Bee's Buzzings

New Paintings - at Valley Artworks

Recently, I'd renamed my original Etsy shop.  Valley Artworks seems to fit better than BeeDazzles . . . as the shop will continue to include more canvas paintings and original watercolors.  Here are a couple I'd completed lately.

This one is titled, "Rising Above" and is an original acrylic painting on a 36" x 24" gallery wrapped (back stapled) canvas. 

This striped one, appropriately titled, "Stripes and Whimsy" is a larger 48" x 24" original acrylic painting, also on gallery wrapped canvas.  The sides are painted black on these first two - so they're ready to hang.  No further framing needed.

This final painting is also a large 48" x 24" original acrylic, with the sides of the canvas painted brown.  A very calming painting titled, "Sunburst".   All available at http://ValleyArtworks.etsy.com.

More coming soon!

Art Prints for Baby, Nursery, Inspiration and Home

After a long very long hiatus, I'm back.  I've been working on some designs for my newly opened Etsy shop "Artspeek" and am having a great time designing again. Here are a couple of my favorites . . .

I'll be adding many more designs in the next few weeks, and may be running a contest for a free giveaway sometime soon, if there's enough interest.  Your thoughts?   

sweltering heat in Minneapolis

Earlier we registered a heat index of 116 degrees here in Minneapolis.

Heading out for a dip in the pool. Thank goodness our back yard has a southern exposure and the house blocks the evening sun.

Our Little Silver Lining . . .

Just chilling - the new addition to our family:

After recently losing our two beloved cats within 6 days of each other (Jinx, 13, to cancer and Bobby, 12, to assorted medical issues) we adopted this sweet kitty from the Humane Society. Despite our sadness, Devon has added many smiles to our lives these past few days.

Relaxed cat? She's actually napping in the above photo!

Isn't she just too cute for words??  ♥

a sweet daisy pendant for spring

SO happy that when we wake up tomorrow . . . it'll be March. 

Spring will be here before we know it.  And I for one, cannot wait.  My thoughts are quickly turning to flowers, flowers and more flowers.  In the meantime, here is a sweet daisy pendant to keep me happy.  Set in pewter behind a crystal clear hand-cut glass dome.  Ahhhh . . . 

Think I'll take a little time this week to plan some new garden beds in our backyard :)

Snow, and more snow

Well, this recent round of snow certainly is beautiful, but I'm pretty much sick of it.

Minneapolis broke records in December (greatest monthly snowfall on record) and this month (greatest one day total) and we're looking at a third place finish for greatest monthly totals for February, as well.  And winter isn't done with us yet since March is historically the snowiest month.  Ugh. 

Just hoping our spruce trees are okay - look at the heavy blanket of snow on the limbs.  (I'm not even going to mention the sadness I feel when spying all the snow on our diving board.)

On a brighter note, tickets have been booked to fly to Florida in 6 weeks, so no matter what things look like here in April, I'll be enjoying temps in the 80s before long.  Sweet.

They say the valleys make the peaks that much more glorious.  I'm thinking Spring and Summer are going to be mighty fine this year!

Sweet Little Turtles . . . in BeeDazzles Etsy Shop tomorrow

Yes, I'm finally back to painting!  It's been a while.  Between recovering from all the house issues and then our middle daughter needing major surgery in December, I had to step away from the blog for a bit. 

The good news is our daughter is now doing just fine and I'm back, and with some new art.  Hoping this is just the tip of the iceberg . . . more paintings to come soon!

Here is what these little guys looked like yesterday, while they were still a 'work in progress'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And you can see a peek of some of the Easter images I'll be working on (in the photo on the left). In addition to the Mini Notes, all images will eventually be available as Gift Tags, Pocket Mirrors, Magnets and most likely as Note Cards, as well.

Hope you're enjoying 2011 so far, it's been such a whirlwind I'm kind of shocked to find tomorrow is February already!

And the contest winner, drawn at random, is . . .

Heather! 

Congrats on winnin g the Boxed sets of A Dozen Art Cards, in my Etsy Sh op!

And a big thanks to everyone who left comments, and visited Bee's Buzzings.

Things have been quite busy in the shop, and also at home.  So plans are to take a break from Etsy from December 13 through the end of the year to enjoy the festivites with family and friends.  I'm hoping to get some painting time in around New Year's and plan to have some new Art Prints, Pendants and some other new items listed when the shop re-opens in January.  Will be posting previews here, as time allows, so check back towards the end of the year.

In the meantime, I'll be sharing some more house photos from the demolition, construction and final results of our house and also some Holiday decorating (including more Shiny Brite ornaments!) between now and the end of the month.

Again, congrats to Heather and hope you all are having a great week.

 

It's beginning to look a lot like . . . Winter in Minnesota

In about 6 weeks (maybe sooner) this sight will no longer thrill me.  But for now, this Winter Wonderland looks inviting, yet pristine. * Enjoy *

p.s. will be selecting the winner for the Free Box of Note Cards tomorrow evening (i.e. still time to leave comments on any and all blog posts, each for an automatic entry).

Pantry Cabinet Makeover - The Before And After

There's one really big upside about living in five different brand new homes over the past eighteen
years.  They'd all had great kitchens.  Usually with some solid surface counters, hardwood flooring . . . and pantries.  NICE pantries.  But there was something I'd learned from living in so many places, and cooking in so many kitchens. Surprisingly, I do not prefer walk-in pantries. 

In our last house, we specifically designed the kitchen with a wall of very shallow 12" cabinets, and several narrow, roll out drawers where the cabinets required a depth of 24".  You don't lose food this way, and there's very little 'pull these items out to get at that' going on.

So here we are, in my first house bought as a resale.  A house I love.  A yard I love.  A neighborhood I love.  But a kitchen, that while awesome in layout, will be seeing a lot of updates in the next few years.  First stop:  The Pantry.  As you can see from the above photo, the stationary shelves made this 24" deep pantry almost a waste of space.  I kid you not when I say we lived out of a lot of grocery sacks scattered around the perimeter of the dining area, at least until the new roll-out shelves were installed.

(click photo to enlarge)

And I knew exactly who to call - I'd worked with many master craftsmen in my previous life as a Selections Coordinator at a custom home builder.  Marty Erlien (reachable at (612) 644-9007 if you're in the Minneapolis area) came out, measured, talked about spacing requirements, and his assistant returned a few weeks later to retrofit the cabinet and install some custom made shelving.  As you can see - it's a perfect solution.  Amazing what these guys (and some full extension glides) can do to make a space SO much more functional.  It's now finally fully utilized and a pleasure to use every time we open the pantry doors.  I'm loving it!

If you like this, just wait until you see what they did for the new tub in our remodeled bathroom!

p.s. don't forget about the free Box of 12 Note Cards giveaway, just leave a comment to automatically be entered.  Just a few more days until a winner is drawn at random.