WEEKEND GETAWAY!

I just returned from a relaxing weekend getaway. My sister and I picked up our oldest daughters from University of Missouri (Mizzou) on the way to her lake front condo on the Lake of the Ozarks. We were lucky enough to have beautiful weather~ We took a nice sunset cruise on the boat did some catching up. When we got back to Mizzou today, we hung out at Columbia's Earth Day Festival. It was fun and reminded me of the hippie days of the 70's! ha ha If any of you readers attended University of Missouri, you surely recognize the doorway of the historic Heidelberg Pub---I bet you have some stories from that place! I will get back to my paintings this week. I saw many things to inspire me during my getaway. Have a wonderful week, friends!

Crazy Busy Time!

This is such a crazy, busy time of year, isn't it? I finally got to some yard work this weekend. I went out Friday morning and bought 8 flats of bedding plants for all my pots and baskets outside. Laura and I planted non- stop until we were wet from the rain yesterday afternoon. I put in some tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini too. I still have lots more to do outside, but it's a start!

I painted this angel with a baby today, but it was kind of dark when I photographed it, ugh! Not too clear! I used embroidery floss to make a border around it for a special touch. I just listed it on eBay along with 3 more Mod Girls--if you want to take a look. Have a good week, everyone!

LOTS OF AWARDS!

Wow! I have received awards from three people this week! Thank you all so much. K of Heart Wing Sisters gave me her very own "You Do Inspire Me" award. She has really fun child-like art! Check out her blog! Micki of The Art Hermit and Suzi of Art With A Touch Of Whimsy gave me the Renee Award. Micki has been doing some wonderful paintings of Jane Austen characters (which I love!), and you need to check out all of Suzi's whimsical "hat girls"--very cool! Thank you both so much!

This Renee award was created by Bella and Ces in honour of their friend Renee.

In Bella's own words "this is a brand new award and I have the pleasure and honor of spreading the seed, watching it grow. I hope it finds it's way to those who are like Renee: the acorn, a small package becoming a tall and sturdy oak, giving more acorns, becoming tall and sturdy oaks, giving acorns..."

So now I am going to pass on this award to the following people, people who's blogs I love, who's art makes me smile and whom I will visit time and time again!

Stacy at Primarily Primitives

Jenny at Wonders of Whimsy

Di at Dudadaze

Vania at Vania's Art

Flora at Bone Head Studio

Lisa at llCreations

Stephanie at Fantastic Figments

last but not least, my sister-

Jennifer at Hot Tamale Studio

MUSICAL PAINTING and FREE SHIPPING AT ETSY!

I just thought I would show you what I have been working on today (I was off of work/school). It is a big 12"X12"X1.5" stretched canvas.

Sorry, it's not for sale! I am donating it for my son's Jazz Band fund raiser. They are having a dinner dance evening at school. The food will be catered and the music will be provided by the high school's jazz band. Tickets are purchased in advance. We are having raffle baskets there and this is my contribution. I hope they can raise a lot of bucks!

I have added some paintings to my Etsy shop, ones that didn't sell on eBay, if you missed something. Also, I went through my shop and put FREE shipping on everything now! I am hoping it will attract some more traffic to my shop. There is so much to see in the Etsy shops, it's kind of overwhelming! You can get lost there for hours!

Well, back to the old grind tomorrow for many of us. I hope everyone had a blessed Easter. I am finally getting over my cold and sore throat, just in time to go back to work! Have a good week everyone!

NEW SPRING PAINTINGS

Here are a couple of new paintings I just finished;

Balloon Escape-Don't you wish all of life's disappointments were as simple as an escaping balloon?

Peace on Earth-This painting was actually inspired by the bulletin board in our preschool classroom. We have a big globe that the kids "hand painted" with a mixture of shaving cream, glue, and green or blue paint. It makes a fun 3D puffy texture when it dries. Then they all put their hand prints in a circle around it.

I hope everyone has a Blessed Easter. I will be having the family over on Saturday. It is always a loud, happy group when we gather. I'm hoping it doesn't rain so our Easter egg hunts will not be muddy! There will be at least 20 of us.

I'm heading over to list these paintings on eBay now. I have also re-listed a couple of paintings, in case you missed something.

Cute Video

I couldn't resist posting this video that my daughter, Laura created. She visit the zoo this week and took a couple snippets of video and interspersed them with snippets of videos of our cat, Snickers. If you are a cat lover, you should take a look!

If you are ever in St. Louis, you must visit our zoo. It is one of the top zoos in the country and best of all---it is FREE!