wow 2012 is almost over and what a crazy year it has been! I can not believe all that was packed into the year 2012.  I'm glad it is over. While it had a lot of positive happenings, it sure had a lot of negatives too. Somehow we got through them.
We finally settled into our new home. We did a ton of work to it. This year I want to take a break from the house and do something different. I'm not sure what yet.
I've been pondering different things, like doing some volunteer work. In general doing more things that get me out of the house.
The usual resolution like eating better is top on the list. The easiest thing I will be doing is cutting out margarine. No more fake butter. It's nothing but the real stuff for me from now on.
As always I want to spend more time developing my art. Speaking of my art I got inspired yesterday and created this little piece..."Snowbirds". I got inspired from a piece of tissue paper from one of my Christmas gifts. Funny how this happens. The background is made from this pretty turquoise tissue paper and matching tissue paper with white snowflakes. It was too pretty to throw away. I never throw out tissue paper anyway. I reuse it. I'm so frugal like that. The pretty stuff goes in my art supply stash.

I'm very excited about the new year. I look forward to what it might bring. I wish peace and love to all and may 2013 be the best year ever.

♥

It's looking a lot like Christmas

Lights are up, Christmas tree is decorated, presents are wrapped and I even did a few Christmas decorating projects. I did the faux mercury glass on these wine glasses and Christmas ball ornaments. I love the look of hanging ornaments from the chandelier. I can see doing this every year and adding more and more. 

I had to revisit how to take photos of Christmas lights. Not too bad for not using a tripod. I can't stand to  drag that thing out. If I can't get a good shot without it, I just as soon not take them. Too much trouble and I cant get a good angle anyway.

Not much left to do but clean and cook, maybe add more lights to the front of the house. I've got a lot of lights that I could hang but I keep thinking of all this stuff I have to take down when it's all over. 

Do I really want to add more at this point?? Sigh! 

♥

Little Boy Super Hero

Her is my latest painting which is a Christmas gift for my little nephew. 

His sister got a painting from me last year. I did not think he actually wanted one but he asked me if I would paint him one too., so of course I did. And here he is! Ta Da!  A little super hero for the rough and tough little boy. Hope he likes it. 

20 days until Christmas

& 

15 days until doomsday! 

Snicker,Snicker,  cant' believe all the doomsday stuff that is on TV.

Vintage Reindeer

What a delightful surprise! Here is a sweet little reindeer that I got from my moms Christmas decorations collection. My mom kept everything. I guess I'm glad. Now I get to enjoy it. I don't know how old it is but it's got to be from at least the 60's, maybe older.

Hope you all are having fun this lovely December getting ready for Christmas. 

♥

Giving Thanks

I'm thankful for so, many, many blessings this year.
To name a few I'm thankful for our new home, good health, and family and friends.  I'm also thankful for the wonderful food I will be cooking today and tomorrow for our Thanksgiving Feast.

So today I want to share one of my favorite recipes that has been in my family for years. The Holiday Cranberry Salad.  I usually make it for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. It is a great alternative to plopping out a can of cranberry sauce.

Holiday Cranberry Salad

1 13 oz can crushed pineapple (short can) 

1 lb. can whole berry cranberry sauce 

1 sm box Raspberry or cherry jello

12 oz cool whip

8 oz. cream cheese softened

3/4 cup chopped pecans toasted in about 2 tbls. butter.

1/2 cup sprite or 7 up

First of all drain and reserve the liquid from the crushed pineapples. I could not find the small can of crushed pineapples so I got way more liquid then I needed. I bought the 20 oz can and used about 3/4 of the pineapples. 

Save 1/2 cup pineapple liquid to a cup and then add 1/2 cup sprite or 7 up to that to make 1 cup liquid.

Now make the jello with 1 cup boiling water. Stir jello and boiling water in a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish for about 2 minutes. Then add the one cup mixture of 7 up/ pineapple liquid to the jello. Put in refrigerator to set the jello for about an hour. ( just until set)

Mix the cranberries and pineapples together and set aside.

Toast the butter and pecan pieces over medium heat and set aside to cool.

I usually just saute the butter and pecans in a pan 3 to 5 minutes instead of toasting in oven.

Once the jello has set you can either gently mix the fruit in the jello or layer on top of the jello.
Then put this jello mixture back in the refrigerator again to completely set.

Meanwhile mix with hand mixer the cool whip and softened cream cheese. Cream cheese really needs to be soft, at room temperature so that it will mix well into the cool whip.

Spread the cool whip/cream cheese mixture over the Jello/ fruit and sprinkle toasted pecans on top of all.
Keep cold in the refrigerator.
It's delicious! And great as a dessert too.
Best part you can make it the day before.

Front Door Halloween Decorations

Jack Skellington

Here are my outside decorations for Halloween.  I love my Jack Skellington carved pumpkin and I had fun painting the black stripes on the other two pumpkins.
Above the door is a Boo Banner which I made from orange burlap. All it is, is stenciled letters on the cut out triangles, then sew the triangles onto jute twine. There is black guaze hung to cover the huge window above the door, orange lights and black garland over that.
I went down into the wooded area of our property and found a dead branch for the spooky tree. I painted it black and hung purple skulls and purple lights. I found a cute wire lighted scary Halloween cat at "Big Lots". Love, Love, Love "Big Lots" for decorations. I bought a black wreath pre made because I ran out of steam and just did not feel like making a wreath.
This is all I did for the outside, unlike a lot of my neighbors who went crazy with orange lights on trees bushes and animated scary figures. That's fine and it looks good, but I like to be a little more creative. I know I have a lot of store bought stuff as well but to me making and creating is most of the fun.

Chicago

I'm so glad I went to Chicago this past week. It's a beautiful city. I had so much fun with my girlfriend. Neither of us had ever been there before. We decided to take a mini vacation, a much need vacation together. We are checking off our bucket list one city at a time. What an awesome town to visit. I love architecture... as one can see by the photos. As always I took way too many pictures....close to 200 photos,  I'd love to share them all but that would be ridiculous.
We chose this place because our husbands have been there numerous times without us. They both raved about it and said we needed to go. I can see why they like it so much. It's really more of a guy town, lots of sports, dark woody sports bars and it's cold. But the magnificent mile is a definite girl nirvana. Oh my... we had a ball shopping. We stayed right in the middle of it. We were in heaven. We did do some other cultural things, like the museums and so on, but the shopping was the best.
Now with all this said both of us agree we still like New York better. I'm sorry Chicago, but I think it's because New York is more girly. But that does not mean I wont want to come back, most likely with my hubby next time.

♥

hALLoWeeN wItChY cHiCkS

Witchy Chicks

 I don't know what it is about Halloween that inspires me to draw, but it does. Maybe it's the silly spiders hanging from their hats, or the whimsical color combinations, or probably the stripes and polka dots. But anyhoo I needed some art therapy. It's from my art journal and it's plain funness. I love it. I've been kinda of weird these past few days. I'm letting things bother me that I shouldn't. I hate when I let these things get under my skin. A little hurt or slight that I let fester too long. Then it takes me too much time to it let go. Art makes me feel better. I'm so inspired again that I think I'd like to take another workshop. Yea!!! 

♥♥♥♥