Yes It's hard to believe it's October already and it will soon be time for the spooky ghouls of Halloween to be out and about. We painted this cute spooked cat and pumpkin in class yesterday. Kim Christmas designed it, very cute.
It's starting to feel like fall here I even turned my heat on for the first time today, it's gray and dreary here and a light breeze. The leaves are starting to change colors. Before long they will be floating down to the ground and the trees will go to sleep for the long winter. Halloween is the kick off to all the great holidays that I look forward to.

Also October is the month I was born so I have a birthday coming up, not something that I look forward to but it's coming no matter what....LOL

Now that the weather is getting colder and it gets dark so early in the evenings I hope you'll have time to find a great pattern and sit with you paints and brushes and enjoy some painting time. Hey, instead of carving a pumpkin why not paint one to display on your front steps. Not only pumpkins but you can paint gourds to, just use your imagination. All the little goblins that come to your house this Halloween will be impressed.

Until next time Happy Painting everyone.

Lighthouse

It's been a while since I've been here, I hope your having a great summer. It's really going to be hot on the east coast so I look at it as a good time to stay inside and paint.

I'm starting to get back to painting, gotta really stop playing around and start getting ready for the fall craft show season. Classes are doing well this is the lighthouse piece the students started yesterday. The designer is Linda Lover and you can find this pattern as a free download at Artist Club. Now who doesn't like free, go check it out.

Crank up the AC, get a cold drink and spend some time with those brushes.

Happy painting.

Sad Day in the Music World

The world lost a one of a kind performer Michael Jackson passed away today.

Growing up in the seventies I grew up with the whole Motown sound. The Jacksons where a big part of the music that I listened to every day. I bought Michael's music each time an album was released and still have it today. His music and videos will live on forever.

Rest in Peace Michael.

Happy Memorial Day

I'm guilty of neglect, yep that's right I've neglected my blog. Shame on me. But in my own defence I've been busy doing all the spring things that everyone does each year. Spring cleaning and getting the yard in shape here are some of the pretty flowers from my yard this season.

So painting has been on the back burner for a while. Once everything around the house is done I'll be back in my studio painting away getting ready for the shows again this year. In the mean time I keep notes of the things that I plan to paint and always stay alert looking for new things to paint or paint on.

If you have any suggestions feel free to leave a comment here for me. And it would be nice to hear what everyone is painting or plans to paint this summer.

I hope you have your flag out front and center today. In remembrance of all the men and women that have given their lives for the freedom of our country.

God Bless This Country Land of the Free Because of the Brave.

Spring Time Bunnies

Once in a while I do a trash to treasure project and this is one of them. Old blown light bulbs some felt for ears and some hats make the cutest Easter bunnies. If you have a spring time tree these would be so cute hanging from a tree.

To make these you'll need your acrylic paints and a sponge brush. Make sure the bulb is clean I use alcohol and wipe them till dry. Then you use your sponge brush to pounce the paint onto the bulb this way you won't have a streaky base coat. I do 2 to 3 coats drying between coats until they are well covered. Then you paint on the bunnies muzzle and eyes. Cut some oval shapes for the ears and hot glue them to the metal part of the bulb. Then make a hanger for your hat I used ribbon. Now you can decorate your hats with all kinds of little things like the tiny eggs I used or bows, flowers I bet you can come up with all kinds of ideas. These make cute hostess gifts. Just remember they are glass and not for the little ones to play with.
Now are you going to make some light bulb bunnies? If you do send me a picture and I'll post them here through Easter. Email your bunnies to thefurbandi@msn.com And we'll show them off.

Happy Spring

Well the calendar says it's spring but it still feels pretty darn cold to me. But surely it will be warming up soon. I've been very neglectful of my blog lately I've been sick for what seems like forever. But I'm feeling so much better now and raring to go.
I haven't done a lot of painting so this piece was from a while back the Iris is one of my favorite spring flowers. I did this for my front porch. I used Delta Crackle Medium on the background of this piece. Some people have a hard time using crackle medium but once you get the hang of it it's worth taking the time to learn how to use it.
First you base coat your background color on, once dry you you apply the coat of crackle medium. The directions say you can start when the crackle is still tacky to the touch. I like to let mine dry for a few hours or even over night. Now the fun part. For the top coat on this piece I used Light Ivory, pour the paint out on a pallet if your doing a large piece you'll need a lot of paint. With a large base coat brush fill that brush full of paint now start base coating as quickly as possible the paint your putting on will start to crackle right away. You don't want to work the paint on the surface to much because the it will mess up the crackle. Play around with this medium you'll like the look of it.

There are so many beautiful patterns for spring flowers make sure you check out the painting magazines they always have such cute things for Easter that you can paint to decorate your home with. http://paintingmagazine.net/

While I took a break from painting I was invited to the world of Face Book, so now I have a Face Book page. And for even more fun I just had to check out Twitter. LOVE IT!!!
Yes I'm a Tweep ( LOL... I think that's the right lingo ) I tweet on Twitter.
OMG Do you know how many interesting people there are that you can follow around the world, what really cracks me up is there are people following me.
So come Tweet with me look for furbycat , yeah that's me...lol.

Happy painting till next time.

Hen & Baby Chicks

I finally got my little hen and chicks done to go with my rooster. This is another pattern from Trish McMurry. I really like the little baby chicks. The one standing alone looks as if he's saying to the others " Aren't you going to come out and play" lol.

I live in a area that almost never gets a lot of snow usually only two to five inches for the whole winter. Well it started snowing yesterday afternoon and it didn't know when to quit. By 11pm last night is was snowing really hard then the winds started to howl at 50 + MPH. It sounded like a train coming through. Trees went down across power lines I'm lucky my power was only out for a few hours but there are others that still don't have their power back on yet.

When it was all said and done we got 12 inches of snow. I'm not a snow lover at all so it can't warm up and melt this mess soon enough for me. I just kept telling myself spring is coming.

For those to the north that might be getting that storm tonight stay in, stay warm and stay safe.