Road Trippin!

I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to take a little mini-vacation! We're leaving tomorrow morning and the only 'for sure' stop will be Duluth, MN I love it there, it's so pretty! Lots to do and see!

We may just be-bop around Minnesota for a couple of days and work our way back home. I'll be home Sunday evening and then.........I will prepare for an upcoming giveaway! I see I'm almost to 200 posts on my blog!! That's a lot of babbling since January huh? To celebrate, I'm going to have another giveaway :)

Don't be scared now, my giveaways are easy!!
No need to link, advertise, or even tweet! All you will have to do is comment to be registered. Super simple! Super fun!

See you soon!!
♥Darla♥

**Above artwork by ShariBarnett**

Boring you with ACEOs~ Sorry

But I'm having so much fun doing them! They're small, I can take them with me and sketch out a design if something comes to mind and paint them up later. Plus......here's a bonus! I've sold 4 in the past week ;)

This one is called : I SEA you!



Title: Will you follow me?



Title: I'm Watching You! (Sold)

I got a makeover!

I thought you could all use a little laugh this afternoon!
:)

I went to the Mary Kay site and gave myself a virtual makeover. Come on ....let's all get these so I don't feel so alone (and silly)! LOL Actually it was fun to play around with makeup colors, hair colors, hair lengths, etc. I don't have a large selection of personal photos on my work computer to work with but this is what I got.

Have fun and please share if you get yourself all prettied up!

♥Darla

Choose Me - ACEO

I decided to go with an ACEO for my 'Choose Me' piece. I posted about the wonderful song I heard (July 23rd post) and it really touched my heart.

I worked last night on my back patio. There was a small addition attached previously and when we sided the house 2 years ago, we tore the addition down. So now part of the patio floor that was painted is peeling. My Dad stopped over with his pressure washer and I busted loose a lot of paint.

I got an estimate last summer to replace the concrete slab completely because there are some cracks, etc. but it was $1350 and a little more than I had hoped. For now, I'm going to put indoor/outdoor carpeting on it and call it good. I think once the furniture is out there, and I display some potted plants, it will look just fine. Eventually it WILL get replaced and be slightly larger to allow for an awesome hot tub! Woohoo! I'm dreaming a little, but....a girl's gotta dream!

♥Darla

Bee Gone - ACEO

Suffering........Bee Gone
Illness.............Bee Gone
Hatred...........Bee Gone
Poverty.........Bee Gone
Cruelty......... Bee Gone
War...............Bee Gone

All you bad things............JUST BEE GONE please! Thank you very much :)

****Edit****
After posting this, just seconds actually, I received an email from Willowing and Artist Friends regarding Megan, a woman in need of our help. Please go to Kelly Rae's blog to read about this.

CANCER BEE GONE!

IF-Idle

I'm finding lately that I'm becoming much too content to sit inside, 'idle', while the beautiful sun is shining and my furkid (Mieko) would love to be out for a walk. Here I sit. I love my home and I love to stay home and create, but come on..............

Winter will be here soon enough and I must get outside and enjoy the wonderful days of summer while I still can!

No painting for me today, I'm going to get OUT and do something fun :) Hope you all can too~

Darla

Journal Pg 4-For Renee

I've had Renee and her family on my mind so much this past week. So my prayer for her and her family went into my painting this time. Anyone else care to join me? It felt right and I really think God is listening♥

Bless you Renee,
Darla

Storm clouds

I LOVE storm clouds, my imagination can see all kinds of things. Sometimes they are scary and


sometimes not :)


Happy Friday everyone!!
♥Darla

I heard this song last night on the radio. We often visit the humane society and I wish I could take them all home. Inspired by this song, I sketched a little girl and I'm hoping to get her on canvas tonight (or at least get her started!)

New Etsy ACEOs

Twitter Me



What do you mean, 'mom jeans'?


Trick or Treat


Michelle


Best Friends

Willowing & Friends July ATC Swap

ATC (Artist Trading Card) made for the July swap, my partner Bonnie Rose!
This first card is painted on 140 lb watercolor paper and then I adhered fabric and did a little zig zag stitching. It was fun :)

This is my second one.......see the leaves are gone? Sure sign......winter's coming.

A few ACEOs

I call this one 'Seriously?'


