Christmas Eve Photo Op ~ I hope everyone had a Wonderful Holiday! I had to put the old camera on top of the TV and set the self-timer to get this picture of us after Santa's visit. It turned out sort of glarry but Santa brought me a new camera (yea!) which I tested out on Puddin' in the picture below.

Puddin' said, "Hey, I know I'm not supposed to sit on the kitchen table but I get such a good view of the bird feeders when it's raining outside!" I'm still trying to figure out the complicated directions on the new camera... instead of 'partridges in a pear tree', I can see about 25 doves roosting in the poplar tree in this picture. I think I'm going to love the new camera when I figure out how to use it!

Sunflowers in the Garden at Sunrise ~ I sold the original of this painting several years ago. I cropped a part of the photo from the original painting ACEO size and printed it out and it turned out pretty neat!

Blue Night Serenity ~ I hope I haven't posted this one before but I'm pretty sure I haven't. This is acrylics on a stretched canvas and it's 8 x 10 inches. I'm wishing everyone a:

VERY VERY VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Special Moon Event ~ Thank you Babs for letting me know about it because I didn't even see about it on the news here and had no idea the moon would be special tonight. We've had a week's worth of heavy clouds, rain and flooding so I was so glad that tonight the sky would be clear! Check out Bab's Off the Wall Art blog to discover why the moon looked so huge and beautiful tonight! I took about 10 photos this evening as it was coming over the horizon and even used my husband's shoulder as a tripod a couple of times. :) Ha, he didn't complain too much, just commented that it looked like the moon, only larger than usual! This is the only one that turned out good enough to share since the others were a blurry disaster. This one is a big blur too, but turned out kind of neat. That train of lights under the huge glow, which is the moon, are actually a couple of cars going up the road right as I snapped the shutter. Thanks Babs, from one moon watcher lady to another!

Celestial Wonder ~ 6 x 6 inches acrylics on stretched canvas
Oh! The cresent moon and planets in their special alignment the other night just took my breath away and I immediately had the urge to try and do a painting of it. There's no way I could capture the actual beauty of that sight, so I just painted my impression of what I felt looking up at the night sky! We are supposed to get a little snow tonight and they even have the winter weather advisory on TV. I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

'Celestial Wonder' and haha big mess in my studio...better known as spare bedroom or my painting room.

'Heart of Ice' ~ ACEO done in acrylics on 140 lb. watercolor paper

I listed this one on Ebay: Heart of Ice The listing fees have gotten lower there and I had some good luck with listing an ACEO print there last week.

OH Christmas Tree ~ You may be artificial, but you're still beautiful!! Well, we finally bought an artificial tree last year. After so many years of picking out a real tree every year...going to town to pick it out, bringing it home in the back of the truck, cutting off the bottom, finding the tree stand which is usually buried somewhere at the back of the attic, putting water in the stand and spilling it on the floor, sweeping up dried up needles all over the house, worrying about the thing catching on fire, some of us possibly being allergic to it, only having it up for 2 weeks....well you get the picture. Last year, it somehow felt a little depressing not to have a real tree, but this year I'm more than happy with it plus we get to enjoy it the whole month of December! I know I'm going to be eager to take it down right after Christmas though as we'll be really tired of looking at it by then! :p Ho Ho Ho

Icy Spirit Awakens ~ This is 5x7 inches, acrylics on watercolor paper. I used some gold interference and some glitter dust for a sparkly spot under the moon.

Metamorphosis ~ This little 6x6 inch stretched canvas has gone though so many changes, I now have the perfect title for it. I gessoed over one I didn't like, painted another, and then painted another over that one...then changed it yet again! Well this is the final version and there's about 3 paintings underneath this one. :p

Which reminds me, one of my all-time favorite short stories is 'The Metamorphosis' by author Franz Kafka. Very eerie and a great read!

More Christmas Trees ~ The bottom two photos are ACEO size paintings with sparkly stuff (crystal glitter) in the snow and the painting in the top photo is 5 x 7 inches. These are painted with acrylics on 140 lb. watercolor paper and I also used little touches of the pearl irridescent and gold interference acrylics in all of these. I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Tulip Poplar Tree ~ Rob planted this tree in our backyard years ago (maybe 12, I lost count) and it's grown to be the prettiest tree in our yard.

