Painting projects

My palette

I’ve mentioned at least once that I’ve been working on a project for a friend. I’ve actually been working on two projects, both of them paintings. One is for my neighbor down the road, Carol, whom I dog-sit for. The other is for two of my best friends, Danny and Richard.

The first project came about because I found a couple of choice pieces of slate at the thrift store about a month ago. They were already prepped for hanging, with holes drilled and a leather thong strung through. The only problem was that they were already painted on. In fact I probably wouldn’t have even noticed them if it wasn’t for the fact that they were painted. I was digging through the shelves of junk when I came across these truly awful flamingo and palm tree things! Yeesh. They were that bad. Of course, in noticing just how bad they were it came to me that with a little sanding I could paint right over the top of those horrendous images.

Now, I am over exaggerating a bit. Somebody loved them enough to buy them from Pier One Imports and pay $25 a piece for them. I’m not kidding, that’s what it said on the price tag that was on the back.

However, I felt like they truly weren’t worth much more than the $3 price that the thrift store was asking for them. The greatest part of this is that my mom is a haggling genius and managed to get the store to sell them to us for $2 a piece. AWESOMENESS! 

 

 

Anyways, I took them home, sanded them down, and began my first painting for Carol. I decided to do a Screech Owl for her. We have a visiting Screech Owl who nests at my parents house and hunts at Carol’s house.

The second project for Danny and Richard was something I have been wanting to do for about a year. They love Beagles, and had three up until last March-Copper, Skipper, and Buddy. Buddy was their most recently adopted dog, and also the youngest and largest of the three. I felt pretty close to Buddy because I helped name him. He was this tall, lanky dog with the most solemn face. Because he was the newest member of the Beagle clan, he was also the lowest on the totem pole. So his demeanor always seemed a little cowed by the other two. I just loved him.

Well, I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve been using the past tense in reference to Buddy. He got hit by a truck back in March of 2011, and Richard saw it happen. It was awful. They had just come back from a fishing trip and were trying to put the dogs back inside the house, when Buddy got loose and ran down to the street with Richard chasing after him. The truck driver didn’t stop. Danny drove his truck down to where Richard sat on the side of the road holding Buddy in his arms. Even though they rushed him to the vet, praying over him the whole time, Buddy didn’t make it.

Now you know the back story behind why I wanted to do this project for Danny and Richard. 

Sketch

 Buddy is buried in their back yard, but currently has no marker.  I have just recently begun painting on sidewalk stones as a possible means of side income. So I had a large concrete brick that was perfect for my idea. I asked Richard for some pictures of Buddy and used them to sketch out my design. 

Under colors 1 and 2

It’s almost done. I just need to add his name in the corner and then polyurethane it for added protection. 

Finished colors

The finished stone

I know you’re having fun in heaven, Buddy, chasing all those possums and raccoons!

 Love you and miss you. 

It's Thursday!

You ever have one of those days where you want to accomplish so much? Then at the end of the day realize that really, you accomplished hardly anything?

Well, today wasn’t quite that bad. I mean, I did accomplish a few things. I signed up for a “in addition to” insurance plan through my work. I went to the bank. I shipped a package to Lana, my sister-in-law (which ended up costing me an arm and a leg!). I ate a relatively healthy lunch. I started working on an art project for a friend. I did some clean-up work on my blog. 

But, I’m sitting here at my desk and feeling like, blah, I’m being unproductive.

Probably because yesterday was SO productive. I say that with only a slight tone of sarcasm.

I was called in for jury duty yesterday. HA! More like please drive to downtown Orlando, spend the money on expressway tolls, and then sit in our extremely uncomfortable chairs, and then we won’t call you to actually sit for a jury. Huh! Waste of time. 

I did at least get a fair bit of the way into the new Mercedes Lackey book "Changes" that I just got from the library. If you like fantasy novels at all, I suggest her as an author. I got hooked on her back in middle school, and haven’t been able to appreciate really any other fantasy novelists since.

