Feline Friday (on Saturday)!

HAPPY SATURDAY TO YOU!

I completely forgot about "Feline Friday" yesterday so I thought I'd just post a pretty picture of my diva cat Zoolou posing by our kitchen table fall centerpiece.

She's trying to look innocent after playing & chewing on the flowers!  I keep trying to tell her they're fake!

Have a great day!

I plan to spend mine painting, watching scary movies, carving pumpkins & opening up my bottle of Hallowine!  CHEERS!

Anchors Away!

FINALLY ~ a POST!

These paintings are just 1 of the many reasons I've been neglecting my blog lately.  October is my absolute favorite month of the year & there are just too many FUN fall things to do to be sitting in my studio all day!

In the last month & a half I've had trips to Maine, Colorado & Kansas City, taken care of 5 foster kittens & had 2 commissions to do so I didn't get my usual Fall & Halloween paintings done but never fear ~ this weekend I'm starting on new Thanksgiving & Christmas themed creations!

The picture above shows 2 of 4 anchor paintings I'm doing for my nephew & niece's new baby's room!  She is due in just a few weeks so I'm scrambling to get them done.  I think they're turning out really cute!  The colors match the crib bedding & I painted the outside borders to match the stitching on the trim.

Anyone doing anything FUN for Halloween this weekend?  I love to light all my candles & watch scary movies while waiting for trick-or-treaters, and of course eat half the Halloween candy!

BOO!

In LOVE with FALL!

Weston Red Barn Farm

It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!

Weston Red Barn Farm

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte!

Happy Thursday!

My lack of posting is due to a painting deadline, trip preparations (will fill you in soon), & mostly 5 rambunctious foster kittens, 1 of which fell ill & I'm having to syringe feed 4 times a day - whew!  He's better now & you can read about him in my post tomorrow for Feline Friday.

Today finally felt like a real "fall" day ~ my absolute favorite time of year ~ so I thought it would be fun to make a "Top 10" list of my FAVORITE things about this time of year!  And they ARE...

Going to the grocery store & seeing pumpkins & mums out front!

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes - yummm!

My favorite little town in northern Missouri ~ Weston!

Watching "Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" over & over!

Pumpkin patches, corn mazes & hayrides

Scary movies ~ with popcorn & milk duds

High School football games

Halloween & the decorations!

Colorful leaves & cool, crisp air

Outdoor fire pit on a chilly evening w/ a glass of wine

So what are YOUR favorites of FALL?  Would LOVE to hear them! :)

Commission Complete!

St. Francis & Friends

FINALLY  the commission I've been working on (for what feels like forever) is finished!

My client is overjoyed with it so I'm happy!  She wanted St. Francis, fall colors, sunflowers, 2 Great Pyrenees puppies & a bluebird. What? No CATS???  heehee.

I'm so excited this painting will be hanging in a brand new baby's nursery!

And his name just happens to be Francesco!

Feline Friday - Playing Nurse Maid

Muffin ~ the healthiest of the bunch

Wally~still not feeling up to snuff

Clarence~the tiniest

Erma~finally eating again & feeling a little better

Oh the joys of fostering!

I'm behind on painting, blogging, housework & pretty much everything else since my 4-legged furballs moved in!  This past week has been a roller coaster ride with my 4 foster babies.  When one gets better, another gets worse, when one starts eating again, another stops & so on & so on.  I've been running back & forth to the shelter clinic with 1, 2 or 3 kitties for sub-q fluids, sitting in steamy bathrooms with them, syringe feeding when they won't eat & giving meds & nosedrops. This is the first time I've had really sick babies & it is NO fun at all!  I feel so bad for them.  It's just so hard to see them stuffed up & feeling so miserable.  I'm used to romping & playing & snarfing food & kitty scratches.  Now I'm thrilled just to see them eating!

Muffin, the long-legged gray girl is my only healthy one.  She's still sneezing a little but other than that she eats like a pig & plays nonstop! She's really been enjoying trying out all the different foods I've been offering the other 3 trying to get them to eat. She's getting the "Kitty Buffet" 3 times a day - ha!

Hopefully my 3 sickos will be on the rebound soon.  It's been a week & a half & I think they've gone through the worst of it.  Next time around if I'm bringing home sick kitties I think I'll just take 2.  Having 4 sick ones at a time is almost more than I can handle.  They are such sweethearts though! Even after I've stuck 3 syringes in their mouth they come right over & curl up on my lap!

I'm still working on my commissioned painting (between kitten care shifts) & then I can't wait to get started on some Fall & Halloween creations!  My FAVORITE time of year is almost here!

HAPPY WEEKEND!!!