It was a sapling when we rescued it from the fate of bulldozers. They were building a new subdivision down the road from us and we were looking for trees to save and plant in our yard. I think we got very lucky when we rescued this one. We feed and water the birds under that tree and when the wind blows through it's huge leaves it makes a neat sound when the leaves 'clap' together. It turns this lovely yellow color in the fall and in the spring we're treated to big yellow flowers which look sort of like tulips. I even made some digi art to honor our favorite tree. I hope everyone has a creative and lovely weekend!

Fall Nocturne ~ I just finished this acrylic painting on an 8 x 10 inch stretched canvas. I had bought a huge sheet of translucent yupo paper to make some origami Christmas ornaments for the tree, but found out the paper is too thick for the use I'd intended it for. Sooo, I have been cutting and painting and experimenting with the stuff. I cut out a circle of it to use for the moon in this painting and glued it on the painting with gel medium. All I have to do now is coat the whole thing with gloss medium and call it finished. I hope youall had a happy and fun Halloween! I ate so much candy corn and it looks like I even spread a few pieces under the tree in my painting! :)

Lady in Shadow ~ This is one I'm still working on and it's acrylics on an 8 x 10 inch stretched canvas. I don't like the spots of yellow on the face and I'm gonna have to redo that part anyways.

Oh Christmas Tree ~ Yep, I am painting the snowy holiday ACEOs again. Gee, I sure dread having to do the shopping this this year though.

Speaking of holidays...the trees out in the yard are turning into gorgeous colors and I have lots and lots of Halloween candy ready for next week even though we rarely get the trick-or-treaters out this way. Hey, you have to be prepared though, just in case! *munch munch munch* :p Mmmm, pass that candy bowl!

Driving Under the Ocean ~ Did you ever wonder what it would feel like to drive on a highway suspended for miles out over the ocean, then go down into a tunnel and actually drive under the ocean?! We had to make a trip up the east coast into Maryland last Tuesday to purchase a tow truck for Rob and we got to experience driving through the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel twice that day! You can click on the link to see pictures of this marvel (much better than my photos). After entering the tunnel, you go down, down, down through the tunnel which is just a tube and then as you go up you start to see the light on the other end of the tunnel, whew! One hair-raising thing I noticed is that there was such a little (and I mean little) space between the tops of the semi-trucks and the roof of the tunnel...maybe a good shoot for an action movie but a person would risk decapitation if they even so much as raised their head! Here's a quick YouTube video of a guy driving a motorcycle through it if you would like to experience it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me8XCC4mH9c

Another fun fact to ponder: As we were driving though the tunnel, Rob playfully asked, "Wow, what would happen if a big ship sunk above the tunnel?" :o Hmm, I don't think I want to find out! Here's a few photos I took of the bridge/tunnel (above).

'Midnight Sun' ~ I guess I had water and ships on my mind when I did this ACEO. I used pieces of yupo paper collaged in, both the metallic gold and silver acrylics and even some crystal glitter.

The Babs and Lynnie Collaboration ~ Here are some photos! My friend Babs, from Off the Wall Art who is a very talented artist had the neatest idea! She mailed me two of her WIPs a while back and I got to finish them up. I was scared of 'messing' them up but today I just got up my nerve and started painting on them. I really like how they turned out! I feel that Bab's wonderful abstract style shines in the the one on the right (my fave) and she likes the one on the left so the tree is going in the mail to her along with two new WIPs started by me! I used acrylics and touches of the pearl iridescent and interference gold. Thanks Babs!!

Harvest Moons and Pumpkins and crisp cool nights! Here's 2 more ACEOs I painted and I am getting in that mood for all the fun holidays coming up! I can't belive how fast those little bean pods grow on the flowering vine growing on the fence. I just had to share this picture I got yesterday, such pretty colors!

HAPPY FALL ~ You've been mooned! I wish I knew who to credit this funny photo to, but it was sent in an e-mail that's been forwarded to lots and lots of people and no name or credit of the photographer. Hehe, my sister Betsy got me with this, so I'm passing it on to you!

Delicate gorgeous plant ~ Babs, I got so excited to see this beautiful little flower on my Jack in the Beanstalk plant from the oreo seeds! Next year, I am going to plant some in a planter also. Today, I saw that one of the flowers is growing into a bean! Such pretty colors!!

