folk art piece is done

It has been a busy past days and evenings with this one.

A lot of tedious painting and carving.

I like the colors and am overall happy with the completed piece.
This piece measures 3 ft. x 10 in.

Now today we will take it to Joey's and see what he thinks. That's all she wrote for now. I will let you know his reaction.

This AM and today in general I am not feeling my usual jubilant bike riding self. Just one of those days which rarely happily can say I seldom have. We have had a lot of bird activity this past little while since my Baby Crow adventure. Now we have our little Sparrow Momma and her four beautiful Babies who give us much entertainment with their games and songs ,them learning to eat on their own and at times demanding Mom to feed them still. This morning I looked out back and the bunkhouse door was open and there was one of the Babies , I could hear what her little head may have been thinking" gee whats in here? more food?" as she hoped on in through the door of the Bunkie and got up on the bed to then fly to the closed window and then got scared when she couldn't get out. I snuck in through the shop door and closed the door going into the shop from the Bunkie because I was concerned she wouldn't find her way out, but she did and all is fine and we will keep that door and any other in case these little noisy Rosie's do that again. Watching them in the bird feeder , all five heads bobbing up and down is so fun to watch. We also have a mother Grackle and her three Babies see above , I love all creatures but had never really watched Grackles before. I now am enjoying the goings on with them and have taken a few pictures of Mom and one of again the demanding Babies asking very loudly to be fed. I plan to do a painting of these birds, still working on it in my head. No update on our Baby Crow so again we pray all is well. I am watching and am excited to think I may look out someday and see Mom with Baby or Babies.

Bird's are wonderful, I still feel the wonderful comfort I felt when I rescued the Baby Crow and carrying her cradled to my bosom .Holding her gently but cupping my hands over her wings so she could not flap and get herself worked up. I believe she felt safe with me.

Back in Charleston we had chickens. We considered many of them pets but one chicken in particular was very tame and smart, yes Chickens can be smart, well when it comes to routine and food. Her name was "Millie" we had a little shingle mill up the road from our house a short distance but for a chicken it was a walk for sure. Well Millie would follow Chuck and or I to the Mill days and hang out with us treating herself to some new bugs. Need I tell you why we named her Millie? She also would come to the deck door ,peck at the glass ,to be let in and she would go to the dog dish help herself with a mug up and by the way our Great Dane "Tiny" would step aside and let the chicken eat. Millie would get her fill and walk back to the door to be let out. We loved it when we had company and she would come to the door, some of the reactions from people were funny.

It is Sunday morning now and :
I have an added update regarding the Folk art piece, Joey loves it I am so happy to say, but after looking at it and him seeing the two surprises in the painting of his children helping him behind the counter, he thought that was great but he has three beautiful children the youngest being only 2 1/2 and thinking in about a years time this little guy may notice his siblings in the picture so lets put him up front in the foreground where he is sometimes playing with his favorite things ,his trucks while at his Dad's Pizza shop. So we brought the painting home with us and worked on the baby yesterday afternoon and finished adding him just when joey arrived to take it home to show his family.You might say "Hot off the press"I let it leave without getting a new picture of the addition so on this coming Tuesday or next week as soon as he has it hung I will take a picture of it and post it for you to see. Other then that you can see it yourself hanging at "Joey's A-1 Pizza" Main street Liverpool Nova Scotia.

Early evening last night we had company ,Gracie's peeps . They dropped in on their bikes curious if we were up for a ride. But ,I have been in a lot of pain the last couple days, I must ride today whether I hurt or not. While they were here ,they saw the portrait of Grace I did, they read my blog and saw where I said I was going to do it, well there still are a few brush strokes I want to add to her wonderful face and when done I will give it to them and they will have it framed. It was so sad ,because that was the first time since loosing their Dear friend that they had seen her, my heart broke, but I pray that someday they will be able to look at this painting and have a warm and cozy feeling with their wonderful memories of a great companion.

