Enchanted...

'Enchanted'
3'x4'
sold!

So much time has passed since my last post and a friend reminded me that there are some folks that may wonder where exactly I went when I dropped of the face of the earth.  :0)
Do any of you ever just need to take a break from social media?

I do it pretty regularly, take a break and recharge, focusing on my family and local friendships and all the many demands of life here. 

So what's been going on with me?  I sold this piece above to a friend of mine.  If you've followed my blog for any time you will remember how many MONTHS it took me to finish this piece.  The original mediums were colored pencils and ink.  I then had it printed on a canvas and spent many more HOURS painting and embellishing it.  It's a pretty massive piece.  I wish you could see the canvas with all the painted background details and tons of painting on the flowers in the tree.  It really turned out so wonderfully. 
So I hung it on my wall and enjoyed it for the winter and then my friend has decided she would like it for her own.

I took it over to her house and installed it and it just was supposed to be there!  Now that is the most wonderful thing to see a piece of art that you have literally poured your whole artistic self into over such a long time find the home it was meant for.  I just feel so good about it!

How do all of you artists feel about it when your creations find a good home?  Isn't it so satisfying and special?

Other than that, I have been just enjoying my family and working like crazy on the business we own as we stretch our wings a tiny bit and expand.  That part is fun.
I'm itching to get back to writing so I may have something new to share of that nature soon too.

I hope you all are enjoying a sweet start to 2013.  Spring was here in full force today and it was so lovely to see the sun and all of the flowers and leaves on the trees.  Still pretty chilly here, but oh the light - I love the light!

Smiles to you all

xxoo
Julia

Another Sewing project complete!

Aren't these lovely!  I just finished these pretty pjs for a friend as a surprise!

I'm afraid these will be my last pair for a bit as I knuckle under and finishe the two other sewing projects I've undertaken, a quilt and some curtains,

 but I had to get these done to send off to my friend!

 

Thank you 'sew' much to Kelli at Fabrics Plus here in town for helping me pick out this sweet trim!  Totally made these just that much prettier.

 

My art, these days, seems to be in the form of fabric, and I think that may continue for a good bit longer....Ah well, the creative juices are flowing and I am happy and enjoying myself!  Isn't that what it's all about?! :-)

 

Wishing you all the best that Autumn has to offer and may you be enjoying this special season with those you love!

 

Smiles!

 

Julia

Fall Baking and punkin' ramblings...

It is most definitely Autumn here and I am enjoying the crisp air and cosy evenings with the family.  I have been simply taken over with the 'homemaking' bug and have been sewing and baking to beat the band!  This lovely dish is an apple dumpling that I made for the family's dessert last night.  I am pretty proud of my skills baking apple pies, but thought I'd try these since I hadn't baked them for years and years...Oh my did they turn out delicious!  Served with Vanilla bean ice cream there was a lot of ooohs and ahhhs at our dinner table last night.  My how I love to bake!!

I Love the weather this time of year.  We started the morning dark and cloudy and now we are being treated to the most beautiful sunbursts and warm balmy weather. 

 I picked up these absolutely stunning flowers yesterday when we were at the local punkin' farm picking up the boys punkins and going on a hayride.  They got to wade out into the field and pick their own punkin' out!  This is a tradition in our home and they look forward to it every year.  Tomorrow we have a big group coming over to carve punkins so that should be fun!

Little Buddies, measuring themselves to see how much they've grown since last year!

Eamonn, who just turned 4, pleased as punch with his punkin'!

Silly Boys...

Liam, now 5, happy with his pick too!

 

Hope you are all enjoying this wonderful time of year! 

 

Happy Autumn :-)

 

Smiles

Julia

Playing around with art and water colors...

 

A little picture I painted today for a young friend of mine - I'm playing around with water colors again and that is unfamiliar territory for me.

 

Still I love the message here and it was relaxing to paint this evening while sipping a cuppa tea and enjoying a nice art break...

Smiles to you all and may it rain love where ever you are!

 

 

 

Hello my lovely blogger friends...if you still remember me!

 

Yes it has been an eternity since I have posted here!!!

 

Our family spent a wonderfully busy summer and now that we are headed into fall I am sewing and getting ready for my favorite time of year, Autumn.

 

These are some pyjamas I just finished for my sister and me.  I love how they turned out!  Super cosy flannel and since I'm always cold, these are the ticket!

 

I am itching to get back at my art table too and have a new sketchbook all ready and dusted off, if I could just get on top of all the sewing projects I've undertaken!

 

This is a quilt I finished this summer, and it turned out so beautifully!  I'm very happy with it, because it's the first one I've made that I am actually going to keep :-)

 

I tend to give them all away!  This is the top before

 I sent it out to be quilted and ready for me to bind. 

 

 

 

And Yeah!!! Baking season is back and I am right at it!  I made two of these last night, one for our family and one for our neighbor, an elderly gentleman who is on his own and likes baked goods.  It was so fun to deliver it to him as apple pie is his favorite!

Tonite I will try my hand at a lemon meringue pie, something I

haven't made since I was a young girl.  I love lemon desserts!

 

 

Life is good and busy.  I hope you are all doing wonderfully well and enjoying Autumn's colorful display!  My it is so beautiful here!  The trees are turning and its cold outside and cosy inside :-)

 

 

Smiles to you all and hope to get around soon to see what you have been up to!

 

Julia

 

Woodgetting

Had to share some pics of our trip yesterday to gather wood...

We spent all day Sunday woodgetting...

 Craig ran the big chainsaw and I moved as many of the rounds as I could...We had to move many of them together as they were too big and heavy to get into the truck with one person.  I ran the small chainsaw for just a little bit cutting up tootsie rolls - small limbs - but when it cut out for the second time I decided to leave it to the expert! :-)

Lumberjack!  I love this picture!

