Pen & Ink Drawing - Mushrooms

I "met" Benjamin when we were assigned to be partners in a postcard art exchange a few months ago. He's an artist in The Netherlands.  I sent him a little painting and postcard. He sent me a little painting and postcard.

He offered a free on-line Pen & Ink Autumn Drawing Challenge, so I took it.

I have never been a doodler or have never enjoyed sketching or thought of myself as a drawer... But... it seems that learning drawing skills is good for me... kind of like eating vegetables.  Enjoy it if you can, but if you can't, do it anyway.

This was my first venture into pen and ink.

Ben was a good teacher, and I enjoyed learning through his lessons.

Mushrooms!  

New Coop - and a Chance to Win a Prize!

It's been a while since I've written a chicken post! 

This is a fun one with a chance to win a prize at the end!!!!

What better way to celebrate turning 60 (him, not me) and enjoy a Thanksgiving weekend than building a new hen coop!

Look inside. See the who just can't wait until the roof is on before having a look around. 
He had lots of little interested feathered helpers during the whole process.

A few shakes of the treat container and they all came running for a closer look.

Now, how about a little fun!!!

❓Who do you think will decide to make the brand new coop their home?

         (I like to have 3-5 in each house.)

❓What color will the egg be? 

         (Green? Light tan? Light brown? Speckled?) 

You make the call! 

Put your guesses in the comments below.  

We'll see what happens!  

😉😀😄I'll send a little 5"x7" painting to winners! 😉😀😄

Here are a few chicken stats to help you with your decision

 Dominique & her 4 babies
She totally "rules the roost." Nearly all of the hens below are her daughters.
She protects her babies and makes sure the others know she's boss.

Eleanore (from Dominique's first brood)
She's kind of aloof.  She lays lovely light tan eggs, but honestly,
she's been kind of a freeloader lately.  She took the summer off from laying. 
Her excuse was molting, but her feathers have been back for weeks,
she just recently started "working" again.

Twinkle (can't remember if she was one of Dominique's or Dolly's)

Sweet little Twinkle is easy and friendly and is a faithful layer of 

beautiful little green eggs..

Paula and Pip (Dominique's daughters from her spring brood)
They hang together most of the time.
Paula just started laying recently.  Her eggs are a beautiful shiny light green.
She's a flighty one.
Pip is stately.  She also started laying pretty light brown eggs  last week.

Foxy, Fancy-like, & Peanut (Dominique's daughters from her summer brood)
They hang together all the time.They aren't quite old enough to lay yet, but soon maybe.
Foxy is a mess.  She likes to run around the house when it's bedtime and make me chase her.
Fancy-like is so sweet.  She's a Bantam, so she'll always be small and lay small eggs.  Her feet are yellow, so I expect her eggs to be white, tan, or brown. 
Peanut is hilarious. She's a tiny Bantam who isn't afraid to jump right up onto the arm of my chair for a treat.  Her legs are gray, so I hope to see some tiny blue or green eggs from her soon.

So, what do you think?

We're going to let the hens decide.

Leave your predictions in the comments!

I'll let you know what happens next week!

FYI: It started raining, so they all put themselves to bed in their normal houses before we got out there. 

Dominique and the babies in the Sister House. 

All the other 7 crowded into the Cousin House (since Dominique kicked them all out once she had new babies.)

So, nobody went into the brand new shiny Aunt House tonight.

Sheila's Centerpiece

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of attending a banquet where my sister was an honoree.  Ouachita Baptist University hosted Stepping Up for Ouachita, a luncheon benefiting scholarships for women.

I was so proud of her and for her.

She serves on a board in their business school and gives a scholarship each year to a girl who is just like she was... an accounting major with no other scholarships and doesn't have straight As. I love those requirements!

Each table had one of these pretty little flower arrangements.  I don't usually... Okay, truth... I never (ever) paint from real life.  But this seemed like the time to give it a try. I think this little painting will be a lasting memory of a special special day.

One more thing... Sheila owns Welcome Home Retreat, a women's crafting retreat for quilters, scrapbookers, painters, or any other crafters.  Click HERE and look around.  You'd love a weekend there! 

Original Oil Painting on 8"x 8" wrapped Canvas

[GIFT]

My Shops - Etsy & Fine Art America

I've had an Etsy shop since 2009.  It's where I've sold 275+ of my original paintings. I love my little Etsy site.  It gives me a thrill when I hear a little "cha-ching" sound on my phone.  It means someone has ordered a painting.  I can't open my Etsy app soon enough to see which one I'll be wrapping up to send to its forever home. Click HERE to have a look! There might be something you need for your walls or for a gift.

I've had another site on Fine Art America for a long time too, but I just haven't done a thing with it until recently. This site doesn't offer originals, but you can get my images on prints, note cards, mugs, shower curtains, yoga mats, pillows, notebooks, posters, facemasks, ornaments, bed spreads, phone cases, shirts, stickers, beach towels, jigsaw puzzles!  What??? So fun!

