Street view sketch in my Moleskine

I can't believe that our holiday in the Big Apple is over! This will be my last time sitting at this Starbucks and gazing over this street view. 

Yeah, there is more detail that I could add but I'm calling it done. 

So long New York, it was a great time!

I haven't read the book but I did order the work book for "Steal Like an Artist".  I stole this technique from Felix Scheinberger's book Urban Watercolour.   I am quite excited because he will be teaching a segment in the next Sketchbook Skool (dot) com class that is due to start in January. 

I took a snap and I really should go in and add more detail especially on the days that I just don't feel like doing much art.  I might help me out of the slump.  I'll see....later.

Bishop

I wasn't sure that I was going to like this watercolour drawing but I think I am happy that his eyes appear to be what the actually look like!

This isn't the original Bishop but the snap made me think of him. I had to draw "Panda" here as she brought back memories of my girlfriends dog, Bishop. When we were kids and I would stay overnight at her house we would have to beat him at bed time because he didn't like to share!  What a great memory created by this drawing and painting in my sketchbook!

Hope everyone had a Fabulous Christmas

We have just returned from spending time with our family over Christmas.  We had such a great time this year!  It think it was all due to my little grand-daughter, she is such a joy.  I drew and painted her new talking cash register while she was napping.

It will be another addition to the "shoe store" scenario.  Of course, Grandma needs another pair of shoes.


I have to say that I am quite tickled that I could get time to draw this.  Someday when this toy is long gone and we are perusing through my sketchbooks, we will be able to laugh about the time that we spent together in "creative play".
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

April Fools

We have been fooled by mother nature!  She has given us warm weather and sunshine and now we have got a mixed bag: snow overnight and rain today.

Here is a doodle that I have been working on over the course of the month!  I enjoy distilling my life, both personal and work wise, on to a single page in this way!  It makes me select those key areas of my life that are either milestones or important in some other way!  I try to put enough drawing in to make it an art form but really I just want to keep a journal of sorts; a record of my journey that is not simply "typed" on a white background.

Maybe this is something that you could do too!!  If you are thinking of trying it, please send me a note or add a comment.

The month of March in review includes:

•  listening to a new podcast on my iPod!  I really like this one!  

• I am really upset that Kraft salad dressings no longer include low calorie French.  It seem it has been "de-listed" - Whaaaaat the heck!!!!????  Don't they know that I have a yen for French the last few weeks and now it is simply unavailable...say that is not so, please?!!!  

• My opinion about Rogers has changed.  I thought they were on the ball and I found out the hard way that they have a bunch of people working for them that have NO CLUE!  I shouldn't be surprised since we employee the same sort.  The 20 - 35 year olds who think that they are "ENTITLED" to anything they want.  This means that they also think that THEY KNOW IT ALL!   Technical services technician are a especially full of themselves there; I was told that the Rogers Rocket stick doesn't work on my MAC Lion operating system.  Whaaaa??!  I have been using it all along and loaded on Lion a year ago with no problems.  The technicians are so dim with regards to Apple that they did not even know that Mountain Lion will be coming out this summer.  So, how many other MAC people have they told to remove the connection manager from their applications list??  I know now that I know more about my system that their dimwitted technicians.  

What will I be working on this month? This month I will be working on a new "mixed media fibre art" birthday postcard for another friend.  I think that I will make three the same or similar because when I finish one, I like it so much that I regret that I have to give it away.  That negative feeling will be solved if I make more than one.  I think that I have her fibre art birthday card all figured out in my head.  I spent a bit of time this afternoon getting my materials together in the colour palette of choice - blue!! 

When did it happen?

I have no idea of when that "pivotal" moment was when I became a LIP BALM JUNKIE but I became aware of it yesterday. Now the photograph shows the majority of them that I own but not all! Really, how many lip balm's does one woman need? I don't know because I keep them everywhere...at my computer desk, in the living room, in my bedroom, the bathroom, the spare room, in the pocket of difference jackets and coats. It seems that I can not be without them at any time or any place because my purse has many of them as well, tinted and un-tinted. I guess for an addiction this one is that has the least impact on self and others. Hmmmm! I think that it is possible that it is a "sign of the times"; we live in environments that are heated by gas, oil and electric methods with dry the skin. Then again, it could be because my skin is moving from the oily variety to the very dry. It would seem to me that there is a fifty/fifty split here.

I find it interesting that there are varying degree's of price point for these products. I like them all for different reasons and use them at differing times of the day as well. I got the comfrey leaf as a present and I use it before going to bed in the winter.

However, I have very fond memories of the so-called "classic" Chapstick. It is one that my mother used and I always wanted to have some of it on my own lips. I would have been 6-8 years old and I would to beg her to let me put it on my own lips. Reluctantly she would give in, but I was never allowed to actually own my own lip balm. Possibly that is the reason that I purchased this tube. It looks exactly the same as the one my mother had; hence the "classic". Every time I want to think of my mother, I apply it! Mostly what draws me is the smell and the taste. These two senses combined have produced a strong internal response by evoking such strong memories. It isn't so strange because there have been so many studies done on taste and smell that mirror my reaction.

This makes me smile, a blog post on lip balm. Who knew!!!

Where has the time gone?

Where has this month gone! I guess that really it is a good thing! I'm not a snow bunny so I actually hate the winter months. This means that we are closer to spring than we were. I have to say, that I am surprised at that last statement; I'm not usually a "glass half full" sort of person. Due to my working life experience I find that I am in fact very cynical. I often get very tired of acquaintances who views the world positively for I know that nothing really horrible has happened to them.

I'm still cleaning out my Dad's house and it is getting very stressful because we can't get anyone to buy his furniture. No one wants the solid oak dining room suite that my parents had thought was so fabulous. Unfortunately they made the purchase at a different time; today, people want furniture to fit in a smaller space. I hope that we don't have to just leave it for the new owners.

I had to laugh when I found a little Cabbage Patch dolly of my daughters, whose name escapes me. I wonder if she recalls it! However, I do remember when she got it for Christmas many years ago and it even came with its' own "adoption" papers. Regardless of the fact that her name is unknown, I just couldn't throw her out like so much garbage. It must be the "little girl" that still lives within me. Now I wonder if that "little girl" syndrome actually still resides in my daughter. Somehow I think not, as I see it, my daughter is as a woman who is matter of fact, very controlled; a woman who believes in minimalism. A woman who has grown up in a house with "stuff" and as an adult will not allow "attachment" issues or sentiment to permit her to hold on to useless things from her childhood. However, we will see!

I wonder if my daughter will want to keep her because I put a pair of sunglasses that I found on the doll. Will it make her smile or will she be all "business"; grab the sunglasses and put the doll aside. I will just have to wait and see.

The Thrill of Memory!

I'm not exactly sure what it is about it but I can't seem to help myself; I always feel compelled to buy this gum wherever I see it!! I know that it is a childhood thing. It isn't that it was my favourite gum because it did taste like soap! Having said that it is a fond memory. From what I understand, it is the strong taste that in fact brings back our memories (the good and the bad). Taste and smells are forever imprinted in our brains.

One thing that I notice about the the gum is how little the package has changed. However, I don't recall that the colour of the gum itself was quite this dark, not quite this "dioxazine" purple as I would think of it today. I believe that the gum actually did look more like the picture on the front. Is there a reason for the more saturated colour? Is it a marketing ploy for the current generation? Or, is it because my memory is not as accurate as it once was? One thing that I do know for certain is that it tastes the same!!!! What fun!

I just realised that I have to flip my calender over! Oh my, where has the summer gone? I don't feel that I have had a real opportunity to enjoy it this year!