Tag Archives: happy

Last Month of Autumn

As we head into the last month of autumn, may you give yourself a few moments of peace to watch me paint these 10 fall scenes. Each video is about 2 minutes long (time lapse) to see each painting go from blank canvas to finished art. This first video (above) is called “Autumn Forest”. Scroll down to see the photo of this painting and more happy fall scene videos.

Oil painting “Autumn Forest” by artist Natalie Buske Thomas

Oil painting “Pumpkin Carving” : my husband and son, when he was little

“Autumn Leaves” oil painting

“Autumn Angel” oil painting

Oil painting of my son jumping in leaves for “Grandpa Smiles” book

Oil painting “Pumpkins and Mums”

“Little Girl in Tree” oil painting for children’s book “Fred“

“Autumn Tree”, a short relaxing project

“Autumn Cabin” an imaginary scene in an illustrative style

And, finally, here’s my latest autumn oil painting “Thanksgiving Turkey and Pumpkins”. I hope that you have a wonderful holiday weekend ahead, even if your country doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving. Wherever you are, and even if the change of seasons doesn’t fall upon you the same as it does for me here in America, this is a good time of year to reflect on our lives, find gratitude for our family and friends, and seek the joy of thankfulness for all that we are blessed with- no matter how humble our circumstances may seem upon first glance. For, if we are alive today, we are blessed. Time is precious. May God bless you and keep you, this day and always.

They’re Back!

Watch this hummingbird oil painting come alive in about 1 minute (time lapse)

The hummingbirds are BACK! LOL, I’ll tell you how I encountered their return. I was preparing for our unexpected move, and taking down the garden hose holder by unscrewing the hose clamps with a screwdriver, while wearing bright colorful floral gloves. Well, the hummingbird must have thought my hand was a flower and he tried to land on me. I didn’t see him until I moved my hand and he blitzed away making a loud buzzing whirring sound that I thought was a bee’s buzz. So I jumped a mile and yelped, as I saw the little bird flit away, seemingly annoyed at the drama and disappointment that I was not the flower he was looking for. 😀

Do you remember when I shared this video I took last year of a hummingbird in our tiny bird swing? I always feel happy looking at this. Here you go! Happy Sunday!

46 seconds of bliss, video I took of a hummingbird using the bird swing

Fun in 2 Minutes

See this oil painting of a puffin come alive in 2 minutes (time lapse)

I uploaded this art video today to YouTube and I was thinking about how this fun little guy comes to life in 2 minutes. How many other things are fun in 2 minutes? Eating a chocolate truffle? Pausing to say hello to a neighbor before continuing on our way? Stopping to look up at the stars or observing a sunrise?

Two minutes is a short time, yet we often need a reminder to invest two minutes into something that makes us happy. Don’t wait for the world to get better, your schedule to get easier, or for life to give you permission. Two minutes goes by fast. If you don’t grab it now, it’s gone.

Challenge: be mindful this weekend of how long two minutes is, and make a willful choice to spend at least two minutes absorbed in a simple joy.

My Christmas Presents!

See 3 surprises in less than 30 seconds!

Sharing one of the presents from each family member of this theme: the nature that I love and share with you all here, through my oil paintings and stories. The above video shows the gifts my husband and oldest daughter gave me for my garden and the images below show the bird and butterfly related gifts from my younger two kids.

My son gave me this beautiful cardinal
It came with a very nice sentiment on the attached tag
And these special butterfly hair clips are from my youngest daughter

It feels good when the people we love understand who we are and what makes us happy. I loved receiving presents to help me enjoy my garden and beloved birds and nature. It is a Merry Christmas indeed! God’s world is a gift for everyone. JOY TO THE WORLD!

The Day After

My “Yule Log” cake!

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired from all of the Christmas festivity. I stepped things up this year by trying new baking projects. In this cake I made on Christmas Eve, I used a yule log mold to make a modified gingerbread cake using Lebkuchen spices with Anise and Star Anise. I added a white chocolate frosting and shaped it to look like snow. I hand-painted food coloring using cake decorating paint brushes. So, I’m now painting on cakes as well! What a delicious canvas! As long as I don’t start thinking of my oil paints as something I’m tempted to lick off my brushes, I think there’s more cake painting in my future.