Click HERE and look around.  It's really fun to see what a painting would look like on a tote bag or a shower curtain!

I think that's a pretty nice store front, don't you!

Tote Bags!!

How do I pick which one!

Yoga Mats!!

Okay, I have the first one with the hollyhocks!

It makes me happy when I'm doing down dog and see it.

Notebooks!!

I might need one or some of these!

Mugs!
Well, I might need a mug with a winter landscape
more than a duvet cover with a great big cow face. Ha!

I'm looking forward to getting to know this site better.

I hope you do to.

H

A Miracle Named Millie

It's a happy day when I get an e-mail that begins with 

Hello, do you remember me? 

You did a painting for me a few years ago and I was hoping you could do another.

Well, of course I remember! What an honor to be remembered and asked again! 

When she reminded me of which painting, Someone to Watch Over Me, it all came back. Oh, yeah! This is the girl who wanted the painting with so many things that were symbolic or meaningful for a specific reason... 

Could you make the little girls overalls pink? Could you make it a fall scene outside? Could you put hearts on her shirt? Oh, and there needs to be a woodpecker somewhere in the painting...

My brain said, Ummm... Uhhhh...   My fingers typed, Of course, I can!  I'd love to. Then I immediately wondered what I had gotten myself into and wondered how I could pull it off.  But, I did meet that challenge and sent her a lovely meaningful painting that I LOVED doing.

So now she wanted another. Yay!

It's the same cat as before but the little girl is the little sister to the first one. Could you put gold hearts on the wall in the background? Could there be rainbows on the her shirt? Could my mum's special heart quilt be included? Oh, and there needs to be a woodpecker somewhere in the painting...

My brain again with the Ohhh... Ummmm... My fingers again typed, Of course, I can! I'd love to. Then again wondered what I had gotten myself into and wondered how this could even be done.  I told her that I'd need to think on how to do it, and she replied with more confidence in me than I had in myself.  Encouragement is a magical thing, isn't it.

I don't know exactly what all the symbolism means, but I know each request was important and for a reason. I LOVED doing it.

Original Oil Painting on 11"x 14" Wrapped Canvas

[SOLD]
 

Gingerbread House

Gingerbread slabs...

Graham crackers...

Icing...

Sprinkles...

Gumdrops...

Peppermints...

Candy canes...

Licorice ropes...

Chocolate squares...

Marshmallows...

M & Ms...

Gingerbread houses are so beautiful in magazines and on the Hallmark Channel and on Pinterest.  But, let's be real-life honest.... What a mess!  Is anybody really good at making a gingerbread house with (or even without) kids? I didn't think so. Just think, if you had this sweet little painting, you could have the pretty gingerbread house and avoid the mess!

"Why am I bringing out Christmas before Thanksgiving? Well, I had to! "Christmas" was the topic I was given for my weekly-ish art challenge.

Original Oil Painting on 8"x 8" Wrapped Canvas

[SOLD]

I Like Thursday (11/22)

I was invited by LeeAnna of Not Afraid of Color to join her "merry little group" and share some things that I like...
We'll see if I do this correctly...

I like pulling into my driveway during autumn. 
Hickory trees turn the most gorgeous golden yellow.

I like having my blog-friend Wendy of Pieceful Thoughts visit my art room.
She just happened to be passing through the neighborhood...
nearly 700 miles from home! 

I like this invention that is s'much more than a s'more!
Graham cracker, marshmallow, 10 microwave seconds, chocolate cookie, smash!

I like having a little friend who is never far away,
although often in the way.

I like the opportunity to sit down in front of a great big blank canvas
and pull the story out of it.

I like these five tiny humans who call me Gram-E.

Butterfly on Dogwood

We built our house in 2001 and moved in the week of 9/11/2001... (I know... easy/hard date to remember.) Of course, a few trees had to come down in the building process, but we wanted to save as many as possible.

The builder said, "There's a scraggly tree in the back that got pretty scuffed up.  We can take it down or you can wait and see if it survives. It might it a year or so." We decided to leave it.  What a treat that next spring to discover that it was a dogwood!  Even being scruffy and scuffed up, it did survive!

For two decades our little backyard dogwood blessed us with beautiful white blossoms in early spring, a ground-covering snow shower of white petals in late spring, shade in the summer,  red leaves in the fall, and cardinals at the feeder in winter.

Every winter we wondered if it would make it another year. 

When spring of 2022 came, there was something different... 

No tiny green leaves... no white blossoms...

Our scruffy little dogwood tree had finally given up.

Thank you for 21 years of blooms, Scruffy Little Dogwood Tree!

My weekly-ish challenge this time was "Yellow & White." That was a good opportunity to paint this sweet image of a yellow swallowtail on some white dogwood blossoms.

Original Oil Painting on 6"x 8" Wrapped Canvas

Click Butterfly on Dogwood if you'd like to purchase this little painting.