Two shows this year!

Come on out to The Growing Place for another chance to grab a colorful watering can, chair or something else for yourself or a gift! I’m excited to be doing two shows this year. Should be a beautiful fall day.

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Ready for TGP Saturday!

Looking forward to another Saturday at The Growing Place Gardeners Art Festival. Come out and buy yourself something fun and fill in those baskets with flowers. I’ll help you water them!

Need to take a seat? I can help there too!

See you soon. Have a terrific week. I’m still painting.

 

Holiday shopping: More watering cans!

You won’t want to miss the Holiday Open House at The Growing Place. It’s this Saturday, Nov. 17 and Sunday, Nov. 18 at both locations. I was just over to the Naperville location this week to drop off some more watering cans for sale.

Check out how nice the cans look nested in with the birds! (Aren’t the birds supposed to nest? Anyway…) Pick up a couple birds with a coordinating watering can for a holiday gift. (Click on the photos for larger images.)

Happy holidays! Stay warm and safe.

jen (by jennifer)

Medium black with bronze sprinkle spout

Bright red medium with matching spout

Large galvanized can with bronze handle

Water for everyone

When it’s this hot and dry, the birds need fresh water too. Filling the bird baths is a daily activity that Archie loves. Yum! Bird-flavored water!

Your flowers are counting on you

It is watering season. And it’s been SO dry which makes it all the more important to fill your cans and get out there. If you haven’t yet, you should sign up for the TGP newsletter. They share watering tips in the latest edition plus other great info. Use the link in the sidebar on the right to reach their site.

Meanwhile, check out a closer look at the watering cans I have at the Naperville location so you can pick one up and water in color!

Watering cans at The Growing Place!

I’m so excited to announce that I’m a guest artist at TGP! I delivered my first group of watering cans on Monday.

Of course, they had the perfect table to display them in the gazebo by the checkout area. I’m inspired every time I go there by the clever ways they display merchandise to the expert flower combinations in the planters. Checking in on my cans will be just another reason to make more frequent visits.

I would love to hear comments from anyone else who has visited one of their locations. My watering cans are in Naperville.

How does your yard inspire you?

Sharing a few photos of my backyard inspiration. #iloveflowers

You know it’s a good day when…

I can set up in the backyard to paint! What a beautiful weekend. I finished a couple of items and have many more (lots of watering cans!) in process. Looking forward to the Growing Place Gardener’s Art Festival on Saturday, June 25 at 9 a.m. at the Naperville location.

Sun and flowers…a good day indeed.

The time is near!

I spent Saturday and yesterday painting in preparation for the Gardener’s Art Festival at the Growing Place this coming Saturday, June 21 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  I’ll be in the front lawn area this year and am hoping for a day as beautiful as those we had this weekend.  A little less–well, a lot less– wind than yesterday would be better.

Come visit if you are in the area.  It is always a great show and the gardens at the Growing Place are worth the visit all on their own.

See you soon!

jen by jennifer

What happened?

Remember my post not too long ago “So pretty!” …  My anemone is looking really weak all of the sudden.  It went from six blooms to no blooms and is very pale.  Any idea what is happening?

Looking forward to the weekend

Last weekend we had a great time visiting in Missouri.  My nephew Ely graduated from Plattsburg High School.  It was a really nice ceremony and it was so good to see him SO happy!

Visiting after the graduation with Ely and his brother Sammy, and seeing people I haven’t seen in a long time was just as good as I expected.  An important note:  John got to meet Sam’s mom which is something Sam was very excited to have happen.  I just love that the two of them have become such good friends.

Here’s a picture from the day before when John and I were out roaming the countryside.

Having fun in the country!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking forward to the long weekend at home to paint for the show at the Growing Place on June 21, and to work in the yard!

Hope the weather is as beautiful by you as it is here.  Happy Memorial Day weekend all!

Cheers!

jen (by jennifer)

SO pretty!

Thanks mom for the BEAUtiful anemone! It is in the ground and being watered in well with all this rain.

My first spring flowers 2014

These are under the tree by the porch that we use as our main access to the house.  Makes me happy every time I walk by them.  Finally!  I think spring is here…

Cheers!  Have a fabulous weekend!

 

A successful visit!

Thanks to my friend Cindy who I haven’t seen in years which is hard to believe, I had a “shopper” a couple weekends ago.  In conversation at work, Cindy’s friend Jenny mentioned she was looking for a unique gift for her mom’s birthday.  Edited story…Cindy showed Jenny my website and blog and now I am writing this post!

Thanks to Jenny for stopping by to shop “the shop” for a gift for her mom.  It was a pretty Saturday afternoon and the experience went just exactly as I had always hoped it would when someone made an appointment to come.  I was thrilled to have a guest, Jenny was very excited to find not only the white container (pictured below on the left), but also a pitcher that I had filled with fresh flowers.  Ironically enough it’s a pitcher that Cindy gave me to paint!  I love karma.  She took the pitcher water, flowers and all.

In an email exchange after her visit, Jenny told me

She ABSOLUTELY loved them, she was a little sad to be turning xx so they brightened her day!  Thanks again for an amazing gift for her!

I’m sure I’ve said it before, but that is a true gift.  I love when people are excited about buying something I’ve painted.  And I hope they will enjoy it for years to come.

Reminder:  I will be at the Growing Place again this year for the Gardener’s Art Festival on Saturday, June 21.  I’d love to see you there!

Cheers!

Jen (by Jennifer)

Growing Place Art in the Garden Festival 2014

I received the information in the mail yesterday for the Growing Place Art in the Garden Festival 2014 on June 21 in Naperville!  Mark your calendar.  I already requested my usual couple of days before the event off from work this morning so I can be ready, ready – ready!  And I will start sourcing watering cans right away.  I sold all the cans I had painted last season.

Let me know if you have requests!

Spring will come!!  Hang in there.

jen by jennifer

Painted Table Brings Back Contact

I was SO excited yesterday to receive the following email:

“Hello.
I have a yellow three legged table that I purchased somewhere and sometime ago, that I just love.  I was turning it upside down during a deep clean and noticed your card taped to the bottom.  I was just curious if you are still creating and if so to what capacity.
Thanks so much!”

My reply:  What a treat!  I TOTALLY remember that transaction…You were with a friend at the Elmhurst Garden Faire and Walk (2005 I think) and you really wanted the table despite the fact that “your husband was going to kill you because you were moving and the last thing you needed was one more thing to pack”?!…

Yes.  I still paint and sell my work.  In fact, after many years of not attending that faire, I returned to Elmhurst this July and had a great show. …I’m so excited that you still love your table.  I’d love to see a picture of it in it’s home – and if you wouldn’t mind I’d like to tell this story on my blog and include the photo perhaps. … THANK YOU very much for taking the time to email me.  Truly the reason I continue to paint is not only because I enjoy it, but I’m always thrilled when I can make someone happy by taking a piece home with them.

Here are pictures of the table that went from Elmhurst, Ill. to Oklahoma and now resides in Milwaukee, Wis.  It is a resting place in their second bathroom for hair tools.  How fun(ctional)!!

If you have an item or story that you’d like to share about “a jen”, PLEASE do!  This makes me SO happy!

jen (by jennifer)