Just Me and Some Thoughts

What that really means is that I will be chattering my head off to you and there might not be any pictures in this post at all.
I have art to scan! I feel bunches better today than I have since the beginning of the week! That damned Fibro has let go of me for the time being! My blood sugars went wacko yesterday and that wasn't a great feeling either! But! I am still breathing and above the green, so I'm good to go till the next attack. I survive the attacks, I just don't like them!

I'm working on laundry this morning. Just came from the laundry room changing the machines, last load in washer and one more for dryer. All my son's laundry mind you. He's a good kid though I don't mind doing a couple loads. I'll get to see him in the morning!
I am putting RW's things into the box I took them out of. I threw that cardboard ceiling fan box on the floor in the kitchen which is right off the laundry room. That little terrorist Lola is honing her skills tonight by terrorizing poor Billy who would LOVE to go outside but he can't cause I won't open the door and let him out. Lola jumped in the box and Billy, who loves cardboard boxes, thought he might snag that box for himself. They boxed in and out of the box for a few seconds then Lola jumped him and they started that snarling business and here comes Fred from the deskroom. Barking like the fool dog he is! Never a dull moment at my house. Never! I left them to their own devices in the kitchen.
I won't let Billy outside because he has no business outside at 2:30 in the morning. I might change my mind later. I will be up until the laundry is done. I might let him out later if Lola doesn't stop practising on the poor boy!

I have been working on art some tonight. I have two ATCs to scan. Pink Poodles. There will be 4 postcards completed tomorrow and a couple of chunky pages. Most of them will have found poetry on them before they are done. I painted the seahorse postcard the other day, Tuesday I think, but I finished it today so I can use it for the Found Poetry A Thon over at AFA this weekend. Hopefully the muse will hang around throughout the weekend. She's been kinda contrary for a few days.

I have the music up loud and have had it up loud most of the evening. I started arting about 11:30 or so. My muse must like the tunes tonight. I hit my highest score EVER on Majhonng Dimensions tonight as well.
I'm really pleased with two of the postcards, seascapes. Not sure what I'll have walking on the sand in them but something. Lovers? Birds in the shallows? I just haven't decided yet.

I told you all about the 600 pictures I downloaded from the camera yesterday ...or whenever it was I was here last. I haven't done anything with those pictures. Took a quick look at them but didn't see much that caught my eye. I'll be back. Gonna go take another look. HAS to be something good with that many to choose from!

The damn thing wants to put the photos before the text.... it did this to me the other day as well and it was very frustrating!

Well! It worked that time!

Telephone poles in the sunset. No photoshop or what have you. That's how it came out. Pretty good for my limited point and shoot skills. 

Guess I should tell you about the two up top. I can't move them. They'll just simply disappear on me.

The cows are part of a story I may tell you some day. It's really not a very exciting story if you want to know the truth. Most cow stories really aren't too exciting you know. This young cow has a great view though!

The cattle egrets (white birds) were a great find that day. We don't see many of those up here.

I guess that's all the pictures for today. The laundry has finished, it's 4 in the morning and I need some beauty sleep!

Nighty night!

Go get your hugs! You need them!

Peace

831

Fish Picture 3 Progress, A Few ATCs, Some Chatter

I've not been very artistic this past week. Fibro has kicked me very hard! I've laid in my bed, reading for hours on end for the last three days, sleeping when I wasn't reading. The three days previous I rode around in my brother's truck getting bounced around on chalk roads (having myself a fine time, at the time!)

Fibro set in and I went down. Art shut down on Sunday and has yet to return. The want to is there, but it isn't very strong. Art supposedly heals pain...it doesn't if you hurt too much to sit in a chair and actually do art. There is an upside though. I can add another book to my books read list.

It was an excellent murder mystery. I thought I had it all figured out last night when I was about 3/4 through the book but when I finished it this morning, I was way off on my assumtions.

