Apron and a little movie

This is the apron that I won over at Rice Freeman-Zachary's blog. It really is cute. I like the heart shaped pocket. The apron has some really nice touches to it.

I made this little movie when I drove up to Missoula a couple weeks ago. Its nothing two exciting but you get to see the mountains a little bit. I had intended to film on campus but that didn't happen.



I have been working hard on getting the latest round robin pages done. I should have some pictures for you soon. One thing I have missed has been no time or inclination to do any weaving. I got the desire back the other day. I promised Dave a blanket so I have started winding the warp for that. Its all a process with not much to show yet. Pictures will show up when there is something to see.

Quote of the Day: "This is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to use as you will. You can waste it or use it for good. What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever; in its place is something that you have left behind... let it be something good."
- Author Unknown

Checking In

I am feeling a little better but this bug has me down for the count. I was lying in bed this morning thinking that maybe I could get to some of the projects that need working on. Once I get up my stomach tells me in no uncertain terms that its not time yet. Oh it is so frustrating just sitting around all the time.

















This is a card the lovely Gemma sent me. It has a real cotton plant on it. I love it Gemma. You are so sweet to send it to me.













Here is the box of cotton that she picked for me. I hope I will be able to start spinning as soon. It really is quite nice. Thanks Gemma.
















After driving to Camas to see these guys I found out they hang out in my neighborhood. It appears they hang out in the big haystack. They seem to find a little cubby hole to hide from the wind and just sit there for hours and hunt. It is strange to have never seen a barn owl before and then to see them all over. I guess it all boils down to knowing where to look.

Not Well

I have a really bad flu. After 2 really bad days I am going to DR. today. I'll be back when I feel better.

Missoula

Here is one of the places I love to stop at while in Missoula.














Then here is one of my favorite people


Shopping














These are my new water soluble wax crayons. I wanted a nice color range. These look pretty sitting in their little tin.














This was from a group of miscellaneous papers that came in a grab bag package. There were so many to choose from that I just closed my eyes and grabbed one. It was hard making a decision if I looked at them since they all hade snips of papers that I liked.














These were just random small sheets of paper I got. They are 10 x 10.

I also got a couple sheets of Fabriano watercolor paper and some Japanese Hosha paper to make journal covers. They are both white so its useless having a picture of them.










Here is a tube of Golden's heavy body acrylics in the color Azurite. Its a mystery to me why this color is not available at Michaels and its not on any of Golden's color charts but I can always find it at the UM bookstore. Its really a great shade of blue.

The Trip went as well as it could, yes it snowed most of the way but the roads were not icy so that was great. I had a great time with Sarah and picked up some Art things that I have been wanting so that was a plus. The drive home wasn't fun since I didn't leave till 3pm and had been driving her around all day. I got home around 8 and was glad to be out of a car. Next time I think I will stay longer...

Midnight shopping

Here is the only Art I did yesterday. I played around trying pens that work best and surfaces that I like to write on. Cheap craft paint makes the surface too stiff but Golden fluid acrylics were nice to work with. I found some pen/markers that work ok and others that are useless. I used tissue paper again and took a piece of sandpaper to dull an image but I think I used it too vigorously. Another lesson learned.

Midnight shopping

I found out most of my fiber sold down in Salt Lake so I decided to shop for Art supplies on line last night. The Internet is wonderful for that, you can just go shopping anytime you want. Yes I went nuts. I will have some goodies coming. There are some supplies recommended by Misty that I have been wanting to get. A set of markers, more re-inker colors, more white gel pens, new colors of paintsticks. I found out about this stuff called Grungeboard that I really thought was cool but its out of stock. I can see that it will be a big seller out there. Check this video to see it in action,

Off to Missoula

I head to Missoula tomorrow to take Sarah back to school and yes I'll be hitting the bookstore again. I think I may look at their tissue papers and pick up some watercolor paper. They have a kind I can not get locally. I hope the weather cooperates, I'd like a stress free trip if at all possible.

Quote of the Day:"The point of life is not to get anywhere—it is to notice that you are, and have always been, already there. You are always and forever in the moment of pure creation. The point of life therefore is to create—who and what you are, and then to experience that." - Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God

Journal Pages

I made this little page to add to a friends journal. She is a young girl and it was fun to just play with no goals in mind. Now I have to get it in the mail.















I am trying some new stuff with my journal. I love all the color and texture but I also need to write. I glued down some tissue paper and then colored over it with colored pencil and that was fun. I think I will do more of that. I think colored pencils have more versatility than just their original intended purpose. Sometimes I use them when a stamped image didn't come out the way I wanted it to. Or to enhance the color of something. I layed down some soft pastels to see if I could write over them or not. Then when I decided to draw I couldn't erase so this lady is not what I visioned but that is what journals are all about, trying out new things.

Quote of the Day: "There will always be dreams grander or humbler than your own, but there will never be a dream exactly like your own...For you are unique and more wondrous than you know!" - Linda Staten

More on Song Birds

I did a little video where I show the pages in the last post along with the pages Rebecca did in her book before she sent it to me. Please excuse the drawn and pale look, I have been sick and it shows.

