Latest painting, finished just in time for baby Abby's 1st birthday party this afternoon. Glory be to God!

Work in Progress

Here is the painting I am working on these days, of a little orphan girl named Matrida. Our family recently began to sponsor her and it is changing our lives and prayers. From what we understand, studies have shown the best way to defeat poverty is by individual child sponsorship. We trust God is working in Matrida's life and blessing her, just as He is us through this process. Glory be to God!

The Shop is Open!

Last week was a great week. I was sick, so it wasn't such a fun week, but I finally published the summer edition of the family newsletter, The Current. And then I did what seemed the impossible dream, I opened an Etsy shop! Here are a few items to give you a feel for the flavor of it. Take a look and let me know what you think. I have called it JewelofBayshore and will hope to put a link to it on the sidebar.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/jewelofbayshore

Exciting Summer Plans

Gracious, it's been over a month! We had a few weeks of sickness here in April. It was a busy month still, as I tested for my green belt- and passed. Yay! I'm in Fidget's class now and we're having so much fun. If I'd known karate was this much fun I would have started it sooner!

Looks like summer's almost here already. I've been working on some knitting and painting and have plans for opening an etsy shop in late August! I want to thank all my pen pals for participating in my one-for-one offer: If they send me a pretty postcard, I paint a picture of it and send it to them. Then my hope is to paint another and offer it at the etsy shop. So far they're such fun I've had a hard time not sending them off the minute they're painted. Here's another peek at my sketchbook and some new work.

The cool weather we've had lately is just gorgeous and our yard has gotten considerably better-looking than the sad and neglected state in which we found it upon move-in. Fidget and I have started running 2 miles in the mornings and are enjoying seeing all the new birds and squirrels in the neighborhood.

Fidget has exciting summer plans as well. After all, art and playing are great but her mind wants more work to do! So she is taking beginning Latin from a dear friend this summer. After the first class this week, she wanted to play Latin teacher when her friend came over later that day. So it looks like this class is a good fit for her. She is also planning to attend a Latin summer camp and a karate Olympics camp.

There have been sad and alarming things all over in the past month and this is something I want to address. Because just last fall God brought me out of a season of fear. I can testify that the past weeks God has been faithful to be my strength and my shield, a peaceful force to my soul that overcame any anxiety. 

I want to encourage you that no matter what you face personally, no matter what our country faces, God will always be enough. He is trustworthy, He is faithful. It is faith in Him that allows us to have joy even when things are sad. We know He will redeem everything bad one day. I hope you can see and appreciate that He gives us many great blessings here, but I also pray you say with me 'Come, Lord Jesus. Come!'

A Day to Relax

It was a lazy day for me and Fidget, really welcome after the school week hit its zenith in the karate belt test yesterday. Today we took it easy, had some friends over, and just played. For the kids, it was being inside and out, eating popcorn and playing ninjas among other things. For the moms, it was having tea, talking about art and baking yeast breads. Breads are one of my all-time favorite things to make. There's an entrancing mystery about the life of yeast that pulls me in several times a week, just to work with it, knead dough, and get a whiff of that heady yeasty aroma. Today my friend Kim and I made two batches of regular white bread with wheat germ, and some adorable peanut butter turtle rolls. They are all gone but one, and Fidget has dibs on it for breakfast.

This week has been so blissfully full of art. Fidget and I have a karate belt test tomorrow, but after that, I'll be back to painting, and she'll be back to using the quill pen she made from a peacock feather.

Monday: The Bluebird of Happiness

Today I sketched a blue bird from a postcard a pen friend in Finland sent. The weather is gorgeous and there's nothing I'd rather do than listen to Fidget playing in the yard while I paint.

Sunday Workshop

Joy

A happy day in the kitchen baking bread, as well as in studio using watercolors while Fidget did too and the Pres piddled with his Harley. I made some sketches, painted a post card, and one little canvas board for the church art auction. I am using scenes from all the postcards my pen pals have sent me in the past 6 months. Painting= joy!

Celebrations of Beauty and Life

Here are some of the latest things to come out of Harbor View studios, interspersed with  some local experiences we've had lately. This one is for a baby named Alyssa (color, Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky, Victorian Pink). And those are some Mother's Day rhododendrons Fidget picked from the yard.
 

We've had a good bit of rain but lately the sun is coming out and we've explored more of our temporary island home. This rugged beauty is at Beavertail State Park.

As I've mentioned, God has given me the grace to truly enjoy and celebrate others' babies so I have delighted in making several of this little sweater for some precious babes. This one is for David Judah. Color: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky Sable.

Tide pool at Brenton State Park. 

For Averie. Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Antique Mauve.

Irises in the patio bed. The peonies have just begun to pop too. Everything looks so fresh and colorful after the recent rains.

 

For Peter. I tried to make this one an inch or so longer, as he was already a few weeks old when I got going on this one. Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Blue Magic.

And, the shoreline scene is finished! I am meeting my friend and client on Thursday. I do hope she is pleased. I am so thankful God has blessed the work of my hands. I continue to marvel at what He does through me. 

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 
I Corinthians 10:31

Work in Progress

This shore scene in oils is due June 15. I am pleased with how it is starting out. I am working with umber and bleached titanium in the rocks, and predominantly Prussian blue,Bonnard blue and sap green in the water.We are scheduled to move at the end of June so this may be my last painting in Rhode Island. Today we get to pick up Fidget's Christmas painting from the local museum where it's been in a show for several months. She is looking forward to getting it back. I am beginning to look forward to our next house and thinking about the paintings I'll hope to do there. 

