They are FREE as a bird after 25 years of being caged!!

Hello,

I am just so excited to share my pastels out of their cage.  Well, actually they were in their little boxes for over 25 years and just waiting to come out.   Now if you have a strong heart please go ahead and look at the photos.  Remember I never claimed to be the neatest pastel artist. 

Here we go!!!

I don't know if they even make Rowney pastels anymore, I will have to check with Dick Blick to see if they do. Notice the wonderful box or case?  You will notice that I love little boxes.  

The inside of the box,  this one seemed pretty organized and they are  waiting to be used.  I love these because they were so soft and after I filled the tooth of the paper of sandpaper they would just go right on top so smoothly.   Now, I know some spray the surface to give more tooth but I just didn't like the way it changes the color.  So Rowney pastels were to my rescue. 

The larger assortment of pastels.  They were in a little box you will see shortly but my collection grew and grew.  Soooo, I made this box out of cardboard and then a big  piece of foam over it and then the lid to the box.  I used two, actually suspenders, to wrap around the box and off I would go to classes.   Just made my heart go pitter patter to open it up and there they were.

The hard pastels in their cute little box.  These were perfect for detail--be it trees or eyes.  They worked perfectly, of course you could go over the top of the softs also for some layered color.   Sharpened them with a razor blade, watch the fingers please, or a rasp worked also.   Once I tried a pencil sharpened, man did that ever eat them up.  I only did that once. 

These cute little boxes all stacked together and originally held the first start of my soft pastels.  Now it holds my "neat" little pieces that I use as I paint and my extra sticks of the colors I used the most.   See the upper right?   Those are treasures also.

Now this little treasure of jumbled up hard pastels is really how I worked.  Guess I just like digging around.  Most of the time I just held the colors I was using in my right hand.  Well, sometimes I would switch to my left hand to change stroke direction.  I didn't ever use both hands at one time to paint, my brain just doesn't work that way.

The pastel pencils,  I almost forgot about those.  They came in a cute and colorful tin box but don't have a clue where it is.  Hopefully packed away in a little cubby somewhere.

There you have it, my stash of pastels.  I just had to share with you and thanks for looking at them.  I know they will preform nicely for me.  

Thanks for coming into my world.  Hugs to ya.

The Table

Hello there,

Yesterday the table got painted.  First step to getting back to painting.   Our neighbor of 17 years and now friend of over 30 plus years built this for me for a birthday, we are talking probably close to 30 years ago.  What a wonderful surprise.   I painted it yellow then and held all of my pastels and all my painting goodies.   The poor little thing then was used for a table to hold my light box and photography paperwork and crop cards (film days you know) for over 20 years.  Then for some reason it was ousted to the garage for at least 5  years.  Don't know why it was punished and what it did.   Well, new life for it now and I painted it red and then did some mishy mash stuff on the sides with yellow paint.   It is happy as a lark now, starting to get loaded with my wonderful art books. By the way I have had these since around 1974.   They aren't as old as I am YET!!!

The top will hold the pastels, can't wait for you to see them.  I was once suggested I sell them and get rid of them.  They are like my babies, I know them all by heart.  I use to anyway, now I will get reacquainted with them.  I am going to put a rug on the floor, pastels are messy you know.  Eldon suggested I paint another floor cloth and use that, so of course that means another project.  I will put my thinking cap on that one and see if I can come up with a interesting design.   Can't wait for you to see the little table, with new and improved casters by they way, with the pastels on it.  

Here it is!!!! Getting happier as it gets full.  My wonderful books, oh I am so glad I didn't donate them to the library when we moved.   Whew, they escaped.  I know someone would have enjoyed them.  Now they are safe and sound on my table. 

The mishy mash of paint.  Just had to do a little something different for it.  A new look never hurts anyone feelings.

There you go, what is going on in my world today.   Hope to get the pastels on there today.   Thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoy.

The Lamp

Hello there,

The other day I saw some wonderful lamps, they had to be wonderful they were over $250-$300.  Doesn't that make something wonderful?  The price?  Well, me being me thought, OK I can do that.  So off I went.  We bought a frenchy looking lamp with an ugly shade on it and then another cheap ($19.99) lamp with a pretty shade and off I went.   I switched out the shades and  thought this needs some bling.  I had some pretty ribbon and remembered I had one of Eldon's moms old pins.  Digging and digging I found one and tada with my trusty glue gun there it is.

Here you go, I thought looked frenchy of sorts.  Not sure if am going to put some crystal hangie downs or not.  Still thinking about that.

A close up of the pin, not really doing it justice but you can tell it is old.  Even older than me!!!

I put this creation in a bathroom that has double sinks, a guest bathroom, and no one really uses it and if they do only the other sink gets used.   It is decorated with blue and I have some reddish towels and a few do dads with the reddish color.  Can't have all one color you know.    the little silver tray on the vanity is a round framed mirror I found so perfume bottles got put out also.

That is what is going on in my world for the moment.  Please enjoy and have a good day.

A NEW LOOK FOR ANNETTE'S WORLD

Hi, I had to give my self a new look and the header is some of my art work.  Hope you enjoy it.  of course Red is the color of choice for us.   

Thanks for looking and seeing what is going on in my world.

Photography-"shooting a beautiful scene"

Hi there,  I had to share some of the images I took while we were gone.  We were in central Texas and always a wonderful site with the rolling hills and trees.  Remember we live in the land of no trees and the land is flat as a flitter  You can see horizon to horizon.  This is a good thing ----you can see the storms coming.  

We ran upon fields and fields of pretty yellow flowers.  Not sure what they were, don't think they were a version of Indian Paint flowers, not sure. They were so pretty.  I asked Eldon  "OK, if you see another field of them please pull over".   Well, we were boogie ing( don't think that is a word) down the road and here they were.  Just had a hey day with them.   Didn't go out in them though, didn't want to take the chance of a rattle snake taking in the sun. 

The sun kind of came and went but did take advantage of it anyway.  Sometimes you just don't have the perfect time to photograph.  You just do it.

Here they are, aren't they pretty?    Thought you might like a close up.  Looks like painting material to me. 

The field was just breath taking, though there are lots of little spaces for our slithery friends.

The sun was pretty overhead, not the best position but did give me a shadow to work with.

Here you go, the whole scene.   The best thing to remember "shooting" a scene, move around, take different positions and sometimes just don't worry about the sun.    I am trying to take these on the automatic mode so you can not have to worry that I played with the image in photoshop or anything.  Just a straight shot.  

There you go, thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in my world.   Have a great day.  

We can change our hair color--why not our fireplace colors?

When we were watching HGTV, what a wonderful network by the way, they were staining a fireplace.  I thought why not do ours?   Eldon has always hated the color of the tile and I told him we cannot add more woodwork until he is happy with the tile.  I just didn't want to spend a fortune to remedy the problem.   We went to Lowes and bought a couple of wood stains and practiced on an extra tile we had and lo and behold we came up with a color we both liked. 

Well then the job was done, didn't take a fortune and looks pretty good even if I do say my self.   Here are the before and afters.  

Here you go, the tile was a drab grey. 

Now it is a nice warm color and goes with the sofa and the tad of warm color in the rug we have down.  

Simple fix with regular wood stain, this was two coats and looks great.   Thanks HGTV.

  Thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in my world.  You never know.  Have a good day  my friends.