Merry Christmas

"For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
Isaiah 9:6 NLT (painted for our church's Christmas Eve service, 2007)

I hope everyone has a safe and Merry Christmas with your loved ones.
........Suzanne

My Talented Sister-in-law

My husband grew up in a family of girls...(well, except for his Dad), there were all girls in the family.
He has three sisters; one older, two younger....he was in the middle somewhere, :)

They each grew up expressing their own creativity in different ways. One is a talented writer and works at a not-for-profit organization, one is a musician (I'm married to him), one is a teacher.....and one has just opened up shop on her own little piece of the world wide web.

(here is Julia's profile pic.....a pic of her swinging upside down from a tree, not sure of the year)

Julia (one of the younger sisters!) is using her talents to create beautiful bookmarks, collages , felt pins, and other handiworks. She opened an Etsy shop and she is now an artist on Glitter and Grunge.

Julia also started a new blog for her business, Turner Hill Studio. You can read all about her here:

http://iglitteredthecat.blogspot.com/

(don't you just love the web address of her blog?)

She is a remarkable woman, a lovely person and a kindred creative spirit, please welcome her by stopping by her blog to say "hi".

Concerts, Choirs and Commissions

Snow, Snow, Snow!! That's all it did this weekend. Remember my fondness for it last post? Well, after having to shovel it from the sidewalk, and scrape three inches of it off of the car, I'm sort of changing my tune!
It is pretty, but really difficult to walk in right now....really great exercise for the legs though, especially in my heavy winter boots!
We did drive around in it for the many concerts my husband is conducting and directing this month. He teaches HS Choir as well as being the director of music at our church.
Every time we attend a concert, I forget to take my camera so I can "catch him in action" for my MIL! Last night he conducted a large brass ensemble and a full choir (our church choir, plus a few extras from around the area), and he was in a tux with tails....he was quite handsome, and I forgot my camera....again! Of course the music this time of year has been beautiful to listen to. And all of his choirs, (school jazz, concert choir, as well as church choir) have been wonderful (I'm not biased at all!).


If we weren't trudging through the snow to attend a concert, we were trying to stay warm inside the house. I sat by a heater and painted most of the weekend....really dries your paints out quickly, I wouldn't recommend it....but I was warm!
I was commissioned to paint an illustration for this year's Children's Christmas Eve service at our church. The children's director gave me an Arch Book with an illustration by Kathy Mitter. I hope Ms. Mitter doesn't mind! I used her illustration for placement, and painted the baby Jesus in a manger with the sheep looking on, in my own style.
(The huge blank space in the top right corner will be where the title of the program will be typed.)

This is our last week of home school until the Christmas break and we are ALL ready for a long winter's nap, oh, and of course shoveling more SNOW! :)

First Snowfall!!

"Outside the snow is falling and friends are calling, "Yoo-whoo!"...........from the song, Sleigh Ride

Well, if they are out in this, they must have to go to work this morning, 'cause its a "stay-inside by the fire" sort of day!
The first snowfall is always so pretty. You always seem to forget all the perils from the previous year....the slippin' and slidin' on ice sheets, the dirty, grungy, sludgey mud/snow that sticks to your boots and tracks through the house.

But for today, I'm going to enjoy watching the snow softly fall outside my window. And if I stick my head out, I'll enjoy the hush and quietness that comes when it blankets the ground. And enjoy the white freshness it brings to everything.

(Roscoe isn't crazy about the snow, but he has to do what he has to do......poor thing!)

(I zoomed in with my camera for this photo....I'm not as adventurous as Roscoe!)

(If you look to the right, against our neighbor's house, you can see the flakes falling.)

Watching the first snowfall, scones with butter and jam, coffee, and a nice fire....that's a perfect morning!

A Few Things............

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving. My parents enjoyed their anniversary with my siblings and their families. We live too far away to make a quick visit, so we had a nice, quiet (well, with two teenage sons at the table) Thanksgiving here at home.

Over the long weekend I finished my son's (See Bedroom #2) bedroom walls; think race car track! The red and black stripes over the tan stripe looks "hip" and "mod", (my words~and I'm showing me age!) and "totally cool", (his words). Here are some pics of the process:

The taping of the stripes; this took awhile.....the prep before the painting always does!

