Enjoying the town of Frankenmuth

When we stayed in Frankfort, Tom prepared salmon and a medley of roasted vegetables. I prepared Mexican rice. We picked up some dried cherries in Glen Arbor at the Cherry Republic to put on our salad.

We were staying in a very nice condo in Frankfort.  We could open our door, step on the porch and walk a minute to  Lake Michigan to see beautiful sunsets. It’s a wonderful “show” and many photographers gather there to catch the awesome beauty. God is so good.

We had rain some days and the sunsets were quite amazing.

At the end of our trip to Frankfort, Michigan and the surrounding areas we ended our vacation traveling to Holland, Michigan and having lunch. From there we traveled to Indiana to visit our relatives.

My birthday is tomorrow, September 13th. This beautiful arrangement of flowers  was given to me from my cousin Judy in Indiana. We had a wonderful visit with her and her husband Bert. We also had a nice visit with my brother Chuck and his wife Carol celebrating his birthday at a very nice restaurant in Indiana. A nice ending to a fabulous vacation.

I painted these pictures and a few others on our trip to Frankfort, Michigan two years ago. There were many wonderful pictures taken again this trip and I’m looking forward to painting more pictures from the photos I took.

154 “Sleeping Bear Dunes View” – Glen Arbor Lake

152 “Forest in Summer” – Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park

145 “En Route to Sleeping Bear Dunes”

These pictures can be viewed on our watercolor gallery.

These muffins I painted were used for a tag attached to the favors at my daughter & son-in-law’s babies  shower.  (They are expecting twins Oct. 26th).  Tom, my husband, scanned it in the computer and downsized it for a tag I made for the bag the muffins were in.  The favors were raspberry & blueberry muffins.  My granddaughter helped me bake them.  It coordinated  with the jelly jars we had placed on the tables. It was a Children’s Book Theme shower and the jelly jars had a tag of the book, If You Give A Moose A Muffin. The next page of the book says, “he’ll want some jam to go with it,” so we had that on the inside of the tag.  Tom also made the tags for the jelly jars.  The two jelly jars we had on the table went to two guests at each table who had a birthday closest to the babies due date Oct. 26th.

We also gave away pens with a pretty ribbon on it, my watercolor bookmarks, and an “Inside Story” telling everyone why we gave a Children’s Book Theme shower.

“Wishes for Babies” (she is expecting twins) were also given to our guests to fill out and will be kept  forever for the babies and parents in a pretty book (like a box)  I found at Michael’s called Love Stories.  I simply stamped baby feet on the ” Wishes for Babies” and Tom printed and cut the papers   for me.

We had two fun games. Leah, my oldest daughter made those up, a children’s book question game and finish mommy’s phrase.

Children’s Book Theme Diaper Cake

Leah, my oldest daughter and I made these two diaper cakes. We had so much fun making them. It did take two people to make it; one to hold the diapers and another to wrap the ribbon around it. If you made it yourself you could probably wrap a rubber band or ribbon around it to secure it. I think we did that just to hold it before putting the ribbon around it.  On top is Peppa Pig & George, two characters in a children’s book called, Peppa Pig. Two years ago, Tom & I searched and searched for a stuffed Peppa Pig for our then three year old grandson for Christmas and finally found something. When I went shopping for something to put on top of the cake, Peppa Pigs were all over the place, in any stores you could think of. I bought one of the Peppa Pig books and placed it with the two cakes at the gift table.

Our Booked Theme Center Pieces

A book or stuffed animal book character was placed on two books we spray painted, two other books on stands were near it and also the two jelly jars that were given to two guests having the nearest birthday to the babies due date.

Prizes

These prizes were given away to the winners of the games and also when picking several names from a basket of their return address envelope we asked them to kindly fill out so Susan & Kevin will conveniently have guests addresses. Thank-you notes and envelopes  were bought for them by a very close friend of Susan’s. (Thank-you Jackie)!

My daughter Leah provided the lotions and candles. I made up some boxed cards and had two calendars available.

See Artistic Accessories for boxed card prices.  I am excited about our newly released 2018 calendar, the cost is $14.99.

210 “Goodnight Little Giraffes”

My watercolor Giraffe Picture for the Babies to Be

One of the gifts Tom and I gave our daughter and son-in-law was one of my original watercolors I  painted and Tom framed. It didn’t take me long to paint it, but it took along time, about three weeks to figure out the layout of the design. I went on a site I have found called Pixabay, which are photographers taking pictures and letting artists paint their photos, the painting I did is a picture of three different photos from that sight. I sooo much appreciate the photographers on that sight. We at one time went to the Indianapolis Zoo (great zoo by the way), and I know I took pictures of giraffes, but I could not find them anywhere, I think I used one of my kids cameras, probably one day I will find them!

