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budagardener
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Recent Entries to this Blog Looking forward to spring........
Posted: 03 Dec 2010
Challenging Year!
Posted: 22 Nov 2010
Man I have been away a LONG time!
Posted: 05 May 2009
Whew!
Posted: 30 Oct 2008
CRAZY couple months!
Posted: 18 Oct 2008

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budagardener's Blog




Challenging Year!

Category: New Yard | Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 11:59 pm

This was not a good year for me in the yard. I made some attempts at herbs this year in pots and they did okay until the heat of summer.

Trying to keep up with school, work and everything else this year didn't give me much of a chance!!!

I lost two uncles and an aunt early this year. Then my sister was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer on March 8th.

June, my partner Patrick was in the hospital with heart problems and blood pressure of 278/180....that is finally under control.

September 28th, my sister passed away on her 49th birthday. Very hard to go through that, but I was able to spend her last two weeks with her and her family at the hospital.


The picture above are my two gorgious niece the day of my sisters memorial service.

October 12th, I was hospitalized having collapsed at work with what they thought was a heart attack. I have since undergone angioplasty surgery and have been diagnosed with CHD, the small blood vessels in my heart are pretty much gone at this point. Right now I am just trying to control a cholesterol level of 300.....genetics....have to love it! I eat healthier than anyone I know, so this could be difficult to manage!

So, I have missed my friends here on GardenStew, and with ANY luck at all, 2011 will find me here more often! Back to school again in January, but I have gone part time rather than full.

I wish you all the BEST holiday season.....Happy Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hannakah, New Years....etc.! Looking forward to the spring!!

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Man I have been away a LONG time!

Category: New Yard | Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 3:01 am

Hello everyone! I have been so busy and I didn't realize it had been months since I've been posting.
I miss reading everyones posts, blogs, and looking at all the awesome photographs.

Work of course has been keeping me extremely busy, but on top of that I am now enrolled in school fulltime in the Graphic Arts program at the Art Institute for my bachelors degree. Yes, I am now 49, never been to college and will graduate when I am 52! Yikes.

But, I know I will be working the rest of my life and I certainly can't keep up the physical pace at work for too many more years, so it is basically an investment in the future.

So far I am maintaining a 4.0. What a difference from high school in the 70's.

Anyway, I will be posting some updated pictures soon. For my birthday in March, Patrick, the boys (Klaus and Schultze) built a deck in the backyard. I built in three planters on three of the corners and joined them with 10' benches on two sides. We love it and spend a lot more time in the backyard now. I study back there weekly.

My eucalyptus tree I started from seed last year is almost 2 1/2' tall now, and the begonias I planted two years ago are still alive and blooming like mad. I can't wait until the lilies start blooming this year. They have multiplied.

Just wanted to post a hello to everyone, I miss bantering back and forth....plant on!

This blog entry has been viewed 478 times


Whew!

Category: New Yard | Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 6:20 pm

Just when I thought I was catching up.......

A virus attached to my hard drive and I have lost everything! All my documents, photographs, art scans, contacts, saved emails, favorite places and I could go on. Somehow worked through my firewall and Norton 360.

So, I have spent three days re-installing my operating systems, re-uprgrading and re-purhcasing and installing software. Trying to find license numbers to re-download software that I had purchased protection on and finally I get to sign into GardenStew!

For the life of me, I can't remember where (when I became a member here), that I saved photos to upload onto this site. Anyone that could give me a couple ideas would be appreciated. I at least could retrieve those photos.

Just a tip for everyone.....back up to disks and keep a log of web sites and passwords, usernames etc!!!! OMG I was just thinking about doing that when this happened.
In my old age, I am forgetting even the simplest things! What user name did I use here, and what was that password?? YIKES.
Well off the catch up on all of the posts I can here, and then back to trying the memory game!

Happy Halloween all!!

This blog entry has been viewed 808 times


CRAZY couple months!

Category: New Yard | Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 2:51 pm

I am finally getting a chance to get caught up on some reading with all my freinds here at GardenStew!

As busy as work has been the last couple months, in the back of my mind there has been the anticipating and withdrawel from reading everyones posts!

Yesterday a package arrived and I didn't remember ordering anything.......well it was from Park Seed and they where the plants I had ordered back in May! I had totally forgotten about them. What a surprise.
Now I must find some time to get them in the ground before they dry up.

With my real job, there has not been a lot of time to work on my web site or eshop pages. I did manage to get a few things done. And I recently posted some work on EBay.


Well glad to be back at least for a couple weeks!
Now we are in to the holiday mode at work (retail you know!), so it is fixin to get crazy again soon.







Last edited: Sat Oct 18, 2008 2:52 pm

This blog entry has been viewed 501 times


A few more tiles completed...

Category: New Yard | Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2008 9:10 pm

Here are a few more new tiles. It's been really hard finding enough time to just sit and paint. But I am slowly getting ready for the December Arts show.






Last edited: Fri Sep 26, 2008 9:10 pm

This blog entry has been viewed 661 times


Finally fired up the kiln

Category: New Yard | Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 3:25 pm

Here are some of the finished pieces.





The plant markers are 9" x 5".

This is a custom pet ornament.

Mockingbird ornament.

Toucan Ornament.

I am working on hummingbird ornaments and koi pond tile mural this week.


This blog entry has been viewed 785 times


Busy Weekend Painting....

Category: New Yard | Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 10:35 pm

I've been getting things ready for my web site, and upcoming BudaFest in December.
Here is a sneak peak at some tiles I did yesterday. They have to be glazed yet and fired.

This one will be set in a iron trivet. 6" tile.

This will be set in a wood frame. 6" tile.


This one goes in a wrought iron garden stake 27" tall. 4 1/4" tile.


This one will go in a picture frame.

Lots to do yet before I can crank up the kiln. Getting back at it. Just thought I'd share whats coming!



This blog entry has been viewed 686 times


Petal.....the garden fairy

Category: New Yard | Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 2:13 pm

It has been one hectic week. I've been getting my web site set up this last week while waiting for glass ornaments and ceramic supplies to arrive so I can start putting them on my site.

So, I figured I may as well start cleaning out some rubbermaid tubs and get ready for a garage sale as well. I found this old watercolor I did in 1999. I'd been looking for it for some time and just figured I'd lost it in a move or something!

Since she (Petal) is the main character in a childrens book I was working on, it may be a sign of sorts to finish that project too!


I think with the move from Dallas two years ago for work I lost so much of myself and put everything I really enjoy doing on a shelf (or rather in a closet!). It's time to get back to being creative again and finishing up old projects and beginning new ones.




This blog entry has been viewed 770 times


Christmas Ornaments

Category: New Yard | Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 6:37 pm

Here are some handpainted Christmas ornaments that I did. They are 3 1/2" glass ornaments and acrylics. The tile work that I do and these will be what I am working on a web site for.
I custom paint these every year for people.
In 2001 I painted several dozen angel ornaments for Dr. Phil(the one with the TV show) and his wife. I haven't done any recently for celebrities, but you never know!

The cake was for Patrick's sister birthday a couple weeks ago. She loves pigs, so I piped them using buttercream icing.









This blog entry has been viewed 782 times


More Ceramic Tiles

Category: New Yard | Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 11:59 pm

Here are some other ceramic tiles and a coffee tabletop I hand painted (from vintage posters).






The tiles are all 6" squares painted on bisque, glazes and then fired.
The black and white tile and delft blue are using underglaze pencils like you would any graphite pencil, then fired to set the color, then glazed and fired again.

Last edited: Sun Aug 17, 2008 12:02 am

This blog entry has been viewed 741 times




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