§ If Walls Could Talk, They'd Say...

Another famous Western artist is Charles Russell.  A long time ago, Bud used to collect Jim Beam bottles [thank goodness that craze lifted!].  Anyway, I liked one 'specially because it was female.  The title of the painting is The Indian Maiden The bottle, before it was thrown away, I took the liberty of trying my hand at sketching her.

An acrylic painting done in 1996 I titled Sonoran Sonata . I chose that title because sonata is defined as a composition for an instrumental soloist. The coyotes are definitely 'instrumental', and this happens to be a solo composition!!! It's depicting an area we lived in, in Tucson Arizona, with the jagged Tucson Mountains at sunset. Sonoran, by the way, is the name of the desert in Arizona and Old Mexico. For the both of us, if Arizona wasn't so expensive to live in, we'd still be there, happily...

The longest wall, with plenty of open space, instead of them being strewn around the room, I placed all four very large sketches in one spot. [Bud made the frames!]

Three of the four in Close-ups


Willie Nelson and Val Kilmer [as Doc Holliday]

Update: We are done with the rewiring, the painting, the curtain and curtain rod hanging, the wall decor, etc. All but the backing of the entertainment center...we have yet to get out and buy what we need for that. BUT!! We decided to take a few weeks off from our revamping the interior, and now I plan on some fresh air and birding!!! Yay. Seems I've been cooped up for way too long. In fact, I HAVE.

§ More Art...

Most of the art work is my sketches, framed. A few are purchased [the long horns for one, perched behind a set of real horns on the fireplace hearth -during Christmas this picture is stashed away to make room for holiday garb]. Some hanging on the wall are DIY by Bud!

Each year, for Easter, the City of Corpus Christi has a Sunrise service at a park downtown. One time, I read about it, and saved the clipping, only to use it as a model for a painting done in acrylics. I had intentions of shipping this to our daughter, but never did. So it graces our walls. [1-clipping, 2-painting]

Another, is a wood carving done by Bud. Our son asked him to carve a wooden crucifix [styled by Guns n Roses album cover]. He finished, boxed it up and sent it to him. But, not before I begged for a duplicate!! He carved a 2nd one for me.

Here is mine that he gifted me more than two decades ago. It is one of my most cherished posessions...

Lastly today, another project Bud made with an old west theme. A wreath. He made this out of barbed wire!

My next post will be the end of the 'art work' display case. Two walls covered with my framed sketches [and one acrylic painting].

§ Bev Doolittle Wall...

As with the previous post I concluded with "I'll post some of the art work" in the room...

I will begin with the three framed Bev Doolittle works which I grouped together on one wall. Two are from jigsaw puzzles. One is a real signed and numbered print of hers Bud bought from an art dealer in Colorado [He and I both like her work! This one below is Bud's favorite].

Woodland Encounter

Bev Doolittle

Note: Most of her work is of "hidden" ojects. In this, The red fox is the focal point, among the birch trees are two hidden Native Americans on horseback. Because of the angle I had to shoot the image, the reflections of the room makes it very difficult to find them. Look closely. One is on each side of the fox...to help, look below!

The other two on this wall are framed jigsaw puzzles. MY favorite is titled The Forest Has Eyes. This mountain man scene has 13 faces hidden in and around the entire scene. Look in the rocks, the trees, etc.

How many can you find?

And the last one is actually a set of two done in a series. The puzzle is only of one...

The Guardian Spirits
[in this case spirit] The hidden images are quite noticable...

More wall art coming up!!

§ A Woman's Work [and Man's] is Never Done...

It's been nearly a week since I posted last. Bud and I have been busy with the refurbishing the living room. And it turned into a chore. LOL But, after hanging the curtains, the job is done except for the rewiring of the light sockets. That is the last thing on the list of chores. We've ignored the yard work for about a month or more. Soon, we will have to get outdoors and get the backyard cleaned up a whole lot. A few weeks past we had a light freeze, I covered the potted plants and some in the raised garden bed, but all but TWO froze. Yet, the weeds remain hardy!! :-)

I didn't take many photos of the 'before' but I tried to show a bit of differences in the finished room. We decided to move the entire setting area in the room, which meant to move the HEAVY entertainment center. Before, it was against the front window. And the light was dulled by the monstrous piece. We moved it to the opposite side of the room. Since it was once against the window, the back was open. Now that it is on the other side, the back is still open, but curious Isaiah can now jump up behind the TV and CORDS!!! We plan on closing that in when we can find time to get to Home Depot for the materials needed. In the meantime Bud and I "enclosed it" with a brown bear throw with upholstery tacks. It will be wood backing eventually.

