Baby, it’s cold outside..

Things to do when it’s cold.

You can watch the sunrise.

sunrise©Virginia Spencer, 2014.

Then run amok and do handstands.

ZeusSammy©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2014.

You could play Charades!!

(Here Sampson is acting out a scene from the movie “Tremors”.
He’s a huge Kevin Bacon fan.
Mostly because his name is Bacon.)
Sammy4©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2014.

Or dance the Tarantella.

turkey4©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2014.

Do a little miming.

(See he’s walking in the wind…)

nuthatch©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2013.

Or challenge a friend to a staring contest.

(But trust me, you’re going to lose this one.)

eagleclose©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2014.

Sing!

Singing©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2014.

Or meditate

meditate©Virginia Spencer, 2014.

Or catch that red dot!

Zeus1©Virginia Spencer, 2014

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Invite some friends over for dinner.

Share a drink.

wchumm©Virginia Spencer, 2014.

And watch the moon rise.

MoonJan©Virginia Spencer, 2014

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2014

All Rights Reserved

 

 

The Eagles are back!

There was a mother eagle

Who was trying to get some rest.

eagle1©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2014.

But oh no! Look behind her!

It’s a teenage raptor pest!

eagle2 ©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2014.

So she cuffed the juvenile in the head!

eagle3©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2014.

And left for parts unknown.

eagle5©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2013.

The kid, he was proud to have his own roost.

eagle6 ©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2014.

Until he realized that he was all alone..

Mom?
Mother??

Mommy?!?

eagle7©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2014.

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2014

All Rights Reserved.

It’s not the end of the world…

But it is National Flashlight Day!!!!

That’s right. A holiday everyone can celebrate because who doesn’t appreciate a good flashlight, besides the candle lobbyists that is. But ignore them, they’re full of hot wax.

And now for a little Christmas music. ..

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me … An anticlimactic Mayan prophecy…

Now I’m sure everyone is just sick to death of the Mayans and the end of the world hype. But you have to admit it made for some interesting TV viewing. People were stockpiling and hoarding and doing all sorts of thing. I’m not sure why you would stockpile for the end of the world, if it’s the end of the world all stockpiling does is give you more stuff that’ll blow up. We even saw a show on people who were preparing for a Zombie Apocalypse. At one point during that show one of the “experts” said that we all need to be prepared for the next time a Zombie Apocalypse happens. Which begs the question..

When did the last one happen?

But sad to say even in our household we had certain people who just went too far with the whole Mayan thing..

Oh seriously, Dummy!! Put those candles away and get a flashlight!

dumymayan©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012

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Meanwhile we had a pretty good snow storm. They said it was a blizzard and named it Draco. Yes, they did. I’m not sure what meteorology has come to but they all seem to be enjoying themselves a bit too much.

It made for some pretty pictures though. There was snow on my windowpane..

frost©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012

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And this lone tree had to get all overly dramatic. All the other trees only had snow on their windward sides but this guy went all crazy and has snow on his windward and leeward sides. Quite odd really.

tree©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012.

And as I was out in the backyard, this guy came flying over. He took one look at Sampson in his lime green glow in the dark jacket and laughed himself silly. But in my defense, Sammy is short and white. No one can see him in the snow. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. That he looks adorable in his lime green glow in the dark jacket is moot.

eagle©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

And to my husband a very Happy Anniversary!! xoxo

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012

La la la laaaa….

I haven’t been blogging much lately, not for any particular reason, I mean besides everything in my house breaking at once and a total lack of coordination in dealing with those break downs. But eventually I did manage to get somewhat coordinated and put up my Christmas tree. I have hundreds of bulbs so it takes me awhile. I used a fold up towel dryer to sort my bulbs. Clever, no?
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xmas3©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012.

I made a few new discoveries this year. For instance I discovered that when I put reindeer antlers on Sampson, he sinks. His head gets lower and lower until paralysis sets in and he is stuck on the floor. Apparently he thinks they are very very heavy. This made him quite sad. Fortunately his little bear was there to help him out.

I’m thinking this may possibly be useful in the future.

Sammy ©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012

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I also discovered that reindeer antlers have a strange affect on Zeus as well. He realized that the wearing of reindeer antlers changed him into a reindog with super powers. Super Reindog, we call him. These super powers give him the ability to lie on my bed, because although ordinary dogs are not allowed on the bed and think that I don’t know they get up there the second my back is turned, reindogs have no such restrictions. Yes, a reindog will lie right on the bed in front of me and coyly wave his paw. Reindogs are very impertinent animals.

