The paper hoarder

Back in the day I was a scrapbook paper hoarder - I had a bad habit of buying several sheets of each pattern that I loved - or even liked.  Fast forward a few years and my papercrafting has slowed way down but my paper stash has grown and GROWN!  

Now, in an effort to grow my limited storage space and to shrink the unruly paper hoard, I've started cutting the paper into 4" x 6" sheets and using them for scratch paper, etc.   It sure is nice to grab a piece of paper and find a gorgeous pattern on the back.  In fact, when I turned a sheet I'd been using for the grocery list over the other day and saw the fun Basic Grey cloud paper I immediately grabbed a pen and sketched a girl.  Are you a paper hoarder too??

Linking to Sunday Sketches and

Creative Every Day

Cincinnati. . .

We spent the weekend in Cincinnati and had a blast!  Stayed downtown, visited three art museums, ate great food, went shopping and slept in both days until past 9AM!

Have you ever seen a Pringles machine??

Just love this pattern on the booth at Panera!

Isn't it required to take at least one selfie??

Our favorite museum was the Contemporary Arts Center which was within walking distance from our hotel. 

Only two floors were open since exhibits were changing but there was a lot to look at. . .some pretty and a lot weird.

I wish I had taken a picture of the three full sized trees rotating from the ceiling upside down.  I took a movie but no stills - that display took up a huge gallery room.

It was creaky and loud with the mechanics of the display churning away.

Shark Girl was having a bad day - note the black cloud following her around. . . 

We also visited the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Taft Museum of Art and enjoyed more artistic traditional fare including pieces by Renoir, Manet and Van Gogh but for sheer fun the Contemporary Arts Center gave us the most to talk about. . . 

Tomorrow is our 24th anniversary - thanks for the great weekend, Corey!!  Love ya!

My favorite pens and pencils. . .

Don't you hate it when you grab a marker and it is dry?  AARRGGHH!!  I decided to take a few minutes and toss old pens and thought I'd share my favorites.

1.  V5 Pilot Precise Rolling Ball pen

2.  V7 Pilot Precise Rolling Ball pen  (I bought both of these at TARGET in packs of 3 - waterproof and true black.)

3.  Pilot PERMABALL pen - another waterproof beauty.  This pen had gone out of production until Christy Tomlinson revived its use and now it is available in her online shop - Scarlet Lime.

4.  Pentel Color Brush - like an aqua pen but filled with black ink.  Super for big swaths of inky goodness.

5.  Pentel Graphgear 500 0.5mm pencil

6.  Pentel Graphgear 500 0.7mm pencil

7.  Ticonderoga #2 pencil - it has no eraser and is so old but I love it!!

8.  Papermate Tuff Stuff Eraser Stick (got at Blick - perfect for erasing in small spaces)

9.  Stabilo AQUARELLABLE pencil - Dina Wakley calls this the magic pencil and she is right!

I do own several pricey markers/pencils/pens but these inexpensive tools are my favorites.  I'd love to know your favorite drawing implements - please share!!

Linking to Sunday Sketches

What Design Aesthetic are you?

There is a fun quiz at BuzzFeed that will tell you your design aesthetic - Only takes a couple of minutes.  This is what I got - 

I had to laugh because I have boatloads of cardigans and wear knee socks every day - hee hee.  Take the quiz and let me know what result you get!

Tired critter!

This (me) is one tired, cranky creature - still coughing despite days of antibiotics.  I was trying to go for the cute sock monster look but it turned out a bit too menacing, don't ya think?

My in-laws just arrived this AM from Florida and we WILL have a good time no matter how I feel physically but it would be so much easier if the coughing would just let up and I could get a decent night's rest!! 

Linking to Art Every Day Month and

Art Journal Every Day

The return to knitting: A cautionary tale

It had been at least 25 years since I had knitted.  Not that I was ever any amazing knitter, mind you, but still I had made my share of scarves back in the day (and 3/4 of a sweater).  Nowadays the very best dishcloths are knitted or crocheted from cotton yarn and my mom has stocked my kitchen with a variety of them (Love them all - THANKS MOM!!)  It was time for me to try my hand at making some as gifts so I dove in last Friday night with gusto - knitted 7 straight hours that day followed by 3 hours the following morning.  The knitting groove came right back to me - I was on fire - it all seemed like a great idea until later that afternoon. . .

