2012 winding down

Hello, hello my sweet friends!
I just can't believe tomorrow is New Years Eve!!!
Yet another year has spun by!
Time to bring out my dancing shoes, champagne and caviar!
Ok ...ok more like call in our Chinese takeout and pick a couple DVDs...
Either way it's time to kick back relax and get ready to greet the new year!

Lovely Christmas 2012

Hello my friends!
I'm back home again after a lovely visit with my sweet Mom and Dad.
It is very hard to live so far away from them. I'm very thankful that my brother lives close by
And keeps close tabs on them.
While in Louisville  we enjoyed a lovely dinner out with Bobby and his family.  

We ate at Mimi's Cafe. One of my favorite restaraunts! 

 The section we ate in was decorated like New Orleans.


 The food is always delightful and the muffins there are incredible. As my daughter says ...enjoy a muffin as big as your head!


We sandwiched our trip to Louisville with 2 quick visits to Indiana. What a treat to see my daughter "candy bar" and her husband and my new little grandson! how I loved being able tto spend precious time holding, singing and rocking my darling little guy!  
Of course a blizzard was on the way and my husband needed to be at work so we ended our vacation a day earlier than planned. But... we made it out before the storm and safely back home once again.

I didn't do my usual decorating this year.  Knowing we would be out of town for Christmas it seemed logical to skip it.  Especially since in November we went through most of our decorations and gave away a ton of things.   Now, I am having some fun shopping the after Christmas sales and refurbishing my stash of decorations! I bought 3 sweet Victorian style  homes for the fireplace mantle.
 They are pastel in colors and have accents of  snow and glitter that gives them a sugar coated look!

 Yummy!

One of my Christmas projects this year was to make a  tabletop tree for my good friend Jan. 
 
She has her beautiful  kitchen decorated with birdhouses.  So I made her a little tree full of little clay 
birds and birdhouses.



I do not know if you can tell but the roof of the bird house is copper.
I had so much fun making this and Jan seemed to really love it and placed it on her
 buffet in the dining room.


I hope that you had a wonderful, beautiful Christmas
& I wish each one of your out there a very Happy New Year!!

All for now!
Hugs :O)
Mary

Christmas is almost here

Greetings on the Eve of Christmas Eve
Taking a break from work and visiting my Mom , Dad and Brother and his family in Louisville.
I have been so thrilled to be able to watch my dad hand out this years Christmas cards!
As you saw from a couple of earlier posts I made my parents Christmas card. I painted all four of their Great Grandsons as little shepherd boys looking at the Christmas Star.
He loves those darling little boys and loves the painting on the cards. Of course I'm delighted he does!!
 I am so very, very grateful to have such a loving family. And cherish these visits.
On to Indiana tomorrow.

Newtown CT prayers

Hello my dear friends
It is with such a heavy heart that I am writing this post.

I join all of our nation in praying and mourning the loss of lives at
Sandy Hook Elementary.
As Marlene on her blog said it best....
May the blanket of the Lords love comfort those who are hurting from this
Horrid tragedy.

There is nothing more precious than the life of a child.

May God Bless our nations children and educators

Sweet Shepherds

Hi my friends!
I have been trying to finish my latest painting! It is called "Sweet Shepherds"
This watercolor is based on the photos I have of my darling little grandsons and adorable great nephew.

It has been such fun designing and painting it. Now, Im making it into my Christmas cards for this year!
My special reason for painting it is for my Mom and Dad. 
It is after all their 4 Great Grandsons!

What do you think of it?

I do so hope you like it even half as much as I do!!

Well...Gotta get back to class!
Please...Come by again really soon!
:O)Mary

Bye bye November

Welcome December!
I haven't had a chance to post any photos of my Thanksgiving yet!
It was lovely and I was so happy to have two of my little grandsons here!!
Sadly  my dad became ill so I flew out the day after Thanksgiving. He is home from the hospital
Now...Thank goodness!

