"Ocean" - 2009 Spring Bay Studio

Here's one of the canvases that got finished up just at the start of last weekend. The fun thing was getting all the little fish attached to the canvas, then playing with all those paints. Tom must have thot I'd lost my marbles, 'cause I was just about jumping up and down, kinda dancin' around my little work table, doin' this and that while getting all this put together.

He just doesn't want to have fun, that's all it is.

And there is still another canvas on the work table, and it's getting dry as I sit here. I'd wanted to get a picture today of the yard outside..Noah has been raking leaves for the whole week, and about the time he gets one section done, then the wind blows, and all the other trees start flinging their leaves on the ground. Ah well, at least it's lottsa good exercise for him. Good thing he's young, 'cause other wise it'd just about make other people fall slap over.

But that's not what I wanted to say.

What I WANTED to say, is that it's been dreary here, with little sprinkles, then some rain, then some HARD rain...it's been like this for the last 2 days. But there will be a teeny moment where the sun does come out, and it looks wonderful - lots of color in all the hardwoods, and it just makes it so wonderful - Fall in All It's Glory - that kind of thing. But then, I go outside, and once on the deck or porch, I remember that the camera is INSIDE the house...and once in here, then I start to paint or something, totally forgetting to get a picture of the FALL COLORS out there...

sigh...

And now here comes my interuption - every time I've tried to get something done on the computer, then noah comes in the hall, sighs LOUDLY - then I have to stop everything and go away. Leads to a feeling of having GIN or something.

Not that I would..

But the irritation is definetly there...know what I mean?

I mean, how do you get something done when about 1.23% of the work has to end..don't even get 1/4 of the way STARTED..

Starting to rant about getting thrown off the computer..

So I better just GO and Then I'll Be Back.
Ha! -

Lady of The Tulips

>> Just a quick post, and a little shot of the mermaid that has been hanging out over on the antique hutch -- she said she was going to sit and behave, so I'm going to guess that she will. Some days there are things that one has no control over..

I had a full, fun day yesterday - Got to go into Trader Joe's with a friend - Wow! - My poor brain just about went into overdrive, and it was so hard to just pick up a couple things that I knew I needed - things for christmas, mostly - but I won't tell what they are, 'cause if the people who they were purchased for, happen to read this, then it wont be ay kind of a suprise now, will it? ! So , I will say that the prices are what everybody who's told me about the store -- well, those prices are really not easy to beat. Great thing that there are soo many organic products - lots of choices of Evertything..There will be another trip up to the city to get More Stuff, thats for sure!

And I went to a very nice meeting for church first thing in the morning - had a wonderful speaker, and had some good tea, and some desert - Yum! - And got to meet some people who I'd never met before, so that was fun too - Shwoo! - Lottsa stuff for one day!!

Well, gotta run - there is a warning that's flashing for me just over there..see? == No! - Over THERE>>> Yeah, what's up with THAT?! - Guess I better get ahold of noah an' tell him this is goin' on...jeesh..


Lady of The Tulips

"Albemarle Sound " 2009 Spring Bay Studio

This is another piece where I incorporated texture and added some painting with some odds and ends that I scrounged up from the hardware store - it was sOO much fun! - I got good and messy, playin' with all the goodies, and when I went into the kitchen to get cleaned up, tom took one look at me, and didn't even bother to ask what I'd been doing. Good Guy, that ol' fella...there are just times where it's best not to say a word, know what I mean? He didn't say anything about the finished product, so I don't know whether or not he likes this piece, but there are a lot of my work that he flat out does not like. Somewhere around the 85% range. Oh Well. I think in the back of his mind, he'd rather I got to work at the Mart Place, so I could have a "Real" job, and quit messin' around with my paints. Our one son Definetly thinks that way - matter of fact, when I show him any of my finished canvases, he refuses to look at any of them. Thinks I'm just wasting my time. A great boost there for my self esteem. Go Team...

So, me? - I keep on workin' over on the little table, makin' lottsa messes with my paints, and yesterday I spent over an hour, cutting little shapes out of some heavy paper, not quite cardstock, but just a little lighter. 2 sided, with some wonderful watery prints on both sides, one with some graphic prints, and one side with just some simply fabu shaded colors - naturally, these are with blues, greens, pale greens, watery blues..Can't help myself, they are just too dreamy for me to pass up. And this week, I guess tomorrow, I'm ordering the papers I talked about the other day - the prices for the paks are just too good to pass up - Even The Husband said it'd be all right to order them! - So, before he changes his mind, that will Really Have to get done!!

Gotts to scoot - there are some paints and inks that should be just dry now - lined out part of a bathing suit top for my latest mermaid...shes lookin' like she's gonna go for some Beach-iee Peach and Pale Yellow color for her top..seems like a good choice to me!!