So on our website it says that this picture is sold, I didn’t want my daughter & son-in-law to know it was their picture if they went on our website,  so we said it was sold. Now you know the inside story!  We are offering  prints of this picture to anyone who would like to purchase a matted print.  The cost of an 11 x 14 matted print is $30.00 and a 16 x 20 matted print is $45.00.

So, we all had a great time. It was also wonderful seeing friends and family.  I hope you too have many happy occasions.

Happy Creating making the world a little happier place,

Vicki

Lentil Soup

I am having lentil soup tonight for supper. I made this for Tom today for lunch. I will cook him pork chops for dinner while I will have the soup.

I am a vegetarian for health reasons. I love to eat healthy food and basically really love food and cook a lot.

• 1 lb. of Lentil beans. Fill water a little more  than 3/4’s of your biggest pot. Don’t forget to rinse your beans in a colander first before adding them to the water. I get the water simmering before adding the beans.
• Cut up:
  • 1 1/2 stalks of celery (or 2 if you prefer)
  •  2 carrots
  • Almost a whole onion (or 1 if you prefer) then add:
• Parsley, basil, and 2 bay leafs. I sprinkle a good amount of parsley & basil. If I was to measure,  it would probably be a heaping tablespoon of both.
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• Today, I didn’t have carrots, so I added cauliflower.
• Boil on low until lentil beans and vegetables are soft, 25 –  30 minutes.

Happy Cooking,

Vicki

Wedding Memories

A close up of Wedding Memories

Tom has been putting some amazing designs and mats together. This one is called Wedding Memories.

This is a limited edition print matted in a 18 x 24″ mat.  The outer mat is a rag mat called White Museum Foliage – it has a beautiful embossed texture that look like leaves.  The inner mat is a conservation mat called Cranberry.  I think this would look beautiful in a foyer when entering a home, or for that matter, anywhere in a home.

We have 10 available in this size and also offer this design in matted print sizes 11 x 14, 8 x 10, and 5 x 7.

This size sells for $65.00. Please contact us if you’d like to purchase this.

Enjoy the beauty of nature indoors,

Vicki

Artistic Red Vase and Flower

This is the last lesson of Lindsay’s three lessons. I’ve been wanting to paint glass since I started painting Oct., 2015. I think it’s one of the most interesting things to paint and one of the hardest. I know I still have a lot to learn about it, but for my first glass painting, I really like it. There is something about the way the flower is positioned that is very artistic looking to me, I love the vase and the background.

If you are thinking about painting, making something, developing your ideas, I would like to encourage you to take the plunge. To me, there are no mistakes, because if I do make mistakes, I learn so much from them. I have learned that as a Pressed Floral Artist for the last 22 years. I believe it will be like that painting watercolor. I was watching a video on YouTube and an amazing artist said, “Everyone of my paintings has a mistake in it”. Do you believe that? Boy, did that make me feel good. I am excited about what I will learn painting, it may take me a little longer to paint than someone who has been painting for awhile but that is all a part of learning a new skill.

Happy exploring new possibilities!

Vicki

Birch by the Lake

I wanted to practice painting rocks and also wanted to paint the second lesson of Lindsay Weirich’s class.  When Lindsay teaches a lesson, I like to add some of  my own ideas also so my painting is not exactly like hers. I decided I would do this for any painting lessons I take.  I painted two pictures from Lindsay’s lessons awhile ago that were very similar to her paintings and I didn’t feel as accomplished as if I made it my own. I love the colors in this painting.

Happy Creating,

Vicki

I finally planted around my bird bath and love these flowers I never had before.

The milkweed plant with yellow florets have attracted Monarch butterflies. The name of it is Asclepias curassavica – silky gold annual butterfly weed

The pretty flower that looks like a rose is so different than I’ve ever had. The name of this flower is Lisianthus – blue rim

another picture of Lisianthus – blue rim

These daisies and sunflowers are in my front side garden

I spotted a hummingbird this morning, oh it made my day! I’ve also been enjoying the yellowest most beautiful male canary I have ever seen in my gardens. Yesterday, I saw the female. One day I ran to get my camera to take a picture of the male but it flew away and didn’t wait for me to take his picture!  Maybe one day I’ll be able to take a picture of both of them.

Happy Gardening!

I bought this delphinium to plant in my garden. The top stem was bumped and broken off, so I decided to press the florets.  I space them apart on the pages of old books. I also make sure there are several pages between them, as they are thick.  I had to put rubber bands around the books because the flowers were so thick. They will be ready to use for designs in six weeks! Hope you too can enjoy preserving your flowers.