Happy Thanksgiving

Colossians 3:15 & 17

And let the peace that comes from Christ

rule in your hearts.

For as members of one body

you are all called to live in peace.

And always be thankful

And whatever you do or say,

let it be as representative of the Lord Jesus,

all the while giving thanks

through him

to God the father.

I read these verses yesterday in my devotions and thought I would share them with you today.  It is always a good reminder to me to be peaceful and thankful as I head into family gatherings and holiday happenings.  Some of you may know what I am talking about. 

I wish you the best of the best today and over the next few weeks. 

Now I am off to make a thankfulness list in my journal.  I like to do that every year on Thanksgiving.  You will be on that list because I am so thankful for each of you and how you bless me with your comments and your individual blogs and some of you who I see in person. You are a blessing, remember that!

Happy Thanksgiving

Flora Bowley and Bloom True

This past weekend I took a painting class from Flora Bowley.  She is such an amazing artist.  When she was demonstrating her techniques, she made it look so easy and then I would go and stand in front of my canvas and wonder what I just witnessed.  I had a blast though.  It was two full days of loveliness.  The ladies in the class were so nice and encouraging.   I wish I could show you what their paintings looked like because each one of them was totally different from the rest.  I think that is what was so amazing to me.  Each of us was able to take what Flora was teaching and make it our own.  Two of the ladies in the class had never painted before and you would never have known.   Fun relaxing music was played throughout the two days.  There was even a live cello artist who played for us the last day.  Flora made this experience special and I would recommend taking a class from her the very next chance you get. 

          

The food was incredible! 

Pixie Retreat catered our lunches and they almost convinced me to become a vegan it was so good and it was packages so adorably too.

 I stuck with similar palettes for both paintings, mostly because I loved the colors.  My camera did not do these paintings justice.  The depth and rich colors are pure yumminess.  One of the problems I had was when we had to cover up huge parts of the painting.  As you can see, I didn't follow instructions very well.  I liked too much of what was going on to cover it up.  I will have to work on that apparently.

 I was amazed that I walked away with two 30 X 30 inch canvases pretty much finished.  When I heard we were going to be painting on such large canvases, I didn't think I would finish even one.  I did discover though, that you really do have to use high quality paints to get the right effect.  I tried some things when I got home and the cheaper paint just does not work the same.  We used Golden paints in the class and I am going to invest in the colors I really liked. 

I was so jazzed by the weekend that on Monday I painted this pretty goldfish on one of my 24 X 24 canvases.  For some reason, that size doesn't seem so big anymore.

 

New color palette

I bought some canvases on sale the other day and now I see them sitting in my studio and have to paint on them.  It is like they just sit there challenging me.  I am enjoying this new color palette.  That is one thing Jesse Reno said in the class I took from him, paint in the colors you love.  Well, Red, teal and yellow make me smile so I am going to go with it. 

I just upgraded to Photoshop Elements 9.  I had version 6 and said I would never upgrade because I use the organizer and the last time I upgraded, all the tags on my photos did not transfer.  All that work was just gone.  I wanted to cry.  This time they fixed that problem and all my tags showed up.  I didn't know for sure until I actually installed it.  With a big gulp I took the plunge and when I saw them sitting in my organizer I took a big sigh of relief.  So if any of you were wondering, you can upgrade now.

I am going to be taking a painting class from Flora Bowley this weekend.  I am so excited, I can hardly stand it.  It is a full two day class so hopefully I will come back on Monday with something to share.  We will be painting on two 30 X 30 inch canvases.  That is a little bit intimidating because the largest I have painted on is 24 X 24 inches.  Only 6 more inches so I should be OK.  Have a great weekend and I will be back next week with an update.

Spring Rain painting

It was a dark day so I decided to paint some color into my life.  I accomplished my task because it makes me smile to see this sitting in my studio. Hope you all have something colorful in your life that makes you smile

Give-a-way

Look at this luscious little journal that Janne is giving away to some lucky winner.  Check out her blog and enter to win.  If you end up winning it, don't tell me, I might be really jealous. 

Beautiful Morning

I am sitting here on my front porch swing enjoying this beautiful morning. The chimes are twinkling as the wind blows and the trees that surround our property are swaying. At one point the sun appears and makes a starburst through those trees and shines on my face. In this moment, life feels pretty good.

A few years ago I asked the Lord why I wasn't enjoying my life and He said it was because I wasn't enjoying the moments of my life. Since then, I have tried to enjoy the moments. Sometimes I have to remind myself because I try to rush through them but moments like this one I am in don't need reminding. This is a pretty good moment. Thank you Lord!

2010 Journal - volume 2

Was working on my 2010 journal today. 

Because I am an avid art journaler I have to have two volumes each year. 

Jan - June in volume 1 and July - December in volume 2.

I finished making the cover for volume 2 today and sewed four of the signatures into the cover.

I think they look so wonderful sitting on my shelf. 

Every time I look through one of them it just brings back memories of making each page

and all the feelings and thoughts I had when I made them. 

Pure loveliness.

October 31st

I got to go trick or treating with my grandson aka POOH this weekend.  Too cute for words in estimation.

My husband and I also went out for dinner and a movie.  On the way to dinner he snapped a photo of me in front of this gorgeous fall tree.  Love the colors this time of year.