Folkart piece

OK, Lynn and hopefully some others who may be curious about this commission I mentioned in a previous blog installment ...here it is beginning to become 3 D, a lot of thought ,sketching ,saw work and gluing has been going on and today yet more. Take note, the character at the top in the 3D picture does not go there, I just looked and it strikes you odd, how he hangs over the top, that will change, he isn't glued in yet.Tedious work will start really with painting it and bringing it to life. You tell me, can you see yet, where it may be going and what it is about? It has been awhile since we have done anything like this, in the past I honestly believe there is not much we have not done or tried, our home has never been just a home, it has always been since we moved into a tent together at the "Ovens Natural Park " a long time ago, a home/tent/studio . This past couple of days one must wear steal toed boots around here inside because I am doing a lot of carving ,sanding ,rounding and small saw work right here at my easel. I figured out and those of you who have had a visit here and know just how tiny our home is can relate, I must rethink and make a few changes to my so called small space studio where I sit or stand all day and most evenings ,yes the TV , stereo as well as the computer must be within eye and rolling too distance or I can swing in my chair and stare out the deck doors unto the pergola and my song birds ,sometimes I just stare in a trance out that door, not like Charleston but very entertaining and inspireing with the antics of these tiny bird's who come back every year since we arrived here 3 years ago. Back this Spring I head a cry in the bunkhouse loft, to my horror I found who I think was our Mom bird stuck in the loft, she got in through a small open gap at the top of the window. Well, after trying to catch her I then removed the whole window while she hid behind some box's . After that I watched from the kitchen window and sure enough she got out. I then ran to the scene and put a screen up in that window, we will hopefully never have that happen again. After she got out of that situation she sang and does sing to me all the time, her and her little family. By the way , I think I heard our baby crow the other day so I am wishing all is well with her . So, back to the folk art piece, we have in the past made doll houses as well as Santa workshop scenes and other such things by sculpture ,carving right down to real stain Glass windows hooked mats etc.in finished pieces. So this is fun for us to be doing another simular to those. I will now be getting back to it and will return later with how it went today.

a group of cyclist's

Today Monday morning I went on my usual routine bicycle ride before the morning heat hits and to my surprise while I am turning into Fort Point to do my loop past the house where our Emma lives with her Peeps , I came across a large group of cyclist's going the other way who had stopped waiting for all to catchup , I saw them yesterday Sunday pass by our house during all that rain we had . After seeing them go by yesterday ,so wet and miserable ,they reminded me of Mary Ann and Dave who stopped by here in the rain on their bikes awhile back and them in their 60's and seeing all these young people thinking how nice it will be someday if they are in their 60's and still riding, like they do now. Thanks to people like Mary Ann and Dave , folk's like me can see that indeed it can be done, not that I am going to do it. I stopped and had a little chat with some of the cyclist's and mentioned that I saw them yesterday and asked where they stayed last night ,which was at the " Rossignol Cultural Centre " here in town. I gave them directions for the grocery store ,wished them a great trip and thanked them for inspiring me . After saying my goodbyes and sad that I didn't have my camera with me to have a picture taken on my bike with them, I could have had so much fun , sharing the picture here on my blog saying I joined up with this bike group for a long trip ...bye, bye all, I know you all would believe , why would you not? knowing how in good a shape/NOT Chuck and I are in....My goodness, I made a "funny", anyway ,as I came back around from my Fort Point loop they were just getting going so I went past them, my little legs pumping hard to get ahead of the leader ,as I passed him I said "follow me"....working so hard to stay in front I lead them right up to the Post Office corner in town where they were to make a right hand turn. It must have looked funny with me in the lead of all these young cyclists about at least 20 of them,me on my 6 speed "Campas Cruiser" with my cute little orange wicker parcel carrier.

Happy trails Kid's. Maybe I'll join up with you next time....oh where is a camera when you want one...in my cute little carrier next time for sure. I am off now to work on the 3D piece Chuck and I are both working on, I was killing some time waiting for Chuck to do some saw work for me.

quite a 24 hours with some of God's creatures..

