Give Thanks! (better late than never)

It’s gonna be Thanksgiving soon!  Wow!  My life is flying, and I’m trying to catch up…  Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t!

My newest addition to the Etsy Shop  www.etsy.com/allbeckyscreations.

Each letter is painted brown with green and gold leaf.  Each is an individual letter to be hung as you like.

I love the sentiment in these two words.  Something to ponder during the Holidays, but also every day of our lives.  We should always give thanks for all the good in our lives and in the lives of those we love and care for.

I should have started these earlier, like before Halloween.  But, hence that is not when I started.  I promise that I am not a procrastinator, but it would appear so…. NOT!  No matter…… Here they are!

I will be adding a self designed purse soon.  I’ve just begun to work on this purse, normally they do not take this long, but since I have no pattern to use…. just doing it as I go.  (Eek!)  it will be a little longer.

I’ll tell you what pattern I’ve been using and it must come to a halt!  Procrastination….. I always get this way around the Holidays…. I don’t know why, because I love this time of year.  I have always had a sneaky suspension that it has something to do with not wanting it to come so fast.  My life use to not go by so fast.  I think it would work better if it just wouldn’t do this.  As we get older, we should be able to savor each and every moment.  Well, we can savor these moments, if we can catch up with the moments that are flying by!

It’s gonna be here before I know it!  And, I love it so I’m glad it is…..

My latest paper mache letter - "O"

I saw an Opium Poppy for the first time recently. These flowers have such delicate petals of pink, red, orange and purple. Just had to paint them on a letter. So, what better letter than the "O". The stamen is such a contrast from the petals, the flower just pops with color!
This paper mache letter is 8 inches.

Since I have decided not to sell my "P".  Mainly because I am not to happy about it.  I have almost worked my way through the alphabet.

I must admit that I do have a time taking pictures that are light enough.  I tried taking several pictures of this "O", but this is the best.... and yet a little dark. 

I took this one outside, but hence.... still a little too dark.  Ahhh, maybe not.  What do you think?  I'd love to hear.

So here are my letters, from A - O and maybe the P, but it will not be going in my Etsy shop.  www.etsy.com/AllBeckysCreations

ABC

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

and the collage P

I think these run the gamut of ideas.... child like themes,  whimsical themes, and with the flowers maybe just a few that adults might like.  I also have some letters that I have done for specific people..... here they are

and an "R"  that was given as a wedding present, the only picture I have is sort of blurry

I thought this was a real cute idea, I painted lace on the very large letter in the couples favorite colors and attached white flowers in the bend.

On to a special item, I hope in time for Thanksgiving.....

Dad's Portrait

Maybe just a little tweaking, but I think I did better after previewing the eyes, which always seem to be an area to be worked on.  This is what I had to work with......

This is my first attempt before I realized that his eyes were all wrong.  Again, these eyes!

Something went terribly wrong.

After a little self reflection and completely starting over.... this is what I came up with.....

I realize that my Dad's actual face is a little longer than this..... some tweaking of the neck is in order, I'm closer than I've ever been at creating a portrait that actually looks like the person I'm doing the portrait of.  He Ha!

Please remember that this is only my second portrait....."Ever!"

Portrait #2

My second portrait – Dad (many years ago)

In a previous post I showed my progress with my very first portrait  of my grandfather.  Just as a beginning place, I wanted to remind you of the progress from beginning to end.

I don’t know who this is, but it’s not my grandfather

finished…..

My completed piece was a much better portrait than I began with.

Since drawing has always been a passion of mine, it startles me now that I allowed myself to have such difficulty learning to draw a portrait.  As a girl, they just scared me so bad, so I stuck with still life, and architecture.

Now, on to Daddy….

Oh, just as with Papa, when I began Dads portrait I miscalculated and came out with this…. (don’t judge me….)

but, I caught a deep breathe and started over…….

this is what I have so far……

getting better….

I would really like to get all the kinks out before I start on Mom.

