Feb28Art

My Iris bloomed today.... doesn't take much to make me happy... a flower blooming to welcome March... will do just fine.

Feb27Art

Tripped over Beau tonight, caught myself with my arm against the door jam... gonna have a huge bruise tomorrow... big old goose egg on my arm now...
Made homemade pizza tonight... it was yummy... I ate way too much.

Feb26Art

Frog strangling rain again today, for hours on end.  House again smells like wet dogs... I'm about tired of this rain... rain... and more rain.
Zebras have always fascinated me... so for today a gray day... a black and white drawing.

Feb25Art

Rained all day today again... drew the 'sun catcher' in the kitchen window while my cheese sandwich toasted.  Now I'm off to city hall for a 2nd amendment meeting.  Judicial committee from the State Senate held a public hearing on a proposed Constitutional Carry Law in SC... so open and/or concealed carry just like in Vermont... no permit required.  Everyone spoke in favor of the law, including me.

Feb24Art

Gorgeous day today... sun came out flip flops on the feet... loving living in the South today.  Even had to run the A/C for a bit today.  Took one of the blankets off the bed... don't think we'll be needing it much longer.
Spring fever hitting along with the urge to start cleaning and organizing.  My studio area is tops on the needs reorganizing list.

Feb23Art

Raining all night long and all day today... the yard is one huge puddle today and we stayed hunkered down inside all day.  Another hockey game tonight against the same team as last night, we'll see if they can win 2 in a row or not.
Most of the azaleas in my yard were the builder's special all the houses on the street have the same ones the same color... but at the corner of my house I have this azalea that is different. Beautiful pink flowers with hot pink dots of color mostly on one leaf but like a splash of paint on the adjacent leaves a few spots.  Early blooms hope the weather holds and they last a little while longer.

Feb22Art

Headed to the hockey game tonight.  Dog days of Winter tonight... so everyone brings their dog to the game.  Since Beau is the most sociable of all our dogs, I'm thinking about taking him to the game.  Well Gracie begged to go... and Beau was sound asleep in his bed so Gracie went.  She was good, but by the start of the 3rd period was itching to go home... good news is our team won 2 to 0... so it was a good game.. and Gracie probably won't want to go for a ride in the car for a while now LOL  

Feb21Art

I thought I'd document something from my youth, that is no longer around... pop tops... well there are still pop tops but not this style.
I'm enjoying reading Danny Gregory's new book, 'An Illustrated Journey'.  Most of the artists I feel like I know because for the past several years I've followed their blogs and their art.  It is interesting to read their thoughts on sketching, their sketch kit, books and feelings about their art.

Feb20Art

When I came back from lunch today... I noticed a bud on one of my Iris... Hope it doesn't get too cold and kill it. That's what happened last year and I had no flowers all year.  I'm glad to see this bud, but also glad it is the only one, I'd rather they waited until a little later when there no chance of a freeze... but what I want doesn't impress my Iris one bit.

Feb19Art

Hose clamp among some of my husband's pieces and parts and well it caught my eye.  Wearing it as a ring on my pointing finger, to remind me to return it to his parts bins.
Rather long quote from Danny's book... maybe in protest for a person that from time to time feels compelled to leave comments and send me messages... basically saying I should drop the prose and do real artwork. I rarely 'block' anyone, but my tolerance for this person's negativity is at an end... so I've blocked him. Life is too short to put up with strangers that annoy you.  

Palmetto Shadows

Finally finished... this painting was based on a DVD by Anne Abgott and her book 'Daring Color'... I'm pleased with it, and will probably try again as there are some issues with this one, but I'm not going to help you find them LOL.

Liebster Award

  Susan from Scattered kindly gave me a blog award that's about discovering new blogs.

Thank you so much for thinking of me, I feel honored to be included in your five choices.

ABOUT THE AWARD

This award was designed to be a blog award in the pay it forward fashion. Once you've been nominated, you award it to five blogs that you like that have fewer than 200 followers, to encourage new visitors to visit these blogs.

RULES FOR ACCEPTANCE

Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to their blog. Post the award onto your blog. Give the award to five bloggers who you appreciate that have fewer than 200 followers. Leave a comment on their blog letting them know that you have given them this awesome award!

PAY IT FORWARD

There are so many bloggers who have inspired and helped me to date and to find just five was very hard.     Here are my five choices of blogs ( in no particular order, as I love them all), with less than 200 followers.

1.           Backyard Journals

2.           Drawing Breath - Barbara Weeks

3.           Judith Farnworth

4.           The Rambling Artist Sharon Whitley

5.           Adventures with Paint

These are all wonderful artists and it would be wonderful if you could pay them a visit and maybe even become followers.

Feb18Art

The UPS man came early today, with my new books... 'An Illustrated Journey' by Danny Gregory and 'Atmospheric Watercolours' by Jean Haines so all my good intentions on house work went out the window... spent the day pouring over both books.  Read Brenda Swenson, Liz Steele and Cathy Johnson's pages,  I'll read all of them eventually... and soak up the marvelous art work.
I did manage to put a little more paint on my painting today and I'm hoping to finish it tonight...maybe LOL

Feb17Art

Not a cloud in the sky today, a cerulean blue sky all day.  Cold for here, no flip flops for me today... have the day off tomorrow... hoping to finish my painting along with some laundry and house cleaning.

