The Blue Star Service Banner

The Blue Star Banner is displayed by families of service men and women serving during times of war. These flags can also be displayed in churches, schools, and businesses with members serving in the Armed Forces.

The Blue Star Banner or Service Flag has been used since WWI. It was originally designed in 1917 by Army Captain Robert Queisser of the 5th Ohio Infantry in honor of his two sons serving on the front line at the time. The banner includes a blue star for each active duty service member in the family. A gold star is displayed for service members killed in action. The gold star honors service members who have made the supreme sacrifice for our country.

During WWII, the Service flag gained popularity and they were hand made by mothers of military men and women across America. We are a military family and we have a Blue Star Banner hanging in the front window of our house. Ours has two stars to honor our two sons in the United States Air Force.

Beautiful Wine and Dine Treasury by Corkycrafts

Thank you so much CorkyCrafts for including my On the Vine print in this pretty purple treasury- Wine & Dine! There are a lot of great items included and lots of shops to check out!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c24eab6e8a08eef481e9886/wine-dine

My latest artistic obsession- stained glass!

I have been wanting to learn how to do stained glass for many years, and last August I finally signed up for a class. It has now become a new obsession- I only work on my projects once a week, so they can take a while to complete, but I enjoy every minute! I like to draw my own design/pattern, or sometimes, use my watercolors as a pattern. I have always enjoyed soldering, so this is a way for me to combine my interests. My latest project is a large sea horse window. I am in the process of putting the copper foil around the edges of the pieces, and then will be able to start soldering!

My Baby Levis watercolor just got included in this beautiful Etsy treasury - Red, White and Blue Jeans by AmyFine Design! Thank you, Amy- and you created a really nice treasury!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c2129c09b996d9102756f7b/red-white-and-blue-jeans

Day Trippin'

I love the beach and California has miles of beautiful coastline to explore.

My husband loves to drive and will drive for hours - it doesn't hurt that we have a car he enjoys driving! Convertible = bad hair day, but who cares? We do a lot of day trips and sometimes we don't know where we are going when we start out. We live close to many wonderful destinations- Napa wine country, San Francisco, Carmel/Monterey, the California Redwoods/Mendocino, Yosemite, etc.

Last weekend, it was Carmel, Monterey, Pebble Beach. The day was perfect with absolutely no fog! I took lots of photos for use as possible reference photos for paintings. The best part of the day for me was visiting many galleries in Carmel. I was lucky enough to meet one of my favorite artists in his gallery- Loran Speck. He is an amazing artist and his still life paintings can only be described as extraordinary!

Where to next?

"I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers."-Claude Monet

watercolor, Radio Flyer garden

Angel Trumpets, watercolor

a bird's nest built in a tree rose

lilies in my Long Island garden

I have always enjoyed gardening -and it is so rewarding to see the finished garden as it grows and fills in the way I planned. When we moved back to California from Long Island, I had a blank canvas to fill with plants. I used many of the plants that worked in New York, as well as my California favorites. I even brought some of the awesome orange "wild" lilies from my Long Island garden- and for once, the deer wouldn't be eating them!

As an artist, one of the best things about a great garden, is all the possibilities for painting ideas. As plants begin to bloom in the Spring, and until everything is dying back in the Fall , I am taking photos. The garden is always changing, and I will never run out of garden reference photos.

Welcome to Mermaid's Palette!

I am starting this blog in the hopes that it will keep me on track and focused since I will feel like something is keeping me accountable. I was going to make a goal of a painting a day- then thought better of it since I get a little crazy when I don't finish my "to-do" lists. I am going to stick with creating every day, and see where that gets me!

I read somewhere that a "mermaid's palette" is an old term sailors sometimes used to describe a spectacular sunset. It seemed a perfect name for my Etsy shop since it speaks to art and all things beachy. My Etsy shop has been open for almost two years now and since I am starting to get the hang of the ups and downs of selling online- it is time to tackle the next thing I have been putting off- blogging. Getting a blog set up is much more work than I thought it would be, and I am sure I have lots to learn as I go along.

Let the fun begin!