Art stuff, etc.

 

So, here are the last two ATC's for the Fabric and Fiber Landscape swap.

 These were kind of fun! I love Mod Podging things. :)

 I went shopping yesterday and found two pairs of slacks for work. Then I made the mistake of cruising through Hobby Lobby! I've never been in one before so I wasn't prepared for the huge size of the place. To find the little items I wanted took a long time. Actually, I went in to see if they had individual Prismacolor Premier colored pencils. I need several colors that aren't in my set. Yes, they did have some (sort of a picked over selection) in the VERY back of the store. On my way there I found a great set of colored Micron pens and a set of sparkly gel pens. Both great finds! I also picked up a couple of coloring books for Audrey and Hazel. You can never have too many. ;)

 I need black shoes for work. Do you think these will qualify? They had better! They were all I could find in my budget, and were still very expensive. Sorry, not gonna pay $140 for work shoes. These should last a while...I hope.

 I have to admit, I'm getting a little impatient to finish this Sketchbook Project thing. My entries will probably get simpler as I go along. Like this colored pencil sketch.

 And this one. Colored pencil isn't my favorite, but the watercolor seeps through this sketching paper (like on the left-hand side of this page) and I'm hoping colored pencil will cover better than trying to paint over it. If you look closely at the enlarged photo you'll see I've sketched some morel mushrooms where that dark blotch is. I can color them fairly darkly and maybe it will look okay.

Have you had a hazy, peachy evening sun where you are? Ours is caused by smoke from wildfires in Canada, I think.

 

I did get my back lawn completely mowed yesterday. The front is sort of half-mowed, but that will have to wait for another day. I'm not going to over do. Big week ahead, as always.

 

Hope you all enjoy your Sunday evening!

Have a great week!

Shalom.



Beginning my free weekend...YIPPEE!

I tend to construct my blog posts around whatever photos I happen to have in my camera. Today the pickings are slim! I've finished a couple of ATC's for the Fiber and Fabric Landscape swap. I've quite enjoyed making these. I've named them...

 

"A River Runs Through It" and...

"Plowed Field"

My collage skills are limited, but I had a bag full of old quilt scraps and I had fun making pictures out of them. I have two more ATC's that need some finishing touches before I reveal them to "the world".

I'm planning a road trip tomorrow. I need new work shoes and pants and my little town doesn't have much to choose from, so I'm heading north to Bemidji, which is about a 35 mile drive. Hopefully it will be a relaxing outing.

The next ATC swap I will do is called "Equine Lovers Unite!" I do like to draw horses, and they can be real or imaginary. I think I'm going to do all carousel horses. Won't this be fun to draw and color?

 Daughter Micah posted this photo of Hazel on Facebook today with the explanation, "She claims it's from a 'big crocodile.'" Hazel has such an imagination. But maybe we'd better check under the bed...
(Her Uncle Jordan responded, "That is a small to medium Midwestern Pond Croc at best. She's being melodramatic!") Ha, ha. Love my kids and grands.

Oh, almost forgot. Just for the record, this is the group of ATC cards I sent in for the Weaving swap. Not very exciting, but I finished it anyway!

Son Jordan (right) with friends at his church's youth camp. He was one of the in-charge adults and supervised a cabin full of 9th grade boys. He also supervised the music and worship. Zany bunch. They have a lot of fun while doing the serious business of ministry.

And here he is again with friend, Rachel, at church. She's the youth pastor.

 

This is my step-son Trevor and my granddaughters, Katy and Chloe. They live in the Baltimore area and this was the first day of school. They look excited. Trev is a very fun and humorous person, though he looks pretty serious here. :)

Grandson Cody. Beginning his last year of middle school.

My daughter-in-law, Rhonda, with Katy and Chloe. Rhonda is such a super wife and mom. Bob and I have always been so glad she chose Trev.