I feel pretty good tonight. I still hurt like crazy but not so much I can't sit in this chair for a bit and get caught up on this blog. I probably won't get caught up on anything else though. It's a quarter after midnight and I will probably have to drive my sister to Salina sometime tomorrow morning. I'm not sure she's even going to want to go to that doctor's appt tomorrow...

I need to get caught up though so.... I've some art to show that was done before the muse flew south.

There was an ATART (all types of art a thon) over the weekend. I managed 5 ATCs for that wing ding. Traded two of them.

Zen Lizard

ATC

21 May 2010

Black Sharpie on recycled cardstock.

This is one of the traded.

Zen Cat

ATC

21 May 2010

Markers on recycled cardstock.

This is the other one traded.

Pink and Orange Quilt Top

ATC

20 May 2010

Six inchies done with markers on recycled cardstock adhered to marker colored recycled cardstock.

Pink Flowers

ATC

21 May 2010

Markers on recycled cardstock.

I worked some on the fish picture as well. This fish picture is giving me fits. I think about coral daily. I think about how to replicate it to work it into this creation. It has been daunting.

Progress is happening though. I have crocheted some fishing line into little disks that resemble coral. Well to me it looks like what coral MIGHT look like....I've never actually seen live coral of any kind and the stuff I've crocheted really doesn't look like any picture of any coral I've seen either but I think it will work.

The muse hasn't been cooperative as I said.

As you can tell I've not gotten much farther on the sea floor. I'm trying to accomplish the effect that viewer is looking out from inside the sea cave. Much work is still to be done on this piece.

The fishes were the easy part!

Sorry it isn't a great picture. They now have some color and eyes.

Pictures were not going into the post correctly tonight. Probably operator error but it wasn't working like it usually does. So here's another of the ATCs done over the past weekend.

2 Ring Circus

ATC

Markers on recycled cardstock.

If I felt better, I'd show you some of the 595 pictures I downloaded from the camera today. I can't sit in this chair much longer for two reasons; 1). My back and hips are killing me! and 2). I can't keep my eyes open much longer. Perhaps in the next post (whenever that may be) I'll show you some scenery.

Get your hugs! I'm collecting them too!

Peace

831

Fish Picture 3 Progress and An Outing with Pictures

I've been working on the fish picture 3 this morning.

The canvas still looks pretty much the same as the last time except you can see the pink strings better in this shot cause I've added some glass seed beads, gold colored.

Here are the fishes in their almost finished state. They still need some eyes and a bit more color...I'm thinking a touch of gold glitter and they will be done and ready to go on the canvas as soon as I figure out how I'm going to do the sea floor. I need to make some more coral as well and a starfish or two and if I can figure out how to make a decent sea anenome there will be a few of those as well.

Here is the fan coral I finished early this morning. The red 'sticks' are red tissue paper rolled into a stick with a touch of fabric stiffener, left to dry overnight. I had company yesterday for a few hours and we sat in the living room playing with the electronic crap that's laying on my coffee table. My sister Linda unwound some copper wire from a part from an old VCR. I used it this morning to make the fan coral along with the red sticks of tissue paper. Not sure what will happen with the little balls of tissue paper but they will more than likely end up on the canvas somewhere.

Here is a close up of the fishes with the blue glitter paint and the red glitter glue still wet. I'll show you pictures in the next post of the fishes all dry with their eyes and a bit more color.

I have two ATCs done but not scanned so you'll see ATCs in the next post for sure.

I have two ATCs with line drawings but no color on them. I'm hoping they will be completed before the next post and you can see those as well. If all goes according to plan you'll get to see even more art than that!

On Friday I spent 19 hours straight with my brother. We went on a drive in the country all afternoon and into the evening. We took the dog to the lake first thing in the afternoon then we dropped the dog off at home and continued our journey.

I took pictures along the way. Enjoy!

Dandelion seed head at the river by Alton.

Fred at the south entrance to the state lake. It was so pretty at the State Lake that day!

