I feel like one of Santa's helpers....

...painting toys in bright colors, 

with polka dots and stars, 

Santa in his sleigh 

what fun...when the wind blows!   

toys for boys...

and toys for girls,  

I'm up to my elbows in swishes and swirls!  

All of these handmade toys, with the exception of the moon and stars ~ which was sold today, can be found in our shop, whimsy two, along with many more!  

Only 16 days until Christmas!  

Good morning everyone

There is a definite chill in the air this morning, a lot colder than yesterday. My cup of hot coffee feels good this morning warming my hands. Looks like cold weather for the next few days and then maybe a warming trend again.

I've been painting quite a bit this week and wanted to show you what I've been working on. I finished my birdhouse and it's now hanging in the tree outback. I added jasmine vine to give it some interest and a rustic look.


I've also been painting some "open" signs for Galen. He puts them on a pole and adds a whirligig making it stand about waist high, self standing in concrete. He's making these for some of the downtown shops for out front on the sidewalks.


We got a special order for a whirligig for Christmas. This will be a jackrabbit and ham radio theme. The request is for a father-in-law that did short wave radio years ago and his "handle" was jackrabbit. This will be a Christmas gift for him. Here is the jackrabbit so far...Galen carved it out of wood and I painted it.

It will be very similar to the fox and the lazy dog when it's finished.

Pick a theme and Galen will figure out how to do it!

Colorful and unique, one-of-a-kind heirlooms!

If you are interested in one for the holidays, it's not too late to get your order in. We have a few listed in our shop right now.

Enjoy your weekend!

November

It's November already! Hard to believe how fast time is moving by. The first weekend in November is always set aside for the Whirligig Festival in our town. Saturday and Sunday we will once again enjoy another fair. Galen has entered one of his whirligigs in the whirligig contest and we are hoping we will take first place. We'll see...wish us luck!

Here is the whirligig he entered ~ a short short short video.

Whale & Mermaid

A mermaid

I painted a pretty mermaid on a piece of tin that will eventually sit on the top of one of Galen's new whirligigs that he's making in his wood shop. The shape looks a little bit odd but it will fit on top of a gray whale where the blow hole is, and will move up and down when the wind blows.

I will paint a mermaid on the other side just like this one and when the whirligig is finished I'll show you what it looks like and how it works!

Enjoy your day!

A fun project

This is a cat and dog seesaw whirligig that just came out of Galen's woodshop. All handmade. I had fun painting it in bright whimsical colors.

He hand carved the cat and dog figures and added pipe cleaners for tails. The seesaw moves up and down as the fan spins and the whole platform turns in the wind.

I don't know where he comes up with these ideas!

Kinda cute though.

Find it at whimsytwo.

Just another piece of whimsical folk art.

Raleigh newspaper surprise

Galen and I went out this morning and bought several copies of the Sunday Raleigh News & Observer after seeing Galen's photo in the Arts & Living section! We picked up a few copies at a nearby gas station and then headed to Starbucks to sit, relax and read.

Whirligigs in Wilson are making the news. The Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park received a $250,000 grant from The National Endowment for the Arts to refurbish the whirligigs and move them to a two-acre park in downtown Wilson.

Here is Galen working on the Christmas Tree whirligig. (The following photos are courtesy of The News & Observer.)

Below is the famed folk artist, Vollis Simpson.

Galen also made the front page of The Wilson Times earlier this week (photo with Vollis Simpson.)

Hubby is happy to be a part of the restoration of the whirligigs. The warehouse is located on the corner of Douglas and Barnes Streets and is open for visitors anytime Monday thru Friday. Large photographs of Vollis Simpson and the whirligigs taken by local photographer Burk Uzzle line the outside of the warehouse.

It's an exciting time for downtown Wilson, NC!

Cotton fields and whirligigs

Every year about this time you can drive the countryside here in the south and see beautiful white puffs of cotton.



As far as you can see, it's white like snow.

We had family visiting us from Pennsylvania (Galen's cousin and wife), so we took a drive in the country to see the cotton.

Of course, it's very common down here for out-of-towners to stop along the road and snip a cotton boll or two and take it with them. Just a couple of snips.

~~~~~~~~~

We continued along, meandering the back roads until we came to the Vollis Simpson's "wHiRliGigs" ~ an attraction you must see if you're in Wilson County. Vollis is our local folkartist. His works are displayed locally and also at The North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, NC, The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, The Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, MD, and inner harbor.

We were fortunate that day to find him working in his shop.

He showed us his new piece and some other things he's been working on.

He left us go in the back part of the building to look at all of his other works.

Truly amazing!

And outside are these huge pieces.

He has more than 30 works erected on his property.

And would you believe they all come out of this small shop of his (below) nestled in the tall Carolina pines.

It was a beautiful fall day. The perfect day to do a bit of site seeing in the country.