2018 Nature’s Best Calendar:

We’re excited about our first ever calendar! Our calendars consist of 12 of my Watercolor designs in an 8½ x 11″ format.  Calendars are available non-scripture or with a scripture message on each month.  You will be able to enjoy  cheerful paintings year ’round. Made for you or your gift giving. Cost is $15 (includes tax & shipping). Please contact us for your purchases.

2018 Nature’s Best Calendar –

Sample calendar page (optional – scripture is shown at bottom of page)

2018 calendar back cover

Christmas Cards:

Christmas is just around the corner! Because I want to enjoy the holidays, I start preparing for Christmas early. Actually, I like to shop now and then throughout the year, I start my Christmas list very early in the year. I actually already have a lot of my presents in pretty bags. I have a few more gifts to get  and then my next step is getting my Christmas cards ready. I love sending special cards out to our friends and family, it has helped us keep in touch with those we care about. It means a lot to me.

I am thrilled to offer our 5 x 7″ Christmas cards to you. They have been designed with a lot of thought and love to share. We wanted to offer you our Christmas cards at a reasonable price so you would be able to spread your holiday wishes and joy.

Box of 15 Christmas cards with envelopes $15.00.  3 Designs are available at this time to choose from:

Pinecone In Winter #BC 146-C101  Inside Message:  May your holidays be blessed with the warmth of home, the light of peace, and the love of family and friends.

BC146-C101 “Pinecone in Winter” – box of 15 Christmas cards

First Snow #BC 147-C102   Inside Message:  May the beauty of the season fill your heart with joy.   Merry Christmas

BC147-C102 “First Snow” – box of 15 Christmas cards

Poinsettia #BC 148-C103 (Front:  JOY)   Inside Message:  …to you and yours this joyous Holiday Season

BC148-C103 Poinsettia – box of 15 Christmas cards

Please contact us for your purchases.

“It’s apple picking time in our backyard”

There are some McIntosh apples growing for us this year. Last year there were none, two years ago we had an abundance of them, they were so delicious. I ate two a day, and painted this picture I called “Three Apples”. It was my 2nd watercolor painting I had ever done. I thought it looked pretty good, but wanted to try to paint it a second time, so I tried it again and named that one “Backyard Apples”. I actually like “Three Apples” better. I am finding that when I attempt to paint something a second time, I always like my first painting better. View our watercolor gallery for information on the paintings below:

138 “Three Apples”

141 “Backyard Apples”

I hope you are all enjoying the beautiful Fall season!

Vicki Achard

Featured Pressed Floral Design: “Butterfly Wonder”

98 “Butterfly Wonder” – Limited Edition Giclée print on archival cotton paper; 18 x 24″ frame size

Many of the flowers I pressed on the bottom of this design came from “Up North” Michigan. The butterflies are made of tulip petals, a rose, dianthus, and a carnation. See Pressed Floral Gallery for availability.

This picture is a limited edition print on archival cotton paper and framed in a beautiful 18 x 24″ gold frame.  Image size is 12½ x 16″  – outer mat is an embossed antique white rag mat, inner mat is a conservation “lizard” green mat, overall frame size 22 x 28″.  This framed art sells for $185 plus tax & shipping.  As a special, thru December 1st, we are offering to pay sales tax and shipping costs (to continental U.S.) to any of our web site visitors who mention this special (if you are in the area and would like to pick up your picture, we will discount the price $20 in lieu of shipping fee). Please contact us if you would like to purchase this artwork.

“Recipe:  Pumpkin Tea Ring Cake”

Tom and I made five yummy pumpkin tea ring cakes in Bundt pans for everyone at the baby shower. The shower  was a breakfast meal so I thought it would go well for that kind of a meal. Everyone loved it. This is my friend Kelly’s recipe. I wanted to post it before the holidays so you could enjoy it then if you want.

• 2 c. sugar
• 1 c. oil ( I use canola)
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 2 c. pumpkin (1 can – 15 oz .)
• 3 c. flour
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1/2 t. baking powder
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1 t. cloves crushed
• 1 t. cinnamon
• 1 t. nutmeg

• Combine sugar and oil
• Add eggs and stir in pumpkin
• Sift together remaining ingredients, add to above mixture (I used a mix master)
• Pour into a greased and floured tube pan
• Bake at 350°F for 50-60 minutes. (check cake after 50 min)

Enjoy the beautiful Fall season! So much to be thankful for. I would also like to say I appreciate all of you. I have heard many supportive and wonderful comments about our new website. I’m so happy you are enjoying viewing our work.  Wow, all this is really a learning experience for Tom & I. I can’t wait until we can figure more things out, like have a comment section to communicate with you more easily. Thank-you for your patience.

We never know who is viewing our website, but we know what countries, it’s amazing we are being viewed across the nation, not only the U.S., but Norway, Sweden, Malaysia, China, Canada, and Germany, how awesome is that?! Welcome all to your Nature & Art Lovers Community!

Vicki Achard

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