Thursday, May 31, 2012

bubbles in the backyard

Don't you just love bubbles? My son didn't want to hang aroung while I blew bubbles but he did enjoy swinging into them and making them swirl about. Here's some bubbles today for you to share the joy....





And as I've still got 3 more faces  to go here they are....



The top one fits the theme over at IamtheDiva as I used the tangle, Crescent moon...

Then my last face is actually three. It's the palette I finished for The Hammondsport Auction. The Chamber of Commerce supplies the wooden palette to artists, and it's on display all summer with letters to encourage people to get out and see all the palette's near local businesses. You collect all the letters, figure out what they read and are eligible for prizes. They auction the palettes  off at the end of summer and the artists get half of the sale price. This is my second year. I'm full of links today and I'll link this with paint and palette as I have a picture of the "palette" I use for the Palette. Ha!


These are BIG.... over 3x4 feet!




Above is my daughter and the others are her friends....



See you tomorow with a new mandala!

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

two faces and PORKFEST


      I have been so behind with faces, they were done just not photographed and posted. We were busy at our house with the 4th annual PORKFEST! It's a get-together where everyone brings a dish made with pork. This year we had pork ribs, pulled pork, quiche, potato salad with bacon bits ....
 sausage puffs,


pizza with pork strips on it,


homemade pretzels stuffed with bacon and cheddar,


 pork wings... (these were my favorite!)


sausage and rice egg rolls,


 sausages and peppers,


 donut holes with maple frosting and bacon bits.


and more. I had planned to make bacon milkshakes but time got away from me. Everything had pork except we did have watermelon, and we had chocolate sheet cake without any bacon. You can tell this was planned by the men! Last year we even had t-shirts!


 so anyway..... here's my latest two faces...I'll have the last three tomorow I hope....



Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Secret Dream Skirt Society

This is maybe the first chapter in the story of how the Society was formed.... well, I don't actually get to that part in the story here, so you'll just have to stay tuned each monday in case there is another chapter sometime soon. This is where we meet the characters that started the Society......




