My Homemade Christmas

This year, with the economy as tight as it is, I decided to make Christmas as much as I could. I got busy making quilted potholders for my kids and turned my family room into a sewing factory with my sewing machine, strips of cloth and batting strewn everywhere. What a mess! But I ended up with a dozen potholders that didn’t look too bad.

Along with a disc of family history stories from ancestors on my dad’s side of the family, I painted two of my grandsons for two of my sons. I think they turned out pretty good.

This is my version of my youngest grandson before he was a year old. We were camping on the Mogillon Rim.

This is what he really looked like.

This is my oldest grandson. He'll be 12 in Feb, but here he was around 10.

Here's the pic I used. We were in Old Tucson enjoying Spring Break a few years back. You can see in this photo he is missing a tooth. I used artistic license to give him a full set.

You can definately tell that my watercolors are not photos, but hey, not too bad for someone without an art degree.

The Art Competition

Well, the Art Guild of Eastern Arizona, of which I am a member, recently had an art and photography competition and show. Before becoming a member of the art guild, I would never have considered entering a contest. It would have been too scary.

That’s a good reason to join groups or organizations that have the same interests. By joining the art guild, I have become a better artist, and by joining a writer’s guild I have become a better writer. Below are some of my watercolors and photos that earned first places in their category.

These two watercolors aren't new, but this is their first time in our competition. I did have another painting that earned first place, but I don't have a photo of it yet. Perhaps another day I'll share it.

This is the very first year that I've entered a photograph in any competition. I've been tempted several times to enter photography contests that I've read about, but chickened out at the last minute. I took this picture in Phoenix at the Wild Animal Park. I call them Lemurs, but someone else who saw them wondered if they weren't Mercats. Does anyone know for sure?