New Year's Eve

It's a sad day at our house today. It hasn't been a good year either but today we had to put down our Friday. (Last year we lost Ditto on Dec 1st.) She had lymphoma and got worse yesterday. So this morning about 10 am her pain ended. I'm glad for her to be pain free but sad for us. Now we have to go on without her. I'm drowning my sorrows in Dr. Pepper and Baked Cheetos. I may eat the whole bag.

Cholla Finished

Here is the graphite dog portrait Weimeraner) I have been working on. It is now finished. It is a surprise Christmas present for a friend of my dog groomer. She will take it this weekend. I am glad to have it finished. It is done on Bristol board which I found to be a little more slick feeling than the regular Bristol Smooth paper I normally use. It was harder to get the darks in as I only use a mechanical pencil. I do like the softness on the board though.

The dog face is about 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches. The paper is 10 x 12 inches. I cut it down from a larger sheet. I wanted to leave enough room so that she has a choice of how she will mat it. I emailed it to my groomer and just waiting to see how she likes it. This one I'm trading for dog grooming which is something I have to have done monthly.

2009 Goals

Well I'm sorry I did, but I went back to January and reread my goals for 2009. Not a good thing. Only one thing accomplished. Now that's sad. Almost makes me hesitant to make a list of goals for 2010.

The one thing I did do from my list was making an improvement on my cp work. I have heard that from several people so it is not just my opinion. I have been able to move in a more whimsical style for some of my animals. I like those. Especially as 3 of my favorite blogs have that kind of style. Leslie Hawes, Tanya Bond, and Melody Lea Lamb. You can access each of these blogs thru my links on the right.

I also wanted to be able to do some cp portraits. I did a couple of those. Latest one was for the portrait swap on Wetcanvas. It wasn't a great job but I was happy that I was able to get one finished. I did one in graphite and one in cp. I really liked the graphite one the best but at least I did do a cp version. And I sent both to my swap partner.

Plus I have gotten to a new level with my graphite. I have a more realistic look to my dog portraits with a tinge of my own style thrown in. That is what my friend Sue said. You can see her artwork at Dachshunds and Daubs at the link on the right.

It's nice that I did get some work done on one of my goals. But the other 9 things on the list were totally not accomplished. Not one of them did I improve on.

I will make a list again but will be careful with what I "wish" for. I don't want to reach 2011 and be so shocked at what I didn't accomplish.

I have a couple more days to get my list ready. I will start working on it. But in the meantime I have a graphite dog portrait to finish and bills to pay. And another more heart wrenching chore to do. I think it is time for our Friday to make her last trip to the vet.

Wetcanvas Back Up

Wetcanvas is back up for business.

Wetcanvas Problems

I guess Wetcanvas is having problems. I haven't been able to get onto the site all day. First I had an error message but now I get a timed-out message. Hopefully it won't be down long.

Mr Bloomfield Without Flower

Here is another little ATC of my Beanie Bear named Mr Bloomfield. I did just the head this time and left off his daisy. He sits on my desk astride my tape dispenser and keeps me company.

He is on colored mat paper which looks just like Mi Tienes paper with colored pencils and pen and ink.

See No Evil, Speak No Evil

I finished my last two of the set of 3 little Elves. I was able to use all three for items on the scavenger hunt for this time.

Hear No Evil

I have 3 little elf-like figurines (similar to the 7 dwarfs). They are made to be the hear no, speak no, see no evil. I decided to do each on an ATC. Here is "Hear No Evil". Colored pencil and pen and ink on Bristol board.

Bear With Daisy

Here is my latest ATC. My model was a little Beanie bear names Bloomfield. This is the second ATC that I have done of him. Colored pencil, pen and ink, on Bristol.

Goodwill Fish

I was playing around with some of the colored cardstock I bought this week. I really like this color and what else but water to use it for. I decided to put this fish in and then it looked so lonely. I added a few odds and ends. It's not a great job but was fun and what a color.

Frog Bottle

I found a little green glass frog bottle of cologne at the Goodwill. I didn't know it was a bottle until I got it home. I did an ATC of the frog for the Scavenger Hunt for "green". Here is the ATC with a bad scan of the bottle.

Colored pencils and pen and ink on thin green cardstock paper.

Warm and Fuzzy

I've been doing small art cards of some of my little stuffed and ceramic animals. Tonight I did one of a little white mouse I bought probably in the pet section of the store. Another is a Santa Cowboy I got at Beverly's Craft Store. Not exactly my thing (a cowboy) but cute as a bug.

The cowboy is 4x6 inches on a thin card paper and done with colored pencil and pen and ink. The mouse is on a piece of blue cardstock 4x4 inches.

