My Sister's Wedding Decorations

This is the "grooms cake" that one of my SIL's made for my sister's husband. The story behind it is pretty funny. When my sister asked her fiance what flavor of wedding cake he wanted, he replied "Cake? I want steak!" and so this is his "steak cake." This is a T-bone steak cake...and isn't my SIL talented? This is made from a red velvet cake with a marshmellow fondant.

Here's my dad dancing with my sister.

My future brother-in-law got some of his friends to serve ice cream. Don't they look handsome in white shirts, lime green bow ties and matching aprons.

Here is the wedding cake! Many people approached the cake and said they'd never seen a cake like this before. I think it's pretty cool looking!

Here's my sister near the gazebo. The top of the gazebo had white lights twisted through the top. It looked fabulous!

Here's the total picture...at least from one angle. The ceiling was lowered and then we hung the lanterns from the wires. The table tops had two different table clothes, the white one on the bottom and a lime green one on the top.

Here's the sign in table and the sign in book. The book had lots of pages with pictures of my sister and her fiance on each page and plenty of room for people to sign along the edges of the photos. Very cute idea.

Another talented SIL took all the photos. She has a photography business in Seattle and came down a month ago to take the photos. My mom and aunt got the pictures in frames. It was a beautiful table.

The table decorations consisted of the table clothes, two brown dots around the blue dot. The vase contained limes on the edges with ice holding it up with that shiny topper. And finally fake flower petals along the base of the photos and vase.

Here's a picture of the gazebo, my niece dancing, the quilts and the TV that showed the DVD of my sister and her new husband.

Been painting up a storm

This is my latest receiving blanket and I love the frogs and the matching light blue interior material. The crocheted edge design takes a little longer to do since I go around the edge three times. When doing a receiving blanket for little boys, I worry about the edging being too girly. This is one design that I think is okay for baby boys.

Here is another fairy! It was also a study of portions for me. SM asked me about backgrounds and why I haven't painted them. I need to buy some masking liquid. This allows me to paint a background quickly without getting the main figure wet. The background usually has to be painted quickly because you don't want it to dry out before you are finished. Otherwise, visually you can see different dry spots that look all wrong. So, one of theses days I need to find an art store around here and buy some masking liquid and try my hand at getting a background in before painting the main focal point.

This last painting was an attempt at painting a portrait. I struggle with faces. I can do so many other things and they look fine but I've always struggled with faces. First of all, they never look exactly like the model I've chosen...and sometimes they barely look alike. It's the same for me when sketching with pencil. I can't exactly see what makes someone look the way they do and so I can't imitate it. I do have to say that I enjoy how this face turned out...at least it's not ugly...but it's not exactly the same as the model. I wish the lips were fuller, showing more of a softness and happiness. I'll need to keep practicing to figure out what makes a face a face. Meanwhile, enjoy!

It's that time again...Spring!

I love Spring! I'm not expecting that I haven't seen the last of the snow, but don't the tulips just give you hope for Spring? I was going to clean off the table to show the flowers but decided that was too much work. And so you get a preview of my new painting.

It's that time again! SM and I started germinating our little seeds about two weeks ago and put them in little pots of dirt. The plants you currently see coming up are the tomatoes. The bell peppers are a little slower at poking their heads out of the dirt. It's crazy how much SM and I love plants. Every day when SM comes home from work he heads over to those pots to see the changes that have happend that day.

Hummingbird & a Fairy

I'm excited that I've started painting again. I painted this Fairy & Hummingbird last week. And then I put all my paints away. Am I in a slump? I don't know but that's okay. Also, I don't have much to say...I wrote my family email and now they know everything...so, nothing to say. Hugs and kisses!

A new painting

I pulled out my paints and started a new painting. It seemed I was busy enough during the days that I only had time to paint at night. But I had a couple hours each evening that I spent on this picture. I like how the painting turned out and hope that it encourages me to paint some more. Unfortunately, I don't know how to take a photo of the picture. I would like more light on the picture so I guess I'll have to work on my photography next.

Marriage in March

My little sister is getting married this month. My parents were also married in March, and a brother and myself. I didn't know that March was a wedding month, especially in a state where it can snow into the month of May, but I guess for my family it's a great month to get married.

SM and I will be celebrating our sixth year married this week! Where did the time go? We still feel like newlyweds sometimes and at other times we feel like old married people. It's great that we are each other's bestests friends!

I also want to add that my sister-in-law took the photos for my sister. Isn't she talented? She has her own photography business and is an awesome photographer. Take a look at her work at www.youreverycolorphotography.com. What an amazing talented sister-in-law!

More Snow Pictures

I am always amazed at the beauty that God gave us. I like to think of it as a small gift from God, showing us that he loves us and wants us to be strong during our trials in life. This is a photo I took from my back window, early in the morning right before I started exercising. One of the things I love in this picture is the moon in the sky and the sun starting to come up. It's so beautiful to me.

SM and I were having fun one night taking pictures in the dark. We didn't do them with a tripod and so we had to hold very still or prop the camera on something. Plus, we took the pictures indoors through windows and so we had to be careful of the flash and reflection. I love the way the light in these photos is so bright. And just to be clear, these were all taken well after the sun went down. It was very dark outside when we took them.

And did you know we got a bit of snow during the first few weeks of February? In the above picture, SM is clearing the snow for the first time....and then we did it again, and again and again. Notice in the above picture the mailbox is not buried in snow. And now look below, this is what it looked like the last time I cleared the driveway.