Autumn Leaves are Falling

Koda having fun in the leaves
Who wants to rake?

St. Francis

Begonias still going strong~with leaves mixed in!

I don't think I've EVER seen our fall foliage as brilliant & colorful as it is this year! I mean it is absolutely gorgeous! I wish I could've gotten some good tree pictures around town but you'll have to settle for my backyard. Only thing is, it's been SO windy here the last few days all the pretty leaves are getting blown off the trees. I just hope it doesn't happen too fast. Craig & I are leaving tomorrow for a weekend in Weston, MO & we're hoping the trees aren't bare before we get there! The town & surrounding countryside are usually just amazing with fall color in October! Weston is a little town on the river about an hour north of Kansas City (where I grew up!). We stay in our favorite bed & breakfast & everything we want to see & do is within walking distance ~ antique & gift shops on Main Street, Pirtle Winery in an old church building, O'Malley's Pub with live music, the wine bar at the St. George Hotel & we love to just walk the residential streets to look at the quaint houses all decorated for Halloween! There's even an old cemetery I like to stroll through & read the old headstones ~ SO interesting! Can't wait! You can read all about Weston on their website HERE!

My poor art studio has been neglected lately. Next week I plan to start some new paintings though ~ maybe some Thanksgiving themes. Last week I took a few of my fleece kitty beds to the Humane Society & the kitties just loved them! They immediately curled up on them & I decided right then I needed to make more. One bed I'd laid on a chair had 3 cats all trying to fit on it - ha. So, yesterday I spent the afternoon at my sewing machine stitching away & brought 16 with me to the H.S. today. I wish I would've remembered to bring my camera to get some shots of the kitties curled up on them. SO CUTE! I will next time.

Ok, gotta finish packing. Everyone have a wonderful fall weekend!

New Halloween Painting

Wanted to share my latest painting with you ~ a cute little jack-o-lantern & curious kitty. It sure is feeling like fall around here! Today was cool & cloudy & later this evening it turned even colder & rainy with really creepy looking clouds. A perfect day to paint but I did other housework instead-yuck. We drove to a small town north of us to watch our niece play volleyball tonight & on the way home saw lots of lightning! Very Halloweenish! Jack-O-Lantern Friend is up for auction on EBAY right now. Take a peek!

Have a ghoulish evening! BoooOOOOOoooOOOooo!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Walter's Pumpkin Patch ~ Pumpkins for Sale!
Pumpkin Salsa
The awesome craft shop!

Good grief, it's been FOREVER since I've posted! This past week has been a really stressful one for me for various reasons. My brother gave us a health scare (he's fine) & I've been trying to catch a little grey kitty at our Walgreens parking lot for about 3 weeks now with no luck. It's so frustrating. I went to leave food the other night & actually ran into another woman who was looking for it & told me she'd been feeding it too. Turns out she's an artist too! Seems cats & art just go together! Well, I had already sat in the parking lot 5 different nights with my trap set & then sat another 2 nights with my new cat rescuer friend. To our disappointment, we didn't see the grey kitty, but saw 2 other cats! There are houses around the area & we don't know if the kitties are stray or have homes & are just coming over for a free extra meal. I suspect they are feral though & that makes me sad. I'm the type that will go home & worry about them. Anyway, I've talked with the other woman & told her I needed to take a break for a while & she said she's happy to keep feeding them & trying to catch them so I'm trying not to worry about them too much. I have a husband & 3 kids & my own furry children to take care of at home & just can't spend so many late nights away. I do feel guilty though. I just wish cats would make it easy & LET you help them & not run away!

On a happier note ~ today is my BIRTHDAY! I had a really nice day. The weather was gorgeous & I told my husband I wanted to go to the pumpkin patch. My daughter went with us along with her friend & we drove out to the country to Walter's Pumpkin Patch in Burns, KS. It was awesome ~ pumpkins & gourds, hay rides, giant corn maze, creek, woods, 2 really cool gift shops with baked goodies & all the fun crafty items I love! We had the best pulled pork sandwich - yum! When we got home later Craig (the hubby) & I had a glass of wine out on the patio by the fire pit & later grilled hamburgers & hotdogs followed by birthday cake ~ chocolate with chocolate frosting of course! I had mine while watching Desperate Housewives-ha! A perfect day!

Hope your weekend was perfect too! Back to painting tomorrow. I have a commission to finish!

Decor & Dish Duty!

