Alphabet Project

There is a new project on Wetcanvas based around the alphabet. We need 3 more people to fill the alphabet. Anyone interested? It is original ATC cards 2.5 x 3.5 size and you do something for every letter of the alphabet and send one to each participant. Loads of fun. Good practice in size restraint and mind stimulating activity. You can read about the project here: http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/P...s&proj_id=1239.

Landscape

I really enjoyed the outing today. There were 8 of us there doing art. Half were outside and half were inside. It was pretty cold outside so I did my picture fairly fast. I intended to do another but didn't. I spent the rest of the time going inside to get warm.

At 11:30 everyone stopped working and we had lunch and a critique. By noon we were on our way home. I only took about 15 photos this time.

This was the view along the back wall of the yard. There were 5 of the palm trees in this area and much more on each side of what I did. There were several waterless fountains among the flowers and greenery. Very pretty Iris's. Yellow and purple ones.

Plein Air

Tomorrow is plein air day with my art group. We are going to a private home. I haven't been there yet but our group has. I Googled the address and saw a photo of the front of the house. It has a 3-car garage and looks very big. From the satellite view, I didn't see a pool but I figure it will have a very nice landscaped yard. I was told that the owner has a large studio with many, many windows, and if we want to sit inside, you can get a good view from there.

Shopping Day

Today we bought groceries. I needed a few things and needed some ingredients for a couple of dishes that I will make for a barbecue we will attend on Saturday. It is a yearly barbecue at a friend's house. It lasts for 3 days but we only go for the Saturday events. Barbecue/Potluck, music, and friendship.

Anywhere from 50-100 people are at the barbecue. Each family provides a dessert and a salad or side dish. Provided by the hosts is the meat, garlic bread, and chili beans. We usually arrive there about 10:00 am and leave anywhere from 9-midnight. It's about 45 minutes from our house up in the mountains. Loads of fun and we get to see people we see only once a year at the barbecues.

Some people come in motorhomes, campters, trailers, and stay for the 3 days. Some even camp in tents. I have seen 15 RVs and tents, etc camped there in the yard.

Now when you are in the company of that much food, you are going to eat. All we will be able to do is damage control. At noon about every kind of potato chip, dip, and other munchies make an appearance. And they get munched until dinnertime about 6 pm. Then there are tables put together with about 20+ casseroles, salads, and other side dishes. Then about an hour later the whole thing disappears and out of nowhere are about 20 desserts. Try to skip dessert with that many tempting delights.

We will eat. But hopefully we can keep from gorging. But if that doesn't happen, Sunday we will dream of all the goodies while we eat something nutritious for breakfast.

Saturday

Today we went to a birthday party/barbecue for a 1 yr old. He was having a great time. Orange frosting on his cake gave him an orange tint on his face and hands. But he didn't care. Like all 1 yr olds, he just dug in to the piece of cake with both hands and stuffed it in his mouth.

Aiden, the birthday boy, is the grandson of my neighbor across the street. We are like their extended family. Since the teens don't have grandparents, they look at us as their subs.

I have never seen so many clothes given to a 1 yr old. There must have been at least 10 bags with just clothes in them. Whole sets. And several sets in each. He will be the best dressed kid in town. I can't see how he will ever wear all of them before he outgrows them. Look out little Delilah (his 8 month old cousin) or you will be wearing his outgrown boy clothes. Delilah was there all pretty in pink. Baby to one of the teens and growing like a weed.

We ate at the barbecue. Now who can not eat at a barbecue? But we ate a smaller portion than our usual would have been. And we shared one piece of cake instead of having our own. That's at least progress.

New ATC Project

I signed up for a new ATC project on Wetcanvas. It is called Alphabet. Each person will be assigned a letter of the alphabet. If I receive the letter "B", all the cards that are made and sent to me will have items that start with the letter "B". So each participant will be making 25 cards. One card for each letter of the alphabet except their own letter. Sounds like great fun. I just hope I don't end up with an "X" or a "Q". But someone has to get them.

We are hoping that everyone will do some research and not do all the same items. We even have a website that has lists of unusual words for all letters of the alphabet. You can see it here: http://phrontistery.info/q.html. There are more things at the site to look at like Favorite words, word finding tips, phobias, nautical terms, styles of speech, and many others. I haven't looked thru any of the other topics but will eventually.

