Paint Party Friday #24

It's Paint Party Friday make sure to check out the other partiers here!

 This Musical Chair was done in honor of my son-in-law.

It's a very vibrant almost candy apple red.

However it doesn't show that way on this post!

The colors were inspired by my daughter's apron!

All  four chairs are now completed, I'm holding back the last one for next week. In the meantime I'm putting a few coats of varnish on my black  dinning room table. These chairs are a temporary fix for that table until I find some black ones! Soon I will prime and color the kitchen table where these will reside permanently! I am quite enjoying the bright fun colors, they  look so much better in person!

How do you incorporate your artful self into your day? Do you wrap gifts in a  fancy way, take time to  decorate a cake or cookies in a particular way or spruce up your eye makeup. Snip-its of creativity fill my daily life.  The above photos were taken at my friend Nature goddesses  home by the ocean. Last Friday we celebrated our Dream goddesses birthday there ! Doesn't everything look beautiful and yummy? All my friends are very talented and creative!

 

 I love the colors and patterns in Nature goddesses dress! This is her back yard oasis, her front yard faces the ocean with a spectacular view!

Afraid one of her cakes wouldn't set she made a cheese cake too!
They were both scrumptious !

                                                 

Love the scarf Dreamer is wearing!!

It actually glowed in the dark making me literally gleeful!!

Being with  friends, browsing art blogs, looking at patterns on clothing, are all things that give  me a creative buzz!

Check out Gypsy goddesses fancy leggings. It's starting to be her trademark since she turned fifty last February! One day she may find herself in the Advanced style blog!!! Sure makes me smile! Love my friends!

                                      What gets your creative mojo going?

Do you have a creative goddesses tribe like I do?
Wishing you  a very happy weekend and loads of inspiration!

Sunday Scribblings " Shipwreck"

 Me, with my son-in-law 

Sunday Scribblings prompt this week is "Shipwrecked"

My eyes well up with tears as I listen to my shipwrecked son in law humming while  he attempts to fix our washer that flooded the powder room last night, and the dryer that has been squawking loudly for the last few months!   He'd  planned to go to the beach today and enjoy the last little bit of summer heat we've had. Instead this amazing  good natured man with the tenacity of ten hums as he works at repairing our appliances.  Trapped in a tiny powder room,  soaked in perspiration with only  a dew rag to  saturate the rolling sweat! 

Why are some men so sweet, kind,  generous of love and spirit while others are resentful and crotchety? It's so nice to witness my daughter married to a delightful easy to get along with male.  A child of ten he's  accustomed to being last, doing without, taking  the dregs.  Yet he's able to share so gracefully,  is always grateful and giving of self! Thankfully my daughter has attached herself to such a special man.

When I decided to dissolve my marriage fifteen years ago my objective was to save her  witnessing a dysfunctional couple in action!  Don't get me wrong there were some good qualities that held us together for twenty five years. We were fiscally excellent, but the rest is nothing you'd want your child to emulate! She was ten when we split and thankfully she managed to find the whistling wonder that is her life partner now!

Although his family knows he's a gentle spirit, they have no idea just how dynamic this man really is! It's their loss. His demeanor is quiet, he's  always willing to help, much like his mom, he's a worker bee. We appreciate him more than he will ever know. We tell him so too!!

I used to be so disillusioned with men, having done the  majority of  work in my marriage, watching friends do the same! Yet every so often I stumbled across a women excited that her husband bought and  picked out her clothes. As a very independent woman I  was horrified and could never imagine that! Well my son in law would have no trouble finding a perfect outfit for his wife, knowing her exact style and size. He's interested in her, what she does, how she feels, who she is! As is she in him! They love making each other happy!

 So glad I'm able to witness their love and friendship in such a pure form since I never had it myself!

Happy Paint Party Friday #23

 Brushed with Orange 

Chair
For more detail click to enlarge photo!

Happy Paint party Friday! I'm thrilled to say I made some positive headway this week as far as my chairs go. Four have been primed and painted a first coat. Three have artwork on them with only one left to go. A few more coats of varnish are needed.

Two need paint touch ups, or should I say change ups!  That's the unfortunate part about being self taught artist...sometimes it's hit and miss. My work often needs tweaking until I'm satisfied. Sometimes it doesn't hit the mark and gets discarded!

Knowing  I have to live with these chairs makes me slightly more critical, forcing me to make many changes along the way. Still not satisfied with the first chair  I'm redoing the legs yet again!  I've decided I  prefer plainer chair legs.

I've been hunting for  a small black square table for my kitchen for almost two years now! I've put a kibosh on that, instead   I'm going to paint my old round one a daring color!! I am pretty excited because I think it will make a notable difference.

 Do you change your mind like your underwear? I sure do!! Even at a restaurant I let everyone order before me, afraid I might change my mind when I hear what others choose.  Yet in other ways I am extremely decisive and know exactly what I love and want! But you can be sure it always has something to do with whimsy and color!!!  Hope you all have a great weekend!! Make sure to check out all the other participants!

Sunday Scribblings " Forward|

Imagine how I felt to find this art van parked next to me when I came out of the grocery store last week!! My daughter and I all but did a happy dance!!

This weeks Sunday scribblings prompt is "Forward"!!

Yesterday evening, while driving I witnessed a wholesome young man running for the bus only to almost reach his destination  to have the  bus blatantly pull away. There is no possible way that driver didn’t see the young man on the tail of his bus. With huge side mirrors certainly he saw him running to beat all hell! I was so sad for the young fellow. I even wondered if the driver did it on purpose. Not quick to ire, I was livid for almost an hour. This has happened to my adult kids too, and continues as they often wait quite a while for a light to turn on the very  busy street so they can cross.  This would have never happened in my day! Drivers looked around to see who was coming and often waited as we diligently ran. They addressed you as you smiled with gratitude thanking them profusely. What a different world we live in!!

