A few flowers from the garden

Yes, my "studio" today is actually the dining room table which as it happens is a really nice place to work. It's one of the reasons I work more in watercolor and pencil in these days. There just isn't room in a tiny house for acrylics on large canvases so it's a dream for another day.

I thought I'd start with a couple of lazy watercolors and drawings as I  decide how I want to approach these today. This one was on an envelope and went out in the afternoon mail.

The weather was 88 degrees and pretty muggy here so we decided to take the flowers indoors where it's cooler to work on them.

There were only 3 daisies this year so I plan to plant more next year.

Afternoons in the garden,milkweed, hosta and painting

 We let a lot of milkweed grow here for the butterflies.

We divide and move hosta every year and it never disappoints. The color and the flowers are always a welcome change in any part of the yard.

 Most days in this part of the summer we keep both the work table and the tea table in the shade of the front garden where it's handy if anyone stops to visit or just to see what we're working on around here.

Shredding photos

I keep coming across these same photos every time I sort through the studio area in my dining room and I often wonder what's made me keep them decade after decade other than seeing which of my paintings have been with me a long time and how they've been displayed over the years.
 

What I see when I look at them now is a fondness that I had for my dogs and my very first house and of course I think of who most of this went to because there's only one painting in these photos that I still own.

Now that I've looked at them all again what I'm left with is a good feeling that my work and my skills have improved over the years. There's nothing here to hang on to. Two of the photos will go to people who have some of these paintings, the third will get tossed and I can move on without running into them again. I call that progress, don't you?

Personalized Card Design

As I was cleaning off the worktable I "found" this little scrap of scrapbook paper and I thought I'd do some designs based on it to make a nice card out of it.

This was done in watercolor pencils and ink and was a fun diversion form cleaning and organizing.

Yes, I do plan to get back to work in there but have some floral projects and one painted box to get out of the way first.

There were also 2 crochet projects but I moved them into the other room so that I wouldn't get any paint or floral foam on them.

A bright, sunny morning

I'm always happier on a sunny day and find it often influences the sort of projects I choose to work on. This morning I find myself painting sunflowers on one of the wooden horses I've been carving and sanding. I'm looking forward to planting some real sunflowers soon but until then, this will have to do.

I'm also sorting and rearranging my work space so that I'll have room for company in the studio from time to time so that we can film a few projects.

Table timeshare and the search for studio space

My husband is working on computers at the table today so I'm crocheting a potholder and sorting through some of the papers that have been floating around. Since I can't get back to sanding those horses in the house I've decided to head out to the old garage we started turning into a studio a few years ago.

I'll start by taking a few pictures out there to assess the situation and decide where to start clearing myself some work space.

Yes, I'll post pictures as I go so keep checking this blog to see what's new as things progress.

It was nice to see the old place again...until I opened the door.

 
Somehow I'd forgotten that we'd been sending things out here for the last few years.

I'll pull the boxes and bags out first and see what's in them, empty ones can be sent to the recycling. The flower pots will be stacked by the door so they'll be ready when the gardening season starts. Now all I need to do is decide what to grab next...