Well it's time for me to get ready for the trip to the surgery office. Hubby doesn't seem at all nervous but he woke up saying he is hungry (several times) and even wanted to know what we were having for lunch after. He wants to go to the restaurant and have a salad with roasted chicken on it.

Kitchen Help

Here is another little mouse I did. For someone who hates mice with a passion (they scare me to death), I am surprised that I am doing pictures of mice. Go figure. All I know is it is happening.

Tomorrow hubby goes in for carpal tunnel surgery. So he will be home a couple months. Problem is he was also told he is in pre heart failure and if he doesn't lose weight, it will develop into full heart failure. And at that time, it can't be fixed. So I will not only have a man at home for two months, but I will have a grumpy old man in pain who is hungry. Sound like a great combination? Well I am taking any and all volunteers who want to take him for a day. LOL

The surgeon said it takes actually only 12 minutes to do the actual work on the tunnel. Of course it will be longer for the prepping and the waiting for him to be mobile enough to go home. Can you imagine how much the surgeon makes on one 12 minute surgery? Wow what a pay rate.

I am still fighting ants. They have gotten better in the kitchen and living room but have now moved into the bathroom and office. My dog Penny got some bites in the middle of the night and had an allergic reaction. She had welps all over her body and was itching uncontrollably. It took a Benadryl tablet to calm her down. She is ok now but a little more clingy. Every time I move to a different place in the house, she moves too.

Well wish me luck. I'm sure I will need it to make it thru 2 months with the patient.

And More

Click photos for larger views.

More photos from Majestic Palms

Majestic Palms Sketches

These are the sketches I did at the art outing this week. I used a red Prismacolor fine line pen and added a touch of Verithin Process Red to shade after I got home. Done in my Moleskine Sketchbook.

Majestic Palms

Our art group went to Majestic Palms on Thursday. We usually go out on Wednesday but there was too much wind and dust blowing that day. This was our first trip to Majestic Palms. It is a plant nursery of sorts but doesn't have the small flats of plants. They have more statuary and yard art including tress of all kinds. There was even a Staghorn Fern on the ground that was as big as a hot tub. I took over 150 photos.

Here are a few of the photos.

Hungry Mouse

I started this mouse ATC last night and finished it this morning. It has more color but it didn't scan right. There is really no white on the mousse body. It is a light gray. I am having fun doing these little mice. I can't wait to do some other cutie type critters.

New Art Cards

2 more art cards. The Zentangle one I started at the hair salon while waiting under the heater. I got the basics finished there. But today I added the red and fine tuned it a little more.

The bird in the second one I did from a photo of my cockatiel Bozo. I call it "Oops".

Mr Mouse--Cool Man Cool

I did another mouse ATC tonight. Based on the same little cat toy but very loosely based. Nothing planned. Just happened.

WW Sketchcrawl #22

Saturday the 11th is the next sketchcrawl. That's tomorrow. Hopefully I will be able to get out. It has rained today so hopefully it is finished. I still don't have a plan. Just to go somewhere. I usually spend more time driving than anything else. Trying to find something to catch my eye to draw. I have tried and tried to think of something that would make a good sketchcrawl day but still nothing comes to mind.

Catnip Mouse

I bought a little catnip mouse toy yesterday and drew an ATC card using it as inspiration. It was simple but fun. I named it "Loves Me, Loves Me Not".

ATCs for Trading

Last night and today I worked on some ATCs. Three are Zentangles and one is a squirrel. I have decided to do some cutie cards of animals. Some with the "Ah" appeal. I will put them away and have them for trades.

Hubby is gone tonight on a job. He will be back tomorrow. I miss him when he is gone and the dogs drive me crazy wondering where he is. They think every noise they hear is him. When he is gone for several days, they finally get used to him being gone but that first night is a killer. I couldn't tell you how many times they jump up and run to the door.

Today at Target I bought a small mouse cat toy. I hope to draw it on an ATC tonight. I also found a really scruffy toy dog. I have no idea how to handle the hectic hair it has. I may have to look thru jmfletch's project posts that he did of his wife's stuffed bears. In fact I haven't seen him around for quite some time. I wonder what his wife has him working on these days. I will have to play detective and round him up.

