There's gold in them thar' hills ...

Well, there is in my living room. And, I do live in the foothills of western North Carolina. Was once a popular gold mining area. Bit of trivia.

Just finished a new abstract this morning and hung it up on the wall ...

Pockets Full Of Gold, acrylic on 1.5" gallery wrapped canvas / triptych of 18" x 48" panels.

I'm pleased with the painting. Hate the photo. Bad lighting in the living room for photo taking. Even zinging it through Photoshop didn't help much. Oh well.

Namaste', y'all ...

Triumph over turtle troubles!

Wow. Been away from here way too long.

I have excuses, but I won't bore you with those.

Instead, I shall share my newest painting! I do believe this is my second most favorite painting that I've ever done. Funny that. I really struggled with this one, thinking at one point I might even scrap the whole idea. It was frustrating. I knew I had to paint sea turtles. Couldn't get the little buggers out of my head. They wouldn't let me move on to something else. I just kept slinging paint, getting irritated, slinging more paint, irritated again ... roller coaster ride. I bet I started over at least five or six times.

Then one afternoon I was online, looking at photos of sea turtles and stumbled across Templeton Rye Blog and The Adventures of Templeton the Turtle ...

Sweet wee hatchling turtle. I melted. I also had an idea. I printed out that photo and was off to the studio!

I started with the background. Wave meeting sand ...

Added the turtle ...

Basic turtle close-up ...

Wave close-up ...

Turtle detail ...

Turtle with necklace chain ...

Finished painting ...

I have yet to come up with a good title for this one. I haven't even put wire on to hang it. Maybe I'll go do that now ...

Namaste', y'all ...

I want ...

It isn't too often I post stuff about knitting, which is surprising since I'm a knit-nut. Anyway, I was reading one of my fav blogs yesterday - Knitting In Color - and clicked on this link - Toe-up Entrelac Socks, by Natalia Vasilieva. Since not everyone is a Ravelry member, here is a picture ...

I fell madly in love. I want these socks. Only thing I would change about them would be make them longer. Not a big fan of short socks. Too bad I haven't gotten brave enough to begin the 'knitting my own socks' phase of knitterdom. Someday!

If I had these socks I would only take them off long enough to wash them, dry them, then put them right back on. They are awesome.

Bring it on, Baby!

Seems that every time I walk outside I discover yet another mini miracle of Spring ...

My Hostas are coming up. I love the way the leaves look in the sun ...

Don't have anything planted in my flower pots yet, but Mother Nature gave me these pretty Dandelions for now ...

One of my old fashioned Lilac bushes is blooming. This one is still kind of small. It blooms before the bigger one, isn't quite as fragrant, but it's still very nice ...

Namaste', y'all ...

Lovely little violets.

The first year the husband and I moved into our house I discovered these pretty violets growing in the yard ...

Commonly called "Bird's Foot" or "Crow's Foot" Violet.

I always look forward to seeing them come up in Spring. They are such a delicate shade of lavender and the leaves remind me of feathery fans. I wish they grew over every inch of the yard!

Deceptive.

People in the southern states know that deep underground there lurks a monster. It's name is Red Clay. It's beautiful in color, but don't let that fool you. This stuff is what nightmares are made of. It can destroy worlds. Let a tiny bit of this stuff loose and it spreads and multiplies faster than you can say 'rabbit'. It stains worse than food coloring, and sticks like Gorilla Glue. It's mean. It's nasty, and it's now all over my driveway.

The husband is finally getting a shed, a.k.a. 'workshop'. This is where it's going to be built next week ...

Will be nice to have this view of the neighbor's carports blocked ...

This is my friend, Chris, doing the leveling of the land with a back hoe ...

This is what is happening to my driveway as I sit here and type ...

Chris has only been working for a couple of hours. It's going to get a lot worse before it's done.

I think I need another pot of coffee, or two.

Namaste', y'all ...

The joys of home ownership.

It's 10:00am on Monday, and the plumbers are under my house replacing the bladder tank.

I didn't even get to make a pot of coffee before they shut the water off.

Great.

The upside is that hopefully we won't have troubles with the new tank for a long, long, long time.

I hate plumbing problems.

I really could use a cup of coffee.

Namate', y'all ...

Thursday. Rain. And more rain.