Well that reindog has another think coming if he thinks I’m going to put up with that…

zeusxmas©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012

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I also discovered that when the moon is full with Jupiter to it’s upper left and the Christmas lights are on, you can get some pretty cool shots.  You must however stand in your driveway wearing pajamas, boots and furry earmuffs to do so properly.

moonbokeh©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012

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I also did some painting. Christmas ones of course.

This is an acrylic, 3×5 on 300gsm watercolor paper. I used one of my goose photos as a reference. This naughty goose has stolen someone’s Christmas ribbon. Geese are mean like that.

xmas4©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012.

This goose  is being downright pestiferous. Fortunately this snowman appears to be a bohemian jovial type of snowman as opposed to the perfidious abominable type of snowman.

Acrylic, 3 x 5 inches.

xmas5©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012.

I also painted a little tiny snow scene, this one is acrylic, 2 x 3 inches. I don’t know why I made that so small, I was leaning in as I painted it and it just came out that way.

xmas2©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012

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This is another snowy scene. Had a bit of fun with the purple and yellows in this one. If you look closely, you’ll see a small pestiferous perfidious abominable snowman hiding in the shrubbery. Okay, not really. I just like using the words ‘pestiferous’ and ‘perfidious’.

Acrylic, 3 x 5 inches.

xmas1©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012.

I went out the other day, the light was terrible but I did meet up with this fellow. I was enchanted to meet him. He was, well not so much..

eagle1©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012.

Back at the ranch, Dummy decided to climb the Christmas tree so he could meet the Christmas Angel. He has been infatuated with her for years. He thought that as he started out as lowly carved piece of scrap wood, that she would not like him. He was pleasantly surprised to find that she started out as a toilet paper roll. They’ve been inseparable ever since.

dummyangel©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012.

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Happy Holidays!!

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012

Weekly Photo Challenge: Purple

This week’s Photo Challenge’s theme is Purple.

I was trying and trying to come up with something purple.

Had an idea floating in the back of my head..

Hmmm….What was I going to do?

Was I going to show you some sage?

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Pretty, but no, no that wasn’t it..

Sammy, can you help me out?

Oh! I beg your pardon, I didn’t know you were in the bath.

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How about the balloon flowers? They are a lovely shade aren’t they.

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Also pretty but no, that wasn’t it either..

Sammy why are you laughing at me? I know, my memory is just terrible!

But considering how much stuff you have buried in the back, I wouldn’t mock if I were you.

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Oh what a minute, I did use a purple filter on the Moon, I mean I was actually on the Earth taking a photo of the Moon with a purple filter…(Grammar will get you every time. So will gravity, come to think of it.)

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No, no I’m sorry folks I just can’t remember what purple photos I wanted to show you…

It’s a shame really..

Why are you looking so frustrated, Sammy??

It’s okay, maybe this Purple theme will come around again..

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We’ll try again next week.

If you would like to participate in the Weekly Photo Challenges, follow the link and join in!

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012

Feral bankers, enchanted muskrats and black velvet…

Well hello to all the real people and the nice spambots who have been filling up my spam comment catcher.

Sometimes I wonder if spambots have souls. Well actually I never wonder that. I know they are soulless creatures floating in the internet universe desperately hoping that someone will notice them. I once had a friend, more of an acquaintance really, who like spambots would go to great lengths to get anybody with a pulse to talk to her. We would all go out dancing and her chest would be tethered and strapped so high that if she had even attempted the first move in the Watusi, she would have knocked herself out cold. And forget hiphop, that would have put her right in a coma. So just remember, if you ever get tempted to reply to a spambot, you’re just inviting a boozy, strapped in, tethered up, pulse seeking, lousy coma prone dancer into your home.

Occasionally it is tempting to answer them, especially when they give me comments like this..

“I adore foregathering useful info, this post has got me even more info!”

What a flirt, not only can he foregather which I’m assuming is some bizarre psychic thing, he enjoys my usefulness in pointing out tap dancing baby giraffes, bird drowning bigfoots and silly billboards.  I can quite honestly say of all the things I thought could be said about this blog, useful was not one of them.

This one just said

“There you will find 40528 more Infos”.

Infos..with a capitol “I”.  40528 of them. I think it’s trying to get me curious enough to check out it’s Infos. But I don’t want 40528 Infos, I only want a little bit of Info and that my dear spambot is…Who counted all those Infos. And how did you keep track? Did you use a really big abacus or do they come rolled like pennies. And do they smell like pennies? There’s a terrible smell. And it attracts bankers. A cold shiver went down my spine at the thought of attracting bankers. Be careful folks once a banker starts tracking down that penny smell, you’ll be in trouble. The next thing you know you’ll have feral bankers living behind your house, breeding like crazy, scaring your dogs and knocking over your garbage cans looking for torn up bills. Then you’ll have to listen to them maniacally laughing while they try to piece them back together. Let me tell, you have to shred that paper really good or really well..whichever you prefer.