Exhausted with adrenalin before dark our heads hit the pillow to awake this AM seeing no sign of the baby Crow, while still listening for her cry and worrying I checked my morning emails as usual only to find a bad news message from friend's who we dogie sit for .Their Grace a wonderful mixed breed ,who had a long thick coat was hit and killed by a truck July 22..I really can't write much about this having lost our Eddie just two weeks ago and this baby Crow thing on top of all this, I said I have a soft heart..I hate this, things like this pull the legs right out from beneath you and always pushes you with more then you can chew ,so to speak. So today I am preparing a canvas for a portrait of Grace to give to her People, did I mention Grace was named after Brian's Mom, their Love for this devoted friend ran very deep indeed. Here is a picture of Grace taken last Christmas when she stayed with us while her Peep's flew home to visit family, she loved to be outside in the snow and I would watch her and she would not move a muscle only when she woke would she shake off the snow. Like I said Grace spent sometime with us right before Christmas, our house is very tiny and to have a Christmas tree in our living room where we can see and enjoy it is a challenge at the best of times but when as we did right then have three dogs in this small space, our Dear since departed Eddie , our somewhat adopted daughter dog Laura and Sweet Grace, so back to that special fir tree I found that Christmas I couldn't wait to get it up because it was very narrow so I thought it would fit nicely but once up and decorated with my Mom's old glass ornaments as well as some very rare special treasures of old ornaments my thoughtful friend has found tucked away in treasure hunting places and thought of me . Picture this wonderful looking tree and all three spoiled dogs and Gracie's big bushy tail. Well, the ornaments were removed from the bottom to about the middle of the tree trying to save them from a "happy tail" this is when we decided to buy the fake palm tree in the Home Hardware window, it had already white lights on it and we figured we could have it in our little home with still my special ornaments adorning it and after Christmas put it in the bunk house where it is right now and put it back outside if we please to be brought in again next Christmas, it does the trick and looks just as nice as a traditional Christmas and is so over the wall tacky that it stands proud compared to a artificial Christmas tree. See photo above.

I just had a 6 year old neighbor drop by with his Dad..so I will post and leave for now.

Baby Crows

First off, Emma's frame is done ,here she is in all her glory . This morning we rode by Her Ladyship and she and I had a great chat or snort in her case, she is a wonderful little tank of a dog with a big personality. She is hung here on our wall of fame for the time being,until we see just where she is going, and hopefully we can make a few dollars for the local SPCA and maybe Emma can help some more less fortunate animals.

Now I bet those of you who know me and those who may not know me so well can see by reading anywhere here in my blog how much I love animal's of all kinds. From a young Child to this old Lady who stares back at me in the mirror today. When I was a very young Child I thought I wanted to grow up to become a Veterinarian to find that as I grew I then knew I could never do it, as much as I want to help I can not get past the pain of tears and worry, I would be of no help when an animal is hurt, as much as I am ashamed to say,I am useless . My Heart is just simply too soft. Today as we arrived home from our AM bike ride I found a baby Crow right behind our parked car. I quickly scooped her up and brought her behind our fence wondering what to do . We have been watching the Crows we believe building their nest in a huge pine tree across the street two doors down from here, we swear that is where the nest is and has been since we moved here three years ago now. How this baby crow got on this side of the street is beyond me so I took her back over under this tree in hopes Mom would at least feed her. Come to find out from my two neighbor's this baby has been on the ground for a couple days. I called my friend who is an expert on Crows and wildlife in general Laurie Lacey ,he has written a couple books that I own "Black Spirit" and "Micmac Medicines Remedies and recollections" as well others. He suggested we leave it there and watch and see if Mom feeds her and hopefully ,maybe she will be able to fly soon, God willing no cat comes by before that. Oh ...the worry I put on myself ..help me please..give me strength..

Every once in awhile I do a Crow painting,The last one I had sold ,maybe it is time for another.

Besides Emma and Crows in my busy enough life these days I have had to do a couple more small what I call tourist paintings , easy to transport in suitcases travelling. As well ,both Chuck and I are doing a little something different for us, or I should say it has been awhile since we have done this kind of thing, it is a painting but in 3D, I will share more as it comes along, I have it sketched out and have a plan and have had a great response from the person who it is for , so now that we have the go ahead, the work can start and I then will share more with you as it progresses.

