Technicolor Tuesday

Today's title is in reference to my guest artist's contribution from this weekend. It was already hanging on the refrigerator, so I forgot to share it yesterday. I found a few pdf files at Mural Maker and More that had 8.5" x 11" pictures that I found I could print out for my little artists to color as they chose. Here is a cardinal colored by Little Miss 3:

I love this picture and am impressed with both the colors and the staying in the lines.

Yesterday was a very busy day for me. I ran errands. First I loaded up the car and stopped at the recycle center. All my bins were full to overflowing. Next stop - Office Max. I took my 20% off bag and purchased some card stock and printer ink and a few other odds and ends. I love an office supply store! Then it was on to Sam's Club for bulk purchases; then Meijer's for among other things salad fixings. I thought my last stop would be the farm store to exchange a flannel shirt that was a Christmas gift - the sleeves were too short.

I called the daughter to let her know that I would be stopping at her house to drop off some clementines for the girls only to find that she was running around trying to get her water pump fixed. I'd left my phone off so she had to leave work to take care of it. I'd told her to have the plumber call me - rats!!!

I did pick up a gallon of water the guy needed (I'm thinking maybe to prime the pump???) and dropped off the water and clementines before heading home where I unloaded the car, put away groceries and caught up with email and a friend on the phone.

The hubster was "working" at the Maple Street Mall and was due home around 6:30 so I wanted to have dinner ready for him. I'd bought some hot Italian sausage and some generic pasta sauce earlier in the day and made some spaghetti. I also picked up some strawberries and an angel food cake. Yum! Yum!

I felt guilty for not keeping the date with the treadmill, so after dinner and tutoring a neighbor in Algebra, I got on the treadmill and did an hour. It felt so good.

After that I sketched (with the help of the light box) a picture of Little Miss 3, another of my things that are "highly prized".

Even with the help of the light box I have a hard time making her look like a little girl. She looks more like 8 than 3.

I still haven't gotten to the bathrooms, the vacuuming, the dusting.....

I have a Mom and Algebra student coming today after school so I can't put off the house cleaning any longer. I will make time for art, though. I may even attempt a bit of watercolor.

That's all I have for now. I hope to see you tomorrow.

xoxo

December has Arrived

There is a bit of ice and snow here and the satellite isn't sure it wants to work to provide me access to my internet friends.

I spent most of yesterday morning working on the website I get paid to maintain (actually most of the work is preparing the pictures to be uploaded). When I was done with that, I made the soup I have been promising to make for the last three days and it was yummy, if I do say so myself. My son and a friend came out in the afternoon for a bit of help with their Algebra homework and then I spent some time in my art room.

I am working on a Christmas card for my Mom. The sketching of the fanciful reindeer went pretty well, but for some reason no matter how I try I can't get colored pencil to look good. I tend to get lines and pretty childish looking coloring. I did try putting a layer of Caran d'Ache water soluble wax pastels over it, but the jury is still out on the verdict.

So I spent some time doodling in my art journal and decided to play a bit more with the red and black one I started a couple of nights ago. I actually doodled without much mindfulness and it appeared to draw itself. It decided it wanted to be a parachute, and who was I to argue.

What do you think?

And then the more I thought of the card I was trying to make for Mom, the more I thought that maybe a doodled reindeer would be cool. So on the facing page I sketched a fanciful reindeer (his head would not cooperate) and began to doodle. I am not completely pleased with how it turned out, but I am really excited to try again.

I think I must have an addictive personality because you already know I am addicted to playing with Photoshop. A whole day can go by and I will have done nothing but that. Well, now I am pretty sure I can feel that same narcotic feeling when I doodle. Who knew? Maybe I should have left well enough alone and remained in my "ignorance is bliss" fear of doodling state. At this point I am not sure what is going to happen next, but last night I dreamed of making my Aunt Mary a Christmas card with a zentangled ornament on the front. YIKES! But actually a great idea.

I am going to Chelsea with my friend Nancy today and hope know I will have a great time. I am in the right frame of mind and she is always so much fun. She is like a sister (not that I don't already have enough of them).

I think I'd better get a move on and get ready to go. See ya!

Backgrounds via Photoshop Pattern Maker

Yes, I am guilty. Even though yesterday was full of other stuff, I stayed up late (I got a not from my friends Pam and Bev asking me IF and WHEN I sleep) playing with Photoshop again. I have started making the patterns by choosing an image to distort somehow and then applying the offset filter on that distortion. I am then choosing some other image/distortion on a new layer that somehow fits/pleases me. I am getting a lot of different looks this way and will no doubt try another permutation of this process before I get tired of making these.

