Sept 1? where has the summer gone?

Well.. it sure has been awhile since I've been on here... there's been alot of reasons.. internet booting out when I thought I would do a post.. too much to say.. then feeling like I had nothing to say...lol... piddling around on Fb when I should be doing other things.. working alot, Chaya being here for a few days..trying to get things painted for the fall, did some canning/pickling... hmmmm just been busy I guess...I did a couple of shows.. the one in Hecla and then a family festival in Lockport.. which was fun.. I have a couple of things for the Hecla one I'd like to show you but probably later when I have more time... Thought I should at least post something to try and get back into the groove.. and stop avoiding it..So here is a pic of my tent at Lockport.. I love my tent.. this is the first time I've used it.. and it went up so easy.. it was a beautiful sunny weekend.. that is my friend Heather in the pic.. she helps me at so many shows.. don't know what I'd do without her.. she is awesome..

Now just to show you a process....

Alot of sprayed lightbulbs hey? then

ok so they don't have their toques yet.. but that is coming soon.... was going to load a pic of a finished one.. but internet is not co-operating at all..
Time to get ready for work.. nice to be back.. hope you all are having a wonderful day..
Kath
xx

Summer of Color Wrap up

Good morning... another bright sunny and hot day coming up.. gotta love summer... This is the last post for the Summer of Color until next year..Yes that's right.. we will be doing it again yay!! Thank you Kristin for organizing this.. it was so much fun and the very first blog challenge I have ever completed..lol...Oh the art I have seen..it will be available for awhile which is great because I didn't get to everyone's over the past few weeks... so  I hope you had a chance to check some of the blogs out... totally amazing...So here are all my pieces together...they aren't in order of the weeks.. not sure how to move them around on here .. but all in all very happy with what I accomplished over the challenge....
Blue week.

I was looking at Sadie Inspired 's Orange page and saw that she had a link on it to Christy Thomlinson's blog and Alisa Burke's blog.. loved their work.. and watched the great video on Christy's blog.. and while I watched .. here's what I came up with.. it's not as light and airy looking as hers but I had no idea you could spritz the wax pastels or crayons.. looking for a spritzy bottle now...and would love to try more of these on canvas.. my art journal was too small...

Anyways.. should get busy and do something useful..internet was playing up again today so even though I started this hours ago.. finally can post it...
Hope everyone is having a wonderful day...Thanks for stopping by..
Kath
xx

Summer of Color... Orange

Well it's been a crazy couple of weeks.. but so much fun...great show, lots of family, visiting, Chaya time, sun and a beautiful wedding... my son was out and tweaked up this computer so perfectly.. think I can find everything now.. he rocks! lol have alot of pics to sort thru before I can post them.. but wanted to get my last
Summer of Color up.. will do a review for the last week in the next couple of days.. it's been soooo much fun.. loved it.. sad to see it end.

It's back to work today...and hopefully will get caught up on what everyone has been up to this past couple of weeks.. hope you are all fine and have a lovely day!!
Kath
xx

Sisterhood Journal page and Color of Summer is Purple!

Well I am very slowly getting there I think... finally can load my camera and my printer now works.. I really hate figuring out this techie stuff but it's been harder not being home much either...all of these things take time...lol sheesh ... go figure! When I downloaded and installed Firefox it said it successfully got all my bookmarks from IE.. but so not sure where they went.. or any kind of tool bar either..lol...
I did finish up my Summer of color Purple page though.. you can't see in the pic but it has a top layer of clear sparkle paint on it..

I am so sorry that I have missed everyone's red pages and probably will miss most of the purple too.. there isn't a day that I will be home or have family here over the next 10 days.. I am hoping I can catch up and see everyone's arty pieces once the wedding etc is over....
I finally finished Eva's June book pages and got it sent off to Lori on Friday for the Sisterhood of the Traveling Sketchbook.. so here it is.. I hope she likes it...it's a combo of acrylics, wax pastels and paper...

