Emma

My friend Martha asked me to paint a portrait of her "grand dog" Emma as a Christmas present for her son and daughter-in-law.  Emma is a lab-ra-doodle and has a mass of curly hair...I was worried I couldn't capture her in watercolor so asked Martha if it would be okay if I tried it in oils.  I figured if it didn't turn out well I just wouldn't give it to her  :)  Here's the progression of Emma...the photos are from my iPhone...so not the best, but you'll get the idea.  I'm pretty happy with the final results...

here's the beginning...I start with a sienna background on the

canvas...makes the finished oil much warmer.  With animals,

if you get the eyes right...the rest falls into place

starting the fur...I did lots of colors...the light hits her curls

and creates tons of shades of tans/siennas/browns even though

she's really just one shade of beige

working on depth...adding darks and lights

I asked Martha what colors they had in their house...

light blues, tans and light greens...thought the blue

brought out the rich tones of her fur best

Emma

Gift Tags "take 2"

Well, Halloween has come and gone.  Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner, yikes!  With the new grandbaby due any day I figured it was time to start on holiday stuff...the more I can accomplish early the more time I have to spend with Kipp and her new bundle of joy.  Yesterday Maya at Completely Coastal had a post on "nautical gift tags".  It reminded me of the tags I made last year and how a little coastal twist would be cool.  I got out my Cricut and cut a bunch of tags from card stock, then cut stars and anchors.  The anchors are not on any cartridge I have, rather free clipart from the internet I turned into an svg file using Inkscape and Sure-Cuts-Alot.  Those two tools turned my cricut into a very versatile machine...I don't need to rely on expensive cartridges anymore...I can cut almost anything I can dream up...so cool.  Anyway...here's what I came up with in about 15 minutes.  Thanks Maya for the nudge :)

New Teddy Bear for the Nursery

I had some leftover Michael Miller fabric from making crib sheets for the nursery and thought a teddy bear might be fun.  I "googled" teddy bear patterns and found this one online here.  The pattern is downloadable...but the instructions are thin at best.  I wouldn't tackle it if you don't have some sewing experience...but he turned out pretty cute!

The Baby Shower

Kipp's good friend Lea hosted a beautiful baby shower for her yesterday.  So much fun...

name tags and great graphic 

art for the nursery

party favors

our "craft" project. Kipp and I cut 14 cute designs 

out of freezer paper and ironed them to onesies.

We provided foam brushes and silk screen

ink and let everyone choose a design and

color it in.  Made for a cute decoration as well.

finger food lunch...yum

the "bar"

the mother-to-be when she arrived 

and saw the set up

working on their onesies

Kipp with her Aunt Terrie and grandma 

(soon to be great grandma)

A silly game where you cut a piece of yarn as big around as

you think her tummy is...mine was so long we fit in it together!!!

(I didn't win)

A handmade quilt my sister did for the crib...all the 

Michael Miller fabrics Kipp has used in the nursery...

SO thoughtful and beautiful

a LOT of presents...who knew you needed so much for a little baby!!

our finished onesies!!!!

Fun fun day

Watercolor from the Bike Trip

Over the years I have done watercolors from  pictures taken on our bike trips, had giclee prints made and sent a copy to each our fellow travelers.  This little village of "trulli" houses was so picturesque I just had to paint it.  Here's the first try...

Hawaiian Watercolors

Only a week left at the Hawaii House.  So sad...but home to a baby shower and the birth of our first grandchild...so not so bad :)  I've been painting, trying to build up some inventory for the gallery here.  This is a slow time on the island, but the snowbirds will arrive soon and hopefully sales will pick up.  Here are two I just finished...

Surf Shack 16x20

Beach Vine 16x20

I've done these before, I'm happier with this effort

More Party Favors (and a shower game prize)

We're back at the Hawaii House for 19 fabulous days.  I brought a bunch of projects with me...so lots of painting and sewing and sunning...not all bad.  I wanted to make a zippered pouch for each of the baby shower guests and since I had a ton of provencal fabric leftover from pillows I thought it would be perfect. I ordered 24 yellow zippers from Zip It Zippers A terrific site to purchase zippers at GREAT prices.

I precut all the pieces for the pouches and just brought

them in my suitcase...had the zippers mailed here

24 zippered pouches later! Now for one of the "game prizes"

another quilted purse and matching pouch

We return to California on the 19th...the shower is the 

22nd...I'm ready.  Hope the baby waits a bit more :)