Song Birds is finished

I finished the pages for the Song Birds book so I thought I would share them here.














I love seeing a flash of blue in nature and bluebirds are awesome.














Another blue bird that I do not see very often. Blue Jays are always fun to see.














A homage to the meadowlark, one of my favorite birds. I love to hear it sing its songs in the summer.














After trying to do a similar drawing 5 times and ending up with disasters I decided to just make a copy of Bird girl and add her to the page. I like her, she definetly has a presence about her.














The last 2 images were on the card stock pages. I was going to journal on them but that didn't happened. Once I created the backgrounds, these birds just wanted to jump on to the page.














I really liked the background on this page, when I added the bird its background seemed to blend right into the color of paint I used. It was very satisfying to see.

I've been Tagged

I have been tagged by the lovely Miss Sophie

7 weird things

I have done these before so its hard to come up with new ones.

1. I have short fingers.

2. I feel like I am 25 on the inside although I am more than twice that age on the outside. I think it was a favorite year of mine and I think I will be 25 when I am 99 too!

3. I don't have a problem saying No. I got over that issue years ago.

4. I love singing along with music in the car, now Oprah thinks its weird but Gayle doesn't. Yes I have sat in a car to finish a song...

5. When I was a girl I dreamed of being a singer, but I never had the voice, so I did not pursue it.

6. I probably have the fewest number of shoes than any women I know.

7. I have certain pens that I love to write with, I will throw away perfectly good pens if they don't feel good when the pen is going across paper. I guess besides writing it has to have good tactile feel to it.

Ok If you are reading this you've been tagged.


Violette gave the Make my day award right back to me. She's is a sweetheart, thank you.

Bird Girl

I have been working on and off today on the pages for the round robin book. I am not sure what else to do so I was practicing in the moleskine and tried a drawing in colored pencil. I could tell I forgot all about how to use the medium but there is something that I like about her. The bird I drew on her shoulder looked pretty bad so I added some collage.

Now I get to try it on the smaller watercolor paper. I have a possible 6 pages to do. Two I have planned for particular birds on a background the third a woman with a bird on her shoulder and I have no clue for the fourth. The last two pages can be a journal about my contribution or just more art so I'll do those last. I like doing these projects but I always struggle while making them. Not sure why maybe something to do with thinking my stuff isn't good enough. I hope to overcome that idea this year.

Feeling Better

I felt a little better today so I managed to go out for a bit and then watch some Star Trek Deep Space Nine. D got it for Christmas and its one of my favorite Star Treks. I love the spiritual aspect of it. In fact I always wanted to have one of the Bajoran earrings. Of course the great spiritual leader is call the Kai. She was a pretty cool character. I drew this lady while watching.


















Then this evening we were watching old episodes of NCIS and I just had to have something to do with my hands so I made this next one. I am starting to think they all look very similar. Maybe its time to move to colored pencil or paint.

I need to be working on the Round Robin I am part of. I have only a few days before its due, but I am procrastinating as usual. I hope to get some of the initial work done. I started a page for Banna's journal but its at that stage where it is missing something and I don't know what. That is always frustrating to me.

Make my day

My dear friend Janet awarded me with this award the other day, thanks Janet you make my day too

I am supposed to pick a few of my favorite people who make my day. I choose the following artists who never fail to inspire me.

Violette
All Norah's Art
Ornamental
Misty Mawn
Kelly Kilmer
Judy Wise
DJ Pettit
Kelli Rae

Check out all their sites as they are all wonderful.


I am deep in the throws of a cold so I didn't get this finished yesterday. I am determined to be at least a functioning human being today.

Monday Morning Blues

I woke up this morning with stomach cramps so I am just taking it easy. I have my cup of tea at my side and am reading blogs getting inspired by all of you. I just don't have any umpf today.

Yesterday I finally finished the packing away of Christmas Decorations. Instead of putting it all in a box I really spent time on it this year. I packaged all of Sarah's decorations in one tote in case she wants to take them to her apartment next year. Her Aunt Peggy has given her an ornament every year of her life so she has a nice collection. Plus other things she has made or been given. I got out some bubble wrap and really spent some time wrapping things up good and actually labeled the boxes and so forth. It took a long time but worth it in the end.

The house is getting back to normal. D went back to work today but Sarah will be home until the 17th. So I guess really getting back to a normal routine will have to wait till then.

In the remaining time we will be working on this costume. Sarah is going to a Con in March dressed as Yuna from Final Fantasy X. We went shopping for supplies yesterday. She bought the skirt at a thrift store but we still need to paint flowers on it. She is going to get the Obi online so I am thankful we don't have to make that. We'll be doing the sleeves and the white piece that goes around the neck. the medallion at her waist and thing on the staff we'll make out of fun foam. We need to dye the lower edge of the sleeve so we picked up some Rit dye to do that. We did not by the beads or anything like that for the earring and embellishment on the sash that will come later. I wanted to see what I had at home that she might use. This definetly will be quite an undertaking. Costumes are fun to make but they really can get involved and challenging to do, at least for me they are.

