Saturday night and my eyes are squinty with tiredness

Can't post pictures yet... YarT at KJ's today - really wonderful, but I had to sing Country and Western music all the way home to keep awake after a long day and a wonderful dinner. That means titles like "Take this Job and Shove it " at the top of my voice - pounding my leg to the rhythm.

I've falling asleep as I type this. Completely done.

More tomorrow.

Check out Dar's pictures. So glad that the camera adds 10..no 20 no... 30 lbs.

Table and Chairs...and more

First - a quilt for a friends soon-to-be-coming great niece. The pink stripes are a plush soft material and the back is blue flannel with a carrot pattern. (oh boy, is Emily going to be jealous!)

Then the dog bed with my well-behaved stone pet - sleeping happily away. I had fun with this bed - it's goldy and purple and just right for a tiny royal pup. I ended up with a pillow as a bed, with an easily washable fleece cover.


And the painted table and chairs. This was fun - and alot of work. I also learned a ton during this process about what paints to use, and freehand vs. stamping design.






I will bring these to Yart and see if they sell - if not...I have no idea what I'm going to do with them. Perhaps a consignment shop.....

On another note, I had some dental work yesterday on a tooth that my dentist didn't like the looks of on xrays. It didn't bother me but I figured that she knows what she's talking about...but right now I would welcome a root canal on this tooth that was feeling fine until she started in on it.

Damn....

Animal Wednesday - postcards

I had some blank watercolor postcards and have been painting them up for the YArT sale. The first is my favorite image - that of the "underground snake/dragon - danger ahead - watch out" image!


The second - a fish - whose image I saw somewhere on a card and copied as I liked his teeth


Now this one I blatantly copied from an image that I have from another artist - whose name I don't know as the card isn't signed. I don't do it justice - her's is gorgeous. I have found that the way for me to learn to draw is to start by copying drawings or other images - get comfortable with that and then move onto drawing from photographs - and hopefully onto life drawing. But to keep it honest, I'm donating proceeds from these two to the "save the fishies and turtles" fund in the gulf.

Happy Animal Wednesday all - put your links below as usual - love that mr. linky

Six Word Saturday

I started a New Drawing Class

Friday night Portrait Drawing. I think I got a bit better as the night went on - good instructor (very talented) as shown in sequence below. He had us start with a 10 minute pose, then gave instructions, then another post...more instruction etc.






Friday night fun. Lots to learn about shadows etc, as I usually see the world as a flat plane with no shadows - I have to learn to look.

I like this better than figure drawing - better focus. But once again, standing up for 3 hours in front of an easel makes my back ache. I'm gonna sit next week and see if that works better.

Singing

For about 20 years I have sung in a local chorus. Mostly classical music - usually a Mass in the fall (I've gotten very good at Latin) and lighter stuff in the winter and spring. Since I love to sing, but have an awful shyness about singing in public - the chorus is a perfect way for me to do what I like to do yet not faint from shyness and fear of public expressionism. Our director is amazingly creative and always challenges us to learn more, do different stuff, expand our repertoire. We've sung in Boston a few times - on our own and also with the local Russian chorus (that was my favorite). We recorded a CD of Amy Beach's Grand Mass in E flat (not a best seller, but a great stocking stuffer for friends and family). Here is one picture of me actually singing in a concert - I think I'm in the top row - third one in.

We rehearse on Monday nights and it's tough to get there. For the past few years, I haven't sung much and I realize how much I miss it. Singing is a great stress reducer, and I know I need to reduce my stress - so I'm going this year - at least to rehearsals. The concert is always on the Sunday before Thanksgiving and that's a tough time for me - we usually go to Florida for Thanksgiving week and its crazy to miss the weekend. I'm also in charge of the tickets and the chorus information booklet - but those are tiny chores.

So that's my singing story - not terribly exciting and sometimes one more thing to keep up with. But I love it, I really do and going again this year is helping me cope with all the recent changes and upsets.

Animal Wednesday and I got nothin'

Here is a list of our past few days:

Saturday - drove to Vermont to go to a museum. Longer drive than we thought; left at 9:00 am, got home at 9:00 PM but it was fun.
Sunday - worked on a quilt in the am, rode bikes in the PM - tired from Saturday
Monday - worked all day - crazy work - went to singing at night - came home and fell into bed
Tuesday - worked all day - crazy work - met friends for dinner - sat and talked till 9:00 pm - came home and fell into bed.
Wednesday - what!! is it Wednesday already? Where are the animals - oh yeah - I don't have any. The only thing I have is a picture of a round barn that presumable held animals at one time in it's life.

And oh yes...while at the museum I noticed a folk art painting that looks like an ancestor of Emily's - could it be????

Happy Animal Wednesday all!!!

I love MOO

I ordered some business cards from MOO and had such fun making different fronts.

Small things can make your day - isn't it the truth.