I was in agony - chronic pain from my shoulders through down to my fingertips.  Normally, I can handle pain (I gave birth naturally to our second son.  Quote from my MIL - "You didn't cuss - not even once!!") but this was different.  I got a massage from one of those guys in a chair in the middle of the mall in hopes that it would help my pain and it worked!!  He made my neck and back hurt as much if not more than my arms!!  The evening involved painkillers, Bengay applied down the length of the inside of my arms and eventually the cold wrap on both arms from wrists to elbows leaving me with mummy arms!  BTW - Did I mention that it was our anniversary weekend and I spoiled our "alone time" by breaking myself??!! 

Public Service Announcement - If I can keep even one knitter from suffering these same injuries and depriving their husband of an enjoyable kidfree weekend than the sharing of my tale of woe will be worth it. . .  Sunday I limited myself to 30 minute stretches of knitting followed by 30 minutes of rest.   I am now fully recovered but itching to start knitting again - I will try to use some balance this time around. . . LOL!!

Linking to Creative Every Day

Did you know that Interweave has announced a blog contest??  It was serendipitous that I had posted about my return to knitting but you should seriously think about posting about your knitting project on your blog!  You could win up to $200 worth of merchandise from their amazing online store.  If I were to win I'd indulge in some fabulous mixed-media goodies including:  Inktense Pencils, Inktense Blocks and classes like Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's All About Faces and Jane Davenport's The Whimsical Face.   Drawing girls makes me happy and Interweave has gobs of merchandise to facilitate that love!  

If you enter leave me a comment - I'd love to see your project!

Pretty junk papers. . .

Today I decided to make some pretty papers to work with in my art journals.  I've been fighting a bad cold all week and wasn't in the mood for drawing but wanted to do something.

Have you ever taken any of Carla Sonheim's classes?  The idea of using junk mail came from her class JUNK MAIL Artist's Book.  Basically, without giving anything away you use mail that you would normally throw away.

These sheets are brayered with gesso and then watercolored.  Normally, you would proceed with the class at this point but I decided to get out my stencils and spray inks and do a bit more.

This is the inside of a security envelope.  I peeled the plastic window out and plan to use each piece in a different project. 

The only problem is that now I have fingers as inky as my papers and they won't come clean - even tried fingernail polish remover to no avail.  Any hints on how to clean up other than to wear gloves - I NEVER remember to wear gloves!

29 FACES - Day 27 SKETCH

It was bound to happen - too many days and not enough time - today a sketch will have to suffice.  I started the Misty Mawn portrait class that began back in January - I still haven't watched all the videos from week one but those first lessons have us sketching faces in different directions which is new to me.  Not a halo around her head but a guideline circle.

She has a friend with her whose body proportions are WAY off but she counts as a second face since this month is about 29 faces in 28 days. . .

Look at my fabulous new necklace!!  Last week Dina Wakley showed a necklace that her friend Sue Altman made for her using pieces of Dina's new book.  I "hint hint-ed" to Corey that if he were to want to buy a little something for his dear wife that I would not object and he went for it!  I LOVE my new necklace - especially the fact that it is made from paper!!  Here's a close look at a similar one.

Join the fun at 29 faces!!

Weekend trip - St. Louis

So in my last post I was complaining that I was too busy and stressed - what is the antidote for such a malaise?  Apparently, it is to drop everything, take the kids to Nana/Papa's and jet off to St. Louis for the weekend!  If you're ever in that town be sure and visit ArtMart - it definitely gives Disneyworld a run for its money as "The Happiest Place on Earth"!

We also visited the Art Museum - I'm so amazed at people that have enough chutzpah to work in front of others.  So cool!!  

Here are some of my favorite pieces of the day. . .

Maquette for Sculpture Screen at Lambert-St. Louis Air Terminal

Harry Bertoia 

This is a miniature of a screen that was once part of the airport and has since been removed - I love this piece and have taken pictures of it every time I've visited this museum.

