Thursday, June 4, 2026

I Like Thursday # 507 clouds, insects, pecans and a poodle

 

welcome to this week's list of likes starting with some magnificent sky photos ! We have had impending rain, not really rainy, the most has been maybe 10 drops after  the clouds ramping up for a deluge. 

Still 10 drops is something.... 

the clouds have been mighty! this is looking toward Buckley AFB and this is a shot of some of their observatories from our 'hood

Look how my puppy sits on the stairs  to watch me...
Hi Mama, I can watch you from this perch! 
this morning I looked down at his day bed to see he'd been collecting my socks for some reason

finished .my book series on the museum mysteries set in Philly started a Her Royal Spyness latest episode I missed novel by Rhys Bowen

made some more candied pecans to keep for snacks
pecans, egg whites and bit of water,  cinnamon mixed with sugar,  single layer, 250 F, for an hour stirring every 15 min. 
so good and the house smelled great after baking them. They last us at least 2 weeks or more. 



conversation starter: 
What would be your favorite insect and why? think about the good or
 pretty insects out there not just annoying ones... did you ever capture
 lightning bugs in a jar as a kid?

I love praying mantis... so cool formal insects in the bug world. My friend Pat collected PM stuff... miss her so much... Met her on the plane from Houston (quilt show) back to MD... kept up a friendship for years til she passed to angel form



I also love dragonflies... the way they move, the delicate wings, the long bodies... 



I remember spending the summer with my sister Patti's family in Indiana. Every night had a wonderful sunset and cool temps. The neighbor kids her kids and me... we'd run around playing games or capturing lightening bugs while the adults sat in folding chairs and talked.

I grew up lonely in Florida, no lightening bugs but too many mosquitoes so that memory is like old time America to me

I'm upset that two things came in already opened from food delivery this week, what the heck? 

We met two women walking a baby in a  stroller and a corgie puppy on leash. So many people live in this 'hood, and its fun to meet nice ones. They both wanted to pet my pretty pup and he carefully approached both of them nicely. They previously both had rescue dogs, one who adjusted well, one who always was traumatized, both were rejected in adoption and returned to the shelter (like Alfie was) so they knew how to let Alfie take the first steps. 

He is becoming a brave boy, and will be 2 this month. I love him so.... 

I like hoomans who move slow and let me go up to them

He was so funny this weekend when we planted wildflower seeds out back and watered them. 

We dropped the hose faucet so it sprayed up into the air, and he had so much fun playing in water again

fun videos this week


https://youtube.com/shorts/aOq0PHrv1aQ?si=lKGru8gkGIncif7o

a morning water color in sketchbook.... the paper isn't made for watercolor but I wanted to use up some


while it puddled on the page, I pressed in dry stamps and like the effects, More on Saturday

let me know if you wrote a post and I'll add your link in! 
please visit these folk to see what they liked this week, remember little things to like, add up in life


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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


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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


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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

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