Art Expo 2010

Amazingly, every year in August the streets around the "square" in our town come to life with beautiful street chalk murals. This is an example of one of the winning designs of the almost 40 entries.

The finished "painting". I sooo love the colors. It's too bad they get washed away when it rains. AND we all drive over them when the weekend's over!


This is a view of one of the streets with the artists at work. They begin in the morning and judging is at 6:00 pm. That's a lot of art created in a short amount of time.

I think we all know who this is...

Ta daa!

The much-used bandstand with gorgeous balloons flying all around the square.

This fountain sits in the center and occasionally sprays us with much needed mist on a hot hot day. It's even beautiful at night with it's multi-colored lights.

More artwork. I think this was made by high school students. Isn't that amazing?
This year's highlight included a professional sand sculpturer. Wow. You have to scroll down and see his creation. These great sandboxes were set up around the sculpture for the children. This was definitely a highlight for my kids!

This is where he's just getting started. Only one man worked on this and finished it on the second day.

Amazing!

Pumpkins Galore

The "baby" pumpkins are quietly taking over and slowly making their way up to the tomatoes for a sneak attack. Last fall my son smashed a leftover pumpkin in the corner of my mom's garden and who knew that would be better than carefully planting each seed one by one.

But either way, I'm so excited to see signs of fall peeking through!

Gettin' Ready

I just wanted to share a photo of the wall that Tony (my husband) built for me for an upcoming art show. He started building a second wall because they just fill up so fast, I'm already out of room on this one. It's currently standing in the middle of my studio. It will be interesting to see where the second wall will stand. I might not be able to walk into my studio after that one's up!

Ocean Painting

I just completed this painting a few days ago and although it isn't very large (6" by 12"), I sooo want to be there! I've wanted to paint this scene for awhile, imagining I'm walking along the beach while waves gently glide over my feet. Puffs of cotton float in the sky. It's a simple scene but the blues in this painting are so calming it just makes me feel...well,...calm.

Here's the same painting on the shelf my husband built for our bathroom.

I just had to share photos of the shelf, he did such a great job!

Tea Time

One day a week, my son visits his grandma and they have lunch together. I knew all about the hot tea, the soft boiled eggs in a cup and the "soldiers" (toast cut into long strips) they make. It wasn't until recently I discovered they break out the fine china. Now that's a tea party! And notice...they each have their own salt and pepper shakers!

This reminds me of my little kitchen when I was a little girl, although our place settings weren't quite so, how should I say, ... elegant. One thing's for sure, my son will always remember spending this special time with his grandma.

The New Shabby Lane Shops Summer Garden Magazines Are Here!

They're here, they're here! This is a Shabby Lane Shops, 48 page magazine with great articles, gardening tips, summer recipes and even a short story (written by moi!). This cover is so luscious, it almost bursts with summer yumminess. If you would like a copy, click here to order from my website.

The Spice Rack

This is it, the spice rack I grew up with. Once I got ahold of it, it will never be the same. It became the star in a short story I just wrote for the Summer Garden issue of Shabby Lane Shops magazine. Which, by the way, will be coming out in a few short days! (Yay!)

I had so much fun transforming this piece into something totally different. The doors came off, the drawers came out (still deciding how I will reuse those pieces) and I painted the whole thing satin black. A little distressing, a little hand painting and voila! I now have a place to put my egg cup collection! (I have a little confession...I don't really like egg in a cup. I just like the cups.) These beauties came from Britain when family members visited there recently.

The nest at the bottom is a real hummingbird nest. I found it in our yard a couple of years ago and hung onto it until I found the perfect "nesting" place. How lucky that it fits perfectly with egg cups!