Paint Party Friday

Hey Happy Campers it's another fabulous Paint Party Friday with the ever delightful Eva and Kristen.

What's Paint Party Friday you ask?  Well it's an opportunity to see what all of your artist friends new and old are creating and posting on their blogs to share with you.  So where do you add your link up or find this list of fantabulous artist?  Well here you go, a link, to find your way to all of the eye candy  PAINT PARTY FRIDAY!

Time  has been whooshing by for me lately and I've been busy, but the kind of busy that makes me happy and fills me with joi de vivre !  I've had 3 torn pet painting portrait commissions come in this week and the first of them is Brewski, isn't that a fabulous name for this pooch!  

 I've finished the torn paper portrait part and I'll be spending today working on his canvas.  The client has asked for black with no words.  I have to admit I have a hard time doing plain black so I'm going to sneak in some undertones of midnight blues and purples and hope she likes it!  I won't attach him until I get her approval because ultimately it's for her and I like to make sure my wonderful clients are happy, happy, happy!  After all they are putting food on my table so to speak.  

Whose next, why his sister Babe of course (two sisters own these dogs and their Aunt commissioned me to do one for each of them for Xmas.). You won't get to see her till the Friday after next though because I won't be posting over the Thanksgiving Holiday next Friday.

I can't thank you enough for stopping by!  Your comments have delighted and inspired me!  I'm very sorry to those of you I didn't make it to visit last week. I only made it through 1/2 the list before it was Friday again!  Never fear though,  you are first on my list this week and I'm determined to make it through to see everyone this week!  HUGS 

 I love my followers I hope you'll become one!  

I'm planning  a very special prize giveaway for one of my followers to celebrate my Birthday,  on December 23rd

Food For Thought Thursday #5

Food For Thought Thursdays # 5 LINKY

Here it is my own blog hop theme!

We need a Thursday Blog Hop too right? What are you eating today, yesterday, this week?  We wanna know!!! Share some thoughts about the food you eat and pictures are great too and then take a little blog hop around to see what's on everyone else's plates!

My post today is a favorite holiday recipe, hope you'll hop on by!

Sign up here with Mr. Linky to share your blog post with us! Remember to copy the blog address of the specific post, not your general blog address!  

Be patient this is a brand new hop, the numbers will grow....come join the fun!  

Thursday, November 17, 2011

It's hard to believe it's only a week until Thanksgiving!  I admit I love this holiday that is surrounded by eating all kinds of delicious foods.  These days we visit family for Turkey Day so I really don't get to do much of the cooking but I do insert myself in the kitchen long enough to always slip in my personal favorite dish, Corn Pudding.  It is so sweet it might as well be dessert and compliments savory dishes in just the right way.

Sweet Corn Pudding Recipe

from Child Magazine November 2003 pg 184

Vegetable oil Spray

2-14 oz cans of nonfat condensed Milk

6 large Eggs

1/2 C light brown sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tbs vanilla extract

1 1/2 lbs frozen corn, thawed and dried on paper towel

1 tsp butter

Heat Oven to 375F degrees

1. Spray a 1 1/2 qt. casserole dish with vegetable oil.

2. In a medium bowl whisk milk and eggs until frothy.  Stir in brown sugar, 1 1/2tsp of the cinnamon and the vanilla.  Add corn; mix well.  Pour mixture into prepared dish.  The mixture should be thick.  If it seems thin, add additional corn.  Dot pudding with butter and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon.

3. Bake for at least 35 minutes until set through the center. Gentle jiggle the dish to see if the pudding is properly set.  Serve hot, warm or room temperature.

Thanks for sharing Food For Thought Thursday with me!  I hope you'll join in and share something you're eating this day, this week, this month, this year.  I'd love to know what's on your plate!

Wednesday, November 15th, 2011

Well it's hard to believe it's Wednesday again already!  Well what's on my Work Desk? WOYWW   (go check out the list and see whose making a mess today over at the delightful Julia's from Stamping Ground!)