Practice, practice, practice……

M,N,O & P

(I'm really wondering how still I have to stand to keep some of these photos from being

 so blurry. )

Thank you for letting me get that off my chest. 

These are my two newest letters

"M" - 8" paper mache letter.  Morning Glory.... ( I actually think my best friend Michele plans to scarf this up, but I wanted to show it any hoot. ) 

"N" - 12" wooden letter.  Naughty or Nice....  I really enjoyed doing this one. 

   I am working on my "O" now.  I'm going with a Opium Poppy for the subject.  A very pretty flower that I think will make a lovely subject matter. 

"P" - Paper was my subject.  A collage of craft paper, paper dolls, algebra books ( didn't see any reason to not use them, won't be needing them any longer myself!)  Ha!  I also threw a couple of photos of Shirley Temple in there. 

I actually created the "P" a while back, but decided that since I wasn't staying in sequence with the letters I would wait until I got to the M,N,O before showing it.  Okay, I have skipped over "O", but only for a short time.  

Side note........ 

Sweet Tea & Shopping

presents

Last Chance Santa

A Handmade & Vintage Holiday Celebration

 

Saturday, Dec. 7, 2013 - 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.

Bottom View Farm – 185 Wilkerson Lane

Portland, TN 37148

I will be in my first Crafts Fair on December 7th in Portland, TN . 

I am Oh So excited about this...... 

If you are anywhere in Middle Tennessee on the 7th, please try to stop by for a introduction, look see and visit.

I will have a number of drawings, my letters, aprons and purses with me. All wanting you to get them out of my closet and on to more useful circumstances. 

I could have danced all night

Stepping Out!

When I was a little girl I wanted to be Juliet Prowse.  I wanted to dance!

I realized at some point that I was just way too short to be Juliet Prowse, so I decided that it would be much more realistic to be Mitzi Gaynor….

See, that’s a whole lot more realistic.  Ha!
Needless to say after taking ballroom dancing from a friend of my mother at the age of 12, 13 or 14?  I can’t remember, I didn’t dance again.. I would tell you that I did the shag in college, which is both true and not true.  I was so self conscious in college that I wouldn’t do it in front of a male at all.  Well, that’s kind of not the truth either.  I did it once, but I was terribly drunk.  As I recall, a little later in the evening I got terribly sick…  probably jostling all that alcohol around in my tummy!  Ha!
I did dance one dance, once with my ex husband… in the early years… but he told me that I bounced.  So, I never danced with him or anyone else again.
Any hoot, my daughter introduced me to a co-worker who belonged to Meetup.  It’s a very great organization that matches people up with their interests.  This co worker said that she belonged to a swing dance group where you can take an hour lesson during the first hour and then you have 3 hours to just dance.  Your dancing with people in you dance class, but then you also dance with others as well.

Oh, yes!  If my stamina was a little better, I would have.  But, I did stay 2 1/4 hours and I had so much fun, it seemed like a fairy tale!
If the world danced with each other all the time, there would be no war, no misery!  Just a bunch of people having fun!  And, drinking a lot of water!  Ha!

Portraits

Gonna do it again.............

 

Ta Da!  I'm done!  I'm sure if you know me on facebook you have seen the finished product, but I'm tickled it turned out so good.  For my first! 

I feel so good about this that I’m doing one of my Mom & Dad.  I’m going to draw them from their photo portraits done in their 20′s.  I think it was their 20′s…. they were young anyway.  What’s so important about age anyway, it’s just a number. They sit on my dresser and I look at them all the time.  So, here I go again!!!

If you have excellent vision, you can probably tell that I’ve started on the head.  I’ve come to a halt today since I reached his nose and ear……  these area’s are intimidating to me for some reason.  I have to make sure that I am feeling “all creative” before I can continue on.  But, on a happy note, I am on fall break, I’ve promised myself this time would be spent creatively so I have all the time in the world to get this right.  At this point, that’s how it seems…. :[  Ha!  We will see.....

I know this is my 2nd post in one day, but I'm on fall break and I'm on a roll.....