I’m Looking Over . . .

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  In case you didn’t know, Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, and back in his day he used a young sprig of clover, or shamrock, to explain the mystery of the Christian Holy Trinity.  While evangelizing he would use the three leaves as a metaphor to explain The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit.

So what about the lucky four-leaf clover? It is said that the first leaf represents faith; the second, hope; the third, love; and the fourth, luck.  A four-leaf clover is simply a variant of the common three-leaf clover and supposedly rare, although I know a lucky lady who has found many of them over her lifetime. Have you ever found one?

Four-Leaf Clover

Because I am certified 26% Irish, I somehow feel qualified to leave you with this lovely Irish blessing:

May there always be work for your hands to do
May your purse always hold a coin or two;
May the sun always shine on your windowpane;
May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain;
May the hand of a friend always be near;
May God fill your heart with gladness and cheer.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day – and stay away from that nasty green beer!

 

Reptile, #WorldWatercolorGroup

Because I am not fond of viewing reference photos of most reptiles, for today’s prompt I offer this little turtle.

Turtle

He has a look of determination on his face and I wonder where he is off to, but rest assured he will not be arriving very quickly.  However, we have learned firsthand over the last couple of years that slow and steady wins the race.  That said, TGIF and I wish you a slow-paced weekend full of relaxation!

 

Pancakes

Today we have a delicious prompt – Pancakes.  I rarely eat them, but when I do I like them packed full of blueberries and just a little dribble of pure maple syrup.

Pancakes

This is a traditional stack of pure comfort food, swimming in butter and syrup- yum!

 

Books

I was an avid reader as a younger person, and although I enjoy a good novel now and again most of my current books come from the non-fiction section.  I have stacks of watercolor, art, and drawing tutorial books in my collection currently and enjoy reading thoughts and opinions of others while gleaning bits of information.  I never want to stop learning!

Books

My daughter gifted me a 66-color Try It color sheet from Daniel Smith, so I opted to use a shimmering paint to create the gilded lines on the book spine and front.

As far as novels, I like a nice fluffy story because the world needs more softness.  I read novels in order to escape into other places, imaginary or not, and this helps me relax and decompress.  I mostly prefer a real book as compared to a digital reader – what is your preference?

 

Cooking Toys

My sister and I played pretend often children, and of course we always played “mothers and fathers,” or what most people call “playing house.”  While our imaginary husbands were at their jobs and our doll babies were quietly sleeping, we would of course be mothers.  Yes, I know this is a bit stereotypical but it was the 1960s, so there you go.

Cooking Toys

These little cooking pots were pieces of our kitchen toys.  I remember imitating my mother by making potatoes out of Play-Doh, cutting them into chunks with a dull play knife, and plopping them into the pots.  Oh, the simple pleasures of childhood.  By the way, this painting was my first attempt at a reflective or silver surface.  Happy Monday!

Movie Character, Mary Poppins

Mary Poppins – insightful, delightful, and a little cheeky.  She is “practically perfect in every way” and taught children to add a little fun into the drudgery of everyday chores; hence, a Spoonful of Sugar.

Mary Poppins

As much as I enjoy the original 1964 Mary Poppins movie starring Julie Andrews, I equally enjoy the 2013 movie called Saving Mr. Banks.  This tells a story of the author of Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers, who held the fictional characters very close to her heart.  It took 20 years for Walt Disney to persuade her sell her rights to the book and let it be made into this iconic movie.  I’ve been playing around with drawing whimsical human forms in a practice sketchbook, and Mary was fun to create.

Educational Toy

Today’s prompt is “educational toy” and because magnetic refrigerator letters popped into my head first, here they are.  The bottom half of our fridge was covered with these brightly colored letters and numbers when my children were small, and the toys kept them busy while I was doing kitchen tasks.  Of course at first the kids were too little to spell, but playing with the letters was good for fine motor skills and the magnetic aspect was amusing to them.  As they grew we started spelling their names and words like Mom and Dad and other easy sight words.

Alphabet Refrigerator Magnets

The bottom half of the fridge has been bare for quite a long time now, but to everything a season.  If I still had the letters out I would spell “Today is Tuesday,” because I keep thinking it is Monday due to the New Year holiday.  Happy TUESDAY!