I know, spambot, I know. The simplest explanation is that you have 2026 employees who counted on their fingers and toes and one employee who after a horrible Infoaccident lost three digits on each extremity. That’s very sad, Infoaccidents are terrible things, you shouldn’t mock the guy and make him keep counting on his poor mangled extremities. And in protest until you do I’m not checking out your link. I won’t be a party to such a lackadaisical attitude towards Infoaccidents.

This one tried to trick me into believing my site wasn’t working.

“I’m not certain exactly why but this web website is loading incredibly slow for me. Is anyone else having this issue or is it a issue on my end? I’ll check back later and see if the issue still exists”

Buddy, I’d like to help you but I have no idea how this site works. For all I know, enchanted muskrats could be taking care of it while I’m not around. And anyway, you probably just need a better internet connection. I suggest using cable.

This spambot was really clever. It said..

“I’ve just been talking to Sean Gallagher about his upcoming Instant Income Cash Machine course, and he’s been kind enough to fill me in on a couple of details regarding his upcoming course. “

That’s right, it tried to fool me into thinking it was my mother by telling me pointless gossip about people I don’t know. Throw in a trip to the grocery store where there was some nice produce (my mother once left me a six minute message about the nice onions she bought at the grocery store. I don’t even like onions), a story about the Hysterical I mean Historical Society and some random observations about “Raccoons” which is what she calls UFO’s so no one thinks she is crazy and you might have had me fooled.

And this one just outright tried me order around.

“You should have relevant usage of Bold and italics..panda”

All I have to say to that is.. NO! and who are you calling panda?

Well I was through amusing myself with spambots after that so I took to going through some of the more ridiculous filters on my photo editing program. It’s an old Microsoft one and like all the good programs they come out with they promptly discontinued it when they realized it actually worked. I would use Photoshop or Corel, but my computer has a glitch in it that doesn’t allow me to download either one. It runs on Windows 7 which is kind of like Windows Vista which is nothing like XP which actually worked and thus was discontinued. I’d listen to my Zune, which I liked better then the IPod but I can’t find the power charging cord. I’d buy a new one but alas..that’s right…discontinued.

So to make a long story short (hahahahaha, man I crack myself up) there’s this filter that turns photos into a neonish, little bit tacky, little bit garish, sort of black velvet painting with a modern twist. I mean who can resist that right.

Well I managed to resist it for seven long years.. then I realized I could do this to my dog. I would show you a nicely taken photo of my dog but for that fact that I took him to the groomer last week. She apparently mistook him for a poodle on crack mixed with a Clydesdale mixed with a bat that had had unnatural relations with a primate. He had weird poufy things going on and long shaggy legs, bat ears and a shaved nose, back and bottom to boot. The poor dog looked a baboon from behind. A baboon with weird ass poodle poufs. And bat ears. And Clydesdale legs. So I cut off the weird poodle poufs, bat ears and Clydesdale legs but there’s just nothing I can do about the baboon thing, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t go for a toupee.

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“The Groomer did What?!?”

westie neon

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012

Meet me in Saint Louis, Louis..

That’s a great song. Written by Sterling and Mills for Judy Garland of course.

Everyone sing!

“Meet me in Saint Louis, Louis..

Meet me at the fair

Don’t tell me the lights are shining any place but there!”

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“We will dance the Hoochee Koochee”

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“I will be your tootsie wootsie!”


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“If you will meet me in St. Louis, Louis,
Meet me at the fair!”

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Alright so I was actually at the Saint Louis Zoo but it was started when the city bought the walk-through birdcage from the 1904 World’s Fair. It’s now a world class zoo and it’s gorgeous. Just the landscaping alone is worth seeing.

And this camel with the bad toupee is worth seeing as well.

“Toupee!” he says in a bad British accent “You cad!”

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Then there was this monkey, a lion maned something or other who apparently thought I was a photographer for a clothing catalog.

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And he told the lemur to pose too. Work it baby, work it!

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This lemur went for the deep look

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This guy just yammered on in a bad New York Yiddish accent

“Oh vey! What do you expect me to pose for, I don’t wear the clothes!”

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And the hippo was as adorable as a 6000 lb animal can be.

