Happy St. Patrick's Day!

May your blessings outnumber

the shamrocks that grow,

And may trouble avoid you

wherever you go!

Happy St. Patricks Day!!!

Ah, St. Paddy's Day....I look forward to it every year because my Mom corns her own brisket and it is delish!!!

Anyway...I've been avoiding posting my latest floral class creation because I was missing one flower and it wasn't complete without it. I even managed to go into Michael's and buy just one stem in order to finish it up. (Okay, I fibbed-2 stems-I couldn't decide which one would match, so I bought them both.) So, here you have it...my grapevine wreath, now gracing our front door! Mostly I'm proud of myself for using pink stems. Pink and I do not get along very well. I find it hard to incorporate into my creations.

And finally I can share with you the commissioned piece I mentioned in a post way back in early February. I finally managed to find a block of time to just sit down and create it. At one point, about 3 weeks ago, I had started working on it from a sketch I had made of what I thought it should look like. Bad idea. I hated it so much that I ripped it apart. Today, I just went with the creative muse that was wafting around the room and created the design shown here. The future owner had asked for a new Spring centerpiece for her dining room table, done in blues & mauves, with oriental accents. I used mauve & blue hydrangeas, deep mauve flowers (no idea what those are but the color was perfect), lotus blossoms, willow twigs, white cherry blossoms and bamboo leaves. I wish the picture had turned out better because you can't see the depth and dimension in this piece at all. :(

In other crafty news, I'm working on a painted pillar candle holder that is made from a 6-inch terra cotta rose pot and a 4-inch matching saucer. I saw the design on the cover of Quick & Easy Painting magazine and of course said, "I can make that!" Stay tuned for the finished product.... I'm about half way finished already!

Inner Child at Play!

Paint fascinates me. And it's cheap therapy! The best part is that it lets my inner child come out to play..... something that I should let happen more often!

At right is a Halloween bird house that I made for my Mom several years ago. She likes it so much that it is on permanent display year round on top of a bookcase in the family room!

It's hard to see in this photo but the yellow background is actually crackled and the roof is a dark teal stipple on a black background. This project was truly created from the ground up... I had to make the bird house myself in order to get the lop-sided roof effect. Luckily, I'm not shy about breaking out the power tools!




On the left is a picture of my current work in progress, the Farmer's Market Harvest Plate. Much remains to be done, but at least it is starting to look like something! The light gray areas will be 3 ears of corn and a gray tabby cat.

I'm about to get started on contouring the pumpkins. Lucy will understand when I say I hope they don't turn out looking like tomatoes!