Favorite Christmas

This is an old story that has been going around for years but it's my favorite.

Grandma and Santa Claus

I remember my first Christmas adventure with Grandma. I was just a kid.
I remember tearing across town on my bike to visit her on the day my big sister dropped the bomb: "There is no Santa Claus," she jeered.
"Even dummies know that!"
My Grandma was not the gushy kind, never had been. I fled to her
that day because I knew she would be straight with me. I knew
Grandma always told the truth, and I knew that the truth always went
down a whole lot easier when swallowed with one of her "world-
famous" cinnamon buns. I knew they were world-famous, because
Grandma said so. It had to be true.

Grandma was home, and the buns were still warm. Between bites, I
told her everything. She was ready for me. "No Santa Claus?" she
snorted...."Ridiculous! Don't believe it. That rumor has been going
around for years, and it makes me mad, plain mad!! Now, put on your
coat, and let's go."
"Go? Go where, Grandma?" I asked. I hadn't even finished my second
world-famous cinnamon bun. "Where" turned out to be Kerby's General
Store, the one store in town that had a little bit of just about
everything. As we walked through its doors, Grandma handed me ten
dollars. That was a bundle in those days. "Take this money," she
said, "and buy something for someone who needs it. I'll wait for you
in the car." Then she turned and walked out of Kerby's.
I was only eight years old. I'd often gone shopping with my mother,
but never had I shopped for anything all by myself. The store seemed
big and crowded, full of people scrambling to finish their Christmas
shopping.

For a few moments I just stood there, confused, clutching that ten-
dollar bill, wondering what to buy, and who on earth to buy it for.
I thought of everybody I knew: my family, my friends, my neighbors,
the kids at school, the people who went to my church.
I was just about thought out, when I suddenly thought of Bobby
Decker.
He was a kid with bad breath and messy hair, and he sat right behind
me in Mrs. Pollock's grade-two class. Bobby Decker didn't have a
coat. I knew that because he never went out to recess during the
winter. His mother always wrote a note, telling the teacher that he
had a cough, but all we kids knew that Bobby Decker didn't have a
cough; he didn't have a good coat. I fingered the ten-dollar bill
with growing excitement. I would buy Bobby Decker a coat!
I settled on a red corduroy one that had a hood to it. It looked
real warm, and he would like that.

"Is this a Christmas present for someone?" the lady behind the
counter asked kindly, as I laid my ten dollars down. "Yes, ma'am," I
replied shyly. "It's for Bobby."
The nice lady smiled at me, as I told her about how Bobby really
needed a good winter coat. I didn't get any change, but she put the
coat in a bag, smiled again, and wished me a Merry Christmas.
That evening, Grandma helped me wrap the coat (a little tag fell out
of the coat, and Grandma tucked it in her Bible) in Christmas paper
and ribbons and wrote, "To Bobby, From Santa Claus" on it.
Grandma said that Santa always insisted on secrecy. Then she drove
me over to Bobby Decker's house, explaining as we went that I was
now and forever officially, one of Santa's helpers.
Grandma parked down the street from Bobby's house, and she and I
crept noiselessly and hid in the bushes by his front walk. Then
Grandma gave me a nudge. "All right, Santa Claus," she whispered,
"get going."
I took a deep breath, dashed for his front door, threw the present
down on his step, pounded his door and flew back to the safety of
the bushes and Grandma.
Together we waited breathlessly in the darkness for the front door
to open. Finally it did, and there stood Bobby.
Fifty years haven't dimmed the thrill of those moments spent
shivering, beside my Grandma, in Bobby Decker's bushes. That night,
I realized that those awful rumors about Santa Claus were just what
Grandma said they were -- ridiculous. Santa was alive and well, and
we were on his team.
I still have the Bible, with the coat tag tucked inside: $19.95.

I wish all of you a wonderful, blessed, joyful Christmas.

The Owls have it again

I'm still recovering from some sort of flu with sinus problems so I haven't been around too much.  I've noticed that other people are having a hard time getting rid of this illness too.
The one good thing about needing to rest is that I just read the most wonderful book about a woman (biologist) who raises a rescued Barn Owl. If you love birds or nature or need a gift for someone who does, this is a great read. I hope I did the link right  Wesley the Owl


Owls have really become popular perhaps it's due to Harry Potter. Fortunately, they are one of my favorites too as their faces seem to display so much emotion.

