I haven't fallen off the face of the earth!

But I did take a fall and I'm not as active as I'd like! ha I was walking out to my car the other day and the snow had melted but there was still a patch of ice from the FREEZING RAIN we received before the snow. Next thing I knew I was looking at the clouds. It was embarrassing AND painful! I hit my head on the pavement and couldn't help but think of Natasha Richardson! That poor woman :(
But I knew I didn't hit my head too hard. It was my upper back. Man, oh man! I was body slammed onto the pavement.

I'm feeling better today than yesterday and expect this to continue :) I'm hoping to get back to painting a little tonight and have something to share soon!

Hope you all have a great week! I'm starting my diet and exercise routine again. It's time!

And the winner is...........

BUTTERCUP!

Sara, a.k.a. Buttercup, you are the winner of my very first Give Away drawing! I want to thank ALL of you who entered! This was so fun and I WILL do another for sure!

Sara, please email me at dkpeters@polarcomm.com and let me know where to ship this for you.

AGAIN.........THANK YOU ALL♥

8-10 " New Snow? Are you kidding me???

So yesterday I posted flood pics. Notice all the brown grass (no snow) in those pictures? It IS spring, right?
Not here! Woke up to 5 inches of new white crud and as of tonight it's close to a foot! A FOOT of new snow! I could just cry, scream and totally throw a tantrum. I seriously don't know why I live here. Well.....the people are super nice♥ and my family is here. I guess that's reason enough :)

It's supposed to warm up on the weekend and it will all go. This, however, will NOT help the flood situation. It's bad when we, out here in the middle of nowhere, make the national news.

Anyway, I'm going to continue to THINK SPRING! Here's what I painted tonight just to keep reminding myself that it IS coming :)

Two new paintings

The first is Cinderella...I see two scenarios here:
1)It's almost midnight and she needs the mouse to change into a horse again and give her a lift home!
2) She's not mousin' around! Her biological clock is ticking and just where the hell is that prince?

This girl had a big old bowl of 'who gives a crap' for breakfast!
She needs no stinkin' prince. Period.

Really....I'm not crabby but sometimes my girls take on that look! oops :)

Our little town is fighting flood waters~Aww, Spring!

Greenhouses under water


Pizza shop....school kids sandbagging



island park (no island anymore!)



Campground

My aunt's house, back in there surrounded by a dike. Hope it holds up!

My Granddogger, Jada

I watch my son's dog, Jada from time to time. She's such a good dog. So smart too! Here's my first attempt at uploading a little video taken with my digital camera :) I sound goofy but that's what some pets respond best to.

I'd also like to thank all of you who entered my give away! I'm so touched that so many are interested! I'm painting tonight so I'm hoping to have something new to share soon.

Have a great evening!

Time for my FIRST EVER GIVE AWAY!!

In honor of spring being here and Easter soon to arrive I'd like to give away a 5x7 print of
BUNNY LOVE! I'm so very grateful for the 50, count em FIFTY followers I now have and I want to show my appreciation! Woohoo!!!!!!!



This is a print of my original mixed media piece titled 'Bunny Love". It's a 5x7 size, printed on 8.5 x 11 matte photo paper. All you need to do is leave a comment here to let me know if you're in it to win it! I've signed and dated it for you.
I'll draw from the names entered next Saturday, March 28!

Good luck and thanks for poppin' in here from time to time to check up on me and my stuff♥

Two New Etsy Items

I just completed week 3 of Willowing's World of Whimsy workshop and it's quite fun!
You'll probably remember the witch with blue hair so she' s not 'new' but I did mount her to masonite and seal her with beeswax so she is now complete.




I also did a girl holding the world called 'Create Your Destiny'
They were both very fun projects for me!


Back to the studio (a.k.a. basement) I go. G'night :)

I'm back!!

I had a great time in Arizona! I can't believe how much color I got in just a week doing things outside in the nice, warm SUN! :) My brother and his wife have a beautiful home in Gilbert and they were so nice to put up with me for 7 days!!

I've been busy catching up at home, work and especially on sleep. The time difference and spring time change kind of threw me for a loop. I'm hoping to post pictures soon. I actually got to hike in the mountains! Ok, so it wasn't a HUGE mountain but for me, it's a great accomplishment. haha

I also got to see a roadrunner! Never heard the 'beep,beep' though :)

Heading out on vacation!

Just wanted to say 'bye' for now and I'll return in a week! Hoping to have fun pics to share. I'm also hoping I don't blind the poor Arizonians with my white legs if it's so warm I want to wear shorts! ha! North Dakota winters can zap a good tan from the previous summer :)

Take care and see you soon!
Darla

Remembering Alex

I rescued Alex from the humane society in Alexandria, Mn in 2003. She was such a sweetheart. She was just like me, if food was around, she ate it. It didn't matter that she wasn't hungry! I took her to the vet for a checkup exactly a year after she'd come into our lives and she had gained 25 lbs! OMG. I 'thought' she was starting to resemble more of a coffee table than a dog, but didn't realize it was that bad! She immediately went on a diet and the sweetie got her weight back down. It was hard because the vet discovered she had broken a bone in her leg at some point in her life that had healed itself and the bone calcified (?) so she could never walk for any length of time without limping. That's the thing with adopting a stray, nobody knows a thing about the poor dog and what they've been through.

