A Little Busy...like the rest of you!

Things have really changed for me this fall as I am teaching art full time and working at Scheels part time. 

Yes, it is a lot at times, but I love my part time job and my new job needs lots of extra attention, so I am very busy.

Here are a few snap shots of our late summer early/fall thus far.

Our dear friends the Hallans!!

Jonny and I went out to pick some corn at our CSA in Fergus Falls.

They ran out of pumpkins at their first open event, NOT signing up with them again! UGH! :(

The Cows a movin'

While we were out West scouting for Sharptail.

 

Yep, HE's a biggin'! Gotta love the curls!

Celebrating our friends anniversary...first nice picture since we lost weight... :)

 

 

We went on a 5K mud run with 11 obstacles in September, and had a great weekend with family in Minneapolis!

Had a blast! Got MUDDY!

 

 

A quick pic before the Carrie Underwood concert! We love fall!!

 

 

Carrie on a platform over the audience!

She had 6 outfit changes, all gorgeous! It was a fantastic concert!

 Well that's all for now, I have got to lesson plan :) 

Any good ideas for High School painting projects/ artists to model after?

enjoy.

Liz

A muralist I think I am : Family Tree

So, a while back my co-worker, and friend Brianna asked if I would be interested in painting a tree on her parents wall. 

This would be something of a background image for a collection of family photos and it would be a "family tree" wall display. I have seen a few of these on Pinterest and such, but never in person. 

This tree created by Centsibly chic sisters

I personally love trees and have observed, drawn, and sculpted them for a long time now, so I said I could do it. Now, if you know me then you know that I don't share my personal art very freely, but I love to give people things I have made and encourage others in their creating. 

This tree gave me the most inspiration for movement of the branches--created by Fresh Paint Artist Linnette Lee

So needless to say this was a step of faith on my part that I could successfully complete this tree mural and make my client happy. The Lord gave me courage and sustained me through encouragement from my good friend and paint partner Tricia and lots of joy throughout the process. 

Day1: Blank Slate

I sketched out the tree with a 3H drawing pencil, so the lines wouldn't be too dark to erase or touch up with the wall paint. This process took about and hour and a half, I did do some preliminary sketches, but had a general idea of how many main branches I wanted and then used my own visual sense from there.

Here is Tricia started on the main beams

Several hours later our tree is growing!!

Me cleaning up on day one.

Day One: Most of the main parts and a few details painted

Day Two: Adding the small branches and details

Details and main branches I added in the morning.

We added green leaves

Then red leaves, which completed Day Two.

Day Three:
We finished up a second coat of brown on the branches & added the golden yellow leaves.

Cleaning up after the finishing touches!

Tricia and I were delighted with how the tree, etc, turned out and so were Brianna's parents!!

They promised to send me a picture once they have their frames and photos ready, so an after the final tree picture will be posted later!!

enjoy.

Liz

The Headwaters of the Mississippi

The Hubby and I vacationed at Itasca State Park for 10 days, what an relaxing camping excursion.

Day one:
Arrive at Bear Paw camp ground, meet up with Mom & Dad-in-love (Brave souls).
We set up camp and grilled some steaks, and chatted it up around the fire!

 Jon is a total lumberjack when it comes to making fires...he sure loved using his hatchet!!

Day two:
We got up and had breakfast at Logging Camp, yum!!

They serve your choice of sausage/ham, and you style of eggs, hashbrowns, and unlimited pancakes, and meat! 

 Dave liked the cowboy raisens...candied prunes

They weren't my favorite!

They had a lots of cool old, rusty logging makings, and steam engines!





For the afternoon
The guys and gals split up for some fun!

Jon and Dave went to Mantrap lake and caught some Musky!

Mary and I went to Park Rapids and had a blast bopping around the shops!

Some antique shopping,
and dodging of the rain.
We had a blast and lots of laughs!

We stopped between showers to warm up with a latte, and to rest our shopping shoes :)




We ventured off the main drag to a fun antique/junk shop






Found this gem of a sign posted outside their building!

 Mary and I had to do a little laundry run as their 15+ year old tent wasn't so water proof anymore :(
























So we had dinner in town at
 The Good Life Cafe...delicious!




While in town Mary and I bought some fudge for dessert, and well the RACCOON apparently thought it was for him...luckily Jon saw it (INSIDE our screen canopy!) and scared it off with his flash light. He got away with the empty box! This is only the beginning of the raccoon saga.

The Raccoon tried to get into this container on our first night!

  

 We made a trip to Walmart one evening,

 and this is what Mary and I saw....

through our tears of laughter! 

Yes, it's true he is grocery shopping in his golf cart, he also had some sweet long black socks on!!

Day three:
Father's Day 

 







We had a wonderful breakfast at camp and went on a bike ride to the Headwaters of the Mississippi, on the north point of Lake Itasca.

We biked over to the visitor center, all our feet up Nort'

 We also went down to the Douglas Lodge and climbed down to the lake shore to see some beautiful wild Lady Slipper flowers!

We then headed out for some local BBQ, just out side the park,
and came back for a short (storm interrupted) boat ride, and a fire.

Day Four: 
We made brunch and sent Dave and Mary on there way!

Jon and I went and relaxed at the small beach on Itasca Lake, got a little sunburt and enjoyed the quiet moments. Later we went fishing on Elk Lake inside Istasca State Park, and didn't get any fish, but enjoyed the peace once again!

More to come soon!