A refreshing inspiration

Oh my gosh is it HOT here!  Today we are supposed to top out at 100 degrees.  Not your normal June temperatures.  We skipped spring here and went straight to the summer heat.  My poor garden is just shriveling up.  I've been drinking lots of iced tea and iced water with lemon and mint, but I'm starting to feel like I just need to go spray my self down with the garden hose!



The other day when the temperatures were more normal, like 80 degrees, I went to lay Amelia down for her nap.  While lying there with her, I was in that in between state that comes between sleep and being  awake,  and I had an image of doing a painting of a refreshing summer drink with some lemon and mint in it.  As soon as I got up from laying Amelia down, I went to the computer and looked at some blogs quick and saw on Design * Sponge, here, the exact image that was in my mind, even the same glass that we have.  I took it as a sign that I should do this painting.
So I picked some mint from my garden and happened to have a lemon and made a nice iced water with mint and lemon.  I then sipped my inspiration and got started right away on my painting.  Here's the results:



I hope everyone who is experiencing this heat wave is finding ways to keep cool.

Croquet anyone?

I love croquet!  Growing up, it was one of my favorite summer past times, that and jarts, not the rounded ones they have now, but the pointy metal ones that they no longer make.  (no one in our family was ever injured by them, but we do have a dent in the house from a crazy thrower and I remember a friend throwing it through our tent!)  I'm lucky enough to have an old set that I got a few years back for my birthday from some friends, they had bought them at a yard sale  years ago, but didn't use them and my husband expressed how much I really wanted them and what they meant to me and now I'm as happy as can be with my own set of jarts!

It seems that hardly a day went by where we didn't play at least one game of croquet.  The neighbor kids would usually join us.  My mom was always the one to beat! It's fun to think back to those summer days of being a kid.  I remember red being my favorite color to be.  I think mostly because if you were red you got to go first.  My mom usually preferred yellow.  I went through phases though, where I remember wanting to be only black,  and then for awhile orange, but never the green.  It was a darker green and no one ever seemed to want to be that color.  If it would have been a lime green, it definitely would have been my favorite.

Last year we got a really old croquet set from my sister-in-law.  It looks like it was well used and is missing some of the hoops, but is still in good working condition.

I'm really looking forward to playing all these summer games with the kids as they are getting older.  I think we'll wait to play the jarts with them until they are  a bit older?  Instead we've been playing badminton, which is another favorite of mine.  A friend invited us to play bocce ball recently and that's a game that I've only played once or twice and haven't gotten into, but maybe.



I was watching the kids play around with the croquet set the other day and that was the inspiration for this painting.  I wasn't sure what color ball/mallet I was going to go with and when the piece was finished I realized that I had went with red.  I don't even remember thinking about.  I guess red is still my favorite!

Asparagus

We're going on our fourth week of asparagus and I'm starting to run out of new ways to cook it.  Judging from the look on  Amelia's face, you would think she loves asparagus, but that's not the case.  Early on in the season Fischer said he didn't like asparagus and guess what?, neither does Amelia.  If Fischer would have said he likes it, she probably would too.  Whatever her big brother does, she does it too.

We've eaten asparagus raw on salads, steamed it , grilled it , made cream of asparagus soup (definitely not a hit with the kids), we've had it on pizza with morel mushrooms, in pastas (my favorite, fettucini alfredo with morels and asparagus) ,  in quiche with oyster mushrooms (wow, very rich and yummy), and one of my favorite ways was sauted in olive oil with garlic and loads of parmesan cheese!  Last night I was wondering if I could make fritters with it.  I think I'll try that tonight, along with some of my applesauce I made last year.  The applesauce will probably be the only part the kids will eat, but it's worth a try.  I thought for sure the kids wouldn't eat the quiche, especially Fischer, since he doesn't like mushrooms and of course he doesn't like the asparagus, but I had him try it anyways and he loved it!  He ended up eating 2 helpings!  It's hard having an abundance of a vegetable that the kids don't like.  Luckily we can only harvest it for another week or two and then we have to let it grow.




I had wanted to do this collage last year during asparagus season but never got around to it.  Once I quit cutting the asparagus, I forgot all about it.  So this year when the asparagus starting popping up, I was reminded again of how beautiful  the purple on green was and how I had wanted to do a painting of it.  The asparagus is made of painted coffee filters.  I had the hardest time though figuring out a background for it, the asparagus kept getting lost, so in the end I kept it simple (which is something I need to remind myself about for many things).

I hope everyone had a wonderful extended weekend!

Down a stream

This past week we had our last day of our Parent-Child class for Amelia at our Waldorf school.  It's been once a week since last fall and Amelia has loved it.  She calls it "my little school."   The  teacher, Miss Julie has a spring fed creek on her land and thought it would be fun to have the class at her house and build little duck boats that we could float down her creek.



Fortunately the weather cooperated, the previous day had been nothing but rain.  The temperature was a little chilly, but the sun was shining!  Amelia was so proud of her little duck and all the kids were so excited to watch their boats go down the stream.



Miss Julie had a cute little bridge where the kids could do their send off and watch them float away.



What a wonderful idea it was.  The kids loved it, they kept doing it over and over.  Miss Julie had set up a screen further down the stream to stop the ducks from going any further.  The setting was beautiful with the sound of the rushing water and lush greens everywhere.  Look at all that watercress along the sides of the stream.  We took a nice handful home to liven up some salads and maybe make a stirfry.


This last picture is my favorite.  It captures the awe and wonder of being a child.  Amelia was swinging when a big ol' crow flew by and it really caught her attention!  Too sweet.   It was a very special way to end our year together.

