More waxy flowers

24 x 11.5" encaustic on braced birch panel.

Strawberry rhubarb pie

I made this tasty pie on Saturday for a birthday party. It came from the same cookbook that I got the sticky bun recipe from. It appealed to be because it called for a crisp topping instead of the double pie crust. The top crust kills me every time.

As per the recipe, I was to have enough dough left over from the bottom crust to make a lovely leaf design around the top rim. I got three leaves out of it.

The top crisp was still pretty dry after baking it. Maybe it had too much flour? I remedied that with some gobs of butter melted over it. No such thing as too much butter right?

Next post is about painting, I promise!

front porch barber shop

It's a sure sign of Spring when haircuts can take place on the front porch.

I've been cutting my husband's hair for about six years. I used to cut my own hair in high school with sometimes disastrous results. I'd like to think that I've since improved, but occasionally still have an off day. There's no method to my cutting. I'm an intuitive barber. Sometimes it works out and sometimes.... well, it will always grow out. I suppose that was also my grandma Barb's philosophy. I just didn't see it that way when she chopped off my carefully feathered bangs in fifth grade.

Encaustic flowers

5 x 6" encaustic on birch panel
After much experimentation trying to translate my previous flower paintings to encaustics, this is what I've come up with. There's really no controlling wax, which is what I sometimes love and sometimes hate about it. This was a good compromise. I was able to control the wax to some extent and do some drawing in it, which is fun, but there's also some lovely 'mistakes' where the wax blends and does what it will.
They are happy little paintings for Spring, and the best part is they smell fantastic!

Have a good weekend Ms. Petersen

I'm off to the beach for a blistery & possibly snowy weekend. Maybe I'll finally get a
chance to watch my library movies.

I don't have any new art to post before leaving, but after some trial and error, I figured out a method for translating my floral paintings to wax. I have one done so far, but two others in the works, so I'll post them when I get back. I'll also be posting the other paintings I finished in my shop next week.

Oh and the posting title? I live next door to Safeway and so despite it not being my favored grocery store, I seem to find myself there nearly every day and sometimes three times a day when I'm being especially forgetful. Every time, when I punch in my club card number upon checkout, the name 'Amanda Petersen' prints out on my receipt. The checker then looks at the receipt, hands it to me and says 'you saved $2.03 today Ms. Petersen.' I never thought to correct them, why bother? Today I was running out and I forgot something at the checkout stand. I heard someone yell behind me, 'oh wait.. Ms. Petersen!', and I turned around. I guess after 4 years of being called Ms. Petersen, I'm conditioned. Just who is this Amanda Petersen I wonder, and why do I have her club card number?

Self portrait with glasses

I rarely wear my glasses. Only to watch movies with subtitles and to drive at night. I could probably stand to wear them more, but my glasses are a tad large for my face. Since I don't wear them daily, I went for the cheap big chunky black frames. I usually spend too much on designer frames, and well I wanted some heavy duty glasses. The kind you don't lose or break, and that you can't see the edge of when you're wearing them.

I nearly went for a pair of red "Sally Jesse Raphael" frames. I remember when these were all the rage. I didn't wear glasses at the time, but my mom got a pair. I think my sister and I must have pushed for it, but I was so proud that my mom had these cool glasses. Strangely enough, the SJR frames were marked down heavily at Kaiser. I myself am getting too old to accesorize ironically, but surely these must make a comeback. It fits in with the 80s, and well, they are surprisingly flattering.

Painting with gnats

Oil on birch panel 6 x 6"

After painting my imaginary flowers, I moved on to paint some actual flowers in our garden. I sat my stool down to paint a red tulip, but ended up painting the bleeding heart instead. I hope the tulip doesn't mind.
I battled swarms of gnats to paint these. They were out in force. Some met an untimely death in my palette. You'll be happy to know that none are buried in these paintings however.

In other news, I received a lovely email from Etsy seller/blogger Jade Scott, who posted about my Edie prints in her blog.. She makes great jewelry (lurve the necklaces..) and has some fantastic deals in her shop right now. Aside from her own work, she also posts great finds from Etsy. Thanks to her blog, I now see 100 more things I need to own.... sigh.