My book is getting bumpy.

I have a few new pages in my art journal...

This one isn't quite finished - it needs some words, a phrase, a quote under the branches of the tree. I'm pondering that one. The tree is one I took a photo of on the Capital grounds last weekend, then sketched here. The little envelope has THREE secret notes inside of it!

I wasn't as happy with this one. It is "my nest" in a teacup. I liked the idea, and if you look close you can see the cup, some hearts, some words. I like it personally, but I don't necessarily like it artistically. I may have to try it again.

This is just a glimpse of how fun and bumpy my book is getting!

Tonight Wyatt and Alan came over for dinner and the guys all played on the floor while waiting for dinner. I thought it was cute.

I got a little crazy...

More art from my art journal...this lesson was titled "What we bring". We started with the paper pieced partial girl (me?) on the left -- then added whatever made us happy. I have a stack of books: some are art journals, some are novels, all make me happy. I also included TEN little banners across the top, one for each grandchild (so far!). I had to include my camera too. This was pretty fun to make it "meaningful" to me. I used scrapbook paper, acrylic paint, modeling paste, pens, stencils, bubble wrap!

This is one I made because I wasn't quite finished with cupcakes. I had the plate and cupcakes done, but I hadn't done any background. Nothing is ever quite really finished though. I intend to go over my words "You deserve a cupcake" with darker ink.

And this one is pretty different (week two of The Art of Wild Abandonment): this lesson was named "Blooms". I used tissue paper (like wrapping paper), painted parchment or tracing paper (for the petals), acrylic paint, watercolor paint, watercolor crayons. Really fun and textured. They are funky purple cone flowers...The left page needs more outlining and detailing. The next class is "layers" and promises to be pretty "wild".

Those are the things I was thinking about all day, even while on this lovely walk to the Capital Campus in Olympia...

I heard a rumor that the trees were all in bloom - this was all we found! Another week and it will be beautiful I'm sure. . .

I have known this fountain at the Capital nearly all my life, but today was the first time I noticed the "leaves" that the water fountains out of! It was turned off, of course, so I guess that is why I finally could see the beauty of the fountain, without the water!

I got a little crazy over the architecture.

You can tell it was somewhat sunny, but not really a super bright day while we were there.

We did enjoy all the beauty around the campus that we probably would not have noticed if the trees and flowers had all been in bloom.

We encountered a busload of Japanese schoolgirls,

and I hoped they got a chance to see this view after they saw

the interior of the Capital Building.

So pretty.

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Spring images

Such a beautiful day today. Even though it was not WARM, it was pretty and warmish...

I wanted to share my pussy-willows! I bought them. I can't believe it. We used to pick them when I was a child, on Elliot Road. I remember we used to color them with chalk sometimes. Did you ever do that? I love the back-lighting on these.

My Hellebores. I planted this one when we first moved into our house, 25 years ago. It always blooms early. It is supposed to be a Lenten Rose, but I think it usually blooms well before Lent. You have to get down and look up to see the pretty blooms.

Today our power went off in the early afternoon. So rude! We decided to go for a walk, and I knew I wanted to go take a picture of this skunk cabbage, which I have seen growing in the ditch on the side of the road on the way home. They are so YELLOW! They do smell kind of skunky too. I think they are humorous and fun. We talked to three different neighbors on our walk, and by the time we got home, the power was back on.

I carefully stepped into our neighbor's yard to catch this photo of their crocuses. I love them! so purple and cheerful! I'm using this photo as my computer wallpaper now.

Jack Frost came to town...

Jack Frost visited us this morning...see the beautiful ice painting on my car windshield?

We had family over this afternoon/evening. Tori and I made paper cakes and cupcakes...delicious and calorie free!
Wyatt went for a ride on a rocket ship.

Fun to try out grandma's new toys.

And a few crazy rounds of gin rummy to finish off the day.

A little card shark in the making.

I made breaded chicken, lemon-Parmesan linguine, and steamed carrots for dinner.

I've been looking at clouds a lot lately

This is what Tori bought at the book fair at school...she loves to put a mean face on when I'm trying to get a photo! Unfortunately this cute puppy poster got her started on "how much she wants a puppy"...shoulda gone for the kitten poster - she already has FOUR! That's her school in the background.

another page out of my art journal: March 15-18. This is kind of a "journey/travel/destination" spread...

