Northern Flickers, when eating ants out of anthills on the side of the road, need to come up for air.

Maiden Pinks are really prettier than I thought. And also take up more space.

Wild mushrooms can disappear overnight.
Appreciate their beauty, before they’re gone.

Our Quaker parrot, Quintin, enjoys my Gerbera Daisies, and also?
He’s cute in his little green parrot pants.

Speaking of little and green, bugs can be cute, too.

I completed Boo’s portrait lastnight, but the sun went down fast and I signed the painting from the light of a small lamp. I prefer to paint during daylight hours, thankfully my signature was all that was left when it got too dark to paint in natural light!

Boo was a sweet little Pacific Parrotlet who passed away. Parrotlets are only about the size of the palm of your hand (no fingers), so this portrait is much larger than life size.

Here’s her previous work in progress so you can compare the underpainting to the finished portrait:

And here are Boo and Kiwi together, as this is a pair of portraits that will be gifted to one very special girl.

Kiwi’s portrait is complete. Yes, I spent a nice weekend day relaxing in my studio and garden. I can’t help but be productive, because it doesn’t seem like work to me! Here’s the previous work in progress so you can see the difference:

I’ll likely finish Boo tomorrow, after church and other planned festivities. Then I’ll be preparing all of the portraits I’ve painted this week for shipping, and sending them out Monday and Tuesday.

Jam’s portrait is complete (Mom – Dad – did you want a big pic?) – my webcam went CRAZY today. Ugh all I can really say is friends? Don’t let your friends sing on webcam without realizing the VOLUME IS ON. Nobody heard that, right? Well I found a mute button, clicked it, and then it kept freezing and crashing. You are either going to have to deal with my singing, hollering at my kids and general normal person-ness or I am going to have to find a fix for that. (ahem. I’m looking.)

So here’s Jam, in all her firey Red & White Bi-colored Eyed Husky glory – enjoy!

Did I ever tell you about how long it’s taken me to grow Peonies? Yes? Well if you don’t know the story, you can read it here. Now I’m so excited to have them, I cut them as soon as they’re ready and keep bouquets all over my house. This year, I have more Peonies than I have vases. It must be because I cut every one of them last year, I’m guessing, and all that flower power went back down into the roots of the plants.

I have three bouquets in my house, and cut two and gave them to a couple of special neighbors (and by special I mean polite). That’s five bouquets so far, and I’ll be cutting another bunch today.

If you want to relocate, there are a couple of homes for sale down the street.