Chuh-chuh-chuh changes.....

......just playing around with a new blog banner. I've just finished painting this conversational silhouette and I thought, "Hey, it is the perfect size/dimension for a banner!" So, I added my blog name to it and I kinda like it.

And speaking of silhouettes.....I'm seeing parchment and black when I close my eyes to go to sleep at night! I've painted several in the last two weeks for two online market updates on May 1st. (Hint: one of the silhouettes offered will be the one I've used for the banner).

And speaking of changes....well, more precisely, additions. I've joined a new online market that will have it's Grand Opening this Friday, May 1st. ( I know, I know, another "thing"......but we will be finishing home school in a few weeks and summer is the perfect time to add another "something" to the list!) The new site is called Early Work Mercantile and it is the brainchild of Doreen Frost of Vermont Harvest Folk Art.

So, please visit on Friday to see my new offerings!

Excess Baggage

Dial, ring ring......

Me: "Honey, would you please pick up some shipping supplies for me on your way home?"

Honey: "Sure, what do you need?"

Me: Rattled off a list....."Thanks, Bye!"

Honey gets home, and comes through the door with this:





Deduction: Either Honey is really tired of me calling and asking him to pick up shipping supplies on his way home, or he thinks my little business is now a mega- industrial corporation!

Now, where am I going to store this? ☺

Nature in Our Own Backyard

"To sit in the shade on a fine day and
look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment. " ~Jane Austen

We've enjoyed a few sunny days with unusual highs for this time of the year....but it didn't last long. We are back in the 50's and cloudy, but that is spring's typical weather here in our area.

While we had some pretty weather we worked in the yard to clear the beds for our soon-to-be garden, and pulled a lot of weeds. Why do weeds seem to be the first green and growing thing to appear each spring?!

Come with me on a little nature walk around our yard................... (Roscoe and his pet monkey will happily watch it all from his favorite chair!)

A crazed squirrel who did acrobats to get a few seeds to fall from the bird feeder.
(And in the background, the garden tools are waiting for us to get back to work!)

A Daddy duck discussing his families new living arrangements with his neighbors.

The dedicated wife and her doting husband who live across the street....who were apparently having "words" with the Duck couple who decided to take up residency in our front lavender beds.

Duck eggs nestled in the lavender beds.

It's a bird, it's a squirrel.......no, it's a teenager in a tree!

Have a wonderful weekend. Hope you are able to enjoy a nature walk in your own yard.

A Walk Down Memory Lane.....

(I'm the "big hair" blonde standing to the right of the director on the front row.)

(I can't believe no one told me my hair was so "poofy"!)

.....well, it was more of a crawl. I've been really reluctant to join Facebook. My parents, my sister, and my brother all tried to get me to sign up over the past year. I just didn't want to have another account! I can barely keep up with my blog, my website, all my selling sites, and I've discovered I'm a really bad twitter--er? :)

So, adding another "thing" to do on my list was not a priority....until this weekend. My brother received an email from someone asking if he was the brother of so-and-s0 (me), who they had known in 1985. (I was just a baby then! hehe)

(Here we are in concert....I'm on the end, in the dark. Which is just as well, since I look as if I'm in serious pain!...what a face I'm making! lol)

He forwarded the email to me, and this friend said I HAD to join Facebook, 'cause all of our friends were getting together for a reunion and all the info was on Facebook. So.....I did! And I have been finding, befriending and having so much fun chatting with people I haven't seen or spoken with in over 20 years!

And now for the walk down memory lane.......

Before I was married (uh, almost 22 years ago), and after college, I toured for two years with a contemporary Christian band/singing group called Eternity. There were a total of sixteen of us ("the band", sound tech, director and his wife, and five singers....I was the alto). We traveled in a bus together, arriving at churches, youth rallies, conventions, colleges, etc. and setting up for concerts nightly. We did have apartments we stayed in when we weren't on tour, but there was still a LOT of "togetherness"! They became my family.

("the singers" and our vocal coach)
(I'm on the left on the front row, in the pink...not so "poofy" hair this time!)