I was so lucky.. I was a little ticked when I went to Michael's after my computer died because I hadn't had a chance to print off the coupons.. first person I saw when I walked in was a friend.. laughing I said you didn't happen to print off extras did you? well..... she had printed off them all.. so she gave me some artsy ones she said she wouldn't use.. and I got a set of wax pastels and AND.... the Inktense watercolor pencils I have been wanting forever for 40% off.. whoo hooo!!!!
Anyways the sale is tomorrow.. will have some gorgeous pics of Lake Winnipeg to show you I hope.. car is packed and I am soooooo ready for bed... it was a very long day at work today.. craziness abounds.. school supplies coming in like crazy.. and need to be put out asap...
Sweet Dreams.. have a great night.. talk to you all again soon... I hope...lol
Kath
xx

Yay! I'm back....

Quick post.... remember that storm that was coming?? well lightning hit so close that it fried the mother board on my computer and the radio that I get my internet with...I went and got a new computer on friday.. they were supposed to transfer all my data... guess what wasn't on it when I got home???? and I live too far away for them to come out and fix their mistakes but was kinda a moot point seeing as I got it all hooked up and didn't have internet either...lol.. Good thing I had Chaya all weekend to keep me busy...lol..finally got internet last night.. so am trying to figure this thing out..it has Internet Explorer on it.. haven't used that for years.. finding it very confusing.. so am thinking I should be downloading Firefox and getting on with it..but I work the next 4 days and have a show next sunday.Icelandic Festival on monday... you get it right? lol so will be slow catching up... this new key board is so small compared to my old one, making alot of typing errors here right now.. haven't figured out pics as yet.. this one has a card thingie..
I will catch up.. almost finished my purple entry for this week...hope everyone has a loverly day...thanks for stopping by...
Kath
xx

Hot! Hot! Hot! and RED!!!!

Good morning... have survived the 5 days of work.. not sure which was harder though the work or the temps... it's going to be another hot one today .. I love the heat.. it's the humidity that is a killer.. with the humidex it was 106 yesterday.. the sky is very black and ugly this morning but these just keep going by..It's been too hot to stay in this room for very long at a time.. and the internet was wonky again over the weekend.. go figure hey? lol at least when I was home probably worked just fine all the time I was at work.. am getting very frustrated with it all...
With all this heat my little garden looks sad.. it doesn't matter how much you water them  they want rainwater more than well water and all the little spaghetti squashes start to grow and then seem to rot.. so maybe that will be the only one.. sigh... and really?? what zucchini plant ever just has one zucchini?? lol but guess what's for supper tonight?

It took me days to finish my red journal entry for the Summer of Color.. tried a couple of new things.. not so sure I am happy with it.. realized I should have put the word heat in there too....lol it looks redder than it shows up here though.. and I did give the girl wings .. which was the second part of the challenge...

Anyways.. have to go.. shut this down .. it's actually thundering and lightning.. and raining!!!! Yay!! am thinking I will just go stand outside for awhile...lol
Did you notice my very cool button??? Taylor over at Perfectly Sensible Nonsense made it for me.. just love it.. feel free to grab it if you'd like...
k really have to go.. have a great day!! and thanks for stopping by....
Kath
xx

Monster squash update... and Summer of Color...

Good morning.. wow the days are sure flying... been busy at work.. summer holidays so us poor part timers get to pick up all the slack...lol next couple of weeks are crazy...am off today then work for the next 5 days straight..
I know you've all been waiting for this...lol TA DA!! my first squash.... there are more.. and I promise I won't post pics of each and every one.. lol

I did manage to get my Summer of Color journal pages done on the weekend... love browns and I use them alot so this wasn't hard.. and time seems to be on my mind alot lately..The red was an accident.. not sure if it counts as a bold splash of color... but found out that the colorbox cranberry ink I used didn't dry very quickly on the gel medium and tissue... but did give me a clear place to stamp.. "where does the time go?"

