WINDY!!!!

Oh my there's trouble all over the place because of wind. Tornadoes even. Here, it is just WINDY. And I am hoping my newly planted tomato plants don't get shredded. I've put off doing any more out there because it is so windy I can't even dig in the dirt without choking. so I just watered a lot and am hoping for the best. My peas look good, I did lose one to a snail I think. Will see if it recovers.
I took pictures, but since my camera isn't here, it's there (the bother of living in two places) I can't post them yet.
Still hoping to find my sewing machine cord. I should just give up and order a new one. THEN I would find it. ;) NOTE: That's exactly what happened!

where does the time go??

Being creative is sometimes hard to fit in to everything else. Right now, I'm only home 2 nights a week-- the rest, staying with my mother in law. I spend my days there, and so far haven't taken paints. I should. She might like it too. I got an outdoor table, so I ought to just do it. She's losing her sight, but she used to paint, and if she could get past not Being Perfect, then maybe she could...I gessoed some pages and did some more ghosting while i was there... just finished, and am dissatisfied with the results... just am so tired I can't think much less create something. Of course the beauty of painting is i can just gesso it again and start over.... maybe tomorrow, or technically today since it is after midnight.

A funny thing happened today though. I planted the sweet pea plants in the garden and found out that they are not "sweet peas" but they are "sweet peas". Not Sweet peas the flower. Sweet PEAS. LOL.... I had a good giggle, and I guess they ought to look pretty anyway but I was disappointed. I also planted snapdragons, dahlias,   and transplanted 4 peach seedlings, at my mother in law's request, because she wants to see what kind of peaches we will get.... but she's 95 and I don't know if they will be bearing soon enough. Oh well, I will do it anyway, and we will see. She might surprise me. I planted 3 kinds of tomatoes, and am preparing the beds for swiss chard, lettuce, and several kinds of beans, although not the favorite one-- blue lake pole beans. Couldn't find them anywhere. :(  I am LOVING the gardening. I get up around 6:30 and garden in the coolness. Very cool. Pictures someday.

Speaking of creating, and speaking of my mother in law, she has something new she made for lunch one day. The peanut butter and pickle sandwich was one thing, but when she added raisins to the tomato soup and loved it, I'm shaking my head.

She hardly ever acts like she has dementia.  LOL

frustration to thankfulness...

When I saw this video on Sharpie Ghosting I just knew I had to try it. Today started out really frustrating, because I am still not feeling well. I jumped up to get moving and nearly fell over with dizziness. I went to the bank anyway but it was sort of bad... by the time I got home the couch looked really good.

I always want Instant Sickness Finished. when I went to the drug store last night I was fine. But my ear started hurting in the night.

Anyway, my Sharpie writing was full of frustration and why can't I whining. Of course I had to cover the page in three directions so by the time I got to the last layer it was pretty gone so I started writing what I was thankful for.

I put two layers of gesso on the top. While the top layer was wet, I scribbled with Slick Stix. then I had fun fingerpainting swirls and blending the yellow and blue. I let that dry and when putting away the gesso saw some glow in the dark paint... so I swirled some on the top. When I saw the dry swirly page I could hear angels singing... a celestial symphony. I remembered that music stamp and the notes, and the flowers at the bottom to keep me grounded here on earth while I'm listening. If you look closely you can see the ghosting... it is more in person.

Anyway it sure felt good. My attitude turned around and oh if I wasn't hooked on art journaling before I sure am now. I'm going to do a bit of journaling around on the page but kind of think it will be private. :)

And can't wait until tonight to see how it looks in the dark!

keeping up with myself...

It is hard to keep up with myself. I can't get enough of painting/stamping/carving lately. Originally I wanted to order gelatos, but the price stopped me, and I kept thinking, why do I keep wanting all this STUFF when what I need to do is figure out how to do it with something else?? So Michael's came up with this video about Slick Stix, which are made for kids. About $4 for a pack of 5 of them. Has kind of the texture of lipstick... I spritzed the stamp lightly with water and colored right on it. With some experimenting I'll come up with what I like.

I also used a couple stamps from GinaK's "botanicals" set and I love the look. So maybe tomorrow I will take some time and make a few cards.