Barn Owl, Bird, Animal, Wildlife Nature by countrymousestudio
Browse Barn Photo Sculptures

Custom Dated, Cute Little Owl,Bird by countrymousestudio
Make personalized photo ornaments online

Fun Birthday Humor Owl, Bird, Nature, Wildlife by countrymousestudio
Shop for a card with zazzle.com

Funny Owl with Attitude, Bird, Nature, Wildlife by countrymousestudio
Browse Funny T-Shirts

Old Age, Over the Hill Birthday Owl Humor by countrymousestudio
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Christmas Screech Owl Watercolor Bird by countrymousestudio
Browse more Screech Cards

Snowflakes Winter Owl, Watercolor Bird by countrymousestudio
Browse more Snowflakes Mugs

Great Grey Owl Print by countrymousestudio
View other Owl Posters

Magpies

 This family of Magpies has been coming to my house for about 3 years now.  They have a particular call for me on days when I've not put any food out yet.

There is a large bear population in this area making it a bad idea to have a compost bin with scraps of food in it so they recycle my left overs for me and in exchange provide some entertainment.

I've read that they prey on eggs and nestlings of smaller birds but my huge flock of sparrows and finches don't seem to mind them, even when nesting so perhaps it's the scarcity of food that makes they prey on smaller birds.

I have no idea why this fellow has a crest on his head.  I didn't see it when taking the photo and even enlarging it didn't reveal why.
He does have a beak full of stale muffin.

  The photos aren't great as magpies are hard to capture with a camera. They are very alert and intelligent so the slightest movement scares them away

Here are a few Magpie images by various artists for sale at Zazzle

Watercolor Magpie in Bird, Animal Collection by countrymousestudio
sell your art online with zazzle.

I love the pose of this Magpie on the Fence from aquartistic

A Magpie perched on a fence by aquartistic
View other Magpie Bags

The colors are beautiful on this one from  lemmingsolution

Yellow Billed Magpie by lemmingsolution
Browse Yellow billed magpie Posters

Great bird images for all species available from  birdorable

Cute Magpie by birdorable
Create a full color post card on Zazzle

Feeding the Birds

My husband and I agreed that it was time to stop feeding the birds.  I've seen numerous posts on the internet about the increasing cost of bird food. Without expensive seed like Niger, I was mostly feeding sparrows and chickadees, magpies and a few quail and in spring, a duck family.

So last spring, I decided to quit at a time when they could find their own but they never went away.  They sat out in the hedge calling and cheeping. What could I do? I had some cereal no one wanted to eat, one of those healthy ones that tastes like bird food.  They loved it.  Then I had some stale wholegrain bread and healthy muffins with peanut butter, a little bit of oatmeal, stale raisin bran, 9 grain cereal.  The magpies came by so I added fat scraps from the ham and leftovers.  Nothing like seeing a magpie try to balance on a line with half a muffin in his beak or a couple strings of spaghetti.

 

As cold weather arrived, I realized the birds weren't going anywhere so I went to the farm supply and asked what the cheapest edible food they had.  The cashier laughed and said chick scratch.  She said a lot of people feeding birds were switching since it was cheaper.  It's a mixture of chopped corn and wheat, half the price of sunflower seed and with absolutely no waste.

I've been feeding it for two months now and I think I have every sparrow in the neighborhood including a few song sparrows.  The flock of California quail has tripled and I don't think they'd leave the yard except for the neighborhood cat.  The magpie family is up to 8 or 9 now and they call if I forget to put it out or sleep in.

The good news is I've cut down my cost of feeding the birds to about half and am recycling leftovers too

Interview with Judy Adamson

Judy interviews artists on her blog all the time but no one had interviewed her. See my last post for more of her images.

I grew up in the Isle of Wight, which may explain why I love to paint boats, but I’ve lived in various other parts of the UK before moving to Wales, nearly ten years ago. Part of the attraction of living in Wales is the wonderful mountain scenery but I’ve painted the local Meadows more than anything else, and I think this is because I also loved the flat landscape of parts of Norfolk, where I lived previously.

1.When did you begin to be interested in Art?
I grew up with four much older sisters and two older brothers and most of them drew and painted to some extent. So some of my earliest memories are of one of my sisters, who was a schoolteacher, teaching me to read and drawing little pictures to illustrate the letters of the alphabet. Drawing just seemed to be the natural thing to do in my family, though I can’t remember either of my parents drawing.

