Life imitates art

A few days ago it was 70 degrees but I woke up to this scene very early this morning.  The kids were  excited to have another snow day.  My family back home in Minnesota would scoff; they just received 17 inches of snow.  Our 3 or 4 inches wouldn't even slow them down.

My friend Carolina encouraged me to repost my February sketchbook page.  I will save the recommended back story for the next painting, but here is the new (hopefully improved) photo of my sketchbook. 

I would have previously rejected this photo because of the shadows, but it is starting to grow on me.
I painted the scenes from memory because all the snow was gone by the time I got around to finishing the sketch.  But then this morning....



Life imitates art

(That's the moon in the background)

I can't resist posting one more picture.  The background is too busy for me but it is the best photo for showing what the page really looks like.

Snow is in the forecast

Here is my February sketchbook page.  I have been working on it for a while, and then we began having temperatures approaching 70 degrees!  There is snow in the forecast tomorrow so I thought I had better hurry up and finish and get it posted while it was still relevant.  I am posting two pictures to show you my blogging frustrations.  The first picture is from my camera.  It ALMOST allows you to see the lavendar background in the mailbox square, but turns the whites and everything else a horrible dull gray.  The second  picture is done with our cheapo scanner.  It keeps the whites white, but loses the contrast and makes the colors look neon.  I've tried making adjustments with our "paint" program, but nothing works.  So dear readers I am asking for a vote on what I should do.  Camera, scanner, or give up blogging altogether?  (replacing any of the equipment is not an option right now).

Create!

Teeny tiny paintbrush I made from fimo.  Check.

Teeny tiny "bamboo" knitting needles.  Check.  And the finished project.... Ta Da!  A tiny pin to wear.

Now tell me, be honest, would you have known the sticks are supposed to be knitting needles without me telling you?  I hope so, but sometimes my ideas don't translate from my head to reality as smoothly as I'd like.  The fimo miniatures are my idea and creation but rest of this project is adapted from a necklace I saw in Art Quilting Studio magazine.

Happy Valentines Day

I had a trio of little girls yesterday, baking and decorating cupcakes, and then sharing them at their American Girls doll teaparty.  Does life get any sweeter?  It might... I have one tiny boy who insists it's ValenTIMES Day, and a husband who cooked dinner.  Life is good.  

Happy Valentines Weekend!

Vision and Outcome: A lesson in try, try again

I found this pretty paper and I knew I wanted to paint a watercolor to match the colors.  I had the perfect vision in my head of just how I wanted it to look.  What ended up on the paper looked nothing like what I had imagined.  My normal method of operation would be to sigh and say "oh well" and move on to the next project.  But I just couldn't let this one go.   So I did something I have never done before, because I have ZERO patience.  I repainted the same picture.  GASP!  My vision had a lot more color and the bird was more stylized.  So here is purple bird redux...

I like this one much better, although it still doesn't match the beautiful image in my head.  And now a brief disclaimer:  These photos are terrible but we haven't had a sunny day here in Delaware in forever in which to take decent photos, and if you remember I have ZERO patience, so I am posting them anyway until I can replace them with something of better quality.  So which version do you like better?

"I need to run in for just one thing..."

How many times have we said that?  I just wanted to get the green paper you see in the center, but all this other wonderful stuff found its way into my basket.  The wheels started turning and all kinds of wonderful projects came to mind.  I just hope I remember what they are by the time I get around to making something!!