Thursday, May 15, 2025

I Like Thursday # 451 flowers, colors, paint, and conversation prompt

 



welcome to this week's list of likes starting with birdsong... "we're baaaaack" 

and tulips in a neighbor's yard,

I love the delicacy, the plentiful blossoms, the delicate depth and range of pinks
beautifully set in their front yard
nice food for a birthday week
It was so hot but we had everything ready to go in the oven one after the other... a lunch of oven chicken flautas, then we made pear crumble with the lovely pears from last week's post
almond thumbprint cookies with raspberry, and a pear crumble
some cookies, then hamburger buns to use with various sandwiches... 

then one might think the black forest cake for my birthday was the piece de resistance but turns out we were out of cherry liquor and buttermilk for the chocolate cake.... we made do (as one must) with amaretto to soak the cherries, and powdered buttermilk....but  the whipped cream never set, the chocolate icing never set and they whole thing should have become a trifle. Tasted good.

Why do some recipes work great over and over then all of a sudden fail? 

this little mama is satisfied with her acorns
nom nom nom.... keep walking people!
interestingly critters don't run off when we walk by now, do they sense my loneliness? 

I've spent creative time painting and making mixed media this week in my online workshop. 
drawing with this pen
 
my happy birthday mixed media piece from last week

a morning doodle painting

and hand sewing, do you enjoy green as a color? 
lots more to share on Saturday's post but how about this lime green  in a neighbor's yard... 
My pic isn't great sorry but in person the lime next to BOLD lemon yellow iris, then fuchia flox with burning bushes in background? ahhhhh.... color.....


Weather, a short respite from intense heat.... complete with rain. Heavenly to sit and paint by the open slider feeling a slight breeze. Our house seems like an oven holding heat, so when we get a pop up cool day we open the windows we can to change the air. 

We did the twice yearly cleaning of the fan blades in the bedroom. To do that we had to move Milo's crate used as a way to prevent his falling off the bed at night.... which started me crying and pining for my special boy again. 

We walk despite the heat, but others came out for it this week. We got to catch up with three neighbors we love.... (helping me forget the one that yelled at me from his moving car to take off my mask) 

They all asked about Milo.... and grieved with us to lose a dog they also fell in love with and will miss. 

what is that old saying, a grief shared is a grief halved?  if not at least it felt right to share it with others who understand the loss of that kind of bond is devastating. Mothers day is always hard, but this year was awful. 

speaking of birthday weeks.... and memories of youth.... I ran across this lovely rendition 

Why are birthdays with a zero so impactful? I'm still me. Still funny on the outside, soft inside


on video ....funny! 


our prompt this week, following last week's bike question, have you ridden a motorcycle, do you like them? tell us your story or opinions on them

As for me.... I am not a big fan. I've had people ride their motorcycles up on the highway between two lanes of cars, I've had them circle in front at an exit when I was turning, turning right in front of me, and they are noisy when I just want peace. 

That said, I was introduced to driving one by my nephew, who happens to be 5 years younger than I, and that was the only time til....

On route to moving to canada, my friend and I went through Yellowstone. (Florida to Edmonton meant seeing a lot along the way!) It was a dark and stormy night.... lodgepole pines were being blown over roads, the lights went out in the town, we all gathered at the only grocery store to gather our wits. 

My friend and I were young and cute and open to adventure. Two guys were there who had the biggest bestest motorcyles. One said, come on, I'll give you a ride. My friend and I looked at each other and shrugged, the guys were safe enough, then.... then there I was arms around a stranger, he turned on his sound system, and we took off. I looked back and Kay never got on ! 

He was nice, we were only gone about 15 minutes, came back safely and I never saw him again! 

I think I had good intuition, so did Kay....both of us social workers in child welfare, and it was fun. 