My friend Francine told me she really likes the patterns, but asked what I would do with them, so just before starting this post I opened a pattern from yesterday that I particularly like and made an ATC using it. What do you think? I just threw this together and I like it so I think if I spent more time on it, I could make some really fun ones. I think it would be fun to "draw" on some of the patterns to make a more personal, less digital piece.

And, of course, I made a batch of new patterns that I'd like to share. You may use them if you'd like and I'd really like to see how you adapt them to your art.

Don't get dizzy looking at this one.

Walk like an Egyptian.

I'm really liking this one.

Another eye popper.

I just can't stop myself.

I seem to be doing a lot of circles today.

I added a texture to this one and really like the effect.

Here it is without the texture.

I love blue and green together.

Before filling with the pattern, I put a gradient on the background paper.

Okay, I'll stop now and if anyone is thinking, "This woman is crazy and really  is addicted", you're right. Each day I tell myself I am going to do something other than Photoshop, but when I am innocently on the computer checking my email or reading the blogs I subscribe to I hear the siren call and I am helpless to ignore it. Before I know it I am sucked into the time warping vortex that is Photoshop and it is hours later before I come to my senses.

Today I am spending the day with my friend Nancy playing with her new computer and doing some Photoshopping. She is new to this addicting software and I want to indoctrinate her so that I am not alone in my addiction. Bwah! Ha! Ha!

Tomorrow I am spending the day in Marshall learning how to make a fabric book with my friend Tina. I promise to show that and more next post and try to stay out of Photoshop for a day or two. However, some time soon I want to do a tutorial on how to color correct your photos in 3 easy steps. I learned this trick from Dave Cross and have found it to be extremely useful.

My posts may be hit or miss next week. We are going up to the Leelanau peninsula on Sunday and Monday and then I am tutoring for two hours with my Statistics student on Wednesday afternoon before returning home to meet with two Algebra students who are considering hiring me to tutor them as well.

For now, I am going to grab a bite to eat, have another mug of coffee, jump in the shower and drive over to Nancy's house for a day of Photoshop fun!!

Bye,

Puzzling and Sleep Deprived

I don't have much for you today. I spent most of yesterday with the 2 year old and then in late afternoon met her big sister's bus only to find that she hadn't felt well at school and was running a fever. This completely changes the way in which we spend time together. She is being kept home from school today and I will have both girls from 9:30 this morning until dinner time.

I stayed at my daughter's house last evening until almost midnight with my son and a friend of his helping with Algebra homework and woke up at 5:00 this morning unable to get back to sleep. Sure hope both girls take a nap today so I am able to also.

Here is the little I got done yesterday. The 3D butterfly is painted with iridiscent copper light on the back side so that it somewhat matches the decorative top layer.

The picture quality is not the best, but I think you get the idea. I will not be doing any more art today until after dinner when the girls get picked up and then only if I have any energy left by then, but I hope to add to the other two puzzle pieces some time soon and will share them then.

A heads up to two free Creative Tech videos - one is on Photoshop Smart Objects by Lesa Snider and the other is on Open Type Fonts by Jay Nelson. You can watch them here.

Gotta go; see you tomorrow.

Jiggety Jig

I'm home! The nicest thing about being away is the wonderful feeling when you return. I am never as happy as when I am at home.

While I was gone the hubster painted the master bedroom a lovely, peaceful color called "Sand Dollar". He also rearranged the furniture when he was done. It is really lovely and I am so pleased he cares enough to do these kinds of things. He had already painted the master bath before I left and it is a soft yellow. I took down all the dark green flowered pieces (shower curtain, valance, wallhanging) that I made years ago and replaced only the shower curtain with a Target find that is quite light with some soft yellow and periwinkle stripe. I really like the window with just the blinds.

While I was at my Mom's, I did a ton of tough crossword puzzles, played a lot of Yahtzee, watched lots of Tiger games and went to second hand stores. At the Goodwill in Sault Ste. Marie I found a bag full of goodies. And yesterday morning before leaving we stopped at Hope House in St. Ignace and I found a few more.

Goodwill goodies. My Mom bought the Do It Yourself book for me earlier in the month.

Hope House finds.

My son is coming over this morning to get some last minute Algebra help before his final exam later this afternoon. He is getting a 4.0 right now, but is a bit insecure about a couple of topics that we will go over again. What a lovely change from trying to help him when he was in junior high and high school. He is a lot of fun and is very bright so it is a great visit when he comes over with his homework.

