Primroses - Here - There - Everywhere

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 while I share with you the inspirations for my art and online article for Southern Guide to Life magazine.  Yesterday as I pulled into a parking space at Ralph's Grocery Store  noticed a beautiful display with pots of Primroses marked $1.25 each.  I could not resist and ended up purchasing a number of the little happy colorful flowers to add pops of color to my Winter garden.  They inspired another little painting and idea for my magazine article.

Let's join Bentley, my Studio Assistant, in the garden and I will share with you a few of the photos and my new little painting of yellow Primroses.

The first thing I did was put the new plants in an old vintage wagon to pull around the garden to find places for them.  Bentley always wants to get in on everything going on in the garden and is a big help in looking for inspiration for me to paint!!!

I ended up placing some of the new Primroses beside the Pansies that are now in bloom in order to create a statement "pop" of color in my Winter garden.

                           A simple bloom can add a joyful spot of color to the Winter garden.

I placed some in vintage containers and also brought a few of them inside.  I will share those photos with you in my magazine article and let you know when it publishes.

"Art in the Garden"

Thank you for stopping by.  I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, e-mails, comments and those of you who follow my blog.  Thank you for your comments and e-mails about the re-purposed painting - I repainted the chair green and made a few more changes and will share that with you next post.

Have a lovely week.  Blessings, Erin

"Clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony."  Colossians 3:14

Painting Primroses

Welcome. I am so happy that you stopped by. My garden gate is always open for you to come in and relax with a cup of hot tea while I share with you the inspirations behind my art. I have often said that I am inspired and paint the beauty and simplicity of God's creation in my garden. Primroses are considered a Winter plant in our mild Southern California weather and are now blooming. Let's join Bentley, my helpful Studio Assistant, in the garden, to see if he has found some inspiration for me to paint.

Finding inspiration  . . . . 

Here . . . . .

There . . . . .

Everywhere . . . . . .

I love the pink ones and decided to paint them.

Thank you for stopping by. I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, comments and those of you who are following my blog. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special.

Blessings, Erin


"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

Re-purposing a Painting

Welcome.  I am so happy that you stopped by.  My garden gate is always open for you to come in and sit with a cup of tea while I share with you the inspirations for my art.  One of my personal goals this year is to re-purpose and freshen up my home, garden and  some of my paintings using what I already have - "it's not what you don't have - but  what you do with what you already have" is one of my favorite sayings.  Let's join Bentley my Studio Assistant, in the garden to see what is in bloom for inspiration to re-purpose one of my Potting Shed paintings.

                                 I planted bulbs late last year so we would have blooms in January and February.

                                        The Hyacinths are beautiful and I want to paint some of them. 

This is the painting I want to freshen up.  I feel it is a little too dark and want to add a window and some of the blue Hyacinths.

I painted out the sign and added a window, birds nest, and painted out some of the flowers under the table.  I am also going to paint the chair white instead of green.

Here is the completed painting.  I decided that the chair looked better green and will paint it green - that will be for another day.

Thank you for stopping by.  I sincerely appreciate your visits, e-mails, comments and those of you following 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

"For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in  peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song."  Isaiah 55:12

Starting the New Year in My Studio

Welcome.  I am so happy that you stopped by. I hope everyone had a joyful Christmas and is getting settled into a fresh start in the New Year.  I am back from a blog break and getting back into the routine in my studio.  The weather in Southern California has been unusually warm and I am anxious to start Spring planting, even though it is way too early. Th Paper Whites and Poinsettias are still in bloom and red Geraniums and Pansies starting to bloom with the warm weather.

Let's join Bentley, my Studio Assistant, in the studio, grab a cup of tea and sit and relax for a few minutes and I will share with you what I have been up to on my break.

                                                    The Geraniums are loving our warm weather.

I bought a bunch of Sunflowers from Trader Joe's and popped them into my vintage Children's boots to paint.  I love painting my collection of garden boots with blossoms in them.

                                     Changed the white polka dots to yellow polka dots!!

Thank you for visiting my blog.  I sincerely appreciate your visits, e-mails, comments and those following my blog.  I read and cherish every comment and blog visit.  Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special.

