Liberated

Once again, art was liberated in the annual Liberate Your Art postcard swap. Many thanks to Kat Sloma for organizing this wonderful event.

My first postcard arrived from Beth in Michigan. Her cheery card arrived just as my daffodils were blooming.

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My next card came from Keith from Fakenham, county Norfolk, UK. Keith is a professional photographer who says he doesn’t get a lot of time for personal work and this postcard was from a series that he did.

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Next to arrive was a beautiful view of the Golden Gate Bridge from Pamela Bowers

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And then I received this beauty from Penny Makris

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And my fifth card was this delightful, heart-filled work – which really tickled me as I am such a heart-spotter and heart collector myself.  Thank you so much for this, Fran!

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As much fun as the swap itself is the community that has been created, artists from all over the world that come together to share their art with one another.  Many side swaps ensue and here are the ones I received.

From Diane McWhiter, Pink Tulips in Colored Pencil.  I follow Diane’s art on Facebook and her work is so lifelike that many times I’ve thought one of her drawings was a photograph.

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It is always fun to swap with the same people year after year.  This year’s card from Sherry Harmes in Alaska was a fun multimedia piece.

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This gorgeous lotus is from Snap in Texas.  It has been fun to watch the evolution of her pond.  I wonder if next year her card will be of the fish that she says are almost big enough to photograph.

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I met Louise during last year’s swap.  I’m so glad that we connected up again this year.  I love this wonderful image of Venice.  Louise lives in France and her blog is fabulous!  Definitely check it out.

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And I love this happy elephant that Janice Darby sent from California!

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I received one more side swap but before I got a chance  to photograph it the wind picked it up and blew it across the deck where is slipped between the slats and out of my grasp.  It was a lovely image of stencil art from Patsy Lawrence.  I’m so glad that I got to see it and enjoy it before the wind decided to make it her own, PJ!

Thank you to all the wonderful artists that participated in this event.  And many, many heartfelt thank yous to Kat.  Until next year – big love to you all.

 

A Little Hometown Celebration

Summer is in full swing here, though we have not had a lot of hot, sunny days.  Rain, rain, rain and more rain. All that moisture has made everything very green, which I love. We were also fortunate to have had a couple of days break from the rain with wonderfully warm weather this past weekend when we celebrated the 4th of July, Independence Day here in the U.S. It was perfect for the outdoor activities that we usually associate with the day.

Our 4th started off with the local parade. I’ve lived here for over 7 years and this is the first time I’ve been to the 4th of July parade; I’m not a big fan of getting up really early and heading curbside downtown to sit and wait for the parade to begin. This year, however, my daughter was marching with her dance team, so we all got up. It was fun to see her with her teammates having a great time.

 

 

The parade also included old fire engines, complete with crank sirens,

old cars,

and a bicycle troupe. Most of the members were riding recumbent bicycles, but I thought this one was the best.

This young lady was really getting a workout!

My favorite entry in the parade, aside from our Lionettes of course, was from the local art school. They have classes for kids as well as doing birthday parties and such. I loved their most creative costumes! They really brought art alive.

It wasn’t a really long parade and we were home by about noon. That meant we had a chance to rest for a bit before friends came over for a cookout. I am always grateful when my days include a bit of downtime. We are quite busy around here!

At dinner time, we grilled the traditional hot dogs and hamburgers and sat around on my deck enjoying the food – and all the wonderful salads and sides that my friends brought to the meal – and each other’s company.

No picnic around were would be complete without a game of cornhole. In case you don’t know what that is, it is a bean bag toss game that is very popular in the U.S. midwest, especially in Ohio.  The boards are set 15-20 feet apart and teams toss trying to land their bags either on the board or into the hole. It can get very competitive, depending on who is playing, but we had a couple of friendly games – the best kind!

The dog wasn’t thrilled when people started shooting off fireworks. There is a small display that we can see from our deck every year, so we put her safe in the house and the rest of us watched them and the kids did their sparklers. This was their first year with sparklers, I guess I’ve been lax about that!

 

All in all we had a great celebration.

Here’s hoping that you are enjoying your summer days, or winter days if you happen to be in the southern hemisphere. I hope to get another post in soon with some photos of the wildflowers that have appeared this year.

Until next time, be happy and live in joy!

Liberating Art

Once again, the Liberate Your Art postcard swap has wrapped up.  I had a great time participating this year.  Even though I learned of where only one of my cards landed – all the way in Australia with Dani at Sand Has No Home. It’s exciting to see my art traveling so far!

I received wonderful artwork this time around, starting out with this beautiful painting from Jen Lashua Art.

Next to arrive was a gorgeous photo of the Golden Gate Bridge from Cathy.

The next piece of art to arrive was literally “The Bluebird of Happiness,” by Danie May

All this art was arriving to me just as spring was starting to make a tentative attempt to show her face.  This next piece, a photo of spring blooms by Shirina, really gave me hope!

My final postcard arrived from Catherine Brashear Photography. I loved this final stage of tulip arriving just as mine were starting to emerge.

