Merry Christmas!

I've not been my usual organized self this year.  

I hung Santa on the door and got my tree up, the cookies are baked and the candy is made.   So now I'll rest my mind and reflect on the true meaning of Christmas.

Wishing you and your family a blessed and safe Christmas.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given;  and the government shall be upon his shoulder,  and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  Isaiah 9:6

Caroling in Winterberry Christmas Painting

Hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season with all the smells of baking and the joy of decorating your homes.  

Today I will finally get started because I've been busy finishing up my new painting:

"Caroling in Winterberry"

As cozy as Winterberry appears in the summer with all the sailboats on the water and children laughing and swimming at the beach, there is no better time to visit than during the Christmas season.

Blazing bonfires, carolers, and shops decked out with their festive finery make you feel like you've stepped back in time.  While staying at the Sugar Plum Inn you can cozy up to the fire after stepping out for a hot meal at Maisie's Cafe or make a quick run to the Unwind Yarns store for some knitting needles and a new skein of hand dyed yarn.  By the way,  all the beautiful quilts adorning the beds at the inn are from the lovely quilt shop just down the street and Betty is giving a 20% discount through the holidays.

Cupcake Snack Jars

I promise that this is the end of my cupcake ceramic posts.  Yes, these are based on my cupcake paintings and I wish I had some to sell.  I simply don't have time to order and ship in time for Christmas.  You can check for them on Amazon and I've seen some on eBay.  

How cute would this be with some of your fresh baked Christmas treats!

….and for those lovers of the color pink!

Hopefully I will be finishing up my new Christmas folk art painting next week.  I do wish I had more time for decorating.  I'm planning ahead next year!

Cupcake Trinket Boxes

New trinket boxes available from my cupcake designs:

I am painting like crazy this week finishing up a Christmas folk art scene.  I'll be sharing it soon!

Cupcake Salt and Pepper Samples

Below are the salt and pepper samples based on my cupcake paintings:

I would love to put a link on my blog for where you can purchase them, but I haven't been able to find one.  They are sold by retailers around the world so if you see them somewhere, please let me know.  It would be fun to find out who is selling them and where.

Cupcake Snow Globe Ornaments

Just thought I'd share the snowglobe ornaments that are based on my cupcake designs and licensed by Westland Giftware:

This little gingerbread house ornament is my favorite!

A cute little Christmas tree snow globe ornament...

This little gingerbread man is cute, but I'm not crazy about the wording.  I'll be changing mine by painting it out and repainting something else.  I could repaint the white area and just use some scrapbook Christmas lettering on top.

A cute snowman to cheer up your day!

I'm doing a little decorating today!  Is your home ready for Christmas yet?

Cupcake Designs Snow Globes

Remember those boxes I shared with you on the last post?  I'll be sharing those with you a few at a time because there are several.  Today I'm sharing the tiny snow globes cupcakes and they come in those great storage boxes. They measure 45mm or 1.77 inches.

I probably shouldn't have shared that last one because the lettering was messed up, but it's the only sample I had to photograph.  The last two birthday cupcakes have an "on and off" switch on the bottom.  When you turn it to on and blow in the hole on the front the candle lights up.  You can then blow to turn it off. 

I've seen some of these on Amazon if you are interested.  

I'm not sure if I'm going to invest in purchasing these to sell, but I'll try to keep you posted or give a link of anyone that I know is selling them.

Now I get to figure out how to display all my samples!

Exciting News

The UPS truck arrived and it's like Christmas around here!  I haven't even looked inside yet and I'm excited about the design on the boxes!

I need to photograph these during daylight hours, so I'll share more soon.

Maple Place Autumn Folk Art Painting

I've been locked away in that tower on the top right of this scene working diligently on finishing up this painting before fall is over.  Seriously, I do wish I had this round studio room to paint in, but mine is just a cramped little spare room in our house on the second floor.  In the spirit of Thanksgiving though, I am very thankful to even have a room that I can shut myself in where I can dream of quaint little villages where people have the time to stack pumpkins in massive iron urns and line up little pumpkins on their porch railing.  The Lord provides the rest of the decorations. This is a place where people truly are thankful for their many blessings. 

"Maple Place"

Uncle John and Aunt Dottie, as they are know to all in their little village, have been inviting folks to their home for Thanksgiving for longer than anyone can remember.  They share their home, a turkey dinner, and their blessings with those who have no where else to go on this day.  Family and friends help to make this a day that they will not soon forget.

Fall Back This Weekend

Have a great weekend and don't forget to change your clock!

Below are a few more images of our weekend in Arkansas.  These were taken by my son, Eric.

