Monday Finish and Finds!

This weekend I was able to get more work done on my new rock, we had rain on Sunday and today I finished the last of it. It is a bit shiny since the spray finish was still setting. But I need the higher shine since it will be sitting outside.

The design came from a rock painting book by Lin Welford. She has several books for animals and painting on rocks, that have easy to follow patterns and diagrams for each step. Of course I never follow directions and added a few of my own touches. I really do think I do better when I go from a photo, when I try something simple, I make more of a mess, lol. I like the idea of doing churches that I have taken photos of, I just need to find the right shapes.

We were able to enjoy a day at the beach, even though it sprinkled on us, a few times. The good thing was, no people and Bean got to play off leash. I found a few nice pieces, but with a dreary day, it is harder to see glass with all the wet rocks on the beach.

Since we had more time, and the tide was at it's lowest, we were able to walk along the entire beach. It is good to get some walking in and I did find a nice piece of driftwood. The photo is deceiving, I am at the farthest end that you can walk, before you hit cliffs and looking back, there are rock areas and small beaches in between each one, until you get back to the sandier end.

The Rocks in this area are carved out by the strong waves, they remind me of a landscape in the mid-west. It was nice to get out, before the rainy Sunday.

Friday Finish and Finds!

I finished my turtle, that was it for this week. I am working on a new stitchery of the month and other projects and gardening and keeping up with the house and animals, it seems I have less and less time lately, to do it all.

I love how he came out, not perfect but he is fun and makes me smile.

And one thing keeping me busy is, stripping and sewing strips for rug braiding. The great thing is, it will cut down on the old wool stash from the thrifts and I will have it ready whenever I want to make a little rug. I think I will make a mat for the cat dish next, the thinner wools will be good for that. This is just a start, I was trying to sew on my machine and the bobbin messed up again, so I think I need to get my little Juki out and use that, not worth wrecking my good machine, sewing on wools. Sew by hand is relaxing while I watch tv, but it will take me forever.

And of course we went to the beach on the weekend. We stopped at the southern beach after shopping and the tide was almost in, but we still found some nice pieces. The second day we went to our favorite spot, at low tide. There were a few beach collectors that got there first, but I found quite a few pieces that they missed.

And I have been enjoying some time on the porch, my way to relax and unwind. Lots of critters and birds are enjoying the feeder. The squirrels are a pain, they knock all the seed out of the feeders and I have seen them batt a few birds to get it all for themselves. The Guinea fowl have been spending more time in my yard, even taking naps. There were six and now there are only two, not sure if they got hit by cars or predators.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. We have rain coming in, but I am s sure I can squeeze in some more beach time.

Friday Finish!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend. My Easter was nice with the boys, not so much on the food. They only made one thing that I could eat, mashed potatoes, lol. They did make salmon, but he baked it in the oven and it was horrid, so I ate a few potatoes to hold me over till I got home. Next holiday, I will cook at my house.

I am not a big day time eater, I just snack, and they ate early, which was fine with me. We got to enjoy some time with the boys and an easter egg hunt. On the way home I saw the plant stand was open, so we also got some new plants for my garden.

Another thing I got over the weekend, two birdhouses. One if fun and the other is a bluebird house. Bill got some posts and they will go to the back sides of the garden.

And I hesitate to show you this, I have base coated a rock for my garden. Alex loves to turtle photo I have for inspiration so I know he will love it. I am thinking it will be fun to add some rock critters to the garden, fun things the boys can discover when they come to visit. I messed up a few things, my perception is always off, so it still has to be fixed and detail shading, so hopefully it will look better when I finish.  I like the idea of fun critter, compared to realistic, a happy garden space.

And for my finish this week, a pillow from a design by Kathy Schmitz. It was a free extra in the monthly club. Perfect for a spring time pillow. I am also working on finishing my hand quilting and stripping my old coat wools for braided rugs.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Easter!

This week seemed to go by in a flash and I made a stitchery but it still needs to be finished. I did spend time finishing my new garden, and planting some seeds, so more time spent outside. Easter is another bittersweet holiday,  remembering the moments with my kids, but making new memories with the boys.

I tended to spoil the kids on the holidays, but the joy on their faces when they came downstairs, was worth it.

And speaking of the boys. Today mom and dad needed to get out for Easter shopping and dropped the boys out. I really wanted to go to the beach before the rains came, so we took the boys. The problem was, the temperatures dropped when we hit the beach and it was windy. Alex kept saying cold and wanted to snuggle in Grandpa's arms, so he went back in the car while Nick and I hunted for awhile. It was the perfect time with the tide going out and lots of rock piles from the storm, but we took what we could find, quickly and headed back to the car.

After a rest and nap for Alex, we headed up to their house and made a stop at a playground on the way. It wasn't crowed and just the right size for the boys. Nick always has to try out everything and he loves to climb.

Alex was content to swing in the big swing and on the regular seat swing, he loved going up high, he seems fearless and it is wonderful to see him smiling and having fun.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and a blessed Easter.

Weekend Wanderings!

