More Of The Same

I never tire of taking pictures. It is part of my life, but I am very tired of the weather. I am so ready for Spring. Unfortunately we still have three more months of winter left.

Warm and Toasty..

I am sure some of you have gotten quite a bit of snow in the last twenty four hours. Here in Michigan we only got one inch. It is very cold here. Eighteen degrees was the tempeture that I woke up to this morning. To keep myself warm and toasty my husband made a fire in the fireplace. I want to share it with all of you. Please enjoy.

Bbbbburrrrrr....It's Cold Outside.

It's not that it is snowing so much because it isn't. It's the wind. The tempeture is 14 degrees with a wind chill of -4. The wind is blowing at 20 miles an hour. It is still clasified as a blizzard. Not many cars on the road today. They are saying if you don't have to go out, don't. I am sitting in my comfy house with the heat turned up and watching old movies. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Just a side note, The top picture was featured on WZZMTV that same day.

Winter is Here...

I woke up this morning to this beautiful site. I never would imagine that the first snow fall would be this amazing. We woke up to eight inches of snow. Because of this all the schools were closed in west Michigan area. That means the mall will be busy with shoppers and children.

Leaves are all gone...

While taking a walk with sweet Bella the other day, we ended up by the river. This scene tells me that since the leaves are gone, winter is going to arrive soon. Winter is beautiful here in Michigan. I will take some pics, as the snow flies. Kind of bitter sweet.

Leaves....

Well, all the leaves are all raked up and thrown into the woods to relive with nature again. We all enjoyed playing in them. Bella our three year old toy poodle had the best time of us all. Thought that you should enjoy seeing her playing too.

Where They Were

Now that we are all finished raking the mass amount of leaves from our back yard, I can now show you where they came from.

Halloween...

Happy Halloween to all of you. This is one of my favorite holidays as I love to decorate. This year I decided to take pictures to share with you. Here are a few for your enjoyment. Please let me know what you think.

Art and Music Is All Around Us

Art is everywhere. It is the places we go and even the people we meet. A 15 year old girl and a 75 year old man. Only one song worth singing. make your own kind of music, sing your own special song, make your own kind of music, even if nobody sings along. Just do your own thing. Doing your thing is the hardest thing to do.

Art Buzz

Grand Rapids, Michigan is buzzing with art. Art Prize, The Farmers Market and East Town Art Fair. The bottom pictures show 2 entries in Art Prize. The Beerhorst Wonder Wagon, and Nessie one of the entries in the top 10.

Doodles...

Since the weather was not co-opperating, the laundry was completed, the house was clean and everything else was finished. I decided to work on some doodles. I could work on these forever. The size of these doodles are 3 by 5 for the black and white and the one with color is 1 1/2 by 1 1/2.

Very relaxing. Please let me know what you think.

Butterflies are Free

It seems like summer is coming to an end here in Michigan, the days are getting shorter with the sun setting earlier, and the warm days are turning into cool waking hours however I still see butterflies and moths fluttering through the air.

Here are some from butterflies from our trip Up North.

Hens and Chicks-the plant type

I was surprised this summer to see stalks sprouting from my hens and chicks. I did some reserch and discovered that they do this every four years. Then, the stalk dies and new offshoots grow from the remaining plants.

Point of Interest

Owner for more that 30 years

Molding Room........

Painted Dragon

Many Gnomes ........

On Us 131 north towards Mancelona, Michigan. There is a shop by the side of the road who's business is selling molded concrete lawn ornaments and such. As far as you could see, there were statues.

Art Inside Today..

Since our Michigan weather is not co-operating I had to move my art inside. Today I am working on making new brooches for my etsy site. They will appear later today. They are approximantly 2 and 3/4 inches in length by 1 and 3/4 at their widest point. The black one is made with genuine turquoise and coral nuggets, also added are glass silver beads. The red one is made with genuine turquoinse nuggets and glass beads. Both have metal pin backs which are wired on. Please check out my Etsy site:

www.artfulexpressions.etsy.com

Shadows

I couldn't resist this shadow. While at Sleeping Bear Dunes taking a break for lunch I snapped this image of Sylvia's legs under the table. Looks like she is wearing textured leggings.

More Up North...

Mr. Lew at the summit

Sylvia at the summitView from the bottem.

View from the summit.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Northwest coast of lower Michigan. On the shores of Lake Michigan near Traverse City. This is a view from the top of the dune to the parking lot below.

Up North on the 4th of July

Oh, what a wonderful 4th of July we had! My family; Mr. Lew, Sylvia and I decided to venture Up North. To take a little family vacation. What I mean by Up North is, we live in the state of Michigan which is divided into two sections; Upper and Lower. We live in the lower, lower western half of the state. We migrated north, to the most northern part of the lower portion of the state. A place called Mackinaw City. It is here we saw the fireworks of the 4th of July. What a wonderful clear night it was.

Doodles

I have always created doodles like these, for as long as I can remember. I use a black Uniball drawing pen and sometimes I add a touch of color. I combine swirls, paisleys, hearts, circles, flowers and anything that I feel like adding. These doodles all come together to create an intricate design on mat board. No pre drawing outlining done whatsoever.

My Back Yard

The colors of summer are coming out. These are pink Peonies from my back yard garden. They don't last but a few days but are very fragrant and beautiful when they bloom!

Happy Birthday Dad

My dad passed away in 1973. Today he would have been 100 years old

This one is for you Dots.