Surround yourself with the sights and scents of autumn this weekend and count your blessings.

A Cabin in the Woods and A Giveaway Winner

This past weekend we went with our family to Eureka Springs, Arkansas.  This is what welcomed us as we entered our cabin.

The owners had the mantle and the deer decorated for Halloween.  What a great weekend!  I'll share more photos with you in the next post of all the beautiful scenery.

Before I forget though, I want to announce the winner of my print giveaway.  Two ladies came so very close to getting all the differences between the two prints, but the winner is Susie.

 The only thing you left out were the extra leaves that were scattered on the two large houses.  Susie please leave me a comment with your email or email me with your address.  

Halloween Folk Art Painting Update and a Giveaway

I added more details to this painting yesterday.  It's really tough to decide when a painting is finished.  See if you can find all the changes.  You can check out this previous post from Sept. 18th to see what it looked like before.

"Echoes of Trick or Treat"

The first person to leave a comment on this post with all the changes will win an 8" x 10" print of this fun Halloween design.  If no one finds all of them, the print will go to the person who finds the most changes by next Monday, Oct. 28th.

Good luck!

Trick or Treat Halloween Cupcake Painting

This new Halloween painting is finished and up for auction on eBay.  

"Trick or Treat Cupcake"

Decorate your home for Halloween with this colorful cupcake print. A yellow cupcake is topped with creamy orange butter cream frosting decorated with green piped decorations. A piece of candy corn sits on top of the yummy frosting and a tag attached to the side of the cupcakes says "Boo". Green "Trick or Treat" letters are dripping with orange frosting and a black and white checkerboard border is painted around the scene.

We had our new front door cut to fit yesterday and that's what I'll be painting this week.  It will be great to have a snug door to keep the winter chill out!  My entry looks so inviting with a door propped on saw horses.  Hopefully, once it's finished, I'll get my autumn decorations out.

Christmas Cupcake Painting

I love looking around blogland at all the beautiful fall decorating. While all this autumn beautification is going on, I've been busy painting a Christmas cupcake.  This painting is now up for auction on eBay:

"Fruitcake Cupcake"

I have several older cupcake designs that I need to paint again so they can be available for art licensing in a larger format. 

Maybe I should be working on some of the older autumn cupcakes this week to get me in the mood to put out some pumpkins and mums.  I'm always ahead or behind the current season.  How about you?  Are you already decorated for this fall season?

The Christmas Candle | Official Movie Website

The Christmas Candle | Official Movie Website

I'm so excited to see this movie by Max Lucado which comes out November 22nd!  I was so delighted to see that Susan Boyle was going to be in it.   Susan was the winner of "Britain's Got Talent" in 2009.  Check out the link.

Working on Christmas Cupcake Paintings in September

Yes, it is only Sept., but I work on Christmas paintings year round. I've decided to paint this "Fruit Cake Cupcake" painting again and a few other cupcake paintings to use for licensing projects.  When I originally painted my cupcakes they were all on little 4" x 4" or 5" x 7" canvas which are way too small to photograph for licensing.   

Today I decided to paint two of this design.  The one on the canvas I will be selling and the other, larger one (painted on canvas paper) I will photograph for licensing.  I may also eventually sell my larger illustrations.  

As you can see in the photo above, I enlarged the design on my printer and will be changing the lettering layout to better fit the canvas or simply leaving the lettering off.  

Halloween Painting Listed on Ebay

"Echoes of Trick or Treat"

This painting is now up for auction on eBay.  You can check it out by clicking on the title above.

I don't want to bore you with a lot of my vacation photos, but want to share a few of my favorites this week.

If you've never been to the Maroon Bells near Aspen, Colorado, you need to put it on your bucket list.  I've been to Colorado many times but had never heard of it.  Below are a couple of my favorite photos when we went hiking through one of the trails.

I'm amazed by Aspen trees:

One of the most photographed mountains in America is this one in the Maroon Bells and now that I've been there, I know why.

Praying for the families of Colorado.  This has been a tough year for fires and flooding.

I've got to get back to my painting!

Celebrating our 40th Anniversary Colorado Style

We had our photo taken at Helen Hunt Falls before we were married and decided on this trip to do it again.

Colorado has always been our favorite place to vacation.  This was the perfect trip with my favorite vacation destination and my favorite guy!

Colorado Vacation

We've been in Colorado for vacation for the past couple weeks and it's been hard to return to reality.  

I must get back to work today so I'll share more tomorrow.  Hopefully I'll have some time to check out what's been happening on your blog.  You miss a lot when you are out of internet range, have no t.v., and no cell phone service.  But, it was heavenly!