BOOK SALE!!

Wah hoo! Library book sale! Warning: lots of photos ahead!

As a backstory I should mention that my 6 year old grandgirl, Audrey, took a reading test yesterday. She's in 1st grade and the test showed she's reading at a 4.8 level (4th grade, 8th month). I'm not suprised! She's been sucking up learning like a vacuum since she was born. SO, when I mentioned to daughter Micah that I was heading to the book sale she asked if I would look for some chapter books, since her teacher had suggested getting her some books that would challenge her. (Audrey was excited to tell us that she gets to pick her book from the BIG KIDS books at the library!) I found that it was tricky finding something challenging for a six year old to read. It seems like so many of the chapter books already have themes of cliquish girls being mean to each other, or maybe boys becoming of interest. So, I went for some more old-fashioned books. I think she can read most of these without too much difficulty. This is fun for Grandma the book pusher!
Here are a few I got for Hazel and Adele. Lots of animals.

And here are Audrey's. For ten cents each I was kind of a book hog... I got a couple of these at the thrift store.

 Here's what I got for me. A lot of these I got because I love the illustrations. Some may be used for collage (gasp!), but I'll think long and hard before cutting up an old book. I really don't want to spend money on tons of printer ink to make copies, and hopefully I'll make something with them that will be used and appreciated by the recipient. But mostly I'll look at the pretty pictures. :)

Yes, that is Dick and Jane in the lower left! Two of them! I couldn't pass them up. I learned to read with Dick and Jane and I love the colorful illustrations. The Tapestry one at the top is stories of children from all over the world. I may pass that along to Audrey after I enjoy it.

When I was paying for these one of the library volunteers said to her hubby, "Oh, look! A whole book about Leonardo Da Vinci!" I felt kind of bad that she hadn't found it first! The two books on the right are Spanish textbooks that have lots of good lists and lessons for beginners. The little book in the upper left is full of tiny pen and ink drawings illustrating children's poems. I'm copying some of those in a sketchbook for fun.

I may use some of this sheet music for collage, but once again, it's hard to do that. But I don't think anyone would have used it for its intended purpose. The Exodus Song is one of my all time favorites, so I'll hang onto that! The Christmas books is packed with beautiful illustrations, some full-color, others pen and ink. Inspiration!

These are two illustrations from the children's poetry book. There are just tons of charming drawings like these.

While I was at the thrift store, in addition to a couple of chapter books for Audrey I picked up this little baggy of random yarn leftovers. It appears to be cotton yarn, so I thought I could use it to make little washcloths or something small when I feel like playing with my knitting needles.

I also bought two warm sweaters for around the house. Yellow isn't my best color, but this one looked warm with the collar. This is my first winter in this house, so I'm trying to prepare in case it's drafty. The cocoa colored cardigan isn't really my style, but it sure is snug for lounging around! (They were both on the $1 rack!)

I'm still participating in the Inktober drawing challenge. Here are my #7-#12 drawings.

 

 This was my 5x7 canvas for this month. I ended up outlining all of the letters with white gel pen to try to correct the smeary "a". It did look a little better.

 

I'm following along with a gal on YouTube as we (she and her audience) put together "Idea Notebooks". This is a place to keep all of those ideas that spin around in our heads, and tend to be forgotten before we can do anything with them. I found some decorative paper that included this cute typewriter, so I used it as my cover and then stamped the words on the blank page. I think it's sooooo cute! Now I'll enjoy filling it with stuff! The idea is to have one central place to put all of your creative ideas instead of having them scattered around in lots of little notebooks and scraps of paper. It will be a fun project and may even bear some fruit if I actually implement some of the ideas!

I'm developing an interest in collage. I'm thinking paper collage on canvas, and eventually, when I have a bigger place, maybe even tile mosaics. (Think garden decor!)