Drops of Golden Sun ~ I just painted this one last night and finished it today. It's acrylics on a 6 x 6 inch stretched canvas and I used my tube of gold interference paint in this one. Sometimes I will put off painting or creating for days or weeks and it feels like I am going to 'burst open' if I don't get in there and paint something. I had one of those crazy jolts of creative energy last night and painted this one in less than 10 minutes. I did work on it some more today and signed it. The words 'Drops of golden sun' are remembered from when I was in chorus in the 6th grade. We put on a show for the parents and we sang songs from the old Mary Poppins movie for the program. We sang the same songs over and over and over in rehearsal. To this day I still get the song, 'Doe Ray Mi' stuck in my mind sometimes and that's where the words 'drops of golden sun' came from which I thought would make a good title for my painting. :)

First Day of Autumn Picnic ~ I'm bringing some chewy chocolate chip cookies for the picnic! It seems that a fellow blogger Marianne had a fantastic idea. She decided to have a picnic to celebrate the first day of Autumn! On Kim's blog I see that she is bringing some delicious Cafe au Lait and Andrea is bringing some lovely colorful french macaroons, check it out and see you at the picnic!

Don't throw that away! ~ I looked in the back of Rob's pickup truck (on the way to the dump) and barely rescued this old coal bucket that came from his late Grandma's house in West Virginia. I grabbed it out and bought and planted some flowers in it yesterday. Whew, I'm glad I saw it before he pulled out of the yard and it sure made a purty planter!

Black Cat Smiley ~ I did a funny painting from Puddin's photo (in my post below). This is for a themed contest (nibblefest art contest) and the theme this month is 'Smiling black cats'. I couldn't resist this one! I painted this in acrylics on 4 x 6 inch 140 lb. watercolor paper. I hope everyone is having a great weekend. Babs, I know you are visiting KC this weekend but I got so excited with my oreo seed vine. It now has a purple bloom! I'll get a picture for you! :)

Here's what I did with my last 3 ACEOs. They are finished now and I put some crystal glitter in the snow.

Here today, gone tomorrow ~ Yesterday I found this little guy popped up in the front yard after we had finally had some rain. Today, he was shriveling up but more around him are popping up all around to take his place. I could almost picture some elves nearby!

Playing in the Snow ~ I hope it's not too early to be playing in the snow but I had so much fun painting ACEOs last year with winter scenes. This is 3 that I'm working on now but I keep thinking I need to add a touch of red somewhere or put a finishing touch on them. Ick, I took the picture with a flash tonight so I'll get some better pictures outside after I finish them.

Passion Flowers (kudzu) vines ~ I brought some passion flower bulbs here to Virginia from Kentucky about 8 years ago. They come up (and come up and come up) everywhere as soon as the weather warms here. I love the flowers, but I have to pull up over a 100 vines sprouting up in the grass everywhere nearby. :o I believe next year I am going to save a bulb or two and try this vine as a potted plant and hopefully I won't have to pull vines sprouting all summer long! Arrgh, I'm tired of pulling them up every year LOL!

My thoughts and prayers are going out to those down in Galveston, TX tonight and I listened on the news in disbelief that many thousands are not evacuating down there, yikes!!

Puddin wanted to say "Hi" ~ Today I was trying to take a picture of the painting in my last post, and yep I did work on it some more. Puddin kept trying to jump up on the bench where my painting was laying so after I got the picture, she jumped up and I got her picture too. LOL, look at her teeny tiny feet down there! Janet, from A Planet Named Janet gave me the idea for the title. Thanks Janet because I'm just calling this one 'The Peacock Tree'.

Lazy Dog Days of Summer ~ It was 96 degrees here today and I just can't get up enough energy to do much of anything...or maybe it's just me and not the weather :o I've been working on this painting but I'm not sure if it's finished or not though. It's 5 x 7 inches, acrylics and black sharpee pen on watercolor paper.

More weird moon ramblings so very late at night ~ Being fascinated by that big moon sailing over the back yard I had to take some more pictures with the little digi camera!

At first I thought I had gotten a picture of some mysterious ghost, although I'm not sure I belive in them...then I realized that it was my cigarette smoke that had gotten in front of the camera as I was taking the picture. :) (I think that's what it was anyways!) I was trying to get a photo of the full moon which was in the sky over the garage, to the right.

The moon I was trying to capture, big and orange

...and the moon sailing past our favorite tree in the backyard.