(hashtag protection from angels)


now please visit these folk to see what they liked this week. Let me know if you did a post I should link in.... as as always I love to read your stories too

 


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Saturday, May 10, 2025

Living a creative life paintings, fabric art photo inspiration

 

For this week's creativity round up I start with 2" scraps of fabric... oh it's not done, it's just a start using pieces cut off (then resewn) a larger scrap project. The eye scrap came from a friend in Maryland who used that fabric to sew scrubs for her nurse brother, then she gave me the cuts from that. 

years ago now
no piece seems to be too small to throw away when you see potential in the everyday
I was inspired this week by the Eagles I watch,  sitting in front of a mighty background
made me want to paint it...
and these will eventually be painted in gouache  
one of the mixed media workshops this week used gouache, this is my attempt

which looks like local views here actually. 
 Back to some sewing.... For my EPP project, the hexie of spirals, I am catching up on RSC colors, this time I'm almost done with this month's green scraps piece. It's in sections as I progress
next up is doing yellow from two months ago

I am not sure how they will come together when all colors are done but here are two blocks pressed. I'm sure it will morph with more colors
speaking of colors and fabric, I am also catching up on my other scrappy project for the year
another green one
I've done three green, three red, and three blue so far, 
It's fun to sew, I need to do red and pink next

yellow up close

free pattern is online

last week I showed a small quilted component, and said the photo showed a face in it. In person it looks like a tulip or a lake but the image looked like a face to me

so I printed it out and colored in what I saw. 
Two workshops on mixed media had us paint backgrounds and then find the bunny, or face
 
 
I saw one, my husband saw another so I penciled in both


then added more paint. The teacher painted all the background white, but I didn't want to so...
inspired by mama and her babies in our yard
then scribble with water soluble crayon and find a face
became this


and for some reason I painted bunny and lady on one small journal page... 
and I tried collage again, this time on a full paper... magazine pages torn... the yoga woman a balloon and some mountains... pulled paper off a kleenex box for the chrysanthemum like flowers, 

a painted over page of akashic writing done with my caligraphy pen, hearts were on a cake in a magazine. I painted over the woman with caran d'ache crayon and prisma color pencil, smeared on some gesso and white gouache. 
In the words of Stevie Wonder, isn't she pretty?  Filled in her hands with colored pencil, filled in eyes with ink, cheeks with color pencil and now it's a form of myself for my birthday week upcoming.
Happy Birthday inked in with colored pencil... 

I may not be this young or thin or even blond now but I remember being those things. I remember doing tai chi on the banks of the Hillsborough River on Saturdays, I can still feel energy if I try. 
We will all age, hopefully we will be a sum of all we've lived through, wiser, kinder, more understanding and still finding ways to create beauty

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Thursday, May 8, 2025

I Like Thursday # 450 bikes, birds, painting, and pears

 

here it is Thursday again, and here I am with a short list of likes to share.... starting with 

The mixed media workshop online (free) on Willowing.com which has inspired me to paint... the image above is a thumbnail close up of the whole picture done one morning while waking up. The full photo will be on my creativity round up post Saturday (with others) 

I try to live a creative life, and being in that mind space provides me calm, peace, and excitement.

Music Love

 Just LOVE Burt Bacharach's music, always will, enjoy it here.   He wrote the soundtrack to Butch Cassidy and sundance kid (I had such a massive crush on both stars of the movie)



the song playing at the moment I took the photo was "anguish of choice" 

those words resonated with me.... I do not like making choices and yet I like having choice. 

saying yes to one thing means saying no to another.  I have really enjoyed this music in the mornings


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecechHEtkYU

Slowly starting the day

while having a banana muffin for breakfsast

what?! it's fruit....

I noticed three beautiful pears in the bowl on the counter, and thought, I could paint some pears with gouache.... I took about 8 images to use later. Inspiration is everywhere right? 

We had several days of rain, and all flora and fauna were happy for it, and I spied this couple thru my back door....
She and He, taking turns having a refreshing bath
again, I took several images and loved this one   

Conversation Starter for the week

National Bike Month – Do you know how to ride a bike? When did you learn? Did you fall and get skinned knees?  Did you ride with other kids? Ever ridden a two person bike? 



It all started with a big red tricycle under the Christmas tree,  and little LeeAnna was off to the races! 
Bumping on our uneven sidewalks up and down the street. Furiously pumping sturdy little legs, leaning into the wind, laughing at the joy independence brought. 
Next was a real bike, tall, frightening, with little training wheels  to help me find my balance. Bump, bump bump as I banked from little wheel to little wheel. Then, magically no bumps as I rode faster, more sure, centered. 



