Christmas!!

It's very early on Christmas day and I have quietly made my way to the kitchen to have some quiet time before the craziness of the day begins. A time to give thanks for God's gift to us,His ultimate gift of salvation. In all the busy-ness of the season it is easy to lose sight of why we celebrate this day.

Today my house will be filled with family, gifts and good food. We will laugh a lot as we play games and visit. The noise level will never go below the roar of a low flying aircraft and the kids will be making messes in every corner. When all the festivities are over my house will resemble a battlefield of fun. I am so thankful for these crazy days of Christmas, knowing that each year we are all together should be cherished. I was trying to put together a video of Christmas's past to play throughout the day with our music. As i was going over all the photos it was a reminder as to how quickly everyone grows up! It also reminded me how much things change although they feel so "the same". Our family is forever changing, growing, multiplying, dividing, dying.
This year is hard for us as Randy's parents are not doing well, his mom with dementia and his dad with pneumonia. So many years a part of our Christmas day celebration, we now are running down early to see them before Christmas. My mom,still weak from surgery, unable to travel,so we will go to her after Christmas but they all will be missed so much this year at our table.
With the baking done,Blake's stocking finished, the decorations complete and before my day begins, I wanted taking a few minutes with you to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. I hope and pray that your time together with friends and family is filled with love and laughter and many, many wonderful memories.






- Desiree

Christmas and drawing

My tree if finally up and got the lights on the porch this morning. Feeling better and have lots to do.  One of my challenges was "teapot".  I was taking out my ornaments and found this lady with a teapot on her hat and decided it would be my drawing for the day.  Also had another small teapot in my collection and did a drawing of it too.  Hopefully things are looking up this week, cold is better and I can get back into the studio a little this week,  family is coming and food to fix. 

HELLO, where is everyone?

Wow,come on you guys, I know it's Christmas and everything but you must have a minute or two to comment or post a entry even without a sketch.

I am working on a rush job this weekend and I am so far behind in my decorating and sewing projects all due by Christmas! Here are my 12 days of Christmas paintings in progress.

I want to hear about what you are doing before the holidays!


- Desiree

Fon's and Porter- For the Love of Quilting

Its been a busy week, full of surprises!. Yesterday I shared with you that my interview was posted and my quilt was auctioned off on ebay. Well today I received the new Love of Quilting magazine where my pincushions are featured. I hope you will check it out. It should be on the shelves soon, it is the January/February 2012 issue. Also Kelly Mueller from Wooden Bear has a huge spread. They are giving you one of her patterns and they did a whole spread on her studio and then taped her for a new show they are doing on QNN called Quilt with the stars. It is a  wonderful opportunity for her and she is such an amazing person! I happen to know her personally and she is so sweet and down to earth. I hope you will check it out and I have posted some of the links here for you! The first part of her interview is here, the rest will hopefully be up by the time the magazine hits the shelves. Enjoy  http://www.qnntv.com/videos/3005_kelly-mueller/

Featured artist and my quilt is up for auction.

So much is happening today. I woke up to find my interview for the sketchbook challenge blog was posted. They asked me some questions which made me have to really think about what and why I sketch. I hope you will comment on it. I would love to be asked to be a part of this group of artists.

I also got word that my small quilt I did for the Alliance for American Quilts is up for auction,you can see it here.

It was a photo quilt I did for them but dedicated it to Jennifer and here work with the animals.

- Desiree

- Desiree

pjh-Christmas card class results

I first began taking watercolor classes in 1983 at the Community
Arts Center in Goldsboro, N.C.  We were stationed there at nearby Seymour Johnson AFB.  An event  held on base "showcased" all of Goldsboro's community organizations, offering the military family community the opportunity to join the groups and be a part of the local community too!  I signed up to take a "grass roots watercolor class" - a dream to learn how to paint in watercolor was a dream I'd had since college!  One of my dream goals was to be confident enough in my work to paint our own Christmas cards one day! 

I am posting this ahead of the holidays, giving away to friends and family a bit of my "surprise" to show you what a WONDERFUL teacher Desiree Habicht is. When she told us we'd be using the negative painting technique, I promptly responded I'd come to class because it's a technique that is really hard for me, and I needed to "stretch" out of that comfort zone - but I was sure  it wouldn't become our Christmas card for this year!  Desiree smiled her special smile and softly said "That's OK!"  She had some photos and also some leaves and winter berries we were welcome to use for inspiration - those who know me well, know that flowers and Penny Harrison are almost synonomous!  I used a photo of a poinsettia she'd taken for inspiration.  The poinsettias that grow so well here (native to Mexico) have more slender "bracts" (the beautiful colored part of the plant we think of as the flower!) and her photo was of a naturally growing plant!  Unknown to Desiree, the other part of my "goal" was to be able to do a watercolor of something that is uniquely "California" (I'm a native California girl like Desiree is!) 

The second half of the class was working with computer software to edit the image and then use one of the many available companies to order the printed cards.  THANK YOU DESIREE, for your enthusiastic guidance and soooo helpful critiques!  Not only did she guide me to better understand this difficult technique - here's a "preview" of that dream come true - WAHOO!!! - and I can't say it enough - THANK YOU DESIREE!!!
  

pjh-you'll never see this again!

I bought a small "travel palette" and loaded fresh paints into it today - this is the last time it will be this "pristine" - Right Ladies!!!?