Tea By The Sea

Welcome.  I am so happy that you stopped by.  My garden gate is always open for you to come in and sit and relax with a cup of tea.  Today I have something special to share with you regarding one of my paintings and how it is being used to help raise money for UK families living with cancer.   Bentley, my Studio Assistant , is waiting at our garden gate to welcome you.

Recently I received an e-mail from Cathy Jenkins of  Sail4Cancer, a UK charity that  raises money through sailing and related activities which they spend on offering respite breaks to UK families living with cancer.  They have a long waiting list of families desperate for some quality time together, escaping hospital and treatment schedules for a while.

 Sail4cancer has an annual fundraiser called Tea By The Sea, where sailing clubs around the country hold a tea party during  the summer months to raise funds for cancer. The clubs are sent a  packet advising them  what to do, how to help, etc. and a story posted on their website http://www.sail4cancer.org/

.  Cathy advised each year they try to have an" iconic image" to illustrate the packet  and website. She came across one of my paintings with a tea set on my blog and felt it would be perfect to use on their 2012 packet and posters  for the clubs and asked my permission to use it.  I was honored and deeply touched ,especially since I am a cancer survivor, to give permission to us one of my paintings as one of my goals is to use my art to help raise money for cancer related causes.

I suggested that Cathy view some of the paintings on my website http://www.thepaintedgarden.net/ and gave her permission to use the painting of her choice.

Here are a few of the paintings that she had to choose from:

Which painting do you think Cathy picked for the 2012 packet and poster?

By the way the painting with the yellow umbrella is titled "Tea By The Sea".

I was so impressed with Sail4Cancer and their "Tea By The Sea" program that I want to have a little tea party this summer with my friends and family to help raise money for the families.  You can  read about their program by going to their website http://www.sail4cancer.org/  and clicking on Tea By The Sea.

Thank you Sail4Cancer for helping so many families. "Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interests of others."  Philippians 2:4

Thank you for stopping by.  I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, e-mails, comments and those who follow my blog.  Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special.

Have a lovely week.  Blessings, Erin

The Vintage Lady / Glitterfest

Welcome.  I am so happy that you stopped by.  Today I am serving tea on my vintage tea set to celebrate opening of my friend Cathy Jarrell's new shop, The Vintage Lady,  at Country Roads Antiques in Old Town Orange.  You may remember visiting her charming Home and Garden shop with me in Old Town Tustin.  Sadly her shop that was located in a 100 year old house that burned to the ground two weeks before Christmas. Everything inside her shop was lost - happily some of the items in the garden were saved. 

Cathy never complained about her loss - her faith  sustained her and kept her strong and she viewed her loss as a blessing and opportunity to downsize giving her more time to create a smaller home and garden shop and have more time to pursue her love for writing, gardening and creating using gifts that God blessed her with.

Country Roads, Old Town Orange, California

http://www.countryroadsantiques.com/

The day of the fire the owner of Country Roads in Orange, CA.  contacted Cathy inviting her to relocate The Vintage Lady to Country Roads.  Country Roads has 12,000 square feet of the most fabulous and beautiful antiques and collectibles (and is so special it was visited by Nate of the Nate Berkus Show), and  a fabulous garden in back of the building featuring all kinds of vintage plants, trees, flowers and vintage garden  furniture and flea market finds.  A little space was created in the 5,000 square foot garden  for Cathy  to relocate her container gardens and topiary plants  that were salvaged from the fire.

                                     Let's take a little tour of the new and fabulous Vintage Lady's container garden        and new shop inside Country Roads Antiques in Orange, California. 

                                      How charming can you get??  A frog and  puppy topairy!!!

Cathy is famous for her adorable toparies and garden signs.

Now let's go inside Country Roads to take a peek at Cathy's charming shop where she has more of her beautiful toparies

                 The old brick wall and high ceilings are a perfect backdrop for Cathy's shop.

" And provide for those who grieve in Zion to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes."  Isaiah 61:3

Cathy will be at Glitterfest in Santa Ana, California on March 10th.

http://www.glitterfest.com/

You can find her at Country Roads and  read more about Cathy on her website:

  http://www.thevintagelady.com/ where you can follow her on facebook and pinterest.

Thank you for visitng.  I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, comments, e-mails and those who follow my blog.  Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special.

                             Next week we will be back in my garden paintings Spring flowers.

                                                       Have a lovely week.  Blessings, Erin

Pink Flowers and Blue Birds

Welcome. I am so happy that you stopped by.  My garden gate is always open for you to come in and sit and relax with a cup of tea while I share with you the inspirations for my art.  I am so happy that our Califorina Blue Birds have returned again this year and that my garden is starting to bloom.  For some reason the pink flowers are the  first ones to start blooming.

         Let's join my Studio Assistant, Bentley, to look for pink flowers and inspiration to paint.

 

I decided to celebrate retun of the nesting Blue Birds with a litle garden painting of their nest with a few of the pink flowers in my garden. I hung it on the back of an Adroandick chair using rustic burlap ribbon. 

Thank you for stopping by.  I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, e-mails,. comments and those of you who follow my blog. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special.  I have a request to paint a rose tuturial and will see if I can do that when my roses are in bloom.

I added a follow button by e-mail on the right side of my blog if you are no longer able to follow me on blogger.

" When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you."  Proverbs 6:22

Have a lovely week.  lessings, Erin

Painting Yellow Cottage Roses

Welcome.  I am so happy that you stopped by .  My garden gate is always open for you to come in and sit and relax with a cup of tea while I share with you the inspirations for my art.  Last Friday I was in Trader Joe's and an employee was pushing around a shopping cart filled with bouquet's of a dozen roses in all colors.  To my delight and surprise the employee was giving the roses to the customers in the store - he even let everyone pick their favorite color.  I picked yellow.

Let's join Bentley, my helpful Studio Assistant, and he will show you the yellow roses.

I love blue and yellow together and put the bouquet of yellow roses in a blue an white vase.  I was having tea in a blue and white tea cup and loved the way they looked together.

I decided to paint the blue and yellow vase with the cottage yellow roses with the blue and white tea cup.

Thank you for stopping by.  I sincerely appreciate your visits, comments, e-mails and those of you who are following my blog. 

I have read that soon if you do not have a "BLOGGER" blog that you will not be able to follow my blog through blogger.  If you have Typepad, Wordpress or any blog other than BLOGGER, and want to continue to follow my blog , please see my side bar to follow me by e-mail notification.  I have also created a Facebook account for The Painted Garden and I believe that you can also follow me on Facebook.  My computer person is working on this and I will have more information for you about Facebook next week.

In view of the many e-mail requests I receive from my readers inquiring how to purchase my small art  - I have  activated my ETSY account where I will be selling some of the smaller paintings I share with you.

"The meditation of my heart shall be understanding." Psalm 49.3

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special.

Have a lovely week.  Blessings, Erin