I had streamers on the handlebars, a bell that only I rang, you stopped by pedals back and I admit I took a number of falls along the way to my new level of independence. No parent ran along beside me, they bought me toys then removed themselves from the area. I hated skinned knees, and the inevitable mercurachrome sting. 

A neighborhood friend  had a small bike I liked to ride, closer to the ground. I found a small blue rusty car in our garage out back, probably from my sister's childhoods, with pedals to pump, a steering wheel to control, and I loved that little convertible. 
like this but old


One year I was gifted a surrey. With dangling fringe on it's roof, with pedals and a steering wheel, that I loved. 


But that Schwinn bike... About middle school the country saw fit to tear down houses across the street from ours, and proceeded to build Interstate 75 that would eventually run up to the top of the USA. Back then it was mainly piles of leveled sand, that we could ride on to downtown Tampa! 

I ran in high school, and marched in the band, danced often, and left the 10 speed behind. I rode it temporarily again when I met an important boyfriend while in college, and when he came to visit we rode bikes in the early evenings. We didn't stay together though, and the bloom was off the bike for me
I do not think I ever rode a tandem bike. 
One of our neighbors in Maryland had a son who rode a unicycle for a while!

Well, thank you for sharing those memories with me... and I'm always interested in your stories! 
Please visit these fine folk, to read their likes this week, and if you write a post let me know to link to it!
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Saturday, May 3, 2025

creatively speaking this week.... watching paint dry, and progress on sewing projects

 

My focus on art this week (shared with doctor visits) was split between fabric and watching paint dry, along with some planning of my embroidery project. 

The color of the month at rainbow scrap challenge is green not blue but I'm catching up on scrap colors so I did another hexie spiral in blues...

Green showed up in a small portrait painted in my scrap paper art journal though

using leftover gouache paint

yogurt lid palette holds the paint for days. Look at the lovely mixing of color on the lighter blue/purple bit. You see that on the portrait too. Painting in an unnatural color allows you to just see shadows. 

green tones cut at 2.5" ready to do this month's color in the hexie spiral. How will these hexie blocks come together in all the colors? I'll think about that later when each color is done

I want to embroider a wisteria vine around my pastel bowl (EPP pentagon bowl) shown last week, so I got out my reference books to figure out how I want it to look

and realized I don't really have much purple floss/perle cotton. Or purple seed beads to use on flowers

that led to a bit of online shopping but no order made yet
back to painting... I knew a mixed media workshop was starting this week, so I got into the mood days before with this
a collage of magazine pages, some cast off paintings of mine cut out, some printed words, a mouse drawing, the back of a printed napkin.... and glued them into one of my junk art journals. 
That led to  painting over it with gouache paint and some inks


which was the start to that color palette on yogur lid in the image 
The embossed metallic stick came from a box my lancome lotions/potions came in at Christmas. Cut out in thin strips, I liked the shiny 3-d of it on this collage. 

in making the stars I cut away tiny triangles of blue/teal I couldn't throw away seeing them pile up

which led to piling them on scrap of batting into a blossom shape
which led to free motion quilting it with golden metallic threads
then cutting away excess batting, and thinking of a tulip with added leaves and stem
or a lake
sure but... so I took the photo for this post, and in looking at the photo I saw a face emerge
see it? subtle shading created lips, a wide-ish nose, eye sockets, a chin and cheek shape. I printed two  paper copies  of this to draw on later, and see if an abstract can become a portrait. 
(clapping hands in glee for future project and learning !!!)

I returned to the idea of green scraps to try a pattern too

scraps pretty but too small to use for this pattern

each block is formed from two 2.5" strips cut across width of fabric. Sew, cut, sew, cut, sew

and these were done. Dull as the only WOF strips large enough were dull colored. But... in ALL the colors, it might end up looking very cool right? 

By now the mixed media workshop began, and I want to do all the lessons. My doctors appts and back nerve pain got in the way of sitting at the table to paint all but one... an abstract 

done with watercolor paint, pencil lines at random, pen/ink lines , dragging the brush stem to etch lines (in that purple rectangle) taught by Laura Horn. See how mixes of color blend, how lines influence it, with no end in mind. Just getting lost in color. 
DH came out of his office and said 
"I see a house at top right, see the roof?" 
The workshop is offered by Tamara LaPorte and goes on two weeks online, and is free. 
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