My garden is my Soul food.

We've had a lovely month of May in SW Kansas! Well, if you can forget about the snow we had on May 1st and the 100+ temps on May 15th...the rest of the month has been rather cool and just great for my garden! 

My peas and beans popped up super fast and are looking wonderful! 

I spent the morning weeding so now they look even better. 

Gosh...maybe I should have taken these photos AFTER I weeded. I didn't realize how many weeds I had in my photos. I guess that just goes to show I'm looking on the bright sides of things; my vegetables rather than my weeds :) 

Ummmm....I think this is Swiss Chard. I have a bad habit of planting things and not labeling them, thinking that I'll remember what it is that I planted. One of these days...ONE OF THESE DAYS I WILL label my garden....it just may be a few years! 

And look I even have a tiny bloom on my tomatoes! My friend in Texas is already harvesting grape tomatoes off her plants...I'm so jealous! 

Spring is wonderful, heck every season is wonderful but Spring is the time I look forward to my favorite smell; soil! I love getting dirt on my feet and under my nails. I know lots of folks think that I'm crazy working so hard for a tiny garden that economically probably isn't worth it. My garden may not be worth it money wise but the work is more than worth it when it comes to the good my garden does for my soul!! 

Flower Bouquet and the Egg Yolk Room

Yahoo recently wanted to paint and boy did I jump on that! She never wants to paint which is so different than the way Yip and Yap were when they were 4 years old. When they were this age we painted all the time. But the other day she had it in her head that she wanted to paint and she wanted to paint on coffee filters. First she merely wanted to draw on them with markers and spray them with water.

A cool project if you can get kids to color the entire coffee filter, which I knew Yahoo wouldn't have the patience for (since we'd done it before) so I convinced her paint was the way to go.

Pull it together, a twist of the pipe cleaner...

...a gorgeous spring bouquet.

She was being just a bit silly with the camera trying to hide from me. Goofy girl.

Have you noticed my new walls yet? Yep, I finished painting room number 2 in my house a couple weeks ago and now I'm trying to get it all back together.

DR isn't too fond of the color I chose. He says now he knows how it must feel to be in the middle of an egg yolk! I didn't think it was that bad. It does make the room feel lots bigger.

What do you think of my corner shelves? I did have a bookshelf in that room where the kids kept art supplies and those corner shelves sure opened up the space. I found a great tutorial on how to build them.  The problem is...my house isn't square...HA! I made them fit but if any carpenter took a close look they'd be greatly disappointed in me. 

This room is pretty much done except for this wall. I'm just not sure what to put here. 

Next up...my kitchen. And guess what, it's going to be yellow too!! Another egg yolk! 

Oklahoma Wedding!

Whew!! 

Am I ever tired! The kids and I just returned from an Oklahoma wedding. Our cousin was married on Saturday about 8 hours away but we'd actually been gone since Tuesday night. My parents, a sister and two brothers came down earlier in the week to spend time with Mountain Man in southern Oklahoma. We drove down (5ish hours) Tuesday night to see all of them, Wednesday we spent the day with them and some other Oklahoma family there, Thursday we drove through pouring rain a few hours to the northeast corner of Oklahoma, Friday we had the rehearsal, Saturday was the wedding and Sunday we drove home. What a great week! Long and tiring but well worth it. 

Now, if I wanted to be mean to a bunch of my Indiana family I'd post photos of our trip chronologically. But I know there were some who didn't make it down for the wedding who would love to see some photos. I didn't get as many as I would have liked but I'll share what I have. 

Our cousin Al!! Isn't she just gorgeous! 

She tied one of our Grandpa's belt buckles to her bouquet. He had passed away this past May and yes I was tearing up taking this photo. 

Al married a wonderful Oklahoma rancher/farmer and in true western style the whole wedding party wore cowboy boots! 

Al asked if my kids would be in the wedding and I was happy to oblige. Though Friday night after the rehearsal I was nervous that my three exhausted kids would cause mayhem but they pulled through and did fabulous. 

Yahoo wasn't a flower girl but a sign girl! She carried a piece of barn siding right before Al that said "Here Comes Your Bride!" How cute!!! 

See those three little boys standing so perfectly still? Their mothers promised them ice cream and money if they behaved like absolute angels!!! 

I don't know about you but J, the groom, looks just a bit nervous to me! 

What a wonderful couple they are! Too bad we don't live closer though. 

I didn't SEE this part but I HEARD that when Al and J were kissing that my boys, the junior groomsmen, covered their mouths like it was gross and looked away. Anyone get a picture of that?? 

During the rehearsal I asked J if he had made the archway backdrop for the wedding, it was gorgeous! 

"You mean the Outhouse?" he asked, "We're getting married in Outhouse! But don't tell Al that, she doesn't think it's funny!" 

Oh, J will sure fit into this family! 

At one point before the wedding the photographers weren't in the dressing room and Al asked if I'd take some pictures of the girls. I was able to watch the bridesmaids pray over the bride. What a wonderful group of women these are! 

Party time!! 

I have practically no photos of the reception because Yahoo was asleep on my arm for most of it and the rest of the time I was cutting and serving cake! The kids and I had to leave way too early to get started on the 8 hour drive back. We had such a wonderful time with family I sure didn't want to leave. But isn't it nice to have a family that will drive so far to see one another? I still feel blessed! 

