Paintings That Touch Your Heart

The Girls Club

( You man click on the photo's to enlarge them )

Have you ever come across a painting that really

reached out and touched your heart?

The painting above did just that to me.

Ever since we finished  some of the renovations to our little farmhouse last year...I have been searching for

just the right art to put on the walls.

After moving here from a beautiful but huge

1902 Victorian home I had lots of pictures to hang but none of them

really seemed right for here in the country.

I found a painting in a little catalog that came

in the mail that reached out and touched my heart.

That is the painting above.

I looked up the artist to see if there

were more paintings.

Oh my...I was THRILLED with what I saw.

The artist is

Robert Duncan

http://www.robertduncanstudios.com/

Mr. Duncan lives with his wife Linda, their six

children and 'a lively assortment of farm animals in the

little town of Midway in northern Utah'.

He started painting at the age of 11!

He spent summers on his Grandparents ranch in

Wyoming where his Grandmother gave him is first

set of oil paints.

This is where he grew to love the country and the

open spaces and the rural lifestyle.

What I am showing you here is just a small sample

of his collection.

The Critic's Circle

A Grand Day

Piggy Back

Home For Dinner

Anniken And The Cows

Best Of Friends

Pumpkins For Sale

Fall In The Kingdom

A Wild Ride

Maggie And Her Mother

Celebration

The Egg Basket

Mr Duncan also paints other genres besides farm life

such as Western scenes.

Wyoming Girl

When I decided to do a post on Mr Duncans paintings

I realized that it might be a good idea to ASK

for permission first so I wrote to his web site

and told him what I had in mind and

I sent him the link to my blog.

I actually never thought I'd get an answer

but 2 days later I recieved an email from

Mr Duncan himself!

He said he would be 'honored' to be featured

on my blog.

He also said " I want to do anything I can to

promote families returning to farms and just

helping people to cherish our rural landscape."

Well how about that!

I do hope you'll go to Mr Duncan's web site
and check out his beautiful paintings
and read about he and his family.
It's so nice to know a little
bit about the person
who paints
such beautiful paintings that
touch our hearts.

Thank you Mr Duncan.

I hope you all have a wonderful day.

Maura :)





Hangin Out With My Buds

Olly popping out to hang out with the rest of us.

It was another beautiful sunny warm day here on the farm yesterday. Not much was going on as Hubby was off

helping his buddy work on a vehicle

so I hung out with a few of

my farm buds.

Shep...he loves hanging out with me

Chelsea too

Chelsea and Shep and I headed over to the coop to see

what was going on over there.

Olly came out to see what we were up to.

He headed back inside when I opened the door...

he likes to visit with the chickens too.

This is Helen...the hen from h-ll.

She's setting on a clutch of eggs

and boy you just TRY and get near those eggs!

This is Buttercup. She's broody too but she doesn't

care if there aren't any eggs under her.

She just likes to 'set'

and dream of being

a momma.

The funny thing about Buttercup is she

tends to go 'broody' often

and OH MY is she moody!

She's like a chicken with PMS!

I collected up the eggs and headed back outside.

My 'buds' were waiting for me.



It was a good day.

I hope your weekend is a good one!

Maura :)







For The Love Of Stone

What is it about stone homes and cottages that makes

us love them so much?

They are stone buildings...hard and cold!

Is it the feeling of permanence that we get when we see those beautiful stone walls and chimneys?

How can a building so solid make us feel all warm and cozy?

Maybe its the quaint shapes of some of the structures.

In some cases maybe it's the simple lines with texture that we admire.

Love the roofline of this cottage above and the texture of the stones. Can you imagine how

the ceiling in the upper bedrooms would be!

This beautiful stone house above may be plain but look at the wonderful texture and colors of the walls and the random use of stone size!

Love that fence too.

Una Bhan Tourism Co-operative Society

The curved wall and roof is so different.

I love unique...how about you?

Kingsley Daniels

Look at the texture in those walls...how do the stone masons make the lines level when they use different sizes like that?!

