The Studio

Holiday Gift Bazaar and Open House

December 1, 2014 by kellywalkerstudios

Please join us at The Studio today from 4 – 7 pm for our Gift Bazaar and Open House. We would love to see you there.

Posted in Holidays | Tagged Gift Bazaar, Open House | Leave a Comment »

Gift Making with Kids

November 30, 2014 by kellywalkerstudios

Yesterday at The Studio we had our “Gift Making Workshop for Kids”. And make gifts they did! Lots of them. They made a set of snowman candle holders, a broach with little gift packages, 2 gift bags, and a miniature canvas painting of a snowman family.

They all look GREAT! There are going to be some really lucky people this Christmas who receive these gifts. Well done!

Posted in Art Class, Holidays, Workshop/Retreat | Tagged Art Class, Christmas gift making | Leave a Comment »

Pig Apron Embroidery

November 29, 2014 by kellywalkerstudios

Pig Embroidered on Apron

Here is the next apron in the series. This one has a cute little pig on it!

For anyone downtown in Front Royal today we have two really great events going on at The Studio. First, a gift making workshop for kids at 10 am. More info here.

And then at 2 pm a fun seminar for adults with 17 DIY Easy Gift Ideas. Check out more here.

Please come join us.

Posted in Embroidery | Tagged embroidery, pig | Leave a Comment »

Big Mama’s Carrot Cake Recipe

November 28, 2014 by kellywalkerstudios

Ingredients for Carrot Cake

Batter should look like this

Big Mama’s Carrot Cake

Yesterday I made Big Mama’s Carrot Cake to take to Thanksgiving Dinner. It was a hit! It always is.

Big Mama made the best cakes and the recipes I have of hers have always been favorites. Several people asked for the recipe so here it is. When I make one to take to a gathering with lots of people I always make 1 1/2 times the recipe in order to have a large cake. Enjoy.

Big Mama’s Layered Carrot Cake

2 cups sifted cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups cooking oil

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 cups finely grated carrots

Combine oil, sugar and eggs. Beat well. Add dry ingredients to this mixture. Mix well and then add carrots. Mix them in and then pour into 3 layer pans which have been greased and floured. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. (Be sure to watch them toward the end of the time as each oven bakes differently.) Cool.

Carrot Cake Nut Frosting

½ cup butter

1 8 oz. cream cheese

1 lb. powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 ½ cup chopped pecans

Beat butter and cheese until fluffy. Add sugar and vanilla. Frost cake. Sprinkle a few pecans on each layer with the majority on the top.

Posted in Recipes, Serendipity | Tagged Carrot Cake, Carrot Cake Recipe | 1 Comment »

A Day of Thanksgiving

November 27, 2014 by kellywalkerstudios

Mamie’s Tutu

Mamie with Snow Dog

Her first day with us. Just like she had always been here.

Mamie Eisenhower Walker

Mamie and Lincoln getting to know each other

Kissing Lincoln

Throw my toy please!

Sleeping with Pig

Mamie sleeping on MY pillow-her favorite nap spot

Today we celebrate Thanksgiving – the most honest of all holidays. We give thanks for the family and friends in our lives and for the bounty we enjoy. Today I am giving a special prayer of thanks for our wonderful Mamie. We lost her yesterday to liver failure.

We only had the pleasure of Mamie, a feisty little Cairn terrier, for a little more than 2 years. She came to us from previous homes who could not keep her. What a loss for them because she was an amazing little dog.

She loved pigs. We are not sure how she could tell the difference but she knew her pigs…..and she had many! And she loved to play fetch more than anything. We would throw her pig, a ball, a stuff toy, and most recently her squeaky airplanes (a gift from neighbors when she first got sick in July) down the hallway in the house for her to chase. And chase she would hundreds of times if you would throw it that many. She LOVED it!

And she loved playing with her brothers Jed and Lincoln….especially Lincoln who was patient when we first got Mamie to help her overcome her toy aggression. It took several months but she finally understood that he just wanted to play. (You can see more about Mamie in this anniversary post.)

Mamie was our sweet little girl. She was devilish and clever. She was adorable and manipulating. She knew how to work the room. And many of our Facebook friends loved Mamie as well. We post photos on Facebook almost each day of our visits to the dog park and many people got to know her that way.

So today we send up a prayer of Thanksgiving for the time we had with our little girl, Mamie. We loved her so much and are so happy that she is feeling no more pain. We will miss her forever.

Posted in Dogs, Serendipity | Tagged Dogs, Mamie | 6 Comments »

The Cutest Apron

November 25, 2014 by kellywalkerstudios

On my quest to embroidery everything I see (LOL) I found these cute aprons recently at Target and of course, I thought the apron bib was the perfect place for a little embellishment.

Here is one with a Mamie look-a-like.

Posted in daily painter, Dogs, Embroidery | Tagged Dogs, embroidery, hand embroidery | Leave a Comment »

Rhea’s Birthday Paint Party

November 24, 2014 by kellywalkerstudios

Birthday Girl Rhea with her painting. Great job!

Helping the painters stay on track.

The Party Girls

Mom with the Birthday Girl

We had the most fun Birthday Paint Party yesterday afternoon at The Studio. Rhea had many of her friends come to paint to celebrate her 7th birthday…and boy did we have fun. She requested to paint a “castle with purple flowers and a tree”! So we did.

Do you have a young painter who would like to have a Paint Party? Contact kwalker@doubledogdesigns.com . We will be glad to help.

Posted in Paint Parties | Tagged acrylic, Birthday Paint Party, castle, impressionism, Landscape, Paint Party | Leave a Comment »

Cute Gourd Snowmen

November 23, 2014 by kellywalkerstudios

Step 1- Pick a great gourd!

Step 2-Paint it white

Step 3- Paint a cute face

Step 4- Give him some buttons

Step 5- Add a scarf, ear muffs and arms

Step 6- Add a hat

A Snowman Lineup!

What a terrific time we had yesterday at The Studio-A Place for Learning. Janice and Ruth taught a super fun class on making snowmen from gourds.

And everyone made the cutest little snowmen and snow-women. The laughter was contagious and fun was had by all.

Thanks everyone for making this workshop a success!

Posted in Holidays, Workshop/Retreat | Tagged gourd painting, snowman | Leave a Comment »

Snowman Projects

November 22, 2014 by kellywalkerstudios

Snowman Family on canvas

Snowman candle holder

Here are a couple of the Snowman projects I have been working on for the upcoming Kid’s Gift making class. We have so many fun things planned for this session. You can learn more about it here.

This fun event will be Saturday, November 29th from 10-11:30 for kids ages 5-13. Register by contacting kwalker@doubledogdesigns.com .

Posted in Holidays, Paint Parties | Tagged acrylic, snowman, snowmen | Leave a Comment »

Dogs Are a Girl’s Best Friend

November 21, 2014 by kellywalkerstudios

I love Facebook because I am always seeing cute sayings that people post. I saw this one a few weeks ago and thought it would make a cute embroidery pattern if I added a little dog to it. So here it is on a pillow.