HAPPY HALLOWEEN! ~ I hope everyone has a fun, happy and safe Halloween! I've been enjoying eating the candy and watching the trees turn gorgeous fall colors this week!

Here are some ACEO paintings I finished this week in acrylics and... Wooohoo, I got a wonderful surprise in the mail yesterday! My completed Girlfriends Traveling Sketchbook arrived and it looks unbelievably awesome! My book has traveled all over the country and even to London, UK! Thanks so much girlfriends, I love it and I'll always treasure my book!! I also have another page to work on for Karen M's sketchbook and then only one more to go, which will be Aunt Mim's page! My book was so long, I had to stretch it across the carpet just to get a picture. Thank You Kate for starting the Girlfriend's Sketchbook project, you're much appreciated my friend!!

Fall Colors ~ Our crepe myrtle hardly bloomed at all this year, but she is putting on a fine show of scarlet color right now! Looking out at the back yard, guess who is going to be doing a lot of raking real soon...me! I enjoy it though. I don't have any new art to share, my muse has been on vacation lately. I think she's finally telling me to get in there and paint something tonight though, yea, about time she came back!

House on Fire! ~ Last week, we had soo many sirens go past the house at about 6 pm Thursday evening...Next the police were blocking off the main road and detouring traffic down the side road next door! Someone's house had caught on fire and omg, I'm so thankful nobody was hurt. The couple who lived there wasn't at home when the fire started but the house had extensive damage inside. So scary! I took this video (below) from our front door about 2 hours after all the sirens went by!

Pumpkin Headed Duo ~ I worked some more on my dancing scarecrows with pumpkin heads. I think I'm going to enter them for the ebay nibblefest contest on the 2oth, since the theme this month is 'Halloween'. I can't wait to see the entries this month, it should be fun!

I found this big yellow poplar tree leaf on the ground today and oooh, it looked so pretty next to the pansies I recently planted. I couldn't resist getting some photos to share. I hope everyone has had a great weekend! We've had cold rain and drizzle, clouds, and wind for almost a week now, ugh I think winter seems to be coming early this year.

Beautiful Blue Pansy, she's showing off her colors.

Velvety Red, she likes being next to the bright yellow leaf.

A close-up of the leaf, what incredible patterns you can find in nature. This could inspire an abstract painting!

Colors of Autumn ~ This is two new aceo size paintings I did this week in acrylics. I have them both listed in ebay. I've been really feeling the mood of fall...especially since the temps have dropped and we are turning on the heater at night now, brrr!

I'm so proud of my daughter, who is so very busy...working and going to college classes to someday become a pharmacist. She had a break today before classes and found time to visit her dad and me and have a cup of coffee and a visit.

All day long, we haven't seen a speck of sun. It was gray and drizzling all day. Then right as it got dark, we look out west and finally see the sun right as it was setting in fiery colors!

A Solid Black Pansy ~ Who knew there was such a thing, I sure didn't know! We went to Home Depot in search of mums and pansies yesterday. The year before last, I had them planted out front and they looked so pretty and grew really well. I knew I wanted to try them again this year. Soo, I bought all kinds of colors including red, purple, blue, white, yellow...and right when we were getting ready to check out, the guy at the register showed us 2 pots of solid black pansies he had on top of a shelf. I was surprised because I didn't even know they came in this color! I couldn't resist them because they looked so unusual and were such a deep velvety color. I thought these pictures would be perfect for fall so I'm sharing them with youall. I've been really slow making art this week. I did start on another pressed blue wildflower aceo/atc with a pastel purple background and I hope to finish it and make some more. I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Scarecrow Pumpkinhead Boogies in the field and More Blue Wildflower ACEO/ATCs ~

Sometimes I think I have a weird imagination to paint something that looks like a scarecrow with a pumpkin for a head dancing around in a field! Maybe it's because Halloween is almost here, a fun time of year!

I've been picking those little blue petals out of the flowers in the fence again and I've made a total of 6 of these so far. I researched, and finally found the plant I've been picking on. They are called Asiatic dayflowers and each of the little blue blooms only last for one day. I'm hoping the petals will last a whole lot longer than that in my aceos, since I have at least 3 thick layers of gloss medium over each of the cards I made. Numbers 1,2, and 3 are gone but 4, 5, and 6 are available and listed in my ebay (link in the upper right of my blog). I am going to try and make some more to list in my etsy store this week! I'm thinking of trying out some different pastel colors for the backgrounds. These have been so fun to make and I may try to make some as Christmas gifts this year.

My Experiment for Today ~ I was sitting on the steps and picked one of the little petals off of one of the blue wildflowers (actually weed) which grows in the fence. I rubbed it between my fingers and it turned my fingers so blue! I thought hmm, what would happen if I painted an aceo with light yellow acrylics and then press the flowers into the wet paint? That part was tricky and delicate. I got some of the tiny little orange parts and a couple of leaves in there too. I then painted a layer of clear gloss medium over it all and sprinkled in a little bit of the crystal glitter. Next I used a black sharpee for the stems and red acrylics for the ribbon, with a dab of irridescent pearl in the middle of the flowers. When it was almost dry, I pressed a piece of yupo paper which made some neat textures. My experiment is almost dried and now I just wait to see if the plant parts will turn brown (oh no) or if the lovely color will stay this way!

Harvest Moon Sparkle ~ With fall colors...I love fall so much but it seems to be the sneezy, coughing season for me now. I've had awful allergies the last week and haven't felt much like painting. I did get this aceo done last night though and it's done in acrylics and crystal glitter over the moon and water. "aachooo" maybe I'm allergic to the crystal glitter, lol! I hope youall had a great weekend!