The top of a cottonwood tree next to the State Lake.

2 Yellow Crop Dusters at the Stockton Airport. We saw these guys flying around all day. We covered quite a few miles and saw them many times!

The woodpecker tree by the river at Alton. Notice all the purple flowers growing beneath the trees. It smelled wonderful in this spot! I wish there were such a thing as smellivision cause I can't describe the fragrance of these lovely purple flowers!

Best picture I took all day!

A close up of the woodpecker tree.

The only bad part about these trees were the ticks. I pulled one out of my hair two minutes after I walked into the trees to take pictures of the flowers. And found another one later in the day when I showered. Thankfully it wasn't attached to me yet, just hitching a ride. He went down the drain!

The River. I wish I could tell you which river this is but I'm really not certain which river it is. I think it is the Solomon River, but I'm not sure about that.  OK. It is the Solomon River. I looked at the map. Had to find a map first though...looked in the atlas but Kansas is gone from that atlas...seems to me I used it on the cover of a little book not too long ago. Anyway I found an old map of Kansas in the map box. I know the highways have changed, but the rivers don't so...yeah, it's the Solomon.

Another pretty decent picture for the day!

This is a pack rat nest. My brother assured me the pack rat was probably at home. I wasn't much interested in whether the critter was home or not, I just wanted a picture of his house.

We came across three cemetaries on our travels on Friday. This one with the cool wrought iron fence was out in the middle of nowhere! Somewhere in Phillips County. I couldn't find it again if my life depended on it. It was a lovely little cemetary with stones dating back to the late 1880s. If memory serves me correctly the oldest date in this cemetary was 1843? Old stones! It was so peaceful and shady there. A nice place to be planted I'd say. That fence was gorgeous! Hand wrought...probably put there when the cemetary was established. Quite a nice find out in the middle of nowhere!

We found this rather striking monument in the Greenwood Cemetary. I'm not sure if the Greenwood Cemetary is in Osborne, Phillips or Rooks County, Kansas. We traversed all three counties that day.

I'll let you decide what you think it reminds you of.

Unfortunately I wasn't thinking when we came across the Cemetary over by Kirwin and there are no photos of anything there.

My brother has a thing about bridges. He thinks he has to stop, get out of the truck and take a look under every bridge he comes across out in the country. You never know what you'll find, is what he tells me. I suppose he's right about that but we found nothing of any interest under this bridge. I thought the little creek was quite pretty though.

There! I Fixed It!

My brother's stereo in his truck. That's a VCR tape and a piece of wood holding his stereo in the factory hole in the dash. This stereo works wonderfully! I just thought it hilarious that he has it rigged up this way. He really needs to empty his ashtray!

And you all really need to get your hugs for the day!

:)

Be good to one another. It matters!

Peace

831

Fish Picture 3 Progress, ATCs and Chattering

It's very chilly this morning! A nice little rain shower went through about an hour ago. It's a quarter after three in the morning as I sit here beginning this post.

Pictures didn't want to go in the post right this morning so we're just gonna go with the flow and see what happens. I always insert all the pictures into a post first and then write the post around them.

I got Janis Joplin singing Me and Bobby McGee, the dog sleeping on the floor across the room and a hot cup of coffee before me. Guess I'm ready.

Are you? :)

Early on Wednesday morning I went to Pburg with my sister to have breakfast and then pick Frankie cat up from the vet. Frankie used to be referred to as 'Frankie Fur Balls'. He has no balls now so his name has been changed. I'm uncertain what his new name will be. We'll leave that up to the boys who called him Frankie Fur Balls. Those boys being Sam and Justin mostly.

While at breakfast we did ATCs. People look at us funny when we have markers spread all over the table in amongst the silverware, the coffee cups and plates but we really don't care, we do ATCs anyway. I did three of the 7 of mine below this morning in an hour's time. Susan did the first ATC below in that time. I really like hers! It's cute as a button and colorful too.