I still have quite a few more of my little animals to do. One is a cute little ceramic fish, a frog, another mouse, a couple of dogs, another mouse, and a couple of stuffed animals I got at the Goodwill. In fact I have so many "props" that I could probably keep busy with them for a couple years. Not really but almost.

I have several ideas bouncing around in my head. I want to put several of the stuffed animals in a row and do one long picture.

Sleepy Sunday

I took a pain pill last night and again this morning and can't stay awake today. I sit down and out I go. Makes it hard to do art or housework. Did I say housework? Dirty word. Like housework would come before art.

More stamped ATCs

I have been doing a few more of the stamped, colored pencil ATCs on mat board. I have 9 finished and about 4 more to do. but those are started.

I went to Goodwill today after my monthly hair appointment. I found several little knick knacks. I found 4 more stamps that I can use on the new ATCs that I am doing. I have enough stamps now to finish without having to use the same stamp for all of them.

At the hair salon, I started another crocheted slipper. I have the two pairs of slippers to do for the friend. She wants them for Christmas gifts. I have both pairs started. I started the second one while I was being cut and colored. I need to finish those up so she will have them in time for Christmas.

Besides the hair salon and Goodwill, we also went shopping for groceries and stopped by our church for a 60th birthday celebrations for a friend. Lots of goodies there to eat. All sweet. I think we both had a sugar high when we left.

After I got home and we got the groceries put away, I had to take a pain pill and lie down for awhile. Then it was dinner time. Hubby thankfully took care of dinner.

When I saw how long since I last posted, I was surprised. I like to post every day. I am always stunned when I realize I have been checking the blogs each day but forgetting to post. I guess I'm having more senior moments.

More Mat Board

I did some more playing with the mat board plus trying to find something that I can use for the new project on WetCanvas. It's supposed to be something different than what I usually do.

These little daisies are done with a stamp and colored pencil. Considering I never do stamping or use mat board, I think it qualifies. These two may be my first ones for the trade.

Leslie Hawes who uses mat board all the time says once I get started using the colored paper, I'll never go back. I actually am really liking it. The dark blue mat board looks like purple on the one on the left.

I bought 3 cheap stamps at the dollar store. One other one has a smaller daisy with leaves and a stem. The third has a bird and tree with leaves. I also folded some animal faces in Origami but they look bland when put against the mat board. So as you can see, I am still stumped as to what I will do. I don't want to do(so far only 12 cards)all of them as daisies.

The commission is delivered. And I have over half of a crocheted slipper that a friend ask me to make. I have two pairs to do.

Tomorrow is the Plein Air Group's Christmas Party. Still have to make my dessert. There will be desserts, salads, and pizza. What more could we want. Oh yeah and some art time.

Salty Dog on Mat Board

I have been wanting to try some drawing on colored mat board. Well last night I did an ATC on mat board. I have to say I really like working on it. Now I just have to find someone who makes their own mats and see if I can purchase or recycle their remnants.

Here is "Salty Dog" on blue mat board with the back ground colored and without. I used watercolor pencil and a little waterbrush, then more wcp. Now I just have to find some rembants or uncut mat board in colors at an affordable price.

The name Salty Dog is because my "model" is a ceramic salt shaker I purchased at Goodwill.

Libby Finished

I finished my commission of Libby the Vizsla. I will deliver it tomorrow.

Rain

It's raining here. We need the water but it's not too good to have 3 dogs going outside to do their business and tracking water and mud inside. And Dizzy is like a wet dust mop after she goes out. Her kind of hair just sucks up the water. She comes in and wants her mama to wipe her down.

Today is Pearl Harbor Day. I probably wouldn't remember it if it wasn't my mother-in-law's birthday. She has been gone many years now but since researching her daughter's father's past, I realized how much that day had an impact on my mother-in-law.

Her husband was a pilot and joined the RAF before the US was in the war. He left for England in December. They married before he left and she was left with a surprise. She was pregnant. The husband died the first part of September and their daughter was born two months before. I just hope that he knew about the baby before he died. He was buried in France where his plane went down.

Even tho my mother-in-law would later marry again and have a son (my hubby), she never really accepted that he was dead. She would watch newsreels from the war and search faces. I have since proven that he did die and we even have a photo of his gravestone in France. I just wish that Margaret had lived long enough for the internet and my search so she would have had closure.

That probably wouldn't have happened had she lived as she didn't share information about her first husband even with her daughter. It was too painful and the daughter soon learned that asking questions caused her mother much grief so she stopped asking. And now everyone with any knowledge is no longer living. We have found some information but keep hitting dead ends.

The state of Maryland won't give us a copy of the dad's birth certificate because his daughter doesn't fit any of the people who can get that information. Like the person themselves. A child of that person isn't on the list. We even sent paperwork showing his death, his gravestone, her birth certificate, RAF papers that have been unclassified, the daughters driver's license, and anything else that we could think of. Everything including the check was returned and marked unable to provide that information due to she isn't allowed that info. If she isn't, who is? That man can't ask for it himself. Anyone who would be, is no doubt no longer living but her.

