Success!

Sarasota Orchid Society's booth at "A Symphony of Orchids"

For those of you who enjoy orchids, isn't this a beautiful array of plants?

My two entries in the Orchid Show both won blue ribbons.  It doesn't get

much betther than that!   The white one on top, and the reddish, orange

plant on the right are my contribution

A Symphony of Orchids

Laela rubescens var. 'alba' Walter

Sarasota Orchid Society presents its annual Orchid show,

A Symphony of Orchids

this weekend at the Sarasota Municipal Auditorium.

I feel like a 'stage mom'.  But first, let me tell you how I got to this place in my life.  In early December, the Orchid Society had a dinner/auction.  I eyed this beauty before dinner and decided I would definitely make a run at it in the auction.  When the bidding got to $50 dollars, I opted out.  My husband, who usually complains about the care and feeding of my orchid family, slid $65 dollars over to me and said, "go for it."  And I did, and I got it!  When paying for it, the grower came up and asked if I would please enter it in the show in January as she was sure all 12 stems would be open by then.

I have never entered a plant in the show so decided this was a way to start, with her tutelage.

Cattleya Volcano Trick Fireball

In the meantime, one of my favorites was covered with blooms so I decided, why not it too?

Then the preparations began.  All of the paper thin 'silk' had to be removed from the stems.  The

blooms were secured to stakes with bits of green wire.  Both stake and wire are not be obvious when looking at the plant.  Then I washed the leaves in a mixture of whole milk and water.  This gives them a nice lustre and isn't harmful like leaf shine products.  Last, I had to find a basket to hide Volcano Trick Fireball's mossy pot.

Last night I watched one of those Tot Beauty Paegent Shows and thought," There I am, getting my girls ready for a beauty paegent."  Will they win???  Who knows, but this is a new adventure for me

(and my two girls).
Bring on 2013...I hope there are lots of new adventures in it for everyone!

Paint Party Friday

Sea Grape tree leaves

I just completed a class with Barbara Simmons at the Art Center of Manatee.

We worked on wet and dry negative painting.

In my case, I decided to do some leaves taken from a tree in the side yard of the center.

For the background we used antwerp blue and yellow ochre, wet into wet.

We used the same colors on the leaves, leaving the veins white.  We then finished it off with a mix of antwerp blue and burnt sienna.

And now, holiday wishes for all my friends out in blogland.  This has been an amazing year of 

discovery for me.  Not only have I had a ball trying new and different art mediums,

I have found a whole new circle of friends who share my interests.

It just doesn't get any better than that.

Thank you all for your friendship, inspiration and support.

Happy Holidays!
AND
Happy PPF

The Diva Dance, celebrating 100 Challenges

Laura Harms, The Diva is celebrating 100 challenges this week.  In honor of that we have a new tangle from Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts (the Zentangle gurus) called the Diva Dance.  Congratulations to you Laura for conceiving and raising this little seed of an idea.  Could you have dreamed that people from all parts of the world would be participating in(and benefitting from) your little seed of an idea?  Well done!  And thank you!  I have been with you since somewhere in the 30's.  I look forward to hearing from you on Monday mornings.

Loopy String

Okay, I confess, it is true.  I am totally hung up on butterflies

as the zillion caterpillars devour my passion vine.

So when I did my loopy loop string for the Challenge this week,

what did I see???  You got it!  Yet another butterfly.

The Challenge was provided by Margaret Bremmer so I used my variations

of her tangles, Shing and Moving day.  Thanks Margaret!

Keep your fingers crossed.  We WILL find out if caterpillars turn into butterflies.

Soon, I hope.  I won't have any vine left if this continues much longer.

Thank you Paint Party Friday Partiers!

A poinsettia bouquet for all of you that responded to my request for help

on my elephant project.  I  was so touched by all of the wonderful suggestions.

The shadows have been added and maybe this week I will give them a sky.

Itsy bitsy Keenee

One of my favorite things about the Holidays is the poinsettia plant.

Every year I buy them for the house and then move them to a pot outdoors

so I can enjoy them the following year in the side yard.

When our weekly challenge at the Diva site was to use "keenee"

the only thing I could think of was the center of my poinsettia plants.

Here it is!

And Cheers to Laura...we are creeping up on 100.

And here is this year's crop.

My wishes to everyone out there to have a peaceful, sane Holiday Season.