We’d like to encourage people to take transit and respect bus drivers and yet it’s nasty acts like this that leave people frustrated  with the system. With our  government owned insurance companies spending thousands of dollars if not millions on a campaign to have drivers be more courteous and kind on the roads then why doesn’t it start with transit?  

I ended up beside the driver at a light, he seemed distracted as his head was turned to the side, not to the towards the road. Wish he'd been traveling behind this art van!  I can only hope the next bus came sooner than the usual thirty minutes between buses. I think transit drivers should be forced to read this blog and take on this challenge!  It would make for some forward thinking… Maybe there would be less disdain in the world!!! 

I hope my trickled in happy photos placed a bit of humor into this scribbling!

Listen to your heart!

 Done with digital paint program!

 Listen to your Heart!

 I try to listen to my heart about things. Sometimes

fear steps in my way. Isn't fear just a big huge saboteur of life? It  makes us think things in a very unnatural way. Conjures thoughts we should never have! It's critical, and condescending, it's suspicious, and really unflattering at times! I know my heart will trump all those nasty thoughts that creep in. But sometimes I have to force myself to listen to it more!!!

How about you, does fear take over your life at times??? How do you counteract it?

Things I'm happy about today.

I'm ninety percent finished my second chair, a few touch ups and I can varnish it!! Yahoo!!

I'll show it for the next  paint party friday....What color do you think it is? 

Finally I got a good watermelon. I only bought a few this summer because most of them were so terrible. We all love watermelon, so I thought I'd try one more time!  And luck  be a lady tonight...it was fabulous and I  got my watermelon fix for the summer!!

I had a great couple of games of online scrabble this morning...even though I lost the first game it was only by a few points...but it was really fun. Doesn't always happen that way. Some games are slow, boring, with terrible boards and tiles!

I plan on getting my bathroom cleaned, I figure if I write it here I'll not procrastinate. I love to read in the bath, in a clean bathroom, so it will make me very happy!

We got new pillows a while back, I'm finally able to dispose of them today!

They're king sized so they take up too much room!

I may even take in the cans for recyle, which will free up space in the garage!! Boring but

makes my life more joyful!!

Paint Party #22 Revamped Jewelry Box

It's paint party Friday again! Time for me to share another post. I sit  down several times a week to write a blog and find myself blank, so I play scrabble instead. I thought I'd share this box I revamped last week.

 

After

I normally throw off my junk jewelry when I arrive home.  For convenience I place it in a colored glass bowl in my  downstairs powder room, allowing me to  quickly grab pieces on the run and replace them when I returned. Save myself running up and down stairs when I forget my jewelry or change my mind!

However some of the jewelry got damaged from the weight in the small bowl.  Plus it   tangled together too. So I decided to revamp this old box that was sitting on my computer housing a few old photos.

Before

I kind of prefer it painted these colors, but they didn't fit the room. It was originally a very cheap thrift store find which I've revamped several times! So I feel comfortable that I can  revert back to these colors later if I prefer.  That's the wonderful thing about old wood boxes, sandpaper with primer and you're good to go!

I kind of wish I'd left it plainer like the above first step, but I was in a painting mood... So I continued on! The inside was ugly before, so this is quite an improvement!

Now my jewelry is  spread out, easier to find, and less likely to get ruined!

Unless of course I buy more.....WINK!

Happy Paint party Friday have a great weekend!

You can check out more art blogs here!

Paint Party #21 amalgamated with Self Portrait Challenge

Paint Party Friday #21 and Violettes Self Portrait Challenge amalgamated.

Well Violettes challenge turns out is a self portrait challenge. So I ended up putting this one together, hand drawn, painted with watered down acrylics! Wish my hair was that color...  Sadly the first self portrait I did ended up over worked and ugly. So I didn't post it! Truthfully I am so sick of myself that I was kind of doing regular fun portraits from the inside out in cartoon fashion. Pretty much how I do everything.... Not sure I want to look at my photo or in the mirror and draw me!! Instead I am mixing it up a bit. It's taking me in a different direction than expected. I am just letting words and creativity flow free and fast! Blogging is quick and easy. Albeit lacking substance! 

I  can tell a persons character by how they act  in difficult situations. Character really is  more important  than appearances. I've been fooled by judging from the outside in. Now I  take a closer look at a persons disposition, it tells me a bundle about who they really are!

Have you been duped into thinking someone was scrupulous because of how they appeared?   Happy Paint Party, hop on over to Violettes blog and give her self portrait challenge a try!

Day Two Portrait Challenge

Day Two of Violette  30 day Portrait Challenge

Digital paint program

Portrait #2 Natural Clowns 

 

Just like I need to use color out of natures palette in a unique way, some people are natural clowns. Always entertaining with humor and attire!  What comes natural to you? I think there's a key to happiness knowing that answer! Whatever you feel comfortable doing is a good place to start finding your true self!

Join Violette's 30 day portrait challenge!

Violette's 30 day Portrait Challenge

I'm going to try Violette's 30 day Portrait a day challenge.

Portrait #1 digital paint program
Letting go!

This is not my best work by far. But I wanted to play with my paint program. Have fun, and let myself go. I'm often way too contrived when I try to draw anything. Sometimes letting go in all areas of life, besides art, can be freeing. You just have to let the chips fall where they may!  So instead of worrying how things look and  what may happen next  that I have no control over, I'll just do what I do and see what happens!! Looks like someone got a frying pan over the head in this portrait! 

What do you need to let go of?

Join along with Violette in her fun challenge. I'm curious to see where it takes me!!