I've been busy, busy doing torn paper pet potraits.  The orders have been coming in rapidly since I created Wendell for the Humane Society Auction last week. I have to admit that I love doing them though.  Lots of fabulous doggies I just want to smooooch.  I haven't had a kitty order yet but I'm hoping to do one soon too!  On my desk a work in progress, his name is Brewski and I hope to have a nice picture of him as a finished piece of art to share for Paint Party Friday, if my canvas order ever gets here.

As you can see working with torn paper is a messy job!

I was also putting the finishing touches on a sweet Asian lady mini canvas I am painting as a holiday gift  for a Secret Santa exchange among the staff of  ATCs for All (which I am happy to be part of.)  I can't show you a close up just yet since it is a "Secret Santa" gift, so she's just peeking out of the top left corner of my table. 

I hope your Wednesday is wonderful!  For Wordless Wednesday Create with Joy and Wordless Wednesday Cookin for My Captain and Animal Wednesday here is a picture of Brewski my model for this weeks pet portrait commission, he is so ugly, cute I can't stand it!  I feel so fortunate a commission to create this lovable fella!

It's snowing hard in Hood River today, our first day of snow and it's coming down at a rapid pace and sticking!  It's so beautiful, isn't the first snow of the year the most special!  I also just saw a hummingbird at my feeder, snow and hummingbirds are not a common combination to be sure!


I really appreciate your visit and hope you'll come again!  I love my followers!

Amy's Never Ending Story

I am participating in the fabulous Ms. Amy's Never Ending Story.  If you'd like to see my installment of this delightful Fairy Tale visit my page.

Installment #7 - The Never Ending Story

If you'd like to read the whole story to date visit Amy's Site Here



The Never Ending Story







If you'd like details so you too can become part of history and the Never Ending Story visit Amy's blog for details

Details How you to can become part of History

Oh something else going on of great interest, the lovely Manon  in conjunction with Amy had a FREE, Free live art class last night, you should check it out!


I'm heading off to the post office to mail my "No Bull" torn paper painting that sold to Washington, D.C yesterday.  I think I'd like to get a map to put pins in just for the delight of the visual aspect of seeing how my art is traveling the world.  Don't you just adore a global economy?  I have art in Middlesex, England, Barcelona, Spain, Australia,  and the Phillipines.

"No Bull" Sold

I hope your Saturday is wonderful!  Thanks for stopping by!

Paint Party Friday 11-11-11

Holy Smokes I'm running late for Eva and Kristin's delightful Paint Party Friday!

I wanted to share the finished canvas for the painted torn paper pet portrait that I created of Wendell for the Hamilton County Humane Society Tinsel and Tails Auction.  Last week I showed you Wendell created out of torn, fine, handmade Japanese Paper and the canvas I had painted.

Wendell Created in torn paper next to his pic

Painted Canvas

Here is the finished canvas.

For the Love of Wendell

Thanks so much for stopping by for Paint Party Friday stop by and see what the other wonderful artist are creating for this wonderful 11-11-11

Hope you'll think about signing on to follow my blog!


I'm participating in Amy's Never Ending Story.  Want to see my installment find it HERE

Want more details on how you can add to the Never Ending Story, cruise on over to Amy's and check it out!

Food For Thought Thursdays # 4 LINKY

Food For Thought Thursdays # 4 LINKY

Here it is my own blog hop theme!

We need a Thursday Blog Hop too right? What are you eating today, yesterday, this week?  We wanna know!!! Share some thoughts about the food you eat and pictures are great too and then take a little blog hop around to see what's on everyone else's plates!

My post is about special Fall cookies, hope you'll hop on by!

Sign up here with Mr. Linky to share your blog post with us! Remember to copy the blog address of the specific post, not your general blog address!  

Be patient this is a brand new hop, the numbers will grow....come join the fun!  

Acorn Cookies for Food For Thought Thursday

So what food do I want to share with you today?  Well for me today it was about acorns!  Nope I don't eat acorns but I wanted to create a Fall treat to take to the various Fall/Thanksgiving themed parties happening this month.  So Here is a fun version of no bake, super duper easy peasy "Acorn" Cookies.

