Paint Party Friday

It's Friday Again!  

Time to play with the folks at 

Paint Party Friday. 

Hosted once again by the great 

Eva & Kristin! 

Just a couple of journal pages this week. 

Weeks # 15 and # 16 in the 

"COLOUR ME POSITIVE" 

challenge of which I am behind in again. I should be working on # 18 this week.
If the rain that is predicted for the weekend happens maybe I'll catch up again :) 

Spring is definitely awake her the heart of America. The grass is growing way too fast and it will be a few days before it will be dry enough to mow so it will have to be raked for sure. I don't mind the raking because I use it in the garden but I don't like the lawn looking so "SHAGGY :(" 

The purple Iris are blooming...

...the purple Columbines are awake also. It seems that the purples are always the first to wake up.

The yellow Iris are not too far behind though. 

Random Thoughts for today. 

 linking to 

♥

Paint Party Friday

It's Friday and time to party with the artist

at 

PAINT PARTY FRIDAY!

Thanks again to Kristin & Eva for hosting this weekly event ♥♥♥♥

I missed last week. It's SPRING and all of my time and energy went to working in the yard and gardens. I'm much slower than I used to be so it's taking me longer to get things done. 

IT'S EARTH DAY !!!

So I'll share a couple of flower painting from last year and a few garden photo's from this week. 

 The top one is one of my favorite paintings from last year ♥

The flowers this year so far have been stunning. Mother Nature has been kinder to them.

 The lilacs were so full and smelled so sweet 

♥

 I was afraid the frost had killed most of the apple blossoms but I was wrong :) 

 The Tiger Lilies are coming on strong and I can barely wait to see them bloom. Last year was so wet and cold they didn't even get this big much less bloom. So far the dog is being good about digging in them. Cheyenne Pepper seems to be working it's magic there . 

 My multi-ruffled tiny white daffodils are always the last ones to bloom. The shot below is to show you how small the blooms are . Even thought the leaves and stems are normal sized.  

 The Iris are just starting to bloom in some of the beds. When the big bed is in bloom it's beautiful. 

This is Jazz :0) one of the 3 blue eyed cats we own. He's an interesting character that is constantly into everything and bringing things out to the living room to show us what he's found. He can open cabinet doors and drawers so unsafe things must be kept locked away. 

Here is my current art that I'm working on. It's almost done....just a bit of background fill in still . It's my oldest granddaughter done  up a bit in a fantasy atmosphere. 

 The inspiration photo is of her and her sister playing dress up last fall. 

I painted her sister in February ...

Ok ... one last Random Thought for today and then I'm out of here and outside for 

Earth Day :) 

linking to

Once again a big 

THANKS! 

To Kristin and Eva for all of their hard work to keep us going here week after week :) 

We'd be lost without you ♥

A varied assortment of art here this week. 

First is me journal page for the "COLOUR ME POSITIVE " challenge week 14

WITH HOPE ALL THINGS ARE 

POSSIBLE. 

I had just read several articles on the plight of the Gray Wolf in America and just had to paint this handsome fellow.

From there I went to drawing on a tee shirt with Sharpies and misting with alcohol :) 

This was fun and done on a 2X size shirt and I'm only a large so it will be a comfy sleep shirt for the summer. It will have to be hand washed in cold and will still fade over time. But still a fun relaxing project ♥

Then I decided to recycle a rice bag for a snack sack for me to take to work. I only work 4 hour shifts so I don't need a full lunch but if I don't take something healthy I'll be buying something nasty out of the junk food machine.

Here's the bag...
8 inches X 12 inches 

and here it is after the first round of painting...

...decided to try a fake stitching painted around the edge...

.....HATED IT!...

... so went with this...