Now Carol over at Firecracker Kid Primitives is having a 15% off Christmas in July sale.. good till the end of the month.. she has some gorgeous pieces ..
Natalie over at Tins and Treasures is having her 3rd Anniversary sale for her Etsy store.. not sure how long it lasts so you should check it out today...
Cathy over at Tolentreasures is having her 500th post giveaway.. wow.. that is alot of posts.. check it out though.. you will love her painting..
You still have a couple of days to get over to Dezinaworld's great giveaway if you haven't already...closes on the 15th.
Remember that cool slideshow for the Fun Fall Celebration? well it turns out that my items don't show up when you search FFOFG.. they are tagged properly and I redid them all hoping it would work but they don't.. I emailed Etsy a week ago about it and still haven't heard anything back from them..grrrrrr
I did finish a couple of doors .. hard to just do one color or coat and end up not getting back to it till the next day.. or longer..lol

Well I know there was a couple of other things I had to say but I really should get busy.. I have to run into town after lunch and do some errands.. so much for staying home for a whole day...lol....I hope everyone has a loverly day.. and hopefully I will have time to catch up on what you all have been up to for the last week... Thanks for stopping by...
Kath
xx

Monster Spaghetti Squash and more..

Halloween!! Seems abit weird to be painting Halloween stuff when summer is in full swing.. but will probably say it's even weirder when I start painting snowmen next week..lol I finished this up yesterday..just needs varnish.. loving it.. but can't post on Etsy as yet.. when did they start that you have to have a price to ship to one place in order to post something? That sure isn't easy.. it can change from location to location.. or is there some way to get around this? See you can flip the lid over and put a tealight in it...

It was back to work last night... so hard after having so many days off.. I forgot to mention that the craft sale was ok... nothing spectacular but it was the first time it was 1 day.. think it would have been better if it had stayed the 2 days.. but the vote was taken last year.. it was nice to see more crafters out and a few less small businesses... (not that I have anything against them..  just would rather see it all crafters again) So here's my booth pic.. it was a teapot day.. sold so many of them.. only a pic of one side of the booth.. there was too many peeps showing in the other side..lol but it's not like you haven't seen the same set up before...

Now ... the Monster Squash.. I am so excited about it.. have never grown one before.. it has lots of blooms.. and even some squash on it.. whooo hooooo!! That is a 4 ft piece of lattice that it's growing down to the ground on..

and a pic of my lovely garden..lol seriously.. am loving this container gardening thing.. so much easier to take care of. Now one last pic then I should get to work... there are 149 blooms on this bunch of tiger lilies.. DH counted not me.. would have been fantastic if they had all bloomed at the same time.

Am thinking blogger thinks I should quit already...lol took 5 times to load this last pic..  It's supposed to be 29c here today but without as much humidity.. can't see that seeing as we had a little rain last night but can always hope...
Thanks for stopping by... and reading all this... lol Hope you have a loverly day...
Kath
xx

It's A Fall Fun Celebration in July with OFG

Beat the heat and join in our Fall celebration at the farmhouse! Just click on the Fall Fun at the Farmhouse button and shop in your air conditioned prim home for your Fall holiday home decor.

View a sampling of our hand made offerings from the crafty gals of the Old Farmhouse Gathering.

Catch up...and Color of Summer... Yellow

Belated Happy Canada Day!! I did post but when the slideshow didn't work I deleted it.it .looked dumb and blogger wouldn't let me edit it out.....lol then I tried again the next day checking the edit html button and it didn't work again.. so I deleted that too.. not sure why I didn't finish the post anyways without it.. lol
Happy 4th of July to all my American friends.. hope you have a fantastic and safe holiday!!
So I have the pics from those 2 days that I was so proud of to show you today .. my camera has a flower setting.. and what a difference that makes..just wait and see...
First off.... Color of Summer challenge this week was yellow.. yellow has never been a fav color of mine.. not sure why but have found lately that I am drawn to it.. I even bought a shirt that has yellow in it.. and I love it (the shirt).. weird... I decided to do two ATC's... I had 2 pieces of yellow paper that I had tried the stamping with bleach technique on.. stinky process but oooh they are beautiful... even the yellow..lol

These are both up for trade if anyone wants.. haven't traded any cards forever .. would be fun...it was too funny to find a fortune cookie tag that had the color yellow in it..
Now back to my camera.. this flower setting is amazing... here's my peony...

k so maybe the middle one isn't great but the close ups.. am impressed...  and here's a couple of my tiger lilies.. I love these flowers.. my grandma gave me 2 plants when I first got married and had my first flower beds....