Acorn Cookies

 All you need is a package of mini size Nutter Butter Cookies Bites.  A package of Hershey's Kisses and a package of mini chocolate chips.  Use peanut butter as glue and in minutes you'll have these enchanting little cookies that will be the talk of the party!

They are fun to make and the taste amazing, I mean really chocolate and peanut butter how can you go wrong?  ps. I made a few using Nutella as glue because I am a total Nutella nut!  Those aren't pictured because I ATE them!!!

Happy Food For Thought Thursday #4, I'm so glad you dropped by!

Come join us in this blog hope to share something you are eating today, yesterday, this week!  No tough rules just share food!  Wanna Bite?

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Well I'm off to Jury Duty, so a short post for WOYWW and Wordless Wednesday.  My hubby and I took a hike up Dog Mountain over the weekend and the entire hike provided me with heart shaped rocks at every turn!  Romance must have been in the air because I saw at least 25 heart shaped rocks.  I brought home a few I will photograph later to share but these two were too large to abscond with and hike the distance that I had to go, so I snapped a quick pic with my iphone to share with you all.  I think they are spectacular!

I don't have time to upload my work desk but what sits on it is the rest of the heart shaped rocks I found, A paint jar full of water and lots of packing tape and bubble wrap because I had to ship a canvas off to auction pronto yesterday afternoon!  Which I will post Friday for anyone who wants to stop by the blog and my Paint Party Friday Friends.  I will stop by and visit your blogs when I get home tonight. Have a great day! 

Stop back tomorrow and link up to my blog hop Food For Thought Thursdays.  Post a short blog about what you're eating, what you like to eat, well any darn thing that has to do with food!  I hope you'll join me as a follower too, because followers make me happy! I promise to try hard to keep you entertained!

Friday, November 4, 2011

What am I doing for the delightful Kristin and Eva's Paint Party Friday?   I am creating an original canvas for Art for Life II (Tinsel and Tails .)  An annual Auction held by the Humane Society for Hamilton County 

First I had to choose a subject.  I chose Wendell.  This adorable fellow is looking for his forever home.He seems to have a perpetual smile on his face and he's probably not going to be a lot of people's first choice because he's a bit short on manners!  From what I read he's a lovable fellow who needs some obedience training.  He's only 2 and seems to have much of his puppy energy intact.  He deserves a family to love him and show him the way!  I sure hope he finds one!   He was a wonderful model for the picture I used as a reference to create him and he now holds a place in my heart.

I've been really into creating torn paper paintings of late so I decided that Wendell with his contrasting  colors was a great subject for this but first I needed to paint a background for my canvas .  I used Winsor and Newton Watercolors, first a shade I mixed, a combination of Olive Green and Cadmium Yellow.

Art for Life Canvas 1st layer of color

AFL Canvas 2nd color

Then I sponged on an Umber color to add interesting depths and texture.

Next I painted some vintage Asian text with black watercolor paint which will become Wendell's nose.

Base for Wendell's nose

I agonized for awhile about the right paper to use to create his eyes.  Eyes are so important and Wendell's are very warm and friendly.  Finally I chose this interesting pattern and added shades of color with Copic Sketch Marker.

Wendell's Eye

Then I spent hours and I do mean hours, tearing and arranging fine handmade Japanese papers to create Wendell in torn paper. I was too full of Gel Medium and paper pieces stuck to my hands to take more pictures, it's a bit of a messy process.  Here he is created in torn paper.

Wendell in Torn Paper

Wendell in torn paper next to his picture

Close up Wendell in torn paper

Well I still have a ways to go, torn paper Wendell must be adhered to my canvas and then I'll have to decide on finishing touches and whether or not I want any additional embellishments on the canvas but I have to say, I am thrilled with the progress I made on this piece today!  I'll share the finished work next Friday.  I hope you'll stop back to see.

Food For Thought Thursday

Thanks for stopping by my Food For Thought Thursday Post!   If you are looking for Mr. Linky and you'd like to join in the fun and share something that's on your plate today, we'd love it if you'd play along in this new blog hop!