It's got a zipper at the top and is made of rough burlap. It's the perfect size for and apple and yogurt ..maybe throw in a little art journal or a book. Probably not the most durable lunch sack. But we eat a lot of rice and I never throw the bags out. So I can just paint up another one  or two ore three... :)

While surfing Youtube today I ran across a short film by Jodi Ohl on her 

"DIRTY FLIRTY BIRDS"  class and thought I'd give her style of birds a whirl :) 

I haven't painted anything yet but I just might have to sign up for the class cause it looks like fun..

Even though I promised myself no more classes until winter.  We'll see :) 

The Bluebirds are building a nest in one of my birdhouses :) 

Of course there is a fight every day with a sparrow type bird over the house so we're hoping the Bluebird wins ♥ They've been putting up a good fight. 

Not the best picture of the Bluebird but it a long ways from the front door and taken through the window while leaning at a strange angle :) If I open the door to get a photo they fly off :( 

Here's the bird that is trying to take over the birdhouse. 

It looks like a Junco which are usually gone north by now... but the bill and legs are dark on this guy and the Junco's are light color.  The only other bird in my book that looks like this is a Black Phoebe which is a great match but they are not normally found this far east. Who knows what the bossy little fellow is. I just hope he finds a different home soon ! The Bluebirds haven't nested here in years and I'm very excited they are back. 

Today's Random Thoughts

Linking to 

♥

Paint Party Friday

Happy April Fools Day! 

May the pranks pulled on you today be only small ones that don't hurt the true you ♥

It's been a long week here...still dealing with the back issues. But we do have a temporary fix finally!!! Got my injection on Wednesday and that whole experience was a nightmare. I've never had issues with the procedure before and only gotten a local with it being uncomfortable during the process but relief was almost instantaneous. 

It didn't go that smoothly this time and the pain increase dramatically... which I understand is really quite normal with relief coming within 24 to 72 hours. Fortunately I did fall into the 24 hour bracket and can finally move without pain. 

Now I have some serious decisions to make about future procedures and whether to continue with the injections which so far have lasted several months or go ahead and have surgery and hope we are done with it all then. 

So much now for my self pity rant and down to the fun part....the art. At least I was able to do art through all of this. The house and yard however have suffered great neglect :( 

The first is a catch up painting from the "COLOUR ME POSITIVE' year long challenge. This was the challenge for week 5 which was in February when I was doing the 29 Faces in February 2016 challenge. I decided not to combine the 2 challenges and just catch later with the "COLOUR ME " challenge. It's a very relaxed Facebook group where you can just jump in whenever you can or want.  We're given a quote and we create something inspired by the quote but it's not mandatory to use the quote in the art. I usually do :) 

This just happens to be one of my favorite quotes ♥

The next one is last weeks challenge ...

When I read the quote I knew immediately what I wanted to do. I've been admiring several artists who have been doing the women with antlers thing and wanted to try one myself. I felt in fit well with the quote..

"THE REAL VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY CONSIST NOT IN SEEKING NEW LANDSCAPES, BUT IN HAVING NEW EYES.--MARCEL PROUST" 

I have a work in process that is a make up for week 6.

"WHEREVER YOU GO. GO WITH ALL OF YOUR HEART.--CONFUCIUS "

Still not sure exactly where this one will end up but enjoying process. 

 I haven't started on the new challenge we just got last night.

" ONCE YOU HOPE, ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN" 

So we'll see where that one takes me :) 

My first tulip of the season opened up yesterday :) 

The "Lady White" daffodils are opening up. These are always a later blooming daffy which bloom when all of the earlier ones are fading. It's been nice having bouquets of daffies in the house the past couple of weeks.   

The Dandelions are in full glory now in the yard and along the edge  and into the driveway. A little yellow happy river :) 

My neighbors think I'm crazy for encouraging their growth :( I do use them for lots if things though and the bees love them. It's all about the bees ya know ♥ 

I'm hoping to be able to get some of the flowers picked to use in my home made soaps this summer. One of my favorite soaps to make. 

Today's Random thoughts...

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to drop over to 

PAINT PARTY FRIDAY 

Where Eva & Kristin host a rip roaring Art Filled party every Friday ♥