Yippee the Echinacea is blooming!

I've been playing with some more portrait ideas using the word "head". I think that I've been called all of these at least once, some more than I care to admit to. ;-\

Hey did you get the memo? CPS's latest challenge is a 6"x6" self portrait. I'm been practicing on the deck with my glass of wine in one hand and a watercolor paint brush in the other. OK well maybe the last one is a little "out there" but what the heck.

Nothing like watercolors and a glass of wine to unwind. Mmmmm, mmmmm good!

My life has been a little hectic to say the least and I've gotten behind in mailing out a couple of birthday cards. I thought that these would be just perfect seeing as it's Summer Solstice today. :-) They are ink painted and hand written.

My drinking buddies trade book is almost complete. I'm just waiting for one more page to arrive.

My art for the entire day was food related. This is Norwegian Kransekake (pronounced kruns-ah-ka-ka, sounds gross huh?) but it a very special wedding gift for the bride and groom. It is a traditional cake served at weddings and other special occasions. It's takes a long time to make and bake but I'm happy to do it. The top pic is the completed cake with is all done in individual concentric rings. The bottom photo is the rings after they were removed from the pans. Plus a few extras in case of breakage, they are very fragile. The whole thing is "glued" together with a thin paste of powdered sugar, egg white and touch of vinegar and almond extract. This is squeezed on to each layer so that the next layer will stick to it. It needs to set for a day or two so that the flavors mature. I hope that the kids like it. :-)

Congrats Gabriela you are the winner of the ink painted tags. Hope that you like them.
Hugz, Nj

The ring bearers pillow is finished!

Today I didn't have much time but was itching to get a little art done. My favorite color combo is pink and orange so I made up some ink painted tags. These are ink painted on both sides and will be given away to one of my blog followers. I'll pull a random name on the 16th so be sure that you sign up to follow my blog. Hugz, Nj

Erik and Beth's ring bearer pillow is almost finished, it just needs the ribbons which I finially found ones that match their wedding colors. 

I'm having fun experimenting with some of my sketches and photos of all things botanical from our trip to Hawaii this year.

I've been experimenting with ink and dye painting and working on a little tag book and thought that I would share some of the finished pages here.

I thought that the envelope looked better with some lines around the splotches. Makes them look more like a map, don't you think?

A thank you card for a special friend who took us our to his special beach house to have lunch while we were on vacation in NC.

Oh sweet Java...

Love my moleskine! Here's todays entry.