And last, but not least, Kristen. Ready for middle school.  (She's the one I bought the "Mustangs: Wild Spirit of the West" book for on her birthday. She's a real horse lady.)

 

Sorry for all the photos, but gotta keep Grandpa Glenn updated on the family! :)
Well, it's almost 11 p.m. That's too late to stay up! (For me, anyway.) I'll sign off for now. I've enjoyed visiting blogs tonight. Hope you all have a fun/restful weekend.

Shalom! :)

Voila!

This little weaving almost taxed my patience! Ha ha! My fingers felt so huge and fumbly trying to work on this. But I persevered...

 I added tassles to the bottom, which I should have done FIRST.

 I trimmed the tassles and added a willow twig for a hanger. (Hope that will make it through the mail!)

 Ta-dah! Almost finished. Just have to attach it to the card! I might paint the card. Not sure.

Couldn't resist a little Adele cuteness. She is a sweet little person. Micah's in search of a jumperoo because this little gal wants to be upright and bouncing!

I'm off to work soon. You all have a good day.
Shalom!

Tiny weaving...

My latest ATC challenge is the Weaving swap. The idea is to make a tiny weaving that will then be attached to an ATC. I don't think many of the ladies have done much weaving. I know I haven't, other than maybe a potholder or two in earlier years. So, we're all coming up with our own ideas as far as making a tiny loom to do the weaving on. I thought it would work to use a Styrofoam block, stick some pins in it and wind my warp threads around them. Wellllll... It's sort of working, but next time I think a block of wood and some nails might work better.

 

 

 

 

 I would also use something softer for the warp thread. The hemp I'm using wants to do its own thing. I'm also a little concerned about the upper left and lower right ends of the warp thread where I just tied it around the needle. How will I finish these? I kind of need a loop there. Well, I hope to figure that out when I get there!

 I bought these little trinkets to attach to the weaving.

 The infamous hemp...

 Friendship bracelet thread. It was a nice assortment of bright colors.

 This is how I started out. I don't really appreciate the way the Styrofoam block likes to shower me with shiny little Styrofoam snowflakes. I might encase it in a Ziploc bag next time and stick the pins through the plastic.

This is the most labor intensive ATC swap yet! My next weaving may involve fatter yarn to speed things up!

Well, that's one of the little things I'm up to. Hope you're all exercising your creativity. Have a good evening and a great week!

Shalom!

Hail anyone?

A major thunderstorm just blew through our town. I was taking an after work nap on the couch when I was rudely awakened by thunder. The sky looked threatening, so I turned on the Weather Channel. They said there was a severe thunderstorm warning for our area including a threat of high winds and hail. I watched for a while and as the wind and rain increased I decided to go sit in my walk-in closet. (They said to go to an inner room!) From there I can see out the bathroom window, which is on the southeast corner of the house. The storm was traveling to the southeast. The wind was lashing the trees around, and then the hail started. This was Ping-Pong to golf ball size hail. (Well, and some smaller stuff, too.)  The first two pics are at my house...

 This is my son-in-law's hand. He and his family danced through the lightning to get in their car and run over to Grandpa Doug's house. He has a basement. They don't enjoy sitting in their single-wide trailer house during this type of thing. They got to Grandpa's about a minute before the hail started. According to daughter Micah, Adam stood outside, under the covered porch and watched. Men! :)

 I see a few dimples on my car, but no actual damage to the paint. And then some glorious skies!

Now that the excitement's over it's supper time! Thanks to the Lord for protection through all of this. Now I know the meaning of the words "prayer closet", cuz I was doing just that in mine!

Shalom to all!

Back in business...

Meet my new blogging buddy...

A fairly cheap camera, but it'll do the job. ;) It works pretty much like my old camera, which is the most important thing to this old dog who doesn't like to learn new tricks!

Here are those new paints I've been playing with. They are much more vivid than my old paints, which are Windsor and Newton student grade.

A picture I took of the toy box just to try out the camera. :)

The photos take longer to upload for some reason. Oh well. I'm not complainin'!

