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Archive for the ‘Serendipity’ Category

Gauguin Sale Breaks Record

Posted in Little Known Facts, Serendipity, Trivia, tagged Paul Gauguin, record breaking sale on February 7, 2015| Leave a Comment »

‘Nafea faa ipoipo’ (When will you marry?, 1892) by French painter Paul Gauguin

” The 1892 oil painting by the French post-impressionist, Paul Gauguin, of two Tahitian girls called Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?) was sold by the private collector Rudolf Staechelin, a retired Sotheby’s executive and has broken the record for the world’s most expensive single work of art. While Mr Staechelin didn’t name the buyer it was thought to be the state-financed Qatar Museums that purchased it for $300 million. The Gulf nation had set the previous record in 2011 when it paid $259 million for The Card Players by Paul Cezanne, and has spent millions more on Western modern art in recent years.”

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Records Broken at Auction of Rare Impressionist and Modern Works

Posted in Little Known Facts, Serendipity, tagged Monet's Grand Canel, Sotheby's on February 5, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Sotheby’s staff prepare to hang Claude Monet’s Le Grand Canal, which sold for £23.7m. Photograph: John Stillwell/PA

“A Sotheby’s auction featuring rare impressionist and modern works by Monet, Matisse and Picasso has broken the record for the highest sales total ever reached at a London auction. The evening auction on Tuesday raised an overall total of £186.44m ($284.11 million), and broke auction records for five individual works by artists including Seurat and Malevich as bidders from 35 different countries clamoured to get their hands on the many iconic works up for sale.”

“The most expensive work of the night was Monet’s 1908 oil painting Le Grand Canal, which sold for £23.7m ($36.12 million)– the highest ever price for any of Monet’s Venice view works. The painting, which was part of a private collection, had been on loan to the National Gallery in London since 2006.”

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The Stash

Posted in Crochet, Serendipity, Sewing, tagged fabric stash, yarn stash on February 2, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Fabric Stash

Yarn Stash

As I teach more classes in crocheting and sewing I have come to realize that I have become one of those people. You know, the ones who keep a stash of yarn and/or fabric. My Granny was one. She always had a big stack of fabric so that whenever she wanted to “run up a frock” she would have just what she needed.

Fabric Stash in Bins

When you love yarn and fabric it’s hard not to buy it when you find a good deal. We always have an idea of what we might do with it but it is just hard to get to every project we want to get done. I have LOTS of yarn and fabric and I do have ideas for ALL of it. And one day, maybe when we add 3 or 4 more hours to each day, I will get to it all. I know Granny would understand and probably be proud of the stash I have.

Soon I will share some “Stash Buster” ideas for all that good stuff you have lying around.

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This Jacket Makes a Scene

Posted in Serendipity, Sewing, tagged jacket embellishments, sewing, sweatshirt jacket on January 25, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Sweatshirt Jacket with Embellishments

Felt Flowers & Leaves with cotton stems

Embellishment view

Dog design

One thing I seldom do anymore is have the time to create a project that is just for me. I am always creating but generally it is commissions for other people or painting lessons for classes or Paint Parties. This past week I spent two glorious mornings working on something for me!

My friend, Sandra, who is an amazing seamstress and fabric artist, met me at The Studio for a couple of mornings of sewing and gabbing. We had soooo much fun! And we made super cute jackets with lovely embellishment. I had found this McCall’s pattern not long ago and wanted to try it and when I mentioned it to Sandra she was all in. It is made by using two sweatshirts! But of course, the embellishment is what makes it so personal. I am sure you are not surprised to see a dog on mine. (I will try to get a photo of Sandra’s to post soon. Her’s has a Paris theme.)

What fun it is to make something while chatting with someone who has similar interests. The time just flew by. And it was such a delight that we decided we need to do it more so we will hopefully do something else next week. 🙂

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Daisy’s Sweater (or The Adventures of Daisy!)

Posted in Crochet, Dogs, Serendipity, tagged crocheted dog sweater, crocheted dog sweater pattern, daisy, dog sweater on January 11, 2015| 1 Comment »

Daisy’s New Sweater

Daisy in her new sweater with Lincoln before we added the flower

Close-up of the daisy on Daisy’s sweater

Daisy trying to show Jed that she is OK. Jed is scared of girls.

Daisy wearing Mamie’s sweater. It is a little big.

Daisy helped me sew this week.

And she went with me to work and greeted people as they came in.

She had to work as a teaching assistant at class this week. The kids loved her.

Daisy still awake while the boys are pooped out in bed.

We have had a visitor staying with us this week.

DAISY! She is a little Westie that just turned one year old.