2. Has anyone in particular encouraged you?
Yes, in fact my mother always encouraged me to draw on any scraps of paper that were to hand. Although there was very little spare money around in such a large family, she bought me some little books that I still have today, one about the Impressionists and one about Renoir.

My art teacher at the boarding school I attended from 11 – 18 was also very encouraging, though I got my second lowest mark for Art in the exams we took at 16 – I hated drawing balls of string and wilting philadelphus flowers pinned to our drawing boards on a hot summer’s afternoon!

3. Have you done formal Art Training?
No, I’m afraid my mother’s encouragement didn’t stretch that far! I very much wanted to train to be a ‘commercial artist’ but my parents believed that Art Schools were full of ‘Beatniks’ (this was the early Sixties!) so I did a degree in Modern Languages instead.

I’ve been to various Adult Education classes but the only ones I really benefited from were the Life Drawing class and the Art and Design class at Wensum Lodge, when we lived in Norwich. Even then, it was more the encouraging, free atmosphere, with expert advice on hand, that taught me more than the formal parts of the lessons.

4. What is the most important thing you've learned from experience, or other people?
Probably the most important thing is not to worry about my art! I used to fret about whether I was doing it right – because I hadn’t had the Art School training. A neighbour who had trained at the Slade and later taught Art, got sick of me pestering her with questions and told me ‘there ain’t no knitting pattern, gel!’ – she also held some of my watercolour landscapes under a running tap and much improved them!!!!


5. Who is your favourite artist and why?
I’ve loved Cezanne’s work http://www.paul-cezanne.org/ since I was quite young, difficult to say why but it just seemed ‘right’.
More recently I’ve developed a liking for Paul Klee http://www.worldgallery.co.uk/gallery/Paul-Klee-1.html?affiliate_id=3000&keyword=Klee&gclid=CJLqiuTNn6wCFRRc4QodGDCR-g,  C.R. Mackintosh  http://www.worldgallery.co.uk/gallery/Rennie-Mackintosh-1.html?affiliate_id=3000&keyword=Mackintosh&gclid=CIr_ztbQn6wCFYEZ4QodOzpc_ Q Gaugin  http://www.myartprints.co.uk/a/paul-gauguin.html/&pid=UK999?gclid=CJyf7vXOn6wCFRRc4QodGDCR-g and Degas http://www.myartprints.co.uk/a/edgar-degas.html&mpos=1003   and when it comes to illustrators, Quentin Blake  http://www.quentinblake.com/ and Ezra Jack Keats http://www.ezra-jack-keats.org/ have to be my favourites. On the other hand, there are far too many artists and illustrators whose work I enjoy to give a full list but I find myself still very much drawn to the Impressionists – maybe something to do with those little books my mother bought me when I was still a child?

6. Do you paint regularly?
I try to but it doesn’t always work! Sometimes the need to paint or creating a design overwhelms me and I take time out when I should be doing other things but it also happens the other way around with tedious chores crowding out my painting time.

Roughly how much time do you spend painting? Nowhere near as much as I would like! I’m often lucky if I can get an afternoon a week – and that’s at the expense of having a social life!

7. Do you paint fast or slowly and meticulously?
When I paint my soft pastel paintings, I work very fast, usually completing one in the time it takes to play a CD – about 45 mins. If I go on longer, I tend to ruin what I’ve done.

But I’ve had to adapt to working more slowly and meticulously for some of my greeting card designs. For one thing, there’s usually a lot more small-scale detail than in my pastel paintings. But also, there are considerations like waiting for the paint to dry!

8. What is your favourite medium?
For my own use, soft pastels or oil pastels, both of which I love using because there’s no mixing or changing paintbrushes involved, all of which tends to interrupt my ‘flow’. Recently I’ve enjoyed making ‘painted paper collages’ as greeting card designs. But I am tremendously attracted to other people’s watercolour paintings, especially if they’ve succeeded in achieving a transparent, fluid effect.

9. What subject matter draws you to paint it?
I seem to have painted a lot of landscapes and flowers but it’s more the composition of shapes and colours that attracts me so that could be anything at all, if the composition seems to ‘sit right’ for me.

