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.

Two new ACEOs this week~ Moon Magic 1 & 2. I've painted 3 pairs of them this week and it's been lots of fun! I paint them at the same time and it's almost like one is coming from my right brain and the other from my left. I could try painting the one on the left with my left hand but I know it would turn out a mess! :)

My friend CHERI (Ladywolf1 from Wetcanvas) has an entry in the Creativity 350 website contest and I know she would appreciate your vote for her Terra BOT 350 entry. Her entry seems to be made from all recycled objects and looks like a robot with lots of personality! This website seems to be all about conserving and the future and health of our planet...I am going to check it out! I voted for her entry here and you can too if you would like:

vote for: TERRABOT350 by Art2Art

Between July and December I & II ~ Two more little ACEOs I just finished today. Can you tell I'm getting in a fall/winter mood? I listed one of these in etsy and one in ebay as kind of an experiment.

Tree of Muses 1 & 2 ~ Two little paintings I did this week, ACEO size (2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches) painted in acrylics on 140 lb. watercolor paper. These little trees are inhabited by muses...they dwell there to inspire ones creativity when one walks nearby. I'm hoping they'll inspire me to paint more trees! :) Both are for auction in Ebay this week: click here to bid.

The Buggersnapper ~ He flies, he swims, he jumps, he crawls...and eats up pesky bugs...a fat orange comical creature with big googly eyes! This is an ACEO size (2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches) original ooak painting done in acrylics on 140 lb. watercolor paper. The buggersnappper's wings are painted in shimmery iridescent gold acrylics. Another weird one! :) I put him on ebay to see if he gets a nibble. I hope you all had a great weekend!

My painting without the real rock hanging in front of it...

Babs, my Jack in the Beanstalk plant is growing...slowly but surely!! It has the most pretty delicate colored leaves and stalks. I'm hoping I'll see some flowers and beanpods soon!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

I can't believe my 'baby' is 22 years old, boy time flies!

There's a rock hanging in the sky ~ Sooo, I was painting this WIP the other night...I usually place my paintings, if they're little, up on the shelf over the washing machine while I'm on the computer. My light chain over the washer had broken years ago, so I improvised with a round creek rock with a hole in the center. I twisted a long wire which goes up to the light bulb to turn it on and off. Well...every time I place a WIP up on that shelf, I turn on the light to study it while I'm using the computer. Most of the time, that rock is hanging in front of the painting and I have to look around it or put it behind the box of Tide. The other night, I had an inspiration to put the rock inside my painting so I ran in there and painted it in the sky. It's a 5 x 7 inch acrylics on watercolor paper and I'm tempted to just call it done. I don't know what else I could paint in there after the rock in the sky! :)

Ugh, I have been so sick since last Friday night. I think I got either the flu or a bad case of bronchitis. I'm starting to feel like I might survive though, felt much better today. Babs, thank you for that chicken soup, it did make me feel much better!!

Dragonfly Dreams ~ I been painting on and off with this one the last few days and got it finished tonight. It's 5 x 7 inches, acrylics on watercolor paper. Check out Bab's Off the Wall blog, she has a dragonfly painting posted too and it's so gorgeous!

Capturing a Moon Moment ~ right when the full moon was laying on top of the garage last week. I hope we'll be done with all this work on the house (and garage) one of these days. arrgh...it seems never ending! It was 96 degrees today and I thought I was going to have a heat stroke after cutting weeds and mowing the grass under the apple tree! :o Hurry up fall, I'm ready for ya! :)

Tropical Storm Cristobal ~ She sure gave us some spectacular clouds Saturday evening right before sunset! We had the very edge of the system that produced the clouds in these photos. Too bad she didn't give us any rain though which we really needed...there must have been some rain way up in the clouds though as we could see what looked like a piece of rainbow inside the left edge of that big puffy white cloud.

New Trees and Orange Tiger Lilies ~ These are both acrylics painted on stretched canvas and 6 x 6 inches. I still have to think of some names for these. I had to get my 'tree fix' and these are sort of like the ACEOs that I used to paint every week. The big orange tiger lilies are in bloom and I got this picture today. I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Hearts Abstracted ~ I've been inspired by the color red lately it seems. I just finished this one and it's 6 x 6 inches on a stretched canvas. I used a hodgepodge of things in this one, including tiny flakes of sparkly red metalflake auto paint collaged in with gel medium and gold interference and pearl iridescent acrylics for the ribbon. I have this one listed in my Etsy shop. Speaking of which, I helped my dear Mom-in-law set up her very own Etsy shop this week! She owned her own hairdressing business for many years, but since retiring she loves to make homemade items. I told her about Etsy, made her banner and helped her set up shop this week! She would love it if you could give her shop a heart! She is still learning the ropes and I'm helping her with the photos and the listings. Her shop is:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6003895

I hope everyone had a fun July 4th holiday with lots of good food and fireworks!

New ACEO ~ Crimson Sky and Gold Heart (acrylics on wc paper)

Have you ever seen a dragonfly bluer than the sky? I spotted this little fellow next to the deck stairs today and wow he was a gorgeously intense color, almost neon blue! He was actually very small, and oh so delicate looking with almost invisible wings. I got up close with the camera to get this shot. Well I have the red and the blue in this post so all I need is the white to say:

Have a Safe and Happy Independence Day!

Misty Blue Mountains ~ I recently did this little painting and it's 5 x 7 inches, acrylics on 140 lb. watercolor paper.

This morning it sounded like Santa had come early because we are having a new roof put on the house. I never realized how thick that stuff is up there and I cleaned up some of it off the steps at the back of the house. I didn't realize that the shingles were full of what looks like little gravel and fiberglass. It's a good thing I was wearing gloves most of the time! :o

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Golden Land ~ I bought some new paints the other day and I got a tube of the interference gold and it's soo purty! I used the iridescent pearl and the new gold paint to make this ACEO. I tried to get several photos to show how the light ineracts with the paint. I hope everyone is having a great weekend and Happy Father's Day! I made my husband a homemade pound cake today for the occasion. That's his favorite cake so he was happy with my present. :p