Imaginary Trip to New Orleans - Wrought Iron

It's all over New Orleans, and it comes in the most interesting colors. I really liked this light fixture - and the finials on the fences. Just a few quick sketches to get the essence of it. Lots of fun!

And no, I'm not really in New Orleans - this is an Imaginary Trip with Laure Ferlita.

Imaginary Trip to New Orleans - Bourbon Street

I used Google Street View to wander around on Bourbon Street until I found this pub that I wanted to sketch.

Journaling reads:

"You can't go to New Orleans and miss the party on Bourbon Street. I had to try a Hurricane; they're made with fruit juice, passion fruit syrup or grenadine, and rum. I had it here, in the Bourbon Pub, on the corner of Bourbon St. and St. Ann St., so I could have it in a hurricane glass. If I'd wanted to take it outside, it would have been in a neon green plastic go-cup."

And no, I'm not really in New Orleans - this is an Imaginary Trip with Laure Ferlita.

Imaginary Trip to New Orleans - Window Shutters

"Just about everywhere we looked, we saw shutters on the windows. And not just decorative shutters, but working shutters for protection from storms and to keep out critters. Many had vents at the top for airflow. If the shutters were locked closed, we couldn't tell if anyone was home or if the business was still there.

"We only had a few minutes here, so I sketched quickly with pen and added a bit of color. We all agreed it would be great to have our very own KITCHEN WITCH!"

And no, I'm not really in New Orleans - this is an Imaginary Trip with Laure Ferlita.

Imaginary Trip to New Orleans - Canal Street Trolley

I'm taking another class with Laure Ferlita (have I mentioned how much I love her classes?). This one is An Imaginary Trip to New Orleans.

"I've always wanted to see "The Big Easy," and what better way than in a class led by Laure Ferlita? We took the Canal Street trolley today. Locals buy Jazzy Passes (magnetically encoded cards). I love that name. Laure says we'll be walking a lot - thankfully I only own comfortable shoes. It's going to be a fun time!"

Sketchbook Challenge - Spilling Over 2

This is my second page for the Sketchbook Challenge's March theme of Spilling Over. I sketched it with water soluble pen one evening (no pencil first) then added watercolor and journaling the next evening.

the curious incident of the dog in the night-time by mark haddon

Christopher, a 15-year old autistic boy, discovers that his neighbor's dog Wellington has been killed.  He is very sad about that because he loves dogs, so he decides to try to discover who killed Wellington.  The book is narrated by Christopher, who is very intelligent but can't stand to be touched and finds people confusing.  Christopher is really good at math, so when he gets overwhelmed, he works out math problems in his head.  When I first read about this book, I didn't think I wanted to read it, but I really liked it.  It was my book club's current month's selection and my 4th book for the New Author Challenge 2011.  I rate it 4 out of 5.

Sketchbook Challenge - Spilling Over

March's theme for the Sketchbook Challenge is Spilling Over. This was really helpful to put ALL of my watercolors on one page, so I can see how they compare to each other. I think I'll make a few changes to my everyday palette.

The journaling reads: "It all started innocently enough. I signed up for Laure Ferlita's online class - An Imaginary Trip Through Autumn - in 2009. I bought a watercolor palette from her with 22 colors in it. Then Glen bought me a few tubes from Hobby Lobby for Christmas that year. Gradually, I bought a few tubes for myself, then a few more, and a few more, and now I have 40 tubes - with more on my wish list!"

The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton

This is Jane Hamilton's first book, but the second book of hers that I've read.  Her first book that I read was A Map of the World, which I reviewed here.  This is the story of Ruth Grey, a neglected child who is trying to make sense of the mysteries of her life and the meanness in people's hearts.  An adult Ruth is the narrator, and she describes growing up in a dysfunctional family, marrying an unemployed crazy man, and continuing to live with her emotionally abusive mother.  It is a very difficult story to read, but it was well written (although I thought A Map of the World was better).  It was my first book for the 2nds Reading Challenge and my fifth book for the Off the Shelf Reading Challenge.  I rate this book 3 out of 5.