Photo by Feliciano Guimaraes

Now this is one I wouldn't want to live in but I thought I'd throw it in because it was so different. It's in Portugal. Look at that cute little window above the door!

channel4.com

Now I could live here for the rest of my life.

Imagine sitting out on that deck and looking out at the water with a cup of coffee or tea in your hand watching the sunrise in the morning. Or how about a wonderful glass of wine watching the sunset?

Awesome.

I hear the loons already. 

Even if stone houses look a little cold...I wouldn't mind one bit if I could come in and sit in front of something like this....

telegraph.co.uk

Or this...

multifuelwoodburner.co.uk

And of course this....

Photo from the movie The Holiday

Oh yes...I could LIVE in front of this warm fire

in this cozy cottage even if it isn't real.

How about you...would you enjoy living in a

stone cottge?

Maura :)



(All photo's taken from the internet. If any of these pictures are yours and you would like me to delete them or add your name please contact me and I will gladly do so.)

Indian Summer

The past couple of weeks have been absolutely beautiful

here in south central Kansas.

Our temperatures have been in the low to mid eighties

with lots of sunshine.

We could use the rain but I'm afraid once it's starts it

will be the end to our beautiful

Indian Summer.

I decided to head outside with my camera to take a few

pictures while everything still looks bright

 and colorful.

The vegetable garden is still producing tomatoes.

LOTS of tomatoes!

Better than it did all summer actually.

The cats came with me as usual...they try not to

miss a thing.

I don't know what kind of a plant they were eating

but they acted like it was catnip!

Olly (Oliver) ate his fill and then went off to explore

but Lizzy stayed.

I think she knew I was taking her picture because she rolled

and rolled and flipped and put on a wonderful show for me.

The cats and I continued on our stroll around the farm.

I was actually able to find some RED leaves...yeay!

The Mums I put in the old wheel barrow are

loving all the sunshine.

We headed out to the mailbox to see the new

cover...I like it. Not that anyone else

can see it way out in the boonies

but I'm sure our mailman will enjoy a change of

scenery.

Time for one more shot of Olly posing on the big tree stump

he and Lizzy love to play on.

It was a beautiful day and I'm glad I was able to get some

pictures to look back on this winter.

Winter has it's beauty but Fall is the star of the seasons

for me.

I'm linking again with Mary over at Little Red House

for Mosaic Monday I hope you will go and visit Mary and look around at all the wonderful Mosaics everyone has created. You may just meet some new blogging friends!

I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Maura :)





Where I Visit With You...My Office/Craft Room

I have been meaning to show you this room for a while now. I really have!

This room gets used a lot as it is where I do my blogging...scrapbooking...sewing...painting (none of these last 3 things have happened too often in the last year) and other projects. Plus it is where my hubby's closet is since our master bedroom doesn't really have a usable closet for every day use.

SO...it is a VERY hard room to keep clean. Well...clean enough to take photo's to share with my

blogging friends!

So without further adieu...

This is what I see when I enter in from the kitchen.

It is a wonderfully bright cheery room

to work in.

I'm waiting for just the right pictures to put

on the other walls.

There is not a lot of wall space with

two doors and two large windows in the room

plus a closet.

The sun comes in this window in the morning!

I LOVE this cupboard.

Here's a bit better look at it.

It holds all my craft supplies and more.

This shot shows the door that leads into the living room.

As I've mentioned before every room other than

the bathroom has two doors. The living room has 3.

I've had this old ladder for years outside in the gardens

but I thought I'd bring it inside this time

since we don't have a garden here at the farm yet.

It has square nails!

I think at one time it was twice as long but

somewhere in time someone cut it to this length.

I love the primitive table.

That's my Dad and I in the picture.

This is a wonderful place to sit in the sunshine

and read with a cup of tea.

I just finished mine!

This picture shows both large windows which

is perfect lighting for just

about anything.

I'm ready for my feathered friends.

A few things I keep out of the cupboard.

And here is where I visit with YOU.

I hope you've enjoyed this little tour.

It was fun showing you where I spend

my time visiting your world

and sharing mine with you.

I hope you have a WONDERFUL weekend!

Maura :)