Arts from the Darkness-Sunset over the winter forest-Henrich Gogarten-CWFA
Andrey Chernush via Ana Loreta Baicu-Linked In
Jaanika Talts-Estonia-via Fabrizio Clementi – Linked In
Monthly Archives: December 2019
New Earrings
I’m selling these on ArtFire for $9.99 a pair, if you’re interested.
Filed under Holiday Gift Ideas
Stubborn
My husband has been after me for a long time, probably several months, to ‘dump’ the gravel in the bottom of the aquarium when I clean the tank. I have a nice aquarium vacuum that works really nicely, so I’ve been putting him off. I didn’t want any problems with a leaking tank. I also had visions of his dropping the tank mid procedure, and our having to rush out and buy another while the fish waited impatiently in the small bowl of water. I admit I’m really stubborn about accepting his suggestions many times.
Dumped the gravel into the largest colander I have. My husband rinsed it in the sink, using our spray attachment, while I cleaned the glass inside and out. We carefully put the gravel back, then added the treated water, then the decorations, lights, filters, oxygen thingie, and finally, the fish.
For awhile, the water didn’t look any better than it does when I clean it the regular way. But then things settled down.
And though I cleaned up water everywhere and keep finding small pieces of gravel, I have to admit my husband was right. It DOES look better, and DID make a difference, and the tank and water ARE cleaner than they were.
As usual, the fish aren’t saying anything much. They are happily swimming around, bunching up in the corner every time I pass the tank, dreaming about feeding time.
My husband DID admit it was a lot of work – even though the only part he participated in was the gravel cleaning. He said I should order more gravel so that we can ‘start with a clean batch’ next time.
Filed under Family, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob
Felted Wool Animals
Yulia Derevschikova is a Russian artist who creates beautiful felted wool animals.
Yulia Derevschikova, Russian Artist via Bored Panda
Yulia Derevschikova, Russian Artist via Bored Panda
Yulia Derevschikova, Russian Artist via Bored Panda
Yulia Derevschikova, Russian Artist via Bored Panda
Yulia Derevschikova, Russian Artist via Bored Panda
Filed under Embroidery/Sewing Art
The Art of John Lopez
John Lopez is an artist in South Dakota who creates art from found things.
John Lopez from South Dakota via AwesomeJelly.com
John Lopez from South Dakota via AwesomeJelly.com
John Lopez from South Dakota via AwesomeJelly.com
John Lopez from South Dakota via AwesomeJelly.com
Filed under Art From Found Things, metal art
Talented Artists Who Give Us Pet Portraits
Niki Firmin – Toby
Gary Wing
Kelly Armitage
Kelly Armitage
Kelly Armitage
Niki Firmin – Glen
Filed under drawings, Gary Wing, Kelly Armitage, Niki Firmin - Pet Portraits
Withdrawal
Tim Vine via Slide Share
I finished “Connections in Death” by J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts the day before yesterday. That is #48 in her series of 50 “In Death” books featuring Eve Dallas, a homicide lieutenant. I read them all again from the beginning before I allowed myself to enjoy this last one that has come out in paperback. I have #49 arriving December 31st, according to Amazon, and am aware there is #50 out recently in hardback, so the joy continues.
I’m in withdrawal now. I really enjoy this world that Nora has created. The people inhabiting it are people I would love to really know. The interactions between all the characters is fascinating.
In the meantime, I have a whole stack of what I hope will be good books waiting for my attention.
Filed under Hobbies, Reading is FUNdamental
Thoughts on a Saturday 12-7-2019
Beautiful World
Today has been a ‘fruit-basket-upset’ so far.
My husband reminded me that it was past time for me to check for operating system updates on my computer. I had to close down everything and start a download. It took FOREVER. THEN – it had to APPLY the updates to my computer.
While it worked, I cut up strawberries for my husband, got chili into the crock pot, vacuumed the first floor tiles, defurminated (a tool that thins her hair) the dog, took down Thanksgiving decorations, cleaned the kitchen….
Now, it’s afternoon and I haven’t had my coffee or started working at the computer!
I have to share that I sold a couple of hand-painted glass Christmas ornaments and a package of friendship greeting cards at the local shop in Greenwood yesterday!