2 years ago she woke me up one day and she was having trouble standing. It was a Sunday. I got her to get over to a rug and from that point it slowly went downhill. I was trying to get ready to take her out of town to a vet that was open Sunday afternoons and before I could even get ready I could see this was the end. She still wagged her tail and drank water, poor thing, but she couldn't get up and her breathing was labored. She soon lost control of her bladder. Within 2 hours she passed away. I believe she may have had a stroke but will never know for sure.

It was a sad, sad day and this time of year I can't help but think of her and wish I could have given her so much for the short time she was with me. I wish I would have taken her for more rides in the car, I wish I would have hugged her more and I wish I could have prevented whatever happened to her. She had all vaccines she needed and her diet was good, but she needed to leave I guess.

Yesterday, I let something somebody said bring me down. Way down. It's stupid on my part to do that. The majority of people I come across are kind hearted and supportive but every once in awhile, along comes somebody who must be so angry and dark that they feel the need to make others feel bad too. Whatever floats their boat.

Good news for the day is this! 2 of my paintings in an art gallery have sold! That was awesome news. I really wasn't sure they would. I had to tack on a bit to cover the gallery commission, but they sold anyway! Yippee!! I guess it's the 'hills and valleys' of life. One day you can feel poorly and the next day something happens to lift you back up. Life is good.

My brain is oatmeal

I'm trying to finish up my month end reports at work and get everything in order before I leave for vacation on Friday. I'm flying to AZ to visit my brother and his wife. Nice warm temps!

There's so much to think about though.....it's sucking the fun out of going for me right now. My youngest son is going to stay at the house and watch the 'boys' (a.k.a. dogs)

I know they'll be fine, but I'll worry. I live alone with my dogs, we have our routine and it's freeing to walk away from it, but I worry too. Silly huh? They're DOGS! ha

Will he remember to take the recycle bin to the curb on Monday? Probably not. Will he do dishes? He loves to cook, but can't quite see the messes he makes doing so :) Will he forget the special technique necessary when flushing the upstairs toilet to avoid the water running for hours on end??????????

See? Sometimes it's easier to just stay home and do things myself. haha

No, I will go and have fun! Warm weather, shopping, art galleries (hopefully), flea markets, great food, fancy umbrella drinks and fun await!!

I hope I have time to get everything done before I go, but I also hope I have time to catch up on some of your blogs too! I miss reading them and I just haven't had the time to leisurely browse them like I've come to enjoy♥

Analyze this!

I don't often remember my dreams but last night this one woke me up and made me feel sick and I've thought about it all day. It's so odd!

You'll probably laugh at some parts ...but here goes.

I was sitting in a square bathtub in my living room of the home I lived in 15 years ago. Yep, right in the middle of the living room, shaving my legs and visiting with some young boy that was passing through. Not sure if he was a friend of my sons or what....he had no face that I recall. As he was leaving my Dad walked in and walked over to the sofa and tripped into it and as he fell into the back of the sofa and big white cloud of dust, like talcum powder went everywhere! He turned around and started to talk but he looked so weird.......well especially with white powder all over his face but then his eyes became very distant. His face started turning yellow...very jaundice. I jumped up out of my living room bathtub (good grief) and went to my Dad and asked if he was ok and he just stared and wouldn't answer me. I felt his forehead and it was cold and clammy. I motioned to strange boy in the doorway not to leave and then I fumbled for my cell phone in my pocket (I magically was clothed at this point). I cradled my dad's head feeling it get colder and colder as I tried to call 911. He was dying in my arms :(Then I woke up.

Ok, I get the yellow face part........probably from painting the moon face last night. I vacuum and empty my dyson canister quite often which is full of dust so maybe that's the white poofy stuff in my furniture that Dad stirred up but WHY am I shaving my legs in the living room in front of strange teenage boys?????????? Yikes!

I worried for an hour after this woke me up that Dad, who's 74, died in his sleep at exactly 11:50 pm which is when I bolted up.

Dad is fine, visited with him this morning but now I'm stressing that something is coming. I'm not psychic......I think I just drank too much coffee and ate one too many cookies yesterday :)

World of Whimsy online workshop

I'm taking an online workshop from Tam of Willowing.ning called 'World of Whimsy'. She is such a super person and I think this will be fun!

It just started this past Saturday and we had lesson 1 of 6 called 'Composition & Layout'

We are to practice the layout of our design prior to painting it. This was good for me because I'm very rammy sometimes and do things and 'think' afterwards!

This girl started out as an angel but I clipped her wings and traded her halo for a hat just for something fun and new. You'll see in my original layout the tree wasn't so close to the moon but somehow I didn't carry that part of the design out close enough. I appear to have a 'moon on a stick' in my ending project and I think I should have made her star on her wand yellow to tie in the colors better.

Any collage artists out there?

I listed some brass assemblage pieces today on etsy if you or anyone you know might be interested! I can see all kinds of angel wings amongst these pieces!

Helllooooo March!

I thought I'd share my work today from sketch to completed framed artwork.
I'm calling this one 'Letting Go'

Letting go of the past so we can grow and live for the future.
Letting go so we can fear less and love more.
Letting go of self doubt and criticism so we can be free to achieve all we are meant to be♥





I have a slight headache.......going to pop a few advil and soak in the tub. I LOVE Sundays, don't you?
Have a great day my friends,
Darla