My life lately....

It has been a week (or two) of ups and downs, highs and lows, scratches and smiles, and bad news that turned into good. It was the last week of school and we have recently found out my son will start a new school in the fall that will be a better place for him to be. That felt bad at first as it's a long trip for him but turned out to be good news!
It was a hot summer solstice, too hot to do anything but sit and sweat. I spent a 93 degree lunch hour sitting near the river sketching, but at least it seemed 10 degrees cooler next to the water.

 and one day on the top of the world sketching...

My daughter saved two out of three baby ducklings literally from the claws and teeth of my killer cat, she and my parents tried to feed them so they could live long enough to set them free in a pond or somewhere. We have no rescue center nearby to take wild animals to, and sadly they didn't make it through their second night.

Cute, fuzzy and yet

survival of the fittest

is still very sad

We go to a state park for vacation very soon, and I am looking forward to canoeing, swimming, hiking to the ponds and sketching while my husband fishes, eatting barbecue and probably ranch chicken wings. I can't wait!
This week I created a mandala for the summer of color, inspired by the baseball nut, black raspberry cone...

I am also linking to the artists playroom for their theme of monochromatic art as this is all shades of raspberry, and to paint party friday. And...Here's my zentangle for iamthediva's challenge using the tangle called Cadent...

See you all soon! Thanks for stopping by!

share the joy

I used to put lists of small pleasures, things I was grateful for, happy moments, my little likes, joys etc.  in my journals daily. I have not been doing that lately and I need to get back to that practice. This week I want to share the joy with photos of a few of the things from my lists....

A flower from my back deck...

 Starting a new mandala....

 Enjoying the river on my lunch hour...

The artwork that inspired hundreds of treasuries for this week's nonteamchallenge!...

The strawberry creamcheese bagel my husband made for me...

See you tomorow with some finished art work...

summer of color

The ice cream flavor for inspiration this week has been mint chocolate chip. I started a mandala with green and brown but it was more earthy and leafy looking, and not minty ice cream looking at all, so I set that aside for awhile and did this quick little mini canvas, then two more in other colors.. The opaque of acrylic was definitely more minty looking  than watercolors.

I actually put these in my etsy shop along with my mandalas so I have been working toward my goal of doing something with my art. Now to start on this weeks challenge...

Just in the nick of time

photo.JPG, a photo by lelloavengers on Flickr.

A zentangle for the IAMTHE DIVA challenge of eccentric circles, they ended up looking like peacock feathers to me so I went with that a bit. I have no other sketch today so I'll link this up to Sunday Sketches as well!

it's friday already!

this week has gone so fast...
I almost forgot about doing this post I was so caught up in checking out all the treasuries on etsy with my mini canvas! they are all sooo beautiful and interestingIt's going to be sooo hard to pick one on sunday!
anyway...


here's the inspiration.....this is maybe the eaglet but it's stomach is whitish too so not sure but it's right where the daddy eagle always sat a little ways away from the nest...

and the sketch...

and more inspiration at Mcdonalds....

and more sketches...

watching the birds soar

waiting for the perfect shot

I always miss it

Linking to artists playroom for their drawing theme

butterfly effect for their bird theme

and haiku my heart

Share the joy

I am sooo excited today, my treasury has won for the nonteam challenge so that means soooo many people will be making treasuries with one of my items! I can't wait to see them all....

and I might as well fess up, because some of you already know this...to some it may seem like cheating as my daughter is Barefootbananas who picked me as the winner, but she assure's me that she judged purely by how well she liked the treasury and not just because I am her mom. Which I think is true as she won once before and Didn't pick me. And I Do have the inside scoop on her favorite things so it was easy to make a treasury I was sure she would approve of. Anyway, It will be fun!

So this is my treasury on the right made with her  needlefelted ladybugs...

Waxing philosophical

photo.JPG, a photo by lelloavengers on Flickr.

I hadn't palnned to get all philosophical but after i wrote this i had to change the title....

