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Friday, August 28, 2009

The Vintage Lady


Welcome. I am so glad that you stopped by. I am going to visit my friend, Cathy, who owns The Vintage Lady in Old Town Tustin. Come along with me and Bentley and we will visit her charming vintage shop and garden to see what she has been up to. Summer in Southern California is winding down and I wanted to visit her adorable garden one last time before she plants for fall.



Looks like Bentley has been patiently waiting for us.
Put on your walking shoes and off we go.






Her blue door is open and waiting for us to enter.



As we enter the front door we are greeted by a joyful quote painted on the wall.







Let's take a peek at some of her wonderful vintage treasurers.












Her shop is located in a tiny historical cottage and each room is painted a different color.










































Let's pour a cup of tea and visit Cathy's little garden in back of her cottage. She teaches " Make It & Take It " garden classes and her specialty - Mini Fairy Gardens and heirloom flowers.






























Cathy designs all of her special garden signs and has a local artist paint them for her. She takes custom orders for them.










The Vintage Lady is located at 434 El Camino Real, Tustin, CA 92780


714 731-0422


You can visit Cathy at her new website http://thevintagelady.com/ and see more photos of her charming shop and garden on her flicker page. She also has a blog under construction.


I am so happy that you stopped by. I love to hear from you and sincerely appreciate that you have taken time to leave me a comment and follow my blog. If you have any questions or want to see me paint something special, please leave me a comment or send me an e-mail.


Now that fall is almost here, we will be painting lots of sunflowers, roosters, pumpkins and special FALL WELCOME signs with scare crows and fall flowers. We will bake pumpkin bread, plant fall flowers and visit shops decorated for fall and go on some fun road trips together.

Have a lovely week. Blessings, Erin

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Garden Inspirations




Welcome, I am so happy that you stopped by. We are having a cool day in Southern California with a touch of rain this morning. The perfect day to have a cup of tea. Come join me and Bentley, my studio assistant, in the garden and we will look for inspiration for a new painting.





I poured a cup of hot tea just for you.




Looks like Bentley is ready to look for inspiration.



Finding Inspiration . . . . .


I picked up a bouquet of flowers at the Farmers Market this morning.



Here . . . . .



And picked the last of the Foxglove blooms





This year my Foxgloves did very well in the garden - I found a shady place to plant them and they loved the location.




The Foxglove blossoms are beautiful and look almost transparent. The plant is poison so I always plant them in the front yard where Bentley can not get into them when he is looking for inspiration.





There . . . . .




I love putting garden hats and garden tools in my paintings.



Everywhere . . . . .



Now that we found our inspiration and I put together my composition, let's take a look at the finished painting.















Thank you for stopping by. I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate that you have taken time to follow my blog and leave me a comment. If you would like to see me paint something special or have any questions, please leave me a comment or send me an e-mail.

Have a lovely week. Blessings, Erin

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Summer Breezes and French Doors



Welcome, I am so happy that you stopped by. We are having "dog days of Summer weather" in Southern California - hot and unusually humid. Most of my paintings are inspired by the ordinary and every day objects in my home and garden. As I opened my French doors this morning to let in the summer breeze I saw the beginning of a painting. Pour yourself a cool drink and I will share my inspirations with you .We will find my studio assistant, Bentley, already in the garden helping out looking for inspiration.




Bentley





Finding Inspiration . . . . .









Here . . . .









There . . . .







Everywhere . . . .








I picked up the white wicker recently at a yard sale wile driving out of town for a "mini" road trip and plan to use it in my guestroom. I am re-purposing my guest room using everything I already have by using Kitty Bartholomew's philosophy . . ."it's not what you don't have . . .it's what you do with what you do have".









The white wicker chair with blue stripe and floral cushions and French doors inspired my guest room painting since the room has some blue stripe bedding . . . I added the sunflowers for a pop of color . . .a basket of red roses to pick up the red accents in the room and a bright blue rug to pull everything together. My home is decorated in what I call . . "re-purposed seaside cottage garden style " . . so . . I decided to paint the ocean in the background to tie in the seaside cottage garden theme.





I am off to hang the painting and finish re-purposing and will show you the finished room next time. Thank you for visiting. I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate that you have taken time to leave me a comment and follow my blog. If you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special, please leave me a comment or send me an e-mail.


Have a lovely week. Blessing, Erin