75 Day Sketch Challenge - Day 9

For Brenda Swenson's 75 Day Sketch Challenge - drawing in pen and ink only every day for 75 days. The challenge can be seen here.

75 Day Sketch Challenge - Day 8

For Brenda Swenson's 75 Day Sketch Challenge - drawing in pen and ink only every day for 75 days. The challenge can be seen here.

75 Day Sketch Challenge - Days 6 & 7

For Brenda Swenson's 75 Day Sketch Challenge - drawing in pen and ink only every day for 75 days. The challenge can be seen here.

75 Day Sketch Challenge - Day 5

For Brenda Swenson's 75 Day Sketch Challenge - drawing in pen and ink only every day for 75 days. The challenge can be seen here.

75 Day Sketch Challenge - Days 3 & 4

For Brenda Swenson's 75 Day Sketch Challenge - drawing in pen and ink only every day for 75 days. The challenge can be seen here.

75 Day Sketch Challenge - Days 1 & 2

I started Brenda Swenson's 75 Day Sketch Challenge - drawing in pen and ink only every day for 75 days. The challenge can be seen here.

Coffee Shop

Scone and lemonade from my local Panera - my favorite "coffee shop."

The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates

In 1950, Ariah Erskine's new husband jumps into Niagara Falls after a disastrous honeymoon night.  Ariah keeps up a 7 day vigil, waiting for her husband's body to be found.  Confirmed bachelor Dirk Burnaby finds himself waiting with Ariah.  Eighteen days after the end of the vigil, Dirk drives over 300 miles to Ariah's hometown and proposes marriage, which Ariah accepts.  The book follows their tumultuous marriage and family life.  I found it fascinating and extremely well written.  I rate it 4 out of 5.

Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles

I read this book for a read along on the War Through The Generations blog, which is also hosting the US Civil War Challenge that I'm participating in this year.  It is the story of 18 year old Missourian Adair Colley, who is falsely accused of being a Confederate spy and is sent to a women's prison in St. Louis.  The prison commander tries to convince Adair to give him some information so that she can be released. While I mostly enjoyed the story, I found parts to be unbelievable and thought it was not very well written.  But I learned about the imprisonment of women during the Civil War that I didn't know about before.  I rated it 3 out of 5.

Keys 2 and Everyday Object 3

My second sketch for Lesson One of my On Location class with Jane LaFazio. It also fits the Sketchbook Challenge theme of Everyday Objects.

Keys 1 and Everyday Object 2

Lesson One for Jane LaFazio's online class, Sketching and Watercolor Journal Style - On Location, is keys. It also fits this month's Sketchbook Challenge theme of Everyday Objects. I don't carry a lot of keys, but this one has quickly become my favorite. I wish I had some cool antique keys to sketch, but I don't.

Everyday Object 1

Theme for August's Sketchbook Challenge is Everyday Objects. Journaling reads, "This soap dispenser just came from JC Penney, but it makes me smile. I have it and a matching soap dish beside my sink in my bathroom."

Watercolor Class

I took a watercolor class while we were in Crested Butte for the Wildflower Festival in July.

Journaling reads, "This was my piece from the class on 7/15. We went to the same garden as the day before. We used very cheap paints, but it was still a fun class. I spent a lot of time trying to get my colors right, then painted these flowers. I added the ink border and green cardstock backing today."

Sumi-e 2

Journaling reads, "Class taught by Melissa Neuner-Mason during Crested Butte Wildflower Festival. Of course, we used black ink and sumi-e brushes, while I used Indanthrone Blue watercolor paint and a waterbrush here."

Sumi-e 1

I took a Sumi-e class while we were in Crested Butte for the Wildflower Festival in July.

The journaling reads, "This was my favorite of all the pieces I did in class on 7/14. It is all about how to 'distill the essence of an object in the fewest possible strokes.' I have a long way to go! But the class was fun."

1984 by George Orwell

I recently re-read 1984 by George Orwell.  I had read it in high school, but that was, well, shall we say more than a few years ago.  I wanted to read it again because I didn't remember details of the story, and it is truly a classic.  This is where familiar terms such as Big Brother, Thought Police, Newspeak, Doublespeak, and Thoughtcrime originated.  It's a rare book that can introduce so many new words into the common vocabulary.  It's a frightening look into a totalitarian future, made all the more frightening as it becomes more and more real.  It was published in 1949.  It was my 8th book for the Off the Shelf Reading Challenge 2011 and I rate it 4 out of 5.

The Delicate Columbine

I sketched this from a photo I took of a blue columbine, which is the state flower of Colorado. We usually go later in the summer, after the columbines are through blooming. This year I wanted to go during the Wildflower Festival in Crested Butte, known as the wildflower capital of Colorado. I'm really glad we did; we saw so many more wildflowers than we usually see, and a number of different ones.

Balloon

I did a little bit of sketching while we were in beautiful, cool Colorado last month. I did this from a photo my DH took of the hot air balloon we rode in after we landed.

The page is titled "At Last" because my DH gave me a balloon ride for my birthday in 1999 - 12 1/2 years ago - and we finally went this year.  We'd gotten close when we were at Lake Tahoe in 2000, but the wind wasn't right.