21 Days in February

Yes, I know it's March.  But in February, I took a class from Donna Mulholland, called 21 Days in February - Explore Your Creativity with Watercolor Journaling.  We were given daily journal prompts, and it was a lot of fun.  I completed 18 of the 21 daily prompts, and for some reason I didn't share them while I was doing them.  So rather than doing a separate post for each page, I thought I'd put them all together in this post.  It will make for a very long post, but I thought that would be better than 18 separate posts.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 7

Day 9

Day 10

Day 12

Day 11

Day 13

Day 6

Day 17

Day 14

Day 18

 

Day 16

Day 19

Day 20

Day 5

I posted these in the order I completed them, not the order that the prompts were given. Donna will be doing another class that I'll be taking in May - 21 Days of Gratitude with Watercolour Journaling: 21 Days of journaling prompts to cultivate gratitude. Online, May 5 – May 25, 2011 (21 days) $35.00 CDN.

Easy Peanut Blossoms

My DH's favorite cookies - I made these for him for valentine's day. We were at the grocery store together the day before, and I went off to find the chocolate kisses. He found me there a little later, debating between dark chocolate and milk chocolate (I bought the milk chocolate because that's what he prefers). He told me he'd thought he'd figured out why I'd wanted to stop at the store. So then he asked me whether I'd rather have chocolate or flowers, and I told him that while I love flowers, I think they're overpriced at valentine's day and I'd rather have chocolate - he could give me flowers some other time! LOL!

Coventry by Helen Humphreys

Harriet Marsh is standing on top of Coventry Cathedral, filling in for a neighbor in the nightly fire watch on November 14, 1940, when the town is attacked by German planes.  During the chaos that follows the bombing, Harriet befriends Jeremy, a young man who reminds Harriet of her late husband, Owen, who was killed in World War I.  Jeremy turns out to be the son of Maeve, a woman Harriet met on the day Owen left for the war in 1914.  It is a short novel (177 pages), and while it portrays the terrible night that Coventry was destroyed, the character development was a bit weak.  It was good, but not great.  I rate it 3 out of 5.  It was my 3rd book for the New Author Challenge and my 4th for the Off the Shelf Challenge.

Sketchbook Challenge - Opposites

I painted these fish on a card for my son and daughter-in-law. It was for lesson 2 in Laure Ferlita's Valentine Card class (the card can be seen here). It also fit the Sketchbook Challenge February theme of Opposites, so I scanned the card and glued the fish into my journal.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

This was my book club's current month's selection.  I've also had the book on my shelf awhile, waiting to be read.  I really enjoyed it, and I think it will generate good discussion at our meeting.

During an unusual blizzard in Lexington Kentucky in 1964, Norah Henry goes into labor a bit early.  Her husband David, an orthopedic doctor, drives her to the clinic he shares with an obstetrician, who has unfortunately driven his car off the road and doesn't make it to the clinic.  This leaves David to attend his wife with the help of his nurse, Caroline Gill.  He delivers a healthy baby boy, and is then surprised to deliver a second baby, a girl with Down's Syndrome.  He asks Caroline to take the baby girl to an institution (a common practice in 1964).  Caroline agrees, but when she sees the institution, she can't leave the baby there; instead she takes the baby, leaves town, and raises her as her own child.  Meanwhile, when Norah wakes up from anesthesia (another common practice of the time), David tells her that she had a second baby who died at birth.  He believes he will spare Norah grief and heartache, but this lie haunts him the rest of his life and creates a wall between him and his family.  It was well written and I rate it 4 out of 5.  It was my second book for the New Author Challenge 2011 and my third book for the Off the Shelf Reading Challenge 2011.

Valentines Cards - Lesson 3 - Fishy Love

Valentine's card for my son and daughter-in-law. Third assignment (two of a kind) for Laure Ferlita's Valentines Cards eClass. I also scanned it and put it into my journal for the Sketchbook Challenge February theme of opposites.

Valentine Cards - Lesson 2 - Essence of a Rose

Valentine's card for a friend. Second assignment (essence of a rose) for Laure Ferlita's Valentines Cards eClass.

More Classes

I was NOT going to sign up for any new online classes for awhile - at least a week or two.  So what did I do instead?  I signed up for TWO new classes.  I must be crazy!  But it's always fun.

One class is 21 Days in February . . . Explore Your Creativity with Watercolor Journaling.  It is a series of daily journal prompts taught by Donna Mulholland, and the class overview can be seen here.  I signed up late, but I'm trying to get caught up.

The other class is Be Still My Heart, which is on painting expressive hearts with watercolor and words.  It is taught by Gina Rossi Armfield, and you can read more about it here.

I hope you can see why I couldn't resist this class!

Valentine Cards - Lesson 1 - Sweet on You

Valentine's card for my husband. First assignment (sweet on you) for Laure Ferlita's Valentines Cards eClass.

