Happy Hands!

Yesterday, after playing with paint, papers and lots of water (I'll have something to show you soon!), I looked at my hands and had to laugh at how much I've changed.

When I was in school and learned to write, we had to use fountain pens. Invariably, my hands would become ink stained and I did NOT like it. Not one bit!

Amazing how things can change...

P.S. Today, I am going to a presentation on "Color, Pigments, Mud, Dirt, Micas, Iridescence and Nacreous Shimmer...Expand your Knowledge of Color Mixing" by Mark Golden (as in Golden Acrylics). I am so excited!! Especially painting with mud and dirt sounds very intriguing.

This is all part of the yearly Art Materials Trade Show organized by the Savannah College of Art and Design. If you live in the area, it is definitely worth going to - all the major art materials distributers (click here for details) will be there offering supplies at huge discounts.

Four Great Things...

...on this cool(ish) Tuesday morning.

1. Beautiful new yarn from Germany and Italy! And look! One of them is called Georgia - how appropriate.

 2. Open windows!! Finally - it's cooling down and all of us are happy, especially Ramses and Winslow! This morning it actually was cooler outside than in the house!

 3. Two delicious, crunchy, chewy and oh, so good for you loaves of bread hot out of the oven! You can find the recipe in this post.

 4. My soft and fluffy purple scarf in a beautiful purple treasury. Ok, so this happened a while ago, but I just remembered it today. Go visit by clicking here and leave a comment if you feel inspired.

I was going to take pictures of some new scarves this morning, but the rain soaked everything outside so nicely yesterday that I have to wait until later this afternoon when the sun has dried things out a little. Pictures taken outside are always so much nicer.

Yesterday, I started painting again and maybe I'll have something to show you soon. We'll see how it goes. It feels strange after all these weeks. I was a little afraid that I might have forgotten how...

In the meantime, my lovely friends, I hope your Tuesday is off to a most auspicious start!!

Monday Morning...

Somehow I have gotten out of the habit of carrying our camera with me and constantly snapping pictures of interesting tidbits for my blog. But last weekend, I did get a photo of this decaying mushroom in the midst of the never-ending mess the squirrels are making right now. I know it's kind of gross, but I loved all the textures together.

The same goes for this dead leaf - it looked to me like a piece of textured fabric. Isn't it cool? Well, sort of?

These I spied while I was watching Daniel wrestle with a dead branch on one of our trees. After much sawing, 

finally, the branch fell and our tree looked much better. 

In other news, I blocked two of my new scarves and will be able to take pictures tomorrow after things dry out a bit. We are having an unsettled and stormy day today (it's rumbling outside as I type this), which means I'll probably be off the computer most of the day.

But if and when I can, I'll be visiting your blogs! Hope you are doing well and are enjoying a good start into this week!!

Yarn Love...

I have been busy running errands and meeting friends for the past few days and have sorely neglected my blog and visiting yours! Soon, I will get back to that...

In the meantime, I have spent my free time knitting up some goodies with some gorgeous yarns!

Soon I'll show you what I've been up to! But for now, I wish you all a wonderful weekend!!

Two Beautiful Gifts!

When I got back from my visit to Germany, I had two amazing gifts waiting for me from two of my dear friends I met through blogging. (I often still can't believe how much starting a blog has enriched my life!). The amazing, beautiful, inspiring, funny, feisty and immensely talented Anne of El Milagro Studio (you must visit her!) had made this little work of art for my birthday!

In her awesome creativity, she had turned around a little square wrapped canvas and made the most amazing little altar/shrine from it. Just look at all this detail! And the colors ... delicious!!

On the back (or is it the front?), the Buddha simply exudes peace and calm. Anne, I've been studying this to figure out all the different elements you combined here. You are the queen of mixed media!! Thank you so much! I just LOVE it!

And then, I was fortunate enough to win a giveaway at Ces' incredible blog, Ces and her Dishes. Go visit her blog - you'll be blown away by her drawings! An original acorn - how did I get this lucky!

Dear, wonderful, beautiful, witty, sweet, uber-talented, Ces, this drawing is exquisite and will hang framed on one of our walls in the near future. It most definitely is our favorite nut!

Thank you both! I love these these beautiful gifts you have bestowed on me, but even more, I treasure our friendship!!

Looking for Fall...

9/22 - My sister-in-law, Patti, the vedic astrologer (click here for her latest awesome blog post!), so correctly pointed out to me that today, 9/22, is the actual autumnal equinox and that fall doesn't officially begin until tonight. So, I am going to leave this post up for another day and hope for cooler temperatures... Happy Beginning of Fall! 

Good morning, everyone!

