Red berries all around

This week I saw red berries everywhere...

on vines clinging to fences, on ground cover, on trees...

As the leaves drop the berries are left behind just for me to find.

Not to eat, just to sketch...

 

 

 

 

 

Rushing off to work

I"m driving into the sun

singing oldies LOUD

 

 

 

 

ps:

 if you wanted an update on how it's going vegan then you can read yesterdays post...

today I am feeling deprived but still not craving sugar! Iam having trouble wanting to eat at all...

Happy Paint Party Friday and Hello all at Haiku my Heart!

Earth, air, fire, water

I made another video for you this week. In this one i have painted 4 watercolor mandalas in my sketchbook.  I read on a few people's blogs lately that they tend to skip the videos when they see them on people's blogs. I am just the opposite, i love to see videos, especially art videos of people creating. I vegetated a bit this week in the evenings watching art videos, and if i had saved all the links i would show you the best of what i saw, some amazing things.... But i didn't, ooops. Anyway, please don't skip this video, it's about slowing down to enjoy what you see..., it's about 5 minutes long... Slow down, take your time and relax! That's my deep thought and advice for you and for myself this week. Slow down and enjoy  what you are seeing and doing without being in such a rush to see and do the next thing. I will try to Take my own advise, and just do one thing at a time today!

And for those of you who just truly don't have the 5 minutes today, i'll post my 4 sketches below the video...

Earth, air, fire water

These are always there for us

This is small magic

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!

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!

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!

Day 4. Face 4

Technically there's 2 faces here but we just won't worry about that. This is my latest mandala inspired by the prompt for the Artist's Play Room, which was light and dark. I always seem to paint light and colorful so I thought I needed to show a little dark.  I have just recently discovered how much I like Payne's gray so I did this whole Mandala in Payne's gray. I think it's going to be addicting for me. It's still not dark and forboding or anything but for me this is definately a switch.

 And since there's faces in it I'm counting it for Face 4 of the 29 Faces challenge at Ayala Art. If you haven't been following me you can go there to see everyone that has joined in and we're trying to do a face a day for 29 of the days this month!

 And since I needed to throw just a few more blogs into this, there's a Haiku for Haiku my heart! and I am also linking to Paint Party Friday of course!!! Happy Friday Everyone!

Emptiness in gray

There for all to see in gray

Nothing in my hands





I  want to Share the joy this week with my zentangles. Just like my mandalas from last week (which i do have another of this week), I  can totally loose myself in doing them. With zentangles there are certainly some tangles that fit better together and you can think about balance of light and dark or loose to tight, and I'm sure all sorts of things why this would be better or that.... but the great thing is you don't have to. You can just pick up a pen and do it with almost no thought at all, and it absorbs your thoughts, blocks out your worries and almost always ends up looking great. 

The first and the 3rd,4th and 5th photo are for a challenge at Iamthediva where we were to use the tangle GOLVEN by Mariet. I did it then just kept on making more, i've got 3 or 4 more pges i didn't even get photos of yet. But here's a mandala  I did get done for paint party friday this week and paint and palette...

The palette is a nice new cheap kids set that looks like I hardly used it....

I might be back soon with a goddesss piece for 13 goddessess... not sure if i'll get it done... have a good week!

share the joy and my last 2 faces!

On the left is Darla's friend Pammy.... She loves fuji apple pear lifewaterand drinks at least 2 a day. she also checks her horoscope daily along with her biorhythm chart on the internet. She's a health food nut and doesn't ever litter. She's recycles and worries about the environment and global warming. She's adopted a whale on line and a donated to over 10 charities. Her worst habit is she eats a whopper every day for lunch, but so far her cholesterol is fine. She's tried to quit but her car seems to be programmed to drive there.

Then there's Clarisse, she has 4 cats; Chandler, Joey, Dick Chaney and October.... She also has 23 cans of artichoke hearts in her pantry and she would be hard pressed to explain why if you put her on the spot.

So sorry the 29 days are over, but as all the ladies of my 29 faces are members of the Secret Skirt Society, which i never got around to telling you about... I may have more stories about them later...


For Share the Joy, I wanted to share how much I am enjoying painting mandalas. There are so many millions of ways to decide to color them in let along how to draw them, and there's no difficult trying to make it look like your subject while you draw, it's all so esasy. Then you get to the watercolor part and it's just peaceful and beautiful to watch the watercolors flow onto good watercolor paper, I will someday try to make a video of painting them as it's just as fun to watch as it is to do it, well for me at least....

oh and for paint and palette I am showing my totally messy watercolors I use to paint with, looks horrible as I mix right in with the paints most days then have to go wash it out later.

And as I  have posted "almost" every day this month i will take a break and not post tomorow and link this one up with paint party friday, so go check them out as well, always so much inspiration there!