New ACEO Team

'Memories of Happy Times'




'Constant'




'Glorious Garden'






'Much Room in my Mushroom'






'My Happy Place'

'Tears of a Clown'

Hoping you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and/or friends! We had a great day, lots of family, laughter of kids, and yummy food!! :)

I was recently asked to join an ACEO group on Etsy called ACT. I haven't done any new aceos in awhile so I spent the last couple of mornings playing with my watercolors! So fun :) I sealed all these with beeswax too.

Anyway, I better hit the shower and try get some other stuff done today. No black Friday shopping for this girl. I would go CRAZY!!

They say Blue Jays are mean

I think I've captured that :)

This is a 12 x 12 wooden canvas that I had applied texture medium to and planned to do an abstract painting on. Well, those are much harder to do when you set out to do them, it seems (for me anyway) it's easier to do them by accident.

I decided to just paint a Blue Jay design from one of my Ros Stallcup books. I was lucky enough to attend two of her painting seminars in Virginia Beach years ago and we mostly painted fruit and florals so it was fun to try something different.

Hoping to get to Michaels today, we have a touch of snow on the ground but hopefully roads are just fine.

Hope you're all having a nice weekend and doing what you enjoy surrounded by those that make you smile :)

It's a slippery slope

When I'm good.....I'm very good, but when I don't care it's downright dangerous!

I spent most of the year totally focused on getting healthy, losing weight and changing my thinking on food. It was simple! Eat healthy, make good choices and move my bod. I lost 25 lbs and then we got busy with harvest here at work and I opted to quit my membership at the Y until things settled down again. BAD MOVE! For the past 2 months I've been basically inactive and eating pretty much whatever I crave :( For some reason I feel if I'm not giving 100% I shouldn't give it anything? I am the queen of self-sabotage!

For example: flavored coffee creamers! When it gets cold outside, I love nothing more than to have a nice, hot cup of coffee and if creamer is added, well......it's pure heaven for me. It just takes the edge off of winter and tells it to 'back off!'. But if I put a little creamer in every cup I have, it really adds up during the day. NOT GOOD! I know better, yet I make this poor choice.

I need to get back on track before I regain it all :( Believe me, I've done this over and over in my life and would once...........JUST ONCE........like to learn to live without being obsessed with this issue.

With the holidays coming, it will be hard but I can do this! :)

Wishing you all a great weekend!
Darla

p.s. This is a journal page where I used water soluble crayons and watercolor pencils, acrylics, fabric (dragon flies), graphite and ink. Oh, and there's a cute little metal embellishment that says 'HOPE' but it's impossible to read ;)

Time flies!

I hope I'm not alone here but do you find yourself, on Sunday evenings, thinking.........'ugh, Monday again!' I do! Not that I don't enjoy having a job to go to but I just love my time at home being able to do whatever I feel like doing! It might be cooking, baking, but usually~it's painting :)

Then before I know it, it's Thursday and the weekend is almost here again! Where does the time go? I need to stop wishing for the weekends and just try to enjoy each day and make the most of what it brings. The days go fast, the months go faster and before long the years have flown by as well and I'm left wondering 'how did this happen!?'

Here's to slowing things down a bit and appreciating each day...even Mondays♥

I adore Erma Bombeck

I admire (and miss) Ms. Erma! She was so wise and shared so much but with a lovely and unique sense of humor!

One of my favorites is this one:
"When I stand before God at the end of my life I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say 'I used everything you gave me'!"

Here are a few more of her precious gems:

“When your mother asks, "Do you want a piece of advice?" it is a mere formality. It doesn't matter if you answer yes or no. You're going to get it anyway.”

“It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.”

“I haven't trusted polls since I read that 62% of women had affairs during their lunch hour. I've never met a woman in my life who would give up lunch for sex.”

“In two decades I've lost a total of 789 pounds. I should be hanging from a charm bracelet.”

“Never lend your car to anyone to whom you have given birth.”

Oh my, there are so many! You can see for yourself here!



Thank you Erma.....

What inspires you?

I received one of those beautiful emails today with the power point pictures and wonderful wording to go along, you know, the stuff that really makes you think.

One of the phrases/quotes was: 'Aspire to inspire before you expire'

I just love that!

It got me thinking about all the things that inspire me. I'm inspired by a smile or friendly gesture. I'm inspired by someone's committment to something they believe in. I'm inspired by someone's thoughtfulness and kindness. I'm inspired daily by all the artists who share their work, talent and time via the internet.

I'm inspired by others intelligence and knowledge. I'm inspired by others' ability to forgive. I'm even inspired at funerals when I hear all the wonderful things that the late soul did that touched so many and I hope there will be something nice to say when my time comes :)

I'm inspired by others' courage when facing things in life I'm just not sure I could handle.

My children inspire me. My 3 beautiful grandchildren inspire me. My friends inspire me.

Oh boy, the list is endless!!

What inspires you?

Cassidy is still on my mind

I did this last night on a 9 x 12 piece of watercolor paper.
I found it and many other quotes she had listed on her facebook page. You'll have to click on the photo to enlarge it enough to read the wording. If you missed the post regarding Cassidy, you can read about it here

You can visit a page dedicated to her also.


Did I tell you I thought my computer at home crashed last Thursday night? I thought it did and I thought I lost EVERYTHING!! I headed to Best Buy and got myself a new one! A LAPTOP!
I'm so excited to be able to take it and sit in a comfy chair in my living room and visit blogs, write emails, etc. Of course, I've been too busy and haven't done this yet, but I will!!