Pretty n Pink


Sing me a love song~SOLD :)


I want to grow

I'm still experimenting in the ACEO world. I find it very hard to paint tiny details! My eyes just aren't what they used to be. I DO think they look much better in person than in my photos though. But again......my eyes may be fooling me! LOL

Art & Wine Walk~Journal pg.3

On Saturday, Dale & I along with his nephew and his wife attended the Art & Wine Walk in Grand Forks/East Grand Forks! It was very fun and interesting! About 18-20 businesses host an artist's work for display and offer a tiny little taste of different varieties of wine. Some offered little appetizers too! The cost is $10/person and they do six of these during the summer, the third Saturday of each month (April-October)

***Pssssssssssssst,Renee........come on down for one!***

A couple of places had musicians as their artist. One place offered lemonade instead of wine to 'give us a break' and it was so funny, a woman got a little annoyed. She said, 'isn't this an Art & WINE walk? It's not an Art & LEMONADE walk!' She was kidding.......but not, ya know?

I know I won't have daily art journal pages, it's just this past weekend was packed with fun things to document. I'm hoping to start on a new piece tonight for Etsy :)

Have a wonderful week everybody!!
Darla♥

Art Journal~Page 2 STREET FAIR!!

On friday Dale and I headed to Fargo for the annual Street Fair. Arts and crafts ~Music and food! It was so fun!
Dale bought me cheese curds.......my once a year treat. I read where one serving is equivalent to eating 3 TBL of straight lard. That's not on my diet for sure! Lovely.

On Thursday morning I had watched HGTV's 'That's Clever' (as I always do!) and saw an artist from Fargo. Her name is Meg Spielman. I stopped at her booth set up outside her studio and bought some beautiful cards. We also ran into Kristin Rudrud who was in the movie, FARGO. She played the wife that was supposed to get kidnapped but she got killed instead :) Silly movie and we do NOT talk like that. That movie made fun of our accents......oh yeah, sure you betcha!

Next, we stopped outside an old, old bar named 'The Empire' because in their beer garden was some very cool music going on. A live little band and we decided to go in and listen for a bit, have a drink and rest. Once I got in there I was a little nervous. Lots of bikers, leather and unusual characters. LOL Then in walks my son! ha! It was so ironic! Of ALL the hundreds of people in downtown Fargo that day, we were lucky enough to catch up with him. I just never dreamt I'd see him in a bar like this, not to mention myself! :)

He was out with some friends and they decided to try strange new bars too! It was fun to visit for a bit.

We left and on our way out, we ran into a young gal trying to sell a boxer pup. 7 weeks old and my heart melted. I LOVE boxer pups!! I held him and he snuggled into my neck. I soooooo wanted to take him home, but didn't have $650.00 cash on me. That's a good thing :)

I had a fun day Saturday too and will start on that journal page later :)

Darla♥

IF- Tango

I would LOVE to have drawn a romantic couple dancing, but I'm just not that good...yet! I'm trying to practice :)
So here's my tango girl instead♥ I like adding color in Picaso to my little sketches lately. Can ya tell? LOL

I started a REAL art journal

What I mean by 'real' is this one I will actually paint in :) I have a moleskin but I tend to mostly do pencil sketches in it. I love it, but some pages are odd to say the least. It's where I play and try new things.

When organizing my work area the other night, I found a scrapbook with beautiful cardstock pages measuring 10 x 10. Since I don't really scrapbook I decided to start an art journal with it.
This week we finally got some rain! 1.3 inches and my lawn and garden said 'awwwwwwwwwww'! My goal is to try and put a special meaning to each art piece in here so that I can look back someday and remember what was happening or what I was feeling at the time. I guess that's what journaling is about but I want this to be less 'personal' and more about my everyday life so that my children and grandchildren will be able to know me better.....when I'm gone, or just old and grey and too tired to talk about my life anymore :)

Here's to hoping I can keep this up! I'm also praying it won't be a one-page wonder!

G'night,
Darla♥

Girls inspired by Tam (Willowing)

I loved taking Tam's class and I so enjoy her pretty girls! I sketched a couple girls today with her carefree hair and unique eye shape. It's so fun for me to try new looks........almost daily as you've probably come to know. I just can't seem to find my niche or what I do best.
Thanks for hanging in here on my little journey to that place.....maybe someday I'll find it :)
♥Darla

P.s. I know it's only water weight, but I'm down 4 lbs since Monday morning :)
16 to go!

I was going to clean my 'studio'

But painted instead....again!
So much for good intentions! I kind of feel silly calling it a studio, it's actually a little dungeon in my basement :) but it's all mine and it's all messy! Woohoo!