Does anyone know what this is? Well, yeah! It's Lisa's version of a tea cozy! (Since I've never gotten around to knitting one.) I'm finally using my new teapot, though I'm finding that the tea cools off quite a bit before I get around to pouring it into my cup. I'm also using the old tried-and-true-mug-in-the-microwave technique. Good tea weather! I drove into town today on a back road and I so wish I had taken my camera with me! This is a windy, hilly road that twists and turns between various lakes. It runs through woods that were all bright yellow, orange and red leaves contrasting with deep green evergreens. Beautiful and sunny. It was really windy, but still comfortable for wearing jeans and a flannel shirt. Perfect!

Well, I'm going to run over to Duolingo and do a little language. I played hooky yesterday.

Happy Fall, everyone! God's blessings on all of you!
Shalom!

A sunny fall day...

Nice to see the sun this morning! Well, it was a little foggy at first, but it's shaped up very well since then. Sixty-six degrees! Flowers are blooming and lady bugs are hatching out!

I woke up at about 4 a.m. feeling very croaky in the bronchial tubes, so I arose and made myself a cup of coffee hoping that some warmth in the area would get things opened up and moving. I sat on the couch, closed my eyes and communed with the Lord for a while. I sometimes think He wakes me at 4 in the morning because it's the only time He can get me to sit still and listen! Could be! Because of that, I slept in late.

I spent quite a bit of time this morning making a birthday card for my granddaughter Chloe, who will turn 10 next Wednesday. She lives in the Baltimore area and I don't know her very well. I've only seen her a few times because they live so far away. She belongs to my step-son Trev and his wife Rhonda who I talked about in a recent post. It's surprising that I don't make more cards since I have so many art supplies lying around, but the few times I have made them I've been a little disappointed. For Chloe's card I used all stickers and it was a lot of fun! I think it's a lot more cheerful than one of my watercolor paintings. I wrote a little message inside, which reminded me of something I just read in my Bible the other day: "I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write." I always chuckle at that last line. :) Anyway, this is what it looks like.

I really slathered on the stickers! The nice thing about stickers is, they're always making new ones!

back of card

 I've always loved this painting. I can't remember the name of the artist! Anyone know? Phoebe something? I was all ga-ga over her work for a while, but got a little tired of her feminist message. But I do like her painting style, so I may commandeer this for the backs of all of my cards. ;)

 These drawings are for an online challenge called Inktober. Every October there's a challenge to draw something in ink every day for a month. They have a list of prompts, but we don't have to follow it. I'm just posting my pictures on ATC's for All, which is where I do my ATC swapping. A group of us are doing this together.

 Here's the photo I used for the drawing above. I came across this when I was looking for pictures of fish to draw. I thought they were so cute! I never really thought about what the duck was seeing when its tail was up in the air!

An ATC I made for someone.

Son-in-law Adam and his father and a friend are putting up the rafters on the new house today! They've also put up a lot of plywood on the outside walls, but since they're doing board-and-batten siding they have to cut zillions of little boards to nail in between the wall studs so they have something to nail into from the outside when they put up the siding. Piddly work, but they are patient guys. I'll have to remember to take my camera along sometime to document the progress for my two male readers, Dad Glenn and Brother Mark. Remember...that's the operative word!

I just finished this rooster which will be mailed off to cheer up a fellow ATC maker. It's an 8x10 canvas. :)

Oh, I've been spending lots of time watching YouTube videos while I've been sick this week. (Since when do I need an excuse?) This lady (below) has tons of videos and they're all 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 HOURS long. They are streaming videos, but they're from a couple of years ago. Anyway, I'm trying not to watch too many of them, but if you just want something artsy to watch when you're not feeling up to doing anything more demanding you might want to give it a try. In this video she's showing us how to get all of our creative ideas organized in one 3-ring binder. I don't think I need this much room and I think she takes WAY too long to explain it. (And this is only one of many videos about it!) But it was pleasant listening when I'm feeling puny. Here it is:




YouTube has been acting kind of funny, so I hope this works. Anyway, you could spend a lifetime watching her videos, so control yourselves!! LOL

I will talk to you all later! Have a great day!
Shalom.