Sunday afternoon fun

The hubby and I took off yesterday afternoon to attend the 2010 Ozark Mountain Artists Studio Tour. The tour was spread out over a "Lot" of road in Boone and Newton Counties in Arkansas. The organizers of this studio tour went through a lot of effort to put this tour together. Anyway you pick up a map along with the names of the artists and their particular medium or mediums that they work in and off you go! There were artists who work in silver jewelry, egg tempura, acrylics, batik, woodturning, photography, ceramics, fabric, pen & ink, pencils, mixed media and mosaics. We started out in Harrison, AR and headed down Hwy. 7 to our first stop and after seeing the sign for the artists on the Hwy. we traveled down a dirt road for 3 miles until we came to the first studio. Some of the artists had their tours in their studios and some in their homes. We traveled approximately 180 miles round trip and had a wonderful time meeting a lot of artists and enjoying their art work. We didn't get to see and meet all the artists listed on the map but now we've got other places to visit next year. We'll have to see some of the ones we saw this year again. I'm such a bad person, as I didn't take any pictures. Everything was so much fun that I totally forgot to take any pictures anyway. It was such an amazing tour and we met some really nice people who were sooo hospitable. They were just as interested in my art as I was in theirs. It was a beautiful sunny day and a great thing to do on a Sunday afternoon. Wish you could all have been there!

Hugs XX
Barbara

Gourd Art and more Gourd Art!

Before I get started on this post, I first want to thank every one of my blogging friends and not blogging friends who come to this blogsite and read my posts and make comments. You've all been so uplifting and encouraging in your words. You really have given me the courage to take that first step out there in marketing my artwork. I really love creating with gourds and I'm so happy to have pieces already in one Gallery! I owe a good deal of that happening to my friends who have told me to "go for it", "your work is awesome" etc. I've prayed about this a great deal and I'm hoping that this is truly what the Lord has in mind for me to do. I've asked him to give me the talent and to help me express my talent thru my work in Gourd Art. Here are pictures of my latest work. If you see something that you would love to have just contact me and I'll get you a price list.

I've got to say, I'm terrible about uploading and posting pictures but here's seven of the newest pieces that I've made. I hope you like these also.

It looks like all prayers have been answered in regard to the weather around here. We got rain all day long yesterday and today it has been raining and sprinkling all day also. God does answer prayer, our ground has been so dry that it's cracking open all over, except for the places we've been watering. So far the gourds that we have planted are doing alright but the garden is a wreck. We're still getting just a few tomatoes and peppers but that's about all. Our Stevia plants are doing very well and we'll be harvesting them soon. Stevia is not hard to grow once you get the plant established but getting them established is another story. The root system is very close to the surface. They like to be kept damp but not wet and they definitely don't like to dry out. Once they're out in well fertilized ground though they do very well as long as they have water. The bugs leave them alone altogether. Yippee! We had a terrible time with bugs in the garden this year. We've tried organic methods of insect control but they didn't work very well and I'm not going to put insecticide on something that's going in my mouth! I hope everyone else has had better luck in gardening this year. We've got a very dear friend named John who let us come pick tomatoes from his garden (He's got a very green thumb) and we made 42 jars of Salsa from the tomatoes we picked! He's also growing some gourds for me and I can't wait to see how they turn out! I think I've done enough talking for one post. I know, I should post more often. I will try.

God Bless you all!

The latest Gourd Art!

Sorry it's been so long since the last post, but I've been extremely busy finishing some gourd art that I had already started. Did you guess what was in the picture? Well here it is.....

Yes, it's a lovely Vase to put your dried Fall flower arrangement in!

It is even more impressive in person. The interior is a bronze/suede looking color. The background is green and the leaves that are carved around the vase are multi fall colors.

