Earlier, I showed a snippet of the beginnings of a painting. It was a commission for someone’s birthday gift, so I wanted to wait to show the rest after the birthday girl opened her gift.
Funny, my life has been all dogs, all the time lately. Then I get a job, and it is to paint a dog!
Seem fitting.
My husband took a little trip this week, and I had pretty laid time. My watercolors are spread out in the dining room, so I can paint and be near the puppies.
They have kept me company while Rich was away.
Here is a snippet of the painting. I always start with the eyes. I’ll show the finished piece once the recipient gets to see it.
Besides painting, going for walks, playing with puppies, and battling an epic ant invasion, I’ve slowly started to work on getting the babies to intermingle.
It starts with a few play dates, then moves on to mixed cuddle puddles.
Although the play dates aren’t much more than naps yet, anyway.
The Sugarbabies have moved into the main part of our home along with the Butterballs. Sugar is much more possessive of hers than Honey is, so we are taking this slow, with supervised visitations. If I am not with them, Shuggie and the little ones go back to the bathroom nest.
Eventually, they will all be too big (and stinky, and I have to admit, they are edging up on that stinky part pretty fast) to be kept in here.
I have a nursery set up in the garage where they will be at night, then they will have the breezeway to hang out in on nice days with access to the yard.
I did a digital sketch on my iPad while missing my boy.
It is preliminary, in planning a larger, acrylic paininting that I can frame.
Every heartfelt message that was left on my posts about Ryan is appreciated, thank you. I have read them numerous times and am slowly, a few at a time, trying to acknowledge each one on FB, IG and my blog. Over the years, I have been lucky to get to know so many online friends, some I have met in person, others just through typed words. Social media has been a great way to meet friends and now it is a comfort to hear from them as well as from family, past co-workers, and long time friends who are all far away. So many have reached out to me with kindness, and I appreciate the sincere caring that went into the comments. Some make me cry, some make me smile, others touch me with a shared grief. All are meaningful to me. Thank you.
There is a painting app, called Hello Watercolor, that I have enjoyed using on my iPad. There are several brushes, pencils, erasers, and pencils that have a real life effect.
But, my old iPad wasn’t compatible with a stylus, and the entire picture had to be done with my finger. It could get frustrating with the details.
I recently bought myself a brand new iPad, that is a huge improvement over my old one. And my sis, Terry, gifted me with a stylus!
This is how the mermaid looked with just finger painting.
And here she is using a stylus. The extra detail that I can get makes me happy!
90% of the painting is still done with my finger, but that pen makes all of the difference when I got to the pupils and eyelashes.
Thanks, Terry!
Nurses and other essential workers are putting themselves in danger for us and sometimes, the risk is too big.
My good friend, and sister-in-law is one of the many whose selfless hard work and service caused her to become ill. She is far away, and I didn’t feel as if there was anything I could do to help. So, I did this digital painting for her, and kept good thoughts vibing her way as I worked on it.
“Thoughts and Prayers” Has almost become a cliche in today’s world. But when heartfelt, the term is very real. I am focusing on sending mine to Sharon.
On our long, long drive to Florida, we made a side trip to Helen, GA. We had family to visit, and were excited to see them, not even knowing what a gorgeous, little tourist town they lived in.
We had unpleasant weather, not the best to be pulling a camper along twisty, mountain curves. But the scenery was still spectacular, if spooky.
Being in a truck with three freshly bathed dogs on a long trip, started out as an adventure.
The rain soon turned it into a wet, muddy mess.
Luckily, our family was made up of understanding, dog people. It all worked out.My SIL, Sharon keeps a mop handy for their big dogs too.
She and I got out to explore the town a shop a little.
The town is on a river in the mountains, and I hope to return in nicer weather for some hiking and floating.
On this visit, we stuck to indoor activities, and I found these fantastic, vintage beaded pieces at the local antique mall.
Most of the trip was spent catching up and chatting in their new, hillside cottage. I was touched to see a plethora of things I’d made over the years.
Like this kitchen island.
Way back when I had a furniture business, I was always building pieces out of scraps of this and that.
I used to paint a lot of trays too.
So many trays, boards, signs, cabinets, whatever had a blank space, got all flowered up.
Well, not always flowers. This cabinet was damaged so I added a mouse hole.
She had an old watercolor of mine too.
