Vibrant Nation

Arlene Wright-Correll

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Arlene Wright-Correll
is an award-winning artist, author, and art instructor who, at 68, decided to paint again afer a 54-year hiatus. She uses gouache watercolors and pastels to paint the flora that grows at Home Farm Herbery in Munfordville, Kentucky, and is the resident artist at Avalon Stained Glass School.

  • How to Create a Stained Glass Masterpiece

    When glass guru Carl Correll got his issue of Stained Glass Quarterly he was stunned by the picture on the cover. He was further enthralled to discover a free pattern inside provided for anyone who wanted to reproduce it.

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  • How to Do Embossed Drawing©

    Everyone who visits Avalon Stained Glass School & Creativity Center in Munfordville, KY always states, "I wish I was artistic" or "I wish I could draw". Well everyone can with a technique called Embossed Drawing.

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  • A stroll in my gardens

    The extremely hot weather here at Home Farm in Munfordville , KY this June does not do much for the garden except encourage the weeds to flourish. However, when I keep watering we get beautiful rewards such as I found today when I took a stroll through some of my gardens.

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  • The great $5.00 find

    No one loves a bargain better than this bargain hunter so I clip manufacturer coupons for things we use, I shop at salvage grocery stores where I can buy about $125.00 worth of groceries for only $25.00, I go early on Monday to our local supermarket and buy their 50 to 70% discounted meat from the weekend bringing it home to put into our freezer, I never buy anything that is not on sale and whenever I go past a Goodwill or Habitat for Humanity store I stop in and browse.

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  • Stained glass revived!

    My husband and I have taught many people how to create stained glass items -- and start their own businesses -- at our stained glass school in Munfordville, Kentucky. Here are some of their success stories.

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  • Don't throw it away!

    About 10 years ago, I bought 3 cheap garden benches. As a "would-be" decorative painter and a recycler I thought they could be made into "functional" art.

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  • How to build a rock garden

    When you want to fill up a bad space in your garden or have a water conservancy problem or are never home to maintain a garden, but still want color, consider building a rock garden.

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  • Zeroscaping or Xeriscaping Landscaping

    Prior to retiring, for many years I had to go out to the western states for my business and especially to Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. As these states and their cities started to grow and tract housing and developments were shooting up all over the place, the landscaping needs of these communities were hampered with the lack of water.

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  • I never think of death

    Heck of a title for an artist who is suggesting one paint some birdhouses for one's garden, but that is the thought that caused me to write about painting birdhouses for my gardens.

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  • How to paint a white tiger

    Though I call this painting "The Snow Tiger" there really is no such thing as a snow tiger and I think some people get a white tiger mixed up with snow leopards.

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  • Painting a Siberian tiger

    Most times, when I get up in the morning, I usually know what I want to paint or what kind of painting I want to start. Often it is about a place I have been or a flower I have grown or a still life of the fruits and vegetables that grow in my garden. Occasionally it will be a portrait of a friend or family. However, whatever it is, it is usually something I know about or the subject is familiar to me. Once in awhile it might be about an animal and that is usually very unfamiliar to me.

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  • How to do Ukranian egg painting

    A while back, my Pen Pal, in Australia, had a miserable failure coloring her Easter eggs with a wax process. Well, the Calvary arrived, since I decorated eggs using the Ukrainian Egg Painting method. Now this is a lot of work, dear hearts, so if you intend to do an egg, think twice or 102 times about doing it just to look nice, then crack off the shell and eat the egg! These eggs will become your family heirlooms!

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  • How to create pen and ink art

    There is more to pen & ink art than you think and it is one of the easiest methods of creating art.

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  • My straw bale garden experiment

    I love gardening, but each year these old bones find it harder and harder to do it.  Good and reliable help is almost impossible to hire and my budget can only support $8.00 an hour.  The Amish will work for that but it is a 40 mile round trip to pick most of them up two times a day..i.e. getting them and bringing them home. 

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  • Easter celebrations remembered in Brooklyn, New York

    A couple of years ago I wrote a pretty concise article about Easter and when this assignment came and I accepted it I thought, for several days, what in the world could I write about that was more, different or explained Easter better than my last article. I was stumped, at least until I thought about my Easter childhood days.

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  • An Artist's Different Point of View

    I rarely paint the same thing twice as my mind is too eclectic or weird as some members of my family labels. However, a bright, blue sky day brought me out into my gardens early today when it was chilly and eventually my old friendly, faded gardening jacket got removed and hung up on the pole.

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  • A day in the life of a mother

    Mother’s Day is coming up on us fast and at 75 & 77 years old both have mothers who have passed away.  Reflecting upon my personal 75 years of which 53 of them included motherhood I started to think about a day in my life today.

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  • Any melon worth its salt

    When I was a kid growing up that was a famous slogan for Morton Salt and may still well be. A big treat for us in the summer was watermelon, cantaloupe and honey dew melon. Nothing else came into our little world.

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  • A smart gardener starts small

    With the cost of produce escalating higher and higher and healthy cooking and eating awareness setting into the main stream of our lives, more and more people are considering starting their own organic vegetable gardens.

    There is no need to create a large garden or to even consider a large garden.  Think small and be smart about it because any plant deserves your consideration and responsibility.

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  • Words that inspire

    from T.H White's, The Once and Future King and I thank him for writing it as it has held me steadfast many, many times.

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  • Matting your pictures is not as hard as it looks!

    Many times we feel that we are not capable to doing things that others make look simple such as matting your own art or photos.

