Comfort Cottage

Happy Birthday Pink Saturday!

This week we are celebrating the third anniversary of Pink Saturday.  I've been a part of the Pink Saturday crowd since July of 2009.  I wonder if Beverly at How Sweet the Sound had any idea when she launched this group just how big it would become.  I don't think any of us will ever look at pink in the same way again :)  Beverly, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of the joy that Pink Saturday has brought me.  I've made some wonderful friends, and I consider you to be one of them.  Through Pink Saturday, you helped me to connect with many wonderful people...something that prior to participating in the group, I had not done for quite a while.  I suspect you have changed more lives for the better than you know.  Pink Saturday is more that just a group of people who love pink.  It is a circle of friends. 

 

I've been trying to figure out what I would share this week, and up until now, I had no idea what to do.  I went on an outing with my sister on Wednesday.   We spent a wonderful day in Haddonfield, NJ getting into the usual trouble :)   I had my camera ready.  All I needed was the inspiration.  We went into a favorite spot, The Picket Fence and Garden Tea Room.  I was taking in all of the wonderful sights, when it hit me.  I was surrounded by PINK!!!  Sooo, I'm inviting all of you to the tea room.  It is a delightful place that will knock your pink socks off!

 

 

The window display is very inviting.

 

 

The shop has many more delights.

 

 

 

 

I love the bird house!

 

 

Let's not forget the linens.

 

 

Of course, we must have plenty of pillows.

 

 

A quilt or two would be nice.  They would look beautiful draped across a table.

 

 

Have you ever seen so many gorgeous teapots and teacups in one place?

 

 

 

This one is my favorite.

 

 

 

It's important to have the right bag when going to tea.

 

 

Do you need a few sweet, romantic accessories for your home?

 

 

 

 

I have my eye on the chocolate covered pretzels :)

 

 

Let's go to the tea parlor.  Our tables are ready.

 

 

 

Where would you like to sit?

 

 

There's a nice table by the garden gate.

 

 

The table by the window is available.

 

 

After tea, we can go for a stroll in the garden.

 

 

It has been a wonderful birthday celebration.  Please stop by and visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound, where you can find all of the Pink Saturday crowd.  May your week be filled with blessings!

 

Until next time,

 

 

 

 

 

A Revelation and a Guilty Pleasure

Yesterday, I travelled to New Jersey to visit my sister Lorrie.  As sisters go, we are like two peas in a pod.  We have been fortunate to enjoy a great many common interests.   Now that our children are grown,  we have more time to share them.   We spent Wednesday afternoon wandering around Haddonfield, a lovely old town with plenty of wonderful shops, galleries and restaurants to explore.   After pounding the pavement for awhile, we were ready for lunch.  We ate at The Crepe and Ribbon.  The food was incredible.  Fortunately, we arrived early and I had time to shoot a few photographs before the rest of the hungry crowd arrived.

 

 

The staff was very friendly, and was quite interested to hear about my blogging adventures.

 

 

My sister is amused by my practice of photographing every place we visit, and her amusement sparked an enlightening conversation about the experience of maintaining a blog.  When I thought about it, I realized that I was fulfilling a desire of mine.  I have always thought that being the designer/editor for a creative magazine would be very satisfying.  In a small way, that's what Comfort Cottage is all about.  It is my own personal publication-a blank slate that I can fill with all sorts of colorful features, stories and projects.    It joins me to a close community where each of us is teacher, student, cheerleader and supportive friend to the other.  Together we can discover that the good, the bad, and the ugly are the common denominators of our creative lives.  Hopefully we can all recognize the inherent value of those lives.  We are blessed.

 

That takes care of the revelation.  The guilty pleasure?

 

 

Desert, of course!  So we didn't have to hang our heads in total shame, we shared this exquisitely delicious concoction.  It is a cannoli crepe.  The creme was to die for, and the strawberries and chocolate made it the most memorable desert I've ever tasted.

 

Desert and enlightenment:  all in all, it was a pretty good day.