I must have been a little *tipsy* with paint fumes when I took this one!

The black stripes......I guess I forgot to take a photo after the red stripe was painted.....blame it on the paint fumes!


One wall done! We "tried it out" on the smallest wall in the room before he decided he liked it enough for me to "go for it!"


Another finished wall. I took these at night, so the lighting isn't great....plus I still have to do some touch ups.

If you stand in the middle of the room and look around the room, you can get a little dizzy, but he's happy! :) Do you think he'd notice if I painted a Rufus Porter-esque mural under those stripes?

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A new month also means it's time for website updates. For my update on TDIPT, you can adopt some ancestors HERE
(they are very quiet and don't take up a lot of room.....the ideal relatives to have!)

and on EWM for the month of December, I've made a few holiday hostess/ keep for yourself gifts HERE.

Anniversary Silhouettes

Mom, if you are reading this.......click away now! I'm taking a risk posting this today. My parents are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary on Thursday, also Thanksgiving Day, and I'm about to show you their gift.
Mom is not one to wait for surprises, so she is probably still here.......(tapping foot)..........(folding arms).........waiting for Mom to click away from this post!!!!







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Ok, hopefully she is gone. Now let me show you what I made for them:

A few weeks ago, I received an email from a very sweet lady asking me if I painted custom silhouettes. I told her I had never done that before, but let me give it a try on my own children and I'd let her know if it was something I felt I could offer her.
So, I took profile photos of my children's faces and sat down to draw and paint. After I was done, my boys could recognize themselves, and said they liked them (this is high praise coming from them both!). So, I decided to ask my sister for her son's profile photo and see if I could paint my nephew's silhouette as well.

So three silhouettes later, the end result is the gift. I've painted all three of my parent's grandchildren in silhouette as a gift for their 50th wedding anniversary.

Here are my two boys; their profile photos I used to paint their silhouettes and their finished silhouettes:








This weekend I was busy painting the grandchildren of the customer who first inquired about custom silhouettes, and I sent out a little announcement last weekend offering custom silhouettes to customers on my email list and have also started painting those. Thanks to my email list for your orders!!

After my Mom and Dad receive their gift, I'll offer this on my website as well as my Etsy.
(Mom would probably peek if I put it on there now!)

If you are interested, just send me an email
suzanne.peartreeprimitives@gmail.com (also on sidebar), and I'll give you all the details.

Happy 50th Anniversary to my parents.....I hope I didn't spoil any surprises!

Books, Birds, and Birthdays

I had to give the blog a rest this past week. There was so much going on, it was hard to keep up!
We were taking mid-semester exams, reading novels, and writing papers, and in the midst of that, I was working on items to send to a show in New York.

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My older son is reading the novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. I loved this book in high school, and have read it many times since, and now we are reading it together as I do my best "southern girl" accent when I'm reading aloud to him, (being from TX, that's not too difficult for me). After we are done with the lessons and test, I'll make him watch the movie with me. I'm SURE he will appreciate the novel as much as I do when we are finished.
If he doesn't, perhaps he will when he is older..........

Atticus said that Jem was trying hard to forget something, but what he was really doing was storing it away for a while until enough time passed. Then he would be able to think about it and sort things out. When he was able to think about it, Jem would be himself again. ~Scout

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This week was also spent painting some Christmas items, and boxing them up to ship to New York for a show. I was very excited when Sarah of The Paisley Studio asked me to send some items to the show. This will be my first "show", although I won't actually be there! Sarah will be there and if you live close by, please plan a visit during the show. Here are the details:

Country Parlor Holiday Home Show
Thanksgiving Weekend 2009
Friday, November 27 9 am to 3 pm
Saturday, November 28 9 am to 3 pm
Sunday, November 29 10 am to 2 pm

How to get there:
Route 58 Riverhead, New York to Northville Turnpike (3.5 miles east of Tanger Outlets)
Turn left onto Northville Turnpike to end at Sound Avenue
Turn right onto Sound Avenue and head east
Hallockville's Naugles Barn wil be approximately 2 miles east on the left

Simply the best Holiday Show on Long Island!

And here is a link for more info:

http://countryparlor.blogspot.com/

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Just a little "Happy Birthday" wish to my husband......today he turns: (*?*) and I love every year of him! Happy Birthday Honey!