Progress on 3 Coneflowers

I've made progress on my 3 Coneflowers quilt. I've gotten all of the pieces stitched down and borders added. Now I just need to quilt and bind it!

March by Geraldine Brooks

This is the story of Mr. March, the father in Little Women, who was a chaplain for the North during the Civil War.  He was a very idealistic man, and went to war to support his anti-slavery convictions.  Once he got to war, he became disillusioned, not about the cause, but about how blurred the lines were between right and wrong, good and evil.  I enjoyed this book much more than Little Women, in large part because the characters felt more real to me (ie, not perfect but flawed, with real feelings and emotions).  Most of the book is narrated by March, but part of it is narrated by Marmee, March's wife and the mother of their four "little women."  March had a very small part to play in Little Women, so most of the story is completely new.  But the parts that overlap Little Women remained true to the original.  Now I'm glad I read Little Women first, as I knew the characters, even if I didn't enjoy it that much.  I rate this book 4 out of 5.  It is the second book for two of my reading challenges this year:  US Civil War Reading Challenge and Off the Shelf Reading Challenge.  And it is the first book for another of my reading challenges:  I Want More Reading Challenge.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

I've said here several times that I haven't read very many classics.  I actually read Little Women many MANY years ago, but I didn't remember it at all.  Because I wanted to read March by Geraldine Brooks, which is the story of the father in Little Women (by a contemporary author), I thought it would be a good idea to reread Little Women.

It is the story of the March women:  mother (Marmee) and 4 daughters (Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy) while father is a chaplain for the North during the Civil War.  I really struggled to get through it.  It was too syrupy sweet for my taste, with way too much moralizing to be enjoyable.   If I had remembered it, I certainly would not have read it again.  I rate it 2 out of 5.  It was the first book for two of my reading challenges this year:  US Civil War Reading Challenge and Off the Shelf Reading Challenge.

Altered Photo Artistry - Coneflower

This class is from Beth Wheeler. I sent her my photo a couple of weeks before class. She altered it and printed it onto fabric for us. In class, she talked about how she altered our photos and gave us ideas on doing that ourselves and talked about how to add stitching. Then we got started on our stitching. This is how far I got in class. I still have lots more stitching to do, but it was a lot of fun and I'm quite happy with how it looks so far.
I enjoyed the class so much that I decided to take another class from her tomorrow instead of the one I originally signed up for.

Quilting in the Desert

I've been traveling since last week, which explains why I haven't posted in awhile.  I am in Phoenix at a quilting retreat called Quilting in the Desert.  The original plan was that one friend and I would leave home on Thursday and drive to Santa Fe, shop at Santa Fe Quilting Friday morning and a couple of Albuquerque shops Friday afternoon, then drive to Phoenix on Saturday.  That changed when an ice storm was predicted for Wednesday night/Thursday morning.  We left home after my physical therapy appointment (for my ankle) on Wednesday afternoon and drove as far as Amarillo.  We shopped Santa Fe Quilting Thursday afternoon and spent the night in Santa Fe.  We shopped Quilts Ole and Southwest Decoratives (in Albuquerque) on Friday and spent the night in Gallup.  Then we drove to Phoenix on Saturday, going through Sedona on the way (what a beautiful drive that was!).  We picked up another friend at the airport on Sunday morning.  They treated me to a (late) birthday lunch Sunday at a very nice restaurant called Lon's at Hermosa Inn.

My workshops started on Monday.  I've been taking Abstracting from Nature from Jane Sassaman for the past 3 days.  It's been a wonderful class!  She has very patiently guided us through the process of designing our own quilts.  This is what I've been working on:

Abstracting From Nature - Coneflowers

It isn't anywhere near finished in this picture.  In fact, nothing is stitched.  And the white "stems" are just paper place holders.  But I did manange to get a little tiny bit of stitching done after taking this photo, and I'm very happy with how it's going.

Tomorrow I will take Altered Photo Artistry from Beth Wheeler (who has written 2 books on the subject).  We were to email her a photo of a flower before the class, and then she will have altered it and printed it on fabric for us.  We'll use thread painting and free motion quilting techniques on it.  I had chosen a coneflower photo to work on, which is one reason I've been doing coneflowers in Jane Sassaman's class too - I thought it would be really interesting to do 2 quilts on the same subject matter in very different styles. 

Then on Friday I will take Out on a Limb from Wendy Butler Berns, where we'll be doing a little tree quilt and learning several texturing techniques.    I'll try to post more pictures in the next couple of days.  We're leaving on Saturday and will be home on Sunday.  It's been a fun time so far.

