Jewel, Black Lab Portrait

Yesterday, was not only Father’s Day, but James’ birthday. Last year we had just gotten engaged when his birthday rolled around. I knew with James being such a dog-lover, that I wanted to do a portrait of one of his dogs. Well, life happened and all the wedding planning precluded me doing this portrait. James teased me from time to time about not getting him anything (although I did pay $40 for deep dish pizza in Chicago when we were there for  a Volleyball trip – that’s gotta count for something)!  But overall he’s been very gracious.

Recently he found some toy ships he wanted. I’m saying this tongue in cheek. It has something to do with the Axis and Allies addiction sickness mania hobby that he loves (and I feel OK about not understanding).  He told me that if this was my present to him, it would cover both last year’s birthday as well as this year’s. I gave him the money to purchase said ships, but this hasn’t materialized yet, so I thought I’d surprise him with the pet portrait I have been wanting to do anyway.

This was tricky to accomplish. We’re newlyweds and spend most of our time together. I had to wait for him to be gone for the evening to one of his Axis and Allies marathons.

“Jewel” Black Lab portrait
Colored pencil
8″x10″

Here’s the reference photo….

I feel like the background could use improvement – especially the grass area. I’m going to have to try better paper/support, as I worked the colored pencil in so much, it seemed it would’t take any more layers.

Friday I started an acrylic of Sasha, our Samoyed. I’m anxious to keep at this and see some improvement in my work. Also, I’m not sure what media I am going to end up favoring. The colored pencil was good, but tedious. I think painting seems a more natural choice for me.

Sasha’s Summer Haircut

Thought I’d share Sasha’s new looks. James likes to take the pooches for very long walks ( like almost 2 hours long). Here he is on one of our walks last fall:

Back in April or May, Sasha was already panting and struggling with the heat. So one Sunday, as I took my afternoon nap, James took Sasha out back for a little trim. I wanted to cry when I saw her. Animal grooming is not in James’ future, that’s for sure. Here are her before and after shots:

As someone commented on my facebook page, it looks like the other dog is embarrassed to be seen in the same room.  Other comments included, “She looks like a Q-tip” and “This proves we need to take our dog to the pros.” and the like.

Why does the word, “gremlin” come to mind?? Someone did comment that she looked cute, and I immediately thought, “yeah, cute in a so-ugly-it’s-cute, Cabbage Patch doll kind of way”.

About a week later, I decided Sasha needed some cleaning up. James had (seemingly) cut her short, but Samoyeds have an undercoat and it was tightly packed down near her skin. So what looked like short hair, was actually very dense. I shaved her down to the pink and evened her out. In all, we spent a total of probably 4 -5 hours doing this. Yikes!  Here she is evened out a bit…

I have to admit, I’ve really gotten used to the new look. And it’s been a strange phenomenon; she looks more puppy-like now. I find myself treating her more like a baby, as do our friends and family. Her coat is now about the length of our labs’ coats, but much softer in texture. And she still has her glorious squirrel-like tail.

Aww, reminds me of an arctic fox, all curled up. She often has her tail covering her nose, much like a cat would.

I Have Artistic ADD

Sometimes I find myself so wishy washy.  I, like many artsy people, can get very passionate about something and focus a ton of energy on it. However, I’m pretty scattered in this.  At one point, I’m thinking about how I should get my stamping side business up and going. I think about all the cool projects I could do, how I could drum up  business, and what neat things I could do to my blog.  I go with that a few weeks and then I get distracted by the next shiny object (artistic venture).

