Jan31Art

Found a 'first aid' kit for 97 cents at Wal-Mart (bought 2 of them)... turned this one into a new paint box.  The box is 3" x 3 3/4" and about 1/2" deep so I got 12 full size pans in it... and yet it is light as a feather.
Put some of my favorite colors in it... along with some new ones I want to try out.

January is GONE!!!... I had big plans to finish a painting this month... I'm closer... but it still isn't finished.  Were do the hours go?

Jan30Art

Wind is whipping thru the trees outside, my wind chimes are going crazy, I may have to take them down so I can get some sleep tonight.
I love these little 'soup in hand' soups... so easy to pop in the microwave and instant dinner.
Had a huge lunch at the Mexican restaurant today... I ate way too much.  So a light dinner was called for tonight.
 

Jan29Art

I get really bad leg cramps, if I can eat a banana every day... then I avoid them.  Problem is my husband doesn't like bananas, and I don't like them when they get too ripe and the fruit gets mushy.  Today they are perfect, and I enjoyed my afternoon banana very much... took a moment to draw it.  

Jan28Art

Working out some green mixes for the next step in the painting I'm working on.
I was going to try to get some painting done tonight... but it didn't happen and now it's time to feed the dogs and go to bed.  Maybe tomorrow.

Jan27Art

Gorgeous weather today, not too cold, not too hot... just perfect especially for a day in January.
Did our usual Sunday dinner at Wild Wings, followed by grocery shopping...
I really love seahorses... so today I drew a seahorse.

Jan26Art

Went to dinner with friends before the hockey game tonight.  Exciting game the team actually won tonight 9 to 3.... I don't think this group of players has scored that many points all season.  The Orlando team didn't bring their A game tonight.

Robert E Lee - Bobby

Our oldest JRT Robert E Lee... aka Bobby passed away last night, just before midnight.  He was a good dog and we will miss him very much.

Jan25Art

Spent the evening, playing a video on artist network tv, over and over... it keeps hanging up and buffering at different points.  The only recourse is to start over.  This is one annoying part of this service, that I've complained to them about... but they don't download the videos to your computer's temp storage to play them... (to keep people from stealing their videos), unfortunately if their servers are busy... the videos won't play.  So I play them over and over while I watch tv... hoping to get to the part of the video (at the end) that I want to see.  Been doing this since 5pm today, just locked up again... so I start over one more time.  If it doesn't load this time I'm going to bed.

Jan24Art

When I lived in Alabama, the little tree frogs like this would attach themselves to our storm door glass, and once the sun set they would begin to screech until we turned the porch light on (we called it feeding the frogs).  As soon as the light went on the frogs would quietly feed on the bugs that came to the light... in the morning they'd be gone.
Cold front slamming into Charleston tonight, temperature going down fast.

Jan23Art

I did an incredibly stupid thing this morning and because of it Jeb attacked Stoney (my male JRT's hate each other) and would not let him go.  After much yelling and trying to pull them apart to no avail, I finally had to pinch Jeb's throat closed so that when I finally got his air cut off he gasped for air and turned Stoney loose.  Then I had to hoist Jeb over my head to keep Stoney off of him... fight over and the only injury from the fight was my broken nail... which still hurts.  Let this be a warning to everyone... when someone tells you JRT males will not tolerate other males... believe it... these dogs are over 12 years old... way too old in my opinion to be fighting like this... but given the opportunity to meet in the hall way... fights will ensue.
Hopefully, I'll pay attention and not let the two of them out at the same time again.
Oh... who won?  I DID!

Jan22Art

I have some knock off, cheap mop brushes... never really liked them much.  Decided I needed to buy a good one to try before I make up my mind.  This is my new Isabey mop, must admit I haven't used it yet, It has been washed and is standing ready... for me to wet it and paint with it.  Not tonight... too tired from a very long day that started at 5am.

Jan21Art

Ron had to work today, I had the day off... so I threw some more paint of some paper... had some boo boos... back runs and with all the brushes I have didn't have a size I wanted... so I made do with what I had.  Did get to use a tiny flat 1/8" that I got from Daniel Smith... is was PERFECT for the shadows on a hurricane window shade.  Still have a bit more work to do on this painting and I'll call it DONE.  I'm please with it now... hope I don't ruin it in the final stages...  could that fear be why I find it hard to finish some paintings?  I know some of them don't go as expected so I give up on them... those I understand.  The fear of ruining one that I like well... some how I've gotta get over that.