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And don’t get me started on how much I love rhinos.

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Being at the zoo reminded me of a painting I had wanted to do for a long time.

I was the Pueblo Zoo in Colorado a few years back. I was watching this goose who was sitting on the ledge of their little river. And this goose refused to move, all the geese kept having to walk around him. Then along came this white goose and a brown goose. Instead of walking around the sitting goose, they stood and watched it, honking softly.

They seemed very perplexed by the sitting goose’s lack of manners. The sitting goose did everything it could not to look at them. It was a very haughty goose and it made me laugh.

This is acrylic, 5×7.

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012

Aimless wanderings…

It’s been a good week for aimless wandering.

I wandered here and there and to and fro.

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I met a swan

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And a crocodile

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And an iguana

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And a boa constrictor all nicely tucked in.

It may actually be a python..

I was too distracted by his pretty blue marks to ask.

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I also saw a butterfly.

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And a burl oak tree (the cemetery is from the mid 1800’s)

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I visited a mill, built in 1850.

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And drove under a rock processing plant. The quarry is on the other side of the road and the rock travels in that tunnel over the road. They made the road curvy to boot so tempting as it is to speed under the tonnes of rock going by overhead, it’s not a good idea.  A bunch of sadists made that road.

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And I painted this from a reference photo by Pippin on Wetcanvas for a monthly challenge in the Miniature forum.

It’s acrylic, 5×3 inches and painted on my favorite black background.

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And now like the elephant, I am ready for a nap.

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012

 

Snow what!!!

With many regards

To my dearest and beloved Mother Nature…

You scurrilous psychotic malevolent witch!

Listen lady, I get that screwing around with us is fun for you.

Tsunamis, earthquakes, super storms, tornadoes.

Making sure it’s cloudy every time I have even the slightest chance of seeing an astronomical event..

Seriously I had my camera and my most powerful lenses all set up to see the asteroid 2005 YU55, had my game plan set and then.. Clouds!?!!

Always with the clouds. Jeez.

Anyway I get it, you’re mad. I’ve seen photos of the Pacific Ocean Dump . It’s disgusting.

And I get it, politicians are talking about building a huge electric fence along the Mexican border which will disrupt the migration patterns of several animals including the jaguar. Now I’m sure the politicians, since we all know how clever they are, will come up with a plan to allow jaguars to cross at mandated checking points provided they show proper ID and have visas. But although cheetahs read quite well and are often spotted curled up with a nice cup of tea and a mystery novel, jaguars don’t read. Filling out all those forms to get a visa would be out of the question. And even if they were given the visas and had ID, they wouldn’t be able to carry them.  They don’t have pockets, though I suppose a lanyard wouldn’t be out of the question.

Yup, you do have a point, Mother Nature.

But to make it sleet, than freeze, then snow!

That’s just mean.

Thank goodness Dummy can fit in my tea cozy or he would have frozen to death while trying to clear the ice off the banisters.

He’s being very helpful since I actually managed to let him do his real job and pose for a painting.

This is a miniature, ATC Size (3.5 by 2.5 inches) in acrylic..

I also tried some gouache. Weird stuff, you can use it like acrylic or watercolor.

This is a miniature,  ATC Size (3.5 by 2.5 inches).

Hopefully it’s obvious that’s it’s a pumpkin..

For the pumpkin I used a photo reference from the Reference Image Library on Wetcanvas. Thank you to the contributor.  Normally I take my own photo references but the Wetcanvas RIL, is a useful tool for playing around. Most of the photos I take, I take with plans to use for references. In fact I have spent numerous hours trying to get a photo of the deer in my backyard. But the other day I was only trying to take a photo of this tree for a painting reference.  When I looked at the camera monitor I realized I had been looking at the tree for so long, I had completely missed the two deer who were rudely staring at me.

Apparently being contrary creatures, deer don’t like to have their photos taken unless they think you’re not taking a photo of them. Vain, I tell you.

Oh hey, the sun is shining!

That’s good, I can get my tea cozy back from Dummy.

Thanks Mother Nature. Carry on..

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2011

Carp(e) diem

Fish fish fish!!

I wish wish wish

for a dish dish dish

and some tartar sauce…

Beg your pardon…I didn’t know you were listening.

There’s Henry and Fred and George and Tyrone and Mary and…

No wonder this little bird went over to the wallaby enclosure for a bath.

The wallaby didn’t care, he was rolling in the leaves.

I hope he’s careful, there’s something lurking in the bushes..

Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Say what!?!

Run away! Run away!

Roarrrrr…….

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2011