Today I was busy painting when I had a free moment.  I like to make the Christmas cards my parents send out. Last year I did a watercolor of Bruton Parrish in Colonial Williamsburg.
this year I'm painting my 3 grandsons and. Grand nephew as shepherds. I'm so exacted to show you my progress so far!

Better Late Than Never!

Greetings!
As it says at the title of this post...Better late than never...
Wishing You All A Very Happy Thanksgiving!

The hymn we use to sing back at the Albany Academy for Girls says
it so beautifully!

"For the beauty of the earth,
 for the Glory of the skies, 
for the love from which our birth over and around us lies. 
Lord of all to thee we raise, 
this our hymn of grateful praise."


I hope you all had a Beautiful Thanksgiving and now may you be enjoying the
season of Advent!!

Parisian Scarf

Bonjour!
I am working on a pink scarf with a Parisian theme. 
Here are a few photos of my progress...

Silk Scarves

Hi there!
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Lately I have been having so much fun painting on silk scarves.
Im hopping to get onto  Etsy and finally open the Limelightartworks store !
Keep your  fingers crossed!!
My daughters both have Etsy shops and really enjoy selling their art there!

Check them out!

ByBrookye 



SJZywar


All for tonight!
Hugs-Mary

First Friday in November

Hello my sweet friends !
How have you all been since our last visit?
Oh how I hope you were not affected by hurricane 
Sandy that blew through here earlier this week!
We missed 2 days of school but thankfully only minor power outages.
Those of you that were and are still suffering from the hurricanes affects
Please, please know that I am praying for you !
I am also boxing up clothing that I will send off to the Red Cross immediately!!

On a much lighter note
Things are pretty well back to normal around here.
Today I continued making some scarves to put in the Limelightartworks Etsy Shop.
I also had a commission for a silk scarf painted in earthy colors with the image of a famous Waterhouse painting. ( The Lady of Shallot  )

Lots of mossy greens and lilac colors.

Here are a few more views of it.

This shot will show a bit more of the purple end of the scarf.

More Soft Necklaces.

Hello and Happy Friday!

I have been pretty busy filling orders for the soft necklaces!
Can I tell you just how tickled I am that
everyone seems to be falling in love with them!
The pins that are custom made for each scarf have been in great demand also!
For instance over at Assumption College
 the mascot is a grey hound.
The school colors are blue and white...
Here is one order that I filled.
This is the way it looked in the box .

And when it is worn it will look like this

I also had an order for a soft necklace in autumn colors.
The commission was to design a dragonfly pin for it.
It came out so cute!

Now, I know I took some photos of it but at the moment I can't seem to locate them yet.  (It's not always so good to have several cameras)

Here is another pink one 
I sold this week.

I made and a sweet little pin for it.

I am having a blast making these!

Have a Super Weekend!!!!

Necklace Scarf

Good morning my friends!
Its a sunny and really chilly morning here in the northeast!
last night there was an earthquake in maine and a lot of people felt
it all the way down here in the Worcester MA area.

No not me... I am oblivious to some things I guess :O)

I have been working on my necklace scarves.
Here is another Halloween one.
This time with two spider's on a pin.

I made another Necklace scarf in autumnal colors.

Then since we set our clocks back in autumn...

I made a pin with a clock. It also has a bit of bling in the 

Fleur de lis, crown and other little charms.

Next Tuesday my school is having a Pink Out!

Everyone will wear lots of pink to bring attention to

October -Breast Cancer Awareness !

So I of course had fun making my PINK

Necklace Scarf

I made a rose and pearl pin for it.

That's all for now!

Happy Wednesday ALL

(The work week is now half over!)

Hugs,

Mary

Autumn colors

Greetings and TGIF!!!
The trees are turning mostly beautiful golds and oranges so far.
 Maybe the deep orange and fiery reds will be later on?
The autumn colors heavily influenced my little project today...
Lots of oranges, browns, golds and greens.

I am meeting again with my school art club next week. 
One of the things we may be making are pictured below.

I got this fun idea of a scarf necklace from my good friend Jaylee.
This one is for wearing at Halloween.

