Bubbles...and stars!

After I created the small champagne Torn Paper Painting....it was on to a much larger commission piece based on that one.
The client wanted one very similar...but with one glass instead of the two.
The end result was a larger 15"x30" canvas....with the addition of some paper stars for balance.
Looking forward to seeing it in it's permanent home when they arrive back from warmer climates.

Hopefully, they'll stay warm a bit longer. We're in the middle of blizzard preparations now.
Blizzard "Juno" in just setting in as I type. Due for upwards of 30"of snow...and more then likely...days without power. Oh well....we were having a nice easy winter!!

Also...we just celebrated my husbands big 60th birthday!! The day is officially today...so we'll sit by the fire this evening and quietly celebrate together tonight. I get to celebrate my big 60 this year as well...but not until summer....so I at least know the weather will be better :)

When lightening strikes!!

In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, during an amazing thunderstorm, one of the huge pine trees in my backyard was struck!!

I must say that the sight of the damage to that tree was shocking. I finally realized the power behind such forces of nature.

Thank goodness I've got a camera with an awesome zoom on it since this tree is very tall. The zoom allowed me to get a more detailed shot of the damage to the top.

When looked at up close it almost looks as if the lightening spun all around it.

The two long gashes that are side by side in one shot are actually on the rear side of the tree.

There is a big long hit near the bottom on the front side that seemed to be the place where the lightening left and hit the ground....because from the base of the tree there is a long slice through the plastic landscaping material under the gravel near the picnic table that carries through until it reaches the grass.

I don't have a clue where it went from there, but a number of electrical things in the house became affected. One of which was my modem that was blown (luckily I had the computer off and it didn't follow through) and the battery in the handset of the cordless phone was blown out. I've only just gotten back online after waiting two days for the service person to come out and get everything running again.

He could see some of the burnt out connections out on the pole where the electric charge ran out to. I'm just lucky there wasn't more damage done.

I put in one picture that I took from the front yard looking over the roof of the breezeway and garage at the tree that was hit just to show you how close this actually was to the house.

My next job is to see if this poor tree is going to have to come down. I have no idea just yet if it will survive this hit.

Well...fingers crossed that the old saying "lightening never hits twice in the same place" is true!!

Lot's of the white stuff!!!

Snow....snow...and more snow!!!

I went outside last night during the storm to take these pics. I had intended to post them right away....but as luck would have it, before I could get the post up online....the power went out. DANG....I hate when that happens. I was afraid to turn the computer on again after that for fear that it would keep going on and off....which the power did! Sooo...I went to bed instead...lol

The pics are even nicer to look at if you click on them to enlarge them. The last pics I'd taken were of my back yard. I took the front this time.

The first one is a shot of my husband after he'd shoveled just enough of the walk to actually get out of the breezeway and into the front.

The next is of the lighted deer out front. He was actually the reason we went out in the first place. The large tree near him had gotten some very heavy branches and were threatening to knock him out.

The next pic is a shot of some of the lights in the front of the house. I love the way the lights shine through the snow.

The next one is of the gazebo further up front in the yard. It looked so beautiful with the lights shining through the huge pine branches.

The last pic is one that I took as I was coming back into the breezeway. I just stopped in my tracks. I think that this is just sooo pretty.

We have a small lighted tree in the breezeway and the glow from the tree onto the panes of glass on the window and door to the back yard looked so lovely with all the snow on them.

I'm thinking that this may be a shot for making my Christmas cards for next year.

Well....I can hear my dear hubby out there with the snowblower right now. Guess I'll go out and help for a while......at least brush off the cars!!