I didn't get a great choice of colors into my pocket before it got full of markers. I didn't bring many blues along. I own about 300+ markers, I've never really counted them, but looking at them next to me, I'm guessing 300 or more. I took maybe 2 dozen of them this morning. I also took about a dozen ATC blanks.

We both had the same thing for breakfast. Two eggs over easy, hash browns with onions, bacon and whole wheat toast for me, english muffin for her. I had coffee to drink and she had hot tea.

There is a swap going on over at AFA (the link's up in the lefthand corner) that is all about drawing blind. Closing your eyes and drawing a face in this particular swap. I drew the nose, eyes, mouths and heads of these characters below with my eyes closed. Then I doctored them up with my eyes open. Some of them needed quite a bit of doctoring too!

Susan opted to take her own route.

SJB '10'

ATC

12 May 2010

Markers on recycled cardstock.

Guess you all don't get the large font after this. That large font is a lot easier to see! I'll have to figure out how to get it to stay throughout the post but for now...it's back to the small font. Sorry.

Ted

ATC

12 May 2010

Markers on recycled cardstock.

Professor Matrice

ATC

12 May 2010

Markers and white acrylic pen paint on recycled cardstock.
I found all those mathematical equations in the college math book I bought last week. I don't think they mean a thing cause they are all fragmented. I just wanted to fill up the chalkboard behind our professor. He got his name from the math book as well. I've not a clue what matrices are but it sounded like a wonderful name for the fellow.

Peace and Love

ATC

12 May 2010

Markers and white acrylic pen paint on recycled cardstock.

Sometimes love is silent, goofy and kinda uncertain. Sometimes to get peace we have to shout at the top of our lungs! These two have a statement to make!

Roger and Doreen

ATC

12 May 2010

Markers on recycled cardstock.

Breakfast art.

Roger couldn't believe his luck at actually talking Doreen into going to prom with him. He does look rather pleased, does he not?

Daphne

ATC

12 May 2010

Breakfast art.

Markers on recycled cardstock.

I grabbed the wrong tan marker. This one used was about out of ink.

Adam and Eve Green

ATC

12 May 2010

Breakfast art.

Markers on recycled cardstock.

Nothing like thinking about green naked people at breakfast!

Madge and Joyce at the Umbrella Sale

ATC

12 May 2010

Markers on recycled cardstock.

This was my first blind people draw. It was so much fun I just kept going ....for hours and hours!

If you've never attempted blind drawing, give it a shot. You'll have a blast if you just go with it!

I showed you all the canvas as it looked the 10th of May. This is what it looks like now.

Fish Picture 3

The last time you all saw this it was black and green. Since then I have added a layer of red nylon scarf material, silver glitter glue to hold the nylon scarf to the canvas and another layer of green glitter paint cause I pretty much covered the first layer up.  Then I dusted it with irredescent glitter. There are also six or seven pink strings running up and down across the cavas held on with fabric stiffener. I thought I'd ruined it by using the stiffener as a glue..but it dried nicely.
I found the fishes I wanted to use for the school of fish I see on the canvas. I cut them all out and sat over by the light table to work on getting them ready to go on the canvas. There's gonna be a bunch of these little fishes!

On the paper plate are the photocopied fishes cut out with the xacto knife and 11 of those little devils on the tray that have been painted with dimensional paint and red seed beads and a silver tube bead on each. I don't know how many fishes are there but all of them will get the bead and black paint treatment. Then when that is all dry I'll do some more painting on them with blue glitter paint.

A close up of the fishes. My light table isn't a level table, it slants so I had to get a baking pan from the kitchen and line it with parchment paper to dry my fishes on.  I'm hoping the kitten stays off the baking pan as it's propped up on a large round tin atop the short bar stool I use when I sit at my light table.

I'll keep posting progress on Fish Picture 3 as it goes along.

