Ms Tessie

I just want to say how much I love my Tessie.  She is close to 17 years old at least and still never misses the opportunity to go with me on a walk or just be with me outside.  She has always been there and now that she has lost her hearing, she smells or senses my presence and keeps a watchful eye out for me.  She is all bones and not much muscle now which makes it a little painful to get up and down and walk too far, so we just go slow and takes breaks so she can rest.  I love her and am so grateful to have had such a loyal friend for so long.  I pray every night that Heavenly Father will bless her to be healthy until she decides it time to go and that he will let me keep her for as long as possible.

Just chillin' with my buddy

Funky Flowers

The first big assignment for our class was to use the techniques we are learning to build a collage of flowers.  I'm so anal about everything that it takes me forever!  I feel exhilarated that I did this, but insecure about a lot of it, so I guess I am saying that I have a lot to learn and I am excited to do it.  I don't really know what all the art supplies are that we are using. let alone how to use them, but I'm experimenting and figuring it out.  By the way, the Sweet Pea at the bottom right is my ode to our horse Sweet Pea, it has been a few years since she left us but I think about her often and miss her spirit.

Funky Flowers in a vase

Brave Girls Art Class

I am having so much fun in this class.  It is on-line so you do it at your pace.  We get new assignments each week along with videos and ideas/techniques to help us learn.  We also have a group page on Facebook where people post pictures of their projects.  Today we got a service assignment to send one of our flower pictures or doodle pages to some one or many someones to share our talent.  I so love learning this and love the happiness the flowers bring.  I will be posting as I go and will be setting up a new blog with just my craft projects.  I was asked today if BraveGirlsclub.com could use one of my pictures, so I will have one up there if you want to check it out.  I also had a couple of inquiries about buying my gas pump picture and yet another for pieces of my jewelry so I'm going to be brave and put it out there.

The challenge to create flowers from ordinary objects...

I'm working on my Funky Flower collage, I'll be posting it next, just waiting for it to dry so I can make sure I'm finished or determine if I need to add anything else.  This is such a fun challenge for me, I've never felt "creative" or artsy even though I love doing crafts.  It really forces me to let go of the perfectionism and helps me not over think everything.  It takes me longer than a lot of the other gals, but I'm trying not to let that affect me, just like I'm trying not to compare what I do with everyone else, but that's the hard part cause some of these people are artists!

Peach Days

 Courtney Matilda Sweet Pea

The Blue Moon rising

I had so much fun in Hurricane last week.  First I got to spend most of it with Courtney and I wish I had a bunch of pictures, I took a few out on the desert the night of the Blue Moon.

The Blue Moon coming up over the Mesa

This is how we roll

Then the big Peach Days celebration and all the entries!  I had never entered anything since the early days of 4-H (like a hundred years ago), so this time I entered 2 pictures...

and did pretty good

I also entered cupcakes in the bake off, peach cupcakes with brown sugar frosting.  They were really good, but not good enough to win.  And I forgot to take pictures.  I was a little frazzled because I forgot to put the peaches in the first batch...duh!  So I ended up making 2 batches, so I had cupcakes coming out my ears.  I'm already scanning recipes for next year.

And this is my super cool and talented sister with her basket of canned goodies and peppers that pretty much all took blue ribbons, she's pretty unbelievable with her kitchen skills.

It was just so fun to actually have stuff in the mix and all the anticipation at waiting to see what I would win.  I loved it!  

Art School

Just started my new art class with the Brave Girl's Club and I am loving it.  This is my doodling, something that is taught and encouraged.  I find myself doing it when I need to change focus or relax or really to procrastinate anything I don't really want to do.  Most of you know I am a worrier, this is a great way for me to channel that energy.  I will post pictures of my art projects as I go.  I never thought I was an "artist" and I still wouldn't put myself in that realm, but I do love the creation and the fact that I can do it!