September Painting

Here are the paintings for this month. Gary's on the left and mine on the right.


As usual the happy trio,
Jan, Olga and Pat, and in that order.

ALOHA!

Mystery Plant

Here is a plant that I got at a plant exchange. The idea was you bring plants and take others home. It was set up in a parking lot and a few tables were at the edges. Many brought them dug up and in tubs or in old pots or in boxes and bags. It was raining the day I went. But so much fun. I had many to share myself.

Anyway...this plant I forgot the name of but was assured it was prolific and pretty.

I planted it and it grew well. Very well. It spread a lot and got very tall. The first year it had no flowers and ihad to dig many of it out. I transplanted some and still it got no flowers. I had it two years. This year I used it as a focal plant in the center of a couple barberries and moon flowers. I tore off all the lower leaves and it got bushy. And lo and behold one day I noticed buds. It was gorgeous!! Yellow daisy like flowers grew all over it. It is tall...about 7 foot high. I wish I knew it's name. But I will continue to plant it here and there. Maybe the secret is let only one grow and water it a lot. Seemed that it liked this treatment.

It dies back each winter and comes back multiple the next year. I have had it 3 summers now and this was the first time it flowered.

Coleus in Pots

These first 3 show the pot on the right side of the garage and the growth thru the summer.
The 4th is is the left side of the garage as of yesterday.

Don't forget to click on each picture to make it full size. They look best that way.
I combined some pictures to show you the growth thru the summer.

I was quite pleased with how big they got.

Zinnias

My zinnias did great this year.
Here they are in late Sept on the way out.
The pot to the right has basil in it.

The yardstick is a 4 foot one.
The pot is only 18 inches high so you can see they are huge.

These zinnias used to be bigger and are now sagging and bending forward.
At one time they were taller than me, But are still over 4 foot tall.
See the orange one way over the top of the ruler? That used to be much higher.
The tree behind has shaded them a lot and now they stretch forward.

South Dakota trip-Custer State Park & Tatanka

Real buffaloes at Custer State Park

The gorgeous scenery.

The depiction of Native Americans on a buffalo hunt at Tananka.

South Dakota trip-Crazy horse and Mt Rushmore

Above -Crazy Horse as it will be when finished. It has been worked on for over
60 years and will take another 100 years to finish.
Below- as it is today.

Mount Rushmore...it is finished..lol
But actually it was not finished cuz the guy died before he got to put some final touches on it but it was left as is as a testimonial to him.
Again...I took tons of pics and some really nice ones.
Unfortunately the ones I took of the night time illumination didn't turn out.

South Dakota trip-The Badlands

I fell love with the Badlands. Oh my..I want to live there. The first pic was taken from the parking lot of the place we stopped at. We had a special guide for a tour thru them and he was so informative. In fact..he stayed with us for 2 full days. After going thru the Badlands we went to the famous Wall Drug store. No pictures of that though.

I took tons of pictures but this blog only lets me upload 5 at a time in a post. But I guess that is enough to show what I saw. I might still get a Picaso account and upload tons there. Then maybe I will be too lazy. Time will tell huh?

South Dakota trip-Corn Palace

Our First stop on the trip...the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD

Above - Gary looking very touristy.
Below-A bench sitting cowboy flirting with me or
maybe me flirting with him...not sure now.

Another full view of the corn place where the whole outside of the building is covered with different natural colored corn.

Sad,,,the doll musuem was closed but I loved the building which was for sale.

Would make a nice house now wouldn't it?

Redecorated guest bedroom

I am in love with the newly redecorated guest bedroom/craft room.

Even Gary loves it a lot. he did a great job repainting it.

I have not finished with hanging pictures and adding all the craft stuff but that will come with time.

This room used to be the master bedroom but we switched to my craft/bedroom. We both love the higher ceiling and bigger room with huge windows. I don't mind the switch as long as I have a place for my craft stuff.

Now that we no longer sleep in separate bedrooms, we now have a guest bedroom..just waiting for company. Yes..since retirement many things have changes and Gary made a huge change in wanting to be closer again..hence sleeping in same room again. Now the king bed seem big enough. and I must admit I like it our reunited ways too. It has taken some adjustment but it seem to be ok.

Now it is just getting all the crafty stuff out to make it more bedroomy. and all the while making the guest bedroom not so junky.

I have decided to store a lot of stuff and plain get rid of some. I can rotate what I put out and not have to have it all out at once I suppose. That will take getting used to too. But..times and habits can change. Heck..I am even thinking of taking down my magnet collection in the back hallway...all 650 of them. And keeping only one wall panel up to display ony about 50 at a time.

