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Saturday, September 29, 2012

Let's Take a Fall Tour of Rogers Gardens

Welcome.  I am so happy that you stopped by.  My garden gate is always open for you to come in and sit and relax with a cup of tea. I made pumpkin bread to celebrate the beginning of Fall and  thought you would like to have a piece with your tea before we take a little Fall tour of Roger's Gardens.  Roger's is located on 5 beautiful acres in Newport Beach, CA and features an art gallery, home and garden and gift shop,  florist shop and incredible nursery.

Looks like Bentley, my Studio Assistant, would like to have a piece of pumpkins bread before we leave for our tour!!!

The home and garden shop is fabulous.




                                                      Tropical gardens are located inside.



                            Now let's take a little tour outside to look for Fall inspirations.



































                            "Autum is a second Spring when every leaf is a flower"     Albert Camus








There are beautiful fountains located throughout the gardens.




Dear Readers, Thank you for visiting.  I hope you enjoyed your Fall tour.  I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, e-mails, comments and those who follow my blog.  Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special.

Have a lovely week.  Blessings, Erin

"Let your good spirit lead me on a level path."  Psalm 143:10


Saturday, September 22, 2012

Let's Paint a Lady Scarecrow


Welcome.  I am so happy that you stopped by.  My garden gate is always open for you to come in and sit and relax on this beautiful Fall morning with a cup of tea.  I have a feeling that most of you are as happy as I am to welcome Fall.  Such a glorious time of the year with the bright colors, clear blue skies, cool nights - a time for a new beginning in the garden with some plants and flowers getting ready to nap and some coming into their glory.

Let's join Bentley, my Studio Assistant in the garden to look for inspiration for us to paint a Lady Scarecrow.  Bentley just had surgery to have a non-malignant cyst removed  and was shaved - he is fine - just a little shy with his short haircut!



I just started planting and decorating my garden for Fall and the first thing I did was to turn an old dress mannequin into a lady scarecrow for inspiration.










Now that we have a little Fall inspiration let's start painting.  I sketched out a lady scarecrow and you are welcome to copy my drawing.  I use an 8x10 canvas - you can also paint on a board.  Material for painting can be purchased at Michael's or any craft store.  I use acrylic paint as they are nontoxic and dry fast.

I am going to hang my sign on my front door and want to add a WELCOME sign to my drawing. You can add as many or as few items to your drawing as you want - depending on your comfort level. I added birds and pumpkins and Mums to mine.




Now that we have the basic drawing - above is the little Welcome sign that I added to mine. I am going to paint my lady wearing a blue denim dress. First I paint a light coat of paint on the entire painting to get the feel of the colors.



Next darken all of your colors  and add detail.- I am painting a red hat to match my red front door.  I added eyes, nose and mouth and little pink cheeks, buttons and a white collar and cuffs.  This is the fun part as you can customize your painting with any color you want.  I am going to paint my birds black to tie in with the black lettering. 
Here is my completed painting.  To hang add two eye hooks on the back and tie with a ribbon. 
I decided not to hang my sign and instead tucked it into a Fall wreath on my front door.








Please let me know if you have any questions about your painting.  Just remember to have fun creating and make it your own by choosing colors that please you and go with your garden or decor.  Just because I painted mine blue and red does not mean that you have to paint yours the same color.  If you want to paint a Man Scarecrow, below is a copy of the ones we painted a few years ago.







Dear Readers, thank you for stopping by.  I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, comments, e-mails and those who follow my blog.  Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special.

Have a lovely week and Happy Fall..  Blessings, Erin

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven." Ecclesiastes 3:1

Friday, September 14, 2012

Painting Pink Roses on my Welles

Welcome.  I am so happy that you stopped by.  My garden gate is always open for you to come in and sit in the shade and relax in the cool morning breeze with a cup of tea.  We are expecting more hot weather along the coast in Southern California - lucky for us - the evening and early morning hours are still cool from the coastal sea breezes.  Seems like lots of you are experiencing Fall weather and have started decorating for early Fall.  I can't wait  for our Fall - in the meantime my pink Roses are blooming their last beautiful blooms and I am painting pink Roses.

Let's join Bentley. my Studio Assistant, and look for the last of the pink Roses to paint on my polka dot Welles.  I bought them several years ago on sale at the end of the season at Joanne's Fabric and wanted to paint roses on them.



I saw some adorable Welles that someone purchased from Joanne's this year with pink Roses and got the idea to paint  roses on my polka dot ones - this year my goal has been to use what I already have and
re purpose - reuse and recycle.

                    "It's not what you don't have - but what you do with what you do have."





The pink Roses are calling to me and I know that they will not last much longer.

                                                                
                                                               Time to start painting!





I was not sure if the paint would stick on the rubber boots so I sketched a few roses with acrylic paint and let it dry.  The paint dried nicely and I painted both boots.










I really liked the way my Welles turned out and now I have a new - re purposed pair of boots to wear in the garden.

I am linking up with PINK SATURDAY at www.howsweetthesound.typepad.com.  Please visit  Pink Saturday to visit lots of fun blog posts featuring pink.

Dear Readers, Thank you for stopping by.  I sincerely appreciate your visits, comments, e-mails and those who follow my blog.  I still want to paint a Fall welcome sign with you by the end of September - it is hard for me to get into Fall decorating with it so hot here - we will paint together - soon.


"If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me."  Psalm 139:9-10.