April Adventures

Tara Raymo May 5, 2015

April was a pretty quiet month.

Here are a couple of my Sun photo's I enjoy taking. The first one was a sun rise on a rainy morning.

There was a woman that was feeding the ducks at my Mom's nursing facility. I enjoyed seeing the little ducklings, they were so cute.

The area that I park at for work has a fence with Jasmine vines all over it. Smelling the Jasmine makes me think of my Mom, she loves that scent.

I took a picture of some doodles I did at work. Sometimes the computers are super slow and I tend to doodle while I am waiting.

I was able to finish one of my LifeBook Lessons; the Tree of Life.

I also started on the next one. I shared this picture on Instagram to show off the textures.

So I thought I would share my story of the significance of 11:11. I had never noticed this number before and it never seemed to have any significance to me. Going on 4 years ago my Mom ended up in a coma from a brain aneurysm that ruptured. When she was still in the coma, I would start seeing the 11:11 pop up all over the place. It seems to fade away and then start popping up again. A few months ago a meme popped up in my Facebook feed and what it said really resonated with me. "11:11 is the calling card for beings that are half angels and half humans." ~George Barnard.

The end of April is the boyfriend's birthday and I took him out to dinner and got him a watch. The weekend after his birthday we went to Universal Studios. I will share those photos in their own post, so look out for that.

I finished the 2nd Outlander Book: Dragonfly in Amber. The start of this book was a bit confusing but pushing through I started understanding what was going on. These books are really interesting and I am starting to become attached to the characters and wanting to know more. I plan to continue reading the rest of the series. Although I took a break from this series to read the last book of another series I have been reading. I am really sad to see this series end because it has been one of my favorites to read the past couple of years. It is the Rachel Morgan Series by Kim Harrison, the last book is called A Witch With No Name. So far it has been nonstop action.

I hope everybody had a wonderful April and look forward to a great May!

LifeBook 2014 ~ Week 11 ~ Tree of Life

Tara Raymo April 16, 2015

This was a bonus lesson on LifeBook 2014 and was taught by Tamara Laporte. She has offered this lesson up for free as a gift here. When I watched the video it brought up memories of my childhood. We didn't grow up with a big oak tree or a tree swing, but we did grow up near an Orange Grove. So I decided to paint an Orange Tree and then decided to paint my girl reading a book, because besides art my other favorite pastime is reading.

Little World Social Studies Cover Designs

Tara Raymo April 7, 2015

These were designed as an extension to our Little World Social Studies series. These books are for grades K–3 and cover a variety of social studies subjects, from learning about the history of different cultures to modern technology of communication.

March Adventures

Tara Raymo March 31, 2015

March is always a super busy month. I didn't get a chance to work on any art, but have a lot to share.

There was a couple of great morning sun pictures that I got. I love the patterns in the sky.

For St. Patrick's Day we spent time with friends and family. I made this wonderful Irish Whiskey Pie. You can find the recipe here.

I have pretty much quit drinking but I decided to have one Irish Iced Coffee for St. Patrick's Day.

The next day we headed to the local winery for some great Irish Music. This guy was amazing!

I had walked out to my backyard and noticed this wonderful fragrance. I realized it was coming from the Mango trees. I have lived in my house for 6 years now and never noticed this fragrance so strong before. Here are some pictures of what the blooms look like on the tree. I will take pictures as the mangos start growing.

I also snuck some pictures of the Murphy dog.

I finally got around to cleaning and reorganizing my studio, you can read about that here.

March is my birthday month and this year was a big one. I turned the big 40. My sister tried to surprise me by coming down for it. She kept hinting that she was coming and I caught on to it pretty quickly. I was so excited to spend time with her.

The day of my birthday the boyfriend and I had planned to go to the Jupiter Lighthouse and then go to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. Those plans got canceled because of the weather. So we decided we were going to go to my favorite breakfast place. I didn't realize it but the boyfriend and my sister had this breakfast all planned out and had a bunch of friends and family up there to celebrate.

Here is everybody waiting for me to show up.

This is when I got there. Our friend Alex decided to dance for me! I think he was over tired from just getting off of work.

Since it was raining and a dreary day we decided to go bowling. Here I am showing my skills.

The next day my sister and I went to the mall and did a little shopping. That afternoon she left to head home.

That night we ended up at the Indian Pow Wow that comes to the area every year at this time. I got this great picture of the sun setting behind a tee pee.

Here is my stash of purchases from the Pow Wow. I got a coyote skull and a handmade tomahawk.

When we got up that morning there were a bunch of buzzards across the street. I actually have a fascination with these birds. I wish I could have gotten closer.

March always ends up a great month. I am hoping to get back into my art in April.

My Small Studio Space

Tara Raymo March 24, 2015

Browsing around the internet I always love looking at how other artists have their space set up. I hope you enjoy checking out my space.

Back in February on our way home from St. Augustine we had stopped at Ikea and I bought some shelves and another cart for my studio space. I finally got around to cleaning and organizing that space this weekend. So I thought I would share my small corner studio space.

This is the before picture. For some reason I let things pile up and become quite messy!

This is the after with the Murphy dog making an appearance.

I got these cookie jars from Target to put my colored pencils, markers, and pens in. I like being able to see all the colors out in the open.

This is one of the shelves I got from Ikea. I really like that it has all the drawers. I was able to organize so much of my stuff and fit them in these drawers.