This is Ruby!

I am quite enamored of her!

She will be about 28 inches tall. 

I'm trying to decide if she will have a bonnet, a hat or if I'll just continue with her hair.

 I love the way her face came out-I used acrylic paint and colored pencil. 

Still one of my favorite techniques!

Folk doll joy!!

xx

~Annie

Bridal shower in 2 weeks~Aagghh!!

Chelsea chose her 13 year old sister to be her maid-of-honor.

 (Here they are dressed in the japanese kimonos their grandmother left to them)

 So that means her sister must give the shower.

 And since she is 13, that means essentially I am giving the shower. 

LOL!

But I am thrilled to do it.

 (Here is a much nicer picture of Isabel, she would kill me if she knew I posted that picture above, but luckily she never reads my blog!)

We are having a very traditional shower.

 Women only-no boyfriends or fiances!

Just 4 generations of women

 getting together to make the bride feel special

 and shower her with the essentials of setting up a home.

They will not live together until the wedding, 

so she needs everything. 

Just like in the old days, 

I love it!

One of the things we are doing is passing out advice cards to all of the guests. I designed them myself. They will be cut in half once I get them printed, making 2 cards per page.

What do you think?

xx

~Annie

Cherry pie

We got the most delicious cherries on our vacation in Michigan. 

Gotta make one of these:

Yum!!

Summer morning

OK!

After a good and restful nights sleep I am up early, said my morning prayers, took the dog for a long walk while its still sort of cool(not!) and now I'm ready for this:

Oh gosh-its not showing up too well. Gotta work on the photo editing a little more I guess. These are all little watercolors I did while I was on vacation.

If you were here girlfriends, I would offer this one to you!

 And we could sit on the back porch while the morning cool inches away from us

 and discuss the garden. 

We pulled 3~ 12 inch cucumbers off the vine last night! 

Yay!

 The summer bounty is beginning!

 I have 2 wonderful basil plants too, and I'm going to try to make my own pesto.

I love summer!

xx

~Annie

Happy 4th of July

 

This is a 4th I will truly never forget!

Our church held a 24 hour prayer vigil to pray for our country and our first most cherished liberty, which is our religious freedom.

Our youth group participated in the vigil by spending the night in the church hall and going into the church to pray and spend time with Jesus intermittently. 

Isabel spent the night and I made it until 4:40 AM, when my tired old body headed for home for a longish nap and I returned for the morning mass. I applaud the moms who stayed all night, and the ones who did early morning 3:30 to 6:30 am shifts.

When I arrived this morning-still quite bleary eyed-the kids were energized and joyfully cleaning up the hall. 

They were filled with the spirit! 

 It was wonderful to see.

I know you will all agree that we LOVE our country, and cherish everything she stands for and is founded on!

So proud to be an American mom today!

And after another nap, suprisingly, I feel pretty good!

Bring on the BBQ and fireworks, I'm ready to celebrate,

thankful for this wonderful country we call home! 

 

 

Poppies

The whole time I was painting this I kept hearing the wicked witch from 

the Wizard of Oz saying,

"Poppies...poppies will make them sleep..."

hehe!

I'm painting my way through an instructional book on 

how to paint flowers that I bought at Michaels.

Learning is fun!

Getting married

This is my beauty getting married in September. Every day it becomes more real!

I'm so happy for her but its still hard to let her go!

Love you so much my darling!