As winter comes...

I hate to see the beautiful flowers in my gardens meet their end as winter comes in.
Looking at them fade, I found that I simply had to do something to keep their beauty alive in some way.
Yes...why not create a Torn Paper Painting of them!! So I did.
I had created an earlier piece with daisies, so decided to create a smaller daisy painting with a bit of metallic gold additions. Love the effect.
The next one I did was an assortment of the remaining garden flowers.
I have a cobalt blue vase. It's round with little holes all around it to insert flowers into.
I now have a lasting memory of the last blooms of the season.

Altered keys

In one of my art groups we have having a challenge for an altered key. Having never done that before, I thought it would be fun to give it a try.
I ended up doing two...and before I knew it..they seemed to have a theme....Spring & Autumn.
The "spring" one was done with a silver key and I wired beads to it and made a batch of shrink plastic flowers for the top. I also added a pin back to it since it seemed so wearable.
The "autumn" was done with a gold key. I put an old jewelry finding at the top, added beads, then wired up and added the square beads to that. The lovely yellow autumn leaves were again done with shrink plastic.
The backside of this one is completely smooth so I left it the way it was so the person who receives it can decide if they want to add a pin or magnet or turn it into a hanging piece.

Mother & daughter weekend

One of my very favorite things to do is to spend some quality time with my daughter. This past weekend I had a chance to do just that!

We both had a weekend with available time to get together...so I drove up to her place to stay the night. On Saturday afternoon when I arrived it was such a beautiful day we decided to go off to the Marketplace Festival that was being put on by the MA. Horticultural Society.

It turned out to be an even bigger treat than we'd expected.

The festival was beautifully put together with some real quality crafters and great baked goods and farm fresh items.

Along with that there were some spectacular gardens. After we shopped around a while...we went off to discover and take pictures of all the wonderfully colorful flowers. The pics I've got posted here are merely a few of the many I took that day.After a long day of play at the festival we went back home and had a lovely dinner and watched movies together.

A leisurely morning with a great breakfast, cooked by my gal, and a

visit from another friend rounded out a really nice time.

Sarah...thanks for being such a great hostess!!

Flowers and Cyclops

My mothers day got off to a lovely start with flowers from my sweet little girl! She never forgets no matter where she is or what she's doing! Sooo beautiful and some of my all-time favorites...gerber daises and oriental lilies.
Then of course, what would a day made for me be without some good art time. As a challenge at a private art site we're are to create a "cyclops bunny". Don't ask....I have no idea how or why they came up with that theme...lol But let's face it...how can you NOT take that challenge??
Sooo....Since my WonderWanda avatar is so well known for her big eye...it only made sense that she be my cyclops as well. I have to admit that I just love the way she came out and had soo much fun making her.

Feels like Spring

around here with all the amazing flowers. My sweet daughter had flowers delivered to us for our anniversary! She's always been such a thoughtful girl. We are such lucky parents!!
Sooo....I'm surrounded by flowers and such good feelings. SWAK :)

26 Years

In just under a half hour, on Oct. 9th it will be our 26th anniversary! My how time flies!! My honey brought these lovely flowers home to me this evening...a day early...just because he had it on his mind all day. What a cutie he is. And what a lovely bunch of autumn flowers they are! Almost looks like a painting. I may need to actually do just that, and paint them myself. I'm a lucky lady and married to my soul mate. Love him dearly!