Catch Up With My EDMs

Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. I was 62. My nephew Stephen and his wife Cece took me out to lunch at Applebees and to a movie "Something Borrow". It was a nice treat as I had not been to a move in probably 10 years. And I had not been to Applebees. Of course Stephen had to tell them it was my birthday so I got the embarrassing birthday song by the staff and a small ice cream sundae. Even more embarrassing is eating ice cream all by yourself.

Scavenger Hunt #223

I'm host of the scavenger hunt on Wetcanvas this time. I combined items from several previous hunts. One challenge was to do a still life using as many of the items on the list in the still life. I got 11 of the 26 items.

I really like doing the items this way. My favorite hunt was one Jamie hosted way back when. It gave a list of 26 items that were to be found and put in one still life. The computer desk I had then, had a shelf on top that was the right height, and I used that to set up my items. It was so much fun.

I re-posted that hunt many months ago and not sure anyone did the challenge but I did again. This time I used a smaller shelf with little sections. I really enjoyed it the second time also.

Another time I did a still life of many items on my own. Just found some nice items (and lots of them). Put them on a shelf and drew, then colored them in colored pencils. The one today is all watercolor with a touch of white Conte pencil.

EDM 117, 118, & 119

I couldn't post my last couple of EDMs for a couple days but, here are all the ones I have finished.

#117 - Round

A little ceramic chick that I found at the Goodwill Store.

#118 - Hair

Uncle Hoppy, the uncle of one of my friends. I think he is in his 80s. He comes to my friend's yearly barbecue. That's where I met him and enjoy visiting with him yearly. He is quite a character and he is followed around by his faithful boxer Morgan.

#119 - Rocks

These are a few little rocks I found in my back yard.

EDM #116 - Green

The EDM challenge for the 16th is "Something Green". I went a little overboard. My green is pretty much all green. But what can I say? It was a green plant (rubber tree plant) in a green pot.

I prepainted the yellow for the background. I did that for a couple of other future pages. I am ahead of schedule as I already have the one finished for the 17th.

EDM #115

I did a substitute for EDM #115. Instead of a shopping cart or basket, I did a folded shopping bag. This one I got at the 99 cent store. I carry about 10 bags in my car. One place I shop gives you money credit for using your own bags.
I met a friend at Walmart today and we shopped there and at the Goodwill. I won't tell how much I spent at Walmart as it was way too much. But my total at Goodwill was a whopping $1.50.

At Walmart I needed a new mouse for my laptop, ink for the printer, zip bags, laundry soap, sodas, and a list of other incidentals. You know how those add up when you toss them in the basket. Seems like everything runs out at the same time.

After a year, I still haven't gotten used to getting only one check a month and having to stretch it. All those years I was married, we got a pay check weekly. When I worked, we both got paid different weeks, so it ended up being one a week. And the last job hubby had, he was paid weekly. If one check was a little small, or we overspent one week, there was another coming the next week. Well it's not so easy waiting for a whole month. Hopefully I will get used to it before much longer.

I'm still trying to follow Weight Watchers online program. I don't really like it but I needed something structured to make me do it. My problem is that I would rather skip the food and eat all my points in Weight Watchers ice cream. Before I stated this, I rarely ate ice cream. So that show how deprived I feel.

I hate dieting. I have dieted most of my life. I had finally reached a point where I stopped dieting. It was bad for me to lose and gain all the time. But lately I have gotten so heavy that something has to give. I'd rather it not be my body exploding because it is finally stretched too tight.

I can't exercise because of my leg and ankle problems. I can't eat salads because of a stomach problem. I am a very picky eater. And I am the kind of person who "if I can't eat what I want, I just don't want to eat" and have to force it.

So I am doing it, not liking it, and getting more crabby by the day. Tonight about 11 pm, I could almost smell some kind of food. I couldn't tell what it was but I wanted some. (It was in my mind as there was no cooking going on). Well in the freezer were 2 Nathan's hot dog weiners. I heated them in the microwave, poured mustard on them, and ate all but the 2 bites for the dogs. And enjoyed them a lot. Usually I won't eat a hot dog without bread or a bun. Didn't stop me this time. Luckily I still had some weekly points left over for the week (Sunday starts the new week) that I won't be using. So I should be ok.

Sunday...the start of my 3rd Weight Watcher week. Yuk!

EDM #114 - Ugly

Today the item listed was Ugly --Something you find ugly but keep around for sentimental reasons. Plus journal about it.