Rain Rain Go Away

I know a calender filled with nothing but sunshiny days isn't really very likely here in the foothills of western North Carolina. There are four seasons, and each one brings it's own kind of weather. It just seems like Mother Nature would be nice and give us a little break after all the cold and snow of Winter, rolling us right along into a lovely green Spring.

Nope.

In early March she teases you with some warm days. For a blissful few days you get to throw open your windows and let the warm air circulate through the house, pushing out all those closed-up Winter blahs. It's so nice ... and so deceiving.

Hot on the heels of those tricksy teaser days Mother N. likes giving all that impending green a good head start with a month of rain. Buckets of it. Good, old fashioned 'gully washer' downpours. She also likes to turn the temperature back down a bit so you have to shut all the windows again, and crank your heat back on. Not so nice.

Y'all, I can't begin to express just how ready I am for warm days and sunshine. Yeah, yeah ... I do love my fuzzy socks and my warm sweaters. I really do. But I really, really like sunshine. I hope it gets here soon.

Namaste', y'all ...

12 weeks with little green pills.

The mysterious Vitamin D ...

Picked up a prescription today for a mega, massive, OMG dose of Vitamin D, pretty green pills which look small and relatively harmless ...

Seems the blood/lab work I had done indicates I have a Vitamin D deficiency. Basically, I've felt like this ...

... for over a year now and it sucks in a major way. So much so that I finally caved and went to the doctor fully prepared to gobble down just about any medication he pimped out to me. All my symptoms seemed to fit Hypothyroidism, and I was expecting to end up having to take some kind of nasty drug, every day, for the rest of my natural life. Was a bit surprised by the Vitamin D diagnosis. Not happy about it, but honestly, I'm really glad it wasn't something "serious". Either way, I'm to the point that I'll do pretty much anything if it will just make me start feeling better, ya' know?

Hopefully, in a few weeks I'll start to feel like this ...

This would be even better ...

I'm aiming for this ...

Namaste', y'all ...

Troublesome turtle in my studio; turquoise with sparkles in my kitchen.

Shame on me for not posting for so long. I've been busy! Painting! Turtles! Turquoise! Fun!

Right off the bat I'm going to say that I'm well aware a sparkly turquoise kitchen isn't everyone's cup of tea. Kinda' like a '57 Chevy Bel Air, only without a set of wheels. This color has a bit of a retro vibe (which I love!) yet a dash of contemporary style, too.

The paint color is 'Water Lily' in Valspar Signature Colors semi-gloss paint Valspar Paint Crystals in silver, both from Lowe's. Personally, I think it's awesome. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good photo with the sparkles. They are very subtle in daylight, but by golly they are absolutely gorgeous in the ambient light from the living room in the evening.

Every time I walk into the kitchen I see how this wall over the counter glitters like crazy and I can't help but giggle.

I actually have very little wall space in the kitchen. I think that's how I can get away with such an intense color without it being completely overwhelming. I really like the dramatic color play between the black tiles and appliances, the honey oak cabinetry and that screaming turquoise.

Of course, there's still work to do. Have to make curtains. Add (and remove) some accessories. I'm thinking about accent colors of lighter aqua, shades of lavender, maybe wee touches of butter yellow, and copper - which would match my kitchen faucet and cabinet handles. We will eventually replace the linoleum as well. My 'some day' vision with the room is a blend of the retro and the contemporary. I'd like to find old canisters to paint, or maybe a set in a bright copper. I really want everything to be streamlined and uncluttered. Less is more with this kind of paint job!

Speaking of paint jobs ...

My sea turtles looked like this the last time I posted their progress ...

They stayed in limbo for a couple of days. I looked at them, looked at them, and looked at them some more. I carried that canvas all over the house, propping it up in different places, evaluating it in different lighting and from different angles. Just so you know, the intention is for this painting to hang over the commode in the master bath ... yeah, I know.

I tried adding more white swirls. I tried adding more ... well, I tried a number of different things and it simply wasn't happening.

Yes, I started over.

I broke out the Golden Molding Medium, large palette knife, several colors of paint, and swished it all over the canvas ...

Got some great texture ...

I really like the swirls and mixes of color ...

I added one turtle back (instead of a herd!) ...

Slapped some color on it ...

Tried some spiral stuff ...

Hated that so I used a small palette knife to mush paint/molding medium on the turtle ...

Put some detail on the shell ...

Close up of detail ...