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  • How to save money by buying at a farmer’s market

    The other day we received a flyer from our Hart County Chamber of Commerce alerting us to the fact that Munfordville was going to have a Farmer’s Market on Tuesday and Friday commencing July 7th until the end of October. Not only was that good news, it started me thinking about Farmer’s Markets.

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  • How to "make it nice" on a shoe string

    It was getting towards the end of the month and even though I did not need a thing, nor did I seem to want a thing, I realized I was getting low on money. What brought it to my attention were all the sales flyers that were coming into our post box.

    This got me to thinking of our younger days when we were just starting out and really did want or need things and quite often were low on money.  How did we manage with 5 kids and ourselves?

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  • New Years Eve in Brooklyn

    When I was a child living in Brooklyn, New York, we lived in the tenements, called “railroad flats” on Kosciusko Street with my grandmother.  They were called “railroad flats” because they were long and narrow with each room walking into the next one like a railroad car.

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  • Arlene's Roasted Herb Potatoes

    When we had the Bed and Breakfast and Campgrounds in Tennessee I often found myself cooking dinner for as few as 3 guests, but as many as 25 guests. To make my life very simple my menu included two choices"Take it or Leave it!" It simply consisted of whatever I felt like cooking that day.

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  • How to live with Fibromyalgia

    I was to the point if someone said, “All the pain will go away if we amputate your right leg”; I would have signed up for the operation!

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  • How to live within one's budget

    Trying to be frugal or live within one's budget seems to be almost impossible nowadays. Us old folks have a couple of advantages such as those old enough to have been born in the early 30's were probably a part of a family who experienced the "Great Depression", nowadays we don't seem to need as much as we used to and hopefully our meager savings are not being eaten up by medical bills.

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  • How to have a Tuscan vacation without leaving home

    Whether or not you are a vegetarian, this article is worth the read.  I love Italy and especially Northern Italy and most especially Tuscany.  I look back upon my visits to many of the places and remember them all with fondness. 

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  • How to host a wine tasting party

    I was once asked, “Is all that swirling, sniffing and spitting that goes on during wine tasting really necessary?” Yes!!!!  Do you need to serve white wine with fish?  No!!! But it usually is a good choice.  Making good choices is something you can learn.  There is no snob appeal here. Wine is an intricate part of today’s life in the good old USA.  It has been an intricate part of the world for thousands of years.  For over a half a century I have been tasting wines. I consider myself a consumer, not a connoisseur of wine…. Both good and bad!  

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  • How to make and keep an easy kitchen

    Many years ago a dear friend of mine flew in for a business meeting and while he was here he took several meals with us.  During one of them, he said, “Arlene, you keep an easy kitchen.”  Bob was alluding to the fact that I can put together fairly decent and tasty meals very quickly.   Over the years I have thought about that statement often and decided that I truly do.  With that in mind I would like to share some thoughts with you on how you can keep an “Easy Kitchen”.

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  • Working for my Grandmother

    I was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. and lived there until I was about 9 or 10 years old. Then we moved up to Queens until I was 12 yrs old and after that out onto Long Island until I got married.

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  • How to live an easier life

    Dale Carnegie is quoted to have said "Today is life -- the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today. Get interested in something. Shake yourself awake.
    Develop a hobby. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Live today with gusto."  

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  • How to know what tree to plant

    At the end of every Louis L’Amour novel he asked his readers to plant one tree a year. His premise was that it only takes about 30 minutes to cut down a tree and it takes years for one to grow. He realized that millions of trees are cut each year and many are not being replaced. Today, the forestry industry replaces what it cuts, but developers and builders cut down many trees to build homes and rarely replace any. It is up to us to plant a tree.

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  • How to create fused stained glass jewelry

    Creating fused stained glass jewelry is really not hard at all. One need not have any artistic talent. One only needs a kiln or access to one. Here are some pieces I recently made.

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  • Anatomy of a watercolor painting

    I keep saying that anyone can create art and all it takes is knowing a few simple techniques. There is no great mystery to it and one really does not have to think they need great talent. One just needs to enjoy the few hours one spends creating a picture in any kind of medium.

    With that in mind I will use today's painting as the subject matter and took pictures of it as I went along creating "Remains of the Day."

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  • How to create art with pencils (part 2)

    Now that you have amassed your drawing tools you can decide whether or not you want to hold your pencil in the handwriting position or the under hand position which is simply clasping your pencil lightly with your fingertips holding the pencil under your hand.  This position is favored for drawing long flowing strokes.

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  • How to create art with pencils (part 1)

    Drawing is one of the easiest and simplest forms of art.  Not only is it one of our earliest introduction to art as all we have to do is remember our childhoods with a simple piece of paper and a pencil, we need to remember it is also a way to discover our “inner artist” that is still sitting there waiting for us to resume our work

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  • Everything you ever wanted to know about pizza, but were afraid to ask

    Pizza is one of my most favorite foods. I love it hot, I love it cold, I eat it leftover pizza for breakfast and it is a pretty healthy food. I love New York pizza by the slice. In Brooklyn we always asked if any one wanted a slice of pie and that meant pizza!

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  • Would you make your next vacation a learning vacation?

    Would  You Make Your Next Vacation a Learning Vacation if it was "Budget Friendly", taught you something artist that you never thought you could do and had fun doing it?

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  • Everyone has hidden art talents

    The art of living well in today's world is important. Find out exactly what your art talents are.

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