Thinking Christmas already....

Yes it is true. I have been thinking Christmas...doing a little shopping..listening to Christmas music....burning Christmas candles....and watching Christmas movies...and thinking seriously about putting my tree up early this year...BEFORE Thanksgiving. In fact, I would like to put a tree in every room this year. Which, brings me to the old aluminum Christmas tree. I have one...looks probably about as spindly as this one. I have the old color wheel too. Not sure where I could put it as I think my cat would want to mess with the aluminum too much, which is not good for them to eat tinsel and similar things. SO..it might have to go in my office area or somwhere like that. I do spend the majority of my days in there between working full time and teaching my son school. BUT I am not sure the aluminum tree would be one I would want to look at all day in there either. But....I remember my parents having this same type of tree for a few years. We always got excited adn could not wait to see any of the Christmas trees going up...but this one was also very nice because of that color wheel...always changing color on the branches and reflecting the light on the shiny bulbs.

Some seasonal fairies I am working on....

FALL FAIRY (not complete)

Christmas Fairy (not completed)

SPRING FAIRY

I had to add 1 ear..will  need to add another! lol

I LOVE this one....the face...everything about her

she is at an angle but looks a little asymmetrical. I need to doctor her up a bit and add another ear

need to finish her face and add some glitter....fine tune eyes on all

 

(SPRING FAIRY)

My uncle had posted some things about fairies and fairy art and how to draw fairies and it just inspired me to do some of my own fairies. I decided to make fairies for the seasons and holidays first. I  have many ideas and would actually like to finish these above....and then coat them with more glitter and Mod Podge...and eventually SCULPT dolls that look like them. I am excited about that....but need to get some supplies. Anyway...here is what I have so far. They are a work in progress. I am making them so they can hold hands with each other. So anyway....I wanted to upload them here to share!

Seven things I loved this past week....

1.  I still  marvel at how my 13-1/2 -year-old son will reach out to grab my hand when we cross the parking lot. Makes me smile every time.

2. I saw this photo uploaded on Facebook and just loved it.

3.  Same for this photo. It was uploaded on Facebook. Berne, Switzerland. The colors are amazing and it is such a beautiful photograph.

4.  Been doing a lot of thinking of my family and loved ones....looking back at old photos is a great thing to do!

5.  I watched Ina Garten on the Barefoot Contessa over the weekend and she had an outdoor party with the best lighting. I cannot find photos of it...but it was so wonderful. I LOVE the idea of having an outdoor party with lighting...it just makes it all so much more magical.

6. My sister found this cool balloon lamp idea and shared it on Facebook. Love this!

7.  I love fractals...they are limitless in design and colors and are just beautiful.

It's Time for Tea! (Mad Tea Party 2012)

Come on in! I do hope you received your personal invitation on time! I am so happy to see you today and just know we will have a fabulous time!

Please choose a tea cup of your choice!

I do hope you remembered to wear your tea party hat! If you forgot yours...no worries. Just choose one from the table!

 I have a nice selection of teas to choose from!

Now step this way to view the tea time treats! I hope you find something you might enjoy!

 

I have so many good things to choose from! DELICIOUS treats! All waiting for you!

Please help yourself!

 

 I have many areas where you can sit today....please choose a table. We have covered and more formal seating....isn't this beautiful? The flowers smell so fresh today! It is just lovely! I am so happy you are here!

If you prefer more INFORMAL seating...please follow the signs...

to a lovely hideway spot saved just for you!

oh I see you have chosen some wonderful treats!!

Don't forget to check your table for hidden treats to take home!

and before you leave today....stop by the front door and check for door prizes!

I have tea samples for you to take home...

also tea and cookie gift boxes....

and I splurged and went all out and made these cute little cut-out sugar cookies...all just for you!

so..until next time....when we get together for another grand tea party time...I hope you enjoyed your time with me today!


Also be sure to check out all the other tea parties today! You can start by checking out our lovely host for this year's Mad Tea Party 2012 over at A Fanciful Twist right here:  A Fanciful Twist - Host of Mad Tea Party 2012

(continuing on my own) - Summer of Color 2012: Week 7: Icing on the Cake!

 I enjoyed the Summer of Color ice cream flavor/color prompts so much this summer..now that it is over...I decided to continue on my own for a little longer...probably at least to finish out the summer. I checked on Baskin Robbins web site and there are a lot of interesting flavors/colors out there I would like to try.

This ice cream is called "Icing on the Cake" and is cake flavored ice cream with cake pieces, frosting bits, and confetti ribbon! If I were closer to a Baskin Robbins I would probably try out each flavor but I don't so I can only imagine how good this one probably is!

My creation was done on a canvas panel..and I used watercolor pencils, Prisma color pencils and glitter Mod Podge over the top. I asked my son what he thought of when he looked at this and he said "The Gateway to Heaven" so I decided that would be the title. 

Summer of Color 2012 - Watermelon Ice

my "Watermelon Ice" creation - for some reason these colors really stumped me at first and I felt a lot of "I really don't want to do these colors" messages floating around in my brain..but I kept going with it...got an idea and went with it. I focused on the 2 main colors...reddish tones and brown tones (for the watermelon red and chocolate pieces in the ice cream flavor)...and I thought of Red Riding Hood. So here it is. I was going to go with snow..and put glitter on the ground..but ended up added more brown tones there...stil may cover with snow...time will tell. The idea of these prompts was to sometimes take me out of my comfort zone to work with colors and media I may not always be comfortable with...and I have enjoyed it so much...I am going to continue on my own with more ice cream flavor/color prompts and artwork! This piece is 16 x 20 inches, canvas with watercolor pencils, Faber-Castell Pitt pens, and Prismacolor pencil

A Fanciful Twist Mad Tea Party 2012

A Fanciful Twist is hosting her annual Mad Tea Party again this year. If you would like to participate  please me sure to click on the link below the pic and/or check out the sidebar link.

I have participated in her Halloween party before...and this is going to be fun too. Coming up soon...July 28th...and usually lasts for a couple of days to make your rounds to everyone's blogs to stop in and visit their tea parties.

CLICK HERE to go to A Fanciful Twist Mad Tea Party 2012 signup

Summer of Color 2012: Week 5: Wild n' Reckless Sherbert

"A green apple, blue raspberry, and fruit punch flavored sherbet party. 

Fruit has never had so much fun."

- Baskin Robbins

I originally wanted to go with some sort of artwork around Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Starry Night painting...but when I started on this canvas...and this is a LARGE canvas...22 x 28 inches....everything turned to an underwater scene pretty quickly....or maybe a bit of both. I wanted to do the entire piece with tissue paper....and everything you see here it tissue paper except part of the hair and face of the mermaid/sea creature...and the swirls I added paint over top of the tissue paper which was just torn and cut and glued onto the canvas. This also reminds me of Avatar...the colors and the way they almost GLOW when you look at this in person. I may still add a bit more detail to the face...though if you are looking at something underwater it should be a bit blurrier ...so maybe I will stop. Anyway...here is my mixed media artwork for week 5 of Summer of Color. Only 1 more week to go I think....and if you want to see more creations please click on the link on my right sidebar!

CLICK on PIC to enlarge

TWO of my funny pre-birthday cards

 Two of my 3 sisters gave me some funny and slightly "cutting" birthday cards for my upcoming birthday on July 5. I laughed out loud when I saw both.....here they are