In the last couple of months (during a brief blogging hiatus) I’ve read up on, dreamed about, web surfed about, and/or dabbled in: 

• Learning how to work in pastel. I’ve looked for classes or workshops I can take. I’ve always liked pastels, but really feel pretty amateurish with them.  I love some of the beautiful Impressionist landscapes I’ve seen and would love to create some of my own. This idea is losing its lustre because 1) I can’t seem to find a local workshop or class on it and 2) I’ve priced some of the soft pastels. I’m not ready to drop upwards of $100 on pastels until I’m sure I want to pursue this. 
• Children’s book illustration. This is something I’ve always wanted to do, but can’t seem to give myself a kick in the pants about. In my pastel class quest, I stumbled upon a course this summer at the KC Art Institute. That may be the kick in the pants I need.
• Setting up an etsy store with my baby name signs. This one I probably will do as soon as I get enough pics to use for examples.  Here’s one I completed last week if you’re not sure what I’m talking about. I often make these for baby showers and inevitably, I end up with someone else ordering one for a friend.  This one was for a teacher whose new granddaughter’s room is decorated with tropical fish. I’ve done many themes, from simple teddy bears and bunnies, to castles, to snakes and snails. (By the way, if you have one of these name signs in your home, I’d love for you to send me a photo to add to my etsy store.)
• I also do the “grown up” signs for marriages or anniversaries. These are a big hit too. I’ve had several brides tell me it was their favorite present. I’ll probably put these in the store too, but they’re a little more labor intensive (and honestly just not as much fun).
• Murals. Also another area that I’ve always wanted to delve more into. It’s difficult while working full time. The most difficult part seems to be marketing myself. I hate that aspect.  Down the road, when James and I have kids, I’d love to stay home and have some kind of artistic venture that brings in some income. This is definitely one area I want to explore more. Here’s one I worked on at school. One of the teacher’s had enlisted my help in a huge Disney mural that she and her para did most of. Over the summer, I added this wall. (I did all of this but the lion on the hill).



and a detail shot (as you can see, this was on a cinder block wall)..



And here’s 2 murals I have in my home. A French bistro in the kitchen and my bathroom, in Monet’s water lily style (on all 4 walls).

• Pet portraits.  People love their pets and are willing to pay money for things related to their furry babies. I love animals, so it seems like a great area to pursue. I’ve done a few portraits in the past  that turned out pretty well, but regrettably did not take photos.  I spent several hours last weekend web surfing and researching.  There were definitely artists out there who were photo realistic and a bit intimidating (although so were their prices). However, there were also several sites with portraits that…..well, let’s just say they gave me confidence that I could definitely do this successfully.  I recently had a co-worker express interest in ordering one, and since I had already decided to do one for James at some point (for a birthday or Christmas), this seems like a good area to pursue.

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It’s sometimes frustrating to be so unfocused. My personality is not that way in general. I definitely don’t have ADD in other areas of my life. And in fact, I’m quite the opposite.

Case in point, my art room at school is adjacent to a classroom of older kids with autism. They can be quite loud at times (screaming, banging on the wall, even throwing furniture at times).  Usually I have the ability to focus on what I’m doing without even noticing the noise.  I sometimes have clients in my room who will look up at me with concern and ask what the screaming is all about. It’s then I realize that the noise hadn’t even registered.

And when I’m actually working on a piece of art or even scrapbooking or doing something creative, I get very quiet and absorbed in what I’m doing. I guess it’s the decision making aspect that is difficult for me.  Sometimes I wonder where I’d be in my own artistic development (not to be confused with professional development – I already have a career) if I had not waffled so much and had picked an area to focus on and honed my skills.

Currently, my artistic output is pretty minimal. I may do about 2 – 3 pieces of fine art a year, several name signs for babies and weddings, maybe a mural, some cards and scrapbooking, and some miscellaneous odds and ends that people ask for.  Legitimately, I could argue that I do work a taxing job full time; I’m adjusting to married life after 35 years of singleness (and it’s going well by the way); I’m trying to maintain friendships at the same time (that’s been more difficult as my time is even more limited now); and I’m also busy with church and musical pursuits.  That said, the artist within craves more.  I need to focus. Maybe I should throw a dart and start working on an area rather than being in a constant state of indecision. I’ll let you know how that works out.

