52 Weeks of Felt Paintings - Week 14

Did you see my strawberry felt painting?  I need to make more of these, no? For some reason, I really have been wanting to felt a carrot. Is that weird? Probably. Maybe my need to felt a carrot has some sort of weird meaning. If you know what it is, do tell.

In the meantime, enjoy my wool carrot!

So I had a Birthday Yesterday...

...aaaaand now I'm 30.  Yup.  Thirty seemed so old even five years ago.  But, really, I'm thankful to be thirty.  It's certainly better than the alternative of never reaching thirty.  As I get older, I find it easier to settle into who I am and the life I have. And, I don't really mean "accept" when I say "settle."  Mostly, I mean that it's easy to be myself.  And it's wonderful.

My birthday weekend was great, too.  Our Friday and Saturday evenings were spent on the deck with my favorite person, my favorite beer and new art supplies.  Over the weekend, we went for a little hike with the pups, enjoyed a yummy bagel from my new fave bagel place in town, and spent as much time as we could outside.

Oh, and there were cupcakes. Happy Birthday to me!

52 Weeks of Felt Paintings - Week 13

It's almost strawberry season!! We've got huge blossoms on our plants this year, so I'm hoping that translates into huge berries. I am not looking forward to the annual war we wage with the slugs. I mean, can't they find something else to eat?  And, why can't they eat the whole strawberry, rather than just nibbling a tunnel through one berry to the next.  Rude.

If you follow me on instagram (@begoodnatured), you might recognize that this felt painting is inspired by the clean, white backgrounds I like to use in some of my photos  I hope you like this style!

 

An Update on our Front Yard Garden

My husband loves to garden, and I love to eat what he grows.  I help a little too, but really he does most of the work.  We have some raised beds in our back yard, but over the last five years, our giant maple tree has grown and shaded that area.  Since we bought our house, we've constantly been landscaping.  And since our front yard is mostly full sun, it's ideal for vegetable gardening.  Actually, I've posted a little bit about our front yard gardening here.

So here's a peek at what our front yard will look like this year.  I can't wait until the peak of summer, when all the plants--flowers and food--are bursting with colors and yummy stuff to eat!

Brandon was on the roof cleaning out our gutters and snapped some pics of the front yard from above.

Turns out our mailman is a little confused right now about where to walk, since our mailbox is on our house. Sorry Mr. Mailman. We'll get it all sorted out soon.

A Wonderful Weekend in Arkansas

My husband and I are originally from Arkansas, and this weekend we made a quick trip to visit his family.  It's fun to enjoy time on the in-laws' farm and help them take care of their critters.  We helped move the chickens to a new area and clip their wing feathers.  I fed some eager horses. We checked on the new calves arriving every day. We planted a tree. We added some chicks to a flock of twenty baby chickens.  I held a baby duck. 

Today we also celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary and were surprised with cards and a cake (the same kind served at our wedding) after our family lunch.  It was so sweet!

It was a good weekend.  I hope yours was great, too!

52 Weeks of Felt Paintings - Week 12

Do you remember the wool pizza that I made back in February? It got such a great response, so I made a pepperoni version!  This one is also much bigger.

 

These make me laugh every time I see them.

52 Weeks of Felt Paintings - Week 11

I've fallen a bit behind on my 52 Weeks project for this year. But no worries--we'll catch up together!  I'll be posting two new paintings a week until I'm on track. 

This one was another wet felting experiment.  The background and yellow base of the flowers were all wet felted.  Then I needle felted the stems and flower details.  This painting is super thin.  And I just love these colors. I wanted to make it have a painterly feel--like the wool was added with loose brushstrokes.

See you tomorrow with another painting!