I tried to do a multi-layered background and search for a face in there. I found one but it was so high up on the canvas that I had to create something for the bottom area. I'm not sure if I should put a phrase or word on this or leave it as it. I was thinking of 'memories of home' or 'I'm coming home' or just larger letters spelling out 'HOME'. Actually, I was thinking of making clay letters and mounting them if I decide to keep it to one word. Or is it just too busy already?

I'd love opinions :)

Thanks for all the wonderful comments on my lunch break lady! Wow, I'm so pleasantly surprised!! I need to take Mieko for a walk right now but hope to check some blogs (and say my proper thank yous) when we get home. We had some much needed rain earlier and now the sun is shining. I love walking in the evenings after a nice rain. Awwwwwwwww, summertime!!

Hugs,
Darla♥

Tried something for the FIRST time!

No pencil sketch first.......just grabbed my new little watercolor paint set and started painting. I know she's not very fancy or by any means, perfect....but it was fun to experiment!! I kind of like her sad face. I think she pouting because of that nose! Sorry princess girl, but this is what you get when I have a half hour left of my lunch break and desire to paint. LOL

A little color added to previous sketches

Added some color to a previous watercolor sketch.



Added some color also to my blue journal girl that I sketched on my lunch break :)

I bought myself a watercolor tray so I can sit in my living room and watch tv and casually paint. I love it! I don't have all the access to my regular materials in my craft room, so it forces me to try create a look with what I have at hand. All I have is my tray of assorted colors and 2 brushes and a jar of water. I WILL have to get myself downstairs soon and paint something for real I suppose!

G'night
Darla♥

Sometimes we forget.......

How really GOOD cooking healthy can taste! YUM!
I marinated chicken breasts in Wishbone's Bountiful dressing (Tuscan Romano Basil) overnight and grilled them on my George Foreman grill. Then I diced up zucchini, summer squash and cherry tomatoes and sauteed them with olive oil spray and added fresh basil towards the end. It was VERY delicious! :) This huge and filling meal was around 300 calories! Yippeee!

I've been a bad girl lately, eating anything and everything my fat little heart desires and it's time to shape up. Mentally and physically. I lost weight last year and felt so good about myself. (I followed the Weight Watchers Core plan)

When I gain weight, I'm crabby (because nothing fits and I'm embarrassed to go anywhere) and I just don't feel well physically either. I'm going to mow my lawn tonight which is a great work out! It takes me over an hour and according to my heart rate monitor that I faithfully used last year, it burns about 400 calories. No more sitting around doing nothing and wishing for a miracle.
"If it is to be it is up to me!"

20 lbs....that's it. I can do this!

Ok, I've been sketching with one of my gel pens lately and it's kind of fun to see how messy it can get. They're very wet so they smudge! The first time it smudged, I said 'ohhhhhhhh crap' and then I played with it and now I love it! ha It's fun to see just how funky a sketch can become!
Here are just a couple.




And last, but CERTAINLY not least, here are some fun summer photos of my grandchildren that I snagged from their Mommy's facebook :)

This is Nora on what must have been an exhausting car trip! Or should I say 'Snora'? hehe

This is what Nora does when the game gets a little slow for the kids in the outfield! One must keep themself occupied, right?


This is Cutler going down the water slide. Click on this to enlarge and see the priceless expression when his little bum hits that cold water! ha


My oldest granddaughter, Cailee, playing softball.


And here she is again, having a little fun in the water herself!


Wishing you all a great week!
♥Darla♥

IF- Hollow

This week's Illustration Friday word is 'hollow'.

I'm heading out of town in a couple of hours so I won't get to visit all your wonderful blogs until Sunday evening :(

Derek had a great birthday with good friends, family, food and a campfire! It was perfect! Thanks for all the b-day wishes for him ♥

Hoping you all have a fabulous weekend!!
:) Darla

My son is 30 today! Happy Birthday Derek!

WARNING.....PIC HEAVY! PRIDE OVERLOAD! :)


Derek Jerome Peterson, my first born son♥


Played so hard, totally tuckered out!

My 3 sons, (L to R) Joshua, Ryan & Derek

Ryan and Derek and my lovely legs (ick)

Gotta love those high waisted shorts!

One of my all time favorite pics. Ryan and Derek fishing down by the river!

Woohoo! Got one!

Derek with his family at the 4th of July parade last weekend!

Cutler and Daddy


My son and his carving skills!

My son, the volunteer fireman! He makes me so proud!

Happy Birthday Derek! Love you always♥
Mom