Anyways. 

Oh, after I finally got released from jury duty, I came back to church to work on my Bible study lesson that I was presenting that evening for the youth. Pretty good topic about “righteous anger and community”. We looked over some different types of news articles, talked about bad things that happen in this world, and then watched this video:

Change For A Dollar Movie

Pretty impactful, huh?

So, today I’m nearing the end of my work day, looking forward to Praise Team practice. Felt like I needed to go outside and get in some much needed God and nature time. It’s gorgeous outside right now. Thought I’d share a few pics.

Happy January 26th! Can't wait for January 27th!

Leviticus 19:9

As found in the Message version of the Bible:

 ^9-10 "When you harvest your land, don't harvest right up to the edges of your field or gather the gleanings from the harvest. Don't strip your vineyard bare or go back and pick up the fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am God, your God.

Julie clipping Poncans

Have you ever heard of the Society of St. Andrew? 

Neither had I until about five years ago. That was when our youth director decided to sign up our group,
Teens N Touch, for a gleaning slot.

Gleaning is defined as the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers' fields after they have been commercially harvested or on fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest.  In Florida this applies to many types of fruits and vegetables. 

Emily and Richard with their haul.

Our group gleans citrus from local area trees. These trees are normally neighborhood or backyard trees. Occasionally we get the opportunity to glean whole groves, but that can be a daunting task for a youth group. 

The group at House #1

This year we were assigned three different locations. Our first stop had only one grapefruit tree.  For a group of seventeen mainly inexperienced fruit pickers, that one tree was thoroughly harvested. We ended up with twenty-one bags from it.

At House #2

The second stop was at my best friend Julie’s in-law’s house.  They had about eight trees of several different varieties, including blood orange and grapefruit.  From here we picked about seventy-five bags.

House #3

The third stop had about twelve trees, all of which were pretty scraggily. There were even two trees, an orange and lemon, that had begun cross pollinating and creating what we called “omens”. Not sure how those will taste. Other fruits included Honeybells and grapefruit. We picked fifty-one bags here.

Delivering the goods!

We took the fruit to St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, where the Society of St. Andrew had set up a drop off location. All in all we gleaned about 

1,300 lbs. of citrus. 

Great day of service in His name!

The voice of truth. . .

I went to the University of Central Florida for a very long time.

I mean that. Not that the years seemed long, or that my degree felt like it was never ending. 

No, I mean that I went to UCF for a long time. I graduated from high school in 2000. I went from there to Valencia Community College and acquired my AA degree within the usual two year time period.

And then, I went on to UCF. With the idea being that I would get a degree in teaching art. Seemed simple enough. I loved art. I loved teaching art. However, I did not love teaching art in what can only be called the crazy institution that is Florida Public Schools. I’m not calling out any particular county. They’ve all got their different ways of doing things. But. . .when I began my years in college working towards my teaching degree, I began in the midst of the state figuring out FCAT (the standardized test for all students in Florida). That in particular turned me right off wanting to go any further with teaching on a professional basis. 

However, I stayed in the program for about two years before I finally made the decision to switch my major. You say, how is this possible. By the end of two years you should have graduated. Yup. . .I should have. Let this be a lesson to anyone who is on their way into a big college institution. Find out who your guidance counselor is and keep in contact with them. Let them help you each semester. Do not assume you know what you are doing. I can’t say that more plainly. 

Because I didn’t know what I was doing…lol

So, I switched majors, going from teaching art to just . . .art. Why? 

I knew God was calling me to something else and it was not teaching. 

I know that sounds convenient. That it seems more likely that the idea of teaching art based on FCAT was actually too scary to me and so I switched majors so I didn’t have to deal with it.

Think what you want. I knew God was calling me elsewhere, and I had gotten to the point where I couldn’t fight him anymore. This was in September 2005. 