 Here's The Link:

 I've been teaching my 12 year old Son  Max how to bake various items since he was a little guy but we've always done sweets, cookies, cakes, brownies etc. Last year I taught him how to cook a pork roast in the crock pot and he has successfully shown that off for dinner guests who were thrilled. This week though I really wanted to teach him to cook some basic easy items for himself so he is able to cook and eat when he goes away to college...LOL. So last night he made his own hamburger, he put too much seasoning on it but was so proud of himself he ate it anyway.

This morning he made scrambled eggs. Now the funny thing about this is, he is a really, really...did I say REALLY, picky eater and has never touched a scrambled egg in his life! So today when I asked him what type of eggs he wanted to cook and he said scrambled I about fell over! Well he cooked them with no problem and loved them! SO news for parents with picky eaters, let them cook it, they are more interested in eating it when they have invested their own labors or maybe because they know there are no hidden surprises inside?

I think he liked the eggs!  Now I have to teacher him table manners....LOL!  Actually it was his idea to pose for this shot to entertain you all. 

Stop by tomorrow and see what's happening for Paint Party Friday!

http://artstudio33.blogspot.com/2011/11/food-for-thought-thursdays-3.html

Food For Thought Thursdays # 3 LINKY

Here it is my own blog hop theme!  

#3 FOOD FOR THOUGHT THURSDAY!

We need a Thursday Blog Hop too right? What are you eating today, yesterday, this week?  We wanna know!!! Share some thoughts about the food you eat and pictures are great too and then take a little blog hop around to see what's on everyone else's plates!  

Sign up here with Mr. Linky to share your blog post with us! Remember to copy the blog address of the specific post, not your general blog address!  

Be patient this is a brand new hop, the numbers will grow....come join the fun!



My own link will be a bit later in the morning today. I'm doing some cooking with my 12 year old Son and want to blog after we're done!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

It's Wednesday, one of my favorite days of the week!  There are so many spectacular blog hops on Wednesday!


WOYWW (Stop by and see what everyone's work desk looks like!)  Well mine is covered with a good news/bad news scenario.  Our local art supply store Bella's had to close it's doors because it could no longer compete with the internet prices.  I enjoyed the owner immensely and will miss dropping by to say hi.  I shop locally when I can and probably spent half my art budget at the local store but certain items were just too expensive for me to buy locally and then I'd resort to the internet so that I could have a coveted this or that supply.   Anyway, the going out of business sale garnered me these wonderful items and truly $3 copic sketch markers ....WOW!

Also interspersed with my new supplies are a sugar skull I created yesterday for Day of the Dead and an Inchie that I framed.  Can you believe you can get Inchie Frames now!!!  Also some Diet Coke pop tops so I can enter my codes to get free stuff and a pattern template for a little Owl stuffy I hope to make soon.

Fun things to do with inchies, a pendant and a frame. 1" X 1"

There was another corner to my desk but it has to stay in hiding because they were Secret Santa presents.  I'm on the staff over at ATCs for All and we have a Staff Secret Santa swap going on.  I'll share those items after they are received and opened by the recipient.

Wordless Wednesday I do two -stop by and  check out the blog links! Wordless Wednesdays Create with Joy  And Wordless Wednesday Cookin for my Captain and last but not least Animal Wednesday!

Umm What!

Okay this is Anana's Boutique in my little resort town.  They have been having a bit of trouble with there sign!  I've mentioned it to the staff/owner a couple of times but they don't seem to mind I guess!?!  I see the people stopping and cracking up to post it on the FB pages.  I even had some friends come to town and ask what type of shops we are sporting in our town!

Bean and Yuki

This is Bean and Yuki they were both rescues.  Puppies that had come out of a Puppy Mill and where going to be put down because they had expensive medical conditions.  Bean has an auto-immune disease of the eye and Yuki had Parvo at 5 weeks and was on death's door.  I am happy to say 14 and 13 years later they are both happy, thriving little beasties that provide loads of love and lap cuddle time!

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you'll think of signing on to follow me!  Please stop by tomorrow and join me for Food For Thought Thursdays, my very own Blog Hop!  Blog about what you're eating, snap a quick pic of your breakfast, snack, an exciting item at the grocery....let's just talk about food and share a bit of what's on our plate.  Can't wait to share a meal with you!