         It was that time of year in the valley, the time where nature turns to powder and sprinkles itself everywhere. Pollen floats through the air with crabapple petals and last years milkweed fluff. The phlox bloom overnight in the corners of the fields and under the trees in the dark edges of the forests. Mrs. Prickle, who runs the small bed and breakfast in town has to wipe down her patio table twice a day because the pollen settles on it in a green film, covering the glass. Just yesterday Mr. Jacobson stepped out onto his front porch on his way to work and slipped in the green layer of pollen on the floor and fell flat on his back. He hopped up before anyone could see, mumbling something about slippery new shoes, and headed off to his car. When his daughter, Greta, came out to call to her kitty, she saw her dad's outline on the floor and ran to get a piece of white chalk. She traced around the shape of her dad's body like a police crime scene in a detective novel. It was still there when he arrived home from work and scuffed it out with his slightly worn dress shoe to hide the evidence.
         Tempers and passions run high this time of year in the valley, and people have been known to do things during phlox season that they later regret. Love affairs, secret goings on, and any number of ill advised projects have been started over the years when the pollen drifts through the valley. Bennett Wordsworth was immune to phlox season, or so she thought. She felt calm, organized and rational as always. She expected an ordinary but peaceful day on this tuesday. It was her day off from the insurance agency now that she'd started working Saturdays. She'd planned to catch up on housework and write a letter to her Grandmother Kaye who lived in Florida, the Grandmother who'd raised her from the time she was ten when her mom, Lucy, had run off with a man just released from prison.
         It had happened the day the phlox bloomed purple and white that year so even those who hadn't seen it coming were not surprised. Bennett's grandma knew her daughter wasn't crazy, just foolish. She knew her daughter's heart, and she'd been telling her for months to get over that man, and find a nice responsible banker. Bennett's Mom didn't listen to her mother any better than any daughter does. Lucy had never been the kind of Mom a girl dreams of having. She'd never packed a lunch or helped with girlscouts. She'd never driven Bennett to school or braided her hair. Bennett did the family dishes and made her own sandwhiches long before her Mom left.
          Her Mom came to tell her good-bye that May evening, the day after Bennett had seen the phlox on the edge of the woods behind their house. Their perfume filled the yard where Bennett sat on the little metal lawn chair with the green plastic woven strips sticking to her bare legs. Lucy came and gave Bennett a hug and a lipsticky kiss and told her she was going away with Tony. She asked Bennett to be happy for her, and she talked for ten minutes straight about where they were going and how Grandma Kaye would come to live with Bennett and her little brother, Bobby. She ended up with, "oh, Bennett, I just can't resist his muddy brown eyes. They look at me and I melt into a big 'ole pile of pudding!" Bennett remembered the feeling of disgust and annoyance she felt toward her Mother. There was no anger or shock, with Lucy one got used to these kinds of things, plus she'd heard her Mother for eight nights in a row talking on the phone with this man, saying things she might not have said if she'd known Bennett could hear.
           All Bennett could say was, "Why should I be happy for you?" and since she felt a bit grumpy and out of sorts on this day she decided to hurt her Mom just a bit, "Real Moms don't leave their kids alone you know, especially when they're only nine years old." Lucy's face had been expectant and excited and full of hope but now it slumped. Her whole body lowered in defeat, twenty seconds of a posture that gave Bennett the short lived belief that her Mother might actually stay, start over and be the Mom Bennett had always wanted. It took ten seconds for the thought to appear and another ten for her to enjoy it before Lucy popped back up, angry now with a snarl on her lips. She spit out, "You are ten.... Ten years old, not nine! And... YOU don't need me, You have never needed me. I am just a joke to you and I deserve a little fun. Tony is fun and HE needs me! He's the only one who has ever needed me!" She clomped back to the house in her tight jeans, big worn work boots and dangly silver bracelets. Bennett heard the bracelets clinking all the way into the bouse where Lucy gabbed her bags and headed out to the little purple VW bug with the happy face sticker in the back window. Bennett wouldn't see her Mom again for over five years.
          The phone ringing took a minute to register in Bennett's mind, and she just barely reached it in time to answer. It was her friend, Darby Moon, apparently playing hooky from her job at the newspaper, calling to say she needed company for lunch and had something important to say. They made plans to meet in an hour at the little family diner in front of the school, which gave Bennett just time to finish the light housework and get in 20 minutes of yoga. Bennett had just received her barefoot sandals in the mail from her favorite etsy shop and she was happy to wear them, the white crochet looked so pretty with her peach polished toes as she bent to do her stretches. Yoga went quickly and soon she was dressing to meet Darby and arrived at the diner 2 minutes early. Darby had been her friend since highschool. They'd both grown up in this town, their parents had been friends, throwing parties together when the girls were toddlers. Then when Bennet's Dad left them, the parties continued with Lucy and whatever boyfriend she had at the moment. Both families shared a cottage on Keuka lake for two weeks in summer every other year, right up until Lucy took off with Tony when Bennett was 10. Bennet and Darby had stayed friends through highschool and college but drifted apart during the early years of their marraiges and the baby years. Darby had moved back to town 2 years ago and it was as if the two had never missed a day. Their friendship was not based on any shared traits, the two being complete opposites in most ways.
          Bennett had always been immune to phlox season. She was never a fan of the weed and still mows it down whenever any dares to grow in the corners of her yard. Darby on the other hand goes for long walks along dirt roads in phlox season. She gathers up huge handfuls of the flower and fills her home with them. It's such a short season she wants to take advantage of every single moment with the purple and pale white beauty, and she enjoys it to the fullest.
         Darby and Bennett spent their lunch talking and laughing as always. They overheard Mrs. Loux at the next table tell their waitress, Sarah Jones: "I don't know what got into me, I have been doing so well on my diet for eight weeks now and I have been so good. I've lost fifteen pounds and my pants fit so much better, they're just practically falling off me. Then this morning I woke up wanting a chocolate bar so badly I ended up getting dressed and drove to Unimart at eight o'clock this morning." At the table on the far side they overheard a young girl, Polly from the bakery, telling her lunch mate about her Grandma, Mrs. Foster, who had been so overwhelmed with the scent of the first phlox that season coming in the car window that she simply forgot to brake at the end of Stephens Gulch and drove right across the Route 16 and on toward the corn field on the other side. She hadn't been hurt but her husband had a thing or two to say to her after he hired a tow truck to pull her out of the ditch.
         Bennett and Darby laughed at all the chaos of the season and then out of nowhere, when a lull in conversation had them staring at their now empty plates, Bennett surprised even herself by burting out "I think I need to take off and drive to California and start a new life.... Take up with some man in a big hat named Guido." Darby let out a laugh just short of a snort, something close to the sound of a pellet gun, she was so shocked by her friend's uncharacteristic comment that she didn't perceive the lost emotion hiding underneath it. "Yeah right!" she replied. "I'm serious!" Bennett said, almost affended by Darb's total lack of belief in Bennett's ability to be spontaneous or to do anything crazy. Normally this would have made her proud, but today it almost hurt.
        " I could do something crazy you know!"
        "No, You can't! You never do anything unplanned, Ever!"
        "But I'm so.... Lately, I'm so.... Antsy!", Bennett pouted. She didn't even realize it till just this minute. But right now she felt lost and in need of something, some idea to latch onto.
         Darby laughed again, not realizing Bennett was at all serious or in need of counsel, after all she'd never needed it before, Bennett being the most responsible person she knew. And that was never going to change as far as she knew. "Go home, reorganize your DVDs alphabetically and you'll forget all about it!", she managed by way of a reply, and promptly changed the subject. "That reminds me.... I met a man in a hat yesterday. He was tall and thin, maybe too thin. His hat had the letters P.A.T. on it, Do you know what that stands for? I don't. He tipped the hat at me when he said "hello". Don't you just love a man who tips his hat? I do! And ,oh god, he smelled sooooo good. I almost forgot that part. He walked past me as I was sitting at the river where I go on my lunch hour to sketch the phlox, you know, and I was actually a little annoyed because I wanted the river to myself. He walked up with another man in khaki's and they pointed at the water and talked for five minutes before the other man left, maybe they work for the DEC or something, then my man in the hat walked past me with his drink and I got a wiff of coffee, Old Spice and something else sort of dark and powerful smelling, when he tipped his hat and said, "Afternoon. How are you today?" I fell in love right then and almost fell in the river too because I took a step forward, drawn to him I was, and stepped on a rock and tipped sideways enough to loose my balance, and fell. Luckily I fell sideways, not forward, and plopped down on one of those big rocks butt first instead of falling face first. Not a very graceful way to meet someone, but I could see the concern on his face for a split second, then there was this sweet little smile as if he knew me, knew what a clutz I am but thought, "what a cute, adorable little clutz." I saw it, I did. And you know what else?..."
          "OK, OK," Bennett interupted. "Breathe for a second! Now focus! I don't need to hear all about the love of your life number five hundred and seventy three. Just tell me what you asked me to lunch to tell me, remember the thing you said was so important?"
          "oh god, I almost forgot.... It's Meera. She wants to have dinner this Thursday with you and I and Darla and Lettie and Blaire. I think it's bad news..."