Feb16Art

Our Congressman Tim Scott is now a Senator... his empty seat needs to be filled.  There are 16 Republicans and 2 Democrats, and I think a few Green Party, Working Families Party and Libertarian party candidates headed to a primary in March.  Today we attended a Candidate Forum for the 16 Republicans running for Congress.  This is what I did while I listened to them answer questions and/or evade them.  Some of them helped themselves today, and had a good showing, some that I thought would to well did not, some that I did not know or have an opinion on did very well indeed.  Who will win?  Beats me... but I'm writing my favorite 3 names in my journal based on today's forum... after the election we'll see if I'm as bad at picking politicians as I am at race horses.

Feb15Art

Long day at work today, left me drained and uninspired... my lupee was out on my desk today because I needed it to read the MAC id off the new router I bought at lunch (I think I caught Winna Jill's computer issues today).  So how hard could it be?  Those %#%^ ellipses I don't think I will EVER get them right even if I live to be 140 years old. So there's my lupee in all it's wonky glory... Salvadore would at least know that I didn't cheat... no it is honest and it is bad... very, very bad...

Feb14Art

A rose... from a photograph.. with no pre drawn lines... did use my pencil for the lettering...  This was a challenge and got away from me a little.  Used a red that I don't use much 'Carmine'..
Hope everyone had a nice Valentines Day with lots of flowers, candy and love from your sweetheart.

Feb13Art

Just started raining again... saw a bit of sun today but it didn't last long... My house smells like wet dogs LOL...because my house is full of wet dogs.  What is it about labs that makes them in particular smell so strong when they are wet?  This is the first lab I've ever had, and I love her dearly... but PEEW she stinks when she gets wet.
I keep this shell on my desk, just for days like this when I can't think of a thing to draw.

Feb12Art

Fat Tuesday... wishing I was in NOLA for the party... my friend Keith and his wife go to New Orleans for Mardi Gras every year... young party animals they are... old lady staying home no party for me tonight.

Feb11Art

Here's the other half of the stencil.  Really lousy weather today, rained all day long, made the drive to and from Columbia a real pain in the neck.  I really hate driving in the rain.

Feb10Art

I got this stencil several weeks ago decided to use it today and tomorrow... because I have a meeting tomorrow night and have to drive to Columbia for work so I won't have much time tomorrow.
This exercise proved something that I'd read somewhere.  It said it is impossible to erase pencil lines after yellow paint has been added... sure enough the pencil lines for the stencil would not erase in the yellow areas... so file that away... if you don't want pencil lines erase them before adding yellow paint.

Feb09Art

Glimpse of my new yellow ribbon.  Drew my new corner punch... it rounds off the corners on a page. Odd looking contraption... works great though.

Feb08Art

Went to Michaels tonight to get an eyelet setting tool... got home with it and found that I already had one (I just didn't realize what it was..).  So now I have a spare LOL.  Got some yellow ribbon that I glued inside the spine on this sketch book... now I have a bookmark :-)

Feb07Art

Robins in the yard today, taking advantage of the rainy day to look for worms and bugs in the grass.  A sure sign that Spring is on the way.

Feb06Art

This is a Strathmore hardbound Journal with watercolor paper.  The paper is slightly larger than the hand-book journal I just finished.  The paper is smooth and easy to write on and takes a wash nicely.
Only things is doesn't have that I like is a ribbon, and an elastic band.  I may try to add a ribbon and I can keep it closed with a large binder clip.

Book 20

I feel like I've accomplished something... starting sketchbook number 20.... The embellishment on the left came from JennieBellie jennibelliestudio.blogspot.com  She's a delightful young lady, with a broken camera... I did what little I could by visiting her Etsy store and buying a sheet full of these curly cues.  Check out her great blog, loaded with how to videos... hope she raises enough for a new camera.

Feb05Art

Mums on the table at Chic-fil-A today.... inspired me to pull out my Chinese Brush painting tutorial on how to paint a Mum... turned out ok I think.

Feb04Art

Early Spring, ground hog said we'd have an early Spring.  Can someone have Spring fever in February?  Still dark too early to actually get any work done in the yard much... but every day... the days get a little longer.

Feb03Art

Super bowl tonight... outrageous half time show playing now... what happened to marching bands?
I'm as thrilled about the game as Maxine... so I had to share her quote about the game.

Feb02Art

Tough week for our pets this week, we lost our old kitty cat Pippin... with so many of our pets over 15 years old I knew I was going to start losing them... but I really didn't expect to lose two in one week.
Beau has recovered from his prostate-itis he's eating again, and running about. He and Stoney are the two oldest now... I don't even want to think about losing one of them. Hopefully we have a few more years with them.

Feb01Art

Our computer room wires are corralled with these wire tamers.  With little dogs that like to use my desk as a pass thru... I needed a way to tie the electric cords to the legs of my desk, that way the dogs don't get hung up in my cords and unplug my computer... these little things work great