Happy Easter

Another vintage photo of my sister and I at Easter. Mom often bought us or made us matching outfits…..notice my dress is a bit “highwater”.

Here we are with the goods the Easter Bunny brought. I loved these flocked bunnies and had mine for a long time. That’s our cat Spooky checking them out.

Vintage Photo….Easter baby

Don’t know much about this picture. But my Birthday is in October….Easter is usually in April. You do the math. I do know this is Grandma Widel’s house and she always called this her divan (which I always thought was a funny thing to call a sofa).

Vintage Photo…..I So Do NOT Feel Like This Today!

Just saw this pic on my computer and it made me realize how old I feel today. This isn’t a usual feeling for me. I still feel pretty young, even though I’m technically middle aged. We just had to go through a very grueling training at work called SCM – Safe Crisis Management. In it, we learned how to safely handle/hold/restrain acting out kids. We had another system – Mandt, but as it was decided that it didn’t meet our needs completely, we had to be retrained in something completely different. During this training, we had to practice over and over and test out of several different skills, including ones where we practiced taking each other to the floor in a lunge like move (but with dead weight). My quads and glutes hurt so bad now. It’s hard to stand up, sit down, climb stairs,  or walk, but otherwise it’s not painful at all. And my brain still feels like it’s on information overload almost 2 days later.

Anyway, here’s to the days of flexibility……Well actually, I must confess that I never was this flexible. I remember taking a bunch of these trick photos. These are my sister’s legs draped over me. I’m hiding the mole on her leg with my hand and faking the concentrated grimace.  Today I kind of feel like my legs have actually been doing this though.

Pirate Card

During our stamp retreat, Heather offered us a sketch challenge. I looked through the stamps I had with me and decided to do something with my pirate set. I had bought it to scrapbook a pirate murder mystery party I had last year, but hadn’t used it yet. Here’s what I came up with. BTW, I drew a lot of the images on the map because the stamps were simply too big for what I wanted on this card. You can’t tell from the pic, but an extra touch was adding metallic gold to the treasure chest and the hook.

Recipe:
CS: White, Brown from Penelope collection 
Papers: scrap of tan for map
Stamps: from the Pirates set by TAC
Inks: Palette Ink – Burnt Umber, Noir
Other: Gold leafing pen, Watercolor pencils, Pop dots, stipple brush, Tombow blending pen

A Productive Weekend of Scrapbooking

I spent a wonderful weekend in Salina KS at a Winter Angel Gathering. Avis, Heather, and Lori had lots of wonderful projects for us, I got to catch up with some of my stamping friends, and I had lots of quality stamping time. The main thing I tackled this weekend was the wedding photos. I just got the last of them last week (in fact picked them up on the way to the retreat). Now I’ve had quite the quandary with what to do with the wedding photos. I’m a scrapbooker, but I figured I would get really perfectionistic about wedding photos and with the vast quantity, it would simply take forever to scrapbook them all. I think for the bulk of my photos, I’m going to order one of those professional printed photo books. Should be fun to design, yet won’t take forever. However, I couldn’t stand the thought of not scrapbooking any of the photos. So I decided to create an 8 x 8 album with a page for each person involved in the wedding. I figured out the general theme, paper, colors, etc. and completed 4 pages so far (except for the journaling)….

 I realized the Penelope SWIC collection matched my fall wedding colors oh so well, but alas, all I had left was a sheet of tags. Luckily, my friend Kim had an extra Sydney Circle album kit and I bought it from her to use on my pages. I’m so thrifty, that I often use the little scraps no one else would bother with. Kim noticed this and punched out all the elements from her other Sydney kit and gave me the remaining scraps. Examples of how I use scraps: I stamped the F in the first pic on a scrap and cut out. I didn’t use a full circle behind the pic of my dad and I; I plotted and cut out just the little sliver I needed….Incidentally, I love the pic on the lower right of my dad and I. The photographer had set up a first viewing for the groom. James had his back turned and this shot was taken as he turned around and saw me for the first time. I obviously wasn’t watching my dad’s face, but it’s nice to see such an expression of joy there. 