And the winner is.....

I decided to draw the number the old school way.  The numbers went into a little tupperware and a little shake here and a little shake there, and around and around it went and then lucky number 89 was drawn by Miss Amelia! ( The year I graduated from highschool!  Gosh that feels like a life time ago.)



Number 89 is Amanda from the blog Late Night Stamper.  She had a great giveaway of a felted tea pot cozy and tea bag cozy along with a sweet little felted ladybug ring that Amelia would have loved.



After taking this picture of Amelia holding the little girl, Amelia asked if we could hang it in her room and I said "No", which then she asked why not and then I told her I was going to give it to someone and then she broke down in tears telling me how she wanted it in her room and not to give it away.  



It broke my heart to see her react like that over the picture.  Last week when I had finished making this picture she had asked if she could have it and  I was hoping she would forget about it, but I guess she didn't. It's so sweet,  whenever I finish a little girl picture she always asks, "Is that Mia?"  (me-a)  This is what she calls herself.   My kids are actually kind of spoiled with my artwork. Usually they do get to hang it in their rooms.

Anyway, it was lots of fun having this giveaway.  I wasn't sure if I should do it because Sew Mama Sew is obviously about sewing and well, as you saw, my giveaway wasn't sewing related.  But, I figured just because someone sews, doesn't mean they wouldn't like to win a little piece of art, right?  So yes, I'm glad I did this.
Thanks to everyone for all of their kind comments and stopping by!

Giveaway Day

Hello everyone!  Thanks for stopping by to see what I'm giving away for Giveaway Day at Sew Mama Sew!  I've never done anything like this before or given anything away and I thought this sounded like a great chance to meet new people and also to go visit new blogs and maybe win something for myself!

I'm giving away this collage of this sweet little girl, it's titled "For You".  I just made her last week specifically for this giveaway.   She is on an  8 x 10" piece of watercolor paper.  I used painted scrapbook paper for her dress,   (originally the dress was pink with white polka dots and then I painted it orange and I like it soo much better now!),  recycled packaging paper for her face/arms/legs, recycled coffee filters for the flowers/hair and shoes and  watercolor, acrylics  and ink. 

In order to win her, all you have to do is  leave a comment.  Comments will be open through May 25.  I will pick a winner at random on May 26.   Please make sure that your e-mail is linked to your name or leave your e-mail in the comments so I have a way of contacting you.  I'll ship internationally too.

Thanks for stopping by my blog!  I hope you like her!

this moment

{this moment} - "A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember"- Amanda Blake Soule of SouleMama

in bloom

I've had these flowers made out of old coffee filters lying around on my kitchen counter for the last month and a half.  I had meant to use them in a previous painting but they didn't look right.  So there they have laid just waiting for the right painting or inspiration to come.  I've tried them in quite a few different settings but they always would wind up back on my kitchen counter.  I was getting tired of looking at them, but didn't really want to throw them away, so here they are in this quick little painting.  I'm not really sure what I was trying to do in this painting or how I feel about the results, but here it is.

Barn swallows

Another bird painting!    There are so many beautiful birds around this spring, that I can't help but to be inspired to paint them.  I have to be honest though, swallows are not at the top of my list for favorite birds, but they seemed to go well with the little willow branches that I wanted to paint.

While out in Idaho, one spring we woke up to what felt like a swarm of barn swallows that were building nests in our unfinished soffets to our house.    My husband went outside with a broom and tried to scare them away, but this didn't work.  They are persistent little birds and kept building there messy, muddy little nests.   We bought one of those plastic owls with the little bobble head to scare them away and  this actually worked. 
Fortunately, this motivated my husband to get the soffets finished and that took care of the problem for good. 

The tree swallow doesn't rank too high on my list either.  We built about 10 blue bird houses while living out in Idaho.  Our house was out in the meadows and we had the mountain blue bird and the western blue bird.  Well, those tree swallows ended up nesting in 9 out of 10 of those blue bird houses, they would end up chasing the blue birds away.  Every year we would hope for more blue birds, but the swallows always won.

All that aside, they are amazing little fliers as they swoop and dive as they catch insects in the air.  Their little warble is nice and cheerful too.

What month is it?

If someone told me today was really November 3rd, not May 3rd, I think I'd believe them.  The wind has a chill to it and in the morning we had off and on snow showers.  If I look around though, I can see signs that spring is trying to come.  My tulips are starting to open, the asparagus tops are peaking through, and the trees are desperately trying to open.  If we would have a few nice days in a row, I just know everything would burst wide open.  Our bird feeder is brimming with activity.  The pretty little house finch with its reddish head has been there and today we were visited by the bright yellow goldfinch and the rose-breasted grosbeak.  Between the birds and the squirrels, the seed has been disappearing fast.

This morning I dropped Fischer and Grandma off at the airport.  They are going to visit family in Bremerton, Washington.  My little guy will be gone for a whole week!  This is the longest he has been away from me.  I was missing him before he even left.  He's been away a few times for one or two nights.   It was hard holding back the tears, but I didn't want him to feel bad or start to second guess his decision.  Little Amelia didn't want her big brother to go either, and she didn't hide her tears.  They usually play pretty well together, so I know she's really going to miss him too. The week will go fast and he will have fun visiting the ocean, collecting shells and rocks, seeing all sorts of animal life along the ocean,  riding the ferry and airplanes,  and of course seeing his cousins.  He has done all this before, but he was between 2 and 3 years old, so he doesn't remember it.  I wish I could see the look on his face when he gets to experience all of this.  Instead he gets to spend some quality time with his grandma and this is something he will always remember.