Just Make Yourself At Home

We left the door open and she came in and made herself at home. In my husband's woodworking shop that is. Right on top of his drill press. So now we're leaving the door open on purpose. This little wren family will be safe and secure (and she will feel more secure when I leave her alone and quit sticking my camera in her face!). Our yard is quite the natural habitat and we have numerous bird feeders, bird baths, lots of shrubbery and other things that birds like. But we never intended to provide THIS much housing.

But she's welcome to stay awhile.

Sketching

Today at lunch I sat outside my office building and did a sketch of a piece of sculpture that is on the lawn of the building. It's a huge thing, maybe 15 to 20 feet high and is composed of rusting iron. I did the color after I got home. The original sketch was done in pencil in my 6x9 Aquabee sketch book, then re-done with a fineline Pitt Pen. The colors are all from Derwent Inktense pencils using a waterbrush. This sketch took me about 30 minutes and then about another 30 minutes at home for the color. Creating texture with color is hard for me. I could try to draw every little leaf or twig but I want to learn to do quick sketches. But it's ok, I'm a beginner and I have to learn to crawl before I can walk.

Just Say No

I've been thinking a lot lately about how much time I spend on the internet. I decided today that it was too much. So I've made the decision to spend my time doing something more productive. Blogging, however, is one internet thing I'll continue to do. In it's own way, blogging is productive for me. So today, instead of spending half the morning surfing the internet, reading through the many forums I participate in, etc., ad nauseum, I spent the morning replanting the flower planters on my deck, getting my tomato plants in the ground, talking with my husband and just generally enjoying the beautiful weather. I'm sure I won't be terribly missed online. I know I will have withdrawals. But today was good. I feel good about my decision and productive about my day.

I haven't posted a picture recently - so here's one from the archives. This is an object that is on the side of an old ice cream truck that I photographed a few weeks ago for an online challenge. I'm not sure just what this item is but I found it interesting. Hope you enjoy.

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy

The day has finally come! The dentist released me. It seems like it’s been forever (but it really hasn’t). Do not like dentists, dentists' offices, dentists' tools (ok, maybe for polymer clay). But I’ll have to say that my dentist made the time spent in his office as pleasant as possible and he does have a nice, friendly, helpful staff of people. That I hope I never see again.

Third Time's Charmed

Three Posts in One Day - I MUST be sick. It just feels so good to be out of bed and feeling semi-normal. (Semi-normal is about the best I can EVER hope for. {grin}) Took this photo of my baby girl this afternoon. She didn't like it one bit, either. Wanted me away from there so she could get her nap finished. Or maybe she didn't like the way I looked wandering around all pale-faced and still in my pajamas at 4 in the afteroon.

Life Happens

Well, I was supposed to be in Asheville, NC, this weekend for the BRPCG Play Day. Didn't happen. First dental issues got in the way, painful dental issues, then, as if that weren't enough, some sort of stomach virus kicked in. Friday and the first part of today have not been pleasant at all. But I think I'm now on the road to recovery. My lunch of wonderful Olive Garden Zuppa Tuscana soup (brought to me specially by St. Gene) has managed to stick with me and I've managed to stay out of bed for 4 hours now. HOPE!!

"I'm always doing things I can't do. That's how I get to do them."-- Picasso

Be Careful What You Ask For!

You asked to see my first real journal page, so here it is (unfinished, but here). And in case you are wondering, item one is an industrial grade electrical outlet, item two is my favorite coffee cup, item three is a table on the patio at one of my favorite lunch places (you're seeing a wrought iron bannister/fence) and item four is my car keys (minus all my Preferred Shopper cards). I divided the page into six little mini-pictures and I'll do the other two tomorrow. And I promise it really does look better (at least a little) seen at full size rather than at internet picture resolution. I'm really nervous about putting this out for my small blog world to see, but I have to start sometime I guess.

Pure Joy

My husband and I sat out on our deck last night, each of us with our sketch/drawing materials and just thoroughly enjoyed life. He had an easel set up and was drawing pictures of some fruit in a bowl, I had my little Aquabee 9x6 sketchbook and was drawing a picture of my coffee cup. When I can get back to my scanner I'll post my page (actually it's just the start of a page). I think I am going to enjoy the sketch journaling. Now I just have to be consistent with it and learn how to use my art supplies. I've started with the Derwent Inktense pencils and am loving them. Not sure how they are supposed to be used, but they are working for me like this so far. Picture later... I've also joined two Yahoo! Groups featuring sketchbook journaling - Everyday Matters and Day2Day. I'm nowhere near the skill or talent level of most of the participants so for awhile I'll just read and learn. Maybe later I'll post some of my pages for them to see - but maybe not. The sketch journaling should be a really good complement to my photography.

My creative life is getting better and better. My real life was and is already good. Nice!!

"R" Creates Buzz

Art Museum by dumpr.net

Just having a little fun with Dumpr. I think my picture would look good in a museum.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Time

Haven't been around much lately, have I? Interesting thing though, no one noticed. Oh well, it's a good thing my blog is for me. Otherwise I would be discouraged. And I have to say, the old advice about "leave a comment on other people's blog and they'll leave comments on yours" is mostly baloney. But it's really ok, I love my boring life and wouldn't have it any other way.

Gene started his drawing class at SCAD and seems to be having a good time. I'm not sure the classes are really being helpful since there seems to be more of an emphasis on drawing materials than on "how to draw" but he's having fun and that's what counts. It's fun watching him have fun.

The last few weekends have been rainy and stormy and not really good for getting out with my camera. But I did manage to get a few (a very few) pictures that I'm happy with. This photo of a fall-colored leaf hanging on through the gloominess of late winter/very early spring was taken on a nature trail which I discovered running beside our courthouse. The trail is still mostly winter drab and colorless but this little charmer was just hanging there, glowing as hard as she could. So I took her picture.

Flavors My Senses

"flavors my senses
sweetens my disposition
stirs my imagination
nourishes my dreams"

Found this on a small bag from Starbucks and thought it was really cool!! But in my case, it doesn't relate to coffee, it's my husband.