In case you can't tell, I love math! I taught Algebra thru AP Calculus at the high school level for 16 years before retiring to become a blogger and self-taught artist.

Gotta go - my boy (he's 27, but will always be my boy) is due any time now and I need to get some postcards in the mail. I have the baby (she's not really a baby anymore. she will be 2 in mid-September) coming over this evening to spend some time with me while the older sibs go to the movies with Mom and Dad. I am going to see if I can keep her overnight.

Later..........

Memories and Redos

I am a bit distracted today. It is one year ago today that my younger brother, John, gave up his battle against cancer. He was 52 years old. I am a little sad, but am working on focusing on the wonderful memories I have of him particularly when he was a little guy and he and Dan and Joe were inseparable and full of fun and mischief.

I scraped as much wax as I could off the piece of wood I was working on and instead tried a bit of paper napkin on it. I am pleased with how it turned and will try my hand at wax another time.

I used matte PPA underneath and glossy PPA on top.

I am meeting my Algebra tutee at 9 this morning and need to shop for a bridal shower gift afterward. The shower is tomorrow so I cannot put it off any longer.

I woke up this morning with a sore throat and a bit of hoarseness. I did have the girls for most of the day yesterday and Payton was running a fever. I don't know if that is connected or not, but I will remember to drink lots of liquids today and hope to get rid of it in a hurry.

Gotta go!

Art Booty

It was pouring rain when Nancy arrived yesterday morning and I (and she) had lost power. But a sale waits for no one!

The warehouse sale was fantastic - I could have bought twice as much! Sue was very helpful and just as nice as she always is and we both filled up a large brown bag with goodies. Because of the awful weather (although, we desperately need the rain), the sale may be extended to another day. If I hear more, I will let you know.


Nancy had read about an estate sale right nearby in the newspaper the day before and so we had an additional adventure for after the warehouse sale.



It was too early for lunch when we were done "shopping" so we stopped at the Jackson Coffee Company on Mechanic Street and had a lovely cup of coffee (Nancy had tea) and a muffin. Mine was banana and hers was some kind of sweet with cherries and cream cheese. Yummy!

Nancy had brought me goodies as well and her friend had loaned me the book "Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral" by Kris Radish. Once I started reading I wanted to read the whole book, and did. It was fun; it was moving; it was silly; it had too pat an ending; it was such a good read that I am going to go to the library and find more of her books.

I am on my first mug of coffee and am meeting my Algebra tutee at 9 at Panera. I think I'll wait to eat until I get there and then I will have an apple muffin with my hazelnut coffee.

I'm hoping my son is coming over this afternoon and then tomorrow morning to work on his Algebra homework.

I'm getting the baby (22 month old) sometime tomorrow and keeping her until some time Monday. Should be great fun!!

Gotta go! I'll try to work with something from my loot from the sales later today and post about it tomorrow.

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugh-ly

My morning yesterday was busy, fun and productive. I spent it drawing, tracing and cutting out shapes from fun foam and adhering them to pieces of cardboard to make my own stamps. A bit limited, but fun nonetheless.



I probably should have stamped them with black on white paper, but I think you can see them well enough. To get the bits of detail in some of them, I simply marked them with a pencil with a bit of pressure to leave an impression in the foam.


I had an appointment with my Algebra tutee at 3 pm at Panera's, so left a bit early to make a trip to the library and then stop at the recycle center with newspaper, plastic and styrofoam. I still had a bit of time so I ran into Target to buy a small chain to wear one of my pendants. A side note: I always say that I am not "into" jewelry. I had totally forgotten why that is - After wearing the small chain for only about 1/2 an hour, the back of my neck began to burn. By the time I got that necklace off, I had a long red painful area where the chain had come into contact with my skin. That is why I am not "into" jewelry. And that brought back all the reasons why I had my ears pierced twice before finally letting them grow back forever. Even when I bought the most expensive "hypoallergenic" kinds of metals, my ears continued to "ooze". I am obviously overly sensitive - or at least my skin is!

When I got home I couldn't wait to try out the Melting Pot. I read all the instructions carefully and plugged it in, turned it on and added a large amount of UTEE. I covered it and waited for the orange light to go out. When the orange light went out signaling that the UTEE was ready to be used, I took off the cover. Imagine my surprise when I found that there were three distinct layers in the pot. The lower layer was liquid. The middle layer was like an ice floe - solid. The upper layer had bits of powder on it. Thinking that it was me and not the appliance, I moved the mess around a bit with the Kool Tool and recovered it and waited. Finally it appeared (with much coaxing) that it had indeed melted. But alas!

