Thursday, April 30, 2026

I Like Thursday # 502 mother's day requests plus spring cleaning?


welcome to this week's list of likes.... tulips in a yummy shade of peachy/pink
this video to play in the background as you do chores, or rest, or stitch



birds singing, only birds, no talk.... very soothing to me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNB8iwiQb9k


what would you like for Mother;s day


link here

or these
another conversation starter, do you do Spring Cleaning? 
I do an amended clean, but it's not Spring yet here, it seems to bank from HOT to cool last week

I sporadically do deep cleans on areas like baseboards, mirrors, ceiling fans however have been dormant collecting dust for months so I clean them thoroughly before turning back on. Not an easy task on the 2 story family room, I have to lean over the upstairs railing with an extended swiffer pole... 

what about you?

tar forms a heart on the road... nice!


what are these pretty pink flowers? dahlias? 


https://youtube.com/shorts/h_LD2jPDhhc?si=tItCjHf9dT4PukvT

bwahahaha


Alfie's Affirmations

Alfie: before you obediently down when the mama says "DOWN" look for a treat in her hand 


Oh, I do it anyway but feel gypped anyway

If you get a chance to go outback, take it!!! And run too if you have time, running figure 8s is so much fun! 

"ALL DONE" is sometimes a trick.... it's just so the mommy can see your hair cut from a distance, then you might have to come back for some more snip--- snip---snips. 

But, there is no reward as good as a happy mommy who says, Awe in that singsong voice, and 
"I L O V E you" while petting your clean hair
why are they called walks not "sniffs" 

shadow play

Saturday, April 25, 2026

watching paint dry, and watching fabric growing

 

welcome to this week's creativity round-up starting with evening handwork on hexie spiral in pink

being sewn together one hexie at a time! 


Mostly I am working my (slow) way through sketchbook revival lessons and getting to know my art supplies again by using them


First the fabric work this week, usually pink scraps for RSC

used tiny triangles to do improv geese to be added to last week's work
used tiny scraps to build a book cover (it will be quilted then folded in half) 
lots of blocks made for the "parts dep't" 

and sewing this way calms me 

now the parade of sketchbook work... sometimes I paint the lesson on watercolor paper, and glue it into the sketchbook. I had limited bandwidth internally to do all the lessons started, but hope to eventually catch up before the season is over. On with the show

play with stamps and inks






what a fun technique starting with rolling a paint loaded brush on watercolor paper

crinkle squeeze watercolor paper


ink the fold lines then use tombow markers (water soluble) to color in, I also used pan inks to paint in

then for fun inked over some shapes

oh how I like this artists work.... (D. Gregory) who paints, writes over it to create a journal of memories
I still need to write about being 18 and spending countless hours at the beach to heal and find myself
I'll write over the blue area. This will be one of my best lessons, as it will allow words to join the party
pink tulips  for pink month

my snoopervisor drying off after rain/snow flurry freak storm

again he reminds me our choices in direction shape our lives

sent from my friend Sonja in Hawaii.... we share life from a distance

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/62g0ijN-dik
linking to some or all of these













Thursday, April 23, 2026

I Like Thursday # 501 phones, love 'em or not

 

welcome to a very short post of likes this week... starting with tulips! 

I LOVE tulips and these neighbors' are pretty in purple to pinks

It's been nearly too hot to walk this week, but I have a couple photos...

(Alfie:  well, it is hot and one might think the mama would appreciate her poodle reminding her to stop and smell the roses! Of course while we stop I'll be smelling the trees and grass to check my pee-mail)

the higher peaks got a bit of snow which you can't see well in this photo.... but we have temps in mid 80's plus sun heat. Some people like it hot, I'm not one of them

LOVE a good shadow photo

conversation starter this week:

For National telephone day,  what is your relationship with phones? lol

always have it with you? Check it at intervals or use it mainly for calls? Remember when there was one phone for the family hanging on the wall? Remember party lines? Do you use a phone as a computer even tho the screen is so small? Fave apps on the phone? 


I do not like my phone. I loved my prior phone but it was no longer supported. I do not carry it around all the time, I am not constantly scrolling on it. It's too small to see the screen well. It does not take good photos. I have a music app so I can hear 70's songs on my walks. 

I grew up with a party line, and it was so weird to hear other people talking. We had a dial phone that sat on a phone table in the hall. Then when I was in high school I got an princess phone in my room but my mother made it her life's work to listen in on all my calls anyway.  

In my first apt, I had a wall phone in the kitchen,,, the cord was always twisted up like my neck from holding it while I cooked.

I have a computer and an ipad for looking up stuff, so I really like to use my phone for calls. 

does that make me old? 

reading : 


very funny, fun read, real life dialogue

listening on audio in the studio

reading on Ebook


watching survivor, finishing Emily in Paris, looking forward to Brokenwood, Virgen river, (believe it or not, Farmer wants a wife) 

I'm loving the lessons in Sketchbook Revival, drawing and painting again is awesome

We were to think of ourselves in some part of life, paint a selfie, and write about the memories over it... 
so far I drew the teacher, and my memory of being a teen at the beach and am thinking about what to write, hoping I don't make an ink splot on the painting

Alfie, do you have likes to add? 
Alfie: sure do Mamacita. I like sleeping on my big boy bed instead of in a kennel, and keeping an eye on you all night. I like nipping at your hands, and daddy's hands to get you to play with me in our yard, I liked seeing the nice couple who stopped to chat and might, not sure, like their chihuahua Burito. 
I like running up and down the stairs and if mama's there I always beat her both up and down! I'm loving it in this family!!!




please visit these folk to see what they liked this week... 

Saturday, April 18, 2026

creativity this week, drawing painting fabric arts

 


Because of rainbow scrap challenge's color of the month PINK

I pulled out the bag of tiny pink squares, some tiny white squares, and sewed them into little approximately 3" to 4" blocks.  many of them

I pressed them but didn't trim to any one size, just laid them out to kind of match the ones next to it, and began to sew the rows together. I sort of trimmed the rows to 12" X  3-3.5" 

then sewed rows together into this

which I like for the abstract design, 
see as kind of a garden lattice 
like the flower and other random prints
but
it's really quite small, 12 X 15 ish

so what if I added scrappy strips 
hmmmm maybe, then what? 

I wanted to do hexies again, by hand when I am sitting in a chair at night, watching tv, trying to ignore pain

a close up of the 37 prepped hexies in pink


I juggle paper art, fabric love, pain and puppy attention

I am enjoying Sketchbook Revival lessons, but am woefully behind. I sit long as I can, learn, draw, paint, stamp, collage. 
I always start with a quick impression painting of the instructor on the page... here are some of the early lessons.... click on photos to enlarge for detail




quiet eucalyptus leaves



Sumi painting style

dandelion study of brush strokes


painting with palette knife plus acrylic paint

collage of torn handwriting papers and watercolor

writing words as the art itself

I need to find my alphabet stamps to do this one
mostly I'm using my inktense pan paints this time, but also pen, inks, watercolors, acrylic, brush pens

This workshop is free, online, and lovely
I'll end with another piece of wisdom from my puppy, whom we've had for 2 months now


Alfie:   Which way should I go? "  why not choose both directions and go one at a time?!