IF THIS GATE COULD TALK...

Hello friends,

Here's my new inspiration for a series of "garden" paintings.  I saw this little old house in town and decided I needed to take a picture of it and start painting. 

It spoke to me...the gate said "do you hear the squeaks when my doors open and close?...each squeak is a story to be told...about the people that came through my gate...the people that love this home and the people who live in it.  The years that have gone by may have faded the memories of others...but not mine.  If you could hear through my squeaks the stories I have to tell you...the secrets that came and went late at night...the excitement of children running through my gate, the romance of young adults sneaking through my gate, the joy of special friends welcomed through my gate, the sweet tenderness of a newborn held in the arms of Mother opening my gate so carefully to keep my squeaking from waking the baby and the excitement of returning home, swinging my gates open wide.  There's so much laughter, tears and love that I have seen.  When the doors on my gate swing open to greet you...you will feel it, the whisper of stories untold."

Silly old me...pretending to be a writer...I do love this gate and it does seem to have one or more stories to tell.  I hope you have a great weekend. 

Blessings to you!

Meagan

CRAFTY

(My trusty Prismacolor pencils)

Hi friends,

Yesterday was craft day with my friends Joan and Rosario.  We had a great time together making fun things, enjoying yummy food, conversation and inspiration. 

(Joan made these yummy thumbprint cookies...Thanks Joan!)

One thing that we did together was rubberstamping rocks and then embossing them.  They turned out so great!  If you try it just make sure to not touch the rocks for quite some time...they really hold the heat from the heat gun.

(not sure why this picture keeps rotating in this direction!  But you get the idea.)

 The other thing we did was making these cute little envelopes from this template...Joan recycles old pictures from magazines and scraps of paper she has to make them and they are adorable.  You can see them on her blog here. 

Joan and Rosario are the queens of green crafting.  They inspire me daily.  Rosario is one of those amazing artists that can just look at something and draw it...perfectly...I'm not kidding!  She is so talented!  Yesterday she was working on these darling place cards for a wine tasting party.  On the front of the card it had the persons name and the back said 2010.

We also made Valentine cards...Joan is so organized, she has files of ideas from magazine articles that she has pulled out and kept all neat and tidy in individual files... each one labeled and organized!

It is so good to do some crafting and letting your brain explore some other things than you are usually doing...I think it helps me to be more creative with my paintings...kind of makes you think out of the box.  Anyway, it was a fun day and I can barely make myself put all the stuff  away...I want to keep crafting!!!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Meagan

Dog Sitting

Hi Friends,

Today our petless house was filled with joy as we got to dog-sit.  B.J. and Harley came over to get spoiled.  We went on a REALLY  LOOOONNNGG walk...and ate bad things in the kitchen.  It was so much fun! 

(That looks good!)

(Hey...We want some of that!)

(YUM...YUM...YUM!)

(That was GOOD!)

Hope you had a good day too!

Meagan

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy New Year.

I love that word...NEW.  A NEW start...a NEW year...a NEW me...no not really, it's the same old me only with some new ideas.  I have to admit that the last few years have been a bit of a roller coaster, a rocky road, character builder kind of years.  I know it's been that way for so many of us.  I'm excited for the NEW YEAR, 2010...or Twenty 10... however you wish to call it.  I'm glad that 2009 is over but even though I'm so glad it's over there were a lot of good things that came out of those tough times.  The tough times may not be over but they have definately helped me to see what good can come out of them...even though I don't like it.  I was discussing this with a local artist who told me that she calls it the "Trevi Lesson of Life".  I had no idea what she was talking about.  She asked me if I had ever been to Rome and I haven't.  So she told me about this wonderful experience she had when she was in Rome.  She was wandering around these small streets...nothing special...and takes a left onto another not so special street (now remember...we're talking about Rome...so "not so special" may have a different meaning) and suddenly on the left was a small street that opens up to the Trevi Fountain.  Completely unexpected...and there it was, this magnificent fountain.  She went on to compare her find to a life lesson...those turns we take that open up completely unexpected possibilities. 

