My Monday

 Things we did on Monday:

1. make blueberry muffins for a friend who just had a baby.

2. a trip to the park

Miss Tori took most of these photos with my camera.

I think she's getting good at it!

3. A stroller-walk around the neighborhood.

Grandpa pushing.

Wyatt had to keep looking back to see what Tori and I were doing.

Very focused on getting to that toy!

Wave bye-bye to grandma!

Fishing license pays off...

Friday p.m.

Saturday a.m.

Saturday breakfast

Phil and Walker went on a hike Friday. 

 Phil caught one BIG trout - TWELVE INCHES!

This is our second Saturday morning in a row having fresh

pan fried trout for breakfast. 

By the way, Phil catches it and cooks it!

Farmer's Market

Steamed carrots

with a little butter and garlic

Rainbow Chard Fritatta

Roasted beets

Beet Greens steamed

and stirred into yukon gold mashed potatoes

Looking forward to a colorful week

Back to school sales.

OK, this year Walker told me not to buy him any back-to-school stuff. 

You must understand, I've been buying back to school items for 35 years.

This is a hard habit to break.

Walker said it makes no sense to travel with it

and he can buy what he needs at the bookstore or at Walmart.  

 OK. 

 No fun for me but if that's the way it has to be.

But, old habits die hard.  I took a little side trip through the back to school aisle at Target the other day, just for old times' sake,  and look what I found!  For ME, thank you very much! I love these composition books.  I've been filling one per month with my classes and craft ideas.  I may keep this up for a while, so I NEED lots.  Especially when some of them are .50.  I hear they may even be .10 each later on.  I even found that cool stretchy binder belt for keeping art supplies in.  You know, like when I take my sketchbook on a roadtrip.

Black and White and art all over...

I started a new on-line class.

It is Suzi Blu's "PORTRAITS" class. 

She says she can teach me to make sweet faced girls with stylized faces. 

But first, I had to draw an 8-part gray scale and a shadowed sphere.

Homework!

This is my first attempt, and I am pretty happy with it.  I thought the nose would be much harder. This is just the beginning of course, I have high hopes for great improvement.  This is the preliminary drawing.  Next I will adhere it into my sketchbook and add color and more shading.

This technique is something I learned from the Alisa Burke class.  You sketch out a picture using a non-permanent black pen.  Then, use a waterbrush, or a wet paintbrush to make it run a bit and look watercolor-ish. I like the technique.  It was hard to find a non-permanent pen in my house.

 And a couple of sketches inspired by the Alisa Burke class.  Above is a design that is on a scarf/tablecover I like. I am trying to sketch out (with ball point pen) designs in fabrics I have around home.

And this one is just looking at pictures of real flowers and trying to make them sketchy/doodle-y. This is a great way for me to relax and feel artistic.  Time just flies when I'm doing this.

My kind of fun!

Happy Birthday!

I have to admit we love our celebrations. 

On Walker's birthday Phil and I cooked him a great BIG breakfast.

fresh caught trout - cornbread pancakes - scrambled eggs - bacon. 

One of W's gifts - hearing protection for range days.

hmmm, I might want to borrow those around here sometimes...

 Ice Cream cake is a tradition for this July birthday.

Some people see art in everything around them!

We had what I call a "junk food" menu:

Hot Dogs, meatballs, beans,

chips and cole slaw.

Fancy cars in attendance: 

classic Trans Am, and hot off the press SONIC,

a new car for Aunt Jonny.

(the guys were all drooling over both)

We love our little family gatherings.

The countdown is on for Walker's return to his Senior year. 

Firsts...

Can you remember your FIRST Rice Krispie Treat?

Wyatt thought he found heaven on earth...

The rest of  us LOVE them too, but can you remember the FIRST?

We did some other fun things today too...like a trip to the park.

...and Tori is always perfecting her handstands and cartwheels!