The yule log was moist, just the right amount of spice vs sweet, and quickly disappeared!
My Christmas Day doughnuts!

On Christmas morning I made special doughnuts. I learned how to bake using vanilla beans. My first attempt was to grate the bean, but I realized that I must be doing something wrong and I stopped. I looked it up and sure enough, this would have been a disaster. I was scraping the outside pod! 😀 So then I did it the right way, using a small sharp knife to cut the pod open and then scrape the soft black insides into my doughnut batter. That’s what makes the black vanilla specks. I rolled the finished doughnuts in powdered sugar and topped them with edible star-shaped gold glitter.

Edible star-shaped gold glitter
My husband and I enjoyed a Christmas breakfast doughnut before the kids woke up

This was one of the best doughnuts I’ve ever eaten!

Christmas morning doughnuts ready for the day to start! (they fit so nicely in my display stand after my husband and I ate a couple of them, and then our son came down and ate one)
Southern biscuits and sausage gravy

I also made a full Christmas breakfast buffet, that was kept warm with a glass warming tray. This way, the family could eat whenever they wanted to, and continue to graze throughout the brunch hour and beyond. The Southern biscuits (made with special White Lily flour, soft winter wheat: a Southern tradition since 1883) and gravy were DIVINE, but the family devoured all of these foods equally. They ate almost an entire bag of potatoes in a single day, which was quite an astonishing achievement for five people to consume!

Eggs, sausage gravy, fried red potatoes, Black Forest ham
Eggs and potatoes with sausage gravy

This Christmas breakfast buffet was versatile. The family could use the sausage gravy over biscuits, or over the other foods. The biscuits also worked well for egg and/or ham sandwiches. So, breakfast could turn into lunch without stopping our fun to cook something new. Maybe this idea could help those of you who are looking for ways to make something special without cooking during the big event? I was able to do all of this before the family got too antsy, and then I was off duty for cooking. It was very nice, and everyone enjoyed the buffet!

My plate after devouring my Christmas morning doughnut and leaving behind glitter stars!

I hope that you enjoyed a very happy Christmas. I have more stories to share, but I thought I’d start with the food, as it is something that we humans have in common- we love to eat! The Secret Santa chef game we played in the week before Christmas is a tradition we plan to continue. This is the first year we started a Christmas breakfast buffet and the family wants to make it a new tradition, including the doughnuts- but I’ll made a different kind of Christmas doughnuts each year, to be a surprise to see what I come up with!

Go Tell it on the Mountain

Singing with my daughters during the Christmas Show 2021

Christmas is now so very near! I hope you are all feeling happy about a special time with your loved ones. God bless you, this day and always!

Update from Yesterday

Watch this oil painting “Clover” come to life in under 1 minute (time lapse)

I painted these clover after I found them growing wild through the cracks in the patio, here in Georgia (USA). It reminded me of shamrocks. We saw a lot of wild clover/shamrocks while living in Ireland.

Yesterday’s blog post “LOL, Irishness” was about my experience making a type of Irish shortbread that is baked in a pan for about two hours. I promised an update, so here it is: AMAZING! Oh my! I love these little cookies so very much! But I’d really describe them more as a dessert that goes well with coffee or tea, even for breakfast, rather than what Americans think of as a cookie.

Irish shortbread with an Irish coffee
Irish shortbread pieces in the pan
The texture is a bit dry, yet moist inside- truly delicious
Close up of the shortbread. That bit at the top is melted powdered sugar. I shouldn’t have added the powdered sugar until it was done, but I didn’t know it was still raw until after I put the sugar on. So, I put it back into the oven after the finishing sugar was added, which made an extra texture on the top, but that was a happy accident and very nice!

