Merry Christmas from my home to yours

Hi Everyone and a very Merry Christmas!  It is almost here and we have been celebrating already with family.  Here are just some decorations and yummy treats that will help make our day bright and you will see our little "Sammie" as she waits for Santa Claus.  I hope your new year will be happy and full of everything you wish for. Happy New Year!  

Every year I enjoy the three carolers my mother crafted many years ago.

This nativity is the first one I purchased as a bride and I have always loved it, even it it is just quite ordinary. It is the meaning that is important!

This years' Pavlova...it really turned out nice.

I got a skinny tree this year (not real) because we have so little room. Over sized packages take up lots of room, too.  In front is a wheel barrow full of books for a grandson.  I don't think he will be reading my blog and find out what it is!!

It is an eat fest!! Above is a key lime pie...we do live in Florida, you know!

Sammie is waiting! Isn't she the cutest and so sweet, too.  All the best to you and yours, Egretta

Great Auction Finds

Hi Everyone,  The other night my son, grandson and I went to our local auction and I found these amazing Byers' Choice Carolers. You KNOW how expensive they are, so I was delighted that I was able to get them at a bargain price.  I already have one or two, so this will make a great Christmas display. The ones above are, I think, a butler with silver tray and tea cups (the way the photo is, he appears to be dropping them!) and the maid carrying poinsettias in a silver bowl.

The little girl is selling or maybe just bought some fish and the little guy is carrying an instrument to accompany his singing! Look how cute they are dressed!

Here's a close up view of a little girl in a red velvet coat and hat.  She is carrying snowballs.  I got eleven figures in all, and will show you my whole display when it is set up. Are you getting ready to decorate for Christmas, too? Byers' Choice Carolers are made in Chalfont, Pa., U.S.A. and you can check out their website at www.byerschoice.com

Hi Everyone,  It has been awhile since I have blogged! I have been very busy painting and crafting for a couple of shows.  Above are my wine glasses turned into snowmen and with a battery operated candle on top.  They really are adorable, but I haven't had time to make many of them.

I've also been making wine glass candle holders with scenes inside.  They are so cute, too. I only have one more show and that is this Saturday at the Peace Lutheran Church.  After that, I will be making Christmas gifts and some decorations for my gallery and for myself.  It is a busy time and I love it! How about you? Are you being creative as the holidays roll around?

Apple Crumb Pie, Sammie, and new Pillows

Hi Everyone,  the other day I made a nice Fall dessert....Apple Crumb Pie.  It is the old stand-by recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens cook book and is really yummy!  A nice Fall dessert using lots of delicious apples.

Our Puppy is growing!  She has just gotten her stitches out from being spayed and is feeling as full of energy as ever, running and playing.  It is hard to get her to sit still a moment! In every photo I take her eyes appear blue or with a big blue dot in them! I must start using settings on the camera instead of just "auto" all the time! It would help if I knew how!

I made a couple of Western pillows for the gallery.  Decorating western is pretty popular here.

I am busy getting ready for 2 arts/ crafts shows and painting more for my gallery.  I love this time of year when there are lots of outdoor shows, bazaars, etc.  I am painting as fast as I can!!!

Look what we found!

Hi Everyone,  Look what we found! This little kitten, weighing in at 1 pound, was rescued from my neighbors car motor, where it had crawled into to keep warm the other night. Now my grandson, Austin, and his brother and family have a nice little pet, just what they have wanted and needed for a long time.

Horsey pillows

Hi Everyone,
      I have a new line for my art gallery. It is hand painted pillows, and above are a couple of horse ones.  I have done fall leaf ones and sunflowers and will be doing all kinds of things on them.  The background is just basic heavy muslin  and I just paint on a piece 14 by 14 and then sew on the backing to make a pillow case, then stuff.  I've been wanting to do this for some time, and finally have started and I love them! Hope you do, too!

It is a beautiful day here today in Florida. We have a light breeze and it is about 80 and is just lovely.  I wish it were more Fall like, but can't really complain.  Later today, I hope to put some fake pumpkins around my scarecrow in the garden, making a semi-fall display.  It is hard to put real pumpkins because of the "critters". Hope you are having a great day!