So... if anyone gets this far please know that I don't actually consider myself a writer, I sketch and paint so I am really not all caught up in this being good or not. I wrote it to give it a shot and I just can't tell if it's horrible. I am actually giving you permission to give me an honest critcism, you don't just have to say..."how nice!" to be encouraging.

Oh, and I will really get caught up with my 29 faces tomorow, the long weekend just gets in the way of posting. It was fun though and I hope your memorial day was wonderful as well!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Face 24

photo.JPG by lelloavengers
photo.JPG, a photo by lelloavengers on Flickr.
As you can see this face in my sketchbook has zentangled hair and wings. The tangle in the wings is mooka, my favorite tangle. And in the hair it's called Pea-nuckle. The challenge at Iamthediva was to use pea-nuckle and it turns out to be a fun one, once you get the hang of it. It took me a bit before it started to flow. I am having fun with these faces with their strange and fabulous hair and will have a few more before i move on to another kind.

I have been working on more mandalas and tattoo designs and spoonflower fabric and the palette for the hammondsport summer event and a story for the Secret dream skirt Society... Lots to show soon but today this is it.

Oh, almost forgot the haiku to go with her....

I am wonderful!
Each of us is wonderful!
Messily perfect!

Face 23

photo.JPG by lelloavengers
photo.JPG, a photo by lelloavengers on Flickr.
I am having fun with this crazy hair style of ladies! Just a quick sketch in pencil of the eyes then everything else straight in with the pen, then i add the watercolor.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

face 18,19,20 and 21

in a rush today so just some very speedy faces....






And... the winner of the green lady pendant is.....


Rebecca with the #8 comment! I am off to let her know!

Monday, May 21, 2012

the First Secret Dream Skirt

Hello, Just wanted to show you the first Secret Dream Skirt.....This is not what I imagined in my head when I started thinking  about these. The one I imagined was white and covered with every color of paint and patches saying all of my dreams and wishes and goals, all written out for me to remember when I wear it. And noone else had to even know.

Paint, embroidery, fabric, stitches, some quilting, some art, lots of words, a beautiful mess! Whatever we need to say to ourselves!

But this skirt.... this skirt is what appeared when I sat down to start a skirt. It's very hard to photograph as it's black with red tulip fabric paint. I just wrote whatever came to mind.... and that turned out to be  "I am enough!"
And I didn't fill in the whole skirt as I really think these skirts should be works in progress, to be added to when ever you need to hear or remember something true to you.