Lady of The Tulips

"Memories Of The Days Back Then" -- 2009

Spring Bay Studio

The piece I finished up while the storm was rolling in last week - This has a lot of texture, and I'm hoping it shows up on this photo - I tried to get a decent picture of it leaned against the antique hutch, so that's why it has a slightly loopy - look to it! It's not Operator Error!, I promise you! Just that it has a list goin' on...

I'm recovering from a horrid telephone call earlier this morning - won't go into details, but it was something that hits between the eyes and leaves one feeling as if the world slid sideways into another dimension. I don't think I'm shaking as bad as I was earlier, but if there are typing mistakes on this, well, that's 'cause the fingers/hands are still shaking a little bit. Just viscious and mean. That's what it was. So, that's all for that.

There is a new mermaid over on the work table..she doesn't have a face yet, but she's coming along nicely. Got her body shaded in, and she'll have some neat "scales" on her twisty tail. I unburied some things I truly forgot I had - sequins and other beads that are pretty cool. And so much fun to add to paper, I forgot how fun they are! - And there are some little beads that will make great Christmas Items, so those will need to be fixed up.

Our oldest finally got to the Dr.! - He called late Sat. evening, asking if we could take him in yesterday morning, and we said of course. He was Really Sick, and every time he coughed it sounded just terrible. We left here before 7:30 a.m., got up to the city, and he sounded horrible on the phone! - He didn't want to go to the Dr. for a bit, but we convinced him to GO, since the H1N1 Virus is everywhere. We are so glad we got him in! - The wait was less than 2 hours, which is saying something, and he does have a flu virus, but FORTUNATELY not the H1N1 Virus! Shwoo, that was a close call. He was given some meds, and we took him to the grocery store so he could get some liquids and tissues for his poor nose! - Ouch, all that sneezing, poor guy. Tom even said, "You sounded like you weren't going to make it!" - But he got to be checked out, and meds too, so we are very grateful for that.

Got some needed supplies yesterday at the Art Store while we were up in the City - new brushes, and looked at some papers, but will order those online - $3.00 in price by not buying in the store, for the package I'm looking for. That's a savings that really adds up, and there are 2 packs that I've been drooling over for the past couple weeks. If tom gets the bonus he's been told he'll get, part of that will pay for the papers. Some wonderful Blues and pale greens, mixed with some light sky blues, uhhmmm...simply wonderful colors! Will show them once I get the order in.

Must get some more papers cut - the new canvas has the background covered, that part is over..seems to take for EVER some days..why is that? Just layering papers, you'd think it'd go like lickety-split! Well, maybe I'm just slow!! Hee!!

Lady of The Tulips

"Untitled" -- 2009 Spring Bay Studio

Here's one of the latest canvases I finished just the other week -- I'd tried to post it online, but the camera was doing something weird, Noah had used up the batteries on some other giz-moe, an' all I wanted to do ws get these guys on Here!! -- Sheesh..

So here it is - finally drying out, and the pictures in the paper out of Norfolk really show just how bad the flooding was - Tom stayed overnight at Danny's apt, first, because Danny has a cold, and didn't go to work, so he got tom to stop by w/some groceries. But - Tom said that the trip to get to the apt. was something of an adventure - going down streets part way, then discovering they were flooded out...going down another street...same thing. Guess he made quite the trip around the city, but finally made it. Got things for danny, and I told both of them, that if the cold develops worse, that it wasw IMPORTANT to get to the Hosp. asap - Don't want to mess around with the Swine Flu, and it scares me to pieces.

But here, it's trying to dry out a little better than up there in Va. - Noah has swept off all the pine needles on top of the roof, gotten some of the yard around the deck, porch and sides of the cabin all cleaned off. The water in the drainage ditch has finally gone down, and the dirt road is looking like a carpet, littered with tons of colorful fall leaves. Most of the trees still have their colors shining brightly, which is something of a mystery - what with the winds for the last 2 days blowing over 30 mph with gusts near 45 -- strong leaves. That's what they are!

And I've got a couple other canvases to post on here, but for now I've got to get some painting done - there are also some orders to be made for some supplies- found a couple sites with sales, so that's a really good thing. We have so little in the way of art supply places down here, and what selection there is is WAY too overpriced. A sheet of small stickers with fish was marked at $1.25...uh? - Saw it at the Mart for .99....so, I mean, people need to make a profit, but I MEAN! -- So it's off to some of the art supply sites and get some much needed papers. They are so wonderfully colorful and make one want to just dive into some of the Sea Greens...Pale Caribbean Blues...ahhh...