My new gallery and treasure shop

Hi Everyone, I am finally moved (somewhat) into Grace Consignments in Okeechobee, where I now have my own little gallery.  It is a room 12 x 12 and the good part is that I don't have to be there everyday working, as Susan, the owner is there to help customers.  I have hung a bunch of paintings, plus I have a few other items for sale, such as Fall decor, painted rocks, some antiques, etc.  I still have some paintings to hang, but I'll tell you, getting on the ladder is really not for me, so I will have to wait until I have my son or someone to help me!

I do think it looks quite neat and interesting, , though, and hope to see lots of people come through and purchase some art!!

I also have some painted decorative home decor pieces, such as trays and you can see a bread warmer in this photo.  Click on any photo for a closer view.

Here is a grouping of little 6 x 6 paintings....some are oil and others are acrylic.  They are pretty on easels as well as hanging and really don't have to be framed.   They are painted either on Masonite panels or on small canvas boards.

A little rag basket with a couple of my painted rocks...cute gift for anyone! See you at Grace Consignments if you are in the area at Egretta Wells Art Gallery and Treasures!

Tractor Paintings and Painting Rocks

Hi Everyone,  I posted these tractors paintings once before, but just ran across them and thought some of you might not have seen them. After visiting a "tractor graveyard" here, I did a whole series of paintings.  I visited there with a friend, Beth, who was my partner in the antique shop for 5 years.  We hitched a ride with a man working there on his golf cart and he drove us through about 50 acres of junk (to some and to others, treasures).  It was wild and wet and swampy in there, so I did take liberties in painting the scenes and added lots of color.

I have been painting on rocks for the upcoming craft and art shows here in town.

You would think that I wouldn't want to paint frogs after dealing with a whole plethora of 

them throughout the summer! The owls are fun to paint, though, and some rock shapes just 

suggest frogs!

Hopefully, I will have around 50 rock animals painted by November!

End of Hot Summer (I wish and hope!)

Hi Everyone,  It is still so very hot in Florida, but early in the morning, it is coolish. I mean Really early, like 5:30 A.M.  That is usually when the puppy wants to get up for her first walk of the day!  But, cool or not, at 5:30 AM, I am in a hurry to get out the door and get it shut before some frog or lizard gets in the house!  We have so many of those now, what with all the rain we've had and the humidity and the onslaught of bugs it brings.  If I sound a bit bitter, well, I am! I am so tired of pestilence, that first thing this morning I was looking up on the kindle how to get rid of all the above!  

And don't tell me that I should just look the other way, that lizards and frogs eat bugs and that is a good thing. NOT!  Because after eating all those bugs, then what happens? Nature deposits your porches with a big mess, if you get my drift.  So it is a battle all the way around.  Oh, for cool weather!

The Zinnias are getting a bit old looking and other flowers are waning.  I am anxious to plant my cabbages and will do so about the middle of the month, if it cools just a bit.  In Fall, about all I plant are cabbages and broccoli, plus mums and marigolds.

I have one more pineapple growing and it will be ready soon. I must get it cut before a raccoon discovers it! The avocados are in right now, too, and the tree is loaded.  Nothing much new around here in the garden; it needs a good bit of cleaning up, but it has been too hot to accomplish that.  How is your Fall planning coming along?

Puppy Update

Sammie is growing, but still the rambunctious little girl even though 5 months of age now!  She loves to chew because she is getting her big girl teeth in.   

Here she is showing off her pearly little big girl teeth. She is so adorable! She chews on everything!

Here she is modeling her terry cloth hooded bathrobe.  She doesn't mind dressing up, but hates her bath!

You can see that she has made a big hit with the grandchildren.  Austin, the youngest, gives her a good run when he is here and then she will sleep all night without a whimper!  She weighs about 13 lbs. now.

Baby Quilt Finished for Bazaar!

Hi Everyone,

I got the baby quilt all finished for the bazaar which is to be November the 8th at Peace Lutheran Church. We have quite a lot of quilts made by about 20 women meeting together once a week.  Some of them are one person's effort, while many are group efforts.  Two or three quilts will be raffled off with the winners' numbers drawn at the bazaar.  We also will have a bake sale, cinnamon rolls and coffee for breakfast, lunch, a while elephant sale, and about 14 vendors selling crafts, jewelry, Christmas decorations, paintings and more.  It is a fun day!

My quilt has a pretty floral backing and is hand tied with pink yarn.