This is what I have to show for my efforts. The rectangular and roundish parts are the result of dipping some of my pendants into the "melted" UTEE. Each and every one of them hardened around the object and then promptly separated. The big blob in the lower right corner is the UTEE I emptied out of the container when I was thoroughly disgusted and ready to stop playing. It really is that sort of amber color that you can get if you want by overcooking the UTEE. Mine didn't cook enough, but still that color! Go figure!

I am taking the Melting Pot back to Michael's and getting store credit so that I can buy something else. This experience was too exasperating, too messy and too ugh for me to want to try it all over again. For now I will be happy using an embossing pad and using the UTEE in solid form with my heat gun to get any lovely shine on things.

I am going to Michael's when they open and I will post my alternate purchases when I return.

Bye for now!

Nana Day & an Almond Tin

Yesterday P and M were dropped off around 2:30 and then P's friend was dropped. I took all three girls to the library where P and M read to each other and worked a floor puzzle, and M colored, carried all the stuffed animals around and rearranged the little kid furniture. It was a fun time. We then stopped at a party store to get ice cream and root beer for floats and came back home just in time for Poppa to grill some hot dogs and make floats before he left to play tennis. After dinner P and I took her friend back home while my son stayed with his daughter, K, and the baby.

We had all three grandgirls overnight and it turned out so fine. They all slept all night in their respective beds, even the baby in a "big girl" bed. I got up around 7:30 and made coffee and the baby got up around 7:45. She had breakfast and then K got up for breakfast. They played together very well until P got up. Then I spent time with the baby while the big girls played together.

Their mother (DD) came out and had coffee with me and then took all three to her house. So I have some free time to do some art and have a bite before going in to town to meet my Algebra tutee.

I wanted to show you the cute little tin I purchased from the California Almonds people. I love tins - actually I love containers - and this one is so cute, but I thought it would be about the size of an Altoids container. It is quite small and holds 22 almonds which is how many you are supposed to eat at one time for a snack. I took a picture of it next to an ATC so that you could better judge the size. I don't remember exactly what I paid for it, but if I had known how cute and how little they were going to be I would have ordered a bunch to give away to friends.

Isn't it so cute?

Well, I'd better get on with my day. I hope to get some time after the Algebra session to work on more dominoes. I am planning to do more hand drawing on these ones, not just stamped and colored.

Chelsea Farmers' Market & Altered Dominoes

Saturday was the 4th of July. Perhaps because of this the farmers' market only had about half as many vendors as usual and not nearly as many customers as usual. This date may not have been the best for my initial venture.

However, it was a beautiful morning and I always enjoy spending time with the hubster. I took lots of pix of the vendors who participated and saw some very nice produce and flowers.



I didn't sell any domino pendants, but did get lots of advice after the fact through some of the Yahoo groups. It appears in retrospect to be something I should have thought of, but didn't. I should have worn one of the necklaces; I should have had some on chains or leather and had them hanging up; I should have had my own display table and not been included with the wood crafts (beautiful as they are, they are not jewelry).

The show wasn't a complete washout. I had a good time and met some nice, friendly people. One of the music tents was right next to us and the music was quite pleasant. The hubster sold the cedar deck chairs and table.

I am having a garage sale next weekend at my house to try to get rid of the baby/toddler toys and things that DH left when she moved to her new house, but the following Saturday I am planning to have a better display and my own space to see how it goes. That is unless that is the weekend of the St. Joe art fair, at which time we are planning to spend the weekend at my sister's house for a visit. If that is so, I will try the farmers' market again the following Saturday.

For today, I have grocery shopping to do and am meeting my Algebra tutee for an hour or so. Lots to do and so little time.

See ya!

Dominoes

I spent much of yesterday working on my domino pendants and am getting better at it. I did take a break to go to Michael's to find some "findings" in an attempt to get a loop on them. I may just call them finished when the art is done and let the buyer's decide how to make a necklace out of them.



I hope to finish up this batch today. The hubster made me a display out of wood and I am looking forward to getting the finished pendants into it to see how it looks. Perhaps by tomorrow I will have things done and can show them sitting prettily in their rows for display.

I also got a call last evening from an Algebra student looking for a tutor and will meet with him tomorrow. So nice to get the opportunity to teach students who are serious about learning after all my years of teaching high school (although I did have lots of students who wanted to be there, there were plenty who fought it all the way).

I'm going to get my first cup of coffee and chill for a bit. Then into the shower and begin my domino art. See you later!