Another Rainy Day...

Another gray and soggy day found me in my studio this morning for a couple of hours, painting away in my art journal. I just doodled with some molding pastes, acrylic paints, pastels and colored pencils - pretty much anything that was around me.

I love the freedom of the art journal - it gives me such license to play and experiment.

I'm glad that tomorrow the rain is moving out and we are back to a few days of sunshine. Can you tell I'm subdued from the dreary weather? Well, I'm off to eat some chocolate (surely that will help!) and maybe take out my sketchbook to do another drawing of something. We'll see...

I hope your day is a sunny and creative one!!

A Strange Day

It's been a weird day. This morning I arrived at school only to find out that my professor was sick and class was cancelled. If I had remembered to check my new school e-mail, I would have known ahead of time. But I wasn't the only one who showed up... 

So, I went back home and spent a day where I felt I never properly woke up. We had storms and heavy rain and it was so dark and gray outside that it felt like dusk all day long. And what's more - tomorrow will be a repeat! 

This afternoon - in order to wake up - I decided to go to my studio and doodle in my sketchbook. First I did this painting that - while I was working on it - I liked, then didn't, then liked again and finally really liked. I just played and it felt good. 

Later on, I was knitting while watching a DVD and just really liked this young man's face. So I paused the video and did a 15 minute drawing, which I think turned out pretty well. He really did have that startled look on his face and he sat sort of twisted, which looks just a little weird. Can you tell that I can't wait for my drawing class to get going?!?

I hope you are all doing great and are having better weather than us. I know we need a lot of rain to make up our deficit, but I'm not sure we want all that rain to fall in just two days!

I'm off now to visit some of your blogs to see what you've been up to!!

A few goodie goodies...

It seems that these days my mind is often a jumble of things! So today, I am passing some of that jumble on to you. All good things...

1. A couple of additions to my knit/crochet Etsy shop (click here to visit). 

Don't you love how springy and cheerful this scarf looks? It's knit with two different kinds of yarn and two patterns, a simple garter stitch to show of the colorful yarn and then a drop-stitch wave pattern for the smooth yarn, complete with a rainbow border. So happy!!

And then something new for me - a crocheted lace necklace. I had gotten this beautiful linen/silk blend yarn and was looking for just the right project. I love how this turned out and will definitely make more and also variations of this. Both of these are now listed.

 2. A few photos of spring inside and of our fireplace mantle, which we decorated before our company arrived. I've been meaning to share photos with you and just hadn't gotten to it yet.

I love bringing flowers into the house, especially right now when it feels more like winter again. We went from 86 (30℃) degrees on Sunday to a high of 51 (10℃) degrees yesterday - crazy!! And super stormy!

Since then, it's been all gray outside ... but not indoors!!

Pretty, isn't it? I love all the white!

Here's something else I've become very fond of - artificial flowers! We have them all over the house and they brighten everything and make me smile all throughout the year.

3. One of my scarves AND one of my prints were included in this beautiful Etsy treasury (click here to visit) by CinLynnBoutique, who makes gorgeous jewelry! Thank you so much!!!

4. A few new print additions to my art Etsy shop (click here to visit). Slowly but surely I am getting my act together and listing a few more things...

(Love the green theme...)

5. My first drawing class was fun, although we didn't do more than go through the syllabus and the materials list. We also introduced ourselves and I can tell already that I'll like the dynamics of this group of students! And I really like my professor, Kebedech Tekleab, an artist and poet from Ethiopia. Tomorrow, we'll actually start drawing!!

6. I started an artist page on Facebook (click here to visit) to show not only my art and crafts, but also your creations - every day something new...

7. That's about it for now. I have quite a few recipes to share with you, but that'll have to happen another day...

I hope that you are all doing well!! You are always on my mind, even if don't have as much time to visit and comment as I'd like to at the moment. But that'll change again...

Eeeeek!!

I am so excited! This morning (I have to leave in a few minutes) I start my drawing class. Yesterday I went to get most of the supplies and I couldn't believe how fun it was just doing that. Here's what I got:

I thought we were just going to draw with pencils, but I had to get a bunch of charcoal as well (insert happy dance), which means I get to get my hands dirty and I love that when making art...

This morning, I don't have to take any of this yet as we'll just go over the syllabus and the supply list. And I'm glad I don't have to take anything because it's still raining.

We had storms all yesterday afternoon and throughout the night. Poor Winslow had to snuggle close while it was thundering. Yesterday, we were hearing this awful racket and then we saw the hail - big hail! That was quite something. Have a look at my super short little video:

Ok, time to get ready and be a student again - probably the only gray-haired student in the bunch, but I don't mind...