Now, some updated images. I will begin with the painting of course. [we have a system...I paint the low and Bud paints the high]

I will show the arrangement of wall art in next post....

§ Done and Thank Goodness....

After nearly two weeks of working on the bath, I really began to "hate" the entire job. But, now that it's finally done, it's not bad. Next room on the agenda is the Livingroom. A big, huge room that requires emptying the very large entertainment center of records [vinyl collection], CDs, tapes, DVDs, and even some very old VHS that haven't been replaced. Plus lots of knicknacks. Then, we need to patch cracked walls from the foundation sinking this past summer. And, rearrange furniture and picture frames. Estimated 2-4 weeks of work. I'm sure there will be many days off relaxing sore muscles. lol

I know I showed a lot in my previous post of the bathroom progress, but I wanted to record the finished job. We decided to go from blue to everything accented oriental red...

We have collected many Buddahs and dragons, a couple of oriental fans, Foo Dogs, and chinamen figurines. But...as I mentioned last week, there is a SPECIAl Buddah. Actually a Ho Tei [pronounced HO Tie]. I bought this for Bud for a gift of our very first Christmas...nearly 54 years ago. He's about 3 feet tall. Trust me, his belly has been rubbed thousands of times for good luck!!

Even when we moved from Colorado to Arizona and then the Texas coast, he had a special place in the CAR instead of the moving vans!!

The last share today is of the four Chinese Zodiac symbols in soapstone...
The Rat *Erik's
The Tiger *Bud's
The Ox *Me, Anni
The Rooster *Irene's



Wanna know what your personality [zodiac] is? Click here. PS...you need to know what YEAR of your birth to know your symbol first. Calculate here!!!

§ Catch Up...

To begin, I mentioned the delay in working on the bathroom. Well, part of it was a nasty fall I had that put me in a blinded state for a couple of days! -the photo here is today, the 14th, about a week AFTER the mishap, and quite a bit healed. I never thought of a selfie at the time of the fall- The very night, a few minutes afterward, my left eye swelled shut, a large knot appeared on my forehead, and the several scrapes along the cheek and nose and under both eyes were bloody, and stinging. Then, the very next morning, all was still swelled badly, tho the pain was subsiding. To top it off, I lost my cellphone during the day sometime!! I searched everywhere. Bud tried calling my number. Nothing. Erik, my son texted Bud and said the night before [the night of the fall] someone called him while he was teaching class. He didn't realize until it was way late in the evening. After thinking I had lost it for good, the mechanic called Bud's number [I have his contact on my phone ICE -In Case of Emergency] the next morning; it was the secretary at the mechanic's telling us I left my phone on the counter there while I was paying for the repair work and picking up the car!

So a few days passed and no work done on the painting. Again, there are two individual rooms for both of our bathrooms. I finally felt up to getting some done about 4 days later. I did get the walls painted in ONE room and all the 'stuff' hung for decorative touches. I am gonna take another day to myself and relax then, begin the 2nd room.

This has been a week from H E double L.

before...


after...

Note: I whited out the door opening to the 2nd room

Bud was in the Navy, stationed in the North Atlantic, Caribbean, and the Orient. Hence, his interest in everything of the culture/figurines, etc. I have one piece that goes into the 2nd room of the bathroom that has a 'history' to it, will hopefully remember to share it when that room is done.

§ Let the Sunshine In....

BEFORE PICTURES here. Our house sits on the property at an angle. Which is good...warm sun in the winter and well shaded in the summer months. The nicest time in our diningroom is late in the afternoon! I must admit that I said long ago, I'd never do all white walls again. I wanted color. Well, after nearly 20 years of color, I now wanted white! And I'm liking it. Of course doing the rearranging of photos and frames on all the walls to "unclutter" helps. lol

...close ups...

Of course I'm sticking with it all being my bird sanctuary! I 'heart' birds! To explain a bit of what you see:

Top left of close up images...I made four curtain tie-backs out of Christmas cardinals, I have several collage frames of birds I've photographed! Then...the black swans were seen many years ago at Laguna Madre [mother's lagoon] shores here in Corpus Christi...they are indigenous to Australia!! A long migration to South Texas. A couple of years ago, two other black swans were spotted, but so VERY RARE --the rarest bird seen for me in my home area. The last two are of a print [and close up] of a piece of artwork that I bought from a co-worker's artist husband...Ron Salter. He gave me pointers on sketching and lighting many many moons ago...before I retired [Colorado].

PART I -kitchen

PART II -family hall