A Special Painting

Last month I saw a painting of sunflowers on Wendy's blog along with a link to the artist - Helen at Word Weaver Art. I liked the painting so much and visited Helen's Etsy shop and found out she does custom work.

I have longed for a painting of this scene from the back yard of my childhood home. Helen and I chatted back and forth about my photo, and what you see at the top of this post is the result. Helen asked thoughtful questions and beautifully incorporated everything I wanted. She found out that my chickens and clouds are my favorite memories of growing up!

My beloved old house, circa early 1970s

Here is a current overhead shot of my old home. As you can see, the chicken house, barn, windmill, and water tower are gone. It was for sale earlier this year and sold in April. We always talked about buying it if it ever went on the market, but now there is a busy elementary school directly across the street, so that would not be ideal. It made me very sad to see the listing photos - the house had been added to and was almost unrecognizable inside, and the old buildings were gone. So you can imagine how much this painting means to me - to have my memory of this house perfectly and lovingly preserved forever. Thank you Helen!

It resides above my desk. Toby thinks there's room for a wall hanging!