Chocolate Lab

I did this Chocolate Lab for the Dog Breed Thread in the Animal and Wildlife Forum at Wetcanvas. Now that's a mouthful. I have done three of the breeds. They have a new one about every two weeks. The breed standards are posted then a few photos. Anyone else can upload some photos and you can work from your own photo as long as it is the breed for that time.

Instead of doing my own Yellow Lab, I decided to get some practice in on a darker dog. I chose the Chocolate Lab. I had trouble getting the browns. Mine looked more like milk chocolate. I posted that one, then added some more color and posted again. It probably needs some more dark brown but I'm trying not to make it look black. I do notice I have some red tinges showing up now. I didn't notice them in the first one.

I still would like to do a black lab but the two that are posted are not exactly what I am looking for. I would like a closer one of the face.

Today I decided to go back to the ATC size to practice on. It gets too intimidating trying to fill even the post card size when experimenting with the colored pencils. I need to work smaller. Then if it isn't working out, I can start again. When I was doing everything ATC size, I was doing a lot more art and experimenting much more. I work pretty fast even with the cps, but I don't really want to devote that much time to something I may throw away. And with arthritis in my hands, I need to save some wear and tear on my hands.

Nothing new

No new art. I spent today cruising around some sites while I catnapped sitting up. I do that a lot lately. I don't know if it is age, or the fact I don't go to bed at a decent hour, or a combo of both. All I know is that I can sleep anywhere these days. I may wake up with every other part of me hurting or asleep, but sleep I can do. Except when I go to bed at bedtime. So instead I just stay up until sleep comes and catnap whenever my body insists.

A new dog breed has been posted for the Animal and Wildlife forum so hopefully I will be doing some. It is Labs this time and as everyone who reads this blog regularly knows, that's one of my breeds. They have posted a chocolate and a couple of blacks. I am usually doing Yellow ones so will probably do the black and chocolate this time to get some practice.

Memories Again

Here are some more of my memory trading postcards. These are the last 4 cards to reach their new "people". They haven't all responded that they have been received, but there has been enough time for them to land.

Rickrack trim was what my mom put on my dresses she made for me if she had a mistake making them. She used the rick rack to cover the mistakes. This one now lives in South Africa.

I remember jumping rope continually. Whether it was at home using one of these ropes or at school with a longer rope, we jumped and jumped. Kids...so much energy. Makes me tired to just think of it now. This one went to Thailand.

Crayons were a staple. I remember getting so excited when my brothers and I would get new coloring books and crayons. We didn't get the huge multicolor sets, just the basic small one, but we so loved getting a pack of the fresh new sharp crayons and spent hours coloring. This one found its way to Australia.

Crocheting was something I always remember my grandmother doing. She made just everything. Doilies, table cloths, potholders, dolls, and anything else that came out in a pattern. She taught me to crochet chains when I was in grade school. I used to make very long chains. Then she taught me to connect them and I would make circles. I didn't learn how to increase the stitches to make them flat until years later, so I had a lot of cup shaped hats for my dolls. This one landed in India.

WDE 3-27-09

This week Lisilk is hosting the WDE (Weekly Drawing Event) on Wetcanvas with photos of the Bahamas where she did live and will soon be living again. The host posts 16 photos and everyone chooses at least one to use as a reference. I did the dog that is on a former post but decided I wanted to play with the fish.

After looking at the artwork being done by everyone of the school of fish, I decided I wanted to play with the ref and do something different. I drew in some fish, colored them with cps and then started going over the top of the whole picture with a light blue. I wanted it to look like the fish were underwater. It would probably look better with more layers but I have two layers over the top already and my arm is killing me. One layer of powder blue (Prisma) and one layer of Light Cobalt Blue (Albrecht Durer/Faber Castell).

On a former post I did a post card of a porpoise using the same method for one of the trades. I couldn't even tell you how many layers I put on that one. It did look like it was underwater much more than this one. I think I will leave the little picture as is. It is on Bristol Smooth, 6x6 inches with various brands of colored pencils.