Eye Docter and veggies.

Hi Everyone!

Today I had to drive to Eugene for my eye exam. The drive in, ( about 90 miles one way) was not bad. The road into town is a 2 lane hwy that is curvy and locals as well as tourist just can't get it through their heads that 35 and 40mph IS NOT ACCEPTABLE!!! Sooooooo, the drive in was not bad. The doctors apt was horrible. I got my test right away and there has been improvement with the blind spot of my right eye.  However, I waited over an hour for the doctor to examine my yes. I don't know what was going on but geeeessss... I got there at 10:00 and didn't get out of there until 12:30 and all but 15 minutes was waiting. uuuhhhgggg..... The drive home was horrible. Tourist and people from Eugene heading to the coast. Ya know, like there is not epidemic in the US and everybody can just go on vacation. OK, I am getting upset and I need to calm down. Ohhh I know beer thirty. LOL Plus I want to show you what I got out of my garden. Now being home and playing in my little garden makes me happy. 

Isn't this a beauty? I took this shot a few days ago.

and now.....my haul for today. I have a small container garden and I am happy with this.

I will be canning cucks this weekend.

Since I have never canned before,

 I thought I would try it first with something easy. 

I made Strawberry Jan.

 I don't know what took me so long to grow a garden and cann

My great grandam, my grandma and my mom all had gardens and canned. 

Well they would be proud of me now for finally doing this.  

Tomorrow morning I will bake some bread, whip some butter, 

and have a nice home made snack with my jam.

Hope you are enjoying your day.

Nicole/DVArtist

Honor and integrity in art, in life.

PPF Texture

Hi Everyone!

I have been working on some abstract texture pieces. However, I didn't have near enough molding paste. Not to fear, I just made my own. It's an easy recipe of Plaster of Paris and white glue. In fact if you can get the consistency right it works better than store bought. 

So here is one of the pieces. 

I am linking up with Paint Party Friday. Click on the link to see all the other artists that join in. 

Have a great weekend

Nicole/DVArtist 

Honor and integrity in art, in life.

TAD Descent

Hi Everyone!

Today is Thursday Art Date with Rain. Her theme today is "Descent" My brain immediately went to one of my favorite movies "The Descent" It's where a group of young gals, who are all athletic, go into a cave to explore. There are a few twists before they all go deep into the ground. Ahhhhh yes, and as they descend they come across the creatures. 

If you don't know I LOVE watching scary movies.

 If you haven't seen "Descent" I think it is on Netflix. 

There is a Descent 2 as well. Just as good.

The girl crew

Getting ready to "descend"

For me, no flippen way

OK,  I had to show the creatures

and of course a trailer

Hope you enjoyed the scared.

Nicole/DVArtist 

honor and integrity in art, in life.

T is for Tuesday Veggie Smoothie

Hi Everyone!

Today I am joining in with Elizabeth at T for Tuesday 

with a fresh out of the garden smoothie.

I have always enjoyed my smoothies but now that I have fresh veggies to add to the drink that make my mornings just a little bit special. I'm trying to find the good in this life wherever I can. This is a good thing.

 This was yesterday's green day haul

We also had a pizza night. Now I may have mentioned this before, but Mr. M doesn't really like pizza. However, I forgot to take something out of the freezer for dinner 

soooooo this is what we had.

Yesterday, I worked on my textured pieces. I applied the first coat of paint. While I waiting for them to dry I put together this little ditty. 

I textured the background then painted it with acrylics. I added the dried branches to act as trees, then applied the leaves. Not a master piece just something fun to do.

I hope your life is calm and creative. 

Nicole/DVArtist 

Honor and integrity in art, in life.

Monday Things

 Hi Everyone!

I seriously don't  know where my days go. Living life at home, that would be since Jan, I am busier than when I did ALL the things I did out of the house.  I find that I am fine with this life. I have MORE than enough to keep me busy and I feel like there really isn't anything I need or want outside of my home.  Is that weird?

OHHH I keep forgetting I am weird. LOL

I was totally thrilled with yesterdays weather. 74° and NO WIND. My garden just popped with life. I will have lots to harvest in the morning.

I am most excited about the brussle sprouts that are growing.  

