Saturday, May 30, 2026

creatively speaking, still using orange scraps in May and painting with all the colors!

 


I turned one of the little orange scrap projects into a phone bag for walks. It's on the left, above and around my neck here...

ignore no make up, I'm headed out for yet another HOT walk in the Colorado sunshine. 
I like the texture in this bag and the embroidery

There is another hexie spiral in oranges waiting for a few more hexies and to be sewn together

 b
I'm trying to do some painting/drawing/art-ing in the mornings, and this was a double page one morning
I took a recipe copier paper I was going to recycle and painted stripes across it with markers and paints, and stamps for fun
then tore it into strips
and more strips
played with the collage, I always pack in too much, on the left above. Painted a couple leaves, then moved on to the next page where I collaged the rejected strips into a sort of tree

one thicker strip will become dh's bookmark
I think I like the sparse tree best
note to self, more negative space, it's not wasting journal pages, it's a "look"


Painted my bowl one morning

loved using stamps and ink to do the clovers, and caligraphy pens to make checkerboard effect


I used an alphabet stamp and multi color ink stamp to do a background but not sure what I want to be the focus yes... 

puppy feet?? 
alfie in repose


Thursday, May 28, 2026

I Like Thursday # 506 hair disasters, skies, art and a poodle

 

welcome to my weekly list of likes starting with the clouds lately! 

then we had a few drops of rain.... back East if it started to rain you ran for home. Here you keep walking and likely it stops in the next block.... we need rain even if we just groomed our beloved poodle 
rain makes my hair kink up! 


I love water from the fridge with a slice of lemon

I order to increase my water intake, I now keep the brita filter container in the fridge and keep a lemon slice in my glass all day

from youtube:


how do they know?


listening to a great series by Sheila Connolly this time about a young woman who sees her ancestors when she moves to PA...



another spectacular sky/cloud photo






Our conversation starter
Did you ever dye your hair or get a perm and it turned into a disaster? 

I remember my mother gave me a perm as a little girl.... for a child who's hair is like baby bird hair, straight, thin sparse that was a massive mistake



then as a grown woman in the 80's I fell into the idea of BIG HAIR and got a perm. 
The first one kinked up and looked horrible
yep, I tried again next year and after the torture of rolling and chemicals, heating said chemicals, as the hairdresser had me in that brutal sink, as she unrolled each tight curler, she started to say, 
"Oh No
Ohnoohnoohnoohno"
each section came out straighter than it went in, but with chemical burn
then I gave up on having curls and made what I could of my still straight, thin, baby bird hair

As a young married woman I put self color on that was meant to wash out in 8 washes
It lasted months, growing out. One day I got heart palpitations using the color, so I tried it again about 3 months later and heart palp again so that was the last day I did that
now I'm au natural

I think of it as brown with gray "highlights" 


your hair is fine mama! 


hot cool hot cool.... Alfie: I am proud to say I was brave this weekend and walked up to a woman and let her pet me while I leaned on her! She was barely taller than I am but she raises and trains Malinois shepherds for the police dept! 
I did get spooked and growled at that weird man waking around our yard. Mama and I went to the back door to see and I kept growling. 
Then Mama took a risk and opened the door (mama here, it was the daddy mowing the grass wearing gloves, a bucket hat, sunglasses, a mask and mismatched clothes) (I don't know if Alfie didn't recognize him or was complaining about the weird clothing) 
Alfie here, again. Well that man took off his gloves and I stepped forward to sniff fingers, looked up then he took off the glasses, hat and mask and I said, 
"Well okay then I guess you may continue" but I've been here over 3 months now, and I've decided it's time I protect the place, and the mama!

I'm still painting each day, trying to make my purchased lessons work on my computer.... 



sadly Survivor is over but some summer shows will start soon (like love Island )


please visit these folk to see their likes this week and let me know to include you if you wrote a Like Post


Saturday, May 23, 2026

watching paint dry and fabric grow

 

welcome to my (2 ) week creativity round up... might be picture heavy, it's full of drawings, paintings, supplies, and improv sewing in orange scraps! 

Let's go! above is a sketchbook painting one morning. Instead of a neurographic abstract I drew a bottle then random lines crossing. Paint with windsor newton watercolor pens and water brush

this tine Ill start with fabric scraps... lots of hand embroidery/stitching on works in progress. 

remember the three teensy tiny collages I showed last time? I slow stitched each, then joined them into this  and I enjoyed each step especially the hand stitching click on image to enlarge photo


at the start of may I turned really little scraps into this 15" X 19" work (on Right) and may join it to last month's piece , for now It's a flimsy.... 





the strip project on the upper left here started in Zen Stitch workshop, tiny strip to tiny strip then hand stitching

love the texture and when it's folded up it's about 5" by 7" with a folded over closure
but now I need to shorten the legs of my new jeans... 
that is no fun
orange even made it's way into my mixed media workshop lesson
paint pastels on paper

one lesson using stamps inspired a lot more use of them in different ways...



just my own sketchbook morning page.... stamps, then a quick sketch of a woman
she looks as over it as I feel now. The triangle strip became a sort of bush there
I tried another stamp using this inkpad



free form rose

morning pages using caron d'ache crayons and posca pens for dots


another morning page, painting in diagonal diamonds and using the same stamps



playing with the windsor newton watercolor pens and water 

the pigment flows if pushed with the brush. I see kind of a cat on the left

more morning experiments with color... Pretty Mess


this time while the page was very wet I tried lifting color with a dry stamp 

Mama! put down that brush and let's go for a walk!

now that's my next face to paint

Thursday, May 21, 2026

I Like thursday # 505 rain, little girls sandals and a poodle is almost 2 yo

 

welcome to this week's list of likes starting with a sky shot... 

I just love clouds and this week, we had blessed rain. No not a torrent, a gentle 10 drops, then stop, then a bit of drizzle, then stop, repeat. 


love the clouds when they announce rain is a'comin'


It was enough to make the ground damp. Our across the street neighbor bought 40 bags of soil, spread it across the front of his property, and we stopped on our walk to chat about it. The husband was holding Alfie's leash so when the neighbor said, "Oh don't eat that!" I looked back at Alfie chewing up something

then the neighbor said, it's some manure mixed in

Oy, wish he'd said that when we approached! 




Alfie here... I passed my 3 month "gotcha!" mark this weekend and now I am free to be me! I love it here, I love my pawrents, I love getting a little bowl of veggies with my dinner kibble, I love a bedtime cookie, I especially love being with Mama all over the house! 
(I could do without the constant barking dogs all around our house) 
( I heard thunder, and it scared me so much I hid) 
Mama: he's not going to like fireworks neighbors shoot off way too long and often here either
check out this front yard display, even I'm smirking
geese 'N golfers

mama noticed with her artist's eyes, a face on this meter



I like Sheila Connolly the author and am now into this series on audio books
good story and great reader   (a woman moves to MA and starts seeing her forebearers forming a mystery of why??) 

Still painting a lot, even bought the full classes because it was my birthday...

this was from my imagination

LOVE bright bold colors!!

a couple videos

I have watched so many airmen directing take offs this week, I hum topgun in my sleep
these are different...
every day miracles

I want to know this guy...
father daughter dance duo

funny  but true  



conversation starter this week


As a young child did you ever wear plastic sandals bonus if you also had on ankle socks 

well, I had to share this photo of the "high heels" I used to use for dress up around age 5

I wore then, always with ankle socks too, no pics of me but they were a clear version of these
my ankle socks were cotton. After they were washed they shrunk and it was torture to squeeze them on

my barbie had these: 

please visit these folk to see what they liked plus whether they word sandals and socks as girls