Talk about weather change. We had frost warnings last week and it was down to 30 degrees a couple of days ago. Today it hit 96, thats a little to warm for me this early in the Spring. I decided to stay inside where it's cool. One of the advantages of having a stucco house is that in the summer it stays pretty cool. The big problem is that it is cold in the winter.
  I've been working on ACEO's that last few weeks, trying to do a better job of marketing and getting them seen. So far it hasn't been to successful, but I'm going to give it awhile. I have been thinking about going back to doing some bigger paintings and  maybe some pastel portraits. Those are what I really enjoy doing. It's a bit harder to get business for portrait work then it is for some things.
Here are a few examples of my work.

Rainy Day
 Another cold rainy day in MO. Looks like I'm going to be working inside again today. It means more art and more spring cleaning. I'm more inclined to do the art then the cleaning. I need to have a garage sale and get rid of a lot of things I don't really need. I could use a good garage sale manual and someone to help me. I don't actually mind the getting it priced and ready, I just hate sitting out there waiting for people to come and reject my rejects. When they leave empty handed it's like they are saying your stuff is not good enough. I need a successful sale to add to my buying a new car fund. I think I have enough now that I can get a model  car if it's not over $20. I thought it would be so easy to raise money for a new car when mine died. It's a 92 Toyota Celica and it's served me well for over 10 years. When the car started over heating I found out not only did I need a new thermostat I also needed a new radiator and it as possible I had a leaking head gasket. The total would have been over $2000 and the car just wasn't worth that much. For now it is sitting in my drive waiting for someone to buy it and take it home to restore. The replace the car fund has just never got very far, so now is the time to get serious. A garage sale would be a good place to start. That might get me up to a pedal car at least.
  I've been working on some different types of art and have been using a lot of black paper. It really makes colors pop and the style I have been doing works really well on it. I have started doing what I have been calling faux mosaic. It's fun and once I got the hang of it pretty easy. Here are a couple of examples. These are all ACEO's, which are 2.5 X 3.5 inches.

I was listening to the news last night and heard that Missouri had not had snow in May since 1907, and the warmest  May 2nd we had ever had was in 1937 and it was 110. Talk about extreme weather. Today is still cold and we have had some light rain and it's just down right gloomy out. what do you do on a gloomy day? I know what I like to do. Curl up with a blanket and read a good mystery. I'm very fond of mysteries, and have been reading them since Nancy Drew, Trixie Beldon and when I was very young I read the Box Car Children and all of Enid Blyton's books. I always aspired to be an author, but I'm not sure I could sit still long enough to write a book. I did write a few poems and this is one of my favorites.

Murder She Cried
Guilty! Cried the judge.
As guilty as can be.
I sentence you to years
Of one hundred and three!
Then up jumped the woman
All dressed in bright red.
I did it! I killed him!
I'm glad he is dead.
Very quickly I did it
As he lay in our bed,
I used an iron skillet
And bashed in his head.
Various parts of him
Down the disposal they went.
The rest made into relish
To his relatives he was sent.
I'd never have been caught,
No body would have been found,
If it weren't for Aunt Bessie
Saying pickle relish ain't brown!
Now the moral of my story
Is sad, but it's true.
Don't pickle your husband
Unless you relish Aunt Bessie too.


If
If I were pretty,
If I were thin.
If I had great hair,
and a white toothy grin.
If I had been born
silver spoon in my mouth,
or groomed to preside
in the White House.
If I could win
the lotto today,
or if Ed McMahon
would come out my way.
If I could add,
multiply and subtract,
clearly it's left brain
function I lack.
If I could write
an award winning song,
or have a bottom that
looked good in a thong.
If I could play
a good lead guitar,
or sing like Alanis
I'd be a big star.
If it weren't for If,
all those things would be true.
So I am replacing the word IF,
with "Yes I can do".

OK that's it for me today, I'm going to go find that book and blanket and enjoy a cup of hot cocoa while I'm reading.  Might even find some time for some art.

Well this has started out as an interesting day. Yesterday my son Jamey came over and  mowed my yard for me. It was the first mowing of the year and the grass was thick in spots. We have had 80 degree weather for the last few days so he was out in his shorts working up a sweat. My flowers are all in full bloom and my crab apple is blooming and looking quite pretty. It rained and stormed most of the night, and for about  2 hours now we have had big huge snow flakes coming down. It's 35 degrees out and it just feels weird to have snow falling in May. Looks like I am going to stay in and do some art today. Max my Westie is in his favorite spot, on the back of the love  seat looking out the front window. even he is not excited to go out in this weird stuff.

HAPPY MAY DAY

What a beautiful morning, it's 67 and the sun is shinning. It was a warm 85 here in MO yesterday and the day before. Now the weather is suppose to drop down in the low 40's and rain with a snow mix. What crazy weather. Today is May Day, and it made me remember as a kid we used to make May baskets out of construction paper. They were easy to make, just strips of paper woven into a sheet then folded to make a  basket and glued in place. You were suppose to hang the basket with flowers on a door knock on the door and run. what fun. I have a metal basket on my door year round and have flowers for the season in it, This is what it looked like this morning.

Back

Seems as though I got caught up in life and just let my blog slip to the bottom of the list of things to do. I'm back so watch out, here I come.
  I"ve been busy doing all kinds of things. I have worked on my house, I put down a brown paper  floor in my kitchen and that was a big surprise for me that it turned out so well. I had to pull up old tiles first so that was the hardest part of the  job, then tearing the brown paper up, putting glue on it and sticking it to the floor. Then you cover the whole thing with at least 2 coats of poly to seal it. Turned out great and easy to take care of too.

  My art has been moving right along,  I've found I love the way black paper reflects certain colors and have become addicted to using it for all kinds of art. I have also come up with a faux mosaic style. I will post pictures.

 We went from sunshine to rain. All week has been rainy and cool. It seems like I don't get much done when it rains. I belong to a group on ebay for people who do ACEO's, we had a challenge to do an interpretation of a photo of a street in France. I did manage to get 2 done. One a watercolor and one a digital. it was fun to see all the different ways people saw the photo. The damp weather has put a halt to any work on my kitchen floor. I am afraid it would take to long to dry and not set up good.