 And I like this pic of my mom, taken from between 2 of the bridesmaids (you can see their green and burgundy dresses on the edge of the photo).

The pic of James and his mom wasn’t necessarily the most flattering for either of them. But I liked how they have their hands entwined (they have a very close relationship). SO I highlighted this part of the photo by punching it out with a circle punch, putting a pop dot and coordinating paper under it. I also stamped the Queen and labeled it Queen of Harts because my MIL truly is the queen of the family (and Hart is our last name).

 

 As I got these pages put together, I decided they needed a little extra pop. I borrowed Kim’s gold leafing pen (she was such a good resource this weekend) and outlined a lot of the elements….I love the pic of my FIL praying with my own Dad in the background. They both offered prayers during our wedding which was very special to us.

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 My friends laughed at me because if you look at my page from the back (see pic), you can see I cut out a rectangle of CS that would be behind a pic anyway. I then used that on the coordinating page. It makes your papers go farther.

 When you’re doing a theme album, whether it’s wedding, or baby, it goes so much faster if you have a color scheme and general layout picked out. The rest of my pages should be a breeze. I’ll share them as I get them done. It’s going to be a busy week, so not promising anything soon.

Recipe:
Papers: From the Penelope SWIC and Sydney CIrcle Album kit (also one page taken from Amberley Grace SWIC) – all TAC
CS: From Penelope coordinating papers (TAC) also scraps of Burgundy from unknown source
Stamps: AlphaGrunge (TAC) and Renaissance (TAC)
Inks: Noir Palette, Clear Embossing Ink
Other: Gold leafing pen, Clear EP, Watercolor palette in metallics, Green and gold ribbon

My Studio Revamped

My studio resides in my basement, which at one point was an unfinished, dingy area. It’s been an ongoing project to beautify and make it more of a creative retreat than just a corner of the dingy basement. I looked for a before pic so you could see just how far this place has come, but couldn’ t find one. When hubby moved in, we had to move the guest room down here as well, so you’ll see the bed in the background.

I moved the chair (it’s ugly) but this is where I normally sit.

 On this bookshelf, I keep the stuff I use most. I have several of the 3-drawer, $5 Walmart do-dads and here’s the categories I have in them:

Tools: Adhesives, Misc Tools (stamp cleaner, brayer, etc), and Cutting tools 
Color: Inkpads, Favorite Coloring Media (pastels, colored pencils) and another drawer of coloring media
Embellishments: Hardware, Paper embellishments, and ?(I forget at the moment what the last drawer is)
Projects: Scraps of patterned paper; Current projects (cards and such I’ve recently created); and Do-overs (images I’ve stamped and done nothing with or cardfronts that I will eventually turn into cards to give away)
On the top shelf there’s another organizer for Scrapbook stuff: Finished scrapbook pages (sometimes I create them but they don’t really go in an album, so they live here)Photos to be filed, Memorobilia (ticket stubs, etc I want to scrapbook)

So what else do I keep on the bookshelf?

Top row: I have several boxes of photos, but just keep the most current one or two on these shelves; Small baskets with current stamp sets in CD cases; a smaller 3-drawer organizer for things like gel pens, CS already cut to card size;
Middle row: in black photo boxes, I keep ribbon on rolls, and loose ribbon. In the green basket, I keep punches (I don’t have a huge collection,but the ones I have are too big for the drawers).
Bottom row: A basket with new stamp sets waiting to be cut out, or put into CD cases,a basket to stash stuff that needs to be put away, and a tray to slide projects in process out of the way.

So I guess I was really on a color coordinating kick when I did these containers about a year ago. Before, they were functional but industrial looking. I used TAC’s Sands of Time scrapbooking paper to beautify them and hide the contents. Then I used the big alphabet letters to label them. I may be weird, but it makes me happy to live in a coordinated, beautiful room.