 

Until next time,

 

White Irises

Did you ever have one of those days where five minutes into it, you want to go back to bed?  Today was one of those days.  I got out of bed, barely able to walk, because my knee wasn't cooperating.  I sat down with my coffee, just in time for the dog to throw up in the hallway.  Then, I went online to check my email, only to find that the internet was on the fritz (or so I thought).  It turns out that my darling son decided to download something that took over an hour, and was hogging all the bandwidth (don't ask).  And then, I had a reality check.   It dawned on me that my house wasn't flattened by a tornado, and my family was safe and well.  The folks in Missouri have real problems.  Let's keep them in our prayers, okay?  I know my little trials pale in comparison to what they are dealing with today.

 

On my last photo expedition, I got some lovely shots of an iris garden.  Although I love vibrant color, the ones that appealed to me the most were the white irises.  Portraying white flowers in watercolor is a bit of a challenge.  I had been putting off the project, but I finally decided to have a go at it.  This is what I came up with.

 

 

White Irises

Watercolor on 140lb. cold press

 

I hope your day is full of blessings.  Are you planning anything special for the weekend?  We'll be heading to New Jersey to see my sister and her family.

 

Until next time,

 

Beach Shack

I found a photo on Morgue File that was rather interesting.  Of course, I had to paint it!

 

Beach Shack

Watercolor on 140lb cold press

This little shack looks as if it has seen better days.  Still, it has character, and the location is out of this world!

 

Until next time,

 

Pink Saturday Treasures

Is it that time already?  Where did the week go?  Happy Pink Saturday!  I'm happy to be participating in our pink party.  Thank you to Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for being our hostess today!  If you would like to visit the other participants, just click on the Pink Saturday icon in my right sidebar.

 

I visited Annie at Plum Siena for the first time this week.  Please stop by and check out her gorgeous photography of the most scrumptious cherry blossoms!

 

Just a reminder about my Pink Saturday Giveaway.  You can enter until June 2, when you sign up to subscribe to Comfort Cottage.  To subscribe, use the Subscribe box in my left sidebar.  Don't forget to check your email (and your spam folder).  After you sign up, you have to click on the link in that email to activate your subscription.  You can check out the details here. 

 

Phew!  Finally we get to the pink!  I found this pedestal dish at the local thrift store.

 

 

I love the pink roses!

 

 

Is that too cute, or what?

 

 

The bowl is hand painted.

 

 

I love pitcher and bowl sets-especially with pink roses.

 

I hope all of you have a safe and blessed weekend.  God bless you!

 

Until next time,

 

 

 

 

 

Kentucky Farm

Today's painting was a bit of a struggle.  I ended up scrubbing most of it out and reworking it.  I experimented with a lower intensity color scheme, but the greens ended up too dull on the first pass.  This was the second attempt.

 

Kentucky Farm

Watercolor and Acrylic Ink on 140lb Cold Press

Photo Reference provided by Morgue File

 

I tried a higher intensity yellow to brighten up the green mix.  I have mixed feelings about the mix :)

I'll try a new one tomorrow!

 

Until next time,

 

Painting the Farm

After a busy weekend of blogging and photography, it was time to get back to the studio.  Recently, I discovered a wonderful watercolor artist- Lynn Frye.  Lynn has a fabulous photostream of her work on Flicker.  She has graciously offered several photos for artists to use as subject matter.  Today I worked a painting for my art journal, using one of those photos for reference.

 

Barn in Oxford, NC

Watercolor and acrylic ink on 140 lb. cold press

 

I love living in farm country and I'm hoping to get out again soon to photograph some of Lancaster County's beautiful farms.  It looks like the rain may keep me in my studio for a few more days, but I guess that's a good thing.  I've got plenty of painting to do!  If you would like to see more of my work, you can find it here.