Yes..I have them all on display on cookie sheets and huge metal pans hanging on the wall like huge pictures but dusting them is getting to be a bore and I am tired of them. Ergo...hide most and rotate.

To perm or not to perm

I am in a bit of a dilemma. Now that my hair is grown out a bit, I do like some curl to it.

But this morning I wanted to go to the Farmers Market and since I was gonna work outside later didn't want to curl it so I left it straight after wetting and styling a bit.

If I perm it I won't be able to do that. But if I don't perm it..the set doesnt last in humid or wet weather. Oh what to do?

I do love the shorter style but find that the sides lose color so quick. I guess that there are pro and cons to either length I prefer huh?

For now I think no perm is the way I want to go. That way I have the best of both worlds.

But also it means I have to have it trimmed more often..like once a month. It has only been 3 weeks and I can see major growth already that is making it look a bit shaggy.

Men have it soooo easy. I envy them.

July Paintings

Once again time for paint class and I really like this months.
It still amazes me that as we all paint with the same instructor, and try to do the same things, each painting is so different.
I think th t this month Gary's and my pic really shows how much small changes make.
They can change the whole feel of a painting.

Pat, Olga and Jan's

And finally, Gary's and mine.

June Paintings

I am not happy with this month's paintings. Harder than usual but the teacher is pushing us to learn more and create with more shadows for more depth.


Once again...guess which is mine?

Radical Hair cut

This is just after I got back from the beauty shop this morning. Needs coloring really bad and I hate it!!! Well..I went really short cuz I just am in that mood of hating my hair. But I am coloring it and setting the top a bit and see if that is more presentable. The first days after a cut is usually settling in days anyway.




Well..here it is this afternoon about 4 pm. Red again but I know that will wash out in a few days and settle to a dark blonde. I am happier with the cut now and know it will take a couple days to settle down and for me to get used to it. Easy to care for too. Still no perm and I might just not get one.

Remodeled dining room

At last the dining room makeover is done. I can't say I am thrilled with it. Oh..it tuirned out just like I imagined it would. But for some reason I am not overly fond of it. I will say it looks good but I think it is just not me. Seems like someone else's house.

Whenever I do self-pictures I usually set the camera on the stove and point toward the dining room and if you look back at other pictures I have posted you can see he dining room wall behind me. i tend to have lots of things on the walls ...every wall. This sparse look is certainly different. Less to clean to be sure though. I do plan on some grape ivy along the railing. At least the christmas garland is gone..lol. It was rather dusty anyway...only been up a few years though. Made holiday decorating easier.

I did have a lot of trouble with the wallpaper. I have always had trouble with seams and it seems that these were particularly troublesome.

The wall niches of course are Trompe L'oiel. I have always loved them and finally found them on clearance at Lowe's of all places. SO inspiration got me and I found wallpeper to put behind them I though would match.

This lifetime wall person is getting used to the new look...slowly.

BTW...Gary loves it. Says it looks some some fancy-smancy hotel room. I take that as a great compliment. I will admit it makes the french doors look awesome! The white on white walls made them disappear.

I carried the these around the corner to one small hall wall. Looks more continuous that way, especially since that is the view from the front door.

I also painted the light switches and return air duct to blend in better. Stark white just did not look right.

Total time...10 months. Well...10 months in the planning....3 longs days to do it. Next...the kitchen to match. But don't hold your breath for that...needs planning...LOL

May painting plus surprise

That time of month again. No...not THAT time...But painting class time.

But this month I don't have one for Jan. She was in the afternoon class due to a train vacation. But she did a terrific job cuz I saw it.
So this group is Olga, Gary and me.





And now..for the surprise. I got the teacher Steve Wood to pose with his painting.
I do think this capture him really well.

He is a little smug about his work though but generally a nice guy.
I think all his brush noises got to him this day though cuz it made his eyes funny.

The brush noises? Oh..those are little tricks he uses to get you to remember the brush strokes...ROFL. I guess you just have to be there and to take one of his classes.

Seriously though he is a great teacher and everyone in class comes away with a very respectable painting. He makes the class fun and we learn new techniques and eventually can paint on our own. I have not tried that yet though.

I cannot draw even though I can carve. But Steve makes painting easy.
He proves his motto..."Anyone can Paint"

Our paintings show that. If we can..you can!

If you come visit at the end of the month,,,come join me for class..my treat too.
The guest bedroom should be done sometime this year...ROFL.
Until then...checkout his site.

Steve Wood Art