After I took pictures of the fish picture I went on a hunt for the critters.

I found Fred on the sofa in the darkened livingroom. I couldn't see him when I took this picture, it was that dark in the livingroom. The flash lighted things right up!

Lazy dog.

Billy was asleep on my bed and none too happy about having his picture taken!

Doob wouldn't open her eyes (Billy wouldn't either). She too was sitting in the dark as was Billy on my bed.

Lola didn't get in on this shoot cause she was outside in the rain. Where she insisted on going. Fred went out at the same time but he had enough sense to come back inside before the rain shower came through! So no Lola pictures tonight.

Instead you get me again!

Go get your hugs today! Grab some kisses too if you can swing it and send some smiles out while you're at it! Have a fantastic Thursday!

Peace

831

ATCs, Books, Critters, Scenery and Rambling from Yours Truly

It's been raining today. The severe storms passed us by but there were still clouds and there was a bit of rain to go along with the gray, dreary day. Course I slept most of it away, completely oblivious to the events forming weather-wise in my neck of the woods. I woke up to the storm just arriving around 'bout 4 pm.

I went to bed at a decent hour last night. Honest. I did. 12:30 am...one should have to have that much sleep!

I got some art scanned and pictures taken of little books. And while I was at it, I took pictures out the front door and of the furkids in the house. No clue where Doob's hiding right now. She wouldn't come out for a photo shoot. Lola didn't cooperate real well with the shoot either but I did get one semi-decent picture of her. Billy's a photogenic fellow. He sits still. No one else does.

Course he gets bored with the whole thing by the second or third shot...

Miss Lola looking out the front door. It had finally stopped raining. That light at the end of the hallway is where I am at this very second, typing away on my keyboard.

And there's Fred. I know he's in the deskroom, not because of the color of the carpet but because of the things there with him. My easel is in the upper left hand corner..the legs of it anyway. That's Fred's wooden croquet ball there on the floor and the pedometer that's to be hung on his collar...he needs an exercise regime! Look how fat that dog is!

We're all just hanging in the house cause it's way too wet (and cold if you ask me) to be going outside!

How about some art? Or at least my attempt at art...

A Full Nest

ATC

10 May 2010

365 Project Day #129

fibracolor markers on recycled cardstock

Georgine the Giraffe

ATC

9 May 2010

365 Project Day #130

Bic, Sharpie and fibracolor markers on recycled cardstock.

Green Lizard

ATC

7 May 2010

365 Project Day #131

Sharpie and fibracolor markers on recycled cardstock.

Irrelephant

ATC

9 May 2010

365 Project Day #132

Sharpie markers on recycled cardstock.

Orange Lizard

ATC

7 May 2010

Sharpie and fibracolor markers on recycled cardstock.

Sunday Morning

ATC

9 May 2010

Markers on recycled cardstock.

I've been working on these little books for days.

Gold metal lamp part/floppy disk book

9 May 2010

I finished this one on Mother's Day. The covers took over a week to make. They could have been made in a much shorter period of time but I wanted to make certain the glue dried well at each stage. The covers started out life as hard floppys for the pc. 3 1/2 inches square, brightly colored...I believe these were pink to begin with. I bought a box of these at a yard sale a couple weeks ago for 50 cents. I really wanted the box they were in as much as I wanted the disks themselves!  What I did was cover the floppy disks with the canvas I was telling you all about in the last post, painted it with gold glitter glue and sprinkled it with bright blue glitter. The canvas wraps around the edge with the stitching. When all of that was dry I went around the disk where the canvas didn't cover and filled the gap with gold dimensional paint. The inside of the covers are painted an antique gold. The back cover inside has a peacock feather on it. The sealer I used for the feather wasn't a great idea...it took away the irredescent quality of the eye in the feather. The gold frill-work is from a hanging lamp shade. It's made of aluminum with a gold finish on it. I just cut it with the tin snips and used E6000 to adhere it to the canvas cover. This little book is a tad larger than 3 1/2 inches square. It has 4 signatures of ten pages. The paper consists of vellum, both white and colored, copy paper and manilla drawing paper. I sewed it with a steel blue colored cotton string. I am very pleased with the outcome of this book! It's sewn nice and tight. The only thing that I'm not pleased about with it is the sealer and the feather not cooperating together. But that's a lesson learned: sealer and feather don't go together and they never will.

