a week of no sleep...

well hardly any sleep, My son goes through streaks of not sleeping, the worst was wednesday, he didn't fall asleep till 6:00 am,............ then when he actually slept the last 2 nights I woke up feeling sooooooo goood, I could've danced around flinging glitter on everyone I saw.

It's true the old folktale.... we used to tell this story to our 4 year olds with felt figures to illustrate it when I worked in HeadStart..... about the man who couldn't sleep because it was too noisy in house with his wife and kids so the wise woman told him to make it worse by adding another animal to his little shack, he did but still couldn't sleep, so he asked for advice again, she told him add another, a cow to his little shack, again it didn't help, so she told him to add a horse, and on and on until he couldn't fit into his shack hardly at all. Of course he still couldn't sleep at ALL so he went back one more time and she told him to get rid of all the animals. He did and the house was so quiet with just his wife and kids that he slept wonderfully!!!
Anyway, I did get a few things done... a painting of our fall leaves... just for fun. I wanted to leave the background white like a botanical but just couldn't stand all the white space... I need to work on that.

and some photos taken while going for rides on dirt roads in our foothills, my son's favorite thing to do lately.... I may try to paint the deer...

and some photos from the Naples Grape festival. The grapes smelled sooo wonderful just walking past this vineyard... I'm pretty sure I want to try to paint the grapes! We HAD to buy a grape pie, of course!

And I finshed one of the needlefelted ornaments I showed about 3-4 weeks ago...I think it's done. It's hard to know when to stop with the beads and embroidery etc.

 I'm hoping next week to have more detailed photos of how I make the ornaments as I have a few more started. Have a great week!

IF Mesmerizing

hello to all,
This week I finished the unhappy lady in the white bougainvilleas... I am adding this to paint party friday as well as IF for the theme" mesmerizing". She didn't start off that way, I was only thinking of a sad girl full of longing but then she got this different mood started.

I didn't finish the needlefelting though. Just not enough time, a week breezes by way too fast. Most of my painting this week was on my bedroom wall instead of on paper! It's now a nice gray/violet, I love it even if my husband doesn't.

 I hope to have my sketchbook for the sisterhood of the trveling sketchbook done soon, maybe a day or two. Then there's the unicorns vs. zombies game going on soon over at Amy's blog, I hope to have something to represent my team on that.

I don't have much new to show as I left my sketchbook at work yesterday, but here's my latest project, well not latest but ongoing with all my other stuff...

It's lots of my paintings from etsy shrunk to 1 inch to make into pendants! I'll show you that next week too...
Since I didn't have too much to shownew this week, here's some of my photos from trying to do a photo a day, actually it's not something I try to do. I just feel obsessed to do it  like painting, or drawing all the stuff in my head, I actually have lists of all the photos I need to take. There's nothing outstanding but I loved the lichen and the goldenrod...

Here's a site to check out that is featuring a link back to my blog because my falling ladies caught the writers eye...
http://www.notebookinhand.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14684
If you check it out there's alot to see there, tons of articles by creative people for creative people. I hadn't seen it until I was contacted by the person who runs the forum... www.notebookinhand.com, but it's totally worth checking out!

Also I was notified one of my latest treasuries was picked  to be  featured on Etsy Treasury Hunter! Check out my treasury here...
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/ODU0MDAzM3w3MjAxNDk2NDY/red-velvet-wedding?ref=pr_treasury
and the blog where it's featured here ...
http://www.etsytreasuryhunter.com/

Have a great week everybody!

This week

Hello, Thank you for all the great comments last week, especially since I barely got around to anyone else's posts... My son DID do wonderful at school like you all hoped. I'm knocking on wood everywhere but it's been going great this first week!!!

I didn't finish either of the two projects I've been working on. But here's my started watercolor...I was using a magazine photo for the woman, but I wanted her to be a little more sad than the photo so I'm not trying to make her look like the picture, just using it for reference, same as my picture of the red flowers, I actually want them to be white, so that there's more contrast against the dark night.

Here's the start...

Here's my reference photos...

and here's the almost finished piece...

I also started a new needlefelted item that I've been thinking about ever since Spinster Beth@
http://spinsterbeth.blogspot.com/2011/09/oh-enough-already.html suggested I do ornaments like the necklace I started... so here's my started ornament... it needs some embroidery and a few felt petals in the middle still. I think it needs to be over the top, overdone, so maybe even a bead or two.

They take forever but at least I've gotten back at needlefelting! Hope to show you both finished next week plus I'll have to add in something new as there's so much more started from weeks ago!

On top of the usual paint party friday, crafty friday, creative friday, fiberart friday I just found a site: artists in blogland, and am linking up there. I'm putting their link on my sidebar so go check it out!

Happy paint party friday!

Another week has flown by, I was determined to finish somethig instead of starting something new but it was not to be, I started another watercolor and almost finished it. I can't even show you though as it's still at work and I am not yet. so here's a few of the started painting's I have waiting to be worked on... All I've done is her hair and the balloons...

This is how I do my watercolors, I rarely do much wet into wet  and I use this same tiny brush for usually the whole painting. I HAVE other brushes so I don't know why I never pick the others up. My paints are actually much cleaner than usual, most of the time there's actually mixed colors all over the lid as well. Nothing fancy here.

And here's the other one I started a while ago...in ACRYLIC! Only have the clouds done so far...

The theme for the sketchbook challenge this month was everyday objects so I did a few quick sketches in my tiny book. I found I don't like sketching man made objects as much as nature....

and as we've had a busy week here... the earthquake where we evacuated our building; a dentist appt. which I panic about, I hate dentists;and  I won the alpacateam challenge again! Yeah, so much fun!; and then there was sending my daughter back to college and such: so....I didn't needlefelt again, surprise surprise, but before she left she made this cute pin!

I made it to all the paint party friday sites last week I think, but I apologize as I did not get to all the creative friday ones or all the fiber art friday ones. There's just so much cool stuff to see and only so much time!

Have a great week,

this week

It's a little late in the day but it's still friday so I made it in time for paint party friday and maybe early for Ilustration friday, for me at least...I didn't get too much finished but I started alot more. I can't even sleep at night I have so many ideas in my head and not enough time to make them, I have scraps of paper everywhere with ideas. I have notebooks half full of ideas , then I try to get organized and I but a new note book and I think that'll help keep me more organized but it only lasts a little while, I have 2 or 3 sketchbooks and 2 or 3 or more journals and, at least only one date book, and I'm reading about 4 books at once, and maybe I should just S   l   o   w   down! I did finish one watercolor so that's what I'll show you. It's bigger than my usual, I think it's like 12x17 or something.(I usually do 8x10.) This lady's not as happy as I usually do either, not sure why... I may have to change her lips as she's starting to look to me too annoyed or too "something". The theme for IF is influenced and she, (like me) is influenced by nature. Even when I don't paint nature, that's always a big influence. It's what inspires me, the wind, the peace and serenity in the breeze, the flowers and the water. I just wish I could do all the paintings I have in my head, I'd be a touch more sane.

and here's a quick sketch I did at the creek of some rocks....

and because I didn't finish any needlefelting or sewing but my daughter did again, here's her creations...

They are just sooo ugly cute, Of course, they're available in her shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/barefootbananas?ref=ss_profile

Have a great week everybody!