His daughter knows very little about her dad. She would like to know more about his family. He could even have had children before her. She doesn't even know her grandparent's names (except the first name of her grandfather) or anything else about them. Why isn't she allowed that information? She wasn't adopted. Files should not be closed to her access and nothing in those files would hurt anyone if she had them. His daughter is now 65 years old. I would like her to have the knowledge about her past that everyone else has.

I told Dannie, my sister-in-law that she had better not die until I have that info as I am determined to find out. But I'm getting doubtful. The letter from the State of Maryland took the wind from my sails.

I am doing some thinking today (oh no, the sky may fall). I am putting thoughts down for my last day of the year post and for my wish list for next year. Of course it will contain the usual weight loss. Hopefully other things on the list will come about better than the weight loss each year. Maybe if I put weight gain, it will psych myself out for the opposite. But if it doesn't, I'm in trouble. Just how far can a body stretch without bursting?

Dizzy

My Dizzy is no longer a baby. She is a young lady now at 8 months. And none too happy about wearing a doggie diaper.

Moley Library Project.

I took out my Moleskine Project book tonight and finished up the sketches I had started. But I did it really fast and not really caring whether it was very neat. My problem is that I don't really care if I finish it or not. It was to go into a traveling library and be on display at several galleries, then return to a permanent library at the Art House Coop.

I never was really interested in the theme I received, then I roused and figured out a way to advance with it. Well working on it tonight didn't do a thing for me. And time is running out. They extended the time by a month but that new date is January 1st. I have only filled about 4 or 5 double pages and I'm not sure I could fill it that fast. Especially with the theme at hand.

So this may be just a practice book for me to use at home. Quite an expensive one considering I could get a hardbound Moley at Barnes and Noble that has really nice stiff pages in it for the price I paid for this one with almost tissue paper thin pages. In that library with people checking them out, I can't see them holding up for long with those thin pages. I think I will just save my energy and create some artwork that I will be more proud of.

I was surfing the net trying to find a way to do a new ATc Project on WC. I still haven't found what I want to do for it. It needs to be something different and along the mixed media line. Not just regular drawings with graphite and cps that I usually do. Open theme tho. There will b e 19 cards to do and if I don't find something that gets me interested, I may have a long 6 months with that project also.

Giraffe ATC Trade

This month's ATC exchange at the Drawspace Forum is for Giraffe ATCs. I worked on mine last night and today and finished them. I had to do 9. I decided to do some cartoony ones this time. Here they are.

Bud

I did this for a friend as a thank you. It is their boxer Bud who passed away early this year. They usually adopt rescue boxers and have another to add to their gang now. I think they have 3 dogs now and two are boxers.

This is done ona 9x12 inch sheet of Bristol Smooth and is done in colored pencil.

Over the Top Award

I have a fun award from Teresa. Please visit her blog as she has some beautiful art, a wonderful sense of humor, and has a gift for writing. I have known her for less than a year but I feel like I've known her all my life. I call her TBerry (because of all the berry picking she does) and she calls me CA (California).

The rules are:

I need to pass this award on to five people, then I need to answer a list of questions in ONE word.
So here we go:

1. Where is your cell phone?…Purse
2. Your hair?… Thin
3. Your mother?… Loving
4. Your father?… Frail
5. Your favorite food?… Chocolate
6. Your dream last night?…Tiring
7. Your favorite drink?…Dr.Pepper
8. Your dream/goal?… Heaven
9. What room are you in?… office
10. Your hobby?… Crochet
11. Your fear?… Heights
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years?…Home
13. Where were you last night?… Home
14. Something that you aren’t?… Needy
15. Muffins?… Pumpkin
16. Wish list item?… Laptop
17. Where did you grow up?… Bakersfield
18. Last thing you did?… Typed
19. What are you wearing?… Sweatshirt
20. Your TV?… Company
21. Your Pets?… Dogs/Birds
22. Friends?… comforting
23. Your life?… Okay
24. Your mood?… Pensive
25. Missing Someone?… KC
26. Vehicle?… Adequate
27. Something you're not wearing?… Bra
28. Your favorite store?… Michaels
29. Your favorite colour?… Purple
30. When was the last time you laughed?… Today
31. Last time you cried?… Today
32. Your best friend?… Hubby
33. One place that I go to over and over?… Goodwill
34. Facebook?… Yes
35. Favorite place to eat?… Home

Now I need to pass this on to five bloggers. Here is my list, in no particular order.

1. Jo Castillo
2. Ai
3. Tanya Bond
4. Joan Tavolott
5. Laurel Neustadler

All artists that I visit their blogs daily. They all do great work and post fairly often.