Peggy Wickham-- occupation... ARTIST!!

From this day forward, when asked what I do for a living... I have an answer.... I am an ARTIST!!!

I started taking classes in painting in early January. I have always hated watercolor but I have such a good teacher that I LOVE watercolor now. Back in September or October, I'd joined a local group of mixed media artists but because I went to California from November to the end of December, I never met them till today. What a great group! I found that I think the same way as they do- such as seeing an item that most people would just throw away and thinking, "That would be cool as a top layer for such and such," or "I could carve something into that and it would be great to use as a stamp", etc. I realized that I've been an artist for a long time, but never had the nerve or the confidence to call myself that. Now I am going to. I think I will do better art because of it. My mentor (the lady who teaches the watercolor classes) believes I can exhibit my work in the gallery that she exhibits hers in. I cannot tell you how exciting these last few weeks have been for me. Now to coordinate getting the housework done so I can work on my art ;-). I think this truly gives credence to the old saying that if you want something bad enough, and you are willing to work for it, you CAN DO it!!! 

Paintings I've been working on

Here is a slide show of the paintings I've been working on since the middle of January. I am obsessed lol I can't walk past my studio without going in to do a few bits. Anyway, I am having a blast :-)

I spent six weeks in California (left November 10th to go by Amtrak- got there November 14th) helping my son, daughter in law and our grandchildren move to a new apartment. It was a lot of work, but fun too.  I helped by packing boxes,  (I have to admit I didn't carry too many) I helped clean up the old apartment before turning the keys over to the landlord, and then I unpacked boxes and helped by making curtains, pillows for their new barstools they eat on now, etc. I made each granddaughter pillows for their beds too and bulletin boards to match. They each painted signs with their names on too so their rooms would be "coordinated". My dil is going to send me a picture when it's all assembled as Christmas came in the middle of it. Then I went home (Dec 28th) and then my dil had to have major surgery that she is still recovering from (so the curtains aren't up yet).

Here are pictures of the girls with their pillows: The first one is Brianna and then Amber.

It was so much fun to make the stuff for them-- we walked almost every day to the "Michael's Arts and Crafts Store" which was about a 15 minute walk. Then Joel and our sons Chris and Rob came and we went down to be there for our son Tom's commissioning into the Air Force.

I went home Dec 28th. A good time was had by all.

Valentine's Day Pins

I made pins for my granddaughters for Valentine's Day. I knew they really liked the fabric I'd used for their pillows so I used that fabric for their pins. It was comparatively easy to make these pins-- I just made large yo-yos and gathered the top into a point, secured it with a button and sewed a pin on the back I tied a ribbon around the button to further accent it a bit. Sent 'em off and they got there in time for the big Day. The girls loved them, even more than the candy I sent :-). This made my day. Here is a picture of the pins, in case you'd like to try them.

Brianna's pin

 

Amber's pin. 

They were fun to make, and done in like a half hour a piece!  

One World One Heart Winners!

OK, I apologize because I am a day late and a dollar short posting my winners for the One World One Heart drawing.

And the winners are.....

Jan at JaNs ArTy AtC JouRneY wins the necklace, and

baglady at Nancy's Perspective wins the painting of the daylilies. 

Thanks to all who visited my blog and to all who participated-- this was so much fun. I am still visiting blogs and will be for some time lol. And a BIG thanks to Lisa for doing this for the blogging world!  I have emailed the winners and am awaiting their addresses so that I can send them off. The necklace will be riding that magic carpet to Essex, UK, and the painting will go to Michigan. I wish I had something to send to each person who visited :-) Looking forward to next year's OWOH giveaway!

Congratulations Jan and Nancy!