Thanksgiving 2009

This year we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving on Saturday: My mom came in on Thursday, Ryan was supposed to come in on Friday night... Mom came in on thursday as planned, then we went in to the Doc friday morning to find out Mike was fighting the early stages of Pneumonia... Later that day after lots of cooking... we found out that Pneumonia is, in fact, very contagious! So we called off the party and Ryan decided to pospone his trip... maybe 'til new years?
Meanwhile Jenny and I had decorated the dining room and table so pretty and we had all this food! So Jenny and Jason decided that they had immune systems of steel along with my mom and I :) And we made the best of things!
Here's the abbreviated Thanksgiving gang: 11-6=5 This photo (below) captures a moment in the whole 2/24 hours Mike was vertical on Saturday... [Sunday was about the same]

After Dinner we moved into the Kitchen/Family Room for Dessert and coffee where Jason demonstrated for us the "proper" way to drink coffee from a china cup.

Thanks to God for:

• The Healing Mike has experienced in the past week.
• Bringing my mom here and home again safely
• Pure and unrelenting friendships
• A roof over my head
• A warm meal to eat
• Infinite grace, love, trustworthiness, and mercy
• Wisdom and perspective
  
  

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Plastered, Painted Pantry Door

Inspired by something a client saw in a furniture store, I was asked to paint a pantry door. The picture below is a view of the front, to see detail, click on the image. The center is a useable black-board while the edges are raised up with plaster and then hand-painted and "aged" with stains and glazes.

After providing such a fun look to the front, I was stumped on the back... then I remembered that I had a trick up my sleeve :) It turned out pretty great! Hope the client likes it as much as I do...

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Retreat '09

Last weekend was our annual art retreat. This group of women have been going up to work on oil paintings in Wisconsin for a weekend in fall for over 30 years. The salvation army camp for the past 24?? I think...
Anyways, not only do I enjoy these women and an opportunity to set time aside to paint but I also look forward to spending a little QT with my mom. Especially now living out of state it's important that we both set time aside and make efforts to hang out.

Here is a picture of my finished painting. I found the photo in the Oklahoma Living magazine a while back and loved the colors. It's a very 'mystical' scene. I don't know why but painting rocks is one of the hardest things... I think they turned out okay though ;)

It has worked out really well the last 2 years... Mike's folks live about 1/2 hour away from the camp so he flew in to see them, picked me up for a visit and then we had a 12 hr road trip back. Kinda long but not bad... we had plenty of laughs and chats.

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Hi God

Well... I don't think I slept a second until sometime after 4:30 last night... or should I say this morning? I wanted to thank you for the chats... I didn't think I was worried about anything but you reminded me of a couple things.... it's all small stuff... like REALLY small stuff and you're bigger than the human mind can conceive.
Sometimes I think you keep us awake just so that you can spend time with us... so I trust that I won't be too tired on the road today... You know I don't know why it is... but I feel like everytime we start to get close and I get to feel like I can dance with your spirit... the enemy comes in and steals my joy. I am getting sick of the road blocks... please give me strength.
Okay, I gotta get going so I can get on the road.. Love you :) Thanks!

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Kitchen art available individually or as a set:

Apple: 8x10 Checked Charcoal Back Ground... seeds and stem in copper leaf, leaf in silver leaf... remainder in acryllics and stain

Strawberries: 8x10 Plaid Charcoal Background. Featuring gold and copper leafing, acryllics and stain

Pear: 8x10 Featuring copper and silver leaf, acryllics and stain

Ginko Leaves: 16x20 (Silver Leafing) applied over contemporary pattern in a soft gold metallic eathy greens and stain shading.

The past couple days at Kustom Kate Studios have been busy and full of inspiration. Keep our custom artwork in mind for your holiday shopping... custom orders taken.

Tell a freind!

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Kustom Shades

Have you ever noticed how hard it is to find a cute lampshade when you need one? ... there's not many options out there!
Click to enlarge, reptile skin pattern applied for a leather effect... black trim for a "finished" look

Call Kustom Kate with your artistic needs today!

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The Studio.... (inmygarage)

This Week's Project.... (Cabinets)

After just short of a year of living in Oklahoma... this past May/June ; I got really annoyed with lugging my supplies into the house from various storage places to work on samples, and projects. So one day I got motivated, made a list, went to Lowes, and got to work creating myself a work-space. Of course summer came early this year... I spent a little over a week organizing and putting shelves up etc in 105 degrees 'til about 10:30 pm each night. Who-da-thought the rest of the summer would be mild?

Anyways, I LOVE working out there. I have spent many of the summer evenings working, creating, playing and jamming to tunes. My work doesn't really feel like work to me... I CRAVE it... just ask Mike.. I go crazy if I don't have something to paint :)

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Kitty in a box.. Iris has made herself a home in one of the boxes from Mikes Birthday... She thanks my mom :)