10. Do you paint from photos, sketches, memory, en plein air?
I rarely, if ever, paint ‘en plein air’ these days; my scary encounter with some deer who crept up behind me and tried to eat my watercolour tubes really put me off! So a digital camera has become my sketchbook these days. On the other hand, I do a lot of greeting card designs from my imagination, just using reference photos on the internet to check things like anatomy occasionally, particularly if animals are involved. It’s so easy to think that we all know exactly what a squirrel, for instance, looks like, but when it comes down to it, I need reminders of things like the shape of its head, the position of its ears and so on. Maybe this is because I don’t have a very good visual memory.

11. Where do you sell your work?
I have sold my original pastel paintings and prints through solo exhibitions in the past. But I think the Art Teacher who told me that I’m a designer rather than a fine artist was right – I’m far more interested in designing greeting cards and using my designs on other products these days. So I sell my greeting cards through Greeting Card Universe, http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/judyscardstore CardGnome http://www.cardgnome.com/shops/flutterby-designs and, more recently, SendaSmile, http://flutterbydesigns.sendasmile.com/ as well as Zazzle. http://www.zazzle.co.uk/helikettle* I also sell my greeting cards in local shops but getting a price for the printing that makes sense is difficult so I don’t spend too much time on that. A few of my pastel paintings are available as prints on Red Bubble http://www.redbubble.com/people/helikettle/portfolio and Fine Art America. http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/judy-adamson.html

12.How do you feel about parting with your originals when someone buys them?
I hate it and feel compelled to make sure that my painting is going to ‘a good home’!

13. Do you or have you ever painted to commission?
I have occasionally tried to paint things specifically for a friend, such as a painting of their house. But I didn’t enjoy it much. On the other hand, I sometimes find it useful to have a ‘Design Brief’ as a starting point for a greeting card design. How I interpret that brief is sufficient freedom for me and I’m glad of the parameters the brief gives as it gives me something to focus on.

14. Do you have any particular future plans or projects in mind?
Or where do you foresee your artistic journey taking you? I would really love to see my greeting cards sold widely in shops, I don’t have enough time to embark on self-publishing in anything but a very small way, which doesn’t make much sense financially. So the only route open to me would be if a publisher licensed some of my designs. In 2009 I had a ‘near miss’, with the publisher pulling out because of the economic downturn, after several months of keen interest,. I’m planning to create some new designs to submit to publishers after Christmas, not expecting too much as it’s such a highly competitive business and publishers themselves are feeling the pinch. But even if I don’t succeed, I look upon this as a way to keep my designing up to a high standard.

Featured Artist - Judy Adamson

Judy Adamson was one of the first people I met when I started creating art for Zazzle.
 We became friends online and although she lives in Wales we discovered that we had a lot in common.  She has encouraged me many times when I was ready to give up and I'm grateful for her friendship.
She  features other artists on her blog http://judyadamsonartanddesign.blogspot.com/ and I would like to repay her kindness by showing you a collection of her beautiful art. 

This is her store at Zazzle http://www.zazzle.com/helikettle#
She also has stores at:http://www.cardgnome.com/shops/flutterby-designs  Card Gnome   and
Greeting Card Universe http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/judyscardstore?gcu=43752923941&mid=cwu

Very Pretty Floral Blackberry Curve Case by helikettle
Make your own samsung galaxy cases

65th Birthday Card - Red Geraniums by helikettle
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Sweet Pea Ringer Mug by helikettle
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She also does wonderful character paintings
 

Gone fishin' White T-shirt by helikettle
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"The Life in Your Years" Birthday Card for a Man by helikettle
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'Red Hats' Birthday Card by helikettle
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'Good Luck, We'll Miss You!' Card by helikettle
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Toddler T-shirt with Chinese Dragon and Lantern by helikettle
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Cat Notecard - Just to say... by helikettle
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'Foal' Birthday Card by helikettle
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Birthday Card for a Grandpa - Algarve Fishing Boat by helikettle
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50th Birthday Card - Evening in the Meadows by helikettle
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Magnet with Quote by helikettle
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Poppies Magnet - Friendship by helikettle
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George Eliot Quote Bookmark by helikettle
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Magnet Retirement by helikettle
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Christmas Angels Card by helikettle
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This is just a small sample of the many hundreds of items available by this incredibly versatile artist.

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