This is one of the many chewed items in my dogs' toy box. Some have ears missing, noses chewed, no eyes, tails or legs missing. But I keep them because to my dogs, they are still fun to play with. In fact there are probably more "broken" toys than unbroken ones. And there are 2 toy boxes overflowing. What can I say? I am a sucker when it comes to my dogs. I love how they react when they get a new toy. They even try to go thru all bags that come into the house looking for new toys.

More EDMs

EDM #110 - Something With a Flame

My husband was a truck driver and brought this home. He picked it up at a truck stop on one of his jobs. It is a little cell phone lighter. It even flips open and has a screen and some number keys. A little too cute for being a lighter. It would make children want to play with it. Even really young children. The piece sticking up when pushed down, starts the flame.

EDM #106-109

For #107-109 I got behind. Caught them all up today. That's what an all day Saturday barbecue will do to you.

EDM #105 - Scissors

My EDM #105 is scissors in watercolor with colored pencil, white Conte pencil, and pen. It is done in my 4x6 inch watercolor sketchbook.

I decided to get this done early today. I hate putting them off until the end of the day as the time seems to pass too fast, and I don't want to take a chance on not finishing one each day.

I didn't go with my art group today. I planned to but just couldn't get myself up. One of my medications is no longer covered on my prescription plan, and my body is protesting. It is an anti-inflammation pill that I have been taking since about 1995. I had a motorcycle accident in 1994 and had surgery. I almost lost my leg but instead got a plate and 6 screws just above the ankle. The anti-inflammation was for that.

Well since I haven't been taking the med, I have realized how many areas it was also helping for my arthritis. Today when I woke up, I felt like I was 100 years old. Everything hurts. I finally took some over-the-counter pain meds and hope they are going to help. I'm still not walking very well and still feel the pain.

My Back Yard

I decided to paint in my back yard today. I enjoyed being outside with the dogs and doing some painting. This is the raised flower bed that runs across the back of my yard. Behind the fence is another level of yard that really doesn't get used.

The plant in the pot is my tomato plant with many blooms and quite a few small tomatoes on it. A couple of the plants back there including the ivy on the right, were plants from my husband's funeral. The plants with blooms are geraniums. The largest one and part of one of the others have pink blooms but they look more red in my painting. And there is even an asparagus fern in there. Since I can't get down on my knees to work in a ground level flowerbed, this one is perfect for me.

One of the ladies in my art group does some painted (fake) mats on her paintings. She does the "mat" first and brings them dried to our outings. Hers are really beautiful. I decided to try a similar version. This scan shopped off most of one end so I cropped it in my Picture Viewer on the other side to match. In person, all edges have the same size color "mat".

More Waterbirds

More water birds have flown in to their new homes today. A Yellow-Billed Stork, a Double-Crested Cormorant, and a Black Swan. All in watercolor, wc pencil, cp, pen and ink, and white conte pencil. Wetcanvas RIL references.

EDM #103 - Exercise Equipment

Here is my EDM Challenge for today. Exercise equipment. I bought the Zumba exercise tape a couple months ago and 2 of these were with it. I had to take if from the box as I have never used it. Oh well. It is exercise equipment and the list didn't say it had to be used.

EDM Challenge

I am doing a month of EDM challenges. On the EDM list, the ones I will be doing are 101-131. Here are my first two. #101 Bar of Soap and #102 Power Plug.

Two New Birds Have Arrived

Two more of my water birds have made it to their new homes. A Slimbridge Duck and a Saddle-billed Stork. Both done in watercolor, watercolor pencil, pen and ink, and maybe a touch of white conte pencil. Both are 4x6 inches in size.

Water Project Card

Easter Sunday.

Photos from my raised flowerbed in my back yard taken with my new camera. Click to see larger photo. (Original size of each is 5.92MB 4320 x 3240 Pixels. I like my camera but they wouldn't upload that large). The plants are Geraniums and the bird is a Dove sitting in my dead apricot tree.

I spent a quiet day at home. I worked on two more cards for the water trade so they will go out tomorrow. That leaves me 7 more to do I think. But another trade (May) starts on Drawspace and of course I'm signed up. They are really small trades now. But the theme is Budgie Birds or around here we call them parakeets. I had one that died just a few months ago named Freebie.

I still have to finish up my Art House journal and get it in the mail. May 1st will be here before you know it. Then it won't be long before my birthday, and along comes June when my blog anniversary will happen.