Lennox Book

10 May 2010

This book was a PITA from the time I started it to when it was finally finished! It turned out OK, but I need to do something different with the next circuit board I make into a book cover. First off I had to get all that crap off the circuit board! That was accomplished reatively easily with the new set of tools I bought last week. I kept all those little capacitors and resistors and what have you that one will find on a circuit board. It was taking the damned thing out to the garage and grinding off all the sharp little points that all those resistors and capicators and all th left behind! The surface of the circuit board did not fare well with that procedure. The side of the cover you see in the picture is not the side of the cover I had wanted to show. PITA. I sewed it on backwards...go with the flow~!!! That's what I tell myself. There are no mistakes in art!  I wanted to save the integrity of the design of the circuit board itself and the grinding marks didn't accomplish that at all. It's still a cool little book though and lessons were learned in the making of it. That's the goal, to never stop learning! This one has seven signatures of 5 sheets of orchard paper. It's sewn with sage green cotton crochet thread. The back cover is a thick piece of bookboard that came from the cover of a wallpaper sample book. It is simply painted green with shiny acrylic paint. It took four coats of that shiny acrylic paint to cover what was printed on the bookboard. This one took days to make as well simply because of the green back cover.

Blue Floppy Disk Book

4 May 2010

Easy peasy little book to make! It has five signatures of five pages of green ledger paper sewn with steel blue cotton thread and silver metal tape over the spine. It had to have the silver tape! The sewing was way too loose! Way too loose!!! The silver tape tightened things right up though. It is 3 1/2 inches square.

The stuff that all these little books are standing on came out of an old keyboard. It is circuits printed on clear plastic. You'll be seeing this stuff on a little book in the future.

Went to Pburg on Mother's Day to my sister Elaine's house. Me, Susan, Linda, Sam, Aunt Sherry, Elaine and Monty and of course, Ma were all present. Ma got lots of good pressies from those present and she gave us girls pressies as well. We pigged out on quiche, fresh strawberries, kiwi fruit and grapes, cranberry punch, bannana nut muffins and deviled eggs. Then Sammy and I came back home. I did talk to RW while I was in Pburg. He had to work so I didn't get to see the boy that day but it was awful loving of him to call his mama on Mother's Day and offer to buy her lunch, which he would have cooked. I had just eaten though so I declined that invite cause he was at work and I wouldn't have got the chance to sit and visit with him anyway. He does make a mean chicken fry, that boy does!

On the way home, Sam decides he wants to drive down a country road. I'm cool with that! We found this bbq grill in the cattails by this little creek on G road. We brought it home with us for the junk heap. It was already in two pieces. We also got a couple of lengths of cable that were just laying there.

You wouldn't think anyone would want to foul such a pretty spot. That dark spot off to the left is the bottom of the bbq and the over turned L shape just above the right hand bottom is the top of it.

I told you all it had been raining today. I took this next picture around 7:30 pm this evening. Two hours or so ago. Everything is just so green!

Weather gurus were discussing severe storms but none of those materialized in my neck of the woods. This picture with Fred sitting on the front porch is the same view as the picture in my header.

Front yard looking south to the highway through the pear tree. My van got a bath. It needed one.

Looking north from the front porch.

This tree had birds in it. They were singing and singing and singing! Such a pretty sound.

This is looking out the back door to the north. That house in the distance is about a quarter mile away.

I guess I have rambled on enough for one day!

Get your hugs!

Give some hugs

and

share some smiles!

Peace

831