Wishing you a great beginning to a most creative week!!

More Photos and Thoughts...

As promised, a few (ok, so more than a few) photos of our recent trip Fort Sumter and Charleston. It was a beautiful day, although just a tad windy as you'll see in some of the photos where we both sport that windblown look...

The boat ride over to the fort takes about 30 minutes and was really our favorite part of the trip - we love being on the water and seeing everything from a different perspective!

The fort itself looks small to us, but considering it's only the ruin that is left, it would have made a formidable fort in its time.

See what I said about that windswept look?

Listening intently to a young woman telling us about the history of the fort.

Daniel with his shoes still on...

and then off! No surprise there - if he could go without shoes at all, he'd be most happy!!

The dolphins were playing around the fort the whole time we were there.

Back in Charleston, we didn't have a whole lot of time this trip, especially since it takes about 2 1/2 hours to drive from Savannah and the same amount of time to get back home. We did have enough time though to eat a sandwich at one of our favorite places.

 

And we visited this old graveyard that we knew would be gorgeous with the spring flowers, a perfect place to think a bit...

So, the last few weeks were full for us to say the least and whenever that happens, a lot goes through my mind. I sort of lost myself while everything was so busy and had a hard time for a while.

Part of the reason for that was that I didn't take much time for myself, which was my own fault. I realize more and more how much I need quiet time in order to recharge and feel connected to myself and life.

Also, I am become so aware of how sensitive I am to negative energy around me and in this instance to what was being projected in the news. During the time of our visit with family and friends, the earthquake and tsunami happened in Japan among many other upheavals in the world.

I had to put myself on a news diet because I was noticing that I felt an increasing dread of things happening in my life I had no control over. I hadn't felt that much anxiety in a long time.

Everything felt out of control, but nothing was related to what was really going on in my life. Do you know what I mean?

So, this last week I have spent retreating into my cocoon and recharging, setting some new goals for my art and my shops, signing up for the drawing class (I got in and it starts tomorrow!!!), and spending much time with my honey!

Still, many thoughts swirl around my head and I want to share them with you over the next few weeks to get your perspective.

But for now I leave you with these gorgeous flowers and happy wishes for a wonderful Sunday!!

I so appreciate you "listening" and your wonderfully supportive comments. I've been visiting your blogs a little more frequently again and will continue to do so over the next few days...

Savannah with Friends

It sure is fun living in a city that is such a tourist destination. You'd think it's the nearby beach that draws people, but that's only partly true.

Of course, we had to plan a beach day with our friends while they were here and luckily enough, it was quite warm. The air, that is, not so much the water, but the two brave men went swimming anyway!

The next day, we decided to tour Savannah a bit and even as locals, we found the city to be stunning! Awash in color as all the azaleas were suddenly in bloom, something I wish my aunt could have seen, but they visited just a tad too early.

This picture of us in the flowers we took for her!

Jim and Tia had both read (actually, Tia was in the middle of it) Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, a wonderful non-fiction book about Savannah, it's people and an incident that happened in the mansion below.

So, while Jim and Tia went on a tour of the house (which we had done before), Daniel and I sat in Monterey square and just reveled in the beauty all around us.

I think the 24 squares in Savannah are one of my favorite aspects of this beautiful town. All of them are well-maintained and wonderful to sit down for a spell.

Our next stop - Forsythe Park with the gorgeous fountain still sporting green water from St. Patrick's Day earlier that week.

I think I like it better with clear water, but this certainly makes a statement.

I wonder if they've cleared the water by now...

After that, food and drink were on the agenda with a stop at our favorite roof-top bar where you have the best view of the harbor.

We look like happy girls, don't we?

The weather was perfect with just the slightest breeze - we could have stayed for hours...

Later that night - dinner at Blowin' Smoke BBQ, a great place we just discovered recently. Double yum!! It turns out that our (very sweet) waitress was planning a summer working in northern New Mexico, so we had fun chatting with her about all she can do there and places she can visit. She was kind enough to take this picture of all of us - full and happy!

But definitely not too full for a visit to Leopold's Ice Cream. The ice cream is to die for and the the place itself so much fun. The owner, a native of Savannah, is a Hollywood producer, so the whole ice cream parlor is filled with movie props and great posters and photos.

A sweet ending to a fun visit!!

Tomorrow, I'll have photos of Fort Sumter and Charleston for you - it was too much to include it all with this post...

Happy Saturday!!