My prim baker's rack
Brick shelf in our kitchen

Little antique table in our living room

Fireplace mantle in our kitchen

Thought I would share a few pictures of my fall/Halloween decorations with you. I love to make up little vignettes on my black bakers rack & various other tables & shelves. And I LOVE fall candle fragrances & stocked up on all my favs ~ mulled cider, pumpkin pie, streudel & spice, caramel vanilla custard ~ mmmmmmm! During the holidays I have a million candles going - ha. Now I just need to make a trip to the pumpkin patch & grab some pumpkins, gourds & a straw bale or 2 to do up the front yard! YAY for the first day of FALL! It was a perfect cool, brisk, sprinkly day!

I added another day on to my volunteering schedule at the Humane Society & today I had dish duty. I was excited to use the new high-tech dishwasher that comes on automatically when you close the door & has a short 4 minute cycle. I have to say I was a little disappointed with it though. It was no bigger than the one in my kitchen! One of the staff members told me it's really only good for the small kitty bowls & some of the little toys. You can't fit many of the big stainless steel litter pans or dog bowls in at a time so it's just as well to wash them by hand ~ which is what I did-about 75 of them! I was impressed with the humongo double sink & counter area but still... I was picturing a gigantic dishwasher I could put a hundred bowls in at a time! Oh well, it wasn't bad & I enjoyed it. After washing dishes in the tiny sink at their old building where you laid them on racks over an old bathtub to dry, this was wonderful! It was also nice hearing the staff members thank me over & over for doing the job! If no volunteers are there they have to do it & sometimes that means working overtime. If I can save the shelter some overtime pay that's great! Note to self: Bring my own rubber gloves & wear an apron! I managed to splatter bleach on my shirt!

After the dishes were done I headed to the laundry room. Now that's amazing! There are 2 giant washers & 2 giant dryers. I think you could fit 5 people in them - ha! Wish I had one!

Won't have much painting time this week. Getting ready for our annual Girl's Weekend at my sissy's house in Oklahoma City! Leaving Thursday & get back Sunday. Can't wait!

Halloween Princess

Halloween Princess
Silly Squirrel!

I finished this little Halloween painting last night. I love doing Fall & Halloween themed paintings! Halloween Princess (Wendy & her cat Sookie) is up for auction on EBAY for you to check out!

A little while ago I saw this cute squirrel scurrying along our fence with this huge hedge apple in his mouth. It was hilarious watching him carry this big ball that was half as big as he was - ha! He stopped & began chowing down on it so I snuck out on the deck & snapped a picture. It's kind of blurry because I couldn't get too close but it's still cute. He gnawed & gnawed at the thing dropping all the outside part off. Apparently the inside is tastier! Must be fattening up for winter!

I got all my Fall & Halloween decorations out & up last Sunday while watching the Chiefs game (Darn~they almost won it)! I'll post some of my little vignettes when I get a chance. Happy Tuesday!

It's Feelin' Like Fall!

AUTUMN LEAVES
Some of my favorite Fall things!

It's been cool & VERY rainy here the past few days (my favorite kind of weather) so I've been cozied up inside painting. AUTUMN LEAVES is my newest creation ~ a cute little mini 4x5 ~ & it's available on ebay right now! Check it out HERE!

I was excited to see new Fall issues of 2 of my favorite magazines in the store this morning so I grabbed them both! Lots of fun decorating ideas in both of them ~ Country Living & Country Sampler. And I LOVE filling up all my candy jars with Candy Corn & Pumpkins - yummmmm! They just don't stay full very long with 3 kids (& me) around!

I think I'll get my fall decorations out tomorrow & start doing up the house! Ahhhhhhh....Autumn!

Trick or Treat!

Just finished this last night! I love the bright colors. Fall is in the air ~ my FAVORITE time of year!!! I'm really feeling inspired to get all my fall decorations out, especially after visiting my favorite prim/antique store today during their fall open house. I haven't seen any pumpkins at the stores yet but when I do I'm grabbin' me some!

"Trick or Treat" is up for auction on ebay right HERE!

Happy Saturday! xoxo

Spooky New Frida Painting!

Frida's Fall Holidays

Happy Tuesday all! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my twins Kayla & Cole who turned 15 today! It seems like just yesterday I was taking them to kindergarten & now they're in high school! Where does the time go??? They had a fun joint get-together with friends at the ice rink to play Broomball last Saturday & tonight we'll go eat, do presents & of course pig out on cake & ice cream. Yummm! I guess we have to fit homework in there somewhere too - ugh.

Just finished my first Fall themed painting & here she is! I seem to be on a Frida kick here lately. She is just so interesting & fun to paint! She's posing here with her cat, Spook & the jack-o-lantern they just finished carving. Frida's from Mexico where they celebrate "Day of the Dead" but she did live in the United States for several years & I'm sure she just loved Halloween! I like to think she did anyway. Frida's Fall Holidays is up for grabs on ebay right now! Check her out!