Well, early this morning as I was walking Winslow in 76 degree (24 ℃), sunny and humid weather (and we are talking before 7 a.m., folks!), I was thinking that if I didn't know today was the beginning of fall, I certainly couldn't tell by how things feel and look around here.

That made me look a little closer at our yard as I was watering later on and I actually found some signs of fall approaching! In our backyard, the best indication is the mess the squirrels are making as they prepare for the oh, so harsh southern winter!

 And the oak leaf hydrangeas are getting ready to drop their giant leaves.

In our front yard, every year I have this moment of panic when I see some fig leaves with brown spots and am afraid that the tree has a disease. And every year, Daniel has to remind me that - although we can't feel it yet - fall is coming... Somehow the fig tree knows it.

Other things are happening as well. The crepe myrtle is dropping its first golden leaves,

the blueberry bush is showing some pretty red coloration,

the hydrangea flowers are definitely almost done,

and the pomegranate bush is starting to sport some yellow leaves. Oh, yes, fall is coming - I hope!

Now, last but certainly not least, a new addition to our yard. Isn't it pretty? Daniel planted it while I was gone. We've had this old, beautiful, seat-less chair in our garage for years and Daniel thought that it was time to either get rid of it or do something with it.

I love it!! What do you think?!

Knitting Projects...

First of all, thank you so much for all your sweet comments on my last post. You touched both me and my dad!! I'm glad you liked both of my maidens - so do I!

Now, as promised, my latest completed knitting projects. First, a scarf where I combined this feathery purple yarn I had with a pink ladder ribbon yarn - I cannot tell you how soft this scarf is! {sold}

And I love the little flecks of pink in it from the ladder yarn. It's all very glamorous!

Then a very lacy scarf knitted from a blue and emerald green ladder ribbon yarn from Italy. {sold}

And if you look closely in this next photo, you can see a super thin gold thread that gives the whole scarf added elegance. Plus, those colors are so beautiful!

Same yarn, different colors and no metallic thread, but oh so very pretty! {sold}

Now something completely different. What a yarn!! It's a wool boucle yarn from Italy and has the most wonderful colors and texture. I have to be careful not to knit only items in "my" colors. So, here's one of those - greens, purples and browns.

Scrumptious!! Plus, I like knitting an item once in while that can be worn by men as well. Don't want to leave out the guys...

And, finally one of my faves! When I was in Germany, my aunt had several skeins of this gorgeous German wool yarn for me and I had to knit something with it immediately when I got back.

The beret was only a little complicated at first, but well worth the initial head-scratching and re-doing. It looks so cute!

And the scarf I knit in a half-rib pattern that brings out the great thick and thin quality of the yarn. I love this set so much that I am knitting one for myself as well. The first set was for my little Etsy store.

In fact, that is where you can find all of these and more. Simply click here.

And, just because, for all my loyal blog readers who would like to purchase one of the items, I'd love to give you a 20% discount in my Etsy knitting store through the end of September. Just mention "blog" in the message to seller section when checking out and I'll refund your 20% through PayPal.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend! I've been knitting some more and soon I'll have new creations to show you. But for now, I'm off to visit your blogs!

Another Maiden...

Do you remember the Summer Maiden (15 x 22 inches, mixed media painting) I painted about a year ago. My dad took her to Germany and had her framed for my sister (it was so much fun seeing my framed art at their house this summer!).

Well, my dad kept saying how much he loved that painting and so I decided to paint a similar one for him. I was curious if I would be able to sort of make a copy of a painting. Of course, I didn't want to make her exactly the same, and so I had fun making her similar, yet giving her her own personality. What do you think?

My dad got her framed while I was still there at the most wonderful little frame shop in their village.

And he got my first couple of paintings framed as well - they all hang in the guest room where I stayed, along with a beautiful piece of artwork from Daniel. How fun is that?!?

I haven't painted anything yet since getting back, but I've been knitting up a storm and will show you all of that tomorrow!

In the meantime, I hope you are all having a most wonderful weekend!

Visit to Germany - Part 4 (Nature)

When I visit Germany, I always love diving back into the nature I grew up with. So, here are a few pictures of a few plants we found while out walking,

a lovely little house in the woods,

a gorgeous water treatment plant in a different woods,

quite a few different kinds of fungi (these were tiny!),

and a couple of slugs - alright, I admit this is kind of gross looking, but I just had to snap a photo...

Well, the chickens thought it was pretty gross, too, and wanted nothing more to do with me.

Off into the sunset they went.

Ok, much prettier again...

Thanks for traveling along with me!! I hope you enjoyed it!

Tomorrow - art! Finally again!!