I wore it to work under my black skirt for court and I hardly even thought about it. Except every now and then.... I remembered and I would smile inside!




 I think you need one too...
 simply or elaborate,
A work in progress
and remember I will send a badge made by me, once I figure out how,  to at least 10 Secret dream skirt Society members if you show us a skirt. and we shouldn't rush, these skirts are something that should evolve slowly...
see you tomorow, I'll catch up with my faces! oh, and I will draw the name of my giveaway winner tomorow as well!

Friday, May 18, 2012

all together now

OK, so for those of you from paint party friday or somewhere else that may not have heard about Amy's all together now.... We are each having a giveaway and bragging about ourselves a bit.

I'm finding that not as easy as it sounds....

So here's a few things about me,(which is part of the deal)

I'm married to my highschool sweetheart, in love since I was 12. Yeah. really! He's a good man and a good cook. We have 4 kids, the older girls are back home right now but will be gone back to college in the fall. They and my older son in highschool help us out incredibly with our youngest son who is 9 and autistic. He's a sweetheart who can be unpredictable to say the least. He's a loving little man who has no impulse control. And since he's mostly nonverbal he gets frustrated. All our worlds center around him.
But I guess that's not really bragging about me...

I am year and a half away from 50. Wow, that sounds old! I work full time trying to collect child support from people who don't want to pay child support. It can make you cynical and I REALLY am not a cynical person by nature. I am a look on the bright side, glass half full kind of person.

Here's a short story to tell you who I am...

At my job recently they had a health fair,and they had free 10 minute massages and free reiki treatments. I had never been to a reiki practioner before but I love all kinds of new stuff and things unusual or hippy like or alternative therapies, or whatever you may want to call this, so I watched a few people getting this done and they (who were totally skeptical to start with) left feeling better, relaxed. So I tried it, They had a shift change before my turn so I ended up with a different man doing this. He talked the whole time where as the other man had been silent. He told me he could tell I could read minds. (!) He told me I should stop reading the paper because he could tell I hold all the negative thoughts in my body. (I don't read the paper for that reason as I just can't handle any more bad news). He said I need to learn how to release all the negative energy I'm holding. I was right there with him ... buying what he had to say... until....

I mentioned my autistic son when he asked where I was getting all my stress, and he replied....
You're son must be an alien from a planet where they have no need for speech because they communicate in other ways, such as music or something. So you need to find how he communicates.

He lost me right there.... So here's some advice .... if you barely know someone, don't tell them their son must be an alien They might be affended.
So anyway, I haven't bragged yet... here goes...
I have confidence in my art, I may not be the best but it's the one thing I am confident in. I feel like I could paint or draw anything if given the time.

OK,  not much of a brag but it's all I can come up with right now! On the right day I'm sure I could be full of myself but not today...The ladies in my art throw their arms wide and sing "I am wonderful" but some days I have trouble with that!
Here's some sketches from my latest obsession: I am addicted to carrying my sketchbook every day and putting art in it. Quick art that will remind me how things looked, felt and smelled. Not perfect art just art to remind me of my life....



I love walking in cemetaries



A haiku for you of some of my favorite things...
for more favorite things ...check out Artist's Play Room this week..

Potions and lotions
things in pretty packages
hot tea,  green drinks, books

almost forgot today's face for 29 faces



and of course I have to show my latest mandala...




And here's the giveaway... just leave a comment for a chance to win!


Come back monday for a pic of the FIRST SECRET Dream Skirt! if you missed it here's the story on why YOU NEED a Secret Dream Skirt! I'm giving away badges! Every monday I am planning a tutorial or video about a project a member of the SDSSociety made in their get-togethers or about a skirt or about something related! This monday I showed a sketch and story about the founding member...  it'll be fun! See you!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Face 16

photo.JPG by lelloavengers
photo.JPG, a photo by lelloavengers on Flickr.
Not happy with this one at all, i tried to do the opposite of yesterday.... And add everycolor to her, and be bright and cheery.Didn't work but I'm sharing it anyway....

See you tomorow, and don't forget to come back friday for "all together now" the big giveaway at mine and so many other sites!! Organized by Amy... See you there!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Face 15 and Zentangles in Sepia










The challenge at IamtheDiva is to use sepia. I could not find my sepia pen, even though I know I have one. So I used brown colored pencil and burnt sienna watercolor in the ZIA , and black pen with brown, wheat and orange watercolor pencils on the face.