america...

take 6 singing

it's the 4th of july....

i'm ready for a long summer night...listening to music and playing with sparklers....

watching the people of my small town gather for what will be an amazing fireworks show....children chasing the last of the fireflies and smells from the grills....the 4th is an amazing time in our small town where everyone comes to gather, watches the small parade (where anybody can join), people come with their dogs, their families and eat ice cream cones as they watch the parade go by....children scamper for the candy that is thrown from the cars and are amazed still at the fire engine blaring it's siren...

it's a magical time that the town spreads out over nearly a week...several nights of firework shows...two parades and cookouts galore.....

a new piece....

i just love this board....i saw it more than a year ago and stuck the ripped up piece of paper in a basket....yesterday i was inclined to go through the basket narrowing down what new boards i will be practicing on in july....and i just keep coming back to this piece...it's just fun...i've decided on about 6 new boards, pieces that i've been wanting to make for years...colors that i love and what designs thrill me to think of making....combining the past with the present and the future again...

locking myself into the studio for the week....

as you can see....i have two racks of boards in various stages....yes, that's another one tucked way in the back.....i have checked the weather for the week and it isn't good for working outside....so i'm locking myself inside my studio so that i can take every opportune moment to work around this weather....so off i go.....so be back next week!

i had visitors....

cassie and her mom paula made way here from southern indiana....i'm becoming quite fond of the indiana people with visits and mail....i must go visit, their genuineness, thoughtfulness seems first nature....after hiking up and down mountains, visiting the wonderful town of ashville, they headed my way....and what fun that was! thanks for coming you two!

a cool morning walk....

believe it or not....at the end of my walk i met a flute carver....what's the chance of that one? spoke to him for a long time, he new the carver of my flute....and i explained to him that 'just awful sound coming from my flute when i hit the last note', with a smile and a chuckle he gave me a lesson to take home with me...maybe one day he will stumble upon me playing my flute....

i hope to one day play so beautifully....(turn up while you browse)

i will learn to play....

i think i must have the best husband....the most awesome....(that word is really over used, i know)...but he brought me the most beautiful hand carved native flute....there is something about the native american music that haunts me....and i am so attracted to the flute if i hear someone playing when i'm out in town....maybe it is in the earth and boulders here in my town, it is cherokee country, and this town will always carry the history in the trees and on the earth....

i am determined to become a wonderful flute player....and i hope everyone in my life can bare with my practice...and as i researched this music i found so many songs that i will be able to learn and groups that i can actually join to learn more.....so i'm off to yet another wonderful thing, and i hope it will bring joy and peace to those around me....it's just the most perfect gift somebody could receive, and it's small enough to carry with you on a hike, or down to the river....thank you honey....

just thinking....

i recently came across this info. in an article about a recent auction that was held. it amazed me to see how the game boards of the past have increased so much in value....it would be quite something for me to hold one of these pieces in my own hands, admire the work that was done, the colors that were chosen, the tools that they must have used to create this wonderful piece. and then to find a way to adapt some part of this to my own design, my own tools and colors. i am moved by the work of the past, the heart that went into it... and one day, i've been told my boards will be sought after, collected and auctioned off for amazing prices...i hope that to be true, since the numbers are small that i can create, and it would be wonderful to think they would be passed down generation to generation, hung on a wall, or a treasure to found in an attic one day....

There was also strong interest in the game board collection of Selby Shaver of Dallas, Texas. This auction featured over 50 of Shaver’s boards; additional examples will be offered at Skinner’s October 28th auction. A favorite was the polychrome-painted heart game board that garnered enough competition to require 12 telephone bidders who vied with a host of other absentee bidders and many in the audience. It eventually sold for $18,400, as did a polychrome-painted Parcheesi game board. Nearly all of the game boards in the collection exceeded expectations, further demonstrating the widespread and ongoing interest in game boards from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Skinner sold several from the folk art collection of Peter Brams in February of 2001, including a Parcheesi board that tied the existing auction record for a game board, selling for $46,000.

come for a visit...

what a week it has been in the studio.... stacks and stacks of boards drying on the racks, it really is a beautiful site. i always grab a piece of paper and start jotting down what boards look wonderful with other boards, in hopes that someday i will make myself a set...hmmm...

and then boxes everywhere, rolls of bubble wrap and notes i've made stuck everywhere, what goes with what and to whom it needs to go to. shipping is probably by far the hardest day at work, no mistakes can be made, it seems i'm always a little 'short' of space.... but when the boxes are all packed and labeled it is such a great feeling that everyone will receive their pieces in a week. this week boxes went to virginia, california, maine and ohio...phew....and i do so much enjoy your calls or emails after you received them to hear that the piece arrived safely and where you decided to hang it.