It was such a gorgeous day yesterday, especially for a Mother's Day. Fidget and the Pres rigged a hammock up for her in the yard, and he did some studying while I painted. Then he grilled some country style spare ribs and we topped it off by biking into town for gelatos. I am so blessed to have this family. God is good. 

A Little Bit of Art

Fidget and I finished school this morning and wanted to do something fun this afternoon when it was scheduled to snow but only a little, and most of it is supposed to be sleet. I decided to try something I got as an assignment in grad school. That is, sketch a bunch of animals and then combine two or more to make your own creature.

 We have had fun drawing and painting our ideas and are going to make paper dolls from them next.

Pie for Breakfast and Past Valentines

Here is what is left of the strawberry pie after we had anniversary pie for breakfast. You must try pie for breakfast if you never had. It is a special way to start the day. You wouldn't do it every day, and that's what makes it so great. 

Here also are some valentines and anniversary treats from years past. We almost always try to do something special for each other.

The Pres made the cedar heart coat rack for me our first anniversary. The heart pillow I made the year the Pres was heading out to deploy to Haiti as an enlisted heavy equipment operator. What memories these things bring!

 We knew we'd only be here one year, so we didn't put all our valentine treasures out. The heart rack had been put away for a long time. Maybe we will actually put it up and use it at our next duty station.

Anniversary

Here's the 20th Anniversary card I made for the Pres. Our big day is tomorrow.

 I used some old postcards I found with policemen on them and signed it from the Ol' Ball and Chain.

 

The words are sewn using my Bernina sewing machine with the quilting foot, the feed dogs lowered and the darning setting on.

Inside is a chain I made, a padlock I found down at the shore as well as a bottle opener that looks reminiscent of a key, which I got from a blacksmith at a festival one time when the Pres was deployed during our last duty station.

I am so glad God has kept us together all these years. I wouldn't want to spend them with anyone else. It is humbling. We aren't great. And we haven't always even been that great at being married. But God has shown us favor. In this we rejoice!

"...you are precious and honored in my sight..and I love you." Isaiah 43:4

Valentine

Quick Desk View

Here's something I'm working on from a photo I took in Belgium in 2000. I have always loved the look of this old post box. The painting, oil on canvas 16" x 20", is a present for a friend who is coming to visit us soon. I can't wait.

Work in Progress

Here's a quick view of Sakonnet, the house boat my clients lived on for the first 15 years of their marriage. Since I painted their house this spring, this will complete their collection. I am eager to finish and deliver it to them in Norfolk. Fidget and I don't have any gifts to bring but we hope to deliver Christmas spirit aplenty.

It is such a blessing that I have gotten to do this painting. The photo wasn't sent to me until I had completely given up on receiving it. I had so wanted to earn Christmas money this fall. With this and the painting of our neighbor Christie's niece Avery, there is plenty of money for gifts and to help with the mortgage for River's Edge, which remains vacant. God is good!

A Secret for Remembering that Anything is Possible

Fidget has gotten into photography lately. When she is out of film she uses my digital camera. Which is nice because we can delete a lot. She has taken to making videos of her 'kids'. She's into superheroes too. So yesterday after Bible study she borrowed the camera while I was making lunch. She said  she was doing family portraits.

But that's just Pooh Bear, I said. No, she said, it's a family portrait of Pooh Bear and Silky! 

And this is her new superhero, Blue Diamond. I love her spelling. At this age I just so love to see her creativity coming out, so I don't want to correct her all the time. If I did I'm sure I could discourage her very easily. She often leaves out vowels and word endings. We do work on those things at school. But being a kid is about being creative. I want to foster that and I want her to remember that when she grows up she was always encouraged to create. 

Here is the painting I'm making her for Christmas, from my favorite photo of her at the nearby topiary gardens. I work on it after she's in bed every night. When it's finished, I'm going to start writing the story that goes with it. I can't wait until it's Christmas and I get to give them to her. One look should be all it takes anytime she needs reminding that with imagination, anything is possible!

Columbus Day Cavorting

The Pres and I had work to do this morning. I'm getting near the end of the oil portrait but the more I do, the more I see that needs done. The Pres was experiencing the same thing in his work. Clearly it was time for a change of pace. After a couple of games of yard baseball with Fidget, we set off riding our bikes and had lunch in town at an ancient diner. This afternoon we went looking for low tide at Brenton Point State Park. But there are public access water spots all along the road leading there, so we stopped at plenty. We even found a little bit of pottery! This piece has 'CO' on it. I'm not sure that it's really old but it was intriguing. Of course I kept it.

I can't get over the vibrant greens in the water plants. It is such a good feeling to walk among them and to feel them swish your feet as the tide sways them to and fro. 

 But they are also slippery!

So, it was Columbus Day and Christopher Columbus was the last thing on our minds. But the same God who called him across the water is still leading us today.

Tomorrow, it's back to work. The Pres and Fidget are back to school, and I'm back to wrestling with the painting. But since God has called us to this life, there's no place we'd rather be. I'll put the latest picture of the painting here. I don't know if anyone else can see the progress but it makes me happy to share it.