...and what I've been working on today. I "borrowed" this idea from Edith Holden's THE COUNTRY DIARY OF AN EDWARDIAN LADY. I will start adding my journaling as soon as the paint is dry! This will start with the first day of Spring (March 20).

I've been looking at clouds a lot lately and thinking about how I can recreate them in watercolors...

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If you are interested in Edith Holden's art, go to www.morning-earth.org. There are many treasures in this site.

Hot air balloons

A little known secret of mine is I have a thing for hot air balloons. Now, just to be clear, I don't yearn for a ride in a hot air balloon - I just love the idea of them. To go someplace like New Mexico where they gather and all take off together would be a wonderful experience. Imagine the pictures I could get! I like to sprinkle them around in my artwork too, just to remind myself that they are uplifting, silent, looking down on the countryside. They are a kind of symbol of peace and contentment to me.

So, today when I was at Goodwill, I spotted this bowl from quite a ways away. Its big, maybe a fruit bowl, it has images of fruit around the edge. Then, as I got closer I saw it had those primitive houses and country scenery that I like too...when I picked it up and saw it had hot air balloons flying over the rooftops, I could not resist it! Then, the icing on the cake (sort of) was today was Senior Day and I got 10% off as well!

Today is the first day of Spring, and although its cold and wet and feels more like winter, I have seen bright yellow skunk cabbage in bloom on the side of the road, the pink plum blossoms are showing themselves, I see yellow daffodils and purple heather in bloom and Camellia bushes showing their pink flowers. At my house the Lenten Roses (hellebore) have been blooming for weeks. I'm looking forward to sketching hikes (and Phil thought my taking photos slowed him down!).

...seeds of growth...

This is the first page of my art journal. The "Radish" sketching project. I just sketched and painted these, without all the outlining and shading. I kind of like it.

I've never been one for painting much, but now I can actually see myself taking a sketchbook and a watercolor set on a hike or on a vacation.
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I spent the day with the grandkids here in town. Its so fun to go to their house and just be grandma and totally immerse myself in their needs.

My Art Journal

This is the book I have made into my art journal. Its an old "Reader's Digest Condensed Book". I tore out about 1/4 of the pages inside, and now I am gesso-ing the pages I will sketch/paint upon.

The fun thing is I will have a neat bound book I can put on my bookshelf when it's finished. Also, the pages inside are a little "funky"...wrinkly, tattered even, you can see the print through the gesso unless you paint another coat of another color over it... That all adds to the "wild abandonment" aspect of the class I am taking. It isn't supposed to be perfect/frameable/museum piece quality...its just fun fast art I did for myself.

Like this, my "Spring line up"...clothes line with clothes blowing in the breeze and significant words sprinkled around. We've had so much random snow lately I decided to have a little on the ground with the flowers growing up through the snow anyway.

This was fun, done with acrylic paint and scrapbook paper cutouts.

...and another watercolor cupcake. See how you can see the words through the paint? I'm not quite finished with this one yet, but I like how the cupcakes are imperfect (like the ones I make) but you know they are tasty anyway!

The Irish never ate like this...

Its not too exciting of a day when all I have to post is what I made for dinner...but, this was a tasty recipe, and it did take me half a day to prepare! The original recipe was little more Irish sounding.

I used a lot of ideas from a Guy Fieri recipe I saw on Food Network earlier in the week, but really, this is not much like it. I used beef, onion, carrot, turnip, beef broth, red wine, seasonings and cream in the stew. I cooked mashed potatoes separately and served them together like above. Phil prefers his stew poured over the potatoes like caramel sauce over ice cream.

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I did have a lovely day of playing in my art studio and watching videos on the computer. Maybe I will have something to share tomorrow.

St. Patrick's Day

In honor of my Irish heritage, and my granddaughter's keen interest in all things Irish, I sketched and painted the SWEET CELEBRATION below...

I think sketching and painting cupcakes could be addictive...

Luckily they are calorie free!

and almost as satisfying the high calorie kind...

I am taking photos at all angles like the professional bloggers I visit...