Jan20Art

Browsing Anne Watkins watercolor class set...  flic.kr/s/aHsjye6aN6   so many great demo paintings there, with fabulous how to descriptions.  This is based on one of her demo paintings..  she probably would not recognize it as such... but I did enjoy trying it.
Very disappointed that the Falcons lost a chance to go to the Superbowl ... I thought they were going to win it... alas they ran out of time.. without enough points on the board.

Jan19Art

Spent a pleasant afternoon at the local dog agility trial... haven't been physically able for a long time to participate but I did enjoy seeing the dogs and old friends.
Lost another hockey game tonight ... this time we got shut out, Florida beat us 2 to 0...

Jan18Art

Hockey game didn't go well for our team, they did manage one goal in the third period so they didn't get shut out.
After the game, a big cup of hot chocolate with a touch of peppermint schnapps ...
Today was Ron's first day at Boeing... he very excited to be starting their training program.  It is a very good job, so far all of the issues with the 787 have been from planes made in the plant in Washington, not here in Charleston.

Jan17Art

The weather changed on a dime today... from blue sky and 77 degrees when my husband and I went to lunch... at 5pm we walked outside to rain, cold wind... the temperature continues to drop... so January is back :-(
I watch some videos on making a japanese journal... the punch used I found at Michaels in the Martha Steward stuff... one of these days I'm going to make a journal...
Beau is feeling so much better he is wagging his tail, playing with his toys a little (mostly he sleeps) so he's definitely on the road to recovery. Thanks to everyone for their kind comments on my little dog.

Jan16Art

Curled up in his bed... even Gracie was glad to see him home, licking his ears and bringing him her toys... it really was touching to see her... she is laying right beside him even now.   We are very relieved to have our little dog home.

Jan15Art

I was going to draw Beau's empty dog bed... but couldn't bring myself to do it... our little dog is very sick... they did sonograms and believe he is in pain from an enlarged prostate... but there does not appear to be any tumors, so that's good news.  He'll be spending another night at the vet's office.

Jan14Art

Came home from our meeting to find Beau not feeling good at all... so we spent the evening at the emergency vet clinic.  Beau is spending the night with them, they are doing more tests and gave him some meds.  They'll call in the morning so that we can decide what's next. I hate when one of my little dogs is sick.
I painted the limes before the dog got sick... forget now why I chose them.

Jan13Art

I'm having serious blank page issues the last few days... so today a green olive. Why?  Because they were on my list to get at the grocery store today and I forgot them... I love them in my garden salads... so I'll be going back to the store for them probably Tuesday, since I have to go to Columbia for work tomorrow.
The Atlanta Falcons fabulous season continues... we enjoyed most of the game today at Wild Wings our favorite Sunday afternoon place to eat.  Then I went to Michaels and picked up a few art supplies I couldn't live without, some even on sale LOL

Jan12Art

Can't think of a single thing to draw... my choice was either my hand or my foot... hand didn't require taking a shoe off ... so the hand it was.
Got Dixie a new crate today, the old one was over 20 years old... and having issues...  hope this one last as long. My dog's have their dinner and sleep in their crates... with JRT's that don't get along with each other, this sleeping arrangement let's everyone get a good night's sleep.

Jan11Art

Most people know the opening words of this poem... but there's lots of good stuff in it about... getting fat and eating what you want... and hoarding pens and pencils... sounds like my kinda poem... wish I could meet Jenny Joseph I think I'd like her.

Jan10Art

I got this coffee cup and canister for Christmas with these blue flowers (along with some big yellow flowers). I had earlier made a card that I loaded with watercolor pencil color... to use as a super portable, super light weight palette.  I tried to use that card to paint the flowers, but didn't have enough color laid down even for these tiny flowers... so I went to my bijou box to finish this one.  I'm going to have to re-think my card or do a better job of loading it with color.