Last week I worked on a drawing that for me is, mas o menos, so so. The guy is very skinny and his hair is thinning. I shouldn't have put color on his clothes. It looks not right to me, however here he is. 

I am working on some textured pieces that have to dry before I can paint them. You all know how patient I am with that. NOT. LOL

I will work on those tomorrow.

Enjoy your day and stay safe. 

 

Nicole/DVArtist 

Honor and integrity in art, in life.

Potatoes

Hi Everyone!

Over the last few days I have asked my garden group, and friends about my potato plant. It grew big and beautiful, flowered and started the die back as it should. Then a few days ago new shoots about a foot tall showed up. No one could tell me what to do. Then, I spoke to my friend, here in Florence who said, "It sounds like a new potato has started to shoot." For some reason that just made sense to me. She suggested I harvest. oohhh laaaa laaa. Harvesting potatoes is so much fun. Especially when they are in a container. I got 54 red potatoes. YAY!!!

 I am happy with this yield.

Enjoy your Suday 

Nicole/DVArtist

Honor and integrity in art, in life.

From the Garden and I need help

Hi Everyone!

Hope all of you are well and staying as safe as you can. My town has gone from being safe, 2 cases of covid to over 100 cases. Of course those are just the people that have been tested so it's more.  All because our gov. opened up to tourists. We have 4 restaurants closed down due to covid cases. The US is a mess.

OK, enough of that crap.

I want to be happy today so here is what I harvested this AM from the garden. Everyday I bring in food from the garden. That makes me happy.

The onions are from the bottoms of onions I bought at the store. I have been cutting the greens for months and using them. Now I have bulbs. 

 I am very happy with my flower garden. This color is just fabulous!

These 2 toned are so pretty. 

I need to get a better photo to try and paint these.

These are from one my potato plants.

Pure joy to see baby Brussels growing. 

This is my favorite veggie of all time.

My good friend, who moved away from Florence sent me this book

Thank you Donna, I will get good use from this.

 

Now for the big garden question. I have a potato plant that is growing in a canvas bag. It grew to mammoth proportions. It flowered and then began to die back as it is suppose to do. A few days ago I woke to find a foot of new green growth on the potato plant. I asked in several of my FB garden group what to do? No one had an answer. Now today, the part that was dying back is getting new green grow. I live in a very very wet and windy place. The dew, fog and marine layer leaves so much moisture that I don't have to do a morning watering.  Sooo to anyone who gardens do you have any advice for me? Thank you.

Nicole/DVArtist 

Honor and integrity in art, in life.

TAD with Rain Faces PPF

Hi Everyone!

Hey happy Paint Party Friday. Adding my TAD post to PPF.
 

Today is TAD with Rain and the theme is "Faces on an object" There are a lot of ways to go with this topic. Since I've had some requests to show how I make my leather faces 
I thought this would be a good time to do that.
First you need a table, space to work that you won't need for a few days. Next you will need some leather, now this gets into a whole separate class, however, find a piece that is a split, or suede and fairly thin. A large pan or pot to soak the leather in, White glue, a heat gun, optional, and old towel to cover work space. A thermometer for water temp, house hold gloves, scissors, and odds n ends items to help shape the leather and a face mold.

The face mold can be ANYTHING. It can be a ceramic, glass, wood, clay face that you have at your home or something you found at a thrift store. OR... you can make your own face. There a lots of places to buy plastic face molds and fill them with plaster of paris.  Or sculpt a face out of clay.

It goes like this. Fill the pot with enough water to well cover the leather. To make the leather stiffer when dried add about 1/4 cup white glue.

Stir the glue so the water is white.

Now heat the water not going over 120°

Turn off stove.

If you go over let it stand until it cools off

Add the leather to the hot water.

You may hear bubbles as the water penetrates the leather.

Push the leather down to make sure it is submerged.

Allow it to soak up to 15 minutes to when ever.

Sometimes I get busy with other things and hour pass. LOL

Just make sure the leather is saturated though.

DO NOT RINSE THE LEATHER.

Remove it from the pot and then wring

out as much water as you can. Now

start stretching the leather. Do this

in all directions.

It's time for the fun part

It took me all day to load this video. Blogger eeehhh.
These are the hands of a hard working woman.
Look so old.

