July Recap

Happy Tuesday. Summer was still holding strong here. It had been in the 90's for weeks. It finally cooled down into the 70's the last few days with some much needed rain which has been nice The hot weather was making it really hard to do things outside especially with the dogs. It was just to hot for them. Hopefully the cooler weather will continue so we can be outside more again but looks like the 90's are suppose to return the end of the week.

July started out with this piece. The inspiration came from Erin The Petite Planner again. I just love her work. I used a Micron Pen and Kelly Creates Fine Liners to color it in

Lily has been having health problems. It started the first part of June. She has been having breathing spasms that are like backward sneezes. She had something similar a few years ago but it resolved itself. This time her nose has become really stuffy at times with green mucous on and off though. She has been on 2 different antibiotics and neither helped much. We also treated her mites which did not help either. There are some days when there is no green at all. She has good and bad days. I cannot figure out what is causing this. She has been to 2 different vets and and they are both pushing me to put her under to clean her teeth and look around. I am not in favor of that though. I do not feel that her teeth are the main cause for this and putting her under would be very risky not knowing what is really going on. I am taking her to a third vet this week hoping he will be able to help us. It is just so upsetting to have another dog with health problems after everything we went through with Sophie, I just pray it is nothing serious. In the meantime we had been taking her to the dog park with Indie. She loves to go watch. The day I took this photo she had jumped up on a rock and looked so happy.

Sales in our Etsy shop continued to keep us busy which was great. I had a custom order for rubber ducky themed items to match our tutu set. Here is a collage showing all the pieces.

We had another order for just the outfit with the ribbon skirt and the buyer shared this photo with us. Isn't she a cutie?

I forgot to share this piece last month that I  learned how to do from a Skillshare Class, If you have not taken any classes there you should definitely check it out. They have a lot of great classes. This one was from Liz Kohler Brown called Digital Watercolors on your Ipad Using Procreate.  It was a great class and I love how this piece came out. I think it looks like real watercolors.  She has lots of other great classes that I am going to take from her too so be on the lookout for more projects from her soon.

Rich's 50th Birthday was on the 24th. He was not happy about and did not want to do anything special to celebrate. He told Emilia and I that is done celebrating birthdays which I find very sad. I know it can be hard to get older for some people but I think if you are lucky enough to make it to 50 you should be grateful and celebrate it because a lot of people don’t get that opportunity. I tried to respect his wishes but decided to make him this painting as a gift anyways. He loves birds and hummingbirds are one of his favorites. I actually love them too. I am hoping this painting will help remind him to find his happiness in this new decade of life like the hummingbird has found within the nectar. I learned how to paint the hummingbird from another Skillshare Class  this one was called Watercolor Hummingbird: Easy and Fun Watercolor Project by Irina Trzaskos. I added the all the other elements on my own.

This piece was for a Create, Inspire Positivity challenge. I used Ian Bernard's Grid brushes which are very helpful with layouts.

I also did this piece using another prompt from CIP and combined it with a new technique I learned in Ipad Bootcamp called the streaky chalk technique.

I also learned how to put my digital Ipad work into a flat layout in Ipad Bootcamp too.

I finished 2 more digital letters in my floral monogram alphabet. Both were done on the Ipad in Procreate.

I  drew this sunflower using another great tutorial from Authentic By Frani.

Finally I made these Paleo Thumbprint cookies recipe from Against All Grain. They are very yummy. I especially enjoy them with a coconut banana smoothie before bed

Thanks all for now I hope the rest of your August is a good one and I will be back next month with more to share then.