After my wedding I moved to the NW, started my own family, and many of them did the same (started new lives and families, that is)....you wonder how you lose track of each other, but time seems to have a way of moving on.

So, I was so very happy to make contact through Facebook with most of them again. And a reunion is being planned for July in TX. I'm going to have to sell a lot of paintings in the meantime to travel there...but it will be so fun to see everyone and catch up in person!

Tests, Updates and Websites

We've had a running start to our week! My boys are taking state achievement tests for the next few Mondays, and this Monday the tests began!! This, of course, is NOT their most favorite activity, but we will get through it! :)

I had my hands full with state testing, school and more gels and painting mediums!
The Primitive Gathering is now updated, and I've painted a grouping of bird related paintings.

Pear Tree on PG

And on my website, I'm offering a few more bird paintings....I was on a roll!
These are "Teacup Tweets" (not sure if I'll keep that title!). They are paintings of sweet birds who have made a nest in china or pottery teacups. These new paintings can be seen on my website on the "Early Wares" page. And the 4 painting medley is available on PG as well.



I've also painted two new silhouettes. One is offered on PG, (the one at the top of the post), and both can be seen on my website on the "Silhouettes" page.

Here is my website link:
Pear Tree Primitives

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessed Easter

Have a Blessed Easter weekend~

The Concrete Crisis

Or another title: "The Really Weird Week",
Or, better still: "Do-It-Yourself Home Improvement Projects Really Are the Only Way to Go"

We've been wanting to build a porch onto the front of our little home, but the concrete front step (which really makes the house look dated), was always keeping us from actually doing it.
We've always done our own home remodeling and improvements.....putting in new flooring, gutting and redoing bathrooms, and kitchens, etc. But we've never done concrete removal.


My husband wasn't excited about renting a jack hammer and trying to take it out himself, so I called around and got a few bids. Let me just say, we have NEVER hired anyone to do anything.....we've always done it ourselves, so, we just took the lowest bid....that may have been our first mistake!




They didn't come the day they were supposed to show up, but came unexpectedly on another day. That was fine, but then the hammering commenced! The entire house was shaking, things were flying off of the shelves. Which, I guess is expected when they are jack hammering so close to your front door.
This went on for an entire week. It probably shouldn't have taken that long, but here is what happened:




It was day three of the jack hammering earthquake, and we weren't getting very much school accomplished with all the noise, so we left the house and went on an errand.

As we drove up to the house, I noticed that one of the workers was gone with his truck and the other was still hammering away. Once we were in the house, I look out to see the other worker with his truck was dumping our concrete in the canal that is near our home! Of course this is illegal, so I called my husband and asked if he was on his way home. I popped my head out to tell the other worker that his friend shouldn't be dumping the concrete in the canal, and as I did a couple stopped in their car to talk with the worker who was dumping the concrete.



I'm still on the phone with my husband, he is driving home, and since he doesn't work too far away, he arrives fairly quickly. He talks to the guy that is jack hammering and asked him what is going on, and about the same time, the police arrive! The jack hammer guy runs over to the canal to see what is going on.

The police talked with the worker who was dumping the concrete and to the lady who stopped earlier. We watch the guy turn around and the policeman puts handcuffs on him! We find out later that the concrete dumping guy evidently got in his truck and bumped the lady as she was trying to write down his license plate number after she called the police!
So, he was taken to jail and the concrete removal was put on hold for the day. The other guy came back and had to work alone for the next few days.



It is finally done, but not without some lessons learned....hopefully by the guy in jail, and it may be awhile before we hire out anymore home improvement jobs!

TEA is served~

TEA (The Eclectic Artisans) are updating with new offerings today. It is our first update of the year.

I've been playing with new products (ie, gels, mediums, pastes, etc.), and have put together a little slide show of the process of my new offering on TEA. It is an "architectural element", created to resemble aged, vintage Victorian tin tiles. There were lots of layers involved, and it was so much fun to get messy....not just me, but the floor and the table, and anyone who dared to stand too close!
Please find more info on my TEA webpage by clicking Pear Tree Primitives when you go to the TEA page.

Please visit by clicking the link:

TEA Webshow