Breaking it In

Okay, so the patio's done. Now what? 

Oh yeah! Perfect excuse to invite the E family over!

Oak fire in the tire rims. Good times.

Hmm. Okay, the Dewalt drill is really irrelevant to this post. This is just a nice pic of Maura.

Mama and Daddy, posing with the soon-to-be-painted metal furniture. (Actually, as I write this, the furniture has already been painted...but it ruins the illusion to say so. So I won't. Wait a minute...)

Katie made banana pudding. Oh, and see those peels in the forground of above photo? The secret to her recipe is taking those peels, grinding them up really fine, and sprinkling them in among the vanilla wafers.

 Gotcha ;-D

Daddy and Mr. Kevin

Maura asked Hylla if she would mind playing with the E kids. Hylla was like, "Whatever."

But soon, she was more like, "That feels so good! A little higher!"

And soon she was the center of attention. Great for her ego.

 Elam: "Can we go farther?"

Ezra: "Can we go farther?"

Hylla: "Can we go farther?"

Barrel racing. Around the debris trailer.

Evie, a beautiful big sister.

Maura: "Man's gotta take the reins sometime. Ride'em, Cowboy."

"Hi ho, Silver!"

Ewan spent that afternoon supplying the ladies with corsages. 

Isn't Edith so precious?

"Help! He's on my horse! He stole my horse!"

Emily and Hylla.

Ah...lemonade. And Mt. Olive water.

"Making a sandwich is man's work, darlin'."

"I need me some more meat!"

"Do I have something in my teeth?"

Cutting barbeque is serious business.

"Oh! Fireworks! How lovely, haha!"

 

It was so fun having y'all!!!

*   *   *   *

Mamaw, who was here for the E family's visit, tarried a night. 

Next day we went a'shopping in town, then went to the Wal and bought picnic stuff.

Yes. Sooo good. Samiches, chips, Teddy Grahams. What...you don't know what Teddy Grahams are?

Mamaw's pimiento cheese sandwiches are sublime.

We so enjoyed havin' you, Mamaw! 

And we enjoyed havin' you stop in, dear reader!

 Yours, Callie

Yard stuff

A few weeks ago, Emori decided to do something with our "fire pit" area (aka, the clearing in the woods with two tire rims stacked on top of each other to hold the fire). She's really amazing with landscaping work. So when I heard she was spearheading a backyard makeover, I figured if anybody could fix up our sad little barbeque corner, Emori could.

Entire process took a couple of weeks. But here's the cliff notes version:

Emori, Katie, and Maura, shovelling sand. Mamaw (lady in the background) came over, and of course pitched in with gusto.

        Maura: "Can Hylla lend a hand?"

           Hylla: "I don't wanna lend a hand."

               Emori: "She doesn't have any hands."

Maura and Hylla: "Touché."

"C'mon, Hylla. We'll find something else to do."

Emori

Emori: "You shovel. I'll...sit and guard."

Mamaw

Maura repainted some metal furniture donated by Mamaw.

Rust Kill.  This is serious business, y'all.

Lookin' it in.

Digging holes to hold the swing posts.

"You might be a redneck if..."

"...you use posthole diggers for photo props."

Garden swings need to be level. They just do.

Burger break.

Okay, here's the semi-finished product (furniture and such is still pending). We're all so excited to have a nice-looking backyard...I mean, nicer (it's not like we plan to be on the cover of Southern Living or anything like that). 

But it is something to blog about.

Thanks for looking in!

Yours,

Callie

Weddings, Birthdays, and Songbirds

Okay, so I know it's been forever since I've posted! I'm afraid I've gotten pretty skilled in the art of getting sidetracked lately...

...anyway, to make up for lost time, I've decided to pile a couple events into the same post. 

 Is that allowed?

  Oh well, I gwine doin' it :-)

Katie's Indian friend, Therisa, has a sister who was recently married!

On our side of the Atlantic, we Americans decided to celebrate on her wedding day...Indian style.

Maura made Tandoori chicken (although I'm afraid we didn't have all the spices for the recipe. It was delicious anyway!)

I could get used to this kind of food. (Oh, and that mushy stuff is actually really good...despite its, well, mushy look. It's called raita, and it's a concoction of apples, spices, and yogurt.)