And that's were it is at this point. I'm still working, still looking, still pondering what I feel it needs. I want it 'calm', but not quite so plain. Today I intend to paint a white "waves" around the big gray circle. Have no idea where it will go from there. We'll see what happens!

Oh, yeah ... just for snorts and giggles ...

With wheels!

Namaste', y'all ...

Some days are kinda' like a surprise party!

Thursdays are my "town" days. I get up, get ready, and get myself into town to take care of assorted errands like hauling off the trash, going to the post office, grocery shopping, etc. Yeah, I know, it's a blast.

This morning I took a detour on my way to the PO and stopped at a one of the local thrift stores to do a little pilfering. I'd been trying to get there for a couple of weeks but they were closed on the couple of days I had ventured into town. I'm still on the hunt for cheap, repurposable decorating stuff. So far I haven't had much luck finding anything.

Today wasn't any different in that endeavor ... although! ... I did make a great 'find' for one of my favorite hobbies. A stack of knitting magazines! I saw them as soon as I walked in the door and immediately asked about price. I was hoping for about 25¢ ea. or so. Nice lady at the counter said, "Dear, those are get three free with a purchase." Naturally, I wasn't deterred. I asked again, "Yeah, but how much if I just want to buy the magazines?" Nice lady got all flustered and called for back-up.

Nice lady #2 came out of the office and nice lady #1 babbled out her dilemma over my wanting to pay for free magazines. Nice lady #2 says, "Sweetheart, those magazines are get three free with purchase."

?What the heck? I may not be the brightest crayon in the box when it comes to math, but come on ... really? If I'm offering you money for something you planned to give away for free, wouldn't you just say Okay! and take it? Isn't that pretty much a no-brainer?

I put on my best smile, swallowed hard on the sarcastic remark I wanted to make, and instead replied, "Yes ma'am, I do believe I understand that. But I don't want to purchase anything, I just want these magazines. All of 'em. Now, how 'bout I give you five bucks and we call it a happy day?"

Nice lady #2 got all flustered and flapped her hands around in the air a bit.

I stood there, smiling, magazines clutched in a death grip in my arms. I think my look of crazy determination tipped her over the edge because she stuttered a couple of times and then said, "Well, um ... well, um ... I guess you could, uh ... put a little donation in the jar and, uh, I guess we could let you have them."

I slapped five bucks in that donation jar faster than a duck on a June bug and made a bee line for the truck. I didn't want to give her even one minute to think about it. Deal. Paid. Done. Gone.

This was my haul ...

Am quite pleased and will be sitting down with a lovely cup of tea to peruse my magazines later this evening.

When I pulled in the driveway I saw a box on the back porch. Thrill! My Dick Blick order came! I'm the proud new owner of these wondermosly fantabulously froggie-green paintbrushes ...

They are the Liquitex Freestyle. I saw them a couple of months ago at A.C. Moore Arts & Crafts store in Asheville and have been sending up prayers ever since to get them for my very own. And Ta! Da! Mine! I'd gotten the Dick Blick catalog (which is pretty much a book of crack for artists) in the mail the other day. Big ol' sale they were having. I didn't see the brushes, but when I checked their site online ... Low & Behold! ... those pretty green babies were right there, on sale, my name on them. Called the husband and warned him. I even got expedited shipping.

I have a particular piece I want to do with these. I think they'll be perfect for portraiture work and other similar types of painting. Can't wait to get started!

As an added bonus to the day, the sun was shining and the periwinkle along the driveway is blooming in a lovely carpet of little purple flowers!

Namaste', y'all ...

Back to square one.

Sometimes you work, and work, and work on a piece of art and nothing comes together on paper (canvas) like your head has visions of it being. That, y'all, is most definitely what's happening with these sea turtles. UGH!

After the texture medium was good and dry I used the Elmer's glue to outline the turtle shells ...

A couple of hours later I put on the first layer of color ...

Then more color ...

Detail of color ...

More color and a dash or two of iridescent glitter for fun ...

Detail of color and glitter ...

When all that was dry I washed on a mixture of white, very pale purple and aqua to begin the foaming of the waves ...

I tweaked and tinkered and tweaked some more until I realized it just wasn't coming together.

Right now, I'm waiting for the nice, fresh coat of texture medium I spread over the entire thing to dry. When it's ready, it's going to get a pretty coating of gesso to obliterate everything I've done thus far and make it a blank white canvas again. When all else fails, drop back and punt.

Namaste', y'all ...