New doggie?

Lately my attention has been focused on the search of a dog to keep me company. I cannot think about anything else. I never had a dog in my life, been always a cat lover, but in this period of my life I feel the love of a dog is what I need.
My life has dramatically changed in the last 2 years, I lost my mom and my beloved cat Max in 6 months, had to move..........
Now I feel ready to have a companion, and I think this will be a turn in my life.
I went to the local dog pound, and there I fell in love with such a cute beagle, unfortunately she was already "booked" by another family. There weren't many dogs there, I think max 15, and all were quite old. Coming from the loss of my family, and being at my first experience with dogs, I'd like to get a puppy that I can fully enjoy.....

So I started searching websites that put up ads from different dog pounds all over the country, and I saw a doggie that was really adorable, but when I called....it had already been adopted...... :( great disappointment!!!
I didn't know it was so difficult to rescue a puppy!!!!

Then I came through this cutie......so adorable! <3

What hit my heart was that incredibly sad look and oh, the color of his eyes. I called immediately.....

Thanks God he is still available for adoption.

I filled in the adoption form and sent it back. Now I'm waiting for the next step, that should be someone from the dog pound coming and checking where I live,

I'm so impatient and I'm sure that when he finally comes home, I will paint more than one portrait of him.... <3

Will keep you up to date, and please send me your positive thoughts so that my dream can come true.....

What a great afternoon!!!!

Spring is blooming everywhere, so I felt like painting in the open today.

I just drew a couple of ovals for the flowers, then I started painting very freely.

The sun was warm, there was breeze, how could I not stay in the sun???

I wanted to do this because, due to the sun and breeze, paper was drying quite quickly, not giving me the time "to think".
I had lots of fun, did not think about the final result.

Here it is, fresh and joyful! :)

....Note to self: do this more often!

Sewing

Here's a little project I did to recycle a duvet cover I had done some years ago in patchwork.

Here it was, on my old bed that I had painted and decoupaged








As it was not easy to put the duvet inside it, I decided to find some other use for it.
The first thing I came pu with was a cover for my mom's sewing machine. It originally had a wooden cabinet where it could be stored with all the accessories, but when I had to sell her home, I did not have any space to keep the whole thing, so I got rid of the wooden part and actually store the sewing machine in my cabinet.

Here I am cutting the fabric. I used a piece of fleece I had laying around as backing

Doing some quilting....

My sewing machine, time to see if I did the measurements right..... :)

Luckily it seems I did!

The other side

And here a close-up of the quilting I did, very easy, but that's what I can do! :)

I did a hand sewn puffy edge with a jeans blue thick silk thread.

Et voila, done! :)

I am a sweet tooth......

I really have a passion for sweets, and I try to experiment with unusual combinations whenever I can.
Here is a compilation of jams, they were a success among my friends too!!!!
I usually use a 3:1 ratio, 3 parts fruit 1 part sugar, and pectin to jellify.

This one isn't very appealing to the eye, but the taste is just fab!!!!

I had lots of persimmons and many kiwis, I would have never been able to eat them before they went bad, so I decided to try and put them together. I also added some vanilla seeds.....delicious!!!!!

I am lucky enough to have a small peach tree on the terrace......

and a wonderful big vase of strawberries......I usually pick up the ready ones, freeze them, and when I have enough I can make either marmalade or liquor...







The following one is just that: my strawberries, my peaches, an apple and mint!

I also like making strawberry glaze, perfect for filling cakes and cupcakes....

It's longer to make compared to jams, as you have to squish all the fruit through a sieve, but it's rather beautiful and smooth looking, and oh, so delicious!!!

These were mixed berries: strawberries, blueberries and raspberries with lemon juice








last year I went with my "sister" (she's my best friend so we call each other sis) to a small village up the mountains. There you may find lots and lots of elderberries, they are a gift of nature, and they are free, so we picked up quit a lot of them. getting all the berries off the stems is a bit of work, but the result was great! I mixed them with strawberries

....perfect on scones!!!!










Here I experimented with pineapple and mangoes, with some ginger for a twist!

Absolutely fantastic!!!!!






And here's the one I did a few days ago, pineapple and strawberries with ginger

Now for some 3d stuff........

I started playing with Bryce software in the early 90's, there was a great community called 3d commune, where we used to share our artwork and get comments and ratings, and I learned a whole lot from the guys there!!!

I used to do landscapes and some surreal stuff, really loved playing with the 3d world, camera, lights, materials, textures......wow I really got lost in the virtual world....

I also created some materials, mostly waters to use in my scenes, possibilities were (nearly) endless....
Unfortunately the site was closed at one point, but still have some contacts.
One of them is a German engineer, Hubert, a very nice person, who did some outstanding abstract works, he shared with us some of his files to play with, and with those files I discovered a whole new world. He has the mathematical mind that I don't have. Kudos to my friend!!

Here are some of my works inspired by his artwork. Unfortunately, all of my old works are gone for good, as the external hd where I stored them broke.... :( (that was a real tragedy, as I also stored all my watercolor step by step, all my reference photos and so on....) There could be a chance to having it restored, but it would cost about € 700, and at the moment my budget doesn't allow me such expense...

Abstract water

Abstract water 5

Carlito's way

Flow of silver and gold

Green reflections





Hope you enjoy, will post more.

FAA sale

I'm so pleased about this, a very nice good morning!!!

http://fineartamerica.com/saleannouncement.html?id=717035f7a7a5ef80a32f642b7c2b32aa

Spring is coming!!!

Just a few shots I did on my terrace, it seems that winter is fading away at last, and the first signs of spring are in my vases. This puts me in a positive mood and I feel good energy flowing. I thought I'd share with you....

This is the very first flower on my tiny peach tree, love the transparency of the petals and the long harmonious stamens!

This is a pot with mixed crassulacee and muscari

This is another pot with muscari, love them, they are also called the fairies flowers, a pity they just bloom once.....

A close-up, might paint them.....

This "guest" jumped out of the closet where I keep my gardening stuff.....not really fond of it but it's part of the "game",
I've always lived downtown where the moste extreme wildlife form was some ant....it was really hard for me to get used to the variety of insects you may have as guests even inside home......terrifying at times, but must learn to live with it......

This is chives, i really use it a lot in my cooking. At the end of the season I cut it back and freeze it, so I can use it during winter.

My strawberry vase, it always gives me lots of fruit throughout the season, I mostly freeze them and when I have enough, I make some yummy jam :)

The very first violet of the season, they may be white or violet, they are so pretty but they tend to invade all pots, so during summertine I pull out most of the leaves. I had the chance to see how they do their work, if water touches their seed capsules, they just explode like bombs sending seeds everywhere. very interesting!

Melissa in a roses pot, this plant too tends to be invasive, but I keep it under control using the leaves to make a delicious liquor that my friends appreciate so much!

The very first blossom of my Pierre de Ronsard. Usually the first bloom of roses is always destroyed by cetonias (rose-chafers). The only rose that is not affected is the red one, it seems they prefer yellow, pink and white.....









Soon I will be planting the veggies; green beans from seeds and tomatoes give me the best results. Basil, paisley, rosemary, sage, thyme  and marjoran do well, I tried cucumbers but I think that having them in a pot is not good, and eggplants, but I only got 3 of them in all the season.....Salad won't grow, my terrace is facing south so too much sun......carrots vere another negative experiment......will have to think about some more veggies that can do well in pots......