FRIDAY FLOWERS! :)

I just wanted to say a BIG "THANK YOU" to everyone who sent us best wishes for our Wedding Anniversary, you guys rock :)


It was so nice to wake up to Blue Skies this morning, YAY! It seems like every other day is nice and getting warmer then the next day it is rainy and miserable, blustery and downright chilly. But I guess that is typical April weather for us here in the N.W. A sure sign that we are on our way to Summer :)


I am very excited to show you this week's Friday Flowers which are the Beautiful Tulips now gracing our Garden :)



This beautiful yellow Parrot Tulip is available as a print in my Etsy shop :)

This photo was taken last year but I couldn't resist adding it to the group as it is one of my Favs. :) (also available as a print :)

I love this Red Tulip with the blurred backdrop of the white fence.

The top of a Rembrandt Tulip, gorgeous and colourful :)

I love this grouping with the yellow backdrop of the house behind.

I love the blend of Red Tulips with the blue of the Grape Hyacinths against the moss on the Mamosa tree.

Unfortunately, this is how a few groups of early Tulips ended up because of the intense wind and rain at the end of March, well, can win them all.

I really hope you enjoyed my Tulips :)

There is still time to enter my Beautiful Rose Photos for Mother's Day Giveaway if you haven't already done so, your Moms will thank you :)

Have a Wonderful Weekend. :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

Anniversary Trip to the Oregon Coast.

This past Weekend, my Hubby and I took off for a few days to celebrate our Wedding Anniversary in Astoria on the Oregon Coast. Astoria was named for John Jacob Aster who was a founding member of the Pacific Fur Company which established a trading post on the site that is now Astoria in the early 1800's. Astoria is located on the mouth of the Columbia River as it joins the Pacific Ocean. We haven't been to Astoria for a long time and it was just a really nice break and great fun to explore. We stayed at a relatively new Hotel, The Cannery Pier.


"The Cannery Pier Hotel is Astoria's newest luxury boutique hotel, built on the site of the former Union Fish Cannery 600 feet into the River" (from their Blurb :)

Front View of Hotel and the Astoria Bridge.

Cute Breakfast area.

I love the high ceilings and the balconies in their public spaces, nice and airy and open, there is lots of cozy seating around gas fireplaces and beautiful glass windows to view the river. (OK, so this is a night shot:)

The decor is very appealing, I love these metal fish. They also have done a great job with collages of old photos and easy reading history boards.

The Hotel is away from any other buildings and even though the Bridge looks close the traffic is so high up you do not hear it. I completely forgot to take a photo of our room which was really nice, so here is a link if you want to check them out :)

Just to give you a little perspective on the size of the Astoria-Megler Bridge, which was built in 1966 and is 4.1 miles long, it runs from Astoria in Oregon across the Columbia River to Megler in Washington State. Just take a look at that boat in comparison to the bridge :)

And here is what I got to see from my balcony out over the water, these beautiful, majestic ships.

And I think this gives you a great perspective on how large these amazing ships can be.

We really had a great time :)

More photos to follow in future posts :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

April Giveaway!

The Sun is Shining YAY! It always makes me feel Happier :) So, now I am in the mood for a Giveaway. (YAY! AGAIN :)

I am very excited to do this Giveaway because I wanted it to coincide with the celebrations for Mother's Day!

So, here it is! April's Giveaway!

One lucky person will receive FOUR, yep, you read that right, FOUR 5 x 5 Rose prints of their choice (choose from ones posted below) from my Photography Etsy Shop (value; $48.00)

It is very simple to enter :)

You must be a follower of this blog

Just go to my Etsy Shop and Heart it :) Check out all the lovely photos too :)

Leave a comment here on my blog telling me what special ways you celebrate Mother's Day!


(Sample photo of how you might matte your prints :)

(You could choose just one colour or four different or mix and match, it is up to you :)

So that these can be ordered and delivered in time for Mother's Day you can enter this Giveaway until Midnight (West Coast Time) on Friday April 23rd.

SO HAVE FUN :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

Which are you?

So, the other day I was taking photos of my water glass (yes, I pretty much take photos of everything and anything these days, so watch out) and I got to thinking about the whole "half glass full, half glass empty" concept.


For me, it isn't a simple one way or the other, it really depends on the event or how I'm feeling.


LIKE; if you are stuck in the long line at the INS building (glass half empty, I mean really half empty) but getting your renewed green card in the mail (glass half full) only because you don't have to stand in that line for another 10 years, YAY!!!!!! (maybe time to become a Citizen?!?!)

OR; you are sitting on the runway in a plane that has been delayed for while, the kids are getting cranky and so are you (glass half empty) but you know eventually you will take off and be on your way to your fav. vaca spot and you can have a Mai Tai by the pool while the kids go for a swim (glass definitely, half full on the rocks :)

(half glass empty?)

(in betweenie)

(half glass full?)

So, is getting started for the week challenging for you? Do you see getting up on Monday morning as an affront to your dream life? Or do you bounce out of bed ready to embrace the day!

I am a half glass full person in life, but maybe not on a Monday morning :)

Tell me which one you happen to be and why!

Have a Great Day :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

FRIDAY FLOWERS! :)

Here we are Friday again! We managed to squeeze a little sunshine in between rain showers yesterday, here in the Pacific NW, and what a difference that makes to the way I feel :)

Before I show you this week's Friday Flowers I wanted to share a Treasury I am in, YAY! I was kindly included by Flowersy it is one of my latest photos in my Etsy Shop of a beautiful Rose.

