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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Ten years of kitty love

Happy adoption anniversary to my favorite little black and white friend! It’s no mystery that we’ve both changed over the years. But I really realize it when I look back at the post from our third anniversary together. Cheers to many more years to come! You make me smile every single day. – love kitty mom

Labor Day fun 2018

BF John and I left for Dandridge, Tennessee, early (like 3 a.m. Central early!) on Thursday night to spend a long weekend with my brother and family for Labor Day weekend. What fun! And … I managed to be productive and start two step stools that have been on order since the Art in the Garden show in June. (Yes. I’m slow when not given a deadline – something I know I need to work on.) I’ll post pictures of those in the near future. Meanwhile, check out the gorgeous Douglas Lake we enjoyed and a couple pictures of the silly and courageous John and Bill (brother – left)!

 

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!

93 degrees was pretty darn hot!

Thank you for coming out to the Naperville Growing Place last Saturday for the Art in the Garden festival. As usual, it was a wonderful (although H O T!) day. It was very nice to visit with those of you who already own a “jen” and came back for another or just to say hello… and to those of you who purchased an item for the first time this year, I look forward to seeing you again!

Remember to contact me if you have an item of your own you’d like freshened up or to check on my inventory to paint you something I have.

Enjoy the upcoming holiday weekend. Happy Fourth!

jen by jennifer

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.

Rustic Christmas front porch 2014

I didn’t really feel like decorating that day but the next day was going to be December 1 already!  I had to do it AND it was nearly 50 degrees outside.  It would really have been the wrong move to put it off…so this is what I came up with that afternoon.  I went rustic Christmas with items I bought (very few), collected or was given.  (My basement is FULL of stuff!)  Knowing I wanted to go this style, I had already purchased the ribbon so I was in pretty good shape.

Thanks to my mom for bringing home the fresh greens from her house in Missouri.  I always use fresh greens to fill my flower boxes each winter.  It’s good to have a source that barters in wine and conversation!

Merry Christmas!

Garden Cat

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)

Monday…

Why does it seem to take as long to get through Monday as the entire Friday night, Saturday and Sunday? They FLY by!

Four Degrees – Not so BAD

I watched my temperature gauge on Thelma (my car) climb from zero degrees to four degrees this morning on my way to the office.  When I got out of the car in the parking garage I have to say it didn’t feel too bad!  How scary is that?  Considering the past two days have been negative digits (double negative on Monday) with even more severe temperatures with windchill, I will take this balmy four degrees.  AND it’s warm in the office. 🙂

Have a great day!

Just in time

SO glad to have my new UGGs and my new Sorels to help me battle this weather!  The high today is -11.  That’s just incredible.  Thanks again mom and dad for the always more than generous Christmas cash to shop with for “necessities”!!

Friday? Really?

Is anyone else really thrown off by the holidays falling in the middle of the week this year?

I started my new job on November 18, so I only worked one full week and then I was off for Thanksgiving on Thursday and Friday.  Then I worked another full week and another but then all of the sudden it was Christmas and then New Years – both weeks where I was off two out of five working days.

It’s hard to believe that tomorrow is Friday!

I’m making the best possible effort to stay positive, but MAN Monday is gonna be rough knowing that there will be a stretch of nearly five months (unless I take personal days) before there’s another long weekend.

Oh well!  Guess I had better make my weekends between now and then count!

 

Happy New Year 2014!!

Hello!  It’s been WAY too long.  But … at the least I’m back.  Most importantly I want to wish everyone (fan or foe) who is reading this a very Happy New Year!  It’s a time to forget the past (unless it propels you forward IN A GOOD WAY) and to realize that life is beyond too short to hold on to baggage.

I had intentions of posting a photo of my outdoor Christmas decor (that I received many compliments on this year) next to my New Year’s day transformation photo only to find when I went on my phone to transfer the pictures that I hadn’t taken any of the holiday porch!  Oh well.

In short, I still have things to do tonight before I rest for another day at my new job tomorrow.  So I’ll leave you with a photo of where I’m starting outside this year.  AND my thoughts that despite some great loss (my dear friend Lisa – and for John, his dear friend Austin), searching for a new job (SO glad that I found one where I think I can really contribute and thrive) and all the bumps in the road of life, I had a really pretty fantastic 2013.

Cheers friends!  Peace, love and happiness.

jen (Archie and John Cook)

Old friends do it all the time …

Playing catch up is just something we do, right?  So…here is a catch up photo of the last custom painted item I delivered.  Ellie approached me at the Art in the Garden Festival in Naperville for the last two years, inquiring whether or not I thought I could do something with a milk can that has sentimental value to her.  This year I went to her house and brought her milk can home with me.  With the help of my awesome boyfriend John, we sanded it down and cleaned it up.  Then I went to work spraying the base coats and then adding the hand-painted details.

She was very pleased.  What a great project.

 

jen

There’s always more to do …

Well – I didn’t do too badly yesterday on the productivity front and considering I was up at 3:45 a.m. and stayed up until around midnight, I was able to relax and spend some quality time with my honey too.  I did the yard work I wanted for the most part although I have a few other things I want to do this morning before we head out with friends who are meeting here around 2 p.m.  I did the dishes, organized the kitchen a little, picked up all the clothes in my dressing room, the laundry is finished … still more to do so I’ve got to run.

It’s a BEAUtiful day!!  More tomorrow.

Cheers!