 My sissy who is a state park ranger and Liam - We got a woodcutting permit for the state park my sissy works at and were able to cut up some trees that had come down in a storm.  Isn't liam cute - he worked soooo hard!

                               Liam making it happen!                                                              
                                                                                                 Eamonn, 3-1/2 yrs old - So cute                                                           

Little worker bees asleep on the ride home from the park :-)

Working together to gather wood for next winter is one of my favorite things to do - We learn so much about each other as a family when we go out each year and team up to provide for our family.  I think there are few things as truly satisfying as working hard and then sitting back and enjoying the fruits of your labor...

We just missed the rain too!  It started back up early last night just after we were finished.

We were all tuckered out by the time it got dark, so we did the only reasonable thing...

Snuggled up next to a cosy fire!

Another week and exciting news!

Big news!  My oldest son Jordan has proposed and been accepted by his lovely girlfriend of five years! This is the first of my children to be getting married and I am so happy for them! Above are the custom invitations I just finished for a little engagement BBQ we are having to get both families together and just celebrate their engagement.  Fun!

Love this new yard flag!  So cheerful!   Last weekend Craig built this raised bed for us and we planted tomatoes, lettuce, strawberries, and carrots.  Yumm!  The kids are so excited!  We also planted three blueberry plants, and I planted peonies, dahlias, daisies, and petunias. So fun to add color to the garden!

A special pie to say thank you to my sweetie for all the hard work building us a raised bed!

My sissy took ALL the kids out for the day hiking...and...

To a local farm to see the animals.  Above she is with Vidal, Liam, and Eamonn.

Silly Liam attempting to reason with the goat. :-)

 

                 Big sissy Amira with Eamonn  and Liam      

                           

Love the expression on Eamonn's face - They serve humongous ice cream cones at the farm the kids went to - Looks like a brain freeze to me!

 Liam with his bucket and rake...On a mission no doubt!  I love the colors in this picture!

A little spot to enjoy the yard we created for the kids.  They love it!

Isn't this pretty!  Liam won this at a raffle at his preschool and we put it near his 

chair in the garden so he could watch the birds!

Not much going on in the art department these days, but I am full of ideas for my novel so I may be posting another chapter soon at my other blog Serendipity - The Novel.  If you haven't popped over there to read some, please do and I love to get feedback!

Life is busy, fun and ummmm...busy!  But I'm so looking forward to this summer and all the wonderful adventures we will be having.  

How is your Spring progressing?  We continue to get a lot of rain, but we've had three sunny weekends in a row and we can't argue with that here in Washington!!!

Smiles to you all!

Julia

Scenes from the week...

Had these two Smile Campaign Tshirts made - I love the colors, just wish the graphic was a bit larger...

My idea is to sell these for $16.00 - They cost me $12.50.  Then I will donate 100% of the profit to a local charity that works with kids!  I'm hoping to get this going by this summer's Arts Festival here in town.

Playing around with wood rounds...

Working in the yard with the whole family this past Sunday was amazing...We did a massive cleanup on the water feature part of our landscape, which is quite large, and turned the stream pumps back on - lots of cleanup of algae etc, but the frogs kept the kids hopping while we raked out lots of debris, etc.

It was really just a heavenly day, and we didn't want it to end~

Liam with his gloves and rake helping out...He LOVES to work with Mama and Papa!

Vidal Hamming for the camera...Of course!

A couple days ago, we all traipsed down to the local hardware store after dinner 

and purchased Vidal his first pocket knife.

To say he was excited is really an understatement!  He just loved it!!!  Sat whittling a stick, well several sticks, for quite a while as the rest of us set up the new tetherball and played a few games. 

Another lovely evening!

                                        Yummy cupcakes for the family...

I taught my first mini baking class and really loved it - had two young mothers over and they learned how to make cinnamon rolls

from scratch.  These are their rolls slathered in cinnamon icing!  YUM!

I just loved sharing my love of baking with them and they had some really

great recipes to share with me too!

Overall a really wonderful week!  I am now headed out to plant some more perrenials and annuals, look for a spot for my new strawberry and blueberry plants, and just savor the day with my little men!  This weekend I get to look forward to putting in a raised bed for some veggies for the family.  The kids just go wild for growing food and Liam, aged 4-1/2, keeps asking me every time I buy a plant if it's a 'food' plant! 

Life is lovely.

I hope you are all out in the Spring, jumping into this lovely time of year with both feet, and really enjoying yourselves.

And of course, I hope you are S M I L I N G!

My favorite quote this week:  Liam says:  "Mama. You're the kind of Mama I always wanted."  Oh this is the highest praise a Mama can get and I am still riding the cloud!  :-)

Julia

Smile campaign contest!

Yes I am having a little Smile Campaign contest! 

If you have followed my blog for very long, you know I have had this pet project on the back burner called the 'Smile Campaign'.  It's basically based on the premise that we all need to smile more and that wonderful things can happen when we choose to share a smile with a stranger.

These are two of the campaign illustrations for putting on tshirts that I have mocked up - the top one is watercolor and ink, and the bottom one is colored pencils and ink.  Different looks and I'd like your feedback on which of the designs I will be sharing over the next few days you like most.  After I finally settle on one, I will have a giveaway of a Tshirt featuring (you guessed it!)

a Smile Campaign tshirt with the winning art!

I already had this image put on lime green and hot pink tshirts for my girls - It turned out really cute, but I wanted to simplify the design a bit so I am working on doing that with the ideas above.  Fun!

Love to hear your feedback!

Smiles