I'm off to do some other stuff before the evening disappears, as it has a tendency to do. I got some copies made of some old photos so I can continue on my photo album project for the kids. The camera came with coupons for 100 free photo prints! That will help me along!

It's a lovely day. Hope yours is as well. Shalom, all!

My camera goes kapoot...

Sure, just when I get around to buying a new memory card my camera decides to die of old age. It keeps telling me the lens is obstructed and won't pull the lens in or take pictures. I'll just have to rehash old pictures or borrow some from the web, I guess, until I can shop around and decide if it's even worth the expense to get a new one. Anyway, here are a few of the last photos my little Kodak took...

My latest Sketchbook Project page. I have a friend at work who is a sled dog racer. She's the only one I know, but I think it's kind of a popular past time for a certain subculture of Minnesota. I made the lady musher a little...short. You can pretend she's crouching down, lol.

 

This was night before last. It was 9:30 p.m. so it was amazing that the camera got any picture at all. I had been closing my patio door blinds for the night and I caught sight of some beautiful thunderheads in the distance. After looking for a second I noticed they were lighting up like a light bulb every few seconds. I wanted to call my daughter and son-in-law and tell them to look out the window at the light show, but didn't want to call so late. I found out that they were outside doing chores and not only saw them, but videotaped them. :)

Little Adele is getting strong! Mama Micah needed to do some work on the web, so I got a nice visit today. They were soon off on errands and Grandma took a nap!

 Bert and Ernie are taking naps in the crib and cradle...

 Audrey chose a book from the bookshelf. Her hair is so long! She usually wears it in a ponytail or braid, but today it's flowing freely. :)

 

Still feeling a little tired after that cold I had this weekend, and from just working the weekend. I bought a few colors of artist grade paints (M. Graham) which I've been playing with a little bit. Sorry I can't take a picture!! But take my word for it, they're a big improvement over what I've been using. Hopefully I'll be in picture taking mode soon.

 

Thanks for dropping in! Y'all keep cool.

Shalom.

Pickles and honey...

I awoke in the middle of the night (Saturday night) with a sore throat. NO!! Well, thinking upon the subject of sore throats (Micah and family were sick last week, so...) I remembered a little hint my mom had given me in one of those famous emails she saved for me. She said that she always eats a pickle when she feels a sore throat coming on. Her sister (my aunt) gargles with vinegar and water, but Mom always chokes when she tries to gargle. So, up I got out of my little bed and to the fridge to eat two pickle planks. Upon returning to bed my stomach was having a gurgling fit, but I ignored that and went back to sleep. My throat does feel better this morning, and I took a little honey as well. :) Thanks, Mom!

Just for the sake of having some pictures in this post...here is my latest Sketchbook Project painting. I'm afraid I'm not looking forward to creating these paintings like I did at first. I think it's because the cheap, sketchbook paper doesn't take watercolor well. The paint just soaks in and disappears. But, I will soldier on. Colored pencil would be too time consuming, so I'll probably stick with paint. But you never know! I'm going to find some interesting hand-lettering examples to use for captions. When I get around to it.

Micah and the girls dropped by the grocery store today and visited with me for a few minutes. The two older girls had just been to gymnastics and were enjoying smoothies from Caribou as they rode along in the little grocery cart "car". They were all smiles. This was Hazel's first gymnastics class, and Micah said she spent a lot of time on the floor having a fit. LOL. Audrey, on the other hand, is all concentration and grace as she practices. She loves it! I'm not sure what the future holds for Hazel's gymnastics career. ;)

This is a photo I took as a model for another page of my sketchbook. The monarch is our state butterfly. I didn't know that until a couple of weeks ago. :)

Oh man, almost bed time. My evenings slip by so quickly! The weather was beautiful today. It's cooling off a bit. Is autumn creeping up on us? Thanks for dropping by, whomever is reading this!

Shalom! :)