Sketchbook Challenge - Highly Prized 2

This is my second page for January's "Highly Prized" theme in the Sketchbook Challenge. Background is Caran d'Ache watersoluble wax crayons blended with water. Lettering is with a variety of pens. Paper is Strathmore 500 series 140 pound cold press watercolor paper; journal is 5 1/2 inches wide by 7 1/2 inches tall, handmade by me. I started by writing things that are very meaningful, and as I wanted to fill the page, I added things that I like but may not be "highly" prized. I may add more words to the page as time passes.

Years ago, when I was into scrapbooking, I started a book about me. In it, I have a page about some of my favorite things. I looked at it today; it was interesting to see what had changed and what had stayed the same.

This is also my week 3 entry for Project 52.

Blogs and Time Management

I've been spending way too much time on the computer lately - it's taking away time for other things.  I'm READING about how to be creative instead of BEING creative.  So I've decided to take a number of blogs out of my reader as a first step to spending less time on the computer.  If yours is one of the blogs I've taken out of my reader, please know that it isn't personal - I really enjoy all of the blogs I used to read and wish I could continue reading them all (and more).  But if I'm going to get anything else done, I have to do this for me.  Thanks for understanding.

Sketchbook Challenge - Highly Prized

This is my first page for this month's Sketchbook Challenge. The theme is Highly Prized, so I had to do a page about my kitty Buster. It is also my entry for week 2 in Project 52.

3 Creative Studios Giveaway

3 Creative Studios is having a launch party including a giveaway.  There are three really great looking prize packages - you can read all about it here.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Skeeter has just returned home to Jackson, Mississippi after graduating from Ole Miss in 1962.  She wants to be a writer and gets a job with the local newspaper, writing the weekly cleaning advice column.  The only problem is, she doesn't know anything about cleaning.  She asks her friend Elizabeth's black maid, Aibileen, for help.  Skeeter convinces Aibileen to tell her what it has been like to work as a maid for white families and begins writing a book, which has many repercussions for Skeeter and Aibileen, as well as other maids who also agree to tell Skeeter their stories.  It is a very well written book and a look into a shameful part of our very recent history.  It is my first book for the New Author Challenge 2011, and I rate it 5 out of 5.

Winter Hat ATC 2

I made another winter hat atc for a private swap on atcsforall. This is also my first entry for the Project 52 challenge.

Book Page Backgrounds

I was inspired to make these atcs by a swap at ATCsForAll using a book page for a background (although these are not for the swap). I used distress inks, black embossing powder, Magic Mesh, twill tape, ribbon, and needlepoint thread.

Happy New Year!

We had a very nice new year's eve with friends last night - dinner, conversation, laughs, and a movie.  It's been a tradition for us since new year's eve 1999.  Hope you all had as nice a time as we did.

I don't make resolutions - I never have.  But I have decided to participate in a variety of challenges this year.  Some of them are reading challenges, most of which I've already mentioned in earlier posts.  The one I haven't written up yet is the New Author Challenge 2011.

Here are the guidelines:

1. The challenge will run from January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011.
2. Since this is an author challenge, there is no restriction on choosing your novels. They can definitely be from other challenges. However, the authors must be new to you and, preferably from novels.  Anthologies are a great way to try someone new, but only a third of your new authors can be from anthologies.
3. I want this to be an easy challenge, so you can pick to do either 15, 25 or 50 new authors.  It all depends on how fast you read and how adventurous you want to be. 

I'm signing up for 15 new authors.  I did the New Author Challenge 2010 and really enjoyed it, so I thought I would do it again this year.  I have created pages for each of my reading challenges, which you can see above the posts.  I will be updating those throughout the year.  I have also included pages for the challenges I have done in the past, but Blogger only allows 10 pages, so I may delete the older ones.  I'll have to decide what to do with the older ones, since I don't want to lose the information.

I am also participating in a couple of art challenges this year.  One I've already written up is the Sketchbook Challenge.  Another one I signed up for yesterday is Project52: The Weekly Art Challenge over at ATCsForAll (which I joined a couple of weeks ago).  Here is part of the write up about it:

The goal is be to be creative a minimum of once a week and create something. Your piece of art doesn't necessarily need to be an ATC, it can be a postcard too, a scrapbook page, chunky, inchie, twinchie, a quilt, work on an ongoing project, photography - anything that tickles your creativity!! 

SO - all of that should keep me busy this year!  What about you?  Do you have any great plans for the new year?