Art, art and more art!

 These last few days have been busy with work but I was lucky enough to more or less take the weekend off with just some minor things to do on the computer. 

My studio is getting prewired for electrical by my husband and the electrician should be here in a couple of weeks to hook everything up.  I wanted to install the floors but I was told by my brother in law, who is also a great sheetrock/tape float installer not to install them until everything was complete on the inside.  Advise well taken, so I am just standing by.

It was such a great weekend! I spent Saturday afternoon walking, talking and shopping with some friends at the Uptown Art Stroll.  I got to see and talk to so many of my artists friends that I hadn't seen since pre-Covid. It was such a beautiful day to be outside!

I did get to buy some original art work for my husband for Christmas, and since he doesn't read my blog I can share it on here!

                                                                   8"x10" oil painting

The artists called all his 8"x10" art pieces as his "studies" so unfortunately they are not signed and I do not remember his name. Hopefully I can find the receipt with his name on it so I can at least write it on the back of the painting.

Sunday was also very nice as I got to spend time with my dear friend Katrina. I made lunch for us and we spent the afternoon talking, laughing, listening to jazz and just enjoying each others company. It was really good day!!!

I met Katrina a few years ago at an art show we participated in, and we have been friends ever since.  Recently my BFF of more than 30 years, commissioned  Katrina do a portrait of her mother from her high school graduation picture.   It turned out AMAZING!!!!  

Katrina Gorman is truly a multi talented artist!  She creates portraits, rope art and mixed media art. She also blogs weekly at On the Glow Weekly Art Blog. You can find all her artwork on her website at Katrina Gorman Designs.  I hope you check out the website!

I love her self portrait!

 

Halloween weekend

 I hope everyone had a great Halloween!  It's one of my favorite holidays!  I get to dress up and give candy out!  

I had plans to work on the floors in my Studio on Saturday but that was shut down real quick by a mudslide I made Friday night.  Do you know what a mudslide is?  Well, I didn't until I discovered this yummy recipe for it online. My husband went out and got all the ingredients I needed:Heavy cream, whip cream, chocolate syrup, vodka, Kahlua and Irish cream. 

 It tasted sooooo goood going down! and then made me feel oh so bad!  I admit it, I am an extra lightweight social drinker. I only had one Friday night and felt bad ALL day Saturday. I was so glad wasn't obligated to any appointments on Saturday as I sat there drinking V8's to recover........... The mudslide to me is now called death by liquor, I will not attempt to drink that again.

Mudslide

recovery drink.....

Saturday was lost but Sunday, Halloween was not!  I dressed up as witch again (in a new dress)!  Binge watched Halloween movies as I passed out candy!  It felt good to see all the kids dressed up and walk through the neighborhood after two years of nothingness. 

Have a Happy November!

 

  

Mosaic window planter

 Every day I'm doing a little something for the studio. My husband thought it would be nice to have a planter box on the side window, and at first I was hesitant because I thought the mositure from the dirt and flowers would be deterimental but he he built a cute frame that fit a plastic pot perfectly.  I thought I would add some color to it by creating a small mosiac and attaching it to the frame.  I purchased a 1/4" x 4" poplar board and cut it into three so I could have side mosaics as well.  I used stained glass for the flowers and background, and transparent light blue little glass globs from Hobby Lobby in the middle. At first I wasn't sure what I was going to do after I glued th glass globs, but then flowers made sense and I already had 1/2" glass squares cut from another mosaic project I did a few years back.  So I grinded down the square glass for petals and then cut the green 1/2" glass squates into 1/4" squares for the background

It took me a few afternoons to get everything cut, glued and grouted.  My husband installed it yesterday evening and I need to paint the edges to get a cleaner finish on it.  Over all I'm pretty pleased with it, and I hope it lasts for a while. 

The nest step is getting the estimate for the electriciton.... can't use a kiln without electrictity.  

Georgie has to inspect the work

new space

I have been MIA from my blog and a friend reminded me the other day that it isn't ever too late to pick up where you left off and share our journey.  

This year was much slower for me at work, less homes on the market to sell, at much higher prices with very discouraged buyers.  So I worked on some other things that I've wanted to do during this down time and want to share with you.  

Since I moved in 2015 I lost the studio space I had built just 2 years prior to moving, which put me right back at square one of having the one wall in the garage that I had to share with my husband.  It's not an ideal space to work since Texas summers are long with the high heat and oppressive humidity which make it unbearable for me to work in the garage.  It's fall now and today is the first time I have been able to open my windows and let some fresh air in.  75 degrees with low humidity, which is a rarity.  So now let me share with you what I've been up to!

My NEW studio space has been built in the back yard!!!!

The color is Bora Bora.....  I do NOT live in an HOA and my home, along with all the others are pretty neutral bland colors and all my neighbors that have sheds built pretty much match the color of there home...  The builder even asked my husband WHY this color my husband's reply was that's just my wife and she loves the beach! So I built a studio that looks like it belongs on the beach instead of the middle of a bland subdivision! (I'm sure any of the neighbors that can see it are scratching their heads too, LOL!)

So after the shed was built my first project was to create some colorful windows for it.  It has a long way to go before I can move in and start creating.  Next step is getting the electrician out and making sure I can get all the plugs I need along with the 220 for my big kiln.  (I had the floors reinforced to hold the 400 lb weight of it. 

My own Gift

 It's always feels good to give, but sometimes it's just nice to buy a gift for yourself.

My Christmas gift arrived today from the Ukraine. I was shopping for a painting for my cousin in Florida who loves Lighthouses, the really colorful kind.(which I found on Etsy from St. Petersburg Russia and bought for her). While I was looking on Etsy for my cousins gift, I came across this two toned oil painting of a lighthouse and it just struck me. I didn't order it right away, I kept going back and looking at it. Within the painting I saw very cold early day and couldn't stop thinking about it. After a few days I finally bought it. It was late November and it just arrived today.

The packaging was air tight in multiple layers, signed with a description on the back, and was accompanied by a letter that I can't read since it's in Russian.  I am pretty happy with my purchase!!  Now I just need to hang it up and stare at it for a while.  

January 1, 2021

2020 seems surreal and even though we have a vaccine, I think for the common people it will seem that the strange and dangerous times of 2020 will linger too long into 2021. Hopefully things will be better soon and things will get back to normal sometime in the near future.  For me personally, I realized that I am much more of an introvert than I thought. I only have a handful of things that I repetitively did that I enjoyed outside of my work and home, but they meant a lot to me.  

I miss spending time at my favorite coffee shop, I miss seeing the people that work there, the atmosphere of being able to daydream, sketch and just be. I miss going to the museum and all the events they held throughout the year. I miss the art festivals. I miss seeing people that I know.

On a light side of things.  I still worked in real estate as it is an essential job since people need a place to live. I stayed busy throughout 2020 so I was blessed to be able to pay my bills. While at one of the homes that I sold, there was a poker table, a really NICE poker table.... now mind you, I never played poker but I quickly realized I could like playing poker, so I bought the table from the homeowner!

We spent New Years Eve playing dominoes and then poker until the wee hours into the morning of the 1st day of 2021!  Yup, I can play! We all enjoyed ourselves! 

I wish everyone reading this a very happy and healthy New Year!