Goin' Irish

Hello again! 

Well, the sisters and I have had happy feet for the last two weeks, dancing with our Irish step class at a couple of spring festivals...

...here are some pics from the events.

 We stop in at Mamaw's house, and snatch her up to take her with us (isn't her outfit darling?) :-)

Katie, the designated driver, keeps us back-seaters in line: "I've got my eyes on you."

We finally arrive at Landmark Park, where confusion reins as we get ready. (Only Susanna seems to have her wits about her:-)    

"Pass the hairspray, please."

"I need more ribbon."

"Glitter, anybody?"

Callie:  "C'mon, Katie, try a little glitter!"

   Katie:  "Fine. Just let me turn around first."

                                   

Susanna (looking critically at the two amateurs):  "Make sure you spray on enough."

If the heads in the foreground were to turn around, you'd meet our cousins: Brian, Holly, and their new little princess, Thistle.  They were kind enough to show up and watch our performance.

Time to stretch!  (I think my stomach has already started dancing).

Lining up

Here goes nothing!

Solo time.

Wow, Katie, you really look like an Irish dancer in this pic!  Oh, wait a minute...you are an Irish dancer! (guffaw :-)

Now Shanley, our talented young teacher cuts a rug.

Time for the "Ceili" (four-hand Irish group dance)...it's such fun to do.

A view of our class doing the two-hand dance.

In this picture, Shanley and her clogging instructor are teaching us and some frolicsome members of the audience how do a little toe-tapping.


Photo shoots

Clockwise from the top: Shanley, Emori, Lydia, Courtney, Katie, Yours truly, Susanna, Bailey, Naomi, and Abby. Great job, y'all!

We were instructed to make goofy poses (or, as in my case, to look as if we had just swallowed a lemon).

A circle of ghillies.

Hi, Anna!

The beautiful P sisters all together.

Daddy, with Micah P (neither seem fond of posing)

Here's our sweet friend, Susanna B.

Thanks again for glittering our hair for us, Susanna! 

And thanks, Mrs. Carmen, for sharing your photos! 

The S. sisters all thank you for viewing!  Until next time...Slán go fóill (goodbye for now).

Growing Dogwoods...on a Ceiling Tile

Well, I recently got this request to paint dogwood flowers on an old metal ceiling tile.  Such a cool idea. 

I think those embossed edges are sooo beautiful.  

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The tile was kind of a rusty mess at first, so I cleaned it up with a bristle brush.   

Now that the tile is all "brushed up," it's time to...start the art! (I just love corny rhymes:-)

You can see that I first pencil in a rough sketch before I lay down any paint.  That really helps me.    Then I just block in the colors, using a mix of white, yellow, and black.  Oh, and the brand of paint I'm using is Folkart Outdoor paint for non-porous surfaces.

This is kind of a blurry picture, but what I've done here is add shadows and some reddened tips to the petals.  To keep the red from being unrealistically bright, I mix in a little yellow and black.

So, now I've painted the two other flowers and added the stem.  

For the woody stem, I first used a dark layer of red, blue, and black paint; then added highlights, using the same mixture - only brightened with white and yellow.

Detailing... using black, blue, and white, I hint at the lines in the petals.  Then I add highlights of yellow and white paint.

The leaves are simply a mix of yellow, black, and blue paint...white added for the bright tips.

And here's the finished product!  The dotted border you see was obtained by just floating a paint-soaked flat brush over the "mountainous" section.  I then embellished the other raised areas with plain black paint...kinda creates a framed look.   And we all know every painting looks better in a frame! :-)




Thanks for popping in...I hope you got as much fun out of this project as I did!  


Yours truly,
Callie

In which I ramble on about voilets, spring chicks, shoe styles, sheep work, and freakishly shaped carrots...

Spring is here (hip-hip-hooray!). Tiny violets are popping up everywhere, the skies are cloudlessly blue, the pastures are greening out...

...and it's tagging day.  Time to put permanent tags in our 2012 lambs' ears.

As, you can see, we're all stylishly shod for the occasion.  

So, first we round up all the sheep into our portable corral (aka leftover fencing wire), then separate the ewes from the lambs.

"Voici our primary tool."

In this pic, Emori is removing the temporary copper tag (closer peek below) before replacing it with our permanent one.

Oh!  Ron Paul moment...GO RON PAUL!!!  Okay.  Moving on...

  

...yeah, Blueboy actually isn't supposed to be in this post.  Forget him.

Katie gets the secretary job.  Making sure the right tag number is applied to the right lamb is important.

Everybody's tagged, and reentering the field.  

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Speaking of spring, check out these CUTEST of chicks!  They're just 24 hours old, but the sun is so comfy that I'm able to turn off the heat lamp during the day.  Isn't it remarkable how these biddies can hatch out of their eggs and almost immediately go to scratching about in the leaves?

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Here are some of the carrots Maura and I harvested from the garden. 

Just thought these two carrots were so cool looking!  I had to give them a photo shoot before I... well, chopped them up and blanched them, ahem.