Cooling Off on the Parkway

While my son's family was here this week, we spent a day exploring the nearby Blue Ridge Parkway in Northwestern North Carolina. It is a scenic drive through the mountains, with lots of scenic overlooks and hiking trails.

One of the stops in Doughton Park is Brinegar's cabin.  I had not been there in years.  It happened that the cabin was in the process of getting a new cedar shake roof.  They were actually cutting the shingles from a pile of cedar.

The drone came along for the ride, and my husband sent it off to explore the mountains at several stops along the way.  

We had a line of storms come over the mountains and have had some spectacular rains during our week up here.  But mostly it has been beautiful and delightfully cool.  Temperature forecast today:  79.  In Raleigh:  90.  Much better!

Baby Quilt Fabrics for Layla

We have a new granddaughter arriving soon...and her mama and other grandmother (the interior designer) have selected fabrics for her nursery.  I now have a package of fabrics to use in designing and making a quilt for little Layla!

Looks like a lovely garden theme in soft pastel colors.  I will use these plus, hopefully, lots more that I pull from my stash.  Butterflies, birds, flowers...some of my favorite things!

Not sure it will be finished by her arrival around September 8, but I am glad to know the theme and color palette so I can get started!

This little one is looking forward to being a big sister!

Happy Birthday, America!

It's an old-fashioned family Fourth of July here at our North Carolina mountain home.

We spend lots of time at the creek.

We had a homemade fireworks show last night.

We also went to the Christmas in July festival in West Jefferson on Saturday.  This area grows a large supply of America's Christmas trees.

And the drone flew over and captured some of the family, friends, and dogs who were here yesterday.

God bless America!

Life's A Beach!

Our beach vacation has come and gone!  How could two weeks go by so quickly?

It was great to have our whole family together.  We celebrated several family birthdays (including mine!) and Fathers' Day together.  Charlie and I took two of the older grandchildren on an excursion to the North Carolina Aquarium in Fort Fisher, NC.  That involved a ferry ride that we all enjoyed as well.

This summer they have a special exhibit of animated dinosaurs on a nature walk outside the museum.

I took many projects and art supplies with me, but did almost no art work the whole time other than coloring with the kids and making Fathers' Day cards with them.  I have gotten a few new Bible journal pages done, however.

This is one of my favorites, and was inspired by a video lesson by Gina Lee Kim titled The Versatility of Blue (available from Interweave.com.)

I tried collaging a paper napkin onto the Bible pages for this one, and added watercolor background and stamping.

This one is just ink pen drawings and watercolor.

La Vie on Rose

This week has been kind of slow as I recovered from minor surgery.  I managed to get a little bit of painting done in between naps!

I decided to finish the roses from the Strathmore Online Workshop with Steve Mitchell  (The Mind of Watercolor.)  When last seen, I had done the first washes on the roses.  Here is how they turned out.

This is the one in my watercolor journal. I am pretty happy with it.

This is the first one I tried, on watercolor paper.  I liked it okay, but thought the edges looked too hard.  I sprayed it with a fine droplet sprayer to soften the leaves and petals.  Not sure how great that looks, but it is what it is.

And since I was practicing watercolor roses, I added one on my latest Bible journaling page.

This is actually my favorite Bible verse  (Philippians 4:6), and now it is my favorite Bible journal page.

Tomorrow we leave for our annual family beach vacation.  Look for lots of photos and maybe some art journaling while I am there!

Trying on a Little Hockney

Here is my watercolor version of a David Hockney painting called Red Pots in the Garden.

I really liked painting this way, with lots of movement and a bright palette.  The original is done in oil.  I have been enjoying studying and learning from the painting styles of great artists.

Red Pots in the Garden, David Hockney.

I also managed to do one more Bible art page.   I took the same little deer that was in my forest painting and added it to this woodland scene.

I got through my outpatient surgery with faithful hubby taking good care of me.  It was not as bad as I feared.  I have mostly stayed on the couch all weekend, but we managed to go to church and lunch with our family this morning.   Hopefully, I will be good as new by our beach vacation next weekend.

A Little Like Frida

I have posted before about a once-a-month journaling challenge on Facebook where you "visit" a different country each month.  That challenge has now been continued by several of the participants, who chose Mexico as the destination for May.

Just in time yesterday, I finished my painting inspired by artist Frida Kahlo's self-portraits.

A Little Like Frida, Jeanne Turner McBrayer, 2016

This was so much fun...I loved the loose interpretation and the use of color for value change.

I have also posted in the past about my persistent headaches, which have now lasted six weeks.  Tomorrow I am having an outpatient surgery procedure that I hope will cure them.  I didn't have sinus infection at all, just severely deviated septum blocking air flow.  I will probably not be blogging for a few days after that.  Wish me luck!