Monday, August 18, 2008

The Magnificence of Nature


A few years ago we planted these hibiscus plants in our front garden area and they grow back big and beautiful every year. They are HUGE! We have neighbors a few blocks away who come over just to see them every summer. I'm glad the blooms last a long time. I love these flowers and I love this beautiful world that we live in. The magnificence of nature has always thrilled my soul. I love to sit on our back deck and look at the different trees and hear the birds singing and watching them fly around. A couple of days ago, Julie and I were sitting in the living room and a humming bird came right up to the window and flitted around for several seconds. It was a thrill to us. I hadn't seen a hummingbird in our yard for ages. It made us remember a few years ago at my sister, Becky's house when we stood still with our hands around the base of her hummingbird feeder and several birds came flitting around our heads and landed by our hands to drink from the feeder. That was one of the neatest experiences of my life! I love birds and because of my terrible eyesight I can't see them in detail unless they are "up close and personal". So these experiences when I can see them closely mean a lot to me!




Thursday, August 7, 2008

Little Houses




I've always loved houses, windows, doors, fences, etc. in art for some reason. I decided to make a series of little house ATC's (Artist Trading Cards, which are always 2 1/2" by 3 1/2") These have been so fun to make. I'm making a whole little neighborhood of them! We are going to make one in the class I teach this Saturday morning along with several others. These are a combination of stamps, magazine cut outs, and stickers. The lined background of several of them are actually the bottom of a flip flop which has that brick pattern on it. It is inked up in an ink pad and stamped on the cardstock! I read about that idea someone had in a stamping magazine. Pretty tricky!
Well, we got the whole family room in the basement painted and the new carpeting will be installed next week. It will be nice to get our house put back together and have a nice fresh room downstairs for Danny and Courtney.
I have a little over 2 weeks left before I have to go back to work, but I have a meeting at the district office tomorrow morning and one the next week and one the week after, so I'm getting back into it gradually! All good things must come to an end! But I will definitely enjoy it while I can!