I don’t know which two sold, but it makes me happy that someone liked them. :0)
We got to talk briefly with our son in Thailand this morning. We tried to use the conference call program, but my computer was using up all our band width, downloading the system updates, so we’ll have to try that another time. He was doing well, and that’s the main thing.
Now that it’s afternoon, and I have JUST finished my morning cup of coffee, I’ll go fix our lunch and then try to get going on the computer again.
I hope that YOUR day is going well.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Favorite Photos
Minnehaha Waterfall in Minnesota-photographer unknown via Yolanda Vanveen
Mark Littlejohn via Jim Fagiolo
via Mary A – LinkedIn
Mehmet Tayfun Dur – Linked In
Mehmet Tayfun Dur – Linked In
Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography, Favorite Pictures
Clean Digs
Goldfish are not the most affectionate pets. In fact, they don’t say much at all – happy or sad. The best thing MINE do is they bunch up in the corner, wriggle their bodies and open and close their mouths at me. They don’t do it until they see I have stopped at the aquarium and MIGHT be considering giving them food. This lovely interaction happens twice a day. I speak to them, but they don’t answer.
Because my priorities were elsewhere lately, I’ve been lax in cleaning their tank. I kept noticing that their water was cloudy when I passed, but just didn’t take the time to DO anything about it.
Cleaning is quite laborious, having to take the sweet fish out, empty out all the water while vacuuming, taking all the decorations out, changing the filter, scrubbing everything that will go back in, then filling up the tank with pre-treated water, getting filters and bubblers going again, putting fresh decorations in, and finally adding the fish back. Then I wash everything that was in the tank, fill up the water jugs and treat the water for next time, plus clean up. I consider the task well worth the effort because – hey – they wriggle at me…
They don’t say anything when their tank is clean. They don’t seem to take any particular interest in having different decorations to swim past. Maybe they check the things out more carefully when I’m not there gawking at them. I like to think they wriggle at the clean tank and different decorations, saying, “Hey, she isn’t so bad after all!”
Filed under Family
Ladies Night Out – Greenwood, Arkansas
Tonight from 6:00 ’til 8:00 p.m. is Ladies Night Out at the Rags ‘n Roses Collective, 100 North Main Street in Greenwood, Arkansas.
There will be free samples, door prizes, live music, food and drink, AND – of course – wonderful things on sale for the holidays.
A good amount of time to meet your friends, have good conversation, listen to wonderful singing and playing, eat and drink delicious things, and shop for all kinds of goodies!
Don’t miss it. See you there!!!
Filed under Uncategorized
Talented Pet Portrait Artists
Niki Firmin – Swift
Alina Ciuciu – Zack and Duke
Gary Wing
Niki Firmin
Niki Firmin – Jack
Christmas Honors – Fort Smith, Arkansas – 2019
In 2009 a local program was born – Christmas Honors. A group of founding volunteers decided that every headstone in the Fort Smith National Cemetery would receive a wreath. In 2009, over 1,000 volunteers participated in event. 12,000 wreaths and ribbons were needed to decorate each and every grave site. In 2019, the number is around 18,000. It’s a small thing our community can do to honor the men and women who have served our country.
This is one of the wreaths and the bow we were tying on each wreath. What doesn’t show in my picture was the wreath glistened with silvery shiny stuff. Pretty!
This is the third year my friend, Carla, and I have participated in this. When I walked into the convention center, I was completely overcome by how MANY, MANY people were there – all to get the wreaths ready to put on the veterans’ graves. Tears came up and spilled over, that – with all the negativity in the world – THIS could happen.
There were people bringing in box after box of wreaths. Others bringing in boxes of red bows. Others walking around with bamboo type poles, where they gathered the finished wreaths and took them out to trucks behind the convention center. The picture below shows a cart used to gather finished wreaths.
Carla and I worked as fast as we could from 9:00 until 2:00. Thankfully, there was a chair we could share to plop down and rest for a minute or two every once in awhile. It felt good to be working together surrounded by a big, noisy room of others all dedicated to the same goal – honoring the men and women who have served our country. Christmas music played and we sang along.
This is my lovely friend, Carla. She simply exudes kindness from every pore. She is also my partner in the booth in the local shop in Greenwood. We love being together, and it’s doubly good when we’re doing something for others.
Here I am. We didn’t work long before outer jackets came off and were tied around our waists.