This project is from my on-line art class: "The Art of Wild Abandonment". I used watercolor paper, pencil, watercolor crayons, ultra fine felt tip pen, white jelly roll pen (which didn't show up that well on the watercolor, but you can see it on the chocolate cupcake. I'm going to be brave and post it on the art class facebook account.

...then add color...

March comes in like a lion...We have had a lot of blustery weather, and then this morning - snow! We only got about 1/2 inch but the West Side got a couple of inches!

This is what our skylight looked like...

And near my office - the daffodils are coming up through the snow.

This week I started a new on-line art class. Its put on by Christy Tomlinson at Scarlet Lime, but the artist teaching is Junelle Jacobsen at Yes and Amen.

We started out sketching RADISHES! I am really going to love this class. I can see already I will learn a lot and have FUN doing it!

The next projects are really cute OWLS and CUPCAKES! I joined the Art of Wild Abandonment facebook page and right away got about 124 facebook messages in my e-mail! whew! There are over 250 women taking this class...hmmm at $35 each...these ladies are making some $$.

An added surprise

Today was my babysitting day. I had the added surprise of Tori home kinda sick for the day.

She wasn't too sick to play quite a few rounds of "gin rummy" with me. Above is a sample of the pink playing cards I found for her. We both love this "JACK" and I'm thinking of using it for my facebook image...

Miss Tori shuffling...She also talked me into helping her bake her favorite PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES...she had the recipe memorized: one egg; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup peanut butter.

These turned out the BEST ever. No one was too sick to eat a bunch of these! We used a jumbo egg - maybe that's why they turned out deliciously different.

and Wyatt is moving towards walking - here he is with his din0-walker. He is so pleased with himself!

I will have to quit saying "I never win anything"...

I am excited to say I won something!!! I never win, but sometimes I try. This weekend one of my favorite bloggers pointed her readers to the COCOA DAISY BLOG HOP, with 21 blogs, each offering a prize. I entered most of them and I won a $10 gift certificate to Cocoa Daisy http://cocoadaisy.com from Annabelle's blog at http://anabelleom.blogspot.com. I am very excited!

Other than that bit of fun (which I heard this evening), I started a new spread in my art journal (above). If you look closely, you will see four silhouettes among the gouache painting (Oh, I'm getting so worldly, painting with gouache, rather than plain watercolor!). I plan to do my journaling each day on one of the silhouettes.

And, because we'd stayed home most of the weekend, we decided to go watch JOHN CARTER at the theater. I do like sci-fi and even though it was not rated especially high, we kind of wanted to see it. It was a good adventure sci fi movie, pretty much what you would expect. And yes, it did have green creatures with four arms on Mars...It was kind of like Star Wars, Avatar, Indiana Jones, all rolled up into one movie. I liked this image I found, but the movie is not animated - it's live action.

I have been doing some experimenting with making a little book out of security envelopes. I got the idea from someone else's website but this is my own take on it. The theme is "travel" and I have some maps, tickets, foreign stamps...stuff like that in it. I guess its kind of a book of collage and it is taking me somewhere, I just don't know quite where yet. I hope your weekend was great too.

Creative Every Day...

Today I was in the mood for soup. My daughter mentioned recently that she made Salmon Chowder. That sounded good, and here is my attempt:

I found the recipe on the internet. Here is how it went, more or less: Saute lots of vegetables together. (I used mushrooms, red and yellow peppers, garlic). Add one can chicken broth, 1 cup diced potatoes, 1 cup shredded carrots. Let them cook for a bit. Then add 1 can cream style corn, 1 can evaporated milk, and 1 can salmon. Stir in and let them simmer for 15 minutes. I seasoned it with salt, pepper, dill weed and red pepper flakes. I sprinkled bacon on top. There was hardly any left!

A little more of my artwork...Days 8 and 10 in my art journal.

I realize my blog is often more of a site to show what I've been making lately. I ran across a blog encouraging artists to link together and share what they are working on. That is the (fake) button on my sidebar (Creative Every Day 2012). It's just encouragement to do something almost every day and share it.

Tonight we watched the old Alfred Hitchcock REBECCA. It was great. Not the first time we've seen it, but it has been a while. What movie have you watched and enjoyed lately?