On Saturday I cleaned the office really well and was going over the old system accessories and was trying to decide what I should keep (monitor, processor) and what I could toss (mouse, keyboard, etc.) I noticed there was QUITE a bit of dust built up in the fans of the processor so I gave it one good vacuuming, said a little prayer and plugged it in. VOILA! It came on! I'm so excited that I didn't lose 5 years worth of photos! I'm still happy to have a new computer and I will definitely get a backup system in place in case this should ever happen for real. It did once and I should have known better :)

Have a Happy Hump Day!! It will soon be Friday :)
Darla

Experiments

I tried different colors while doing this girl's face last night. I did a VERY light coat of watered down dioxazine purple on her face and then shaded with raw sienna. It was kind of scary to not start out with 'normal' flesh tone colors but it worked in the long run I think!

I've decided to put together my own 5 x 7 watercolor paper journal. I think I'll experiment more and on the back side of each piece I might do a little multi-colored background and do a little journaling as to what is going on in my life (head) at the time I painted the front.

We have ZUMBA locally in town again and we had our first official class last night! Our new instructor, Kate, did an awesome job! She's newly certified to teach these classes. There were 30+ people there and I just know it will grow even more! She may need to even find a new location if it gets too crowded. What a wonderful 'problem' that would be, huh? I was driving 80 miles round trip to take classes for most of the summer but had to quit during harvest time as I was busier at work and it was harder to get there in time. It will be nice to have classes right here but I will definitely miss the wonderful new friends I made up at the Y :(


Have a great Tuesday!!
Darla

p.s. Thank you for the wonderful comments regarding yesterday's post. It was sad and I really do want to keep things positive here but sometimes~ well, things just happen that need attention too♥

The Golden Rule

'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you'

Last Thursday a 16 year old girl in our area took her own life. It was the morning she was going to meet with her parents and the principle to discuss a bullying problem she was experiencing. She never made it to the meeting :( She said her goodbyes on facebook and hung herself.

I thought about her a lot this weekend and my heart breaks for this family. My journal page girl was meant to show sadness, but she almost looks like she's physically ill and I guess I am in a way. The cruelty that kids today display is unreal! Many times I've wished I could be young again and have my whole life ahead of me, but lately I have to wonder why? Why would I want to be young in these times? I wouldn't. I just don't remember behaving like that in my day. Sure, we may have talked about each other or muttered something not so nice, but we never harassed, bullied or made a point out of making someone feel just horrible. That just wasn't done and I don't know when it became common practice?!

If you have young kids in high school or heading into high school, please talk to them. We can't control what others do to them, but we can teach our children NOT to bully. Let's bring back the Golden Rule and make it a part of our kids' lives today. Adults can lead by example so we must also make this a part of our everyday lives.

You can see Cassidy Joy Andel's obituary here.

You can see Cassidy's facebook here

There is also a youtube video about this but for some reason I'm having trouble posting the link. You can search ' BK & Co Bully Busters' to see it if you'd like.

Sorry for the sad post but this blog is about my life, my world, and my art, but life is not always rainbows and puppy dogs :(

Rest in Peace Cassidy♥

My first 'realistic' portrait attempt

This is little Caitlyn. Her picture was included in the reference photos for use in creating the whimsical 'couture' painting I just did. She is 9 now, but I absolutely loved this photo of her as a toddler. I wanted to push myself to try doing a portrait that actually would resemble an original portrait photo. I'm pleased with my first attempt, even though I know she's not perfect nor 100% accurate :) It's a start!


I'm going to give this to Caitlyn's mom, even though it was practice, I'm hoping she'll enjoy having it.

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYBODY!

Darla

Margaret Irene dreams of flying

I recently purchased some old books at a sale. One was a General Biology course which belonged to Margaret Irene Anderson. She was quite the doodler! She was a sophomore in 1939 and from the looks of her biology book, she wasn't really 'into' the class :)
I took bits and pieces of her doodling, mostly airplanes and applied them to this wooden 8 x 8 piece.


Here you can see her signature. She LOVED to write out her name. I've written in gold 'Margaret liked to doodle in biology class'
There's also a skeleton image from the book that's hidden in her dress. She had written 'BOO' by it :) I tried so hard not to cover that part up but it happened before I even noticed :(



Here I've written 'She dreams of flying'


See her airplanes? just left of center is an airplane heading straight towards you :)


I feel a bond with Margaret Irene. I always have been and always will be a DOODLER!
Go doodlers.....past, present and future♥

Day 3

Tonight I worked on her hair, shading around her eyes and shading on her dress. I put a second coat on the background and lettering also.



Now I will stare at her for a day or two to see what's missing or what needs fixing. It's funny how you see things later than you just can't see when you're working on a piece!

Day 2

Still needs work! The hair is freakin' me out a little, want it to look soft and layered with color, yet still very blonde...I will work on that tonight. Also need to shade her dress and add more depth to her skin tone. I'm thinking of adding touches of lavender and oh yes, eyebrows! I think I'll put a light coat of matte sealer on first so if I muck it up too bad, I can fix it more easily.

The dress she is wearing in the photo is red sequined ....I'm contemplating using mica flakes or glitter on the dress but there is a huge part of me saying...DON'T DO IT! What say you?

Also........the black background~ does it need something? Is it too blah? Would some tiny twinkly stars work or should I leave it? Ultimately, I'll leave that decision up to the customer, but I would love to know your opinion. Any and all opinions are welcome :)

*******ELECTION DAY*********
(Just a subtle reminder to my fellow Americans to go vote)

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Darla

Commissioned Work in Progress

I'm painting a whimsical 'couture' girl as a special request. I almost didn't post this because she is SO far from completion but thought I would anyway :)
She will have a black background with 'C O U T U R E' spelled out on top. I was going to originally do the lettering in a dark fuchsia pink to match one of the color swatches the customer sent but there are many more colors to choose from too that we can incorporate here so we'll see what happens.

This is a 24 x 24 x 1.5 canvas.