We art teachers try to get away with any funky,
 colorful, fun item to wear!

I used several types of yarn including a black sparkly one.
Plus some yellow ribbon and orange ribbon that says Happy Halloween!

Then I made a little happy ghost pin to pull it all together.


Thats all for now!

Have a wonderful weekend!
Hugs,
Mary

Sky Lake Con't.

Just lovin these pumpkins! 

Here are some pictures of us having a blast on the drums!

My Sweet Cookye

And Jaylee

Ladies of the Lake Retreat

Hello My Friends!
I am back from the Lake!
What a lovely time I had there! It was an extra treat because I was able to spend time with my dear friend Jaylee and my darling daughter Cookye! ( I wish my other darling daughter Candybar  could have joined us too!)

It is a beautiful place in any season! Just look at the main lodge!!

It was a great 3 days at Sky Lake in N.Y. Although I had visited Sky Lake once several years ago,,, 
I had never stayed there nor have I ever been on a retreat.

What a joy it was to be there! 
I loved the music, the food, the choice of events we
could sign up for and the lovely people that attended and ran the retreat!

The first night there I made an apron!  What fun... although I was pretty rusty
 at cutting out patterns and using the sewing machine.  How I miss making clothes for my
kids and all kinds of related handicrafts.
On Saturday I had a "make over" with the Mary Kay consultant. (Yes, I have always LOVED
make up although you might not know it by looking at me)
Note- I said I love it ...
I didn't say I knew how to apply it! Tee hee 
Also on Saturday they had a Drum Circle!  Wow was that terrific!!!  I do realize I have 
a serious lack of rhythm ...but... that didn't stop me!! If there was such a thing here where I live I
would be there weekly!
I also make a pretty bracelet, cooked apple dumplings and took a photo class! All that
plus time for music led on the piano and guitar! Singing, scriptures, and praying!

 Even Pumpkin carving!!!

I have always been shy and more of a silent observer but it was
such a happy place I was right at home!


OK
I have many photos to share so I will be back with more tomorrow!
Until then 
Hugs,
Mary

Made a cute French note board

Hello there!
I was having a fun time today making a French Memo Board for my office.
I had a 20"X 20" canvas, some pretty material,
ribbon. a staple gun and some brass brads.

What you will need to make one

A canvas on a frame, a good staple gun, some pretty fabric, ribbon and brass brads.

Carefully staple a side and pull the fabric tightly then continue to staple

and turn the canvas.   *Pull fabric, staple, turn, 

pull fabric, staple, turn and so on...

When the fabric is secure and tight you can add the ribbon.

After adding the ribbon you secure it with the brads.

Tahdah!!!!

My mother loves cardinals

Hi there!
 I love to paint beautiful birds!
 Just recently my beautiful Mother celebrated
 her birthday. Because she adores cardinals...
I painted one for her card.

Kentucky Cardinal





Hm the photo seems to be missing ?
Stay tuned!



Meanwhile....
I did a poster for two friends of mine here at work.
We were all very sad to see them leave.

But, new roads and new opportunities await them!

September doings

Hi Friends!

Are you ready for the weekend?

OH YES!!!!

Earlier this summer I did a painting of two darling children.

They were at their Aunts Shower.

I took several photos of the two

 of them at play in the yard. Then I decided 

to put them both in the same scene

"Summer Garden"

The original is about...12" x 15"

All to soon September was here!!

Down the hall to my 

School is in full swing here.

(Yes...people just love to dress up o'l Skelly)

 So far I am very pleased with my classes.

(Of course I usually am)

The sign below was an idea on Pinterest

(A SPOTLESS Art room isn't always such a good thing!)

I just love the giant size paint brushes and pencils

 carved from wood!

My Art History students bought them for me!

I have had some fun digging out 

the orange and brown papers and decorations for autumn.

between my art room...bulletin boards and my home..

I can get crazy!!

I just put up some corn stalks at my house. Last night as the sun was setting it looked really interesting!

So from my home to yours

Warm happy wishes for a restful, early, autumn weekend!

HUGS

Mair