I have taken the advice and encouragement from all my blogger friends and have entered my pieces into the "Gourd Fine Art Show" at the Ozark Classic Crafts Gallery in Hardy, AR for the month of September,  the "Gourd Fine Art Show" at the Riverview Emporium Gallery in Norfolk, AR for the month of October and I'll have my pieces at the "Craftsfest" at the Baxter County Fairgrounds in Mountain Home, AR on November 19th & 20th. Yes, all my art pieces will be for sale at each of the places that I just mentioned. I would like to show you a couple more pieces that I've completed along with prices. I will be happy to ship a piece out to you and add the postage to the final price if you decide you would like to have one of my pieces. The following is a piece that took considerable time to make and is three different gourds put together. I love this piece, and I think it is very special.
 

Price $125.00

What do you think of my lovely penguin mother and baby? I am very happy with it.

Price $35.00

This container is done in Fall colors, with leaves engraved on the top and engraving around the edge. I used dyes on all of the outside and paint on the inside.

Price $ 35.00

This container has dyes, waxes and paint on the outside and paint on the inside. It's done in lovely Fall colors.

I have been so happy with my Art and I feel that I've finally found my calling. The Gourd Art that I showed you in my last post is also for sale, just contact me at lmoore@flippinweb.com for prices. I hope you enjoy my Artwork as much as I enjoy creating it. I'll have more later on in the week I hope and your not gonna believe one of them. Let's just say that it represents something from the animal kingdom. I would love to hear from you all as I really value your opinions.

My Gourd Art

In case anyone has been wondering what I've been up to in the past few weeks besides fishing..... Oh yes, I've been fishing again! I'm the one that caught the only brown trout for the day also. hehe That is one hobby if you will, that is soooo relaxing and fun, especially on the White River where I live. The temp of the water doesn't get above 52 degrees so you can guess what that does for the air just above it, yep it's much cooler than the regular temp and if you do get hot just stick a hand or foot in and you'll cool off immediately.

But I digress from the point of this post...Several posts ago, I told everyone about a Gourd Festival that the hubby and I went to in Sedalia, MO. We both took classes there and I showed you the cute penquin and snow angel that I made in my class along with pics from the gourd art at the festival. Well about a month ago the second son was here with his family and I took the daughter-in-law and granddaughter to a craft show while the guys went fishing. The first thing I spotted when we entered the door was a wonderful gourd art booth! Needless to say I stopped and looked and oohed and aahed and talked to the women and was invited to come to some gourd art classes! It took me a couple of weeks but I did go to the class, which is taught by Joyce Campbell, who is an amazing gourd artist! I've been going to class for three weeks now and have a few things to show that I've made:

The picture above is a container which could be used for many things

How do you like my funky chickens? hehe And don't forget the beautiful swan!

Here's a glimpse of one of the projects I'm currently working on.......

Got any ideas on what this is going to be?

I really feel sooo honored to be taking classes with such an amazing artist and...she told me that my work is good enough to enter into a show with her in October!! Woo Hoo! I've never thought I was that talented but I'm happy for the opportunity to sell my wares, so to speak. I've got to get several pieces done in the next few weeks, 'cause I'm GOING FOR IT!

I would love to hear some input from all my blogerrette sisters and everyone else who reads my blog. Do you feel I'm a good enough artist to sell my wares or what?

Hugs XX

Barbara

Fishing

A little while back I mentioned that I was going to get to go fishing with my hubby and two of our sons. When I did there were a couple of people who said I needed to post pictures of the event. Well I'm happy to say that the guys did let me go along, but since we had all the trout we needed at home, we did a catch and release day. That was so much more fun because we could catch twice as much or more and boy did we ever! It was definitely not a slow fishing day at all but I only managed to get one picture of the sons, and Richard's Brown Trout. That was the only Brown caught that day and he was big but we didn't think quite big enough to keep.(A Brown has to be at least 18 inches long) The other son, David caught a nice big Cutthroat Trout but released it before I could snap a picture. Other than that we caught Rainbow Trout all day and a bunch of them. I think my hubby caught the largest. I know fishing isn't quite the thing for a  lot of people but I just love it, especially when the fish are biting. Oh I didn't mention that this fishing trip was on the Fourth of July did I? What a great way to spend the Fourth and then we caught the fireworks that evening. I was very sunburned, even though the sky was overcast but extremely happy at the end of the day. Here's the one picture that I got to take:

Good looking men aren't they? Richard,(the one with the fish) had stopped over on his way from El Paso, TX to Georgia where he was going to school. He's a Major in the Army and had just moved his family from  Monmouth, New Jersey to El Paso,TX the previous week and had  to leave them for four months to attend a school that the Army wanted him to go to in  Georgia.  Anyway, I love to fish and will probably go again this week as soon as the thunderstorms quit. I bet we've received six inches or more of rain in the last two days. We've really needed the rain but it would have been better if it were spread out. I hope that this week is a good one for all of you and that you get to do something that you love to do.