Allow the leather to dry for dayyyyssss or take the heat gun and on the low setting,
dry the leather. This won't dry it completely either but it will give
it a big start. Once it is thoroughly dry remove it from the mold.
Now you can attach the face  to a painted canvas,
a nice piece of wood, a glass vase just about anything you can think of.
Paint and decorate it anyway you like

Here are some of the leather faces I have done over the years.
 Well the ones I have kept for myself.

I hope you enjoyed this post and maybe are 
inspired to make some leather faces.
If you have any questions leave me a comment I will answer you.
Be Safe out there.

Nicole/DVArtist

 Honor and integrity in art, in life.

I'm still here

Hi Everyone!

I'm still here just very busy with work. Thank goodness I need to make some extra money to pay for my eye surgery. Yikesssss. 

I am also working on a surprise blog post for TAD with Rain. 

 I will get to all of your blogs ASAP. 

Have a great evening.

Nicole/DVArtist 

Honor and integrity in art, in life.

Dill-oholic

Hi Everyone!

I am a dill-oholic. I can justify putting dill on almost any food. I even put it in my baked goods at times. So when I started my garden, (it's my first garden.) I planted some dill. (Everything in my garden was started from seed.) Yesterday, I was able to harvest some of the dill. OOOhhh yeaaahhhh... I don't have a dehydrator per say.... I have a dehydrating setting on my air frying machine but it really doesn't work that well. On my oven I have a warm/hold setting and with that I have dehydrated dill, thyme, and mint. I don't like doing that because my over eats up the electric. I guess I will have to save some money to get a real dehydrated. 

My house smells sooo darn good. 

  

Nicole/DVArtist 

Honor and integrity in art, in life.

Squash Spice Muffins

 Hi Everyone!

I have had a couple of icky days. Well icky for me. I have a million things in my brain to do and I just don't feel like doing any of them.  I know it's a bit of the "blues" but I don't have a real reason for it. All I want to do is watch good scary movies, and sleep, and that's exactly what I did yesterday.  Today though, I forced my self to do things. Part of that was baking these squash carrot spice muffins. Yes, with fresh squash and carrots from my garden. I used a basic recipe for muffins then added the goodies. OMG!!!!! they are so moist and delish. 

Ingredients

2/3C vegetable oil

2 large eggs

1/2 cup brown and granulated sugar.

1t vanilla

1/2t each backing soda, baking powder and salt

2t cinnamon (I always use more)

1 1/2 cup finely grated unpeeled zucchini or other summer squashes. I used a hybrid and crook neck. Squeeze out any liquid and pat dry.

1/2 cup finely shredded carrot. Pat dry.

preheat oven to 375° F. Line a muffin pan.

In a medium bowl, mix oil, eggs, both sugars and vanilla. 

In a larger bowl mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

Add the wet to the dry and mix until combined. Don't over stir. Add carrots and squash. Then spoon into the muffin pan. Bake about 20 minutes every oven is different so check with a toothpick to make sure they are done. 

Really no need for a topping they are sweet and moist.

Let me know if you try this recipe.

Nicole/DVArtist 

Honor and integrity in art, in life.

TAD with Rain 2 colors

Hi Everyone!

At the last minute we had to drive into Salem, Or. Uuuhhhgggg..... a 3 hour drive to see Mr. M's doctor. I stayed in the car while he went in. It didn't take long, all that drive for, it didn't take long. We stopped in Albany, Or. on the way home to go to Costco. We have not been since Jan and I needed to stock up on some things. It WAS crowded. Of course everyone HAD to wear a mask except kids. I don't quite understand why parents would not mask their kids. I had on my mask and a shield. I am so cute when I go out these days. Hee hee hee. I will have to take a photo so ya' all can see. 

 We are both tired and ready to take a nap, but I wanted to get this post published before I head upstairs. For Thursday Art Date with Rain the theme is 2 colors. Oh this is perfect for me.

A few years ago I did a series of Black to White. The paintings were featured is several coastal art galleries. Most of them sold too. Yay.

Well that's just a few of the series. 

Each painting only has black and white paint.

I am off for a sleep. Hope everyone is well and being careful out there.

Linking with Paint party Friday

Nicole/DVArtist 

Honor and integrity in art, in life.