Success comes with Hard Work!!

About 6 years ago I was visiting friends in Lexington, KY and met a dynamic young lady who worked at the University of Kentucky campus bookstore. She was dating the son of my friend and was a bubbly, lively person to be around, I liked her right from the start. She was writing short stories in her spare time and submitting them to magazines, but hoped to become a full time writer some day.

This past week I found one of her novels in my local public library and squealed out loud, I am SO proud of her. She has done it!

Meet Tiffany Reisz. She specifically writes adult-only erotica, and was writing it well BEFORE the Fifty Shades novels appeared. She is quite successful in her genre and is now in a relationship with a fellow writer, so they are able to travel together a good bit. She has bid the retail job market adios and is her own boss with her own booming business.

So if you are awake in the middle of the night and need something to read, you might try downloading one of her short stories - or not - it would probably keep you awake...   ;)

I love, love, love to see people succeed by the hard work of their own hands. Way to go, Tiffany!

http://www.tiffanyreisz.com/about/

Showtime!

It's time for the class reunion art show, it's in the old home town! I am excited, not for myself but for the fellow artists that will also be there. I have known them all since childhood and it's really keen that we'll be in the gallery together.

I wanted to post a little bit in case anyone wants to know more about what I've done with painting.

My best, and last, watercolor, The Good Life, from 1999:

I found my true niche painting with oil after having dabbled in watercolor with great frustration. (My sister, on the other hand, loves working with watercolor and has made beautiful pictures.) At the time I began I was working full time and taking care of my father, who was in the final years of his life. I needed an outlet that would remove me completely from all the stress, and learning to paint did the trick. I lived for those classes with my wonderful teachers. And mostly I gave my work away to whoever asked - my best friend, my husband, my grandson.....my most favorite one, Tulip II, was donated to a silent auction for a charity fundraiser. I hope it is hanging in a really beautiful home somewhere. That's Tulip II posted on the banner of my blog.

Here's my first oil, Flippers, from 2006. If you know me, you will recognize the subject, they are my favorite shoes:

 

and lastly, here is a peek at a current oil in progress called Dad's Roses, this is one I will keep!

 

 

That's my painting progress in a nutshell. Thanks for looking!

 

Til next time-     ch

 

 

 

 

A Summer of Milestones

Well now, this has been a summer of milestones.

After many years of working in harness, we took the step to join those who enjoy camping in travel trailers. We did it mostly to have it to share with our kids and the grands; but also to help us re-learn to turn off our work ethic sometimes and get some badly needed rest. Stress is a terrible thing to give your life to! In our new owner reverie we proudly stuck a University of Kentucky sticker on the window and named her the 'Wild Blue Yonder' but with a few miles under our belts now a better description might be 'The Money Pit'. That's how hobbies go.

We've taken her out 4 times now, and the kids have had her out twice. It has taken us this long to get the hang of all the prep and setup that is involved before you can finally sit down, put your feet up, and exhale deeply. Our last site was a beautiful lakefront spot where the kids could fish and the rest of us kicked back to watch the sun go down and stars come out while we talked of all manner of things. It is such a good time to spend with family, nobody is rushing about or fooling with their cell phone (except Amanda!). 

It is also time to celebrate the 40th anniversary of my high school class reunion. How quickly the time has passed! I am one of those people who moved away from the old home town and look forward to seeing those people who were my friends for so many growing up years. An interesting feature of this celebration is going to be a show at a local art gallery, spotlighting the creations of our classmates. We have some accomplished painters in the crowd, as well as potters and fiber artists. I am showing two of my early paintings (the others since have been sold, alas) and some of my current fiber work, along with my big spinning wheel.

Spinning, along with dyeing and carding the fiber, have been my biggest interest for the last couple of years. I have travelled a lot to learn different techniques and meet some of the most interesting people, it has been wonderful!

My drive to keep learning and doing new things is so strong. I am converting a bedroom into a studio and have found that it's already to small to hold the necessities of knitting, crochet, oil painting, beading and jewelry making, fiber collecting, carding, spinning, collecting fabric, sewing, quilting, and working embroidery. So many ideas, so little time.  :D

 And so, we will go to the 40th class reunion to remind us that friends are very precious, and remember the best of the good old times.

Be safe and thankful!

Cooking with the Grands at Christmas

Every year at Christmas time I am careful to reserve time to do some crafting with my grandkids. Sometimes we make pictures, sometimes we make ornaments for the trees, sometimes we make little gifts for various parents. This year we decided to do something for the 6 dogs in the family. By checking on Pinterest I was able to find a simple pet healthy recipe, so I assembled our materials and yesterday we baked Puppy Cookies for them all. Here is the recipe we used : http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2007/11/03/gone-to-the-dogs/ ,

It took me back to the days when my boys were preschoolers - I was a stay at home mom and I made them biscuits from scratch so often for breakfast that I began using a variety of shapes of cutters to make the meal more fun for them. The dog bone cutter was a big favorite then, and yesterday it came in handy once again.

 Mixing up mushie stuff is always thrilling for little people. The messier it looks, the more they like it!

When you start adding the dry ingredients the dough becomes very stiff, so big brother had to tackle stirring the mass into a big gob of dough. Look how intense he is on his mission! 









We also gave him the duty of rolling the dough out flat so baby sister could cut out the shapes with the cookie cutter and put them onto the cookie sheet for baking. She was so very careful!

We filled up two big cookie sheets with dog bone shapes and carefully baked them. After they cooled we counted them out and divided them equally between our four households where our 6 furry friends work so hard to take care of us. We held one out to try out on Pupman, who was anxiously waiting to get his treat when he heard the magic words: PUPPY COOKIE!

The recipe doesn't mention it but I think it's a good idea to store these in an airtight container in the fridge. When I got home to my two four footed babies I gave them each a cookie and they seemed very happy to have the treat.

Nine more days until Christmas......

knit, Swirl, SNUGGLE!!

These are some of the new designs from a book (available on Amazon.com) called
The book is a little pricey at $34.95 and the designs are very similar, with subtle differences in shaping and length to fit various bodies and still look nice. I was captivated by the elegance of the black one shown below and another that is so large you can pull the top of it over your head like a hood, who would not want to snuggle in that! We give this one a big thumbs up and hope some used copies will float to the top soon. You can see more at http://www.knitswirl.com . Happy swirling!

Tis the Season

Tis the season for cold weather, outdoor decorations, snow, and shopping for special little gifts for special little people in the family. The illustration above is a perfect example of how I viewed the world, and the holidays, for many years as I was growing up. It gave me an appreciation for whimsy that has managed to remain thru all this time. It is a gentler, kinder way of looking out at the world, a point of view that I choose gladly. That's where I am today.

I'm not doing much painting these days, it seems the Fiber Arts have taken over my life. Though I have my oils and canvases carefully stowed away at the moment, I am ready to pack up my watercolor gear and donate it to the art center, perhaps it can help some other aspiring artist to find their way.

 My art cabinet at home is now stuffed with a sizeable collection of yarn, fur and fiber. I am about to begin learning to create fiber blends via my new Strauch 'Finest' drum carder, an adventure I've been anticipating for a long time. And oh, the projects that I have in mind for the special yarns that I will spin!

Til next time......