                                                  Barbara

Happy Fourth of July!!

Hello all fellow bloggers! I would like to wish everyone a very Happy 4th of July! I'm so very proud to be an American and to live in this great country of ours. I'm sure that there are many bloggers out there who live in other countries who think theirs is the greatest but I would have to argue with that. I hope that all your holiday preparations ended in a fantastic fireworks display!

I've got to also take the time right now give a big  "Thank you" to Cindy from Whimsical Musings! She has presented me with the Versatile Blogger Award! I am so happy and also humbled.

It came with these instructions:

1. Thank the person who gave you the Award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award along to 15 Bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic!
4. Contact the bloggers you've picked and let them know about the award.

Here's my list:
1. I have several collections, teapots (over two hundred), ruby red glass, doilies, teddy bears, Mary Engelbreit everything!
2. I love crafting and crochet!
3. I love to go fishing and will be going tomorrow with my hubby and two of our sons. Do I have it made or what? They really help me.
4. I also love to garden even though there are some things I can't do now, and besides the veggies I have flowers blooming all Summer.
5. I'm disabled and wondering what happened, but I just put on my big girl panties and deal with it.
6. I started taking classes today in Gourd Art. I'm lovin it.
7. If you don't know it, I recently joined the Bloggerette Sorority Sisters and I'm lovin that too!
I will be notifying all of the bloggers I have chosen within the next couple of days. I love all the wonderful people I've met in blog land!


Barbara

The Blogerette Sorority

Wow folks, I've got to tell you that I've really had a time getting this picture into this post! I'm just as thrilled as can be at becoming a member of the "Blogerette Sorority". This has been rush week and I've been gone for the majority of it. Anyway as a condition of our "Rush" we were required to take the picture from "Some days are Diamonds blog" which is above this post and add our own picture to it. I didn't have time to do a whole lot so I used some Mary Engelbreit background and then put the Sorority picture and a picture of myself next to it. I'm no expert at messing with pictures and such that's for sure. I've also had the Sorority button on the right side of my blog for awhile now. So far this has been a really fun thing and I do believe it will bring a lot people closer here on the blogesfere. If you so feel inclined, please join us in the Sorority. There isn't any time limit to becoming a member.

Hugs XX
Barbara

Summertime

Summertime and the plants are growing and the flowers are blooming! I just had to take a picture of my favorite Hosta, Hydrangea and Astilbe. We also have Daylilies, Shasta Daisies,Clematis, Roses and Rose of Sharon blooming all around the yard. Our garden has finally started to take off. It seems like the vegetables are running close to a month behind. I know it has to do with the Spring we had. Right now it's not getting below 70 degrees at night though and in the 90's during the day. We could really use some rain here even though several people perished in the SW part of the state this past weekend because of flash flooding. I've been so sad over that and especially sad over the loss of several children.

This is a red and white hotpad that I made as part of the June 2010 CAL on Crochet Soiree. Hope I win a prize.  The Summer Sling Tote that's pictured above was made for my oldest Granddaughter. I hope she likes it. She picked out the yarn from some pics that her Dad emailed to her and the lining is from some vintage fabric that I picked up at an estate sale. Her twin sisters call her a hippy.LOL Personally, I like her style 'cause she's her own person. Our oldest son will be here late Thursday evening with his family on their move to their new home in El Paso, TX. He's a major in the Army and is being assigned to a new place. Counting the son who's staying with us for awhile and this son and family there will be 10 people in my house for three days. It should be fun though. Everyone is over 21 except for the youngest who is 13. I know there will be fishing and swimming going on. I'm gonna have to quit chatting away and get the house cleaned up and ready. Ick Hope you all have a fun filled week.

