The Porch Postscript

Good morning!  Yesterday I had Hubby Help me do a bit of a rearrangement of furniture in my studio.  this has been on my mind for a couple of months.  I wanted more natural light on my work and to get my computer out of the big window.  Mission accomplished! A few minor things need to happen, like touching up the edge of my big table that was against the wall and never painted white.  The result brought in so much more natural light, made my large table more accessible for larger projects, and created a fresh space I'll enjoy working in.   I was able to stash my sewing machine table under my large table and move some shelving under one end of the table and will now be able to cut fabric without setting up a small space in the hallway.  Moving the shelving under the table opened up a new space for watercoloring as well. In the photo above you can see my large window, before the work of rearranging the space it was partially covered by my large comp...

Home is and always will be Wyoming.  Home is not really about the town I was born in, but more about the state where I spent the first nearly three decades of my life.  I'll always be a Wyoming girl no matter where I live.  At this point in my life when I talk about going home, I'm referring to my brother's ranch, that's home.  My heart is there, my family is there. I've always loved taking photos at the ranch, and when we were home for Mom's memorial it was no different than all the other trips.  Spend a little time here and you'll also learn I have an infatuation or maybe even an obsession with trees, and the ranch has many old cottonwoods and cedars to make my little dendrophile heart.   One afternoon Hubby and I were sitting in the yard listening to the birds and talking about family and what's next in our lives.  I kept studying the same tree.  Eventually, I pulled out my phone and snapped a quick pic.  I mentioned to him that I wan...

It's been a while since I busted out the colored pencils and created a bird.  In 2017, I had a little venture into drawing birds.  I drew a cardinal, a blue jay, and a mountain bluebird. After drawing three birds, I ventured on to the next thing. Then a few weeks ago I dusted off my bird art and created stickers to sell at the local gift shop.  Kind of unexpectedly, this inspired me to pick up my colored pencils and create a new bird piece. Settle in and let me tell you a little story about the decision to draw a mostly black bird, the red-winged blackbird.   Before my Dad passed away, passed away 19 years ago, he had a conversation with my oldest brother about red-winged blackbirds. After all these years I don't remember the details and the memory can play tricks.  In the cloudy memory, there is something about my brother seeing a flock of them take flight the day Dad passed.  The details have been lost to time, but the meaning and symbolism of the re...