So again I find myself trying to take my mind off this wee one by writing about our family of Crows from Charleston . When we moved to Charleston back in 1985 we noticed in our large old Oak Tree which looked out over the Medway River that we always had Crows hanging out in it, so we started feeding them treats and getting to know them . Over the years we studied them to great lengths and did a lot of research about Crows and their behavior and found ourselves literally falling head over heals ,yes in Love with our Family of Crows. We have many stories and experiences with these Crows but the one time we were lounging in our Kiddie pool on our deck looking out over the Medway river with the Oak tree within close distance . All of a sudden our Crow family arrived with two babies in tow and Mom left them with us while they went on a hunt or whatever but those Babies stayed there for the longest time. They were so quiet and stayed within our site but not moving much at all while Mom was away. Only when Mom arrived back did they begin then to squawk and move about. Well, yes we believe we were baby sitting that day and many other days, those babies were told to stay put and quiet and Mom knew we were there to watch over them. We have been back to the old homestead many times and do see the Crows but our Real estate Agent now believes our Crows hang out at her farm a few miles down from our old place. So they have chickens, goats and such still in their lives . We always had Momma Deer leave her babies between our house and the river while she would forage for food. You could barley see them, we only noticed from our upstairs window. She would leave them in heavy scrub bushes and if not for a little wave of their tails you could only find them if you had an idea where they were, which we did.

I remember our first chicken pen fence we built, it was woven sapling trees ,my, we had energy to spare back then, this fence was wonderful and looked just great but we ended up with chicken wire around the inside because of baby chicks getting out. When I think of those days and this time of year in this heat making hay, throwing hay bales up onto a truck then to deliver home and throw up into the hay loft, and the cycle began, one handled these hay bales a lot...and then to end up shoveling the hay one more time on the manure pile, to then yet again shovel it again when the manure pile got too high. Which reminds me of the couple seasons we sold cow and chicken manure , we made a few bucks doing that, we would take orders all week and on the weekends we would fill our little trailer and make deliveries in same areas, Chuck was known as "The Shit man"yes he was, now that is a title one may not want to wear.

As I sit here every once in awhile I hear the baby squawking and Mom calling,fingers crossed this all works out OK.I heard a lot of noise , the Crows were just chasing a gull away and our little baby was just about in the road, not sure if the gull tried to get it or not. I just got back from running out, stopping traffic getting the baby and putting her up further away from the road, I will soon have to take her some wet bread, the other Crows are or seem to be protecting it or looking out for it from in the trees but I need to see them feeding her soon. She is so cute with her wonderful inside pink bill, I so want her to survive, anyone out there have any suggestions?Please share.

Emmas frame and other stuff

I had tried to re size Emma's frame with no luck, one dead frame sits here now, but being the recycle kind of people we are, there will be no loss or waste, it will be used somewhere. So we went to "Hoggie's" a local 2nd hand store here in town owned by Arther and Maureen, not a couple but partners in a great business, well there was Emma's frame. We bought it and now ,hopefully today I will get some work done on it in preparation for Emma.

So yesterday was frame searching as well as working towards small paintings day,unlike other surfaces canvas and such,there is work to be done on this old wood before I can even start sketching on it. So, come Monday I will be hard at painting. Today we will be blessed with a visit from our Clay :-) that always makes our day, although this visit will be with tears and heartbreak for this will be the first time he has been home since our little Eddie passed. Clay is a carver and I believe he carved something for Eddie's grave. Our Dear friend Brian is making a rot iron fence for around Eddie's grave for us,he is a Dear soul who lost his two very old small dogs only months before his darling wife Carol passed from being very ,very ill for years. God Bless her and him ,for he still carries so much pain and sadness because of his loss. We try as hard as we can to put a smile on his face if only for a moment and hopefully in time , maybe a long time , but we pray his days become easier.