I want to thank Lynn Frye for her inspiration and the wonderful photographs she has graciously allowed artists to use.  I also would like to thank everyone who came out on Pink Saturday and especially for signing up to follow me.  I had so much fun visiting and seeing what other creative souls are cooking up.  You really are an amazing community of talented people.  God bless you and have a wonderful day!

 

Until next time,

 

Afternoon In The Park

 
When I got up on Sunday, it was pretty miserable outside.  I thought we were in for a really dreary day.  At around 11:30, it unexpectedly cleared up.  I was so happy, I grabbed my camera and headed for Poole Forge.  What a lovely afternoon it turned out to be.   There were beautiful flowers to be photographed.  Of course, having Lyme disease, I kept imagining there were things crawling on me, but I did my best to ignore it.

 

When I walked down the path, the first thing I saw was a huge bed of irises in bloom.  I never knew there were so many varieties.  The white ones were my favorite.

 

 

I was really glad I brought my telephoto lens, because there was no way that I  was going to crawl around in the flower bed!  You never know what's crawling around with you.

 

 

I didn't know where to point my camera first!

 

 

The light kept shifting as the sun passed in and out of the clouds.  It was a challenge trying to get the shot before it changed.

 

 

I love that deep shade of purple.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The honeysuckles smelled wonderful.

 

 

These delicate things were growing all along the creek bank.

 

 

 

I think these are coral bells, but I wouldn't swear to it.

 

 

 

 

 

 Another mystery flower...I'm sure some of you out there may recognize them.

 

 

I have always admired this tree, and I've photographed it in all seasons.  This was the first time I saw it in full bloom.  I didn't know that it was a flowering tree.

 

 

When I got home, I pulled out the Audubon guide to North American trees.  There were a number of species of flowering chestnut trees.  This one is the horsechestnut.

 

 

There is so much out there to discover!  We often miss things.  I almost forgot to look up.  If I didn't, I would never have noticed the magnificent flowers on this tree.

 

Life's like that.  Don't forget to look up.

 

Until next time,

 

 

 

A Pink Saturday Giveaway

 

Happy Pink Saturday!  I hope you are all well and enjoying the beautiful spring weather.  I want to thank Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for graciously hosting our pink party every week.  If you would like to visit all of the wonderful Pink Saturday participants, just click on the Pink Saturday icon in my right sidebar.

This week, I made my first visit to The Enchanted Oven.  Lisa is incredibly creative, and has made some very yummy-looking works of art.  Please pay her a visit, and I'm sure you'll love it as much as I did!

And now, as I promised you last week, photos of my Pink Saturday giveaway:

 

I've assembled a few things that I thought might be fun to use in one of your creative projects:

1.)  A bouquet of lovely, crinkly pink rosebuds.  You can separate them and use them individually.

2.)  A large, vintage feed sack.

3.)  A vintage hand-embroidered doily with a crocheted edge.  This might be lovely on a pillow.

4.) A 1 1/2 yard length of antique pleated trim.

5.)  A pink and white striped apron, designed and hand made by me.  The overskirt is trimmed in a vintage pink floral trim.

 

 

 

I've also be busy working on a new painting.  I was able to order some artist grade watercolors for my birthday last week  Playing with color is so much fun!  I've been reading a book called Confident Color, by Nita Leland to learn more about how to use color successfully.  She has you do all kinds of excercises with your paints in order to get to know how they will perform.  She then has you record the results in a sketch book journal for future reference.

 

I practiced mixing colors before I started my painting.  I was amazed at the difference between artist grade paints and student grade paints.  The artist grade is saturated with pigment, and the color fairly explodes on the page!

 

 

I worked out a drawing on my computer.

 

 

I transfer the drawing to watercolor paper with graphite paper.

 

 

I used one of my photos from Longwood Gardens as my inspiration photo.

 

 

Can you tell that I love vibrant color?

 

Thank you so much for sharing Pink Saturday with me.  I'm thrilled when you come to visit!

 

God bless you!

Until next time,

 

The Boneless Cat

Don't you wish you could relax like that?

 

 

What a life!

 

Let's take a nap.