The Fall Fun at the Farmhouse is under way.. lots of great items to be seen... and bought... Just go to
www.etsy.com and type in FFOFG and you can see everything...My little Trick or Treat sign has been in 2 treasuries  ..pretty thrilling..you can check them out here......Spooky Treats and How about some hand painted Halloween

Well am going to spend this very hot, humid day off  painting..so hope you all have a loverly day...
Kath
xx

OFG Fall Celebration and more...

Good morning.. well it's back to work today...and the day is supposed to be very hot.. which is nice if the humidex wasn't supposed to be 38c.. yikes... tomorrow the humidex is  supposed to be 43c.. sometimes it's nice to be working in an air conditioned place...lol
I have spent my 2 days off getting some things ready for the OFG Fall Celebration... this year instead of Christmas in July they have decided to celebrate fall and Halloween... so if you want to see what everyone (me..lol) has created especially for this event go to Etsy, type in FFOFG and they all should come up.. This will run from July 1-28!! Hope you check it out...it's a surprise so can't show you anything till it's open...
I am never ready for a craft sale.. always tons of stuff unfinished .. that will wait for another one.. it's never ending..lol I did finish up this little welcome sign.. Sunflowers are my fav... ok now what's going on here??? it won't let me move past the pic to keep typing....

 

Very weird...lol but what ever works I guess....can't start anywhere except in the middle... sigh...(if you know why this is happening I'd appreciate any help..lol)

but anyways... June over at Dezinazworld is having a loverly giveaway for her 500th follower.. I love all her beautiful collage sheets and it would be awesome to win this...plus she has alot of sheets on sale for $1. Check it out..I'm sure you'll find something you just have to have..

Hope you all have a loverly day... Thanks for stopping by...I know there was something else.. but... another day I guess.....lol

Kath

xx

Summer of Color... Pink

Good Morning!! well I survived the 4 days of working.. but am feeling like it should be the weekend??? lol but I do have 2 days off now.. my intention was to go to the gym this morning but I have a flat tire.. so a post it is!
I had so much fun with this pink... it's a 5x7 canvas with the cc technique with all different shades of pink..and a little gold for bling.. isn't she just perfect? I got her from a free collage sheet from Gaby Cajubrasil's blog a very long time ago..She makes the most beautiful art...and her blog was one of the first that inspired me to try altered art..
Its hard to see but there are pink circles on the paper I wrote on..I chalked her dress and the edges on the lace and the wings of the butterflies too....with Pink of course...if you get a chance check out the lovelies from all the participants at the Summer of Color..(did you notice that I am finally not transposing the words in this? I do that alot with numbers but didn't realize that I did it with words too...lol)

Everything in my "feeder" garden is growing just loverly.. should have lettuce within the week...I should explain.. we have had so much water over the past 4 years that most of the gardens around here are done.. they are still so wet and have pretty much reverted to grass & weeds.. it will take years to get them back soooooo... my garden is in the 2 cattle feeders that we weren't using anymore.. they are 2 feet off the ground, have good drainage and even though it's not alot of produce it's a taste.. a neighbor was in buying pots one day for planting her garden  in too..and we were laughing about how sad it is.. with all this land around us..we're planting in pots..so here's a peek at my lettuce and one of my loverly spaghetti squash blooms..