Lady of The Tulips

~~ "Peaceful Sea" ~~

Spring Bay Studio ~

Here is one of the canvases that I finished just before the wonderful storm hit here the other day - actually I got this done, and had some thots of putting it in the master bedroom, but thot that when the weather people starting talking about the impending storm, that in case the huge oak tree and pine tree directly outside the master bedroom window decided they would want to come in and greet us during the storm, well, it wouldn't do to have this brand new piece all crumbled to smither-eens...So, it was gently tucked inside my antique hutch, along with a couple other pieces, all untouched by anything other than my little grubby paws.

I'm also getting back into the swing of work at my little table today - the winds are Finally subsiding, and the rain, dare I say, is finally slowing down to something under 20 mph. The branches that would slam against the roof of this poor little cabin weren't all that large, but the SOUND they'd make when they hit!! -- I really expected to see some giant big limbs out on the grass, but thankfully, the limbs that did get whacked were relatively small. It's just with the 35+ mph winds whipping those poor limbs & branches from their trees, well, the combination just wasn't a pretty sound. Hope that doesn't happen again for awhile. And how WEIRD that a "tropical" storm changes itself into a Nor'easter in a matter of hours! Wow. I just feel bad for all the people who have had flood and structure damage to their homes. From the newscasts, it seems that all the people who were fortunate enuf to get evacuated, are all ok, and the work of the fire departments and others, were of great help My hats off to them!!

We also caught a glimpse of where we had rented a teeny little duplex up in Norfolk when we first moved up there..the street had, like it ALWAYS did during just a normal rain, FLOODED -- But this time it was SO BAD..that one of the local tv people was on the air, and said he & his crew - "We're Stuck!!" -- From the angle of earlier shots of the street, the house up the street from us, that usually didn't get any water in the yard, had flood water up to and just over the front door!! YIKES - Tom took one look an said, "That's our old street!!" -- One of the sad things, was the newscaster said that one woman who lived down toward the end of the street (It ends at what's called Pretty Lake) had sloshed her way up to the top of the hill where the street crosses another longer road, and she then realized that even if she kept on going, and walked down the other side, she'd be right back in flood water...DOUBLE YIKES!!

All of those things used to happen during some relatively bad storms, but this one was double worse...uugghhh..that's one of the reasons we moved from that part of the city...

SO NOW -- it's drying out..tom got home relatively unscathed from all the storm, and our oldest said, that even tho tons of the streets around him were flooded, he was able to get to his apartment, by going in a zig-zag pattern all around him, to avoid streets under water!! Poor Guy!! -- He sounded tired, and didn't want to go into work today! - Don't blame him, he's a truck driver too, taking linens to & from the resorts all along the Oceanfront. THAT area is a real mess!! -- No telling how long it's gonna take to clean up all that area!! --

But, now that all the dust has settled, I'm back to the little work table, painting a new canvas - got something a little different too, and will try to post it tomorrow. Right now I gotta check the canvas that's been drying overnight, and hope that some small little boo-boo's have gone away. Other wise, it's some quick little paint-fix-ups an' all will be right in the world!! Yay!

Lady of The Tulips

While we still have electricity I'll post this and hop away from the wall -- We are getting hammered with this Nor'easter that's sitting just offshore from us -- There has been over 12" of rain so far - the ditches that drain off from our property and along the dirt road have been full and flowing for the last 10 hours or so, and are showing no signs of letting up. We're having winds somewhere in the 30 - 35 mph range, with gusts much higher than that. There hasn't been a minute in the last 24+ hours when it's stopped raining, and it has been said by the weather people that it's only going to get worse before it gets better.

Tom made it up to work this morning -barely. The road out of our little place was under water - at least 2 feet deep, and the highway was trying to stay un-flooded, but it was losing the battle. The other part of the main North - South artery was so flooded up in Virginia that there were patrolment stopping traffice and re-routing them onto other streets. The ports had to close, and some of the tunnels around Norfolk and Portsmouth Va are closed as well. Tom worked a total of 3 hours, then very gingerly made his way back down the highway. There are so many branches and limbs from all the trees in the yard that it's useless to try and pick them up - it's raining too hard to try and get out and do anything about them. The "lawn" is under water in more places than it's Not Under Water, and the dog is very irritated when she has to go outside to do her business.

We had our electric out for 3 & 1/2 hours, but it would be safe to say that its probably going to go out again. We are holding on and waiting for this storm to GO AWAY!!! --

And that's the good news -- Bad News is that there are probably people in houses under water, and there's no way to get to them - Tom said he saw the fire department up in Chesapeake VA getting row boats out and preparing to go check on flooded streets, creeks and streams to make sure there aren't any people in very serious danger.

And now it's raining quite hard again..

Must go -


Lady of The Tulips