Each hour we would stop and sing our National Anthem, standing, with hands on our hearts. The whole room was full of voices, filling our hearts. About the half way point – 12:30 – the man at the microphone said we were behind schedule on getting all 18,000 or so wreaths finished, and asked some of the people doing other things to pitch in on tying bows. We accomplished our goal.
This coming Saturday at 8 a.m.the wreaths will be available to family members who want to place their wreath privately, having a bit of privacy. Then, at 11:00 there will be a ceremony where all the rest of the wreaths will be placed on each grave by still more volunteers.
The wreaths will stay up until the middle of January, I think. Then, still another group of volunteers will gather up the wreaths, take the bows off, and store bows and wreaths until next year.
A really nice tradition – Christmas Honors.
Filed under Encouragement, Favorite Things, giving, holidays, making a difference, opportunities, Tribute
Kids and Tree Mailbox Decoration
Back of piece.
Front of piece
I’m not really into the holiday spirit yet, but we have now started by putting up one of two mailbox decorations.
This one is about 2-1/2 feet tall by about 3 feet wide. It is painted on both sides. The white on the hat and the popcorn on the tree are done with Sno-Tex, a texture-y white paint that gives a nice 3-D quality. The white also shows up nicely at night when headlights hit it.
Filed under holidays, Lewis Art, Lewis Mailbox Decorations
Beautiful Water Paintings
Y.W. Kim-“Prepare A New Season For the Valley in the Forest”
Stephen McGuinness – “Light on the Lake”
Vaclav Radimsky-Le Vieux Moulin A Giverny via Dr Cyril Thiaudiere PhD
William Bliss Baker-The Quiet Stream – via Dr. Cyril Thiaudiere Ph.D
Filed under water paintings
Attitude vs To-Do Lists
2 STAR art
I love my life.
Not EVERYTHING about it, but close.
I’m retired, so I can pretty much design my day – except when the water pressure booster dies, like yesterday.
I have given myself permission NOT to be productive. I used to make a to-do list and not allow myself to do other things until I had at least shown a bunch of progress on it. I FINALLY realized that my to-do list just grows. Most of the things I accomplish on it don’t STAY done, so they get added onto the bottom in a never-ending depressing length. I don’t get any POINTS or anything for getting these off the list, so I have changed my ways.
I now do the things that will result in bad things if I don’t on time. Those take priority for the day. I try to do the MOST important things first – the ones where I will be thrown into the slammer if I ignore them today.
I then intersperse FUN stuff – like playing in my flowers in the spring, or harvesting my veggies at the proper time, or playing in my art room. THEN I go back and do another ‘important-to-others’ thing from the list.
I’m MUCH happier since I started doing this.
Nanea Hoffman – My Positive Outlooks via Bethany Kerr
Filed under aging, Attitude, Encouragement, quality of life
The Art of Alina Ciuciu
Alina Ciuciu – I Live in Canada – Smiling Husky
Alina Ciuciu – Let Me Without A Doubt
Filed under Acrylic Paintings I Love, paintings I love
Thoughts on a Monday – Dec. 2, 2019
We woke up to super low water pressure this morning. Since we live up on top of a ridge line (the water meter is 650+ feet down the hill to the north of the house) we have a booster pump and motor in the well house. This also controls the flow to the irrigation system. My husband finally decided that the pump and/or the motor had failed. It took us a long time to get it unhooked and off the wall (getting soaked in the process.) I found the name of a guy in Fort Smith and called him, confirming that he would look at what we have and see if he can fix it. My husband fixed things so we have water in the house, even though the pressure is down. We drove to Fort Smith, left the stuff with the man, and now we wait. Hopefully, he will be able to fix it. If not, he will call with prices for replacement pump and/or motor.
We ate at our favorite restaurant on the way home, The Dari in Greenwood. We had a hamburger steak and veggies. YUM! It made up for not eating anything until about 2 pm today, plus having to deal with difficult things first thing in the morning.
I am now trying to decide the way forward on listing my artwork for sale. Right now I have things listed on ArtFire and two shops on Etsy. Every time I mention ArtFire, no one has heard of it. I’m wondering about opening more shops on Etsy and dropping ArtFire. I’ll consider pros and cons and then make a decision after the holidays.
It’s mid afternoon and I have done anything yet – with the exception of helping with the water pump and motor.
I’m going to have a cup of coffee and see if I can regroup.
Hope YOUR day is going better than ours!
Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance, Thoughts on a ________
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