It's not perfect, but it is pretty and will be sweet for some little girl!  Now, I must get to work on my own booth, where I will display paintings, painted rocks, and Christmas ornaments made of felt.  It is still hot here, but there is a little, and I mean little, coolness in the air early in the morning.  Can Fall be coming?  It is ever so slight, but we do have a touch of Fall in Florida! Can't wait !

Summer Crafting Continues

Hi Everyone,  It is extremely hot here these days and every afternoon we have a storm, which means balmy humid weather, lots and lots of bugs and frogs, lizards, even snakes!  It is certainly not my favorite time of year in Florida!  Well, it is a good time to work on crafts for the shows I do in November. The baby quilt above is being put together with pink and white gingham fabric and then I will tie it, instead of quilting.  I will show you the finished product soon.

This watermelon slice is a pin cushion.  I bought it to use as a pattern and hope to make some for our church bazaar.

Every year I make felt Christmas ornaments and this year I have added a penguin to the different ones I make.  These fellows are stuffed with a bit of fiber fill and they really look adorable.  I will make a whole basket full of them for my show.  At night, after painting during the day, cleaning, training the puppy, etc, I am ready to sit in my favorite chair and sew on ornaments.  My hands are pretty much always busy and I find that very enjoyable.  The other thing I like to do at night is pour over garden books and magazines and plan for the winter garden.  Here we plant the last of September until mid October.

Hope  you are having a great Sunday afternoon! Egretta

Crafty Things

Hello Everyone,  I have just completed embroidering 12 little 9 inch quilt squares for a baby quilt.  I will be putting it together today at church in our quilting group, and it will be for sale at our church bazaar in November.  The summer here is so hot that it is a great time to stay indoors and work on handwork. I was taught as a child how to embroidery.  My mother was a great seamstress and could do crewel embroidery, regular embroidery with all the different stitches, as well as needlepoint and quilting, so I learned them all before I was a teen.  By my teen years, I made all my clothes.  I always loved anything at all that you use your hands and is a bit creative.

These squares were already printed with a design. I found them on the internet and they were very inexpensive.  Many of them were worked on while my husband was in the hospital with knee surgery and I was with  him.  It sure helped pass that time!

I will be setting the quilt up with pink checked gingham fabric and will post the finished quilt.

This cute pincushion is not one I made; I bought it in a new shop we have here.  I thought I might make some similar myself to sell at our bazaar.

It is one you can wear on your wrist...see the elastic band?  Underneath it, on the back the lady who made it wrote "Sew Pretty".  Neat, isn't it? I just love anything with "yo-yo's" on it!

I also bought these cute coasters cut from an old faded quilt.  They were just cut out and then a zigzag stitch put around the edges.  How simple and how clever! I think I have an old "cutter" quilt here that I bought just for crafts, so I will be making some of these too.  Now is the time to start on Christmas gift crafts and crafts for the church bazaar.  I have more things to show you coming up later!  See you then!

Garden Walk

Hi Everyone,  I took a walk this afternoon before our daily afternoon storm! I cannot believe all the rain we have had this summer...nearly every day several inches of rain!  The Crape Myrtle tree in the front yard has been blooming since the last of May and is so pretty!

I planted a crouton on each side of the steps at the front porch back in winter and now they are big and so pretty. They will look great in the Fall with some pumpkins scattered around. It will almost seem like Fall foliage, and in Florida we don't have a lot of leaves changing colors in Fall. Fall is subtle, but it does come. After living here for many years, I can recognize it. Usually in late August and early Sept., I do "feel" Fall coming.  It has been a hot summer, so I am looking forward to cooler days.

And guess who is out in the yard, of course? It's Sammie and she is looking at a Bumblebee.  She is so curious about everything and being only 4 months old, everything is exciting to her. And sometimes scary! The first time she saw grass blowing in the wind, she got scared!

Here is the bumblebee.  After trying a few times, I finally got a shot I could post! They love the Cosmos, and it has reseeded from last year and keeps reseeding until it is almost out of hand again.

See what I mean. Not a very tidy patch of flowers!

Doesn't Sammie look sleepy and sad faced?  She's growing and about all she does is eat and sleep and plays with her toys. Her favorite play thing, besides our fingers to chew on, are old socks. I make little sock pouches by putting one sock in another and tying a knot near the top. They make a great chew and pull toy and she prefers it to even squeaky store-bought toys. Bob had her out for a walk and from the looks of her, she is probably napping in his lap by now!!