Another Mural FINALLY done!!

You probably don't remember this but waaaayy back in January I posted a bunch of quotes that I was considering incorporating into a mural for my bathroom. 

Well, I ended up actually starting this mural in April, believe it or not, but then life just got really hectic and I had a hard time carving out big chunks of time to paint. It was 20 minutes here, 30 minutes there. What made this mural even harder was that I chose some lousy paint! I ended up having to put on 3 COATS to cover evenly. Next time I paint a mural I am definitely putting a lot more time into researching paint!!! 

Last week though, finally, FINALLY I finished it!!!

I ended up choosing the Oscar Wilde quote, "With freedom, books, flowers and the moon, who could not be happy? 

My bathroom is kind of small and I couldn't get a photo of the full mural but I think you get the idea. (The light in there is terrible too.)The mural begins  above our mirror and sink on the left....

...then wraps around a corner and is above a window on the right. 

This little old mural only took me.....4 months!! Ha, if I didn't have kids I probably could have finished in 4 days! 

On a little side note I put up a new curtain in this bathroom, right below the mural. It had Venetian blinds in it, which I hate. DR and I argue over windows and light. He always wants them closed...he's got this thing about privacy! But me, I want the windows wide open letting in as much light as possible. 

Then the blinds broke, YAY!!! Now for a compromise...I looped a bunch of ribbons onto a tension rod as a curtain. This photo looks lousy, it looks much better in person, but now DR and I are both happy. He gets his privacy and I get light!!! 

I wish I could take credit for this wonderful idea but nope, I found it on Pinterest...of course!! 

What next? Should I attempt another mural? I'm not sure. Of all the 7 houses we've lived in I've never finished more than two murals before we had to move. Should I attempt another, or worry about bringing down the resale value?? 

Thistles

I love thistles. I know weird. But I just like the bushy purple flowery part. 

Anyway, these were taken behind my sister's house during our visit home to Inidiana. 

My New and Improved Etsy Shop

Well, I did it. 

I took the plunge...again...and re-opened my Etsy shop!

Before Yahoo was born and we moved to Kansas I was much more active making and selling baby booties in my shop. But after we moved out west and the boys started school and everyone seemed to get so busy, I just couldn't get my heart into making baby booties anymore. In fact it hasn't been until just the past year that I finally started creating anything again. 

I never even thought of selling my paintings, I just painted because I enjoyed it, but Kasse at Rural Women Rock suggested that I try it...so, here goes! 

So far I only have four paintings to put in my Etsy shop. 

They probably look familiar to you; I've posted them here before. 

I don't mind selling my paintings but I have a hard time setting a price for them. They range in size form 6 1/2 to 8 inches square.

What do you think would be a fair price? 

We'll see how it goes. I'm not much of a self promoter. I feel self conscious telling people that I have art work to sell. I'm not even sure how to go about advertising...well, besides a blog. 

Ah well. I just enjoy making them and for me, that's all that matters. 

Another Radial Design and Etsy(?)

Here's the latest work I've finished. It isn't anything special in my mind. Not a painting but in colored pencil this time. I started this one day while subbing in a high school math class where I had absolutely nothing. to. do. I've worked on it a bit here and there for the last few weeks but had a huge chunk of time to finish it while I was subbing for a Spanish class and watching Shark Tale (in Spanish) over and over. Boring! 

It's about 7 3/4" square; a decent size. Although I don't think it's too special overall, I am rather proud of the blue background. For a while the drawing was taped to an old textured cookie sheet I have and a blue pencil helped create the background. 

I've been painting these small works for a while and when I'm done the artworks get put in a closet. I don't have the time (or wall space) to put up a bunch of my paintings. And really, I wouldn't want to have to look at my own artwork all day. I have a couple paintings up now and I am my own worst critic. I don't like looking at them at all. 

One of my readers asked me what I do with them and if I sell them. I was rather flattered that she asked! I do have an Etsy shop but I haven't sold anything there for a long time. I'm thinking to give it a go with some of these small radial paintings; getting them matted and posted on Etsy and see what happens. 

You guys have seen them. You've been around. Any suggestions on price? They are all smaller than 9" square. 

I'm not looking to make a fortune off Etsy or anything. I paint these because I enjoy it; it's a problem solver for me...but I can't keep everything I ever create! I have to do something with it and I might as well sell it to someone who's actually interested in them. 

Any constructive criticism or advice would be greatly appreciated! 

Wild Bug Eating Flower Painting

My newest painting. Not my favorite but I was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out. At the beginning I wasn't having good luck with it and considered pitching it and starting again but I'm glad I persevered. 

I remember teaching about Australian Aborigines once and how they used lots of dots in some of their story telling paintings. I didn't intend to recall Aboriginal work but I couldn't help thinking about them the more I started adding my own dots to the painting. I still don't know why I do dots but I felt much more contented with the visual effects the more I worked on it. 

I was trying to think of a title. I don't like to title artworks because part of me thinks the image should be enough and further explanations shouldn't sway the perception of the viewer. But as for blog posts I try to come up with some sort of title just as a description of what I post. I wasn't having any luck thinking of anything so I asked Yip. 

Yip says it looks like a flower, a wild bug eating flower. So there you go..and if it changes your perception of what you see blame it on my son :) 

Sunflower"ish"