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Sunday, May 17, 2015

A little Doggie Paradise~ LONG POST

Hello my sweet friends!
Happy Sunday to you. I have been up all night as it has been a bad night with pain. Eh but I'm used to living in pain. Nothing new. But... I got a phone call from my younger brother around 11ish at night telling me that he was getting ready to take my 7 month old niece to the children's hospital because she had a fever of 104.4. Long story short, she has some type of an infection inside causing the fever. They gave her meds and the fever came down significantly so that he was able to take her back home. Well, 5am this morning he calls to tell me that her fever spiked back up again to 105.8. He said he gave her more meds and that if it does not go down, he'll be taking her back to the hospital. So I am asking if you all can please keep my niece Serenity in your prayers, pray for her fever to go away. And while I am asking for prayers, could you please pray for my friends in Mineral Wells, Texas. As many of you know, I used to live there up until a year ago. I was there for nearly 3 years. Well in the wee early morning hours this morning, my old town of Mineral Wells was hit hard by a tornado. I am not sure if my friends are okay or if their homes are okay. My daughter has friends there that she keeps in touch with and we are very worried. I found out through another friend that lives there. She was asking for help for the clean up process through town. I ask that you please keep them in your prayers. This could of been me and my family if we had still lived there. I feared those darn tornadoes the entire time I lived there. So thank you in advance for the prayers! 

Okay moving along.... last weekend I had taken a day to spend time with my daughter and we decided we were going to do some paintings on canvas. Gia had decided she wanted to paint a sunset over the ocean. For those of you who do not know, we live down at the Jersey shore. We live on an island and we have the bay in our backyard and the ocean and beach are 4 blocks from us. Gia has grown to love the ocean especially when the sun is setting over it. So I gave her a blank canvas, put it up on the easel and gave her a palette full of colors of paint she wanted to work with. Here are some of the photos.
 Here Gia decided to start mixing her colors to make green. Pretty colors on her palette right? :)
 Here she had already created the sand of the beach area, started her base for the palm tree, created her ocean and was now beginning to work on the sky.
 Here she was standing tired but very proud of her gorgeous painting! Her FIRST painting and she was so happy with herself and how her painting turned out that she wanted to hang it up in her bedroom on the wall. And so that is where it is today, along side her bed! :)
 And here is the sun setting over the ocean, complete and dry. She added in a few storm clouds, some seagulls, a few seashells in the sand and a couple of palm trees. I say she did an amazing job!

Now in the middle of her and I doing our Paintings, Kris came in and wanted to paint her owl that she hand drew. She knows how I love owls so this was a present for me actually. She drew it out on canvas and it sat for about two or three weeks and on this day, she finally decided to paint it up and finish it up. I think this turned out awesome and I'm so happy that it is mine!!! :)

 So here is the owl in its original state and then there it is all finished but still wet and drying. Pretty awesome right? I love how she created the night sky so deep dark blue and how the owl is just so beautiful and full of different colors. Just perfect! 

Okay well, I guess it is now my turn to share what I had painted. I knew in my head that I wanted to paint a nice beach scene with a palm tree. Some place warm and tropical is what I really had in mind. Now before I show you my photos, keep in mind that I have never painted beach scenes. This was my first time doing so and I am super proud of myself. It makes me want to explore just a little bit more to see what else I can do, maybe a seascape next? :)

I sat down and this is what I was looking at...
 I sat there looking at this canvas, knowing what type of painting I wanted to do but I needed a bit of inspiration to get me going. So I decided to think back to a warm and tropical place that I had visited before and the first place that popped up into my head was Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I went there on vacation back in 2008 for about two weeks. Our hotel was right on the beach and right from our balcony stood two beautiful huge palm trees with the ocean behind them. So I used that beautiful memory of my family and I standing on the balcony taking in the beautiful scene when we first arrived, as my inspiration to get me started.
 I started by creating the sand and water and then moved my way up to the sky. This was just the very beginning of the painting so it was more or less me just applying some color and then I would go back in and do more detail. While we were painting, we had the radio on and were jamming to some good music, had my balcony doors open and had a gorgeous breeze coming in from the bay and the ocean. We get a beautiful cross breeze because we are in the middle of both bodies of water. So while we were painting beachy type scenes, we were experiencing the cool, night breeze coming up from the water.
So here is my palm tree well in the making. This is pretty basic, still had some detail I needed to do, especially to the tree truck. I tell ya one thing though, it was extremely relaxing to paint. If you have never painted before, you should definitely give it a go! Very relaxing!!
So here is my finished painting! I am extremely happy with how it turned out. I added in some seagulls, some weeds and tall plants and of course some puppy dog paw prints in the sand! Thus the reason I named my painting, "Doggie Paradise". This little place so warm and tropical, became the little paradise home to a doggie enjoying the beach that day. At least that is what I think and I'm sticking to it! HAHA :)


And lastly, here are two photos of the finished painting close up so that you can see the detail that I did with the palm tree truck and the little tiny doggie paw prints. I hope you have enjoyed this extremely LONG post and I hope you have a great day today!!!! Thanks so much for stopping by my friends!


Until next time, Enjoy life's blessings~




5 comments:

  1. Prayers for your niece & family. Prayers for your friends in Mineral Wells, TX. We have had a lot of rain but luckily the tornados have not hit us here in Central TX are where I live. Like the painting of the beach scene & Owl that your daughter created. My daughter is the sketch & painter in the family. She does most of her work on a computer tablet.
    Melissa
    "Sunshine HoneyBee"

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  2. I am sending healing hugs and prayers to your niece.
    I will pray for everyone who has been affected by the terrible storms, tornadoes etc that have been hitting the US so hard this year. I will pray for your friends in your former home town, too.
    OMGosh your painting session sounds like heaven to me. Spending time together is priceless.
    Thanks to you all for sharing your beautiful paintings.
    Crafty hugs,
    Dawn
    DesignsByDragonfly.blogspot

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  3. So sorry to hear about your niece~that is so scary but hopefully the hospital will get to the bottom of that and find out what is causing the fevers. I will keep her and all your friends effected by the tornado's in my prayers.
    Gia's painting is amazing! The sunset is gorgeous and love the colors. She definitely got her talent from her Mama! The owl painting is amazing and how fun for you that it's your's:) Your Doggie Paradise is adorable~fantastic job and hope to see more paintings in the future my friend!
    Happy Sunday!
    Sherrie K

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  4. Yikes! That sounds so stressful. I will be praying for healing for your niece and also for the friends in your old neighborhood...

    Both of your paintings turned out really awesome! I'm seriously impressed. I was thinking I need to try it. I have a blank wall above a new dresser that is begging for a 4' x 4' canvas of some kind. :)

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  5. Lovely paintings by you all. I hope you niece is well soon.

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Your lovely comments always put a smile on my face! I love reading each and every one! Thank you for stopping by~
Hugs,
~Jo~