You can find this recipe called “Irish Shortbread” by Anissa Wolf at Food.com. If you try it, you may find that you have to bake it for even longer than the suggested time. It was gooey and obviously not done, and easy to tell it had firmed up enough to cut it when it was baked longer. It was suggested to cut the slim bars into 20 pieces while the shortbread is still hot. I used a heat resistant silicon spatula/scraper (the kind you can use to scrape batter in a bowl, or because it’s heat resistant also multi-purpose while cooking) to cut it with and that worked very well.

I was skeptical about such slim pieces lasting long in our house, but the shortbread is quite rich and satisfying to have just the one serving. So, I froze most of it into separate bags since it looks like this dessert is best fresh or fresh-from-frozen. I enjoyed a piece of shortbread this morning for breakfast. And knowing the rest of the batch is in the freezer, I’m happy we’ll have this again soon.

If you want to give this a try, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. I’ve had a good day today, with a family member who is celebrating a birthday. I hope you had a good day too. Have a happy weekend!

Thanksgiving Eve

Watch this oil painting come to life in just over 1 minute (time lapse)

This painting is of a peach pie, but today my firstborn daughter baked a pumpkin pie for tomorrow. I baked ahead the homemade macaroni and cheese. My youngest daughter made a green bean casserole. The two hot dishes will be on a heating & warming tray tomorrow. In the morning I’ll prepare and roast the turkey. We’ll have a flurry of activity in the kitchen when it’s time for making all of the other parts of the feast: stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetables, yams (I don’t count them as vegetables and I won’t eat any, I don’t like yams) and heating the french bread my husband baked. My son will open a can of cranberry sauce and slice it. I won’t eat that stuff either, but he sure will.

I put matching turkey and harvest themed tablecloths on the tables, finished making festive potholders, and washed the pretty new holiday apron my daughter gave me. I’m ready! I’ll be up very early to finish thawing the turkey, going outside to cut the fresh parsley and rosemary to stuff the turkey, as well as a lemon, orange, onion, and apple. This is a new variation I’m trying, based on tips I found online. I like to try new ways to prepare the turkey. Every year it seems to be “the best turkey ever!”

I wish you all a happy day tomorrow, and those of you who celebrate this holiday, may you have a joyous Thanksgiving!

Want to Ride?

Watch “Wild Horses” oil painting come alive in 2 minutes (time lapse)

I had a friend who rides horses whenever she wants to escape stress, relax, or just feel happy and free for a while. Since I’ve always felt intimidated sitting on top of a large animal, I can’t relate to this. I guess my “ride” would be a different type of escape. Perhaps my reigns are paintbrushes.

Do you want to ride with me? If you didn’t remember or see this before, I shared a complete 12 week FREE art class here on this site. Available any time, day or night! It’s a paint-with-me type of class if you want to, or you can just watch the videos for interest if you don’t want to do the art yourself. This “Wild Horses” painting is one of the ones that I did during the class. I also blogged about this horse painting in a post called “Wild or Roped?“.

I hope that you are enjoying your November so far, and are looking forward to enjoying relaxing activities as the holiday season is soon upon us. Be joyful, be free! Be inspired. God bless you and your families.

Friday & Update

Watch this oil painting of a puffin come alive in 2 minutes (time lapse)

I last shared this puffin painting in a blog post called “Are you Worried?” Today, I’d like this funny little bird to wish you a happy Friday. I’m enjoying my evening and I hope you are too! A bit of an update: I am working on the longer project I mentioned earlier and the smell of heavy oil paint was getting to me, so it’s a good thing I’ve had a forced break this week due to weather. You might recall that I’ve said that artificial light is not as good as natural sunlight for seeing and filming my paintings. It’s been dreary and dark here in Georgia.

So, I’ve been working on Christmas sewing projects and other home related things. The art will be done in due time. In this way, I shall be like this puffin, a positive and quirky bird with many talents. He can swim, fly, and nest high on cliffs, but obviously he can do only one of those things at a time. He’s a social creature and above all, likes to be with his fellow birds. May we be like a puffin, embracing all of the amazing things we can do, but fine with not being able to do all things at all times, and enjoying the people we love to spend time with.