Quote of the Day: "We are all capable of much more than we think we are." -Lao Tzu

Power outage

A happy Saturday to all of you. I woke up about 8 to notice the power was out. We had rain and huge winds last night so that was not a surprise. So I crawled back in bed where it was still warm. It turns out a transformer blew up, landed in my neighbors pasture and was on fire. I missed all the excitement being asleep. They got the power on about 10:30 so that was nice.



















I wasn't going to show this but maybe someone can tell me how I could spend all that time drawing this and not notice that the mouth is crooked. I did not see that until I uploaded a picture of the drawing. Is that weird or what. Sarah told me my necks are too long and shoulders have been off so I worked on that this time.


One of my goals this year is to learn how to make journals. So when Judy Wise posted her latest journal I thought now is the time. She uses canvas boards for covers, so I went and bought those. I found some fabric to make a canvas strip. I painted it with gesso and I think it will work good. I am going to use watercolor paper for the signatures in the book so I have proceeded to cut it to size. So I am well on my way. Now this leads me to a pet peeve of mine. Judy showed this paper she decorated, well she can't tell you how she did it because she learned the technique from someone else. This other person doesn't have a blog or website. To really learn this you have to travel to where she teaches this. There are so many of us that just can't do that. I wish she had been free to share the information. It reminds me of all the times I have seen displays in yarn shops for sweaters and the pattern is no longer available, it is a little annoying to me.

Judy used some kind of tissue paper and she said it was fragile but it looked nice. I am thinking of using some rice paper that have but I am not sure how it will hold up. I can't manhandle it like I can watercolor paper. Stamping on it looks pretty cool all ghost like and misty looking. Once you put water on it, it will rip easily so maybe I will be using something else I just can't decide what. Watercolor paper is too heavy and so it card stock. I wish I had a paper store I could go to and pick the paper that would work perfectly. I am sure I will come up with something but sometimes this can be so frustrating.

Quote of the Day:"One is an artist not simply because one paints, but because one sees artistically, thinks artistically, and actually experiences life artistically." - Ronald Joyce McDowell

A surprise in my backyard

Yesterday I looked out my back window and saw this. I think we now have a resident owl. This is a Great Horned Owl and its been in my yard before. It stayed there for hours.

A few days ago we headed up to the Camas Wildlife Refuge and to see if we could see any eagles. They were too far away or soaring so it was hard to get pics. We saw about 6-8 bald and golden eagles. Then we drove around the refuge and saw a porcupine, coyote, White tailed dear, and these two critters. Pictures taken by D.




















This is a Barn owl we saw sitting on a gate. I had never see one of these before so that was pretty exciting.


















This immature bald eagle was high in a tree above us. We watched him for quite some time.


Back to drawing.


















I drew this lady sitting in bed. Sharon at All Norah's Art has been giving Art tips for the 12 days of Christmas and she did one on lips. She says the upper lip is always darker so I gave that a try and of course she is right. I will be practicing this some more. I have been trying to do eyes a little different too. Then I guess I will be tackling noses and different hair too. Maybe by the end of the year I'll be happy at what I can draw.

Quote of the Day: "To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe." - Anatole France

New Years Journal Page

Here is that last drawing added to a collage in my little book.














In my moleskine I decided to do a page for the New Year. I really worked on layering images on top of one another. The photo does not really do it justice. The images I chose for particular reasons, the woman on the left is looking out into the Universe for what new wonders she may find. The lady on the left is creating her dreams in each of those bubbles before she sends the out to the Universe to be created. I really liked both of them and love the entire page.

Soul Coaching: todays lesson is all about clutter, so yes you guessed it I am organizing the mess. You are supposed to work on a bedroom or bathroom so that is what I am doing today. I want to start taking down the Christmas stuff too but that is such a big job its going to take more than a day.

Quote of the Day: Your only limitations are those you set up in your mind, or permit others to set up for you. - Og Mandino

Happy New Year

I hope you all had a wonderful New Year's Celebration in whatever way you have chosen to celebrate. I think 2008 is going to a fantastic year. I am looking forward to growth as an artist, travel to new places and many wonderful new experiences.


















I drew this little lady last night. I ended up cutting her out and put her into a collage. I am participating in Creative Every Day Click on the link to find out more or sign up yourself. You can be creative in all sorts of different ways. Of course I will be focusing on Art but some days it may be something else entirely. Why don't you join me in this great challenge.

Its the new year so of course I have all these new ideas and plans. I was intrigued by Cristine Kane's idea of choosing a word to focus on for the year. I have decided to do this and I have chosen the word happiness. My focus will be to try and be a happier person no matter what it is going through. I hope that at least part of the day I will chose to be happy about something.



The other thing I am doing is the book Soul Coaching, by Denise Linn. Its a 28 day program that is a very practical guide to doing a comprehensive makeover on your life and living from a more soul centered perspective. You do different things every day. Today one of the things was about making commitments to yourself and keeping them. I have decided to commit to meditating 15 minutes a day, every day of the week. This is something that I have done sporadically for the past ten years. I know I feel better doing it and I just want to be more consistent in my practice. I think that doing this book is going to be quite the experience.