and after the country living article i've had many visitors to my studio....which is always so much fun to meet people face to face...and next week i will have more from indiana and virginia...you can't beat a stop in the appalachias in the summertime. so come and visit, see what i'm doing and enjoy this little town...

i also checked in with my friends this week to see what they are all doing.... mary myers is overwhelmed with special orders.... lori ann corelis is working on her wonderful hares and collecting antiques pieces for the final touches, jennifer lanne has new paintings at earth angels and lana manis is working some new pieces... everyone is so busy! check out their sites and get those orders in....the wait is getting longer and longer!

what fun this is!

what fun this was to receive this photo of a customers collection just after they added a new piece....and as they said, they have room for plenty more...!

thanks for sharing this picture, and for everyone else send yours too and i will post them...

and you thought i was locked up in my studio....(music) turn up or down!

my babies flew the nest....

my babies flew their nest....after weeks of watching, listening, and admittedly tolerating them sometimes, they have all four flown away. so i'm feeling the empty nest....it's funny how quickly we can fall in love...and worry and want to protect...this is a picture that i took the day before they left...

country living....july

listen, read and enjoy....

I will be locked in my studio until monday....(a good thing) much to do, so turn up the music and read the earlier posts and browse the other artists sites listed... feel free to call me.....828-265-0977

baret boisson....all i can say is WOW...

you know how i just love love love to meet other artists...so much in common, so much to share. i was reading my new country living and i came across judi boisson's wonderful home, that's a big wow by itself....i know everyone knows judi, i can spot her work a mile away...but did we know she had an amazing over the top talented daughter? well often times the charms of creativity weave through a family and this family is no different...

baret...baret boisson is just amazing....her mom hooked us up, and immediately after receiving mail from baret i knew we had a likeness of heart... i noticed right away the words that she uses, the openness to new friends and the honesty and reaching out were sparks that i carry in my soul too, and we were immediately best friends.

her pieces are awesome, her talents are endless....from commissioned paintings that are so fun and heartfelt to her ceramics (both shown above) which are conveying 'real' feelings and speaking words that she believes...as i do too...(a ceramic piece was shown in country living july issue too), she is truly an american folk artist, with the inclusion of being self taught.

i myself will commission a piece from her....a wonderful 'real' painting of my boys...i know for sure that she will put the heart and soul into the piece and we will feel her with my boys...

and isn't that funny how we met....country living's, tisha leung, found me....i found judi and judi hooked me up with her daughter...things are just meant to happen, aren't they? be sure to look over her site, (listed to the left)....and i know you will appreciate her talents too.

women in art...(has music)

country living....29th guild member

today i just received my july issue of country living magazine. i've been excited, worried, pretty much everything, waiting to see this article....and i'm really happy with the turnout... (i fear, however, that i'm much older and plumper than i invision in my own mind...!) just as soon as i learn how to scan and upload i will add it to the site so you can have a little sneak preview...but honestly, you will probably already have yours by then!

i couldn't resist this picture when i came across it....for you who know me you know i don't have a competitive bone in my body, am not vain (which my hubby would like me to have a little of that, and not run around town in paint clothes), and really do not take any bragging rights for what i do, i'm just pretty much happy go lucky and wish everything wonderful for everybody...

so i did have to come out of my shell a little to add this cheering photo....after all it really is a very big deal, quite an honor that country living hand chose me out of thousands of applications. i honestly didn't even apply, after all, i don't belong "up" there, i would've never had the nerve! so they applied for me, country living did, behind my back pretty much....so a very heartfelt thank you to tisha and the gang.

i just had babies....

finally....after the many weeks of watching my wren...they had their babies. days of building the tunnel like nest in my hanging basket outside the studio door, many more days of guarding and chasing me away when i went outside to sand...finally i can hear the chirp cheep of the babies. i climbed up over the basket to take a peek and screamed and jumped as one of the parent birds flew right to my face. i tried again later after checking and seeing no sign or hearing their mad chirps and saw one little bird sleeping with a very long yellow beak.

i don't know what is going on in that basket anymore....lots of movement, swinging of the basket as the parents come and go gathering and feeding...now i worry about their nest being built right above the cement patio, so tomorrow i will lay down some bubble wrap and a blanket so that when they do finally take flight they will land safely.