Watercolor Radishes

I'm revisiting my radishes theme from a few years ago.........................

Radishes are just one of those vegetables that have a fun shape to paint.  I wish I could buy veggies with the exclusive purpose of painting them, but I need the nourishment, so I have to eat them too (they actually aren't that bad with ranch).

I tried out some lettering with one of them.  I've been working on my handwriting skills............still needs some work.

Recycled Watercolor Heart Collage

I'm purging my old watercolor experiments and getting my new art room organized, which means.............more recycled watercolor painting projects!

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, I cut hearts out of my old paintings and stuck them on the wall in my art room in the shape of a bigger heart.  I love having a room in the house that I can experiment with and put fun stuff on the walls!

Arc de Triomphe Watercolor

I painted this View of Paris last summer and got a request of another similar painting- this time with the girl in from of the Arc de Triomphe (also in Paris).  Here they are side by side:

These paintings are now in the mail on the way to be used in a Paris-themed girl's room. I wish I could see how it turns out!  As a little girl I would have loved a room like that, actually, I still would love that.

Photos of the Week

Stuff that's making me happy this week......................................

My piano!  

A beautiful amazing gift from my parents, whom I can't thank enough.  This is the piano I learned to play on as a kid and now it's fixed up and sitting in my front room!  I'm rediscovering my love for playing music and I play everyday.  

 Blankets and Benches.  

I dug out the plaid/jean quilt I made as a teenager (that was before plaid was cool again) and set it on top of my new Ikea bench in my hallway along with my newly finished crochet hexagon afghan.  I have many furniture painting projects lined up for this year- the bench being one of them.

colorful gallery wall in my family room,

poinsettias,

and cactus!  

My mother is probably laughing at me for keeping a cactus in my house, but hey, I like em!

What's making you happy this week?

Crochet Hexagon Afghan

This was many months in the making, but finally, the crochet hexagon afghan is done!  I am really happy with it. The colors are just perfect.

The hexagon pattern I used was adapted from a pattern from Crochet Fundamentals.  I just added a round of single crochet in white after the last row.  Then I whip stitched the hexagons together for many many hours.  That was the longest part, but it was worth the work!

As for yarn, I used Caron Simply Soft in Pistachio, Robin's Egg, Soft Blue, Soft Green, Persimmon, Orange Orange, and Off White. I used a couple of skeins of each color. I love that super soft yarn,  It's easy on the hands while sewing and it feels so good when the blanket is all done too.

 I'm keeping this blanket out to brighten up the cold gray days of winter.  I can't wait for spring already!

Watercolor Gift Tags

Well,

gifting season is over, 

but I have this thing for recycling my watercolor experiments and mess-ups.  I can't let all that amazing color and texture go to waste!

I used a tag from a jacket I got for Christmas as a template.  I traced, cut out, and hole-punched all those old watercolor experiments.  Now I'll have to wait for some birthdays to come around so I can use my thrifty gift tags!