There's A Change In The Wind

Fall is my favorite time of the year. A couple of days ago the wind here in the Hill Country changed. We will still have some hot weather during the day but at night it will start cooling down. And before we know it, October will be here.  I was looking through one of my cookbooks this morning and found a new recipe to try. I baked a new pumpkin muffin, Tested it out on some friends and they all seem to like this one. So maybe it will be a keeper for a morning with coffee treat on a cool morning. yummmm.
 I keep passing the boxes of Halloween decorations in the garage and want to tear them open so I can refresh my memory of years past. I love to decorate my yard with scarecrows, spiders, and witches. I already visalize the children running and laughing to where I'm sitting among the pumpkins. I love to dress up for the special event. This year I'm the Lollypop Witch. I will have lollypops glued on to my dress and hat. And I have gift bags filled with rubber spiders, bats, and skeletons and 5 lollypops all tied up with black and orange and puple curly tie ribbon. Yes, I have the bags already packed and ready to deliver. I did them last week.  I also have color books and story books for my trick or treaters. We usually get around 200 kids. Each year the number is growing.  My son in law also decorates his yard. We have the best decorated houses on the block. People drive by just to see our decorations. We live 4 houses apart. However, he does out do me. He has a large blown up black hurst with 4 horses. Inside the carriage hurst is a headless skeleton all lite up. Its like 20 feet long. Its fantastic. Now this year I have to think up something to out do him. Hmmmm, what am I going to do? Anyone have any ideas? Drop me a comment.
Then after Halloween, we have the antiscipation of Christmas coming. A wonderful time of the year. And again there will be lots of decorations outside and inside. Once again, we try to outdo each other in the yard. My daughter and I love to cook. We already have the cookbooks out trying to decide what new desert we will put out on the tables this year.
I will take some pictures and put them on here for you to see.
Bring on the cool weather. I'm ready.

Dancing with a Paint Brush In My Hand~Time to Get Busy

I have created for as long as I can remember. Whether it was drawing, crafting, and then in the 70's when I was living in Norway, I found an art teacher. My life took on a new meaning. While others were going to womens group meetings or playing cards, I was painting. When we were packing up to come back to America my Nowegian neighbor came to visit. She saw the stacks and stacks of painted canvases leaning against the wall. She looked them over and asked if she could invite her friends and relatives to come and see them. Would I be willing to sell any of them. I was delighted to say the least. My first one woman show. And I sold all.  This encouraged me to keep on painting. We moved to Corpus Christi and I found a wonderful teacher who taught the Old Masters Technique. A year later, I entered my first judged showing and won a blue ribbon for first place. A couple of months later I won a red ribbon at another show and a few months later I won a Best of Show.
Three years later my husband died and I stopped painting. I took up designing ceramic jewelry and sold my pieces at Dallas Apparel Market.  I had fun but this wasn't what I wanted. I wasn't happy in mass production of my designs.
I moved to Tennessee and my daughter and I opened a retail shop for approximately five years.  Just before we moved back to Texas we started making handcrafted soap and sold it as fund raisers for schools, churches, and organizations. It was fun for awhile but I still didn't seem to have the spark I was looking for. We gave up that business last year.  My daughter started designing aprons and was featured in the Apronology magazine for two of her aprons this past spring.
Well I'm back into my canvas painting. Oils, acylics, and watercolors. I love the rich vibrant colors. I have been inspired by looking at all of the work of my blog friends. It is so wonderful to see all of the talent we have on here. I will look forward to hearing from some of you and hope you will follow me too. I am still following and meeting new friends each week. Look for my paintings soon. I am going to put them on Etsy and hope to sell them. I am like most artist, I need to replace my supplies. Have a blessed day.

DANG, I HOPE I'M NOT A HOARDER

After watching the popular movie Hoarder, it scares me to think a person can get into that kind of trouble. However, as much as I like to shop, I do like a clean house and can only have stuff sitting around for so long.  I'm trying to downsize boxes and boxes of treasures?  Well, I call them treasures.  I have antiques from Grandmothers and my mother. I have antiques I bought overseas many years ago. I moved into a smaller home and need to downsize big time. I have opened up trunks and boxes and found things I forgot I even had. Yes, it's time to downsize. I do believe I'm going to have to have a garage sale as it will take me years to get rid of these things on line. Keep me posted and I will tell you when and where. I will have to wait until this heat lets up some. It was like a furnance out in my garage today. Yes, I do believe summer has found us in the Hill Country in Texas.