This year’s swap brought several extra swaps again.  This is one of the bonuses of the event – meeting new friends and exchanging art, catching up with friends from previous years and exchanging art.  I was happy to receive this macro flower from Deanie.

From a new friend in Brittany, France, this lovely thatched roof.  You can find Louise’s blog here.

Garden fairies arrived from Texas.

Sheila sent another beautiful painting of flowers.

Two bonus postcards arrived from Janice in California.

Many, many thanks to Kat Sloma for organizing the swap and putting in the work it takes to bring it all together.  You can see more of the swap art at the blog hop I’ll leave you with the beautiful work that she shared with us all. Until next year!

It’s Been A While

Summer and fall have come and gone.  Fall gave us some fun times in the leaves.

She raked them up and then enjoyed the fun of the great big pile.

We adopted an 8 year old dog – mountain cur/hound mix – and she has brought a lot of love into our lives.

And just when the winter doldrums are about to set in, the pick me up comes in the form of another year’s Liberate Your Art postcard exchange.  I’m anxiously awaiting this year’s postcards to arrive from Moo.  If you have art that is itching to get out into the world, it’s not too late to join the swap!

It feels good to get the blog dusted off.  I hope to be able to share more in the days to come. Hope your 2015 is off to a great start!

Happy Mother’s Day

We celebrated Mother’s Day with lots of good food. Adia’s Home Ec cooking assignment came at the best possible time. She planned and prepared the meals today.

The preparations began last night. First up, cilantro lime marinade for the shrimp.

And a colorful corn, bean and mango salsa.

She also put together a breakfast casserole that went into the oven first thing this morning.

It was delicious!

Next up, she made a batch of Congo Squares for dessert.

They looked and smelled so good – and they tasted even better!

The final step was to prepare an avocado cream for the tacos.

It didn’t take long for the smell of grilling shrimp to whip up our appetites.

So very grateful to the Home Ec teacher. And so proud of my girl. She made four recipes from scratch, foods that we hadn’t tried before, and she ate and enjoyed them as much as I did. While the cooking was happening, little sister vacuumed the house for me. It was a wonderful way to spend Mother’s Day!

Blooming

It’s still a bit inconsistent where the temperatures are concerned, but there are more and more signs of spring around here. We’ve had a few more visitors.

Tulips are blooming.

And the crab apple tree is starting to get some blossoms as well.

The flowering trees were hit hard by the extended winter. The magnolia bush has almost no flowers. It doesn’t look like the weeping or the ornamental cherries will bloom this year, and my weeping red bud has about half the flowers it had last year. At least the red buds in the back look like they’ll flower soon. And there’s no arguing with a gorgeous blue sky on a sunny day.

Art Liberated

Another great Liberate Your Art postcard swap has wrapped up. This was my third year participating. I love the energy and excitement of all the art traveling around the world. It is a great feeling to know that my artwork is out in the world making people smile.

I was all smiles when my postcard arrive each week. First from Shirina.

Then from Kelly

And from Suzanne

From Audrey

From Marjorie

And from Kat, organizer extraordinaire

The images I used on my postcards this year were

Always fun is the extra swapping that happens after the official swap has ended.
From Janice

From Sherry

From Deanie

And from Shelly

It’s been a lot of fun. I look forward to this event every year. I love seeing all the art that comes my way and I also appreciate watching my own art grow and evolve. So grateful to Kat and all the other wonderful artists for sharing art and the encouraging community that comes with it.

Spring Has Sprung

A few days of sunshine and warmth have an amazing effect. From the buds popping up everywhere, I think this is just the beginning.

Soon there will be redbud blossoms – my very favorite!

We have a new neighbor in our wildlife habitat. It was a good day for sunning on the porch.

Of course they’re calling for snow on Tuesday. Seriously? At least it is not likely to stick around for long.

Hoping spring is taking a good hold in your part of the world.

It Might Be Spring

It wasn’t warm. But the sun was shining. I couldn’t resist stepping out into the sunlight. When I saw these, I got really excited.

This has to be spring, right? Crocuses! In fact, it was so nice out that the big girl decided to get on her bicycle for a little bit.

Even the tulips are thinking about coming up. I just love the swirl of those leaves.

Took some of my mobile shots while I was out. It was just too beautiful to resist.

There may not be any blooms on the forsythia, but there was a cardinal.

The temps may remain cold for the next day or two. And there may be rumors of snow. But I choose to remain firmly in the belief that spring is here and warmer, brighter days lie ahead.

A little over a week ago, it was warming up and these cute little birds showed up.

I started to get excited about the possibility of spring, finally. This past weekend, winter storm warning returned. They were calling for up to 10 inches (more) snow. Not sure the robins got the memo.

Fortunately, our snow total was only about 2 inches. Most of it has melted in the sunshine the past few days. Tomorrow, it’s supposed to be actually warm. Maybe even 50 degrees. That sounds a whole lot like spring to me. Bring it on.