What's on the hooks?

I've looked at several other blogs to see what everyone is doing lately and I've seen some terrific stuff. "The Garden Bell" has some hookie goodness going on, not to mention "Pammy Sue's Place",  "Attic24", "Crocheting My Bestest with my Worsted", "Shropshire Suz",  and many many more. Lovely, colorful, hookie things that are so useful and beautiful at the same time. I just finished up a tote bag that will be given away as a prize at the end of the month to one lucky winner of the CAL for May at "Crochet Soiree".

Ta-Dah!

The colors in this photo really don't give the tote bag justice. The yarn is Vanna's Choice in the "Autumn" color for the body and the sides are Vanna's Choice in the "Brick" color. I love the colors and I also lined the bag and added a couple of pockets on the inside. If you are interested in winning this or winning a crocheted purse made by Molly of "Crocheting my bested with my Worsted" or a gorgeous doily made by Tamara Gonzales of "Tamara's Take" on Crochet Soiree. Just join the Crochet Soiree site (it's free ) and make at least one of two patterns which have been chosen for this contest. They are not hard to do and the names are chosen at random to pick the winners.

I've also never taken pictures of any of the granny squares that I've made so today I thought I would do just that.

I thought I'd give you two pictures of each. I'm sure that I've made well over one hundred granny squares of different types since I learned how to crochet a little over a year ago.

Well I've got to get other things made so that I can show them to you, so you all have a happy day!

Here I Am!

Hello Everyone! I hope this post finds everyone happy and content. I've been so busy recently that I think I may have met myself. Yes, we did go to the Gourd Festival held in Sedalia, MO and enjoyed ourselves immensely. The hubby and I both took classes and thought that they were great. We both enjoyed our instructors but I know that I got the funnest ones........."The Gourd Sisters, Lindy and Ann"! They live in Ballwin, MO and are very talented gourd artists. Here's an example of what I made in my class:

I really liked how my little gourd penguin and snowangel turned out. What about you?

Now here are some of the pictures of gourd items entered into the competition:

Yes my dears, these were all made out of gourds! Can you believe that motorcycle? There was even a tabletop working merry-go-round. I was amazed at all the beautiful things that I saw and yes I took TONS of pictures. We also bought a lot of gourds for working with and have since purchased a lot of the stuff we need to do some gourd crafting of our own! I'll show you more pictures when I get some things completed. It really was a great trip and I think I made some new friends while we were there.

This past week I made two baby bibs exactly like this first one that I made:

And mailed them off to Doug the IT guy over at Crochet Soiree 'cause he's expecting twin girls in the month of May. Now I've started working on a prize for the May CAL over on Crochet Soiree. I'm making a granny tote which will be lined as one of the prizes in Autumn colors. If you know how to crochet or want to learn how, you need to get on over to http://www.crochetsoiree.com/ right away and enter the CAL and contest. The details about it are in the Tamara's blog before last. Easy projects and nice prizes too~ Come on over and join us. Well dears I have a lot to do in a little time and I'm also going to the Farmer's Market as a seller tomorrow. I've got some lovely irises, daylilies, sweet basil, spearmint, oregano, tomato plants, zucchini plants etc. to sell. Wish me luck! More to come in the future.

HugsXX    Barbara

What a wonderful week!

This lovely award has been given to me by Indigo Blue!

Many thanks to you Indigo Blue, what a lovely surprise.

