AWARD

I love blogger awards. We are all so generous with each other, supportive, giving, talking, helping.

Ms Soulbrush gave out this award to some of her blogger friends (and she has many) and it made me think of the first time I "met" her on line. Her son, the ever clever Mr. P, posted some pictures of his ma, who was knitting using sliced up plastic grocery bags and I thought - WOW, I like this lady. Then I stared reading her blog, and she came to mine and we tentatively "met" each other...and it's all uphill from there! Last April I had the wonderful opportunity to meet up with SB, her hubby and the famous SNUFFLES - when I was over in London. We recognized each other right away....big hugs...and non-stop talking for over an hour. I was flying home the next day (dad was sick, we needed to get full time help in yadda, yadda) and SB was going to dinner at her son's house. But it was a momentous occasion, and I hope to be able to meet up again some day.

This award goes to everyone that reads this blog. You're all great friends.

six word saturday

Thought I'd give this a chance.

For this Saturday - which is warmer than it has been in weeks

"Got to get outside and walk"

New little Project and CED

I was told that you could use your Mac to make a book right out of the iPhoto application.

So I did!

It wasn't totally easy but within two days I assembled two books - a hardcover one and a softcover one. I really did this as a test sample for the book I am making for my cousins son - a book or family pictures and recipes - for his upcoming marriage.

So to test the concept, I used alot of my Miss Em pictures and tried the big hardcover version and a smaller softcover version.


Maybe you can see the slide show above - wow - I didn't know I could upload it like this.

After I get the books, if they look decent - I'll be giving one away, with that random drawing thing that everyone is using, let me know if you would like one and I'll put your name in the magic hat.

Animal Wednesday - fishes

I call this "Fish with Funny lips". Combination watercolor, and colored pencils and Inktense pencils. The lips - well, I despair of them - next time they will be better.
The top post is "auto correct color" in Photoshop. The one below is no autocorrect. Which one do you like better?

HAW (fishy version) to all the animal lovers out there

Tuesday - CED - new watercolor paints

One thing I love is getting up really early and having the house to myself. I can blog or watch TV, drink coffee etc. Not that I don't like it when DH is around but it's different - you know?
I get most of my blogging done at 5:00 am - the downside of that is that I am often one day behind with catching up.

DH gave me a gift certificate to Blicks for Christmas so I got a few things - and these three new tubes of watercolors. I don't have tubes of WC, and thought I should start with these since they are supposed to be good. I did read a review afterwards that said that these are NOT the greatest watercolors but oh well....Since everyone says that "you can make any color with the three primary's I decided to start with those. Not sure if I got the exact right ones.

So I've been playing with these. The colors are very intense - and a weeny, tiny bit of paint is needed for intense color. Since I've been using Inktense pencils , I am used to a much more controlled watercolor experience. These do their own thing on paper, at least I don't know how to control them yet. They spread and wander and I want to learn how to take advantage of that effect. I am investigating watercolor class - a friend has been taking class with a local teacher and does beautiful work.

Here are some round things that I was playing with. What is supposed to be purple comes out more of a brownish purple - not sure why.

...playing with drawing with the brush. Fun for me - never did this before.
I am working on a fish picture which may or may not work out. I think that from here I will go to a more controlled look. Wish I hadn't painted the background.

This is a "walking fish" picture that I am giving to my sister if I can figure out how to ship it to her in Italy. She liked the silly idea of walking fish and I think she'd like this. She lives in Italy, so I can't send it framed since that would be a fortune and probably get broken in transit. The Italian postal system is very unreliable, so I may send it DHL or Fedex.

Still having fun - and that's worth alot.

Sweater redux

The overlarge, loosely knitted sweater went from this:

...to this. Happily I unraveled and rewound and learned that sometimes overly loose knitting really makes for an unhappy sweater.


So a smaller size will be knit - tighter knitting - and hopefully it will fit in the end. Either way...I'm having fun doing and redoing.

CED - Words

What I like about Creative Every Day is the challenge to think a bit outside the box. For Feb - the goal is to use words. I took Sticky back canvas and wrote letters diagonally - in a gold ink which I hoped would be resistant to the paint. (it wasn't completely resistant, but did show thru). Then I painted the canvas with a few colors. Then I stamped words in white. Then some additional color. Then tissue paper over it all, and I printed a recipe on the paper. Then went to print a photo over the recipe print, but it printed in the wrong place. So I printed the photo again, still couldn't get it where I wanted it but made the best of it. Added more color and stamps and the words on the slide (gotta fix that adhesive it was supposed to dry clear) - and the bird. Why the bird? Well, since this is a picture of my grandmother who always wanted to be a bird and actually visited us once as a bird (story somewhere in this blog) I always think of Grandma and birds.

Anyway I had fun.

A few other things I have been trying for CED - am trying hard to use mediums that I don't usually use. These are paint and markers on bristol board.

I may have shown Mr. Stubble head before, but here he is again.


Miss Em - looking for a way out down a new road.

Don't ask me who he is.


Doodles - actually more to do on this. Kinda looks like kidneys and roses to me.