*   *   *   *

We just got finished celebrating Mamaw's eighty-fourth B'day!

Here're the highlights:

 

Mama baked cakes, Katie and Maura baked cookies...Callie and Emori stayed out of the way.

Forget whistling...we turned up Maura's Mp3 player while we worked!

 Cake layers.  Three of them (gasp). We don't...usually do that.

Moi. Making Mamaw's card. (Photo courtesy of Maura paparazzi)

Mamaw's a singer, so I made her a songbird themed card.

Sketching...

Taking my new wash brush for a test drive.

Slopping on the details (does that sound contradictory to you?)

 Finished!

We celebrated at Aunt Nancy's restaurant.
 

Opening Presents....

Maura: "Whoa...what is it?"

Mamaw: "It's a paper mache rabbit!"

Maura: "I want to...touch it!"

The pic says it all.  Mamaw's the kind of person who cuts her own birthday cake and serves every body else before herself.  We love you, Mamaw!!!

 Coffee and coconut cake.  Mmm.

Say "hello" to Mr. Paper Mache Rabbit.

Now say "goodbye."

Yours Truly,

Callie

New year and newcomers

Hey everybody, and happy New Year!  Wow, I haven't blogged since last year (guffaw).  Sorry, but I just couldn't pass that one up.
I hope you've all had a great 2012, and that you'll have an even greater 2013. 

 So, I just wanted to introduce the newest additions to the farm...

...I'll start with the horse.

 

Here's Hylla.  A friend of Daddy's gave Maura this little Arabian mare about a month ago (I know! This post is way overdue!), and I think the two really dig each other.

And here are the first lambs of the year.  I think those brown markings are sooo cute!

All right, these PVC pipe troughs that Emori built for the sheep qualify as "newcomers" too.  We're actually pretty excited about them...well, not quite as excited as when Hylla or the lambs arrived, but if you'd seen the old broken down things that used to be in our fields, you'd probably feel a little excited about these newcomers too.

Yours etc.,

Callie

Daisy

My cousin has this really cute dog (Daisy). 

Rabbit Trail: Daisy is so sweet and sensitive, and will sit by you for as long as you'll pet her.

End Rabbit Trail.

Anyway, my cousin asked for a pet portrait. I took some (not very great) photos of the painting process in case I wanted to blog about it.  

I want to blog about it.

So, here's Daisy!

I was given several photos to look at.  I mainly drew from two of them, using the ear language of one, and the facial position of the other.

(Oh, and please excuse the weird lighting.  Yeah...I did these first steps under lamplight.)

Since I painted this on a canvas, I used the "opaque" approach with my acrylics, as opposed to the "transparent" approach. 
(With the first method you use more paint, and go from darker to lighter layers of paint.  The second method uses less paint because all you do is start with light washes, going from lighter to darker layers.  But the transparent method works better on watercolor paper than on canvas, I've found. Hence my opting for the opaque method.)
 Whew. Anyway, moving on... 


Okay, so I started with my good old rake brush, blocking in the main colors, brushing the paint in the direction of Daisy's hair.  For the eyes, I started by painting them flat black...



...then I added more details and colors.  In the eyes, I brushed opaque brown on the underside and dotted some white around the top.  Then I finished blocking in Daisy's fur.

Next, using a detail brush, I added lighter strokes of paint to the fur to imply depth.  The tops of the eyes I lined in a mix of blue, white, and black to give Daisy her adorable eager look.

Okay, another day here, and better lighting. 

I repainted the background in a more shale-like color, to create better contrast.

 Finishing up, I added even lighter shades of brown to the fur, always stroking my brush in the direction of Daisy's fur.  I deepened shadows and lightened highlights.

 (A note on shadows: it took a while, but I finally learned that when doing shadows on animals with white areas, it helps to mix in a little of their other color - in Daisy's case, brown - to the "shadow" color of your white area - which would be white and black - in order to make the whole picture mesh together. Does that make sense at all?  If not, pretend this parenthetical insert was never written.)

Added yet more highlights, shortened her neck fur (to make her look less shaggy), gave her a few whiskers (I love that part), finished her collar, and signed my name.  

And we're done here!

Thanks for popping in, folks!

Yours truly,

Callie