I now need to pass this on to 10 other beautiful bloggers. Not easy this and I will try to spread these out a bit each time I am lucky enough to get an award. So here goes:

Molly @ Crocheting My Best with My Worsted
Lucy@ Attic24
Suz@ Suz's Crochet Groove
Bev@ One Yarn After Another
Nancy & Gdog@ The Strawberry Mallard
Kate@ The Garden Bell
Deneen@ Yarns and Musings
Paulette@ Beedeebabee
Jeanne@ Creative Bliss
Beansieleigh@ Beansie Babbles

Many thanks to everyone that visits here as well. If I get another award I'll spread it around also. When I get finished with this post I have to go send out a few emails. LOL

Well I finished the scarf I was making for the CAL that's going on over on Crochet Soiree. If anyone is interested, there's still time to crochet that scarf pattern and get it entered before the end of the month. Crochet Soiree and Tamara Gonzales are giving away some really neat prizes to those who enter a scarf that they've completed.

I also finished this baby blanket this month. The body of the blanket was done entirely in backpost sc. It's a Sirdar yarn that's Cotton/Acrylic blend. I really like it but there certainly were a lot of color changes back and forth!
And then to show you one of my prized irises:

Isn't it just a beauty? And here's a picture of the red Azaleas in front of the house:

Aren't they just beautiful also? We have white and pink Azaleas too.

I hope you enjoyed the blog today and will come back to share with me. I'll be bringing back pictures from the Gourd Festival to share with you in a few days. We'll be leaving in the morning and won't be back until Monday. I'm so thankful that my oldest son will be here to take care of everything. Have a great weekend everyone.

 

How does your garden grow?

Well friends I haven't had a lot of time to do any blogging lately as I've been very busy in the greenhouse and garden. I don't know if I've mentioned it before but my hubby and I have been growing flowers and gardening for the past few years. This year was "the" year to sell some flowers that we have propagated, so for the past few weeks we have been going to the local "Farmers Market" in a town about 15 miles from us to sell them. It was a slow start but things have started getting better. We've sold Tulips, Irises, and Loblolly Pines. This week we have Shasta Daisies, Torch Lilies, Liriope grass and some vegetables that we've gotten started in our greenhouse.....cucumbers, squash, zucchini and luffah. Yes I've been really busy and it's been especially hard on me because I can only do a little at a time and then I'm not good for anything for awhile. Boo Hoo! So enough of that.

I have however been trying to blog hop as much as possible because you all give me such inspiration and instruction. I haven't had time to do a lot of posting on your blogs but rest assured I have been reading and learning all I can.

Weekend after next we're going to go to a Gourd Festival in Missouri. It's a two day event in Sedalia, MO. We're hoping to learn a lot about Gourd Art while there. Gourds are another thing that we've planted. My hubby is quite the artist though he won't admit it and I would like to give a go at gourd painting. The festival that we are going to has classes on all types of gourd art. I think it will really be fun. I've been assured that there will be plenty of places where I can sit down. I plan on taking my camera with me and getting as many pictures as possible. In the meantime whenever I'm at the Farmers Market or at home in the evening, I'm crocheting my little heart out! I'll be posting some more pictures of crochet projects I've completed soon.

Happy crocheting!
Barbara

What a giveaway!

If you haven't heard about it yet IHAN (I have a notion) they have a fantastic giveaway going on!!! This is there one year anniversary and they are giving away fantastic gifts everyday for 30 days. Unfortunately, I just found out about it but there is still time to enter for some fantastic prizes. Here's their information for getting to where you need to be:
 Blog Link: http://www.ihaveanotion.blogspot.com/
Website Link : http://ihavea-notion.com/store/  Please go there and give it a look see, what a terrific store to check out.

April is here!

I'm sure that Spring is here in the first part of April, but I wanted to share my last crochet experience if you will for the month of March. As you know, March was National Crochet month and my last crochet thing that I did was to crochet on the courthouse square in a town close to me. My husband and I were selling tulips and irises which we have been growing for the past few years at the Farmers Market which is held on the courthouse square every Wednesday and Saturday. As we waited for customers I had my bag of crochet and worked on it. I got to talk to several people about crochet while we were there which was a lot of fun. We've been so busy planting seed for our garden that its been hard finding the time to crochet at all. But crochet I have at every available moment!

I want to remind everyone about the Crochet-A-Long which is being held over on the Crochet Soiree website. The CAL starts on April 5th and runs through the end of the month. You should really go on over and sign up and join in "cause in addition to the CAL, they are also going to have some fantastic giveaways! Go on over and check it out http://www.crochetsoiree.com/  Hope to see you all there!