I was over visiting Tracy Fletcher King's blog, which if i wasn 't on my ipad I would put a link to, and who most of you know but if you don't you should definately go there as her blog is so perfect and her style is so identifiable and her humor is so wondefully dry, that whenever she decides to make her blog into a book it
will be a best seller....

Anyway, I was there and as she posted about why she doesn't enjoy zentangles, it made me start to wonder why I do love them...

I love that they all have names and if you are so inclined you can catergorize them, make some system of storing the tangles so you would have them readily available when you were wondering what one to use next....
I used to be much more into ordering things, keeping stuff in it's place, that side of it appeals to me, although now i don't do that anymore. I have had to give up that little bit of obsession with order because with my son it just works better to go with the flow. Actually people at work who know me now but didn't know me before say i am layed back and even lacadaisical. I disagree but because I rarely get upset about all the work drama, (who has time for that kind of stress, when there's so much more meaningful stress to really latch on to?), i see why they might say that.

So anyway, my point is that even though I like the fact there's names and it can be an ordered hobby, what is relaxing about zentangling is that you don't HAVE to think at all about it. Once you learn a few, you can just move your pen and it flows together with no real thought needed. It really is zen. And if you use a good pen and quality paper like they suggest, it is a pleasure!

All that said... Here's a zentangle I thought a bit about because it was a challenge from over at thebrightowl.blogspot.com? Hope you enjoy, i am also posting it over at sundaysketches. Sorry for the lack of links to these sites, it's not letting me connect them today.

The inspiration...

The sketches!

I walked barefoot through

morning dew on the long grass.

Cold feet for an hour.

see ya!

Summer of Color

Here's my mandala inspired by the Rainbow sherbert cone over at TwinkleTwinkle for the Summer of Color, I missed it last year and wanted to play along this summer. Even if you don't go see all the other rainbow sherbert colored art, You should follow that link just to see the great photo of the inspiration icecream, makes you want to eat some, even at this time in the morning! It will bring you JOY! These are just such HAPPY colors!

 I liked this mandala until I added lines with a pink and an orange gel pen instead of my usual black one, then it just started to loose all contrast and blend together. It helped a little when I added white correction pen highlights.

Then for Iamthediva and Artist'sPlayRoom, I  zentangled with the same colors in black sharpie, pink gel pen and orange watercolor. This tangle is called Bridgen....

See you tomorow for more glimpses into my sketchbook and a haiku....

They didn't make it!

photo.JPG, a photo by lelloavengers on Flickr.

But i'll try again in a few days...

the tree house porch in a boring post today!

I know I had said I would post something about the secret dream skirt society each monday, but I don't have anything today....I ended up making this little button wreath instead. Not sure why, just felt like making something with buttons...

And since I am trying to do something with my art, like I mentioned on friday, the first thing I thought I'd do is hang some of it. So on my little side porch off our bedroom upsatirs, so it seems like a tree house, I hung some old art. I  debated: paint over it or hang it up, so this won.

It was apparently not light enough to get good photos this morning. If everything stays where I put it, (my son a has a thing for everything being in it's place, which would be fine if we could understand why somethings belong where they do in his mind. For example: pillow cases do not belong on pillows, they go in the corner, shoes have to be lined up, dvd's belong by the front door for a month after they are purchased before they can go on the DVD shelf, and used popsicle sticks go down the cold air vent),...... then I will add more art, other artist's and inspiring stuff. Then I'll get some better photos, and even show you the whole porch. I have big plans for making it a summer art room/play room because my son loves it up there. We'll see how this goes!

it's friday!!!!

I'm so glad it's friday, these short work weeks feel so long sometimes!

Happy paint party friday!

Now that the 29 faces is done I need to concentrate on doing something with my art, I just keep painting these mandalas but I don't even list them on etsy or fineart america, ... so, that's my goal for June, to do something with my art....

And here's a bright cheery ACEO too!

if you missed it this week...

Here's the first chapter in the Secret Dream Skirt Society book.

Here's my pallette that was safely delivered to the art gallery in Hammondsport.

and Here's photos of Porkfest!