Jan09Art

You want to know the BEST thing about marrying an Italian man?  The smell of spaghetti sauce cooking... he's cooking right now and my mouth is watering from the smell.  Guess I'll finish this and go in the kitchen and make us a salad to got with it... and maybe get a taste of that sauce that smells so devine.

Jan08Art

This is me... trying to get out of a rut...  is it working?  I liked the pears... not sure the title word works... it may be too distracting. Spent the evening struggling with a newsletter I can't get to convert like I want it to...sometimes computers make me crazy.. and today is one of those days.

Jan07Art

Went to the Berkeley County Council meeting with my camera ready for the drama that we thought might unfold.  Instead the meeting started with the prayer above, a bit of whiney complaining from Jack Schurlknight... but everything went smoothly.
Been a long day, but I did manage to draw my vise grips, a small pair I use to open stuck paint tubes.  It isn't orange in real life, but in my book it is :-)

Jan06Art

Got this little water brush yesterday at the Hobby Lobby 'buycott'... it breaks into two parts and has a plug for the water half to keep the water in the barrel, unlike the other brush like this I got that leaks water when broken down.  I haven't tried it yet, but plan to soon.
Put a little more work into my painting, mostly masking.  Tomorrow I have to go to Columbia for work, and to the Berkeley County Council meeting tomorrow night.. so not much art will get done tomorrow.

Jan05Art

My transparent turquoise finally arrived along with a violet I thought I'd try... and a mop brush in a size I didn't have.  So I put a little paint on paper today, and shopped at Hobby Lobby after breakfast with my friends and our new Senator Tim Scott was a surprise guest this morning.  Everyone was thrilled to see him.

Senator Tim Scott vs NAACP

The NAACP has had some ugly things to say about our new Senator Tim Scott.  The people of SC who know and love Tim Scott, really don't care what they think about him.  This picture was taken this morning at a breakfast at the American Legion in Goose Creek SC, the new Senator said a few words, hugged a few of the ladies (me included), then served up the grits so that he made sure he said a few words to every person there.  Tim is not an elite DC politician... he is as solid a person, honorable, kind, thoughtful... an all around nice guy... it is only recently that someone pointed out to all of us that Tim is black... we had not noticed that before.

Jan04Art

This is a new color I got, the name attracted me 'Shell Pink' from Holbein.  It's a very soft pink, lots of white in it I think.  It might work for skin color on babies maybe.

Jan03Art

Only one rawhide bone remains from the dog's Christmas bones...  they had these cute little red and green rawhide bows on them.  For some reason the dogs would not have anything to do with the bows and first thing they all did was pull them off and ignore them, so I finally threw them away.

Jan02Art

Champagne is long gone, but I saved the cork to draw... along with the wire thingy that holds the cork down.  

Cloudy rainy gray day today, so I didn't get out and walk... we have the same forecast for tomorrow.

Paint didn't come today, but a coupon from Daniel Smith did... very tempting... so far I'm resisting LOL 

Got this darling little accordion sketch book (about 2" square pages)... it is too long for my scanner so I had the split the image in to two parts.

Jan01Art 2013

Well I've already done badly on the junk food deal... but how can you watch football without a few chips and dips and a beer to wash um down.  Tomorrow I'll cut back on the junk food.
Haven't added paint to paper yet but I have started a new painting... it takes me forever to do each step, but last weekend I enlarged my photos and printed them in black and white then found my tracing paper (which somebody spilled wine on... so I need a new tracing paper pad).  Decided the photo was too small, so back to photoshop.  Getting the image on the tracing paper took 2 days.  So today I got my light box out and discovered that the pencil lines on the tracing paper were too light so show up thru 300 lbs watercolor paper.  Got out some Microns and inked in the lines, and colored in the things I wanted to mask... nice and black.  That showed up so I transferred the image to the watercolor paper.  Got out the drawing gum mask and masked out all the places needed.  Next step is on hold because a color I need (this is a NEED not a want) is on order and has not arrived yet.  So this painting goes on the stack of started but not finished paintings...
A short term goal for this month, is to FINISH the other two paintings in the stack, even if I hate them... I need the boards they are taped to, and it's time to finish them or throw them out.
A good day for SC teams at bowl games, Clemson won as did SC... in spite of the officials and the announcers who were doing their best to help Michigan win it.