The evening of the day when I dropped my classes and switched my major, I found myself at a Casting Crowns concert (this was during Rock the Universe). I was feeling all kinds of emotions, terrified that I had made the wrong decision. I knew that I couldn’t continue on the way I had been going, but I had no idea where I was going now. What lay ahead of me on this new path that God had directed me to?

Then they started playing this song.

 

And though I knew that it didn’t solve anything, it did tell me one thing. God is with me. No matter what. No matter where I go, or what I do, He is with me.

I have to live my life for Him. The core of my being is for Him. If I don’t live my life for Him, through Him, in Him, then I am nothing.

Blue Springs

I’m so behind. This is what happens when your only access to a computer is at work. I’ve been wanting to write about the day after Christmas for a while now and I’m just now finding the time to get to it.

Christmas evening I got the harebrained idea that I wanted to go on an adventure.  I had no particular place in mind, but our middle-school youth had gone on a picnic earlier the week before to Blue Springs. This is a state park near Orange City, FL. I had never been there, and I love visiting state and county parks. So I convinced my parents that it was a good idea to do nothing but wander around on the day after Christmas.

So. . .as it’s been so long ago now, I figured I’d just post this brief note along with some pictures of the park.

My next blog will be about my passion for printmaking. However, I couldn’t just let these photos go un-posted.

Just in case you can't read the picture of the sign:

Brief description of the springs

 "Blue Spring Natural Feature: 

Blue Spring is designated an official state natural feature. It is the largest spring on the St. John's River. Each day, about 100 million gallons flow from the spring to the river between the evergreen banks of 
Blue Spring Run.
 In winter, manatees move out of the cold St. John's into the warm 72° F water of the run. The clarity of the spring water allows people to view without disturbing this unique gathering of endangered species.

He's used to being driven around, thoug

We didn't really plan on doing much at the park, but we did take a picnic lunch along (i.e. we stopped by Publix in Apopka and picked up some sub sandwiches). 

We also brought Elwood, our 13 year old Chihuahua. As we found out later, he was allowed in the park but couldn't really get down off mom's lap to do much sniffing around.

The boardwalk to the spring headwater

Mom and I walked down the boardwalk to where the canoers and kayakers were interacting with the manatees. Manatees are not a new experience for me. My mom grew up in Homosassa, FL which is another spring area that the manatees like to frequent. However, the fact of the matter is it's still really cool to get to see them!

  You can rent either a canoe or kayak at a shop in the park, and it really doesn't require any previous experience to use either boat type. I totally recommend it to anyone (but keep in mind everyone in the boat should know how to swim!)

Also, this is spring water so the temperature, as noted above in the sign, is not exactly warm. It's refreshing in the summer, but not so much in the winter. Keep this in mind when you have kids along for the ride!

 You can go swimming at Blue Spring, but only when the manatees are not in the run. This is usually during the summertime, because the ocean temperature at that time is warm enough for them to stay out of the rivers.  If you want to see a manatee in the summer, check out Homosassa Springs State Park.

But the main point of this particular trip was to see the manatees. Which everyone on that day wanted to see. And I mean EVERYONE! 

Manatees come right up to the canoes and kayaks

There is one thing I do not recommend, and that is visiting Blue Springs on the day after Christmas. This is because everybody who has family down for the holidays wants them out of the house on the day after Christmas. What better activity (and cheap) than to take them to see some of Florida's natural beauties!
Therein, the park was full, and it's very well marked that it fills up on a regular basis. So don't go there expecting to have a quiet, serene experience between you and the manatees. This won't happen unless you spend the money to rent a canoe/kayak. Even then, there's plenty of other people who've done the same thing.  It's worth it though, because I've never seen so many manatees in the wild in one central location.

The Thursby House

 Just one more pic of the trip to leave you with. 
This is the Thursby House, which has been left on the park property and restored. I caught this pic on my way back from checking out the manatees. Gorgeous skies that day!





If you haven't already picked up on it, I love my home state. Florida is just about everyone's vacation destination, but most people who come here miss out on what makes it truly wonderful. Check out the Florida State Parks website for more great parks throughout the state!