A little art...

It's an overcast morning here, but no snow or precip expected in the near future. Maybe with the warmer temps we'll melt a little of this snow!

Josh and family are still settling into their new place. Nathan has joined them and they are still working through some behavioral issues. School placement is still up in the air. Hopefully, within the next week they will decide where he will attend.  He will probably need to be bussed to a neighboring district where they have better resources. Their internet is so bad (slow, dial-up?) that Josh will probably drop in here each day to upload his work. He's figured out something he can do with his smartphone involving a hotspot, but that will only be useful to a limited degree. They plan to find a more satisfactory place to live in a year when their lease is up, but this is workable for now. And I love having Josh drop in. I feel blessed to have them all near!

I've been dabbling in ATC's as I get the opportunity. Here is a group I just mailed off for a swap called "On the Other Hand". They were to be done totally with our non-dominant hand. The little fox and house were copied from two children's books illustrated by Jared Lee.

Another swap was called the "Library Card Catalog" swap. One of our ATC people works as a librarian and he has a pile of old card catalog cards. As host he mailed each of the players some catalog cards and we were supposed to use parts of the cards to make an ATC.

 Then there is the ongoing Altered Playing card swap. We're working our way through the deck. Well, actually, two decks. We do one group of postage stamp cards and one group of bird cards. The bird cards can be drawn or collaged. I don't usually post collaged cards just because it's not really "art", as with drawing. But it's nice to keep track sometimes. :) I think I already posted the birds for #9.

 

Here are the #8 cards. I have several bird identification guides and, yes, I'm actually cutting up one of them for these collages. It's a small paperback that is missing its cover and has been scribbled in and bent up by grandchildren. So, I didn't feel bad using it. I do have a couple of nice ones that I keep out of reach of kids, lol. (Unless I'm supervising the bird watching.)

I sometimes put my art aside, thinking it's kind of a silly waste of time. In other words, I could be using that time for more important things. But I really do think it's necessary as a little bit of color and creativity in my day. It's my little happy pill, lol. The real waste of time for me is just staring at a computer screen. I do a LOT more of that than I do working on art. I'm hoping to cut back so I have more time for prayer and reading the Bible and books that surround me with thoughts of Jesus. The difficulties of life only come into perspective when we turn toward Him and really grow closer to Him.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Here's a little something from Rend Collective. (I just love to listen to Gareth talk! Ha ha!)



God bless you all for stopping by! Hugs and shalom!