To Our Hero's

This nation will remain the

land of the free only so long 

as it is the home of the brave

~ElmerDavis

Today I want to honor my father who passed away 

Sunday June 7, 1992

He is still dearly missed.  Daddy served as an US Army Air Corps Staff Sgt. in World War II 

Dad is on the right

I never knew my dad knew how to ski until I saw this picture about 4 years ago.

Dad at work bringing in planes from Japan.

One interesting fact...He was bunk mates with Charlton Heston!

Without the courage of people like my dad,

 my husband and my brother-in-law 

this land we call FREE would not exist.

Freedom is NEVER Free

Take time today to remember those who 

have fought and are fighting 

for YOUR freedom.

How fun to join PINK SATURDAY
     on such a wonderful occasion! 
                  Happy Birthday

!http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/

Good morning all you pink ladies! 

My first picture is of my youngest granddaughter!

There's nothing cuter than a smile waiting for breakfast. And checkout all that hair!

This picture is of her older sister on her 2nd birthday

 (she will be 12 next week!) 

The beautiful woman above in pink to the left is my grandmother who passed away at 97.

The little one in her lap is my oldest granddaughter who was  4 when this was taken 10 years ago. 

What a blessing to have a picture of five generations!

For my first Pink post I want to share a room I painted for our 

oldest granddaughter when she was about 5. 

 Our son is a single dad who has full custody of his daughter 

While she was little she had her own room 

at gma and gpa's house.

Our granddaughter loves poetry and had memorized this in 1st grade for a competition.

The window to her dream world was 4 foot across.

The wall above was painted a light pink then I used a foam board to make the diamonds. Believe me when I say the accent pink of the diamonds was the brightest pink I have ever seen!

I accented the windows with a boa valance.  She didn't need a closet so we took off the doors and painted it a sky blue, put in a couple of shelves for her favorite books and a desk.  I painted the words imagine, create and dream in the sky above the shelves. To finish off the opening I put up a tension rod and hung white sheers pulled back with ribbon.

She loved having her special place at gma's 

as much as we loved having her here.

When I think of this room it makes me want to sing...

Under de sea, under de sea...

The class room that I chose to share today is at a local church

in their nursery to 5 year old wing.

The corner and cabinets are representing a sunken ship.

notice the broken mast at the side under the whale also the

Pearl of Great Price in the sand at the bottom of the ocean?

Wouldn't we all love to find on that large!

A closer look at the whale shows the water movement a bit better than the first picture. And the wonderful reef in the corner.

This full view of the corner shows how

I matched the cabinet color and worked it into the design.

A closer look at the portholes shows the fish going in and out of the ship wreck.

One of my favorite fish is the center parrot fish.

I had the joy of seeing these in person on one of our

snorkeling adventures in the Caribbean.

I loved painting the dolphins too. They always have so much character.

Painting the octopus was a challenge.

I didn't want to scare the younger children so purple was the way to go.

It really made him more fun.

NowI have to admit I can't take all the credit for these awesome rooms although I did the majority of the design and larger animals there were two other artist helping me.

Happy swimming!

Ok, I can't figure out how to add the

Blue Monday thing...

So I will post my blog then figure it out tomorrow.

Today I am sooooo excited.

I got a new BLUE car yesterday!

What better way to start adding to Blue Mondays!

So in "honor" of my blue car I thought it appropriate

to choose some of the rooms I have painted

(mostly for little boys of course)

of cars.

This daddy LOVES fast cars so hopefully his son will too.

I love to add fun things like the birth date as the license plate numbers.

This is a picture of a car his daddy had restored.

Daddy also likes to drag race so the back wall has graffiti.

The parents love it, the baby,

well he was only a few days old.

This room was painted for a family who loved the beach.

They had just moved from California

and added some beach to each of the children's rooms.

The surf board was the little boys hand prints

the second board was marked in inches on the yellow line for his height.

This last picture is one of the Sunday School rooms at a local church.

We painted for 15 weeks in this churches new children's wing.

We had a team of 3 and had a blast.

The teachers love it as much as the children.

Each room has a different theme. This room was the city.

Have a WONDERFUL day!

The Sky's the Limit!

Do ever just wish?
Wish they was someway you could accomplish the things you
THINK you can only dream of?

I know I have been at that place in my life more than once.

Today I want to share a

Bathroom ceiling I painted.

The worse part...it was a 24' ladder!

But what fun to

walk into this guest bathroom

at a large home.

I would love to have been a mouse in the corner when the first guest used this room!

Even the boarder is hand painted.

These pictures remind me to

"Look Up"

there is a wonderful

God

who is watching over

me.

I hope you enjoyed the view! Remember to Keep Looking up! Even in the storms of life God is watching over YOU

When I'm the Happiest

Today I am going to share pictures that help me realize how undeservedly blessed I am

I know that I am my happiest when I am giving.

If it is on the mission field or in homes, I am a drawn to children.

We have served on the field on short term building trips to

Quito Ecuador 4 times now.

Each trip we visit the barrio above Quito where our church has helped build a school. The children there usually only receive one meal a day. The one served by the school and the Latin American Child Care program.We sponsor a beautiful little girl Nellie. The children who attend this school must be so poor that when the school visits the home there cannot be any meat in the home. Most live at a poverty level that most americans can not even imagine. When we met her she was sitting at the end of the table I was just drawn to her, not knowing her name.

When they told us her name was Nellie

I started to cry

My mothers name is Nellie

What a miracle that

God would take me to a part of the world I would have never visited

To be able to help this child receive a good education and a meal a day.

This is one of my paintings that was inspired by the people in Ecuador.

Welcome to my new blog.

My name is Debbie

I live in Indiana on a small lake outside of Indianapolis.
My sister Ann (tin and sparkle) is an avid blogger and she has encouraged me to try this out.

I can't remember a time that I didn't love to draw. When I was in 3rd grade I was in the hospital and a muralist was painting the children's wing. That was the beginning of a lifetime love of Art. It was the one subject I excelled in in school. After marring young I dabbled in art for many years and became serious again while was we lived in Germany working for the government. I had the rare opportunity to take an oil class by an artist named Herr Fritz Gorlach in a small town outside of Heidelberg. The class consisted of 5 students. We watched Herr Gorlach paint for 3 hours while we took notes. We never picked up a brush in class. During the following week we had a time that we picked up the painting in the stage it was at and worked on our own canvas copying his work. This was a fascinating way to learn.

After several years of painting and a few classes at Purdue after we had moved back to the states, I had the chance to fulfill a lifetime dream. A Christian school offered me a job teaching their art program. I taught for 15 years before I left and started my own Mural business.

DD Designs was started by painting for friends for a small fee to establish a portfolio and by word of mouth I became so busy I was booked weeks in advance within a year. I always tried to keep my prices within reach of the average homemaker.

I loved the work! Planning and bringing to life the dream of my clients was so much fun. Many of the rooms I painted were for children. The joy in their faces was always worth the hours on the ladder.

Five years ago the work started taking a toll on my back. I have been diagnosed with degenerative disks. I can no longer paint for the hours it took and the hauling in of tools and ladders. I do still do canvas at home.

One sad piece of mural work is that eventually, unlike the Sistine Chapel, my work gets painted over. That is the reason I want to share my work with others. Maybe the whimsy will bring a smile or maybe it will encourage others to step out and follow a dream.

I pray you enjoy the works I post and maybe I will join a few of the other things like vintage days or blue mondays. Have fun and enjoy the view!