This evening we are invited out to an annual Summer evening party on the edge of the water, Liverpool Harbor, every year at this time it seems always a threat of rain, this AM looks rather wet but this evening should be OK, so we are riding our bikes, we so enjoy our source of transportation during this fine weather. and it is cheap, and at times we are too.
I had to laugh, Chuck and I were talking this morning about the weekend we were Pirate's and about the person who asked if my grey hair under my Pirate hat was real..yup they did, so Chuck said why not put a picture of myself on my blog ,not so many years back and show you all how my long dark hair looked then..Thanks Chuck for reminding me...LOL so here it is. also in the same group of photos was this closeup of the painting I was working on in the picture, I like how it looks. So see my friend's I not always had Pirate looking grey frizzy hair.
This reminds me of what we did with Chuck's pony tail, he let his hair grow long because we were doing a lot of shows in period clothing back in the day. When he could take the long hair no longer or should I say he thought he was loosing too much hair with it being so long,we then cut it and I connected it to his reenactment Pirate hat and now if he greets a lady he will remove his hat ,hair and all. Speaking of keeping hair in 2001 Dec. 10th I had a serious operation, I had two bleeding aneurysms in my brain, went through the operation with flying colors thanks to Dr. Renn Holness retired now from the QE2 Halifax. The night before the operation My Dear Sister Linda , her daughter Kim and my Chuckie while they indulged in some vino ,braided my long hair in many , many little braids and when I walked into the operating room under my own steam that day and got up on the operating table for an 8 hour operation with oh so many Doctors and nurses buzzing around me, well leave it to me, I spoke up just before they were to put me under and said...OK, you can shave all the hair you need to but I would appreciate if you could save it for me so I can glue it into a hat, well sure enough when I woke in the recovery room I was given my hair in a plastic bag with my name on it, and I still have that hair today 9 years later. Now that was or could have been a very stressful operation, I was scared but I had a very Dear person pray with and for me, her name is Michele W. she is blessed with a gift and I swear that day she prayed over my Aneurysms and made all the difference in the world. We were doing shows then on a regular basis all over the Maritimes and even though it was only weeks since my condition was discovered that I had the operation .Thanks to Chuck ,for he could not keep his mouth shut about what was happening with me, I really on the other hand did not want to bring it up to people at the shows because I was there to sell and thought at the time that I would have rathered have the energy put towards making a few dollars because I would have to take some time off after the operation to get back on my feet, but he was so scared that he told everyone we knew what was about to happen to me and because of that I received so much good ,sincere energy and blessings from so many people, I now am so thankful because I was on many prayer lists , Thank you all , I know it made a difference. I was brave then, not really realizing just how serious it was at the time, maybe in a way that was a blessing for I was strong going in, it was only after that the rude awakening hit home. These days as always really , I cherish every moment and try and have as many laughs and hugs with and from as many people as I can, feel the energy...yes we can.
So enough for right now, off I go to prepare for another day.

Emma is done ,waiting on a frame

Our girl is done as far as paint and she is waiting on a frame to suit her. I have a great black frame but need a good carpenter to re size it for me.

Painting Emma this week did just what I knew it would do and I so enjoyed working on her deep older Lady wrinkles.

now ,today, I must work on getting a start on smaller paintings to replace sold ones for Fort Point and gallery. My smaller paintings of local fishing scenes are popular for those folk's travelling and I work at making them affordable . I have been told so many times that my small paintings are given as thank you gifts for friend's and family looking after homes and pets for those travelling. These paintings are easy to transport in a suitcase or bottom of a car trunk, unlike canvas , no gentle care is needed.

Check back ,as soon as I have Emma framed (for being so cute) I will post her here.

leaning towards at the moment...

" Her Ladyship" the Diva Emma is coming along just fine. I worked on her again yesterday afternoon and last night, I have a tendency to become so involved at times when I am having fun with a subject like Emma. I changed her background, it was way too busy for her , this background is much better with still some of the rainbow colors showing through. As well I decided to have her sit in a basket ,which stills needs much work.

Chuck and I may have a commission to work on together in the near future. I won't let the so they say "Cat of of the bag "yet, but it is a local eating Establishment and they want us to do a folk art type 3 D painting for a wall, we need some photos to work on a layout. Will keep you posted when we begin. But right now ,it is still ,all about "Emma"

all kinds of stuff going on this past while...

Yes , things have been interesting both great and not so great this past few since Liverpool's busy long weekend. The last couple days I have sat here trying to write and found myself deleting the words I typed because we were so heartbroken. Last Thursday we arrived home to witness our Darling Little 14 year old Pappillion Eddie take his last breath after not being necessarily in pain but not well for sometime. I believe he waited for us to return home that day to say goodbye. Now I will stop right here before I again well up with tears .