What have you done for Crochet Month?

I'm sure that everyone who's reading this blog knows that March is Crochet Month! Have any of you taught someone else to crochet or maybe learned to crochet yourselves? I taught myself to crochet just a little over a year ago and I'm happy to say I'm in love with crochet! I've always got a crochet project going on.

Another thing is I have a very special crochet designer that I follow and try to promote whenever possible. Her name is Tamara Gonzales and she has a blog called Tamara's Take on the Crochet Soiree website. Here is a link to the website:  http://www.crochetsoiree.com/ I hope that you each go there and read her blog. Another thing I'd like to see you all do is join us April 2 or so for a CAL that we'll have going on. We're gonna be using one of Tamara's first patterns for a scarf, which I hope everyone can use either as a Christmas present or for charity. Leisure Arts is publishing Tamara's first book which will be out in the next couple of weeks. I'll be posting more about the book just as soon as it comes out. Tamara is a great new designer kid on the block who has a wonderful personality and is a genuinely nice person. You'll love to get to know her. Let me know what you think okay? Thanks friends.

It's another giveaway!

I want to let everyone know about this wonderful giveaway that's going on over at Birchberry Farms. She has started a new line of lotions to go along with her soaps and is having a wonderful giveaway. You can got to her blog to enter: http://www.birchberryfarms.blogspot.com/

One World One Heart Giveaway and More!

Recently there was an outstanding blog hop called OWOH or One World One Heart giveaway, where people who had blogs and wanted to participate could sign up and giveaway one gift to a lucky person who visited their blog and signed up for the prize. Some blog sites gave away up to five gifts I believe. Anyway, I did a "bunch" of blog hopping and met a lot of very talented people who had so much to share. It was really an amazing thing both for the blogs who participated and for the people who went around and visited as many blog sites as they could. All in all, there were over "one thousand" blog sites that participated! I went to as many places as I could and signed up for a lot of gifts, and guess what? I won five gifts from different people at different blog sites!! I'm going to try to post them here and let you know who they are from:

This is a lovely "Baktus" scarf in a beautiful blue, 100% Wool sent by Hazel Henry. Thank you Hazel!

The next gift is a beautiful antique collar with a lot of handsewn pearls on it, and also some wonderful tea. This gift was from Nancy Benanito-Sgromolo.

Isn't this just the cutest little penguin ornament you've ever seen? It was designed and made by Josie Ditzler.

I won this beautiful decorated letter "B" (which is the first letter of my name, how cool is that?) And I also received this sweet pocket card with lots of embellishments for me to use to decorate something, now wasn't that sweet? The wonderful artist who did all that for me is Bee Beryl at: http://nannabeeshive.blogspot.com

Last but certainly not least of the artists who I won a one of a kind piece of art designed by themselves is, Gina Luna. You can find her blogspot here: http://inginasworld.blogspot.com

Weren't those just the most wonderful pieces of art and gifts that you've ever seen? I would highly recommend to each and everyone who reads this, that they participate in the OWOH next year, both as a blogger who joins in and gives away a gift, and as a blog hopper who goes around and meets a lot of new people and wins a lot of gifts. The gifts are a bonus, and meeting new people and making new friends is what it's all about. I plan on doing both next year, so stay tuned!!

Now then, in addition to all the wonderful gifts that I received in the OWOH, I entered another giveaway on Craftside and won a book! This is a good one and they let me choose what type book I wanted. Of course you all know that I love to crochet so I asked for a book of crochet if they had one. Here's what I received:

Isn't this just so cool? It not only has the pattern for knitting each project, it also has the pattern in crochet!!! This book is going to be so helpful. I love the Craftside blog. I think you can go there this way: www.craftside.com. Anyway give it a try and if that's wrong I'll correct it soon. I've been waiting awhile to do a blog about all these wonderful things. You all have no idea how much winning all this stuff has meant to me. I've also made friends and followers by participating that I'm so grateful for. I want to thank everyone once again. Thank you!