We had another nice weekend and it is so nice to get out again, I do hate being cooped up in the winter. On Saturday we were going to pick up the boys and on the way up, we stopped at the thrift store.

They get a lot of new items, so I grabbed a new beach pail and a stuff kitty that makes sounds and talks, and it's eyes light up, only a buck a piece. I also found a couple of quilting books. My fun find was a vintage nautical kit, from Maine, which I realized was three in one package. It will be fun to make some things with the items and add a few of my own.

We took the boys for a walk at the park, then a visit to the Umbrella Factory. They had a new photo display, so I had to get a photo.

Alex was loving all the animals and he would have to say hi to all of them. There were new pathways in the bamboo forest so they had fun exploring those.

 On Sunday they were dropped off so we took them to the beach. The boys loved playing at the beach and it was nice to just enjoy watching them play and hunting for glass together. Alex seems to love water, we have to watch that he doesn't go in, which he did at the pond, on the previous day, sneakers and all.

Nick loves to dig and he even found some glass in his hole. Afterwards we took them to the nearby park, lots of fun equipment for kids, but crowded and hectic. Nick had to try everything out.

It was a wonderful weekend with the boys and helped ease the pain of these weeks. Last week was the fourth year anniversary since we lost Danielle and tomorrow is her birthday, along with Easter, it is always the hardest month, missing her and wishing she were with us.

Friday Finishes!

This week I worked on an art piece. Something I have been wanting to try and practice a few techniques on. I decided to go with a small 5" x 7" canvas board. I used a new product, Liquitex matte medium. It went on a lot easier and nicer than the heavy gel, but I noticed bleeding right away.

The end result for my transfer was a bit more faded than the usual, but I did use plain copy paper and a design from one of my photos, that I put through an art filter. So, it wasn't that bold to begin with and gave me the effect I wanted as a background image. Once I cleaned off the paper, most of the red went away, so I was happy with that, as well.

This is how it looked, I did enhance the buildings with colored pencils.

I decided to further enhance some details by painting over the buildings and some of the surf. Then I started playing with things I had in my beach finds. First was the driftwood log, then I found a rock that looked like a body with an arm and some shapes and rocks that I liked and it became a little scene of me at the beach. I used wool for the hat and gloves, small pieces of glass and a shell. It was fun to do and when done, I added glass gel beads to the sand and under the boats. The boats are also my photos, I printed them out and cut out the boats.

I also finished my rug, I decided to stop since I was running out of the dark blue and truthfully, it is hard on my arm and slow going. It is 36" x 26" and I decided to put it at the top of the stairs. I gives a nice pop of color in a dark area and Bean can lie on it when he is waiting for us to get home.

This was done with precut wool, that someone had given me. It is a bit thinner than I usually work with, so the next one I will do in thicker coat weights.

And of course we went beach hunting last weekend. I am trying to keep from over doing it and making sure I get some straight walking in, great exercise and gives my back a rest. We found some nice pieces on Saturday.

And Sunday we got a bit more. I will definitely be making more mixed media art and using some of the fun pieces I find, as well as the glass.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Friday Finish!

I always love a new month, it means a new stitchery from Kathy Schmitz, for her One Stitch Club. Lately she has been doing bird themed stitcheries that are the same size, so we can make them into a quilt. This month, she went with a sweet bunny and as an added bonus, another bird theme to add to a quilt. I have so many blocks to make into quilts, I am just making mine into small pillows, fun to make and great for gifts.

This week I made the bunny, a fun piece to display for Easter. I colored him in with colored pencils before I stitched. Once he was done, I didn't like how the bunny himself, was too start with all the color, so I colored him in, after I made the pillow. I didn't have gray with the Faber Castell pencils, so I used an old Crayola pencil and was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly it went on and how nice it shaded, so cheap pencils work just as nice.

This one I reduced slightly, I didn't want another large pillow, so it fits nicely on the shelf with my other easter smalls.

I am still working on my rug, it is slow going with the stitching, but I am almost done with the braid I made, then I can see how much more I need to do. I find it harder to stitch it together, than the braiding, so I will stick with small rugs.

Of course last weekend was spent at the beach. We found a lot of nice pieces on Saturday, always seems to be the best day to find glass and not as many people.

On Sunday we went back, I couldn't resist. It was a little cooler and windy, so the waves were whipping up, so it makes it harder to get glass on the edges, with the waves crashing up. Not as much this time, but still a nice haul to add to the stash.

The dark piece on the bottom left, looks like a rock, but something told me to keep it. When I got home, I used the flashlight under it and it is a piece of olive sea glass. I might have to take the flashlight with me next time, they are so dark, you cannot see through them without a strong light.

Afterwards we rode around the island to enjoy the views and stopped at the cove, overlooking Newport. A nice place to relax and get out of the winds. It looks like another nice weekend, so I am sure we will be hitting the beaches and hopefully get the boys one day, to join in, on the fun.

Even though Bill is sitting on piles of rocks, it is actually comfortable, so many that they are more cushioned, lol. Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy exploring the hidden gems in your area.