Hard to compare with gelato results because 1) not the same stamp and 2)never used gelatos. LOL

something different...

last night I saw this video from two peas in a bucket...

so I got out some coffee filters and some alcohol ink and went to work. I left the petals to dry all night and this morning put them together. They don't look as beautiful as the two peas' photos but they work. And the cat can't spill the water out of them... whenever I have flowers on the table she pushes the vase off the edge of the table.

experimental stuff... making blogger easier. wondering.

This is just an experiment. I don't know how this will work at all. But it seems that one ought to be able to add a table here somehow so the picture captions line up.

Kind of a pain, actually.  I am so rusty with html... haven't had to use it for years. I guess it's like riding a bicycle, though, it comes back if you practice. Question is, do I care enough? LOL

or, put the caption below the picture, by putting only one column in the table...

or, add caption directly to the picture, which results in small print,... will have to continue experimenting. :)

Of course, if the table border was not showing that would be good too. Not too much trouble I guess, we will see if I use this new found idea.

SUNday

I started this page just painting it yellow, having no idea of what I would do. Then I thought of the sun, but since the page was already yellow, I couldn't very well make the SUN yellow, could I? So orange it became. I used a henna stencil on the top of the orange with yellow for interest... I was going to just journal on the bottom but then started between the sun's rays.

My husband doesn't want to grow anything. I do. I didn't realize that it was bothering me so much... but it is. I have to grow... he will have to understand that, it is a part of me I can't just ignore any more. I haven't had much garden here, and I miss it intensely. I'm looking forward to gardening at his mom's place, I'm just going to DO IT....

dreaming...

well this carved eraser was inspired by a card.... but sure isn't anything like it. I am excited to have carved it though.

We used to live way out in the country. I mean WAY out.

Our "driveway" was a mile of dirt and gravel. There were three neighbors on the road and one was my cousin! The neighbors at one house had peacocks and James and I often drove by in the evening when they were the most active. They are LOUD... we could hear them all the way to the top of the hill where our house was. We always enjoyed "talking" to them and their answering screeches.

I sure miss the hills. Wonder if I'll ever get to move back there?

Now that I am in the city, actually a smaller town really... there are advantages to both. It isn't 45 minutes to everywhere. I am still amazed that when I get down to the orange bar on the gas gauge that I better get gas "one of these days" instead of panicking that I won't get to the station.

But the nights looking at the stars that one can actually SEE... and hearing coyotes calling... and the silence... I miss my dreamland.

advantages to being sick...

Being sick, haven't felt like doing much of anything. Haven't gotten out pencils for a long time. Just felt like drawing... this is a friend's dog and she posted a picture on facebook and didn't give me permission to draw him but I am sure she wouldn't mind.

I wonder if I will ever jump and take that drawing class I've been wanting to take?

Or sign up for the gym and swim.... or start going to church again?

greeting cards...

Well for better or for worse, here's the first card I did with my hand carved peacock feather. I used my Colorbox rainbow ink pad that I have had for YEARS and it is amazingly still usable. I printed the lowest ones then masked them and went up the page. I am not too satisfied but I could spend DAYS trying to be "perfect"... so there you are.

Since I am just beginning to learn about carving, I can see there is a ton to learn. First, what is the best thing to carve. I got some linoleum for carving, but for stamps it is too hard. This eraser is a bit too soft. I found that when pressing down if I put an acrylic block on the top I got more of an even impression. Otherwise, the eraser bends and you get a lot of background.

This is fun though. Here's the second card, no focal image yet, but I like it better. As usual, p-r-a-c-t-i-c-e... and like when I took piano lessons, I just wanted to DO it and not have to practice. Also as the piano lessons, the more I practiced, the more I could just DO it. LOL will I learn?

Now, of course, I will have to either get or carve a peacock head, because that's what I visualize there in the middle of the bottom. ;)

how many cranes until you can do it without the tutorial...

Well, today it was 8. I know it is just over and over and over. Sad part is, I knew how to fold cranes, actually I taught a class on it. but I didn't have it firmly in my head, and it was a number of years ago.

and then I had fun with a dinner napkin.