I loved this...the adventure of it all.  So this new year I am looking forward to the completely unexpected.  Hopefully it will be for the better...but one thing I know for sure is that how I look at things is changing.  Maybe I'm up for things not necessarily looking like I thought they would...and that's ok.

Happy New Year everyone!

ON TOP OF THE WORLD

It's hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone.  Thank goodness for a little time away to celebrate the Lord's birth with family and friends.  We left on Christmas Eve to drive to Eastern Washington  where we spent time with my family.  It was great to see everyone.  My Father is suffering from dementia and it is very difficult to see how far downhill he has gone but my Mom is doing a great job as his sole caregiver.  The weather was cold and sunny...beautiful...I love it when the sky is so blue.  My guys had a really fun time on the day after Christmas.  They were able to go with my brother-in-law and nephew to ski at Schweitzer Basin.  The pictures are...well, amazing...They look as if they are...on top of the world. 

My sister and I stayed behind to hang out with our Mom and have a little girl time.  It was so strange at dinner time because it was just my Mom, Dad, Sister and Me... We haven't done that it in...lets see...23 years!  It was good to be with family.  Hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season and looking forward to 2010.  I have lots of great paintings planned for spring and look forward to sharing ideas with you. 

Blessings,

Meagan

A PAPER SNOWFLAKE TUTORIAL

Hello again!

I thought I would share a tutorial on making these great paper snowflakes.  They take a little time but they are so beautiful when they are done.  Hope you have fun making them!  So here we go...

Supplies:

Six sheets of 12" X 12" decorative paper.  3 each of 2 designs that coordinate.

Metal ruler

Xacto knife

Something to cut on.

1 sheet of a heavier weight paper to make a template

Stapler

Directions:

Start out by drawing this template onto a heavier piece of paper, I used a tag board.  You can see how the lines don't completely connect at the corners...this is important.  Unfortunately I can't remember the exact dimentions of each row.  It's a little bit wider than 1" maybe 1 1/4".  Once you get the lines drawn on you can cut them open with an xacto knife.  Be sure to have a good cutting surface below the paper.

Once you have transfered the lines onto your decorative paper and cut them you will need your stapler to attach the ends like is shown in the picture above.  Each section will go in the opposite direction like you see in the picture below.

Once you get the sections completed you will attach 3 together to make each half.  Make sure to rotate your colors so every other section is a different paper as shown below.

Attach sections with your stapler in the middle and center points.

Once you get the halves made you can attach the 2 halves to make a whole snowflake.

These are quite large and very pretty.  We hung ours with fishing line.

Have fun!

Meagan

VINTAGE CHRISTMAS

Hello,

December is coming and going way faster than I had planned!  This has been a VERRRYY BUSY month...which I'm sure is true for all of you also.  We ended November with hosting Thanksgiving and it was such a fun day.  Then the next weekend was the Bainbridge Island Studio Tour.  I have to tell you how amazing it was!  I had such a great time and was able to talk to so many interesting people.  This was my second Stuio Tour and there were lots of repeat customers from the summer tour, and such positive feedback on my work.  Thanks to all of you that have supported me in my art.  I came away from that event feeling totally encouraged and inspired.  Here is a little peek at my booth at the Studio Tour.

The picture at the top was from a photo that I took at the Seabold Vintage Market last summer.  I was able to get several photos there that were my inspirations for my Christmas paintings this year. 

"Vintage Christmas"

"Santa's Visit"

Now I have to put some real effort into getting ready for Christmas myself!   We are really scaling back this year so that should help it to not be too overwhelming.  Our church is doing something called "The Advent Conspiracy" and I am all on board with it.  If you get a chance, check out the link...it will change the way you think about Christmas.

Here's to your Christmas season being filled with wonder and excitement.  I hope that you find yourself spending quality time with the ones you love and finding an opportunity to help others with the abundance we have.

Blessings,

Meagan