It was sweet of her to keep these around.
At the moment, I am recovering from knee surgery. If you tried to get ahold of me to sign up for Bluebirds Song, I will be getting back to you soon.
I took advantage of being in Florida and made a day trip to Orlando. My sis, Terry and her fun husband were there on a spur of the moment trip.
It was pretty dang cold out for that part of the country, so we thought we would try something different. Instead of going to a park, we had a sightseeing day.
And we based our wanderings around whatever reservations we could get for meals. If you know much about Disney, you might know about the big hoopla around making reservations for meals 180 days in advance. They book up that quickly, especially character meals.
I’ve discovered that people hoard those reservations and make as many as they can, deciding at the last minute which to keep.
You can usually snag a good one with the 24 hour window there is to get refunds on deposits when cancelling.
We were lucky to get into tea at the Grand Floridian for lunch and dinner at Storybook Woods with Snow White.
Along with the Evil Queen.
Both restaurants are in hotels, not in a park, so no ticket was required. But we still got to see the Magic Kingdom fireworks over Wilderness Lodge when we arrived to dine with Snow and Dopey.
The rest of the day was spent riding the skyline and monorail to sightsee at hotels along the way.
I’d never seen the Grand Floridian before and loved all of the details.
Of course, Disney is all about the details and art. This giant mosaic is at the newest hotel, the Riviera.
Keeping with our laid back attitude, we took a break at the Riviera in the kids’ craft room. Dale got some hot chocolate, we watched a movie on the big screen, and I did the day’s project.
It was a lesson in doing an animation cell, where you paint on the back of the clear plastic, then flip it over when done. This is what the back of mine looked like.
We took the time to watch a bride arrive for her wedding, a teeny girl dressed as a princess get a photo shoot, we meandered through lobbies, gift shops, and looked around Disney Springs.
You never know what sights you’ll see when you slow down and take the time to look.
Like a biker paying tribute to Walt, or a cross eyed Elsa made of crystals.
I can’t say that I have ever had a bad day at Disney, but this lazy, no plan, wandering around day, sure was extra special.
Do you ever just make something for the pure joy of making it? In the past, I’ve operated that way, made what I wanted, then found a purpose for it, or not.
But it seems like my life as an artist had mostly dissolved into taking care of the house, the family, the dogs, upcoming classes, or gathering things to sell. 
Then, the other day, I decided to paint some flowers.
For no reason, and I had other things to do, too.
It was a nice reminder to stay in contact with my inner artist. So I framed and hung it where it would keep reminding me to take breaks from too much to do, and just create for the plain, old love of creating.
Having never taught watercolors before and being extremely overworked, overwrought, and tired, recently- I was worried about this bluebird class.
But I shouldn't have been! The attendees did a wonderful job. I was so proud of them and very impressed. They each got a hand drawn page to paint after we used a big, blank page to get some practice done on.
Everyone's turned out just lovely. And after painting them, they popped the pictures into mini frames to embellish with a rhinestone cluster.
Nora even "branched out" and painted this sweet bluebird.
Honestly, it was one of my favorite classes. I had a wonderful time showing some painting tricks to friends. And it made me wish I had more time to paint. It was a lot of fun.
I'll leave you with some photos of the studio, all spiffed up and ready for company.
By the way, if you would like to see puppy pictures, please check them out here: https://karlascottage.typepad.com/cottage_doodles/
I painted one last canvas drop cloth.
The others were old murals that I touched up.
This one is brand new.
I bought a $15, 9×6’ drop cloth from Walmart and a cheap gallon of gray blue paint to start it.
This will be used for a backdrop at A Snowbird’s Song.
It is meant to be a photo op for our Peeps.
I kept it pretty simple, a snowy background for people to stand in front of, with the tree and birds to the sides and above their heads.
I will just have to figure out a good place to hang it.
For now, it is in the garage behind the junk, like the other one.
While I was working in the garage, dressed in paint clothes, I cleaned the space up. Everything got carried out to the driveway, the walls repainted (as well as the garage door). I even moved the fridge!
Then, I put everything back in what I sure hope, is a less cluttered manner.
Maybe it won’t be nearly as much work to get the room ready in November for Snowbird? I use the spot as a store, and it is always a chore to prepare it.
Heck, I can just drape the messes in painted drop cloths! No work at all…