Tomorrow begins a new week. Our art group goes to an artists garden a few miles to another town. I have been there twice before and it's beautiful. She had the best poppies and poppy pods. Plus some little still life-like scenes scattered around many other gorgeous plants. She designed it and she and her husband did the whole area by themselves. And she is such a gracious hostess when we visit. I'm looking forward to it.

As far as I know I don't have any other plans except buy some groceries. I am trying to keep my car trips at a minimum and do everything at once since the price of gas is so high. The last time I looked it was around $5.25 a gallon. Takes me $40 to put 3/4 tank of gas in my car and it keeps rising.

Have a nice evening.

More "Water" ATC Cards Soon

I completed 5 "Water" trading cards and mailed them this week. As soon as they are received by their new owners, I will post them. All are sea birds and postcard size on watercolor paper.

I have also been working in my Art House Co-op Journal book. It is supposed to be mailed by May 1st. I still have a few pages left to do, but I am slowly getting there. I may have to find the glue and glue some pages together if I don't get busy.

I joined the newest project from Art House Co-op last night. It's for 2012 and I have plenty of time for this one. I chose my topic or theme, paid for my book, and now waiting for it to arrive.

The theme I chose for this one is "I Remember You". I plan to do portraits. People and animals. They said on the website that they listened to participants and have better books this time with thicker pages. Thankfully no more tissue thin paper with bleed thru.

I haven't decided for sure, but I may decide to do this one in graphite. I miss graphite. I do know for this one I won't be using watercolor. Depending on the paper, I might use graphite on some and colored pencils on some.

Hopefully I will get my new completed pages of the Art House journal scanned so that I can post them on here.

2nd "Water" Card

This is the second card for my Water Project. Watercolor, watercolor pencil, pen and ink. This one is headed to Texas.

Water ATC Trade at Wetcanvas

We got the address list for the Water ATC trade. I finished one card, a swan, and sent it off to Canada. I plan to do some waterbirds on this trade. Not sure if they will all be waterbirds but some will be. This one is postcard size and done with watercolor, watercolor cps, and pen and ink from a reference in Wetcanvas' RIL>

And More Art House Co-op Pages

New Pages from Journal

I have done a few more pages in my Art House Co-op journal.

Drawspace ATC Trade for April

The April trade at Drawspace had only 4 people again. I got the address list yesterday and did my 3 cards last night. The theme was "As Time Goes By". Now I only have the Wetcanvas trade to work on. Theme is "Water".

Today Is The Day

Today is the first anniversary of my husband's death. Not a good day for me but one I look forward to having behind me. Now all the first year things are past and I will put on my armor to handle the second year one day at a time.

For today, I plan to go shopping for framing supplies, groceries, and bring some KFC broiled chicken home for dinner.

For you, please hug your loved ones and tell them how much you love them. No one is guaranteed a tomorrow. God bless you all.

Bill Finished

It's not perfect, but I do know when to stop before I mess it up. It is him so I'm calling it finished. I did add some white Conte pastel pencil and a touch of colored pencil.

Bill in Watercolor

I am doing a watercolor portrait of my husband. I wanted some practice with a portrait in watercolor and what better subject than a face I know so well. It's not finished but I think I am getting there. Nice to see his face come out of a blank sheet of paper.

Nothing New Today

Nothing new to show in the art department. Today I worked on my Bible study questions for tonight. One more night to go next week and they will be finished until Sept. It has been a very nice study. The Book of John and such a good study to do just before Easter.

There won't be an outing this week with the art group as rain is predicted. I hope to start something new tomorrow.

I did sign up for a new trade on Wetcanvas. It is titled "Water". It will be easy to find things for that title. Many possibilities. I'm not sure what direction I will go with the theme. I have time to think about it. There are already 12 people signed up out of the 20 allowed.

I am now officially a "texter". I had never learned to do it and my phone is one without a keyboard. Sooooo slow. But my friend Teresa has a problem with her arm/neck and can't get on the computer. So to keep in touch, I had to bite the bullet and start texting. Now I have something else to keep me busy. One is texting and another is keeping track so that I don't go over 1000 messages which is what I signed up for. I have it figured down to how many a day before I would go over. Thankfully I'm nowhere near doing that many. I may end up with stubs for fingers tho.

Sammie

This is Sammie one of the two dogs from next door. She and Bonie wait at the fence for a treat each night. She isn't quite a year old and full of energy. Bonie is afraid of the camera so I guess he won't get a painting. Watercolor, pen & ink. 4x6 on watercolor paper.