November Storm in Virginia

We have just made it through a terrible Nor'easter here in Southeast Virginia! It started to rain late Monday night and it has been raining steady ever since. We have had rain again today! We must have gotten over 8+ inches of the wet stuff.
The worst has been the wind! Little did we know it was going to be THIS bad!! We had tropical force winds for 4 days steady with many gusts of 75 mph! Our tides have been as bad as it was during Hurricane Isabel!
We have had monsoon type rains with strong wind, it has been horrible. The governor has declared our area a disaster area! Schools have been closed, all city offices and services closed, no mail and all of the areas bases were closed. My mom was without power from Thursday until this afternoon. We were lucky, and never lost power.
Tomorrow, we go an check on our boat in the marina. So far, it is still afloat!
A tug pulling a barge from Puerto Rico to NY lost a cable and the barge is a runaway. It ended up at our beach in Sandbridge! It is heading for the fishing pier and no way to stop it. I have to watch the news tonight to see what happened. I have a photo of the salvage crew being flown aboard to flood the bilges to slow it's progress. Bad thing about this barge is, it is full of hazardous waste! Oh boy!
The other photo is of one of the local marinas, it was almost destroyed by the storm and waves. We just had some branches and siding come off. The yard is flooded, but that will get absorbed eventually.
I have to admit, I am tired of being cold, wet and not seeing the sun! Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day, I think our area could use that.

Bathroom Vanity

We painted this bathroom vanity last week. It was in a new construction and the owner already had an idea of what she wanted on the vanity.
The area to paint was tight quarters and we had to juggle whom painted where and when. Of course, it didn't help that the power line workers cut the power to the house at lunch time and then never came back!! So our blow dryer was no use to us. We painted until we had to stop with wet paint and no way to dry it!!
We came back the next morning and yeah, power was back on! So we quickly painted and stared to add the poly finish. Mom was blowing it dry to add the second coat when we heard the power folks saying power was being shut off in 5 minutes. Quick, blow quickly! Sure, enough a few minutes later the power went off again. Luckily, we were done!! Oh the joys of working on a construction site!!

Faux Bamboo Door

We had fun today painting a doorway and door with faux bamboo. The owner has lots of bamboo around her house and loved the idea of bamboo on her bedroom door.
We loved the finished look too! After we came back from lunch, she wanted us to paint another doorway also!! They look great.

Day at Colonial Downs Race Track

We had the chance to spend the day at Colonial Downs Race Track today. It was great!
This was the first time I have seen harness racing in person, and not on the television. I had the opportunity to participate in a charity race before the real races began. I couldn't believe that no one in my husband's company wanted to do it. So, I spoke up and said I did! Six other people from other company's also made up our race. We were just along for the ride, but it was great!!!
They gave us helmets and tipperary vests for protection. I am wearing a green jacket and vest. My driver's name was Tyler, he was very nice to have me climb aboard! Our horse was Kelly's Traveling Man. He is a pacer, so it was interesting to watch him move.
We were last out of the barn onto the track. The barn in on the opposite side of the track from the grandstand. We followed a truck with a gate attached to it, past the grandstand and to the far turn. We all made an about turn and got closer to the gate as the truck increased it's speed. We never really got close to the truck, still behind on the outside.
All of the horses sped up and the race was on! We still were behind everyone. The driver "hissed" at the horse and boy, did he shift into gear! We suddenly were in the middle of the group and moving up! He hissed again, and again, the horse just shot forward! It was great!
We Won!! What a great experience it was, I want to do it again!!

Latest horse portrait

Cruisin' on a Goodbar

This is the latest horse portrait I have just finished. It is a equine portrait of "Cruisin' on a Goodbar", or "Cruiser" as we all know him!

The owner gave me a great photo to paint from and made my job so much easier!

This is painted on a 11" x 14" canvas board. That way, they can find a nice frame and just have to remove the glass.

The custom portrait is a surprise birthday present for her daughter. So happy birthday Ashley!

Latest murals

this is the latest mural painting we have just finished today! We started in the kitchen doorway. The owner wanted some painted molding around the doorway to match existing woodwork in the house. We painted the molding and the shelf over the door. The terra cotta pots are more red to go with the decor of the room's drapes. We also painted some exposed bricks on each side of the door. We matched the tone of the bricks to the tile backsplash.



After talking to the owners, they asked if we could do something with their fireplace wall. They had just added the mantle and wanted more impact on that wall. A plasma tv is usually hanging on the black bracket. We matched the bricks again to the tile in the kitchen.

It is an open floorplan and needed to blend.
The fireplace faux bricks turned out better than we had expected!! It looked great! It has added so much to the wall. In fact, it looks like it has always been there! We were very pleased with the end results.

Amarillis Flowers in Master Bath

This floral painting of an amarillis bulb is painted ona master bath wall. There is a slight angle corner in the wall. Dottie painted the bulbs in a glass vase on a white shelf. This is all paint, no real shelf, or glass vase.