I want to rejoice with the memories we have of him, so I will continue now to share with you what I choose to do to help take my mind off this and bring a big smile to my face.

Above Meet Emma , I am doing a portrait of Emma to donate to the SPCA local animal rescue service . I have done this in the past for them to sell and hopefully raise some money to help our dear four legged friend's. Here is Emma from her first sketch and up to date but not yet done.

As well above I included one picture of our Eddie so you can see just how sweet he was. I will share more pictures and maybe stories of Ed in the future, right now this is all I can muster up.

But take a good look at Emma and try and think of a title for her painting, tell me what pops into your head when you look at her darling face? I will share just a couple titles which we have thought describes what we see in her, she has attitude , likes to eat Bicycle tires,is a rescued dog but is a "Lover" and "Beauty" for sure, Chuck and I have always had a fondness for English Bull Dogs and discovered Emma on our bike rides. We now pass by her everyday and she always puts a smile on our face's when we see her lounging outside on her porch,what a body she has, built like a tank ,a sturdy girl with plenty of personalty. I want to do her justice in my painting of her...Two titles I am thinking of are " Cutie Patutie" which we really like, it is one of our favorite sayings or something do do with "Diva" come on ,put your thinking caps on while you watch her painting progress and help me come up with something good..Lynn your great at thinking outside the box...LOL..take a close look over the next day or so.

Speaking of Lynn, this past weekend we had company, My Cux Lynn Sponagle fellow artist, art in wool and beads, check out her blog and work, she is one of my followers and a very talented as well as full of life and fun person. She and her, and now our new friend Lu spent a day and night with us. thank you ladies for you really did take our minds off the last week. You ladies promise us you will return... :-) so right now I will get back to painting.

It has been a few hours since I wrote in today's blog, I was here working on Emma when we decided to head out on our bikes for a short ride and you know who we saw again on our trip? yes indeed ,Emma and her Mom Lynn. We stopped to tell Em and Lynn that I had started Emma's portrait and we got to pet and make of her Ladyship Miss Emma and I got to really get a closeup look at all her deep wrinkles. All for now.

Canada Day and Privateer Days

My goodness, you could not have asked for better weather. A lot of sun screen was used , hopefully by all. But one can't complain , it was beautiful and busy for all the events. I must admit, my feet and old legs were singing after 3 days on them. The fun we had made up for the aches and pains.

Canada Day I did sidewalk chalk art with the little ones as well as a lot of parents got into it , above you can see one of my Little Pirates and a couple of my little Artists.

Friday we went to the park with just a blanket and a few little treasures, more for the social life then trying to sell. In the picture with Chuck and the red blanket on the ground is our Dear Friend "Father Wayne Mills" who is home on vacation from Ontario, he surprised us by showing up that day in the Park, we knew he was due home but when I walked away and returned , there he was to my surprise with Chuck.

Check out the Lizard I actually touched, now that was something I had never done before , her name is "Sara" how sweet and she loves her Daddy and gets jealous when anyone gets close to him ,she then will give you the eye, yes indeed , the eye. The other shot of us with the two little Pirates and the other bigger Pirate "Christian" who works with Privateer Days ,running around looking the part and helping out with all the work needed done by a strong young man. Thank you Christian. This was Saturday at the Perkins house Museum for the "Pirate "display and costumes for the children, they learned all about Pirates and Privateering , myths and facts. The two young ladies in the picture were full of questions and I believe went away very happy to have been there. Sunday we layed back ,feet up relaxing.

Friday evening I went with a friend to take in some music in the big tent while Chuck went to bed, a smart move on his part, but I did enjoy seeing so many people who were home for the festivities from away, so the lack of sleep was worth it.

So many people come home during our Summer festivities and seeing everyone is a treat.

One lady who hasn't seen me in years ,it was so funny when she was reintroduced to me she said "Your all grown up" Now at the ripe old age of 57, that is something I never hear.

So life is back to normal, and I have to start painting again.