So this week I have a couple of beauties for you. These both started blooming about a month ago and are still going strong. (Photos were taken nearly a month ago when we were enjoying some lovely sunshine. :)


The first one is "Lesser Celandine" (Ranunculus Ficaria) it falls into the Buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) Seriously, if you knew how much research I have done on this. I first went on the Internet and the information was confusing, then I decided to go to my trusty books on Native Plants in the British Isles which I inherited from my Mother-in-law and waded thru those. What a joy they are, the illustrations are amazing, I absolutely cherish these books. They also gave me conclusive and concise answers. I knew this was a Buttercup but wasn't sure which one.

As this is a Native of Europe and parts of Asia it has been labeled an Invasive Species in parts of America. Again, I feel conflicted about this, I love this plant, as growing up in England this along with Bluebells were an integral part of my childhood, so I keep the plant contained. It has not spread far in my garden and I have not seen it growing anywhere else in the neighbourhood. (Guilt trip over :)

I love the shiny leaves and the flowers are Daisy like in shape.

I love the way they go Spidery as they age.

When we were kids we used to put Buttercups under each others chins and if there was a yellow glow on the skin we'd say you loved butter, of course this didn't happen on cloudy day but we had no clue why, we didn't understand light reflection and light being blocked, you either liked butter or not :) It always made us giggled, I love these innocent memories of childhood.

The next Flower is "CandyTuft - Snow Cushion" (Iberis Sempervirens)

I have this planted in several places in my Garden, it adds a beautiful burst of colour especially along the brick path and next to some of those Purple plants. From a distance they look like a mass of White but on closer inspection a beautiful combination of colours and textures.

Here not only the Gardener in me but the Artist in me gets excited. Look at the beautiful yellow interwoven with the white and the tightness of the green, the textures and shapes, delightful, I am fascinated by the complexity and perfection of this flower.

I hope you enjoyed this week Friday Flowers.

Have a Wonderful Weekend!

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

Art Show.

Here are a few photos from the Gallery Art Show I am participating in :) I belong to a group here in Oregon called Three Rivers Artist Guild or TRAG for short. It is a group of talented professional and amateur artists and crafters. They run the gamut from photographers thru 2D artists, metal smiths, fabric artists, weavers, potters to knitters, sculptors, Etch a sketch artists, clock makers, jewelry makers and more.

I love the "Ants" they sold on opening night. I talked to the Artist and he said they are very popular, I asked him if he had anymore because I wanted one, thankfully he does :)

I think the hanging committee did a great job. Sometimes when you have so many different mediums coming tog. it is difficult to have a cohesive whole.

Does that photography on the little table look familiar :) (Hint: Magnolia Tree in my Garden :)

The Gallery has a nice light, bright feel to it. Very Welcoming. The Artists who are on display will take it in turns to man the Gallery.

These are the pieces I put in the show. I usually work pretty big, 4 x 5 ft. but because of space restrictions I had to come up with smaller pieces which is a challenge when you work as big as I usually do but it was a good exercise in containment. Some are pieces I worked on last year and some are new for this show.

The last piece is called "Ladybug" but when I took the photos I realised you couldn't see her, so here is a close up of the "Lady".


Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

FRIDAY FLOWERS! :)

Well, I can't believe it is Friday already, this week has flown by. Not sure what is up with Blogger this week, I have seen other people saying they are being challenged by it too, so I won't take it personally (He! He!)

Anyway, just thankful I was eventually able to upload my Flower photos :) YAY!

April came in with the proverbial showers, followed by torrential rain, hail, wind and thunder, so the poor flowers have taken a beating this week but good job most are hardy and can tolerate the downpours, to a point. (Word to whoever, that is a hint to stop it raining now, had enough this week, thanks :)

For this week's Friday Flowers I decided to go with a theme as opposed to one species. Over the past month we have had a lot of Blue in the garden, I love Blue and the Blue in our Garden is a periwinkle Blue or pale Blue/Violet, depending on the way the light falls on these plants.

The first of Today's Blues is the Grape Hyacinth. WOW! Are they prolific. I most probably planted about 100, 6 years ago and now there are thousands. I always let them go to seed and of course we have seeded not only our Garden but some of the neighbours too :)

Here are just a few :) (click on photos for closer image)

I love the shape, how the light reflects, the strata of blues and hints of white.

At our previous home, I planted 10 Grape Hyacinth bulbs, I wasn't very familiar with them and money was tight but I liked the look of them in the catalog. Well, it turned out so did a little local wild Bunny. So, as soon as these flowered we would see him skip across the driveway at dusk, in front of our dining room window much to the kids delight and watch him chew his way thru the lot, I think it took several days and we were all very excited to see him every night. I wasn't concerned about not enjoying the flowers because we had our own little Easter Bunny coming to visit :)

They seem like very Happy Flowers.

On the top tier are the Grape Hyacinths and the lower tier Veronica Peduncularis "Georgia Blue" (please ignore the bald patch, I really have trouble getting anything to grow there except Dandelions, but working on it, ground is rock solid)

I love these little faces :)

The last Blue I wanted to share is Ralph Shugert Periwinkle ground cover. I love everything about these plants, the leaves as so smooth and multiple layers of greens, the flowers are a wonderful shape and Periwinkle (love that word) Blue, they look like kid draw sunshine faces :).

Can I say it again, I LOVE these Flowers :)

I hope you enjoyed this week's Friday Flowers :)

If you haven't had the time to check out Brad Stivers Art Giveaway check it out on Brad'sBlog :) or my interview with him :) on my blog.

Hope everyone has a Wonderful Weekend :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.