Have a lovely week.   Blessings,  Erin

" And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love".  Corinthians 13:13

Christmas Ornaments at Isaiah House

Dear Readers,  I am a member of W.H.O.A. - Women Helping One Another and wanted to share with you a very special and dear to my heart W.H.O.A. art project that I volunteered to organize for Christmas ornaments at Isaiah House. 

  Isaiah House of the Orange County Catholic Worker is located in  Santa Ana, CA and offers shelter to the homeless, food and love to those in need and has been serving poor people with dignity since 1987. 


Our "Ornament Team"  - Erin Houghton, Libby Williamson and her lovely Mom, Mimi who is visiting from Connecticut.

W.H.O.A. volunteered to teach art related classes at Isaiah House and when we found out they needed Christmas ornaments we signed up to provide a class.  We purchased  sturdy wooden ornaments that would not break and decided to paint and glitter the  front and back of the ornaments to save time by not having to wait  for them to dry before the embellishments were applied 

                                     Embellishments for the ornaments set out and all ready to go!!!

                                  ** Note - all photos of the ladies were taken with their permission.   Everyone just getting started by picking out their ornaments. Libby and Mimi are at the decorations table  - each person was given a paper plate with glue, paint brush, tooth pick (for tiny ornaments) and the decorations they choose.  This worked very well and we were able to keep the process organized and moving quickly.

The ladies loved picking out their embellishments and personalizing their own ornaments and tags.

                                                                 
We gave out a flyer inviting the members of Isaiah House to the W.H.O.A. ornament and tag decorating class a week before the class, and asked everyone to be thinking about a word or words to write on their tag that represented the joy of spending  Christmas at Isaiah House.  The words written on their tags were heartwarming - Love, Peace, Joy, Blessings.  One lady pulled me aside to tell me that she thought about the word she wanted to write all week and she proudly showed me her tag with the words " Magic House". She was certainly right about that for we found our experience to be truly magical and filled with  so much love.


We had a separate table for the tags with stickers, stamps, colored markers, scissors, cuts outs, ribbons and bells.  Libby suggested glittered pipe cleaners for hanging the tags and they were huge hit with the ladies.

Isaiah House rescues animals and keeps them safe until the Shelter comes to pick them up.  Sometimes  the animals end up staying as permanent residents as this beautiful green bird did!  They also give out dog food to the Homeless with dogs .

                                                       Another happy resident Cat!   

We found Isaiah House to be a "magical place" with the love and care shown to the homeless living there  as well as homeless animals.

This little dog is blind in one eye and belongs to one of the ladies that lives at Isaiah House.

We took several ornaments shaped liked dog bones and tags with photos of  cats and dogs  for the ladies to decorate for the animals that live at Isaiah House and they were so excited that we remembered the animals. 

One of the rescued cats eyeing the decorated  Christmas tags.One of the tags has "Magic House" written on the back!!

One of the ladies consulting with Libby Williamson on her decoration.  Libby is a fabulous artist and teaches classes at The Dragon Fly in Old Towne Orange -you can see more of her work and learn about her classes at: www.dragonflyshopsandgardens.com

                             Some of the residents admiring the beautiful ornaments and tags they created.  

This dog is a permanent resident and part of the family of the four Catholic Workers who lovingly  operate Isaiah House.

                     The completed ornaments and tags drying and waiting to be hung on the tree.

Jenelle VandeMortel in black jacket hanging lights on the tree with one of the ladies.  Jenelle is the founder of W.H.O.A. and can be reached at www.whoadesigns.com for information and membership.

Libby hanging an Angel on top of the tree - and yes somehow she reached the top.  

In the Spirit of Christmas we left "The Magic House" with our hearts filled with love and admiration  for the homeless ladies who live there and the four Catholic Workers and countless volunteers who offer shelter, food, and love to those in need as well as  rescue animals in need. Our Christmas ornament and tag class represents what W.H.O.A. is all about - Women Helping One Another and then reaching out to Help Other Women in Need.  As Jenelle says so often - "we are so powerful working together."

                                                          Merry Christmas, Erin