I painted this old bookcase, the paper keeper on the table, and the corner cabinets a friend gave me. In the cabinets I keep misc. stuff like things to be altered and embossing powder (I like to keep them in plastic tubs so I can just dip my paper in and shake off). In this paper holder, I keep 12 x 12 paper sorted by color. (I keep the TAC current sets together in my paper taker under the table). You’ll notice my little TV/CD player. I got that for $6 at the 1/2 of 1/2 store. I sometimes listen to audio books or music CDs when I work. The narrow silver shelf on the left is a bathroom organizer I bought years ago and re-purposed. I keep lesser – used items here: envelopes, notecards, older photos, wider ribbon, paints, etc. To the left of that I have a CD tower with older stamp sets.

You’re probably wondering why I still have a Christmas tree up. It’s actually my wizard of Oz tree with my favorite Oz ornaments. I have a little theme going with the ruby slipper, OZ birdhouse and Oz character cows on the bookshelf. I haven’t yet hung any pics downstairs, so there’s more decorating to be done. Oh yes, and I like to keep a yummy smelling candle on the candle warmer.

This is one of my favorite organizing tools. My friend Niki gave it to me several years ago and it’s been invaluable for organizing my papers. On the bottom row, I keep 8 1/2 x 11 paper organized by color family. Directly above, I keep scraps. The top row is for things like packages of paper I haven’t opened,alphabet stamp sets, catalogs, TAC’s 8×8 and 9X9 scrapbook collections, scrap paper, vellum, etc. You may wonder why I have this turned on it’s side. I simply can reach more stuff and can flip through the papers in each section easier than if they were stacked in a pile.

 

Before the transformation, the walls were dingy dark paneling. I used drywall mud to texture right over the paneling and painted them this celery green and a few of the other walls a robin’s egg blue (I didn’t get that area completely clean and tidy). If I had taken another pic to the right, you’d see a glider and klik-klak (sorta like a futon/couch), a bathroom, and an area where I keep my fine art stuff. I do enjoy having the TV/DVD player down there. It’s nice to “watch” movies while I create. Of course I normally get comedies or light hearted movies, since I am mostly listening and not watching. I made the white armoire with the shutter doors for my living room in Wichita. It didn’t work in this house, so it’s perfect for my studio. Inside, I have all my gift wrap, bags, ribbon, tissue paper organized (for the time being).

 

And here’s my favorite little stamping buddy, Rajah. Since the dogs don’t come downstairs often (without coaxing anyway), he finds this a quiet retreat as well.

So anyway, that’s my studio….as clean as it gets, too. It’s been buried for the last 6 months, so it’s so nice to have it re-emerge! Come on over sometime, there’s plenty of room for friends!

Memories from Childhood

I’ve been going through and organizing  pictures on my computer tonight. I don’t have a working scanner, so I’ve never been able to get childhood pics onto the computer. However,  we  had a slideshow at our wedding and therefore had converted lots of pics to digital format. As I went through some of these, they brought back lots of memories. I think I’ll start sharing a memory and an old picture each week.

Here are Tracy and I being musical. Tracy will say that she’s not very musical, but I guess she got roped into lots of musical play with me as her older sister. I remember singing a lot as a child. I composed songs and sang them as I swang on our tree swing.  I loved listening to dad’s 8 tracks and records. I can remember listening to ABBA and Crystal Gayle over and over. I gave concerts in the living room and charged a penny for my parents to watch me swing my long hair around and sing, “Don’t it Make my Brown Eyes Blue”.  I even made concert posters. I was in the county fair princess contest when I was 4 and apparently when they asked what I wanted to be, I answered, “a singer like Crystal Gayle” and broke out into song. In school, I remember singing loudly and proudly. I am very much a musical learner and I still remember songs I learned as a child. Maybe someday the lyrics to the Cheerios jingle or “Scratch, Scratch, Me Back” will come in handy. Otherwise, they’re wasting valuable memory for important things like…my students’ names for example.