Boxcars, Minneapolis #2

Ralston Crawford

LOVE this piece - the angles, the colors - I asked if I could borrow it for my living room and they told me no.  sigh. . .

Seated Woman, 1953

Pablo Picasso

Pitcher and Fruit Bowl, 1931

Pablo Picasso

The Artist's Mother

Paul Cezanne 

The Artist's Sister

Paul Cezanne

It looks as though I posted this picture upside down but look in the background (at the right side up Corey).  The information provided stated that his early portraits focused on members of his family and that is possible that he painted on both sides of the canvas for financial reasons.  I love that they mounted it where you could walk around and see both sides.

  

St. Ives Cornwall, Composition, 1934

Ben Nicholson

Composition, 1933

Jean Helion

   

Stairway at Auvers, 1890

Vincent van Gogh

Little Dancer of Fourteen Years

Edgar Degas

This bronze was the only statue that Degas showed during his lifetime - the others he made were for private collections.

Cradling Wheat, 1938

Thomas Hart Benton

This was Corey's favorite piece of the day - he likes all the movement and the colors.

They are expanding the St. Louis art museum so many, many of the contemporary pieces were in storage - the new wing opens June 2013.

It was a great weekend filled with beautiful works of art.  I LOVE museums - do you?

Illustration Friday - MYTH

You  know how they say that you shouldn't food shop when you are hungry?

Obviously, the same rule should apply to sketching - don't do it when you are crabby.  Unless, of course, it is your goal to make a seriously disgruntled girl that no amount of purple glitter or faux doily hair bauble can make look pretty!

She is illustrating the MYTH (Illustration Friday) that "you can do it all" - ya right!!

Just about the time you start thinking you've got things kinda together you end up with an

enormous headache, a car with the VOLT light on (new alternator?? - won't know until we can get it into a garage on Monday) AND a washing machine whose drain pump goes out on the first load of laundry and had to be manually drained by hand.  This was followed by a trip to the laundromat today.  The part is ordered  but won't ship until Monday - hence no dryer until Wednesday or Thursday.

Trust me - I realize that my paltry problems are nothing in the big scheme of things but I cannot be trusted to "draw happy" when I am crabby - - - so there!

Linking to Art Journal Every Day,

Paint Party Friday, and 

Sunday Sketches.

Out of the Journal - Week 4

It is Week 4 of Dina Wakley's Out of the Journal Challenge and I've finally framed up my Jane Davies inspired collage/watercolor/ink prints!

They are hanging in a corner of the living room where Caleb's lizard, Clyde, can enjoy them - notice how he is gazing upon their artsy beauty.  Clyde is a very discerning lizard - he has fine taste in art and in food (his current favorites are canned caterpillars and clover buds from the backyard).  

It is a long story how he traveled from Caleb's upstairs bedroom down to the corner of the living room but you can rest assured that it was never my intention to have a lizard in "my space" - the perils of being a mother to boys!!

Anyhoo - Janie Davies recently had an art retreat and Julie Fei-Fan Balzer attended.  Oh man - I so wish I could've been there!! 

On a completely different note - Got together with Kim the other day and she gifted me with the above book which is a old manual on mine first aid.  So cool!  

Kim knows my love of weird medical stuff and this book is chock full of how to bandage all sorts of wounds. The above pictures give you a small sampling of ways you can bandage up your head in a mining emergency (yes, there were pics of how to bandage a wound to the buttocks too - just in case you were wondering).  Obviously in a mining accident the issues are stabilizing the patient and removing them from the mine so there were pages and pages and pages of how to carry an accident victim as well.

This is my favorite part of the book because of the little doodles across the top of the page.  I can just imagine the miner in his mandatory safety meeting doodling the places that foreign bodies can lodge. 

Did you see the warning about the possibilities of coins, needles, false teeth, etc getting lodged in the windpipe?  It also says to be careful about laughing while you have anything in your mouth so you don't accidentally suck it into your windpipe.  What if you laugh while eating and wearing false teeth??!!  Dangerous stuff. . .