Well I have to paint fast this 2 days off.. I want to join a promotion over at the Old Farmhouse Gatherings Artisan's Etsy group and have nothing painted yet to put in it.. oh and then there will be Christmas in July too...
So have a loverly day, even if it is Monday.... Thanks for stopping by...
Kath
xx

Hello...

Good morning...I had a few days off all in a row..(whoooo hooooo!) spent them painting and getting caught up with some little things...but today is my 3rd day in a row working.. way too hard on this old body...lol
My first sale this summer is July 2  and I needed to get more of those lake/cottage type signs done up.. but while I was painting.. I came up with this... still not sure I like it.. don't usually do anything 3D.. but of course this morning the internet is wonky and has been flashing on and off.. hope I can get this posted...lol So what do you think?  the little wooden flower is painted like a sunflower... and it has a little ladybug on a wire..I had seen 4 of these little flowers in the stash.. wondered what to do with them....

I decided to stay with the sponge painted scenes for the lake plaques.. I just added new verses.. here's one...

Here's my challenge for I am the Diva this week...I had a really hard time using only these two official Zentangles... am not entirely happy with it.. and I think I got a little carried away with the lines in the second block...lol..and you can't really see that the colored blocks are lime green...

I finished my pink for The Summer of Color... but can't show you that yet.. love it and so pink!!
We have had no rain all week.. some days looked abit threatening but it all missed us... so lots of heat and mostly sunshine.. soooo gotta love this!! I have 3 blooms on my spaghetti squash.. some flowers on my tomatoes,  and my  Tiger Lily's are almost ready to bloom...I had this random Bleeding Heart come up last summer .. it did ok but wasn't anything spectacular.. but look at it this year!! Chaya called it the Valentine flower... she loved the shape of the little blooms...

The postal strike isn't over yet.. they decided to give them more time to try and reach an agreement on their own before legislating them back to work.. sure is brutal for the small businesses that depend on the mail.. and I won't have supplies that I needed to finish things for next weeks sale.I will take my Etsy shop off vacation mode as I've been told that putting it on there will take my shop out of the google ratings and will take a long time to get it coming up again...not a good thing...
Well should get off here and post this while the internet is still on... this has taken forever to do.. Hope everyone has a loverly saturday.. Thanks for stopping by...
Kath
xx

Color of Summer... Green

Good Morning!! I hope everyone had a lovely Father's Day...the day started out here gloomy, cloudy and rainy but by noon the sun had poked out and by the time everyone got here.. it was simply gorgeous!! We had a great BBQ and spent the day eating, visiting, playing and blowing bubbles (of course..lol)...Couldn't have asked for a nicer day..
Today is the day to post our color Green over at the Color of Summer challenge.. so here is mine... I loved last week's blue challenge and all the stamping etc that everyone did on their backgrounds... so thought I'd give it a try..I didn't get to see as many of the other entries as I would have liked.. between work and no internet but the ones I did see were so beautiful...so many talented artists.. if you get a chance take a little tour.. you won't be sorry..
I am not very good with watercolors...they definitely don't work the same as acrylics... so my plan had been to have a sea of yellow flowers behind the green grasses.. but I couldn't seem to be able to define the flowers behind so now it's just sunshine behind the grass...lol.. It's whatever.. I did have fun with it...and it is very green..lol !!

My rock garden has gone wild... the plants have grown huge.. it now looks like a jungle... have never had some of these plants grow this big... the columbines and even the violas are huge..can't see the stepping stones or anything anymore...(or a lot of the weeds either...lol)

This new wand makes absolutely fab big bubbles... very cool but it did take some practice to play with it..
This cottage teapot just needs varnish.. and you can flip the lid over and use it for a candle holder... I have a few almost finished..here's the back and front.. I forgot to take a pic of it with the candle in the top..

They make great little centerpieces on your table and you can either use a real candle or one of those little battery operated tea lights... I realized that the first sale date is coming very close and I really haven't painted enough for it as yet so will probably spend the next couple of days I have off in my painting room...
Hope everyone has a lovely day.. and thanks for popping by...
Kath
xx