Christmas Village - People

what would a christmas village be without people? so i finally got them done!

Christmas village - The Canyon Motel

After the birth of my daughter, after the death of my father, and after recovering from cancer I worked at this motel. yes same motel three times. I like doing it and i do it well. its an easy job that i can focus at and earn and honest wage. after all all a job is a place where you trade your time for their money.  when i first started working there it was this god awful pink and blue. since the current owner has re painted and brought the entire place current but to me it will always be pink and blue.

Christmas Village - Dunkin Donuts

Dunkin Donuts... Lots of memories from that store> I worked at our dunkin donuts for 6 years. I met my husband  working the 11- 7 shift. he was working nights as well. what a great job it was. not so good for raising kids the shift stunk for that. and when Michelle came to live with us after we were married i found a day job but many happy memories are associated with this job and this store.

Christmas village - Country store conversion

the Country Store I had done last year But i chose to Add my local country store (that sadly went out recently) My dad was one of the guys that seem to always hang around the store. he had coffee with "the guys" frequently and any time i am at the store that bought out Cornell's they guys that were hired on still ask after my mom and my family. there's something very "Walton's" about the country store. and it will always hold a special place in my heart.

Christmas Village - Flower shop Conversion

This is another conversion. After some looking over I could see that I had room to add the name of our local flower shop.  My first full time "real" job was at Akiko's I felt this HAD to be her shop. I learned much about myself there. I worked there until i was expecting my daughter.  I found i had a real creative side not just drawing and painting.

Christmas Village Toy store Conversion...

After doing some thinking I have decided I want my Christmas village to reflect my life.  So I converted my Toy Store to the Ben Franklin that I went to as a child to get the Majority of my "kid stuff" from. My aunt worked there when I was young too, she worked in the Fabric Department.  I like this MUCH better

Christmas Village - Department Store

Well it is Christmas time again. So out comes the Christmas Village Hopefully i can get this done this year!

Our local department store is Dunham's and I felt it was only the perfect idea to paint my department store to represent Dunham's  It isn't perfect but its close enough for me :)

Christmas Village ~ Burger Joint

I altered this building. it was supposed to be Joe's burgers.... BUT the checker board design reminded me of a burger place i went to down in Staunton VA with the last vacation I went on with my parents (prior to my fathers passing) So i smoothed down the raised name of the restaurant, and put in the Five Guys logo. I had a great meal there by the way!

Christmas Village ~ Country Store

Christmas Village ~ Flower shop

This flower shop was a "summer" building design. I wanted it to "fit in" with the other snow covered buildings so i painted the trees to be oaks, and the shrubs to be pines and applied the white paint REALLY THICK to look like snow. I like it.

Christmas Village ~ house #1

I had a lot of fun making the color schemes to this! I find myself looking at the buildings in town differently now trying to find color combinations that look "right"

Christmas Village ~ Toy Store

I love the foot prints!

Christmas Village ~ Corner Market

Recently i was given a plaster Christmas village. I have always wanted a Christmas village so i was delighted to take it! I LOVED the fact that it was unpainted and i didn't have to conform to how another artist had designed it. I am working to have as many of them painted as i can prior to the holiday. but i do not believe that i can accomplish having it done this Christmas. So i will share them as i get them done

This wasnt supposed to have snow on the flower boxes... but it didnt look right so REALLY THICK white paint did the trick!

Rock Gardens

A few years ago, I painted a rock garden recently i had a someone order 4 of these gardens, here was the process of painting them, I thought anyone

could paint these if they knew how to do it and had the time....

First i get some river rocks and wash them...

then i paint them all a single deep green almost a black.

i "map out" where the leaves are.

then i start trimming out the leaves in different shades of green...

.

"vein" the leaves then those are done....

step one of flowers.... four circles of flower petals

then i mark out where i want my leaves on the flower rocks to be, and process those leaves as i did the leaves before.

Flip them over and paint an inspirational word on the back

Trim out the flowers like i trimmed out the leaves and put a dot for the centers instead of veins.

find some rocks that are nearly round and make them into lady bugs

These rocks i made into Caterpillars, i'm not certain how well i like them but i think they are cute none the less

this is the finished order

Blog Revamp

I have been wanting to redo this blog for quite some time, as i wasn't 100% pleased with the last background that i had.

As far as content goes, I still plan on posting any crafty things i do, but mostly it will continue to be a recipe page, I know cooking isn't a "normal" craft as crafters think, BUT I personally, think of cooking as a craft something you work at something you learn more and more.

and i love being able to simply hand over my blog site and send people my favorite all time recipes.

I am certain my crafting will come back to this blog, as things on the other blog settle down. as I have been dong extensive painting in the new baby's room, and that is taking up a good chunk of crafting time, and also fufilling my creativity desire.

Never fear, ceramics will be back as will lots of other projects!

For now here are the photos of the completed walls in the baby's room in-case you haven't been following the personal blog.

If you click on the pictures, they should enlarge so you can see the detail.

All together!

This is the rock Garden all together. It only sits on a dessert plate, and its very pretty on a table, and excellent conversation starter.

Catipitter

What Garden is complete without a monarch Caterpillar?

Frog for my Garden!

I found this rock and i thought it looked like a frog.
I painted it to go in my garden!

Rock Garden part two

These are the rock flowers, they are just like the one that started it all...

Here are the words on the bottoms...

Rock Garden in the making!

These are the leaves for my Rock Garden.

I put these on the backs...
I tried to put something uplifting on everything,
so you can pick it up and find something to think about.

When I get it all done, its gonna be SO neat!