What fun she has been. She has stirred Lincoln up and Jed has just tried to steer clear of the craziness. Since she is just a puppy she has gotten into a lot of “things” this week and been very lively. 🙂

It has been VERY cold this week so I put one of Mamie’s sweater’s on Daisy but it was a little large. That just meant one thing – Daisy needed a sweater made just for her! (Here is the pattern for the dog sweater. It is written for a dog the size of Lincoln but you can adjust it for larger or smaller dogs.)

So I made this green sweater using bulky yarn. And of course, we needed to decorate it with a daisy – her signature flower. I think she looks adorable.

Daisy goes home this eveningg and we will miss her terribly. But the good news is that she just lives a few doors down the street so I am hoping I can convince her mom that she needs to come back often for more adventures. What do you think?

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Top New Year’s Resolutions

Posted in Serendipity, Small Town Life, tagged Learning, New Year's Resolutions, The Studio, The Studio-A Place for Learning on January 9, 2015| Leave a Comment »

I just read an article about the top New Year’s Resolutions and how most are broken. 😦

The first is to lose weight or get fit. The second is to quit smoking. But the third is to learn something new. It’s an exciting resolution…there are so many things to learn.

Well, we can help you with this one so that it is not broken! Come to The Studio-A Place for Learning and pick up a new skill or hobby. Learn to paint, sew, crochet, decorate cookies, become better with social media, quilt, make jewelry, and much, much more. You can see the current schedule by going to The Studio’s website here.

Consider learning something new this year. It’s not too late to make that resolution….and KEEP IT!

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Jed’s Adoption Day

Posted in Dogs, Pet Portaits, Serendipity, tagged bassador, Jed, lab-basset on January 5, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Jed in a Green Crocheted Sweater

Six years ago today we drove to Ohio to adopt Jed, our sweet bassador (lab-basset mix). And what a good boy he is!!!!

He has the personality of a lab -super sweet and the legs of a basset – short!

We love you Jed….and you make a wonderful model!

Happy 6th Anniversary Adoption Day!!!

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Morgan’s Tea Party

Posted in Serendipity, tagged gift of art, oil painting, tea party, Virginia Artist on January 2, 2015| 2 Comments »

Morgan’s Tea Paty

Years ago I gave one of the first large paintings that I ever did to my niece, Morgan. I probably painted this in the early to mid 90’s. She was a young girl at the time that I gave it to her and it hung in her room. While visiting Brother’s family this week at their new home Morgan showed me her bedroom….and there it was, hanging on the wall. I love that she still enjoys it all these years later!

The gift of art lasts forever!!!

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2014 Blog Statistics-I Love This Stuff!

Posted in Little Known Facts, Serendipity, tagged End of Year report, statistics on December 31, 2014| 2 Comments »

WORDPRESS.COM PRESENTS – “Life of a Daily Painter” 2014 ANNUAL REPORT

I love the year-end Annual Report from WordPress about my blog. They put together interesting tidbits to share to show the progress over the course of the year.

Interesting that I had exactly the same number of posts in 2014 that I did in 2013 – 352. In 2014 there were 28,708 visitors with 69,724 views. That is up from 21,916 visitors and 56,141 views in 2013. That’s a pretty good increase. Looking at the referring information it appears that Pinterest and Ravelry helped to increase the numbers coming to view my blog.

There were 608 pictures uploaded; that’s about 2 pictures per day. The busiest day of the year was March 5th with 572 views.

Cabin

The most popular post viewed that day was Fort Valley Cabin complete.

The longest writing streak was 76 days from June 1st through August 15th. And my best day for posting was Monday with 52 total posts…that means I never missed a Monday last year!

Attractions in 2014

These are the posts that got the most views in 2014.

Some of my most popular posts were written before 2014. They say that means that my writing has staying power and I should consider writing about those topics again. Interesting that they were the crochet patterns that I wrote out last year. Guess I will have to write out more patterns that I make up! 🙂

There were people from 144 countries who viewed my blog this year up from 137 in 2013.

And this year I went over 2000 posts – a number we plan to celebrate very soon. Thanks so much for continuing to follow and support “Life of a Daily Painter”.

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Let Us Help Santa!

Posted in Embroidery, Serendipity, tagged embroidery, gift certificate, The Studio, The Studio for Learning, The Studio-A Place for Learning on December 24, 2014| 2 Comments »

Skating Santa embroidered pillow. I am so glad that I rediscovered embroidery this year thanks to my friend and a wonderful teacher Sandra Charles. When we offered the “Learn to Embroidery” class at The Studio I decided to take it. I hadn’t done embroidery since I was a teenager. And I LOVE it!

If you still have someone on your Christmas list that you need to buy for consider a Gift Certificate to The Studio. One can be emailed to you so that you can have it in time for Christmas gift opening. Just email kwalker@doubledogdesigns.com with your Gift Certificate request. We know there is someone on your list that would love to discover their creative side in 2015!

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