Old Fashioned Christmas - vintage decorations are the best!

Here is a little 5 x7 that I did in acrylic on Ampersand gessobord.  I love to decorate for Christmas and these are two pieces near and dear to my heart.  The Santa Post office is a bank that I had when I was a kid.  I recently found it in the attic at my Mom's house.  Now it is part of my way to big collection of decorations.  The tree was given to me and my husband by his Aunt Helen shortly after we were married.  She fired ceramics in her basement and loved making pieces for the family.  These lighted trees were popular in the 70's and I am lucky to have this one plus a white one with all blue lights that Helen also made for us.

I took this photo as I was taking down my decorations  last Christmas and wanted to paint it before I lost the image which happens too often, but that is another story.  I think this will be my Christmas card this year :)

This piece is available on Daily Paintworks:  http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/lynne-reichhart/old-fashioned-christmas/238222

Do you have any favorite holiday decoratios??

Bicycles with Banana seats - Do you remember?

I was sitting here watching the Olympics wondering what to blog this week and it hit me.   I have been having fun with Throwback Thursday on Facebook so why not a throwback post.

My first bicycle (without training wheels) was one of those bikes with chopper handlebars and a banana seat.  These were pretty comfy seats though I expect they weren't very aerodynamic since they were long.  Mine was a really pretty shiny purple.  I had this bike for a long time and was really proud of it.  As you can see below, I got it for Christmas of 1965. 

A wheelie bike, also called a muscle bike, high-riser, or banana bike, is a type of stylized children's bicycle designed in the 1960s to resemble a chopper motorcycle and characterized by ape hanger handlebars, a banana seat with sissy bar, and small (16-to-20-inch (410 to 510 mm)) wheels.  In 1963, Schwinn introduced the Sting-Ray, the first bike with a 'banana' seat and high-rise handlebars.

 

  I also see my Easy Bake Oven under the tree as well as a Feeley Meeley game too!   I still have the Easy Bake Oven and it is ready to go out on Ebay one of these days.  I remember 'baking' all those yummy cakes and brownies with just a light bulb.  I also remember making a pizza that my poor grandfather was kind enough to eat.  That mix was not one of Kenner's best efforts.  Well, maybe I will do some more throwback posts in the future.  I absconded with a few fun photos like the one above that I have to share.

 

Thanks for reading and please leave a comment on a childhood memory that your treasure.

Merry Christmas - It's almost award show season!

OMG - I can't believe that it has been since Oct 30 that I posted here - Yikes! I will go on to give an explanation though. But first, I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Now for what has been keeping me away from the blogosphere.  Thanks to a wonderful group on Facebook called The Indie Exhibit, I have been busily creating items for the gift lounge at the Golden Globes and for The Sundance Film Festival.  How Cool is that!

Shannon and Nikki from the Indie Exhibit will do their best to get your display item photograhed with a celebrity and they also assemble the bags and hand them out at the awards gift lounges. 

Both shows are in January and with Christmas activities as well, time has been a blur around here!

This is a peek at what I am sending to Sundance.  I ordered a tie with my artwork from Zazzle as my display piece and have prints of some of my ACEO's in frame cards with envelopes to go in the gift bags - each with a Certificate of Authenticity and a business cards, of course!

For the Goldent Globes I an including a 5x7 print with a green border to make 8x10 in the gift bags.  I choose my Vancouver painting hoping that some of the celebs will have filmed there and recognize it.

For my display piece I matted and framed my Fuschia print because it is more eye catching!

I shipped them off before I thought to take a photo of the lot.  It has been so much fun working with this group and we will see if anything comes of it.  Just another marketing tool in the vast arsenal on the World Wide Web!

Never too early for Christmas Poinsettia painting

This is a new watercolor painting that I did  hopefully to use on Christmas cards this year.  It always gets to be holiday time and I have no chance to do something for a card.  Well, this year I am way ahead of the game. 

These poinsettias were in a casino of all places - they were the prettiest white, pink and red.  This casino has a display of huge gingerbread houses every year so I took my camera.  I am sooo glad that I did! 

I will be adding Giclee prints of this painting to my Etsy shop soon!  I have to keep the original for a solo gallery show in September.

Thanks for looking and come back soon!

What Christmas means to me!

C is for the special cookies I bake for my husband even though I would much rather make drop cookies
     than cutouts!

H is for the hours I spend surfiing for that perfect gift and loving every minute of it.

R is for the real meaning of the season - spending time with family and friends.

I  is for the illusive silent moments I spend looking at the beautiful tree we decorated with glass memories.

S is for singing along with all the carols on the radio since the beginning of November!

T is for the trips we take to each year to my folks - always through a snowstorm for some reason and for 
    all the traditions we embrace year to year.

M is for the childhood memories of waking up and sneaking down to see what Santa left me.

A  is for Alway looking forward to the holiday season each and every year!

S is for sending cards to old friends as a way to keep in touch at least once a year.

Wishing all of you a joyous holiday season and a wonderous New Year!

New Etsy Store

Happy Holidays! I say that because I have all my indoor Christmas decorations up except for the tree. I have so many that I like to put them up early. That makes all the work worthwhile.

I remember the Christmas I got my guitar. I think I was 15 or 16. I still have it, but have never learned to play it. I guess I just don't have the patience. I still think about picking it up once in awhile, but never do.

Just in time for the holidays I have opened an Etsy store. Etsy is a great site to buy handmade crafts and original art. Please take a gander at http://www.artbylmr.etsy.com/ I plan to do some Christmas shopping there myself!

Lynne